Pay Dirt by Garry Disher

into
clean moleskins, checked shirt, a khaki tie decorated with the wool symbol, and
a kids sports coat bought in Myers, and returned to the Trigg Motors
showroom. His day wasnt made any better by seeing the wrecked LTD on a trailer
at the back of the lot. He walked across to the pumps. Sergeant Kings kid was
slipping a foil packet to a couple of railways apprentices driving a panel van.
He stood back till the transaction was over, then came closer. Im getting a
new shipment in tonight.

    Ive still got half the last one,
the King kid said.

    Not you as well? said Trigg in
exasperation.

    Just then a school bus pulled in for
diesel on its way back from a run through the surrounding farmland. Trigg
turned away in irritation and went into the showroom. Liz was packing up to go
home. Trigg checked the time: five-thirty. He sighed and went into his office,
wanting badly to crack someones skull open.

    He picked up the phone, flipped open
the rolodex, and dialled. This is Ray Trigg. Is Tub Venables still there?

    Just leaving work now.

    Ask him to pop in and see me first,
will you?

    Trigg hung up and sat down in the
chair behind his desk. It was fully ergonomic, with levers for raising,
lowering, tilting. Coasters on the bottom. Lower-back support that followed you
as you moved. In this chair, Trigg sat high behind his desk. The best six
hundred bucks hed ever spent.

    A trick of the light illuminated Tub
Venables as he appeared at the Steelgard gate and looked both ways before
crossing the road. Trigg watched the fat driver approach, noting the body
language. Scared shitless. A useless bit of useless blubber, all piss and wind.

    Trigg knocked on the glass. Venables
started, looked even more scared, and came around the back way. Trigg waited. A
few seconds later, there was a knock on the door.

    Dont fucking stand out there,
Trigg yelled.

    Venables came in. He shut the office
door behind him and stood as if fearful of the vast stretch of carpet
separating him from Triggs desk.

    Come closer, old son.

    Venables advanced across the carpet,
taking small steps. He stopped at the desks edge. Look, I know

    Do you, now? So why give me a hard
time? You think I havent got better things to do than chase up welshers all the
time?

    Its not easy. My daughters
braces

    Plenty of kids lead fulfilled lives
with buck teeth. But go on, lets hear the rest. I need a good laugh.

    The granny flats working out more
than I thought. At least five thousand more.

    Shove the old bitch in a nursing
home.

    So I havent got the thousand I owe
you, Venables concluded.

    What I dont like, Trigg said, is
fucking cowardice. Youve been avoiding me. You get your mates to tank up your
van, I never see you, you must go in and out of work through the back door, youre
never in the pub.

    The wife

    The wifes broken your balls,
Trigg said. He stood up. I want you to come with me.

    Pardon?

    Trigg rounded his desk and made for
the door. Come with me.

    He led the way out of the office and
across the used-car lot. He tapped his knuckles on the bonnet of a newish Honda
Legend. There was another shipment coming in tonight, one Merc, one Saab. Why
the fuck they couldnt send him Corollas or Commodores, he didnt know.

    In here, he said.

    They entered the service bay, a
long, low structure that smelt of transmission fluid, grease and touch-up
paint. Happy Whelan was there, and Venables fell apart. Give us a chance, he
said.

    Trigg ignored him. Hap, he said.

    Happy Whelan had an undertakers
face on a massive, bandy-legged, topheavy body. His movements were slow,
his mind was slow, but he could conceal rust patches and pack noisy
differentials like a pro, and once started on something he was hard to stop. Yeah?
he said.

    Lets see if your new mallets got
any bounce in it.

    Say again?

    Bring Tub over here, Trigg said, and
well do some panel beating on him.

    Happy grabbed Venables by the upper
arms and pushed him to where Trigg was standing next to the benches and