Read Online Crucifixion Creek by Barry Maitland - Free Book Online Page B

together in a café at Balmoral
Beach a week or so back?’
    Harry frowns, wondering if she’s a little mad. ‘Yeah? So?’
    ‘They owned property—three houses—on Mortimer Street, in the Creek.’
    ‘I thought they were from the North Shore somewhere.’
    ‘Yes, that’s where they lived, but they also had these investment properties. And
the woman who found them lives in one of those houses, and that’s how I became interested
in that strange story.’
    Harry drinks his beer and glances at his watch. ‘Anything else?’
    ‘Well, yes. Our local Councillor Potgeiter, who thinks the Shooters Party are a pack
of bleeding heart lefties, wants to erect a memorial to Aboriginal reconciliation
in the Civic Centre…’
    Harry looks at her.
    ‘…thereby making possible the removal of the memorial in Bidjigal Park in the Creek.’
    ‘Yeah, well,’ Harry drains his glass. ‘It’ll make an interesting article in your
paper, I’m sure. I’ll keep a look-out for it.’ He starts to get to his feet.
    ‘Harry!’ she almost yells, ‘That old couple were murdered!’
    Heads turn. Harry stares at her. ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘That old couple.’ She leans in to him, willing him back into his seat. ‘A couple
of months ago they were rich. Then they got tangled up with some finance company
who turned them into paupers, in connivance with their son. He’s very cagey about
the whole thing.’
    ‘What finance company?’
    ‘I don’t know, I’ve just got a name, Crosstitch, but I can’t track him down.’ She
sees the expression on his face. ‘You’ve heard of him?’
    ‘Kristich,’ he says, and spells it out. ‘Alexander Kristich. Previously Sandi Krstić
from the Gold Coast. You’d better tell me the whole story.’
    So she does.
    ‘You went and spoke to the son?’
    ‘Yes. He wouldn’t see me at first, then he changed his mind.’
    ‘How did he explain what had happened to his folks?’
    ‘Dementia. But I don’t believe him. Mrs Bulwer-Knight says there was nothing wrong
with them when she last saw them a month ago.’
    Harry has made enquiries about Kelly Pool. He’s picked up the story of her run-in
with the Murdoch editor. Now he wonders just how desperate she is for a second chance,
a redeeming scoop. How likely she is to find it working for the Bankstown Chronicle .
    ‘Then he threatened me.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘I think that was the real reason he agreed to see me. He said his lawyer will go
for me—and the paper—if we print anything about his parents he doesn’t like.’
    ‘Did he say who his lawyer is?’
    ‘No. So what do you know about this Kristich character?’
    ‘He’s just one of those names that comes across the desk from time to time. An elusive
man, from all accounts. You can look him up.’
    He was aware of her searching look. ‘Come on, Harry. There’s more, isn’t there?’
    ‘Kristich’s lawyer is Nathaniel Horn. Heard of him?’
    ‘Of course! I’ve seen him on TV.’
    ‘It’d be interesting to know if he’s also the lawyer for the old couple’s son.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘But the odds are he isn’t. The thing is, Kelly, crimes don’t come evenly spread
across the city. They come in clusters, and sometimes the clusters just happen. No
reason, just coincidence. If you want to start a fire somewhere, what better place
than a run-down dump like the Creek? Maybe you read in the Bankstown Chronicle that
that’s where the guy who got stabbed nearby had a business.’
    ‘No, we didn’t print that.’
    ‘But you take my point. Coincidences happen all the time in the real world. They
don’t necessarily mean anything.’
    Kelly glares at him. ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and the third
time it’s enemy action.’
    ‘Who said that?’
    She blushes. ‘Goldfinger.’
    He laughs and gets to his feet.
    ‘But what are you going to do?’ she says.
    ‘Nothing. You haven’t given me any grounds. What are you going to do?’
    ‘I’m going to write