Cut to the Chase. Ray CW Scott
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of elimination,’ grunted Burton, running the palm of his hand over his bald head. ‘He’s working with Colin Grimshaw of Five to try to isolate which Communist Party member runs a bookshop in that area. I think we may strike gold here.’
‘That’s good news.’
‘Also, according to the file that Five are checking now, Craddock is still in contact with some members of an espionage ring he was working with before he upped and left. We have no names but we know that somebody is still leaking information from here, this may put a stopper on it.’
‘Let’s hope so.’
‘When were you due to leave for London?’
‘Couple of weeks.’
‘How is your wife taking it?’
‘Badly,’ responded Kelsey ruefully. ‘She’s used to the enforced absences, but all our children are reaching teenage, they are becoming independent and bloody minded, especially the girls.’
‘Makes you wonder why we have children at all,’ sighed Burton. ‘I wish you, and especially Petra, joy.’
‘Thanks…for nothing!’
‘They are called The Society of Asian Commerce,’ said Christine Norton as she riffled through the file. ‘I’ve never heard of them before so I did a check on them. They were formed three years ago but they don’t seem to do very much apart from hold meetings.’
‘What are they offering?’
‘$2,000 for a four hour seminar and a rah rah speech,’ said Christine. ‘Together with a supper segment back at the hotel afterwards that shouldn’t present too many problems.’
‘Does Saul know them?’
‘No, that is to say, he had heard of them but doesn’t really know very much about them. They seem harmless enough, no politics or religion, not on the face of it anyway, though you can never tell these days. They seem to be mainly interested in trade.’
‘All right, suits me,’ Wallace replied. ‘OK, see what you can find out about them and then if it seems satisfactory, cable acceptance. The date slots in with my trip.’
‘Not entirely, you’d have to stay for another two weeks, but Saul says he has another couple of nibbles from some other organisations that want to know something of trade and insurance practices in the Southern Hemisphere, he says it could make it worth your while and contribute something to your vacation expenses.’
She made one or two notations on the file. Christine Norton was a tall woman, about 5’10” tall and though a little lacking in the upper works was quite striking elsewhere. Her hair was fair and short around the back and sides but with a mass of curls on top. Wallace found her quite attractive to look upon, though he had heard that in the sexual sphere she played for the other team. He could believe it, there was a masculine look about her despite her use of clothes that emphasised her femininity. They had a strong rapport; she was an efficient lady and a good agent, with a sense of humour that closely tallied with Wallace’s.
Wallace tended to land many of his own speaking engagements locally through his own contacts, but as she obtained many more overseas they both did well out of each other. Her clients included many actors, most of them small time who were involved in the advertising, movie and television fields, which was her main bread and butter. In the main the faces of many of her clientele would be familiar to television viewers, who would recognise many of them when they appeared on the screen but would find it difficult to remember their names.
She had a few clients like Wallace who laid no claim to being thespians, who were in demand by commercial organisations and occasionally government utilities for end of year entertaining speeches at Christmas dinners or other business functions. Wallace’s overseas commitments were useful in that if he was going anyway, particularly to England where he still had relatives, a presentation or seminar could pay much of, if not all, air fares and expenses.
Since they had joined forces Wallace’s speaking assignments had sky rocketed within Australia, particularly interstate where there had previously been few contacts.
She lit a cigarette in a manner which tended to accentuate her masculine properties, and Wallace found himself smiling at the thought that Elsie’s friend had considered her worthy of mention to Elsie as a rival for Elsie herself. Saul, who had been mentioned, was Saul Prosser her London contact and he provided similar services in England, with emphasis upon the Home Counties, to those that Christine supplied in Sydney.
Saul and Christine were in the same line of business, they had a loose arrangement whereby they checked people and organisations for each other. When dealing with enquiries from people 12,000 miles away it was useful to have a local contact to check them out. There were no sexual doubts about Saul, Wallace had met him and his wife twice and had thoroughly enjoyed the nights out.
Two months had elapsed since the scary trip to Jakarta, the first two weeks had been spent looking nervously over his shoulder. He had seen Bramble; they had met for lunch a few weeks ago at a restaurant in the city. Bramble had graciously paid the bill.
‘What was it?’ Wallace had asked him, but Bramble eyed him askance.
‘Nothing much,’ Bramble had answered, which must have been the understatement of the year, Wallace was so affronted that he actually dropped his soup spoon.
‘Nothing much!’ he ejaculated and then dropped his voice as heads turned. ‘I lost about ten years of my life from that trip.’
‘All right…all right!’ Bramble had looked carefully around and then said, sotto voce. ‘It was a piece of confirmatory information regarding an incident that occurred, and someone’s intentions. It gave us advance information and enabled us to take necessary steps before something happened…I can’t say any more than that…except that it was damned useful…all right?’
‘All right,’ Wallace answered grudgingly.
‘Hell man, you were financially better off as a result, it was worth it wasn’t it? It was for me’
‘It bloody nearly wasn’t!’ Wallace had said cuttingly. ‘I nearly finished up in an Indonesian gaol with all the druggies.’
‘Well you didn’t, did you? If you had we’d have sorted it.’ Bramble had said, but Wallace had not been so sure. He had applied himself to his soup again, using a new spoon that an observant waiter had supplied after recovering the former one from the floor. Wallace had resolved that he would ask for much more money the next time…if there was a bloody next time!
‘It’s time for lunch!’ Christine announced and rose to her feet. She was a stylish dresser and as she walked over to her wardrobe for her jacket Wallace could understand how Elsie’s busybody friend could have jumped to the wrong conclusion. As she turned around she became aware of Wallace’s gaze and she smiled. He smiled back and also rose to his feet.
‘Usual place?’
‘Sure, why not.’
Ironically it would be the same restaurant where Elsie’s friend had done her snooping act. Now he came to think of it, the presence of Elsie’s friend that day had been the most fortuitous event of his life, though he had been unaware of being observed at the time. It had provided the trigger action that had finally ended a most unsatisfactory marital relationship.
‘How was Indonesia?’ Laurie Frazer asked. It was the first time Wallace and Frazer had met since his return from Jakarta.
‘Oh all right,’ Wallace answered lamely. ‘But once was enough. I have another trip later this year, I’m off to the UK in August.’
‘Let me know if you go to Scotland,’ he answered. ‘I have relatives up there.’
‘I’ll bear it in mind,’ Wallace said gravely.
Saul Prosser had come up with some speaking engagements, they were nothing too spectacular but they made it worthwhile staying