Silent Kill Read online

  ‘You did very well. I hope you’ve drawn all the appropriate fees and expenses.’

  ‘I haven’t thought about it but I will. Just keep the account open for a few days.’

  ‘Of course. And what of the woman who helped you at various points?’

  ‘She’s gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  My arm healed. The police file on Sean Bright would remain open and Mrs Drake and the other connections of the girls killed would never receive closure. Timothy Polkinghorn was re-endorsed as a Liberal candidate and is mentioned as a likely Cabinet Minister if things go right for his party at the next election. In recent photographs he wears a pained expression as well he might, because ‘Jones’ and whoever he represents must have him by the balls.

  Jack Buchanan bounced back and is doing well in sports production. Kelly Scott, looking and sounding like Marianne Faithfull, is trying to make a career as a singer. Rory O’Hara founded a radically green, radically anti-American party with a utopian agenda. After an initial flurry, its noise, in the run-up to the election, has died away to a whisper. From time to time I sniff the wind, surf the web and trawl the newspapers, and so far I’ve found no trace of Penelope Marinos. But I have a feeling I’ll meet up with her again.

  PETER CORRIS is known as the ‘godfather’ of Australian crime fiction through his Cliff Hardy detective stories. He has written in many other areas, including a co-authored autobiography of the late Professor Fred Hollows, a history of boxing in Australia, spy novels, historical novels and a collection of short stories about golf (see www.petercorris.net). In 2009, Peter Corris was awarded the Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction by the Australian Crime Writers Association. He is married to writer Jean Bedford and has lived in Sydney for most of his life. They have three daughters and five grandsons.

  Peter Corris’s thirty-nine Cliff Hardy books include The Empty Beach, Master’s Mates, The Coast Road, Saving Billie, The Undertow, Appeal Denied, The Big Score, Open File, Deep Water, Torn Apart, Follow the Money, Comeback, The Dunbar Case and Silent Kill.