Good Money (36 page)

Ashwood grinned; he liked being called muscle. ‘We anticipated that the girl would keep the DVD off-site. The likelihood was she gave it to you,' he said. He still had the gun aimed in my general direction.

‘
Likelihood
? You broke every DVD in my place.'

Somewhere in the distance, a mining company chopper thrashed the air. I was starting to wonder if it was one of the last things I would ever hear. We were in an isolated part of the desert, they were going to shoot me, and my body would be picked over by the slow-wheeling birds flying above me.

It was time for plain speaking. ‘I know who kidnapped Nina.'

Crystal put her head to the side. ‘We all do. Idiot gangland drug dealer and his Maori thug. For ransom money.'

‘And how did those idiot criminals know that Tania was Nina Brodtmann? Who told them
that
, huh?'

Crystal was quiet, her exquisite eyes studied the dust for a second then she planted them on me again. She was now looking irritated. ‘You tell me.'

‘Ask yourself, who stands to gain?'

‘Just fucking tell us,' Ashwood growled.

‘Merritt Van Zyl.' I pronounced it ‘Funsail'.

‘What? Happy Hammond? Why would he?'

‘All because of you, Crystal. Your crazy scheme to acquire the Bailey Range tenements made you some powerful enemies.'

‘He wasn't involved in Bailey Range. Those guys are all gone now. They've moved on. Even Trevor Michaels — he moved himself on, just last week.' Crystal was sniggering.

‘Van Zyl and that criminal Cesarelli were investors. They were laundering money through mining projects.'

I watched as Crystal's skin tone went from rose bronze to whitish pink. ‘I didn't realise —'

Ashwood's head moved from his boss to me like a sideshow clown. ‘What's she saying?'

‘I'm saying Van Zyl wanted revenge. And he got it. He killed Nina, and he outbid you on Shine Point. He wants to undermine CC Prospecting every chance he gets. And he won't stop until he destroys you, Crystal.'

‘What's she on about?' Ashwood asked Crystal.

‘Nothing, darling. She's lost her marbles. Put the gun away. I think.'

I started to relax the tiniest bit. ‘Do you plan to kill me?'

‘No.'

‘So why did you arrange for the Lloyds to bring me out here?'

‘To give you a fright. I have frightened you? I think so. I want you to forget about this business.'

I was so relieved, I started to laugh.

‘You forget about the DVD, and Happy Hammond, everything. I'll take care of him.'

I had no doubt she would. She operated in a different stratosphere — ordinary laws did not apply.

‘We go back now. You will behave, yes?'

I was happy to agree to that, and to anything else she wanted me to say, but the blare of the helicopter made hearing impossible. It was loud and getting louder. It came closer, flying low.

Ashwood observed
the chopper with consternation. Then his eyes widened and he ran to Crystal, trying to shield her. A shot, like a whip crack, cut the air and Crystal dropped to the ground.

‘Crystal!' Ashwood yelled. ‘Oh fuck.' He knelt down and put an ear on her chest. ‘No, baby. Don't die. Baby.' She was motionless, one eye open, the other leaking blood. He started frantic mouth-to-mouth but blood flowed from her head. It trickled down Crystal's neck, over her diamonds, and soaked into the sand. Ashwood left her, tears dripping from his nose. He levelled the gun at the chopper.

It descended to a flat patch of earth about a hundred metres away and sent up a cloud of dust. The engine shut off. A man ran out from under its still-rotating blades. Ashwood fired off a couple of wild shots — who knows where they went.

My bare legs were shaking, holding myself up was a struggle. With trembling hands, I pulled the knife from my undies and held it beside my leg. I watched the man approach us, he was carrying a long-barrelled gun. He stopped and put a telescopic sight to his eye and fired. Ashwood twisted at the shoulder and fell back on the sand.

That was a good idea. I threw out my arms and hit the dirt. Perhaps they'd think I was dead too. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the man drawing closer — that bow tie, that candy-stripe jacket, befitting to only one man: Merritt Van Zyl.

