The Undertow by Peter Corris Page B

No.’
    â€˜Bellamy?’
    She laughed. ‘Very attractive, but a lost cause. No, with Dr Karl Lubeck.’
    â€˜I haven’t heard of him.’
    â€˜Well, he was sort of an assistant to Dr Heysen and I suppose you’d say he was employed on a casual basis. Things were much looser then, before the GST and all that.’
    â€˜You think he took the records?’
    â€˜He might have. There were other files missing. I didn’t tell the police about them either. I . . . I assume they were for these . . . after-hours people Dr Heysen and Karl—Dr Lubeck—dealt with and that Mr Padrone’s file was taken too, perhaps by mistake.’
    She sat quietly while I absorbed this. We were both lost in thought, though of very different kinds. She’d given me a whole new perspective on Heysen, one that hadn’t come out from Catherine Heysen or in the police investigation, but very possibly what Rex Wain had been afraid to talk about.
    She broke the silence. ‘I didn’t think it mattered. Padrone killed Dr Bellamy and confessed to doing it on Dr Heysen’s behalf. I believed that.’
    â€˜Do you still believe it, Ms Brown?’
    â€˜Yes, why not? But at the time I was more concerned about my broken heart. I didn’t say anything about Karl in order to protect him. Love is blind.’
    â€˜It is,’ I said. ‘Part of the fun. So you went on seeing him?’
    â€˜For a very short while. Then he told me he had to go overseas to deal with something. He sent postcards. Then nothing. I was hurt and I had no job. Not much money and I had to get on with my life. And I did. I put Karl and his sweet talk behind me. I had other lovers. Then my accident happened a few years later. After that it was hospitals and operations and recovery, ups and downs and . . .’
    â€˜I understand.’
    â€˜I was renting this flat. I was able to buy it with the insurance money. The prices weren’t so outrageous then. I had the little idea that Karl might come back to look for me. This was where we’d met and made love. But he never did.’
    â€˜I’m going to have to ask you about him. Will that upset you?’
    She let loose a throaty laugh. ‘Not in the least. I don’t want you to think I’m a dried-up, frustrated old woman, Mr Hardy.’
    Her eyes were bright and her smile had turned mocking—at me.
    â€˜I don’t,’ I said.
    â€˜You might. You couldn’t be blamed.’ She consulted a gold watch on her wrist. ‘Yes. This’s a good time. Let me show you something.’
    She wheeled around and moved towards a door standing ajar. Her bedroom. The room had a big window with a view across the street to a block of flats of similar size and vintage.
    â€˜Sit on the bed,’ she said. ‘A great big fellow like you would be too obvious.’
    Directly opposite and not more than fifty metres away was another large window. I had a clear view into the room and saw a tall, blonde woman taking off her dress and unhooking her bra to reveal impressive breasts. A man standing near her was watching with his hands busy on himself.
    â€˜Not a good one,’ Roma Brown said. ‘A disappointment. Probably just a self-abuser. It’s better when they do something standing up or they have oral sex. That’s very enjoyable. Are you shocked?’
    If I was, I wasn’t going to show it. ‘I’m surprised she doesn’t know about you.’
    The wheelchair spun around again and she laughed as she left the room. ‘Oh, she knows. We’re quite good friends. She doesn’t mind in the least. In fact she says it gives her pleasure. As you can imagine, not every engagement is enjoyable. It’s what I meant by my little hobby.’
    We went back to the sitting room. ‘I just wanted you to know that although Karl broke my heart and a motor car broke my body, I haven’t resigned from the human race. A