Wyatt - 03 - Death Deal (10 page)

She was still angry and showed it. Not
to kill you, if thats whats bothering you, and certainly not you for
yourself. As I said, theres a job youd be good at. The moneys big, up to a
couple of million, all large denominations so itll be easy to bundle.

What happens if I say no?

She looked tired suddenly. Youre
free to go. The five thousand is yours, no strings attached.

People hurried by a few metres away.
Just down from the bistro the fashion parade MC was inviting the gawkers to
give his girls a great big hand. Wyatt tried a smile. Once it started, it was
genuine. Tell me about it.

Anna nodded and some of her anger
drained away. I work in the head office of an insurance company, run of the
mill legal work. Several weeks ago a memo came across my desk from TrustBank,
asking for a ruling on liability in a one-off matter affecting one of their
branches. She leaned forward, dropping her voice. Between here and the Gold
Coast theres a sprawling development called Logan City: new low-cost housing,
down-market shopping centres, blue collar and lower white collar workers, young
families, mortgages, high unemployment. TrustBank has a main branch there and
two smaller branches. On Friday week the two minor branches will be closed for
a security upgrade. The work will be carried out over one weekend and all their
funds will be transferred to the main branch. As I said, up to two million, all
in one place.

She sat back. I want you to hit
that bank. I think its possible.

On Friday week?

She smiled apologetically. For a
while there I didnt think Stolle would find you in time.

Rob it all by myself, Wyatt said.

I know people. I used to run with
some hard cases when I was young, people my father used to defend before he was
disbarred. I can put you in touch with the right kind, steady, no junkies or
morons.

The point is, will they work with
me? Do they know who I am?

Im not spreading your name around,
if thats what you mean.

He stared at the table.

Ive seen you in action, she said.
You can make it work if anyone can.

He stared at her for a while. An
inside job, he said at last. Just like the last one.

Its not like the last one at all.
Its an inside tip-off, thats all. Why should they trace it to me?

Who else knows this moneys going
to be there?

A few people at TrustBank, a few in
my firm, the security van people.

Wyatt nodded. A lot of people, in
other words. There was good and bad in that. The good was that the finger
wouldnt stop at Anna. The bad was that others might have got ambitious. He
wondered if that was the only catch.

* * * *

Sixteen

On
Friday Daniel Nurse told his wife: Why dont you listen? Its staff only. No
family.

His crocodile-skin suitcase was
spread open on the bed and he was folding a change of underwear into it. Joyce
watched him sourly. He took a couple of white shirts down from their hangers in
the wardrobe and tried to figure out how to fold them. Joyce might have helped
but she was going to be stuck here at home with their fourteen-year-old
daughter all weekend while he went off gallivanting, so he had to do his own
bloody packing.

I wouldnt be in the way, she
said. I could read, walk on the beach.

Nurse turned away so that she wouldnt
see his fear and strain. He also felt close to the edge of smacking her sulky
mouth for her, and hed never done that before. He caught his reflection in the
window and didnt like it. Short, round, pink and more or less hairless. The
view beyond the glass was better. Their house was a 1920s Queenslander on
stilts set into a slope of East Brisbane opposite the Norman Creek. There was a
private school below the house, tiled rooftops among big old trees. Mignon
Nurse would be going there in the next year or so, when hed scraped the money
together for her fees. Better than the high school sprawled out on the opposite
bank. The trees on that side were home to a colony of flying foxes. They stank,
they were noisy, they reminded Nurse of vampires. Here, in East Brisbane, life
was cleaner, more orderly.

He turned away from the window. Its
a training session, for Christs sake. Im expected to share a room, some
assistant manager from the Mackay branch. Ill be at lectures tonight, all day
tomorrow, and tomorrow night. Were more or less shut away the whole time. Full
on.

Joyce persisted. Theres no reason
why we cant get a room together. You go off to your lectures, Ill lay around
on the beach. If you got the urge to gamble, Id be there for a change to stop
you losing the lot.

Jesus Christ, he didnt want her
anywhere near the place. He should have said TrustBank was holding the workshop
in Mt Isa this year. Mention the Gold Coast and it was like a red rag to a
bull. Look, sweetheart, the head office boys will be there. It wouldnt look
good. Theyre trying to build up a team spirit and Id be on the outer if you
were there.

Joyce folded her arms. A lot of men
and no wives? God, you must think Im naive.

Well be flat-out the whole time.
Too buggered to muck around even if we wanted to. Plus which, they dont like
it if we booze at these things.

At least, thats how it had been at
the one and only TrustBank training retreat hed attended, two years ago. He
tucked a pair of carpet slippers into the case. That was the right touch, for
the sour look left his wifes face. Lets have a weekend down there soon, she
said. Just the two of us.

Its a deal, Nurse said.

When she was gone he took his dinner
suit from a forgotten corner of the wardrobe, folded it, closed the suitcase
lid. He had a shitty couple of days coming upno reason why it had to be a
total write-off.

He looked at his watch. Seven-thirty
am, time to move. On the way out the door he kissed Joyce and Mignon, told them
hed be back Sunday afternoon, and tossed the suitcase into the Volvo. The next
part he loathed. Eight years ago hed been assistant manager at the East
Brisbane branch of TrustBank. Ten minutes walk, there and back. Twelve months
ago theyd appointed him manager of the main Logan City branch. A nice salary
hike, nice car, but Logan City was thirty minutes away and it was the arse-end
of the world. No way did he and Joyce want to live there, so he was trying to
learn to put up with the long drive, and the barren place, with its jobless
kids and mothers pushing prams around the shopping centres.

At eight-fifteen he slotted the
Volvo into his own space, the only one in the tiny paved courtyard at the rear
of the bank, and selected the key to the back door of the bank. The all-night
security man was dozing in a vinyl armchair in the waiting room outside Nurses
office. The man yawned, looked at his watch, walked away to the tearoom.

