She wriggled her skirt up higher. She wasn't wearing panties. My eyes were level with her dense pubic bush. She put her hands on her hips and pushed her pelvis at me 'I always wear a suspender belt,' she said, 'when I want someone to f.u.c.k me senseless on the floor in front of a fire.'

She started unb.u.t.toning her blouse. I reached out and put my hands around her waist. She stopped unb.u.t.toning and pulled her skirt up over her hips.

'Now you've seen mine, Irish,' she said. 'Take off your pants and show me yours.'

32

How can you make love when people are trying to kill you? You can. Does perfect love drive out fear? For a while. I reflected on these matters afterwards as I lay naked, sweat beginning to chill, in front of the fire.

Linda came in wearing blue jeans and a denim shirt. 'This girl's got everything,' she said. 'Maybe I should start painting.'

I got up. I have always felt silly naked the minute the other person puts something on. I kissed her and went off to shower.

I was under the spray in the room-sized shower when Linda said from the door, 'Get a move on. I've found the champagne.'

The ex-lover's clothes did fit me. I borrowed a corduroy shirt. I was pa.s.sing through the kitchen when Linda said from the computer room, 'Your gla.s.s's on the fireplace. I'm just trying the name P. K. Vane on the Age news database.'

It was Krug, vintage, utterly delicious, the tiniest p.r.i.c.kles on the tongue. I felt my whole body relax.

We were going to get out of this. For the first time, I felt that.

Linda came out of the kitchen.

'There is a G.o.d,' I said. 'Where's your gla.s.s?'

She said, 'Paul Karl Vane didn't die of natural causes. He was shot dead in the driveway of his home in Beaumaris. Shot six times, four shots from close range, three of them in the head.'

Linda went to bed at 10 p.m., subdued. Finding out about Paul Vane had taken the gloss off linking Charis Corp to the Yarrabank buy-up. I sat in front of the fire, drinking a small amount of malt whisky. My bombing was the second item on the 10.30 Channel 9 news. The helicopter looked right down into my sitting room through the hole in the roof. I looked away.

The newsreader, a woman with the teeth of a much larger person, said, 'Police are tonight looking for the owner of the flat, Jack Irish, a Fitzroy lawyer. He is described as in his forties, tall, heavily built, with dark hair. He may be with another man, Cameron Delray, of no fixed address. Delray is in his thirties, tall, slim, dark hair and sallow skin. The men may be accompanied by a dark-haired woman, also tall, wearing a dark outfit. Police say the men were involved in a shooting incident earlier today and are believed to be armed. They should not be approached. Please ring the number that follows if you think you have seen these people.'

Jesus.

I felt the panic rising again. I got up and added some whisky to my gla.s.s. Now I had to get hold of Drew or we were going to meet the fate of Danny McKillop in the Trafalgar carpark.

First, my sister. She picked it up instantly. 'My G.o.d, Jack,' she said, 'what on-'

I spoke quickly. 'Rosa, listen. I'm okay. I want you to ring Claire and tell her I spoke to you and I'm fine. It's all a misunderstanding. Don't worry about the television. I've got to keep down for a bit but it's going to he okay. I'll ring you.'

'Does that mean our lunch is off?'

'Not necessarily. I'll be in touch. Love.'

I put the phone down. Lunch. I shook my head in wonder. Drew. I was putting out my hand to dial when the phone rang.

I picked it up. 'Yes,' I said, tentatively.

'Jack.' It was Cam. 'Listen, mate,' he said conversationally, 'time to go. There's blokes coming up for you. With guns. Go into the studio. There's a ladder in there, extension ladder, against the left-hand wall. You'll see a square hole in the roof in the left-hand corner, like an inspection hatch. You with me?'

'Yes,' I said. The phone was trembling in my hand.

'Get up there. You can slide the cover open, get on the roof. Pull the ladder up. First thing, go round that lift housing building up there and bolt the steel door to the stairs. Okay?'

'Okay.'

'There's no other way up there. It'll give you a bit of time. Get moving now. They're on their way up.'

The line went dead.

'What is it?' Linda was in the doorway, pillow marks on one side of her face. She'd fallen asleep fully dressed.

I tried to imitate Cam's calm. 'Put your shoes on. Get the disks. Quickly. We've got to get out of here. Come to the studio.'

The ladder was aluminium, lightweight. I had it up against the wall beneath the hatch in the roof when Linda came in, wide-eyed, carrying a laptop and her bag.

'I'll go first,' I said. 'Get the hatch open.'

It was at least six metres to the roof. The ladder flexed alarmingly, not made for my weight.

I was halfway up when the banging started at the front door.

'Jack Irish,' a voice shouted. 'Police. We know you're home, Jack. Open the door. No-one gets hurt.'

