Free Honorable Assassin by Jason Lord Case

won’t take more than a day or two. Do you think your
boys could take care of the animals for us? Yes, that’s right. The
Doberman is chained to the block we poured on the side of the
house. The feed is in the shed behind the house. Tell your boys to
be careful feeding him. No, the sheepdogs are all right but the
Doberman will probably try to take a chunk out of them if he gets a
chance and he’s sneaky. Tell them to fill a bowl and push it to him
with a stick. I’ll take care of them when I return. Yes, a couple
of days. If you could let them out on the way to school on Monday
and then let them back in at night, the dogs will take care of the
rest. Proper. Thank you again.
    “Alibi, boy. Always have an alibi. Now,
we’re here to do some fishing so we need to rent a boat, but we
need to rent our own boat. We don’t need someone taking us to the
best fishing spots; we just need a boat.”
    As it turned out they could rent a small
fishing boat for a week. It was just a 15-foot aluminum shore
cruiser, nothing to take out of sight of land.
    The moving van was just as easy. Ginger
rented it under an assumed name; Horace Paylee. He had a driver’s
license under that name as well. Apparently he had possessed the
license for a very long time because the picture looked 25 years
younger than his present age. The picture also showed him with
blond hair.
    The boat and the hotel room were rented in
Ginger’s real name. They were going to be here for a couple of
days. As far as anyone else was concerned, they would never visit
Melbourne. The last prop for the play was the ball joint. To
complete the subterfuge they bought a set of manual spring
compressors, a pickle fork and a small tub of grease, necessary
tools to replace a ball joint. The owner of the parts shop had to
order a ball joint from one of his sister stores. He swore it would
be there the next day.
    At the end of Lagoon Road off Jacaranda
Drive in the town of Metung, Ginger found the perfect opportunity.
A series of lakes joined Metung with Lakes Entrance and nobody
lived at the end of Lagoon Road. The drop off was too sharp to
launch from and there was no evidence that there were many parties
held there. After scoping out the area, Ginger drove the rented van
back to a break in the trees a half a kilometer off and hid it as
best he could. Then they drove the Holden back to Lakes Entrance
and parked it at the dock.
    Dock was a generous term for the rotten
pilings and rotted boards but that was not the point. The point was
they had rented a small fishing boat and gear. They bought some
live bait and took an extra can with gasoline. It was very late in
the day to be heading out and the proprietor pointed this out.
Ginger assured him that they were not going out to sea but up the
channel to the lakes. This assuaged the man’s fears. One couldn’t
get in much trouble in that direction.
    The engine started easily and purred away
without a hiccup. It ran better than they would have expected and
took them the 12 miles to Lagoon Road’s dead-end without incident.
The drop off was too sharp to run a trailer down and there was a
locked gate at the end of the road preventing anyone from trying.
This did not even slow the pair down. A length of nylon rope and a
little elbow grease hauled the boat off the water and into the
trees. A length of chain served to fasten the bow to a tree. They
took some branches and leaves and covered it as best as could be
expected then went down the road to the van. The van was
unmolested. They started her up and went on their way. As far as
anyone was concerned they were fishing on the lakes.
    They drove onto Jacaranda Drive and down
Broadlands Road. One of the last streets before the river was
Kookaburra Street and Terry started humming to himself. Ginger
heard him humming and joined him, singing the words on the second
time through.
    “Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
    Merry, merry king of the bush is he
    Laugh kookaburra, laugh