Sharp Turn (12 page)

We talked a few more details and he hung up just as I got to the occupied garages in the pit lane.

This time I began with the Moto-Sane team. Bolo stood anxiously inside the roller door, watching over his mechanic’s shoulder as the guy peered into the petrol tank of a black Honda CBR 1000cc street-legal sexy beast. Lu Red stood to one side next to an attractive blonde.

‘I think there’s something in there,’ said the mechanic.

Red and the woman exchanged looks while the guy continued prodding about inside the tank.

‘Got it,’ said the mechanic, carefully retracting a pair of long-nosed pliers. Clamped between their ends was a piece of fuel-drenched rag.

‘What the fuck!’ said Red. ‘For shit’s sake, Clem.

How did you manage that?’

The mechanic straightened up, his face flushed. His tan aura flattened into a hard brown. ‘You think I did this? What do you think I am – a fucking idiot?’

He thrust the pliers forward and dropped the rag onto Red’s sneakered foot. Fuel splashed onto the woman’s sandal and she gave a little squeal.

‘You fuckin’ –’ began Red.

‘Hi,’ I said.

They all froze and turned around.

‘Anyone like to put in an order for food from the van?’

Bolo gave me a strained smile and nodded. ‘C-come in. It’s Tara, isn’t it?’

I pulled my phone from my pocket and stepped up close to the bike. Red kicked the soaked rag away with his foot and the mechanic retreated to the back of the garage.

‘Would you like something too?’ I asked the woman brightly.

Up close she was beautiful. Her face was perfect but for a thin scar that tapered from one corner of her mouth down under her chin. She had straight, silky blonde hair, a tiny waist and killer nails. And the way her aura was interacting with Lu Red’s, it seemed the pair had something going on.

‘No. My boyfriend might, though,’ she purred, putting a possessive hand on Red’s arm.

Her ploy was so see-through I wanted to laugh. She’d picked me for a groupie and was marking her territory. I wanted to say, ‘Puh-lease, I only date men over six feet tall,’ but I kept my mouth shut this time and looked at Red.

He was staring at Clem with an expression sourer than JoBob’s lemons. ‘Uh, yeah. Chicken and mayo on wholemeal. No butter,’ he said.

‘Drinks?’

‘Coke.’

‘Righto. What time did you want to pick it up?’

He glanced at his watch. ‘Looks like I might make it out to practice after all. So I’ll take it early. Eleven thirty.’

I nodded and turned to Bolo.

‘No, thanks,’ he said.

I gave Clem another quick look. He had his back to us, his head buried in a crate looking for something.

‘It’ll be waiting for you,’ I said to Red.

After leaving the stall, I took a couple of steps around the corner and stopped. Within seconds their voices were raised again and the argument continued. Red blamed Clem for being lazy and useless. Clem came back at him saying that Red was too busy sniffing after
her
to know what was going on. Bolo chimed in with some ‘Calm downs’ and a promise to get to the bottom of it, then it all quietened down.

By the time I got back to the van, Cass was having a D&M with a scruffy teenager wearing a dusty uniform.

‘Hi, Cass,’ I said. ‘Hi, T-Dog.’

The boy’s mouth sagged open. ‘How’d you know my name?’

‘You just look like a T-Dog.’

He gave me a scared look, mumbled something about having to sweep the pit office and scarpered.

Cass screwed her face up at me. ‘You freaked him out.’

‘Faint heart never won fair lady,’ I countered, but she didn’t seem to have a clue what that meant.

We got into the van and did the rest of the food prep while I told Cass about the argument I’d overheard at Moto-Sane.

‘So the rider’s blaming the mechanic for putting a rag in the petrol tank?’ she said.

‘Yeah.’

‘Maybe it was an accident?’

‘Try telling Bolo that.’

Sharee appeared to drop in her order, interrupting our discussion. She was wearing a bright-red tee-shirt that said ‘Bike Me’. Today’s earrings were red guitars.

‘How’re you settling in?’ she asked us.