Other staff members began to arrive.
Unlike Nurse, they had to wait while the security guard opened the double doors
at the front of the building. Nurse greeted them, smiled at Angie, the teller
with the boobs, and went into his office. It was going to be a hellish
morningthe in-tray was full and he had an 11 am appointment with a man he didnt
want to see.

To distract himself,. Nurse phoned
through for coffee and biscuits and drafted a number of letters and memos. One
matter took some thought. At the end of next week, from Friday afternoon until
the following Monday morning, his bank was going to be holding deposits on
behalf of the two smaller Logan City branches. They were having state of the
art safes, cameras and alarms installed and Head Office thought it would save
time and trouble to move their holdings to his vaults rather than to haul them
up to town. Close to two million dollars, mostly fifty- and one-hundred dollar
bills. Extra effort for Nurse and his staff, of course, a fact that his letter
to the other managers made clear.

He wrote: I shall expect delivery
to this branch at 4 pm precisely, so kindly ensure that the notes are correctly
stacked, bound and secured in strongboxes of the appropriate dimensions, ready
for collection by Mayne Nickless. I would count it as a favour if you would
impress upon the workmen in your respective branches that they have been
contracted to complete the refit before Monday lunchtime. I need not remind you
that every hour the money is on the road or at this branch is an insecure hour.
He underlined insecure.

At ten-thirty Nurse had a second
round of biscuits and coffee. That was a mistake: fifteen minutes later, he
went to the mens, his stomach churning. At ten-fifty-nine Angie showed the man
who had inspired it into his office.

Danny boy.

Nurse stood shakily. The mans name
was Ian Lovell and he had a long, raw-boned look, his hair fine and
sun-bleached, his body hard and sinewy. His vigour and humour were plain,
characteristics that earned him covetous looks from Angie. Lovell folded
himself into an armchair, stretched out his legs, and directed a grin lurking
with menace at Nurse. There was a briefcase next to his R M Williams boots.
Nurse sat down and tried not to think about the briefcase.

So, Danny, what story did you give
the missus?

It was a bushmans voice, rapid and
almost unintelligible, but the man was a pilot, not a bushman. Nurse wondered
how the air traffic controllers ever understood him. A weekend training
session for bank staff, he said.

Did she buy it?

Nurse nodded.

Fucking women. Take my advice,
ditch the family, become a free man. Lovell nudged the briefcase across the
carpet. You know what you have to do?

Im in room 212. Between ten and
four tomorrow Ill have three visitors. They each give me twenty-five thousand
dollars

Count it, Lovell said. Dont let
the bastards pull one on you.

and I give them the stuff.

Say it, Lovell grinned. Heroin.

Heroin.

Then the genial crinkles disappeared
from around Lovells eyes and he sat forward in his chair. No fuck-ups,
understand? Make sure you count the money first.

You told me that.

Im telling you again.

I dont like it, Nurse said. How
do I know these people wont just knock me on the head and take the stuff, the
heroin?

Lovell leaned back again and laced
his hands behind his head. He had a long trunk full of tightly bunched muscles,
and Nurse feared it. Two reasons. One, they know its good stuff and theres
plenty more where it comes from. Two, they know I know where they live. He
showed his teeth. Same as I know where you live.

Nurse played with a paper clip. He
needed to go to the mens again. What if I get arrested? Id get ten years for
trafficking.

You wont get arrested. The palms
down there are well oiled. Weve been dealing out of the Tradewinds for years.

I told Bone Id have the money I
owe him by next month. I dont see why I have to do this.

Lovell didnt reply immediately. He
stared at Nurse. After some time he pulled on each finger. The knuckles cracked
and Nurse experienced it like a series of shots from a small handgun or the
smack of an iron bar across his ankles, knees, elbows. Then Lovell spoke. This
time he was soft and all the garbled diction was missing. Because you owe Mr
Bone sixteen thousand dollars and he is tired of waiting for it, tired of
listening to promises. Lets face it, you are an unlucky punter. You shouldnt
gamble. You dont know when to cut your losses.

Nurse tried to rally. If Im only
getting two thousand for this trip, that makes seven more trips before Ive
cleared the debt. The wife will never buy it.

Fuck the wife. Ill see you Sunday
arvo in the Irish Club, four oclock.

When Lovell was gone, Nurse went to
the mens again. He was in there a long time. Then he worked through the
afternoon and at five oclock he declined an invitation to go to the pub with
the others, even though Angie would be there. He carried Lovells briefcase out
to the Volvo. By five-fifteen he was well clear of Logan City. Traffic was
smooth and fast on the freeway to the Gold Coast, but Nurse hadnt the concentration
to stay with the flow. He found himself crawling along at fifty ks sometimes,
angry drivers blasting their horns as they passed him. He didnt see the
massive theme parks carved out of die scrubby trees at the side of the road,
not even the looming billboards that invited him to look. He felt too weak, too
fearful, too bleak.

The Tradewinds faced the water. Room
212 had a view of buildings just like it, glass towers stretching to the
horizon. The casinos were nearby, smaller, drenched in bright neon. Nurse
collapsed on his bed. He slept fitfully, trying to forget Lovell and the people
Lovell did this for. But at seven oclock he showered and the shower changed
everything for him. He put on his dinner suit and hit the Monte Carlo.

* * * *

Seventeen

Nurse
had come along at the right time for Lovell. A contact in the Drug Squad had
tipped him the wink that the regular courier for the Tradewinds drop was going
to be deported to New Zealand on a murder charge. Lovell had asked Bone to come
up with someone else, and Bone had given him Nurse, ripe for manipulation.
Lovell left Nurses office, well pleased, and drove to the airport.