Death is Forever

I was sure I’d lost him, I went on to Fitzroy Crossing, where he had to stop for petrol. When I got there, one of the roadtrains was parked for a bit of tucker. It was dark and no one was about except the plonkos. I decided to have a go at flattening the bastard. I jiggered the ignition and went looking for Blackburn’s headlights. Thought I had him, but he’s bloody quick. He went rocketing into the bush, banged about, and pranged on a termite mound.” Street paused to stub out his cigarette.
    Van Luik said nothing.
    “Took me awhile to bring that bloody great roadtrain to a stop,” Street said. “Then I had to get back to the Rover. Took me awhile to do that, too. I wasn’t about to have a go at Blackburn on the rush. He’s too cute by half. Bloody good thing I tiptoed. He had a sawed-off shotgun. Nearly did for me right there.”
    “Could he identify you?” van Luik demanded.
    “Not a chance. It was dark and I didn’t get that close. If I had, I’d be dead.”
    “The girl?”
    “Never saw her.”
    “Could she have been hurt?”
    “I checked the Rover before he tried to blow off my head. She wasn’t inside. He could have carried her off somewhere in the bush. He’s bloody big.”
    “Is there any chance that you will be connected with the stolen vehicle?”
    Street laughed roughly. “The dole had just come in. Those Abos wouldn’t have recognized their own mother.”
    “Explain,” van Luik demanded.
    “The Australian government pays off the Abos for being born, and the Abos take their cut of the dole to the nearest bottle shop and buy enough beer to make them forget they were ever born at all. No one white and sober saw me.”
    “Where are you now?”
    “Kununurra. I’ll go to Abe’s station as soon as I’m called in to appraise the leases. Tomorrow, probably, if the file clerk pulls out her finger. Day after for certain.”
    Van Luik let the silence build before he said carefully, “Despite the fact that you have negotiated Abelard Windsor’s contracts with ConMin and DSD for the last ten years, your government is being recalcitrant about having you officially appraise the Sleeping Dog mining leases.”
    “Bugger all!” Street snarled. “Has she moved on getting the will recognized yet?”
    “Matthew Windsor did. He, of course, is in a position to see that matters proceed at a brisk pace.”
    Street lit another cigarette, blew smoke, and said, “We can’t wait until I get the green light on appraising the leases. Blackburn’s partner has put enough high-tech prospecting equipment at the station to make me nervous.”
    “We are negotiating with the Americans about the appraisals,” van Luik said finally. “They are divided. I expect your permission to come through shortly.”
    “It better, mate. I’ve got some of the station Abos watching the countryside for any prospecting, but they could go walkabout at any time.”
    “Pay them more.”
    Street made an impatient sound and wondered how he could explain Australia’s natives to a man as urbanized as van Luik.
    “Money doesn’t work real well with Abos. Fear does. So long as they think I’m Abe’s shadow, they’ll obey me. But if I lean too hard, they’ll go walkabout.”
    Van Luik breathed in slowly, then he spoke with great precision. “If Erin Windsor brings that mine into production, you are a dead man. Mazel und broche. ”
    The connection went dead. Street looked at the receiver and said, “But what if I’m the one to bring the mine into production, you stupid sod?”
    He laughed, then winced at the pain in his arm as he tossed the receiver into the cradle.
    “Choke on your mazel , old man. Rack off and die.”

26
Abe Windsor’s station
    Erin awoke disoriented, wondering where she was. The steamy heat, the lack of a mattress, and the lair-like smell of the room itself brought everything back. She was at the Windsor station, sleeping in her great-uncle’s bedroom. Or what was left of it.
    Cole had taken one look at the bed and thrown it into the backyard, mattress and all. He’d brought in sleeping bags and pads from the Rover. Without a word he’d set up two pallets in Abe’s room and settled down to sleep next to her with his body blocking the closed door.
    Lying motionless, she remembered the currents of barely controlled emotion she’d sensed in Cole when she’d walked into the station house. He’d introduced her to a Chinese woman called Lai, a woman whose hungry black glance had been all