‘Fine. Other than the fact that some of the natives aren’t all that friendly,’ I said. ‘Or happy.’

‘Oh?’

‘Just walked in on a big argument in the Moto-Sane stall.’

‘Don’t tell me!’ She slapped her hand to her forehead. ‘Lu and Clem going at it again? It’s been like that all season. Someone needs to bang their heads together.’

‘What’s the problem?’ I asked.

She glanced around to make sure no one was listening. ‘I think Clem’s hot for Lu’s girlfriend, and Lu knows it.’

Cass gave soft derisive grunt, which thankfully Sharee didn’t hear.

‘Really?’ I said.

‘Lu is so in love with her. He’d never cope if she left him.’

‘Is that likely?’

Sharee thought about it for a moment. ‘She wouldn’t leave him for Clem, I don’t think.’

‘For someone else?’

She shrugged. ‘Dunno. Hey, I better get back.’

Cass and I exchanged looks and I added some more notes to my phone.

Jase did a couple of pass-bys to check on us; and Red came by to pick up his order right on the dot of eleven thirty – without a thank you.

As rush hour approached, Cass started to take control. ‘Everything’s ready to go. You wanna do the deep-frying?’ she said.

I sighed. ‘If I must.’

‘I’ve set the oil to the right temperature,’ she said, like a mother encouraging her ten-year-old to cook.

Tentatively I dropped half a packet of straight-cut fries into the bubbling oil.

‘Take them out
now
!’ Cass said from behind me a few minutes later.

I lifted the drainer up and the chips, amazingly, appeared golden brown and appetising. ‘I did it!’

Cass held out a metal tray. ‘See, you can cook.’

‘They look good. I’ll have a large serve of those,’ said a deep voice from the queue building outside the van window.

Feeling ridiculously pleased, I scooped some into a paper cup and salted them.

From then on, Cass and I didn’t get a chance to speak other than passing food to and fro. We fell into a rhythm where I took the orders and gave change while Cass made up the food. I repeated each order out loud as she was about to make it so she didn’t have to read it from the pad.

When Jase came for his lunch, I added a freebie bucket of chips. His aura brightened in gratitude, so I took the opportunity to fish a bit.

‘These bike racers are pretty intense. Heard a bunch of arguments while I was taking orders this morning,’ I said, poking the chiko rolls and potato scallops with a fork as I talked. ‘Guess there’s a fair bit at stake. Money and all.’

‘Sure is. And tempers run hot in the pits. On the track too. Seen some crazy stuff. Nothing like the fight the other night, though.’

‘Oh?’ I said, r-e-a-l casual.

‘Had to call the cops in.’

‘True?’

His chest expanded a little. ‘Yeah. I mean, I coulda handled it but the track owner likes to have everything done by the book.’

I gave him an admiring look. ‘You gotta do things right. Who was fighting?’

Cass stopped washing up and listened as well.

‘That mechanic from Moto-Sane,’ said Jase.

‘Clem? Wow, he doesn’t look like the type.’ I thought about his angry reaction to Lu Red’s needling. ‘Who did he have a beef with?’

‘Team Riley’s wrench. Claimed the guy had been touching Lu Red’s bike. Like I said, things get heated before a big meet.’

‘Do you reckon it was true?’

Jase ate a couple more chips and thought about it. ‘Guess it’s possible. Everyone knows Moto-Sane’s been having problems. But it’s not real likely. They lock the garages when they’re not there. And we’re always around checking.’

‘At night too?’

‘Yeah. Twenty-four seven.’

‘That’s a pretty serious thing to accuse someone of.

What did the cops reckon?’

‘Fight was all over by the time they got here. Funny thing, though: Clem never told the cops what it was about. He just made out like it was an argument over nothing.’

‘Maybe it was?’

Jase nodded, crushed his empty chips container and tossed it into the bin. ‘Yeah. Probably. Better get back to work.’

