themselves because he’d walked close to a kilometre before one came cruising up on the
opposite side of the road Murray waved it down and crossed the road, the driver got out and
took his bag which he heaved into the boot.
“Lucky I don’t have Aunt Sybil’s Spode dinner set in the bag, eh mate.”
There was no reaction from the cabbie.
Murray sat in the front passenger seat and the driver said.
“Where ya wanna go mate.”
“Wantirna, how much?”
“Thirty bucks, that o.k. for ya.”
Murray nodded, thirty bucks, bloody hell, he thought, I’ve only been away two years, he must
have seen the expression on Murray’s face because the driver said.
“Pentridge?”
Murray nodded again. The cab did a u-turn and the driver didn’t speak again, Murray glanced
at the cab licence, some name he couldn’t pronounce, ‘Greek or Lebanese’ he thought,
‘probably lived in Oz longer than I have and I was born here!’
His mind went back to the events that had led up to his trial and sentence, the events were
still crystal clear in his mind, he’d agonized over it every day of his imprisonment never
allowing himself to forget a single detail.
It had been just after Christmas and Murray had been in his rented flat watching the footy on
the telly when the doorbell rang, opening the door Cecil Carr’s eighteen-year-old son darted
past Murray into the living room.
“Murray, thank god, close the door, you’ve got to help me, the cop’s are after me.”
“Calm down, Ted, tell me what’s happened, what have you done?”
Cecil Carr was a bricklayer, now retired, who had worked for Murray’s dad most of his life,
Ted was his youngest son, a bit of a larrikin who always seemed to be getting into scrapes,
but usually a nice kid.
“We did a smash and grab on the jeweller’s in the Mall but the cop’s chased us, can I stay
here for a while, please Murray, just an hour till they bugger off.” Well what could he do but
agree, an hour or so later Ted thanked Murray and left, Murray thought no more about it and
went to bed, three or four hours later his door crashed in and his flat was full of police, they
dragged Murray out of bed produced a search warrant and then began to demolish his flat,
behind the sofa cushions they found a bag with a few necklaces and a couple of cheap
looking rings, but this didn’t stop them from wrecking the rest of the flat, finding nothing else
of interest they handcuffed him and took him to the station where he was charged with
receiving stolen property to the value of six hundred and fifty dollars, he phoned a solicitor
and was granted bail to appear in court two weeks later, as soon as he was released Murray
drove to Cecil Carr’s house and hammered on the door until Cecil opened it.
“Cecil, Where’s that little toe rag, Ted, I want a word with him, do you know what he’s
done?”
“I’m sorry Murray, come in please, Ted was arrested last night he was refused bail, I’m sorry
he involved you, I think the cop’s must have leaned on him.”
“You tell the little shit to change whatever he’s told the cop’s, and I’m not joking, Cecil.”
Murray was arrested again three hours later and his bail was rescinded for threatening a
witness, two weeks later he was tried and received two years imprisonment, he was due for
parole when he’d served half his sentence. Ted received two years probation because he’d
been so helpful to the police and had confessed to the crime, Ted had thought himself a lucky
young man not being sent to prison, and Murray intended to disabuse him of this thought.
Ted was about to have a bad problem with reality.
For the time being though Ted and Cecil would have to wait, Murray was heading for a house
he owned in Wantirna, there was a parcel there that he needed to retrieve, the problem was
