The Greenwich Apartments by Peter Corris Read Free Book Online

‘I may be stiff but I haven’t got bruised ribs.’
    â€˜Stop it,’ Judy Syme said. ‘I wish Michael had been around in the time before Carmel got shot.’
    â€˜Why? What happened?’
    She took a sip. ‘Some men came here. Twice. Looking for Carmel.’
    â€˜What did they do?’
    â€˜Barged in, pushed me around. Trashed her room.’
    â€˜What did they say?’
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜Twice you said. When was this?’
    â€˜The first time was a week or so before … beforeshe got killed. The second time was the night before.’
    â€˜Did you tell Drew this?’
    She lit another cigarette. ‘Yes. He took down the descriptions, but he didn’t seem very interested.’
    I got my notebook from my jacket pocket. ‘Give me the descriptions.’
    â€˜One of them looked like you,’ Press said.
    â€˜I thought you weren’t here.’
    â€˜Judy told me about them. One was a thin, tall guy with a broken nose, hard-looking, like you.’
    â€˜Thanks. Anything else?’
    They looked at each other the way people do when trying to recall a conversation. Who sat where, who said what? ‘I don’t think so,’ Judy Syme said. ‘Oh, of course, he was a New Zealander.’
    â€˜Who?’
    â€˜The one that looked like you.’
    I wrote ‘NZ’ beside ‘looks like self’. ‘What about the other one?’
    â€˜Fatter,’ Judy said. ‘And fairer, less hair except he had a moustache. They wore suits. They looked like police but they weren’t.’
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜I’m a nurse, I’ve met a lot of police. I know.’
    â€˜I see. Well, what did Carmel say about this? Where was she?’
    â€˜She was working the day they came the first time. I told her that night and she took off. Packed a few things and took off. She didn’t come back. The same two came back later, like I say.’ She took a big drink of her wine and dragged on the cigarette. ‘And the next day I read in the paper that she was dead.’
    â€˜Did these heavies ask you where she was?’
    â€˜Yeah. I wouldn’t tell them.’
    â€˜Did they threaten you?’
    She nodded. ‘They hit me, but I wouldn’t tell them. Fuck them, I thought.’
    Press drained his can and looked admiringly at her. I took a drink and privately toasted her courage myself. ‘Did Drew ask you where she’d gone?’
    â€˜He might have. I forget. I didn’t tell him anyway. I got the feeling that he didn’t care. What you say about the pornography explains it. What a laugh!’
    â€˜Will you tell me? I don’t think she was involved in pornography either.’
    â€˜Sure I’ll tell you. She was with Jan De Vries. He’s a lecturer at the Film & Television School. They were working on something together.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I don’t know. Something that took all her time and energy. Something very important to her. We shared here for nearly two years. I was around when she was finishing
Bermagui,
but I never …’
    â€˜Sorry. Finishing what?’
    â€˜Bermagui,
her first movie. You haven’t seen it?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜It’s brilliant.’
    â€˜Brilliant,’ Press said.
    Judy stood and got rid of her cigarette in the same way as before. ‘This one would have been brilliant too. For sure. Christ, she worked at it. And now …‘ She wrapped her arms round her upper body and swayed. Press jumped up and took hold of her. She let him hug her. ‘I miss her. She was terrific. So intense. She never wasted a single minute. Not like the rest of us, drinking and everything. She could work for three days and nights straight. Does that sound like a porno freak to you?’
    I shook my head. I was the only one sitting down but her anger was so strong that I felt she should have the stage, have the space to