My Brother’s Keeper by Donna Malane

he hit me with the tone. ‘Sorry I asked,’ I added belatedly.
    His voice softened. ‘What’s this all about anyway?’
    I thought over how much I could tell him. Not much. ‘There’s a kid involved, a young girl. I want to check that she’s okay, that she’s in a safe place.’
    I waited out the silence. ‘And you give me your word you’re not working for the IRD?’
    ‘What!’ I was truly insulted by the suggestion. ‘No. Of course not! What do you take me for?’
    I heard him smiling at my outrage. ‘I may or may not be in touch,’ he said. Which was about as good as I was going to get.
    Ned turned out to be one of the few men I’d met who could successfully pull off wearing an eye patch. Okay, he was the only man I’d met who had even tried it, but still … He admitted it was as much to avoid the double-takes from passers-by as it was for comfort. The Prego clientele and staff were way too cool to make anything of it. No doubt they thought it was a fashion statement. We were still studying the menu when Karen phoned. She apologised for failing to warn me that Ned might turn up but assured me he was harmless enough. Watching him flirt with the women at the table next to us, I wasn’t so sure about that. Karen admitted she had forgotten about thearrangement Ned had with her mother. She and Norma had been estranged for some years and Karen knew very little about her mother’s life.
    ‘Luckily, we made up before she died. It would have been terrible if she’d passed away feeling all that anger towards me.’
    Feeling a God lecture imminent I changed the subject. ‘Will you move in to your mother’s place now, or are you planning to sell it?’
    ‘I can live with very little. That’s the only worthwhile thing prison taught me. Actually,’ she added coyly, ‘it wasn’t prison that taught me, it was God. God taught me that.’ I bit my tongue. ‘I’m selling up and leaving the country. But first I have to get things sorted with Sunny.’ Sorted. As if. ‘We’re going to a Christian commune in LA. We’ll live a very simple communal life, Manny and I. He has been so supportive.’
    This was the first time I’d heard there was a boyfriend on the scene but it didn’t surprise me. I wondered how supportive Manny was in helping Karen dispose of her inheritance. Call me a cynic, but I reckoned there was good chance Manny was supporting that inheritance right into his own pockets. Not my business, I reminded myself. Karen had hired me to find Sunny and I’d done that. She’d instructed me to find out if Sunny was safe and the meeting tomorrow would answer that question for her. My job would be completed and the final invoice would follow in the mail with indecent haste. My credit card balance would breathe a sigh of relief.
    ‘It might not go too smoothly tomorrow, Karen. You should prepare yourself for that,’ I warned her.
    ‘Oh, I am.’ Her voice lifted. ‘Manny and I are having a prayersession tonight. We’re asking God to grant me a successful meeting with Sunny. And if that’s not His will, then we’re asking Him to give me strength to know what to do next.’
    ‘Well, good luck with that,’ I said. Being Christian, she’d no doubt recognise the doubting Thomas tone in my voice.
    ‘Thank you.’
    Her genuine thanks shamed my sarcasm. I tried again to dampen her excitement about the meeting with Sunny but she was irrepressible. Finally, she told me she would write a cheque to cover my extra expenses. It was a gentle reminder of our employer-employee relationship. When I finished the call I was still struggling with an unease, bordering on terror. There was just no way tomorrow’s meeting between Sunny and Karen was going to go well. I relayed this to Ned, who shrugged expansively. I asked if he could articulate what he meant.
    ‘It means it’s not your problem,’ he explained. ‘Choosing something for us from the menu that isn’t going to break your bank account — now