After Cass and I had finished cleaning up, she went to find T-Dog to say goodbye while I wandered down to the track to watch practice. Lu Red was out on the black Honda CBR 1000. He sped past, leaving a cloud of four-stroke vapour in the air.

I saw Bolo leaning against the fence near the start/ finish line with a board and pen in hand. Seemed like an opportunity to ask him a few things but I hesitated. It might seem suspicious, him talking to the sandwich girl. I’d call him later.

I settled for a visit to Sharee at the information booth.

‘Did you see Lu?’ she asked excitedly.

I noticed she had a stopwatch in her hand. ‘You timing him?’

She put her fingers to her lips. ‘Don’t tell anyone. Not much to do on practice days. Race day, well, that’s something else.’

‘Is he fast? Lu Red?’

‘Fifty-six seconds flat last practice. He’s real fast when the bike’s working. Had a fair bit of bad luck lately though. Gig Riley’s getting real close. Fifty-six-oh-three this morning. Gig’s been getting in a bunch of practice. The Suzuki’s going like a dream.’

‘You know a bit about bikes?’

‘Bikes, cars, sidecars, motocross. I’ve got four brothers and they’re all petrolheads. Besides, it’s my job.’ She clicked the stopwatch as Red came past the post. ‘Fifty-five-ninety-eight. Oh my God, he’s close to the lap record.’

I glanced over at Bolo. Red’s girlfriend had joined him. Bolo wasn’t watching the track anymore and their conversation looked heated.

I nodded towards them. ‘You’d think they’d be happy about it.’

Sharee finished writing the time in her little notebook and looked up. ‘Lu deserves better than her. She so like . . . controls him.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Makes all his decisions for him. You know . . . how high and when. Have you
seen
his tee-shirts?’

I thought about the ironed-in creases. ‘Yeah, I noticed that. What’s her name anyway? No one bothered to introduce me.’

‘Sally something or other. From some rich family over east.’

‘Does she like him racing?’

Sharee shrugged. ‘Never talked to her. Only know what I’ve heard from . . . you know . . . around.’

‘Sure, time I got going,’ I said. ‘See you tomorrow.’

She nodded. ‘Yeah. Good lunch by the way. Jim always puts too much salt on it.’

‘I’ll tell Cass. Thanks.’

And I did, on the way home. For a moment she almost looked pleased, but that could have just been her face muscles getting tired of scowling.

Chapter 11

C
ASS HAD FIRST SHOWER
, then went off to retrieve the washing from JoBob. While she was doing that, I lay on the bed thinking about what I now knew.

For starters, the owner of Team Riley was an arsehole. Then there was the Lu Red–Clem thing happening over the blonde woman, who I’d also seen arguing with Bolo. And then there was the fight between the two mechanics, Clem and Riley’s guy. The latter definitely sounded worthwhile investigating. Then another thought occurred to me.

I called Wal and he answered quickly. ‘Yeah, boss?’

‘Your friend, Leonard, can you check him out? See if you can find out what he’s been doing since you last worked together.’

‘He’s cool, boss, I tell ya.’

‘Will you do it, Wal?’

He grunted his agreement and hung up.

Cass returned with a basket of folded clothes and two cookbooks. ‘Your mum says hello.’

‘Is that all?’ I asked suspiciously.

‘Ummm, she also said to remind you about Saturday night. Dinner with Phillip something?’

‘Uggh.’ Somehow I needed to find a way out of that one.

Cass curled up on the fold-out bed and began browsing the cookbooks. I knew she couldn’t read but there were plenty of glossy pictures. I went back to thinking about the things I had to do. Talking to Nick was number one. Kate and Louise at Madame Vine’s next. I included Crack on my list – he might know something useful now I had a better idea what questions to ask. Tomorrow I had to meet Smitty and Rampant Kindy Mum, and the next day I was babysitting Ed at his photo shoot. When that was finished, there was the nightclub gig for Mr Hara.

I couldn’t see much in the way of sleep over the next few days so made a mental note to get to bed early tonight. Not a bad thing to have in mind given I was having dinner with Tozzi.