Gith by Chris Else Read Free Book Online Page A

hand.
    'He does come in here?'
    'Gith.'
    'But you don't know his name?'
    'Narg.'
    'He gets repairs done?'
    'Narg.'
    'Just gas, then.'
    'Gith.'
    'How often?'
    She shrugged. Don't know.
    'Every week?'
    'Nar.'
    'Every month.'
    'Nar.' She made her so-so move. Maybe not.
    'He doesn't buy all his gas from us, then.'
    'Nar.'
    Right, I thought. The three blokes on the list all fit that
description.
    Gith had the pen and paper again and was drawing. A face.
    The same cartoon face she'd done for the two cops. It looked
like this.

    It meant nothing to me. It certainly didn't remind me of any
of the blokes on the list, but I didn't like to say so. I knew how
upset she could get if she wasn't getting through.
    'That's good,' I said.
    She looked at me. She didn't believe me, I could tell. And
suddenly she was waving me away, making flapping moves
with the back of her hand like the tail of a fish.
    'Go,' she said. 'Go.'
    'What?' I didn't get it.
    'Go. Pup.' She raised her hand like she was drinking and
followed it with her finger yapping.
    'Maybe I don't want to go to the pub.'
    The same flapping move, bigger this time. The look on her
face was one I hadn't seen before. It wasn't that she was upset.
It was like she couldn't be bothered.
    'What about tea?' I asked.
    She rubbed her fingers together, signalling money.
    'Takeaways?'
    'Gith.'
    'Will you be okay?'
    She rolled her eyes. I was being real dumb.
    ***
    TE KOHUNA IS not a bad place if you don't mind small
towns. The climate is a bit on the damp side, although the
summers are usually good. I guess the population is about
two thousand — small enough to know a lot of people
but not everybody. There is a school and a church, a war
memorial, a library and a pub, and, along the main drag, a
string of shops and other little businesses, with a few houses
still dotted among them. There was an accountant but not a
lawyer, a vet but not a doctor. There was even a bloke who
fixed computers. I'm not sure how he made a living. A lot
of people commuted to Katawai, about thirty k south, where
there was a freezing works and a fertiliser factory. A few
more went to Tapanahu, fifty k to the north, but other than
that the rest worked locally — those who had jobs, that is.
A good number were contractors or casual labourers for the
local farms: doing fencing or mustering or making silage or
whatever was needed at the time. A few — and Gith and I
fell into this group — got at least part of their living from
the trade passing up and down the highway. There were one
or two upmarket businesses, like Bank Antiques and Café
Allegro. There was a second-hand bookshop called Bibliotalk
and a couple of cheap eating places — the Big Asia Takeaway
and Queenie's Tearooms. There was also the pub.
    The Te Kohuna Arms is on the corner of the main drag and Basingstoke
    Road, on the right as you come into town from the south. It's a two-storey
    building with a big tarseal car park around the back and along one side. When
    I was a kid it was a pretty run-down sort of place but then Faye and Simon
    Ingrest bought it and did it up. The big front lounge was back to the old
    style, with frosted glass and dark polished wood and a plush-looking carpet
    on the floor. There was a dining room, too, where they did the thing with
    napkins and wine glasses. The most important part of the business, though
    — or at least the one I reckon made the most money — was the back
    bar. Faye and Simon had the good sense to leave that alone.
    It was an L-shaped room and you walked into it through
a pair of narrow doors in the long wall. To your left, on the
small end wall, was a big TV screen playing Sky Sport. The
sound was always off unless there was a big game. Next to it,
in the corner, was a servery into the kitchen where you could
buy a meal. The locals said it was the same food you got in the
dining room but at half the price. Next came the bar itself,
taking up the rest of the wall opposite the door. It was