25. The Aussie in the Room

Some questions about Waingard's biog.

A mini-flashback to, like, 20 minutes ago

Mike the Elder at the Railway told her who to find and where to find them and it didn’t take any sideways techniques or thumbscrews. “These two lads, Moses and Vardaman, they were on the lash with Aaron and you’ll find them and their boy Hersh over the Pipistrelle on a Friday night before they go up to the Loft to DJ.” Nice and easy. And how much more effort did she have to put in to dig deeper? Hardly any at all. She entered the Pipistrelle and asked Alden where she could find the boys – Moses, Vardaman and Hersh. Alden said two of them were in but were in the gents before she watched him slide off to pretend to not be passing the message on to two young men at the top end of the bar.

While she watched this out of the corner of her eye, she turned to the man next to her, a big burly guy in a nice suit, silver hair to his collar, a red round nose and soft lips.

“Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” he said. American? An Aussie?

“Did you hear about Aaron?” she said.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “I don’t think anyone’s all that sad, but fuck yeah it’s been a surprise.” Aussie. Smart, gravelly voice. She spots his Marlboro Reds tucked under a brass zippo on the bar.

“You know what happened to him?”

“Not really,” the guy says, but he needs no warming up for the pub gossip hot topic of the day. “Definitely done in, though. He was in to too much shit for that to be a happy accident. Some of the boys reckon he was bumped out of his trial so they could get to him in the open.”

“Who could?”

“Whoever he was in deep with. His suppliers Whoever.”

“You think they sabotaged his hearing?”

“That’s one rumour going around. Seems likely to me.”

“That strong a theory, eh?”

“Haven’t seen you in a long time,” the guys says. This throws her off an inch.

She checks back up the bar again to be sure the two men the landlord had slipped a message to are indeed just two.

“You seen Hersh anywhere?” she says to the Aussie guy.

He shrugs. Takes a swig of his pint. “Probably keeping his head down. He owed Aaron a tonne of money and he won’t want the cops following that up, will he?”

“Course not,” she says. “Makes sense.”

“Didn’t you join the army or something?” the Aussie says to her.

She smiles, pats him on the forearm.

“Really good to see you,” she says to him, and disappears back through a group of drinkers behind her.