Free Shooting Star by Peter Temple Page A

a coupla kicks but he’ll get there.’ I cleared my throat. ‘Where’s Anne?’
    ‘Swear to God my witness don’t know. Please. Went around the corner in Armadale, that’s…’
    ‘She phone you, Craig? Get any calls from her?’
    ‘No, no, no calls, just pick her up Tuesday and Thursday.’
    Orlovsky was grinding him again, grinding him but looking at me and shaking his head in sorrow.
    ‘Nothing, done nothing, no calls, I swear, oh Jesus…’
    I nodded at Orlovsky. He took his foot off the man, stepped back. ‘Sit up, Craig,’ I said. ‘Lean against the van.’
    For a moment, he was too scared to move. Then he raised himself fearfully to his hands and knees, turned his face towards me. The right side and his neck and chest were dark with blood and bits of grit and grime were pressed into his skin.
    ‘Sit back,’ I said.
    He sat back, torso rigid, hands to his face, looking at Orlovsky in fear.
    ‘Craig,’ I said, ‘I don’t think you kidnapped Anne. I think all you’re guilty of is screwing an under-age girl. From a rich family. That’s naughty but it’s only going to get you two, three years’ jail. Sex offender, young, some bloke’ll make you his girl. You know what they like to do? After you blow them, they piss in your mouth. It’s a power thing. Use your mouth for a toilet. Stand back and aim. Make you swallow, how’s that?’
    He closed his eyes. ‘Seventeen, I swear to almighty God she told me that. Never touched her otherwise, never, never, my old man’d kill me.’
    ‘Where’d you drop her, Craig, on Thursday?’
    ‘Revesdale Street, park in the loading zone outside the florist there. She goes up the street, down the lane.’
    ‘Lane?’
    His nose was swelling rapidly. ‘Like a lane near the end, service lane? For the shops.’
    ‘Why’d she do that? Go down the lane?’
    Craig hawked. I looked away, heard him spit. ‘There’s a door into the music place, saves goin round the corner.’
    ‘That day, see anything unusual? Notice anything?’
    He shrugged. ‘Well, y’know, we were sort of sayin goodbye… kissin, I don’t…’ His eyes flicked to Orlovsky. ‘Didn’t know she was fifteen, I swear.’
    ‘Anything unusual?’
    ‘No, she got out, come around to my side, she’s always lookin around.’
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Reckons she could be watched. Her family. Paranoid, she says. Like she sees this bloke, she goes, second time, that could be a Carson spy only he’s not bad lookin.’
    ‘She saw someone twice. In Revesdale Street?’
    ‘Yeah. Just a bloke, not even lookin at us.’
    ‘Where in the street?’
    ‘The other side, further down.’
    ‘Opposite the lane?’
    He frowned, hawked again. I closed my eyes.
    ‘Suppose. Yeah.’
    ‘This’s on Thursday? The second time?’
    ‘Nah. Tuesday she said that.’
    ‘You didn’t see him on Thursday?’
    ‘Nah. Like I was in a hurry Thursday. Job in Noble Park, my old man’s on the mobile, we didn’t…’ He stopped. ‘Just dropped her, like. Had to get back. I swear…’
    I straightened up, went over and stood above him. Between fingertips, I took a few hairs on his scalp, a small clump, twisted them, pulled. ‘Tell your mates about all this, Craig?’
    He winced, shook his head, found that too painful. ‘Never said a word, Jesus, never told anyone. I’m engaged, her family’ll murder me.’
    I didn’t say anything, looked around, weighed and measured the quality of the moment: three men on a strip of stained concrete, mournful wind worrying at the tin buildings around us, making them creak and whine and croon and speak of failure and loneliness, and this one man so scared that he could evacuate his bowels at any moment.
    All these things reminded me of why I’d thought I would be happier growing things.
    I let go of the twist of hair, put my hand under the man’s chin, cupped it. ‘Craig,’ I said, ‘don’t go away, don’t say a word to anyone about today.’
    Relief in his eyes.
    ‘Look at