Read Online Bad by Michael Duffy - Free Book Online

time.’
    â€˜How much would it cost to fix it?’
    â€˜At least a couple of grand.’
    â€˜If I gave you a couple of grand tomorrow, you’d put it in and get it fixed?’
    â€˜Yeah.’
    â€˜You won’t go to town and blow it?’
    â€˜Mate!’
    Anthony turned to Andrew and asked if he could give Daley a few thousand dollars that night. Then he said to Daley, ‘I want you to put the boat in and come up the Karuah River to Bulahdelah. There’s a wharf up there. Come up to the wharf and I’ll be waiting for you, just like a fisherman with an esky. A couple of eskies, because the cunt might be in a few pieces.’
    So now Daley had an idea of what was going on. He said, ‘There’ll be people everywhere.’
    â€˜Mate, nobody will know any different, we’ll just look like a couple of fishermen going out for a day’s fishing.’
    Later in the conversation, Daley said, ‘Well, who is he?’
    â€˜Don’t worry, it’s no one in the club.’
    â€˜Who is the cunt?’
    â€˜Don’t worry. It’s not you.’
    â€˜What’s the pay like?’
    â€˜Twenty grand.’
    Daley just stared at him, and Perish thought about it. ‘Tell you what, I’ll pay you thirty.’
    â€˜Half up front?’
    â€˜No, no. I don’t work like that—’
    â€˜Standard practice, isn’t it? Well, you pay me half up front and I’ll incur the expenses.’
    â€˜No, I don’t work like that. We’ll give you the money for your expenses.’
    Anthony said a mobile phone would be delivered to him, to be used for communicating about the job. When the meal was finished, Anthony paid the bill in cash and said goodbye. Andrew drove Daley home via his own house in Eagle Vale, where he went inside and came back with $2,000.
    The next day Daley hooked his boat up to his vehicle and drove to Marine Scene in Campbelltown, where he left it for repairs. They later called to say the power head on the left engine needed replacing, which would cost $4,000 by itself. Daley rang Andrew, who said the extra money would be forthcoming.
    A few days later, a mobile phone was delivered to Daley by a man he subsequently learned was Matthew Lawton.
    â€˜Here’s the phone from Steve,’ said Lawton.
    â€˜Who?’
    â€˜Rooster.’
    Lawton told him to keep the phone charged and on at all times, and not to use it except for contacting the Perishes.
    Daley was nervous and confused about what was happening. On the one hand, he wanted to get his boat fixed, and in any case was reluctant to say no to Anthony Perish. On the other, he did not want to commit a crime and risk going back to jail. He was also concerned that maybe he was being set up, because of his contact with the Crime Commission. In his worst dreams, he wondered if he was actually the intended victim and it would be his body dumped off the continental shelf.
    Daley had an interest in surveillance devices—his late father had been a private investigator. He set up two video cameras covering the front of the house, connected to a screen in the lounge room. This enabled him to record visitors, and to see who was outside without having to open the front door. The equipment captured images of one of the three or four visits Anthony Perish made over the next few weeks, in each case having been driven by Matthew Lawton. The purpose of the visits was to check on the progress of the boat repairs, and to discuss the trip up north. On one of the visits, Perish showed Daley a copy of the police running sheet indicating Falconer had been prepared to give information to the authorities about the drug dealings of the Dubbo Rebels.
    In late October, Daley and his girlfriend drove up to Port Stephens via Newcastle. Along the way they dropped in at the Waterways office in Newcastle and bought a duplicate set of rego papers for his boat and some maps. He later said he