Part 3 (1/2)

She found a small fork in a drawer.

'You can eat in front of the TV tonight, darling,' she said, taking the plate over to the girl and kissing her quickly on the forehead.

When she came back, she sat down opposite me. 'My dad's coming from Queensland tonight,' she said. 'He's nearly eighty. I told him not to. We'll be all right.'

I said, 'What about Danny's family?'

She smiled, a wan lip movement. 'We're it. He was brought up by his nanna. She died while he was inside. There's just a cousin.'

'Danny left a message for me to meet him at the Trafalgar on Sat.u.r.day night,' I said. 'I didn't get it until Sunday. Why did he want to see me?'

She moistened her lips. 'He was scared. They waited for him outside here on Thursday night, but he parked around the corner and when he was walking towards the house he saw them.'

'Who?'

'I don't know. Men. It's from the accident. Something, I don't know.'

'The accident Danny went to jail for?'

'Yes. He didn't do that.'

'Why do you say that?'

She shrugged. 'Someone told him he was fitted up. Someone who knew.'

'Do you know who the person was?'

'No. It was a woman. Danny said something about her husband dying.'

'When was that?'

'About a month ago. He changed all of a sudden. Got upset easily. Why do you want to know?'

I hesitated. 'I may be able to do something.'

She hugged herself. 'You can't do anything. You can't bring Danny back.'

'You said the police murdered him.'

'Danny never had a gun. And if he'd had one, why would he threaten the police?'

'Perhaps he didn't know they were police.'

She ran a hand through her short hair. 'The policeman who came here said the men identified themselves to Danny as police.'

'Danny been okay since he came out?'

She looked me in the eyes. 'Danny wasn't a crim. He finished school in jail. He worked with a friend of mine at Marston's. That's how I met him. It's a car part company in Essendon.'

'He used to be on smack.'

She shook her head. 'In another life. He wouldn't even drink more than two stubbies.'

I believed her. One thing practising law gives you is a feeling for some kinds of truth.

'When he saw the people waiting for him outside,' I said, 'what did he do?'

'He went to a callbox and rang Col Mullens next door and Col came over and called me to the phone.'

'Why didn't he ring here?'

'I don't know.'

'What did he say?'

'He said he couldn't come home because the house was being watched and he'd stay somewhere else for the night and sort it out on Friday. He was scared. I could hear it.'

'Why didn't he go to the police?'

She shook her head and took a tissue out of her sleeve. 'Danny reckoned the cops were in on it.' She blew her nose. 'Had to be the cops fixed him up for the accident, didn't it? Did you know they gave him pills and stuff to take every day before the trial? Danny said he didn't hardly know where he was.'

'No, I didn't know that. So the men outside could have been cops?'

'Suppose so.'

'He didn't say they were cops?'

'No.'

'Have you told all this to the cops?'

'Yes. Friday night when they come around here.'

The girl came over with her plate. 'Cream, please,' she said, eyes fixed on me. Sue got up, took a tub of ice cream out of the fridge, put two scoops in a bowl and handed it to her daughter.

'Would you like some?' the girl said, showing me the bowl.

'No thanks, Kirsty,' I said. 'I haven't had my tea yet.'

She nodded and went back to the television.

Sue said, 'I'm sorry. I haven't offered you anything...'

I shook my head. 'That's fine. What did Danny do after this woman phoned him about being fixed up for the hit and run?'

'He said he was going to get the case opened again. The person who told him said there was evidence.'