Read Online The Easy Sin by Jon Cleary - Free Book Online Page B

said, but gave him the pleasant smile again.
    IV
    Darlene hung up the phone and stepped out of the phone-box into the glare of the Sutherland street. She put on her dark glasses and stepped under the shade of a shop awning. She only knew this southern suburb from passing through it on the way down to the bush cottage. She was a stranger here.
    â€œWe've got to get right away from where we usually are,” her mum had said. “We don't make any calls from anywhere near home. I dunno whether they can trace phone calls, but we're not gunna take any chances. Don't use your mobile.”
    Shirlee had organized them all, right after breakfast. First, she had spoken to Phoenix, who always wanted to argue: “You go back up to Hurstville and check in at Centrelink, tell ‘em you're still looking for a job. Then go and bank your dole cheque—”
    â€œAh shit, Mum—”
    â€œWash your mouth out,” she said, washing dishes.
    â€œWell, for Crissakes, Mum, we're gunna be rich—why the fuck—why the hell've I gotta worry about my dole cheque? Or fuck—or Centrelink? I'm not innarested in a job now.”
    â€œWe don't arouse suspicion, that's why. So none of the nosy neighbours back in Hurstville can talk—”
    â€œMum,” said Corey, lolling back in a chair at the breakfast table, “why d'you think anyone's gunna suspect us? You think they got guys out there, watching Pheeny don't turn up at Centrelink?”
    â€œAs for you,” said his mum, the general, “you be certain, you go back to town, you walk around like you got a sore back. Men on workers' compo, the insurance companies, they got private investigators watching you like hawks. I seen it on TV a coupla months ago.”
    Corey worked for a haulage company as its chief mechanic. A week ago he had conveniently strained his back and had gone to a doctor, recommended by one of his workmates, who, for the right consideration, would give a death certificate to a glowing-with-health gymnast.
    â€œHow long we gunna give ‘em to make up their minds to pay the ransom?”
    â€œFour, five days, a week at the most. They're gunna bargain. I been reading about Big Business, them takeover deals. They bargain for weeks. They do something, I dunno what it means, it's called due diligence.”
    â€œMum,” said Darlene, putting on her face, looking at it in her vanity mirror, wondering what she would look like when she was a million dollars richer, “this isn't big business. It's a ransom, five million dollars. Petty cash to them.”
    â€œYou been working too long at that bank,” said Corey. “You dunno what real money means.”
    She put away her mirror and lipstick. “We can't sit around here looking after His Nibs, feeding him, taking him to the toilet . . . I'll give ‘em a deadline. I'll call ‘em today, give ‘em till five o'clock. They want more time, I'll say till five p.m. tomorrow. That'll be the absolute deadline.”
    â€œAnd they don't come through?” said Corey. “What do we do then?”
    â€œWe do him,” said Phoenix and nodded towards the front of the house.
    His brother and sister looked at him and his mother paused at the kitchen sink, a wet plate in her hand. “I think we'll have to talk to Chantelle.”
    Chantelle was their contact, the one who had told them where the money was. Or where they had thought it was.
    Now Darlene paused under the shop awning and wondered if she should go on into the city. She had phoned in first thing this morning to the bank and told her boss she was not well, but would be in at work tomorrow. Bloody women , had been his only comment and he had hung up in her ear.
    She was worried that the police were already on the case; but that was because of the stupid bungle, the killing of the maid. Sometimes she wondered at the intelligence of her brothers. Corey had all his marbles, but at times he could