Cliff Hardy 29 Saving Billie by Peter Corris

Author:Peter Corris [Corris, Peter]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781741146523
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

13

I checked in to the Three Ways Motor Inn in Campbell-town, phoned Kooti and left the message. That gave me time on my hands. I phoned Sharon Marchant's mobile and she came through as clearly as though she was next door.

'Hey,' she said, 'this is a good connection. Where are you?'

I told her and added that I might have made some progress at getting her sister away from Yoli and Co.

'That's great. Look, I'm with Sarah for a while but I'll be dropping her back home before heading out to Picton. Why don't we get together and you can tell me all about it.'

She agreed to come by the motel in a couple of hours. I inspected the mini-bar. There were three double serves of gin and plenty of tonic water. I went for a walk, located a fruit shop and bought a lemon. A gin and tonic without lemon is like a martini without an olive. I had a swim in the motel pool and was freshly shaved, showered and shampooed when Sharon turned up.

She dropped into a chair and breathed an exhausted sigh. 'Keeping up with the young is the pits. That kid's been running me ragged.'

She was wearing the clothes Lou Kramer had left her and, not flattering to start with, they were wrinkled and shapeless. Her face was aglow with parental happiness but just below that surface she was deeply tired. I put my thoughts of a close encounter aside and made her a drink.

'Thanks. Just one. Two'd put me on my ear and I've got to drive home. Got that class tomorrow. What's been going on, Cliff?'

In fact, I didn't really have much to tell her but I made the most of it, saying that I had an ally among the Liston Islanders and expected to make progress.

'If we get her out I hope you'll be standing by to talk to her.'

She sipped her drink. 'I'd need some assurances about that woman you're dealing with first. Some firm arrangements, unnegotiable, if you know what I mean.'

I said I did. We talked a bit more and she took off to Picton after saying she'd mail the clothes back to me. I knocked off one of the little gins. Thought about ringing Lou Kramer, decided against. I was thinking about dinner when Steve Kooti showed up. He refused alcohol, naturally, so we went to sit by the pool in the evening air, me with a beer and him with a can of coke, as a full yellow moon rose.

'I talked to my sister. She's a nurse in the area health service. It seems she's had a report about a seriously ill woman at that address.'

'That right?'

'Yes. And she's going to pay the place a visit tomorrow. She'll have a couple of paramedics with her who just happen to be members of our congregation.'

'Big blokes?'

'Very big. Understand, if she finds the woman in good health and getting reasonable treatment there's nothing she can do. But if it's not like that she'll have her removed to Western District hospital.

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