38

VAN ZYL
WALKED
like a man approaching the 18th hole for a two-foot putt after an entire round of birdies. A relaxed hand held the rifle.

‘Stella Hardy? We meet again,' Van Zyl said. ‘Or should I say Galvanina Monte?'

I said nothing.

‘You are a hard woman to find, do you know that?'

I didn't move.

‘Get up, Stella. I know you are not dead.'

I didn't budge.

Van Zyl looked back to the chopper expectantly. I followed his gaze. It was Maurangi who stepped out of the helicopter and trotted over on his stubby legs. I stayed still in the dust, but the knife was no longer in my hand.

‘Get her up,' Van Zyl said.

Maurangi lifted me to my feet like I was hollow.

‘Not very bright this one,' Van Zyl said to Maurangi, and handed him the rifle.

There was sudden movement in the dust as Ashwood scrambled to his feet and took off into the spinifex. Almost lazily, Maurangi lined him up with the rifle.

‘No!' I screamed. I waved my arms to distract him. ‘Don't do it!'

He fired but Ashwood dodged and kept going, a haze of dust kicking up behind him through the scrub. I prayed he'd make it out to the main road. The odds were against it. He was wounded and distraught. He probably didn't know which way to go.

‘You'll have to work on your aim,' Van Zyl said, dryly.

I looked down at my feet and saw a glimpse of knife. ‘Why were you looking for me?'

‘You have something I want,' Van Zyl said.

‘What? The DVD? It's gone.' I pointed to the squashed laptop near Crystal's car. ‘I made a copy and she burned that, too. There's nothing of the original report left.'

‘Thank you,
darling
,' he said to Crystal's lifeless body. ‘Maurangi, get this one in the chopper — have her dropped further out.'

Maurangi slung the weapon over his shoulder and scooped up Crystal's body.

‘So, Crystal has beaten me to it. Gone ahead and destroyed the only proof that she defrauded me on the Mount Percy Sutton deal.'

‘Well, that's that then.' I put my hands on my hips, job done. Smoko time. Crystal was dead. Cesarelli was dead. ‘You've eliminated anyone who knew anything. So, ah, we good?' But as I said it, I realised the answer.

‘
A
clean slate
, is how Finchley put it to me.'

Finchley Price, of course. He was up to his wig in it. Probably had money in the deal with the rest of them.

Van Zyl paced around, waiting for Maurangi to come back, waiting for him to sling that rifle around and shoot me. He wanted Maurangi to do it so he didn't have to get his hands dirty.

‘I bet it was easy for you to convince Cesarelli to rinse his drug money through Bailey Range.'

His eyes were on me. ‘Easy?'

‘Yes. It was a gold mine, literally, a fucking gold mine. It wouldn't be a hard sell.'

He shrugged. ‘That proposition did hold some appeal for the man.'

‘What else? Promises of big returns:
no worries, mate; it's safe, can't go wrong
? After all you had your own capital on the line, and you wouldn't throw that around foolishly, would you?'

Van Zyl was laughing. ‘Very good, Hardy.'

‘But it went down the toilet and you both lost millions.'

Van Zyl closed his eyes, the memory too much perhaps. ‘A lot of money.'

‘How'd you find out it was Crystal who brought the whole venture crashing down?'

‘She told me herself,' he said. ‘She boasted about it. She was drunk and started complaining to me that Nina had betrayed her.'

The wind picked up and an uncontrollable shiver took over my legs.

‘Can you imagine,' he said, ‘telling a madman like Cesarelli his money was gone?'

‘No. How did it go?'

‘I confess I had to soften the blow.'

‘How?'

‘I made certain offers. I suggested that he kidnap the girl and hold her to ransom. Two birds. I get revenge on Crystal and Cesarelli gets the ransom.'

‘After you took her to Cesarelli's farm, Nina told you I had the DVD?'

