Pay Dirt (13 page)

Tricky timing.

Leah wont be far behind the van.
She warns us in time to take the sign down, and as soon as the vans on the
short cut she puts the sign up again.

Then I keep watch from that hill
opposite, Leah said.

Snyder nodded that he understood. He
glanced once at Tobin, twisted his mouth in contempt, looked away again. Sounds
good.

Okay, Wyatt said. Lets run
through it again.

Tobin hadnt kept still all this
time. He continued to yawn at intervals and twist restlessly in his chair. He
wore brief shorts and a singlet, so he seemed to be a mass of flesh, all of it
bored. Ah, pack it in. Well be right.

Wyatt leaned forward. He kept his
voice low. If you fuck up tomorrow, Ill kill you.

Tobin threw up his arms and rolled
his eyes. Fucking charming. You others hear that?

Can it, Tobin, Snyder said.

Tobin turned to Leah. He leaned an
elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand. What about you? Want to
come outside, leave the boys to do the thinking?

Leah smiled coldly at him. Want to
stay here like a good boy and listen to the men? You might learn something.

Tobin flushed and jerked back. Yeah,
well I know all about you, you moll.

No one moved, waiting to see what
else Tobin would do. Leah stared at him neutrally. Snyder tipped back in his
chair, watching like someone interested but not involved. Wyatt held himself
ready to smack Tobin down if it came to that.

When nothing happened, he said patiently,
Lets run through it again. This time you each tell me.

One by one they described their part
in the heist. Tobin surprised them by summarising his role exactly and leaving
nothing out. But he didnt look at anyone, and his tone was choppy and
contemptuous.

When they were all finished Wyatt
said, Now the period after the job.

He was looking at Tobin. He expected
trouble from him. He didnt think Tobin would have the patience to wait around
after the job. But Tobin was unusually compliant, swirling his cup, looking at
the tea-leaves.

Wyatt explained it anyway. Time and
distance are against us. When the van goes off the air, and it doesnt show in
Belcowie, the whole of the mid-north will go on alert. Patrols, roadblocks, you
name it. Wed never make it.

He paused, watching Tobin. Tobins
face was changing expression rapidly, as though he were having a conversation
with himself. Wyatt went on. We stay here until its safe to leave. I dont
want anything to show from the air, and we dont go outside unless its safe to
do so. We post a lookout, four-hour shifts around the clock. I doubt if therell
be a ground search hereits off the beaten track and with any luck theyll
think the vans been driven interstate or somethingbut if there is, well see
them coming in time to get out the back way.

He stopped, looking at Snyder.
Snyder had been listening, but it had been polite, as if he were going through
the motions. Now he seemed to sharpen. Plan B? he said.

Wyatt knew what he meant. If
something goes wrong, if Im recognised or Leah spots cops in the area, we
abandon. We dont come back here at all.

Snyder gave him a complicated look. That
would be a pisser. What about the van? What if it changes route?

Well soon know if it does.

And?

We abandon.

Snyder shrugged fatalistically.
Wyatt looked at Tobin. Tobin had his hands behind his head. He continued to
look bored, as if none of this had anything to do with him.

You taking this in?

Fuckin A, Tobin said. If I fuck
up, youll waste me.

He looked at the ceiling and began
to whistle silently.

The danger signals were clear. But
Wyatt had covered everything, so he closed the meeting. It was almost midday.
They had lunch, then spent the afternoon taking care of the finishing touches.
While Tobin painted the Brava logo on both vehicles, Wyatt and Snyder fitted
and tested the radios and the radio jammer, and Leah collected and buried
rubbish and cleaned the brushes. Tobin was silent and aggrieved for most of the
afternoon but at five-thirty he got out his football again. This time they all
kicked it around.

* * * *

TWENTY-FOUR

The
condemned man ate a hearty breakfast, Leah said.

Wyatt felt her kick him under the
table. He looked up. She was watching Tobin eat. So was Snyder. Like Wyatt,
they had eaten small bowls of porridge and were sipping strong coffee, not
having the stomach for anything else, but Tobin had eaten two bowls of porridge
and was now attacking a mound of scrambled eggs and bacon. They heard the slush
of the food in his mouth and gullet. They heard him swallow. And he was eating
rapidly, as if this were his last meal.

Wyatt returned her smile
abstractedly and looked away again. Now that they were ready to go, he felt
concentrated and still. Hed eaten little, not from nerves but because food
didnt interest him just then. It would be different afterwards. Afterwards he
would be high on adrenalin and in need of food to bring himself down. He would
also need Leah. But he didnt think about any of that. At this stage he had no
emotional stake in what they were doing or what the results would be. He was
waiting like a piece of machinery that wont activate itself until after other
machinery has been set in motion.

He got up and left the room. He
stood on the verandah for a while, drinking coffee, looking out across the
valley. Visibility was good, the sky clear and windless. There was no
indication of storms or other atmospheric conditions that might interfere with
radio transmissions. A sparrowhawk floated on the air currents some distance
away. A fieldmouse, he thought. Maybe a quail or plover chick. As he watched,
the bird seemed to close up with a snap and plunge earthwards, coming out of
the dive at the last second with the creature in its talons.

Leah joined him, trailing her
fingers briefly across the seat of his pants before standing there dreamily,
both hands clutching her cup of coffee. The waiting game, she said.

It was always like this before a
job. Wyatt had never worked with anyone who hadnt got jumpy and needed to
talk. Normally he kept out of their way and if that wasnt possible, he closed
his eyes until they shut up and left him alone. Something told him now not to
do that to Leah. For the sake of her peace of mind, he said the sort of thing
he knew people expected to hear. Yep, always the same.