I put one hand up and found a handle on the hatch cover. I tugged it. It didn't move. The hatch cover wouldn't open.

Something hard hit the front door. They were trying to break in.

The ladder was flexing alarmingly. I braced myself and got both hands to the handle.

I tugged. It wouldn't budge.

There was a louder impact from the front door.

I tried again. I moved the handle from side to side, desperately. It shifted.

I tried again. Backwards, forwards. It moved. I'd been forcing it in the wrong direction. I pushed the handle away from me and the hatch slid open. I grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled myself up the last steps and out on to the roof.

By the time I'd turned back to the hole, Linda was half-way up the ladder. When she was near enough, I leant down and took her bag and the laptop. Then I pulled her up.

The ladder came up easily. We stood panting on the concrete roof in the dark, cold night air.

'Close it,' Linda said, pointing at the hatch. As I bent down to slide the door over, there were four sharp sounds from below. Gunshots. They were trying to shoot open the lock on the front door.

I slid the hatch closed and stood up.

What was I supposed to do now?

The roof door to the internal stairs.

I looked around. About ten metres away I could make out a large, square structure. The lift housing.

'Wait here,' I said and ran. The roof was slippery, some kind of moss growing on the concrete. At the corner of the housing, I fell, sliding across the rough surface. I got up, sharp pain in the left knee. The door was a few metres away, open. I got to it, closed it and felt for the bolt.

There wasn't a bolt. The door couldn't be locked.

I opened it slowly, stuck my head in and listened.

Silence. The men weren't at the front door any more. They were in the flat. There was nowhere to hide there. They would very quickly know we had got out.

I closed the door again and looked at it, felt it. Nothing on the surface of the door.

My fingers touched something on the door frame to my left. I felt to the right of the door. The same. Steel brackets.

The door was meant to be barred, not bolted.

Where was the bar? I felt around frantically, seeing better now, eyes getting used to the dark. No bar.

I looked around the roof. Away to my left, there was something moving.

I squinted, trying to see better.

Washing. Someone had hung a line of washing on the roof. Hung the line between what? I limped over. Two lengths of one-inch pipe with welded crossbars held up the washing line.

I went over to one, put both hands around it and pulled with all my force. It came out so easily that I fell over backwards, pipe clutched to my chest. Scrambling to my feet, I wrenched off the washing line and ran for the door, pipe at the port arms.

I was a few metres from the door when someone in the stairwell shouted something. I could only catch the word 'stairs'.

I got to the door. I could hear footsteps thudding metres away.

The door wouldn't close fully.

I stood back and kicked the door so hard I felt the impact in my wrists and at the top of my skull.

The door closed.

I stepped back, winded.

Something hit the door like a sledgehammer. It swung open and a man-short, bald-came through, left shoulder first, right arm coming around with a long-barrelled revolver held shoulder-high.

He was so close I could smell his breath: alcohol and garlic.

I brought the steel pipe I was holding around with all the force I had. It only had to travel about half a metre before it made contact with the side of the man's head.

He went over sideways, hitting the doorframe with his right shoulder and falling back into the stairwell.

I dropped the pipe, slammed the door shut again and rammed the pipe though the brackets.

When I turned, Linda was behind me.

'Jesus Christ,' she said. 'Come on. Cam's on the roof next door.'

For a moment, I was too winded to move. Then I staggered after her. When we got to the parapet wall to the left of the roof hatch, I saw Cam.

He was on the roof of the building across the lane, sitting on the parapet wall, smoking a cigarette. Next to him on the wall were Linda's laptop and bag. She must have thrown them to him.

'G'day,' he said. 'Shove that ladder over.'

I looked over the edge of our wall. Six floors below, light was reflected off wet cobblestones. I looked over at Cam. His building was about four or five metres higher than ours. The gap between us was about the same.

I went over and got the ladder. It seemed terribly flimsy. I got it upright and leaned it over until Cam could catch the top rung. He pulled it up until he could hold the sides standing up.

'Ladies first,' he said.

I looked at Linda. She smiled, a tight little smile. 'We used to do this at Girl Guides,' she said. 'Piece of cake.'

She scrambled across in seconds.

My turn. My knee was aching. I'd grazed my hip. I was having trouble breathing. I felt a hundred years old.

'I was happier doing conveyancing,' I said to no-one in particular.

Then I went across that inadequate bridge like a big monkey.

33

Cam had a ute this time, a battered Ford with a lashed-down tarpaulin over the tray. It was parked in a narrow blind lane off Little Bourke Street.

'What's the next stop?' he asked.

We were all leaning on parts of the ute, trying to control our breathing.

'Sh.o.r.eham,' said Linda and caught her breath. 'On the Mornington Peninsula. I know a place there. It'll be empty.'