‘Eventually,' Van Zyl said simply. Maurangi had joined him now, and was picking his nose. ‘He persuaded her to tell us.'

Maurangi shrugged. ‘Reminds me, where's me money? Haven't seen a cent yet.'

‘And what would you spend it on?' Van Zyl asked. ‘A new pair of — what do you call them — jandals?'

Maurangi sucked something out of his teeth, spat it on the dirt.

‘But you got Brodtmann back with the Shine Point deal,' I said to Van Zyl. ‘Wasn't that enough for you? You won. He lost. Why kill Nina? She was one of them, she wanted to get away from them.'

‘One must not simply win,' Van Zyl sighed. ‘It is not nearly enough. Competitors are one thing, but Crystal put me dangerously close to bankruptcy. And Cesarelli, he wanted blood.'

Maurangi held the rifle, slung by a strap over his shoulder, loosely pointing at the ground.

‘Now,' Van Zyl said. ‘How about a nice ride in my helicopter?'

‘I don't want to. You're going to clean-slate me.'

Van Zyl nodded to Maurangi, who then took the rifle from his shoulder — and, as he raised it, it went off. I felt a searing heat in my foot. The pain was blinding. I dropped, rolling around on the ground, holding my foot and whimpering.

‘That's enough,' Van Zyl said, holding his hand out for the rifle.

‘It just went off. Something wrong with it.'

‘Learn to shoot, you idiot.'

Maurangi's head lolled back like an exasperated adolescent. ‘Yes,
boss
.' He held the gun out for Van Zyl.

I rolled to the side and there in the dirt, right beside me, was the knife. I could reach it. Maybe stick it in Maurangi's fat calf.

Van Zyl regarded Maurangi contemptuously. ‘You know, I don't like your tone.'

Maurangi put his head on the side. ‘My tone? You fucking racist
pakeha,
you just called me an idiot.'

‘I'm not saying that because you're black. It's just that you
are
rather slow.'

I watched a sly smile curl the corners of Maurangi's mouth.

‘We had a mess on our hands,' Van Zyl said to me. ‘I had to kill Cesarelli
myself
. Can you imagine? With a knife. Then the girl.'

Behind them, I saw the blades of the helicopter gather speed, the engine whined.

‘Let it go, man. So what?'

Van Zyl leaned right up into Maurangi's face. ‘My dear, dumb Tapahia,' he said. ‘Gage told me you were not to be trusted.'

Maurangi stopped laughing. ‘Gage? That psycho? When did he talk to you?'

‘I once heard him say the All Blacks are cheats,' I offered.

‘No way,' Maurangi almost whispered it.

Behind them, the chopper lifted off. These two took no notice. ‘That's what I heard,' I said. ‘And he reckons the
haka
is a dirty trick.'

Van Zyl squinted at me. ‘Oh, please. That's pathetic, Hardy. Even for you.'

‘What'd he say then, bro?' Maurangi squared his stance.

‘Nothing,' Van Zyl said. ‘We never discussed rugby.'

‘Like hell.'

Van Zyl swung the rifle around to his shoulder. The gun went off but Maurangi was ready. He twisted away and tried to grab Van Zyl's arms — but Van Zyl shoved him away and shot him in the stomach. Blood gushed through Maurangi's fingers like water from a burst pipe as he sank to his knees and dropped face-first on the ground.

I scrambled up and hopped frantically towards Crystal's car, waiting for the sting of another bullet. But Van Zyl dropped the rifle and ran after me. In five strides, he had hold of me around the waist. I kicked and punched and landed a few blows, but Van Zyl was hanging on and we hit the ground and rolled.

I heard the driver's door open. We both stopped to look. It was Ashwood, he was trying to start the car — engine revving, tyres spinning dust. Van Zyl lept up and sprinted to the car before Ashwood could get traction. He grabbed Ashwood, trying to drag him out. They struggled. A foot came out and kicked Van Zyl hard in the chest, and he fell back.