Salt and Blood by Peter Corris Page A

encouraging. ‘Will you try acting again?’
    â€˜Maybe. Or writing. I saw some weird things in that place. I might try a film script, couldn’t be worse than some of the shit that gets out. I’d have to get an agent of course. Jesus!’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜No, he wouldn’t. Not even that mad bastard’d do that.’
    â€˜What’re you talking about?’
    â€˜I’ve just remembered. I had this agent, Doug Schirer. Bloody hopeless. I reckon he lost me more jobs than he got me by being such a smart-arse. Eventually I told him I was dropping him and then I lucked onto a good thing in a series of commercials. Shit, I got it myself. He didn’t have anything to do with it. Good money. Residuals, you know? He claimed his commission and I told him to get fucked. This was … before. He went under soon after and he said it was my fault, that I’d robbed him of a commission that would’ve kept him afloat and that I’d bad-mouthed him in the trade. I hadn’t. Well, maybe I had, a bit. He said he’d get even with me.’
    I shook my head sceptically. ‘Come on. Seven years ago, Rod. Not very likely.’
    â€˜Yeah, I know. But the thing is, his hobby was shooting. Bloody Doug was a crack shot, nearly made it to the Olympics.’
    I was only half paying attention to what he was saying because I’d begun to get an uneasy feeling from watching the ebb and flow of traffic in the rear vision mirror. I’d had the feeling before, morethan a few times, and it usually means something. I wasn’t sure and I’d have to perform a few manoeuvres to find out, but I had a strong suspicion that we were being followed.

8
    â€˜Don’t look round,’ I said.
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜I don’t want him to know I’m onto him. I have to think what to do.’
    We were approaching Narrabeen in moderate traffic. The lightness of the traffic had helped me spot the tail. An off-white 4WD. That, and the fact that the driver wasn’t first class at the job. The 4WD stayed well back but had changed lanes when I had capriciously, and when I slowed for no good reason it’d slowed as well. A couple of times it would have been logical for the driver to have passed other vehicles. Didn’t happen.
    Rod sat silent for a while, then he drew in a deep breath and spoke hesitantly. ‘This is weird. Art and life, you know? I’ve played this scene a couple of times. You know what happened? I was a spy, like an ASIO agent, and I sort of lured the car following me into a place where I could surprise him. It worked okay on TV.’
    â€˜This isn’t a film and I’m not going to do anything like that.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    I concentrated on my driving for a while as I thought it through. ‘It’s a big four-wheel-drive, newish, a Santa Fe, something like that.’
    â€˜I can’t tell one of those things from another, never could.’
    â€˜Glen’s got a Pajero. I’ve driven it a few times and liked it. I was thinking of getting something like that. I looked at a few. The thing is, I can’t see how many people are in it. Tinted glass.’
    â€˜So you don’t like the odds?’
    â€˜I don’t like not knowing. I don’t like the odds if there’s more than one and if one of them’s got that fucking rifle.’
    â€˜Haven’t you got a gun?’
    â€˜Not with me.’
    â€˜So what’re the options?’
    â€˜Hang on. I’m trying to get the number. Shit, it’s smeared over. This isn’t a game. Have you got any other ideas?’
    â€˜I suppose we could ram it.’
    â€˜Yeah, send it rolling through the guard rail so it bursts into flames and we drive on. End of problem.’
    â€˜I wasn’t being serious.’
    â€˜Okay. Sorry. The only thing we can do is lose him.’
    â€˜Or her. You said your friend Glen drove one.’
    Fuck