In fact he had no feelings one way
or the other about waiting. He knew that waiting rattled other people, and he
knew why, but not because hed experienced it himself. It was the machine part
of him again.

You must be used to it by now,
Leah went on.

It doesnt do to get too relaxed,
he replied, playing the part. You have to stay alert.

She nodded as if hed expressed an
essential truth. She jerked her head. Its going to be hard spending time here
with those two afterwards. Its going to be like an anti-climax.

Wyatt nodded. She was talking sense
now, not platitudes. A lot of jobs go sour if waiting is involved
after
the
hit has been made. Thats when the bickering and dissension start. The hotheads
decide they deserve a bigger cut and have to be placated. The cowboys want to
take off and start spending their money and have to be stopped before they get
caught and lead the cops back to you. It came down to psychology.

Its the way they watch me, Leah
continued. Theyll be high after this. Well have to watch our backs.

If theres any bullshit, Wyatt
said, we hit hard and fast.

At nine oclock they changed into
brown overalls and Wyatt directed them in a detailed clean-up of the farm. They
buried tins, paper and food scraps in the pit, then raked it over and disguised
it with stones and rusty fencing wire and strainers. The fold-up chairs,
sleeping bags, camping stove and personal belongings were stacked in the tray
of the utility, ready to be taken out and used again when and if they did
return. They put on latex gloves then and wiped their prints off every surface
in the house. They spread a fine layer of dirt over the floors. Finally Wyatt
distributed the balaclavas and hand-held radios. Snyder already had his radio
and jammer tuned to the Steelgard frequency. The signal was clear. The driver
was reporting in every five minutes and he was on schedule.

Wyatt sent Leah off first. She had
thirty minutes to reach Vimy Ridge on the Suzuki and pick up the Steelgard van.
Then he and Snyder left in the Holden utility, followed by Tobin in the truck.
Twenty minutes later they turned onto the short cut and Snyder placed a
road-closed sign across the entrance. Tobin pulled over into the grass at the
side of the track near the creek bed, letting Wyatt and Snyder edge past him.
They saw no one on the track, and at the junction near Belcowie, Snyder put the
second sign in place. Then they drove back to Tobin. When the utility was
concealed, Tobin blocked the road with the truck. The rear was in the centre of
the track. All they had to do when they had the van blocked was drop the ramp
and winch it aboard.

The three men settled down to wait.
Every five minutes the Steelgard van announced its position and progress. Wyatt
checked his watch: eleven twenty-five. As if on cue, the radio came to life
again: Steelgard One.

Go ahead, Steelgard One.

Leaving Vimy Ridge. On schedule.
ETA Belcowie approximately twelve midday.

Roger, Steelgard One.

Tobin sniggered and adjusted his
reflective orange lenses. Just like the movies.

Go and wait in the truck, Wyatt
said. Any last minute questions?

Not me, mate.

Wyatt settled back in his seat. Leah
would be following the van now. He calculated that they had about twenty
minutes before the van reached the short cut. He didnt need to look at his
watch to know. When he was operating at this level of concentration, he knew
how to judge time.

The radio crackled. It was Leah. She
didnt use names; she simply said, Move.

Moving, Wyatt said.

He got out of the utility and jogged
back along the track to the first road sign. He hid it where Leah could find it
in the long grass of the roadside ditch then returned to the utility. Five minutes.

So, Snyder said.

Wyatt almost frowned. Here it was
again, the need to make an effort to keep someone happy or calm. But he usually
did make the effort. He knew people found him solid and reassuring. He was
impersonal, so nothing about him threatened them. When he was wasnt working he
made no particular effort to get along with people, and that was the time he
liked best.

Not long now, he said. He couldnt
think of anything else to say.

Thought what youre going to do
with your cut?

Holiday, Wyatt said. Buy a new
place.

I heard you had to dump everything
after that job in Melbourne.

Wyatts senses tingled. There it was
again, oblique references to his last job. It happens.

Me, Im investing in real estate,
Snyder said. The markets low at the moment. Good time to buy.

Yes, Wyatt said.

Something about Snyder bothered
Wyatt. It wasnt what Snyder was saying, it was something about his attitude.
He seemed to be playing a gamealmost. Wyatt thought, as if hes going through
the motions, as if hes not listening. Snyders face was giving nothing away,
but something was there.

He pushed that away. He sensed it
was time for Leahs signal. He began to prepare himself for it.

When her voice did come over the
radio it was breathless and panicky.

Somethings wrong. It didnt stop.
Its gone on past the turn-off.

* * * *

TWENTY-FIVE

We
abandon, Wyatt said.

He looked at them in turn. Leah had
just ridden up on the Suzuki. She looked bleak, defeated, scraping her palms
down her cheeks as if to rid herself of tiredness. Tobin paced next to the
truck, landing occasional kicks on the rear tyres. Only Snyder was still,
staring at Wyatt, his eyes hard and suspicious.

All that time and effort, Leah
said.

It happens.

We could try next week.

No chance, Wyatt said. Theyve
changed the route.

But why?

I can think of a lot of reasons. Its
routine; the driver wanted a change of scenery; somethings made them
suspicious.

Snyder sharpened at that. Suspicious?

It doesnt matter what the reason
is, Wyatt said. And it didnt, to himno: when saving their necks was more important
than dwelling on what went wrong or what might have been. The analysis could
come later. We have to clear out, the sooner the better.

Like where?

Wherever you like. Come on, lets
get moving, or someones going to wonder about the road signs and extra traffic

The radio crackled again. Steelgard
One.