Razorhurst (28 page)

“You should run,” Snowy said. “How long do you think Glory’s going to last without Bluey up and about?”

“She’s got other men,” Dymphna grunted. Bluey was surprisingly heavy for a man who was shorter than she was.

His eyes weren’t properly closed. His eyelashes fluttered revealing whites but not irises; with all his scars, it made him look even more monstrous. Dymphna didn’t see the razor anywhere. She wondered if Snowy or Neal had taken it.

Blood poured out of Bluey’s head, but he was breathing evenly, and there was no blood coming from his mouth.

Kelpie danced ahead to the grog shop. One of the boys opened the door. Doc was already there; he’d put an apron on.

“He dead?” Doc didn’t sound much concerned.

Kelpie shook her head and followed him back to his office where she hovered by the door, watching them carry Bluey in and lay him on the doctor’s desk. His head and legs dangled over the edges.

Dymphna stood beside Kelpie at the doorway, putting an arm around the girl’s shoulders. They could not be the same age. The doc had to have been mistaken.

Neal stepped back from Bluey, wiping his hands. He gave Dymphna another wry smile and slid past her to stand in the corridor.

The doc was already bending over Bluey. Snowy stepped away to lean against the crates of liquor.

“Pass me one of them bottles,” the doc said. Snowy did.

The boy who’d opened the door whispered to Kelpie, “You sure he’s not dead?”

“He’s breathing,” Kelpie whispered back. “Lot of blood. Could still die.”

She sounded happy about it.

“Hope so,” the boy whispered. He stayed by the door.

Jimmy appeared inside the doctor’s office watching the doc examining Bluey.

“Go get water,” Dymphna told the boy. He blushed. Dymphna smiled at him, and he went even redder. “Get your mate to help. Clean up that trail of blood so it doesn’t lead in here. Wet up and down the lane. It’ll stay the cops for a bit. Go on, both of you. You want the cops on us as well as Glory? Do it fast!”

The boy ran.

“I’ll need some of that water,” the doctor shouted after him.

“You should go,” Dymphna told Neal. He was leaning against the wall rolling a cigarette back and forth between his fingers. His eye was nearly swollen shut. “Before anything else happens.”

“I’ll be all right. I’ll nick off when I have to.” He grinned.

Dymphna bit back the urge to snap at him that this was not a lark, that he could have been killed.

“Hope Bluey dies,” Jimmy said. “Even if it does leave Glory exposed.”

Dymphna was fairly sure everyone hoped that. Except her. Gloriana Nelson exposed right now meant Dymphna with little protection from Mr. Davidson.

“Though if he dies,” Jimmy asked Kelpie, “is there a chance Bluey could haunt Dymphna too? Fucked if I want to spend the rest of me days listening to that stupid mongrel bastard.”

Dymphna kept herself from shuddering.

“Now’s the time to get away,” Snowy said.

“Pass me towels,” Doc said. Dymphna grabbed a handful from the pile by the door and tossed them to Snowy, who handed them to the doctor.

“Where’s that water?” the doc asked.

“Coming,” Dymphna told him. “What about the constable?” she said to Snowy. “Can’t leave him on the lane.”

Snowy stared at her. “Not our worry. We need to get out of here.”

Dymphna stared back at him, wanting to question his use of the word
we
. He was Davidson’s. They weren’t a
we
. “Glory said no bodies.”

“Not our lookout.”

There he was again, talking as if they were in this together. The dead cop might not be Snowy’s lookout, but it was definitely
Dymphna’s. She didn’t want to think about how many had seen Bluey kill the cop or how many had already run around the corner to tell Glory. She certainly didn’t want the cops finding the body. A dead copper? Even such a young one. They’d tear Razorhurst apart until they found the culprit.

It wasn’t a full day since Jimmy had died, and now another dead one. Bluey had better stay alive.

The smaller of the boys returned with a bucket of water for Doc, who commenced washing his arms past his elbows.

“Glory didn’t want any bodies,” Dymphna repeated. “There’s a dead cop out there. I think that counts.” She turned to where the doctor was working on Bluey. “She’ll be none too keen on Bluey dying either.”

“He’ll live,” Doc said, removing Bluey’s jacket and tearing away his shirt, both soaked with blood. But not as badly as Jimmy’s clothes had been. Bluey was sweating, which Jimmy Palmer would never do again.

Snowy left the room.

Outside a police siren sounded.

Neal Darcy flinched but didn’t say a word.

Snowy returned. “The body’s been shifted. Glory’s boys, most like. Or the boy’s mother had him brought in. He lived with her down the other end of the lane.”

Which was why the copper was there
, Dymphna realised. Home for lunch. He hadn’t been much older than she was.

“Those two boys did what you said. Neighbours are helping. Water’s everywhere.”

“Great. Now we can go,” Dymphna said. Back to Gloriana’s, she decided. If she went straight there, she could explain. How Bluey had lost control, attacked unprovoked. Glory knew how he was.

Neal said nothing. But there was a hint of a smile in his eyes. Dymphna couldn’t believe he was enjoying this.

“We’ll go out the back way,” Snowy said.

“Don’t bloody go with him,” Jimmy said. “Tell her, Kelpie. She can’t go with Snowy. He’s as good as said he’d take her to him!”

Kelpie said nothing. Dymphna itched to tell Jimmy that Snowy had been far more concerned about Kelpie than he was about Dymphna. She wished he’d be quiet; she had no intention of going with Snowy.

“What do you mean
we
?” she said to him. “I’m going out the front. Same as I came in.”

“Into the arms of the coppers?”

“Almost everyone who lives around here is Glory’s. They’re not going to tell the police anything.”

“What do you think Glory’s going to do to young Darcy here?”

“I’m not afraid of Gloriana Nelson,” Neal said. He didn’t sound afraid. Though he should have been.

“Nothing,” Dymphna said, which was what she hoped, but she had no idea. Glory was unpredictable. “He didn’t do anything. Didn’t lay a finger on Bluey. Besides, he’ll head home.”

“He was following you.”

“I was looking out for her,” Neal objected.

Snowy snorted.

“You didn’t hear that,” Dymphna told Doc. “You’re not hearing any of this.”

“I don’t hear nothing. I don’t tell Glory nothing. She knows that. I don’t know who either of these gentlemen are, and I don’t care. Though the one in the corridor should get some ice on his face. Icebox is behind the bar. You’ll have a shiner otherwise.” He resumed his work on Bluey.

“You were following us too, and you’re Davidson’s, Snowy.” Dymphna lowered her voice. “You killed Palmer.”

Snowy did not respond.

“Didn’t hear that neither,” Doc muttered, cleaning the hole in Bluey’s left shoulder. The edges of the bullet hole were black where the bullet had burned its way into his body.

“Glory’s out for me whatever happens,” Snowy said. “But she doesn’t have to get her hands on Darcy. Let’s go.”

“Where’s Snowy going to take her? To Davidson. She needs to get down to the Quay and on a boat.” Jimmy was yelling at Kelpie, his face darkening. “Tell her!”

“I’m heading back to Glory’s,” Dymphna said. “She’s expecting me. I’m telling her what happened.”

“How do you think that’s going to work?” Snowy asked. You don’t think she has eyes? Who do you think moved the copper? Glory’s not going to be pleased when you lie to her.”

“I’m not going to lie to her.”

“How you going to explain Bluey attacking Darcy?”

“Bluey’s not right in the head. Everyone knows that.”

“Then there’s Davidson. He’s not going to let any of this go, Dymphna. He’ll drag you out of Glory’s if he has to.”

“He wouldn’t.”

“Maybe not before. But Bluey’s out of action now.”

Another siren sounded. Kelpie eased closer to the back door, tugging at Dymphna’s skirt. “Don’t want to go back to Glory,” she whispered.

Dymphna had to decide.

“Listen to me,” Snowy said. “I can get you somewhere safe. Kelp and Darcy here too. Then I’ll deal with Davidson. See what we can do to get the truce back in place.”

Dymphna shook her head. “Glory’s two men down. You really think
now
is when Mr. Davidson’s going to ease off?”

“Maybe not, but you need to be elsewhere. We all need to. I know a place.”

Doc looked up from cleaning Bluey’s wounds. “I need to get this bullet out. I need fewer people in here. I need quiet.”

Someone started pounding on the front door.

Snowy pushed past Kelpie and opened the back door, looked both ways, and then gestured them through.

Neal closed the back door behind them. There was no lane. The grog shop backed onto a dilapidated ruin of a house, sharing the one fence.

Snowy pointed to the yard next door. “We’ll go over the fence, then yard to yard,” he began. Dymphna heard shouting. “Reckon they’re searching all the houses on the lane.”

Kelpie scrambled over the fence to the ruined house. There was no door.

Snowy gave Dymphna a leg-up, and she jumped over and followed Kelpie into the abandoned house, telling herself she could still get back to Glory and explain what had happened.

Gaol Time

Dymphna had only been in gaol once. Glory had long since lost count of her stays in the lock-up. Snowy and Bluey likewise. So much so that Snowy was thinking hard on another profession, on getting out from under Mr. Davidson’s control and away.

Snowy did not like gaol, not after that first long stay.

Bluey had never minded it. Didn’t seem that much different to normal life. Just as many afraid of him in there as out here and easier to get at them ’cause there were that many fewer places to hide. Sure the guards’d smack you around, but Bluey didn’t feel pain. Didn’t bother him one way or the other, ’specially if he got to have a go at them later on the sly.

Glory had spent more than her fair share of time behind bars. But for the last decade she’d had money and connections, and gaol time had become considerably shorter and more comfortable. Now Glory treated lock-up as a holiday, using her time there to rest up and scheme and recruit new girls. They came to her in droves because she had the money and influence to protect them in gaol. So surely, they figured, she could do even better for them outside.

Women’s gaol was much worse than the men’s. The prisoners were at the mercy of the screws, and those who couldn’t buy them off were sometimes traded for use in the men’s gaol.

Gaol was where Dymphna Campbell met Gloriana Nelson. Gaol was where Glory saved Dymphna.

Before Glory took her in hand, promising to make her Glory’s best girl, Dymphna’s despair had grown large enough to encompass thoughts of taking her own life.

Glory had put all such thoughts from her mind.
Use what you’re good at, my girl. Use it for you, not for them. It’s what I did
. She didn’t have to say,
And now look at me
. The diamond bracelet on her wrist glittered. No one else was permitted jewellery in the lock-up. But Gloriana Nelson could do whatever she wished.

Dymphna Campbell was impressed.

KELPIE