Appeal Denied: A Cliff Hardy Novel Read Online Free Page A

that a man?
    Ain’t that a man, child?
    I did some handshaking and nodding on the way to the bar. I ate a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches while I waited to name my poison. I got my hands around two scotches large enough to sustain a decent talk and went back out onto the deck. Townsend was still there and on his own. I finished half my drink before I even got there. With the first drink and the wines— probably three if I was honest—on board and the emotional drag, the whisky hit me. I was suddenly conscious of the need to walk carefully and watch where I was going.
    I put his drink on the rail. ‘What’s on your mind?’
    ‘It’s a week since Lily was killed. What are your sources telling you about the police investigation?’
    ‘I don’t have any sources. The few I had don’t want to know me since I got scrubbed. I did have a particular bloke who—’
    ‘Frank Parker.’
    ‘Yeah, but Frank’s got other fish to fry. Plus he’s called in a lot of favours over the years, some of them for me. I’d say he’s just about tapped out. Why?’
    ‘Don’t you want to know who killed her and why?’
    ‘I don’t give a shit about why.’
    ‘Understood. Well. I have got a police source and what I’m told makes me want to look into Lily’s death as closely as I can.’
    ‘What does he tell you?’
    Townsend picked up his glass, rattled the ice and took a drink. ‘Just a minute. You’re making assumptions. Two things. I’m after a story of course, but I liked Lily. She never put me down for being a short-arse and I admired her work.
    And did I say my source was a male?’
    A smartie . I was a bit drunk and a bit annoyed. ‘Okay, okay. You liked Lily and some cop’s been blabbing to you. So what?’
    ‘We’re getting off on the wrong foot here.’
    ‘I’m a bit pissed.’
    ‘Not surprising. Why don’t we leave it till tomorrow.’
    I was about to grab him when I realised how silly it’d look. I was twenty-plus centimetres taller and would’ve outweighed him by twenty kilos. He stood his ground.
    ‘I’d rather talk now,’ I said. ‘Please.’
    Townsend glanced around to make sure there was no one within earshot. ‘As you’d expect, the police took away her computers—desktop and laptop—and two thumb drives. I’m told they were wiped clean beyond any point of data recovery. That brought the detectives to a full stop. Their only working theory was that Lily was killed because of something she was writing, or was going to write.’
    ‘That’s logical. She’d brought down some high-fliers.’
    ‘Sure, but I think there’re holes in the story. Why wouldn’t the killer just take the computer stuff? How likely is it that the person who shot her had the IT skills to clean the drives?’
    ‘An accomplice?’
    ‘Which means a witness. Remember she was shot with a .22—that’s a professional job, as you’d know. How many professional killers are happy to have some computer nerd hanging around the workplace?’
    I could see his point. And Lily’s work station was on the glassed-in balcony attached to her bedroom. She liked to be able to jump out of bed and go straight to the keyboard when an idea struck her. I knew that when she’d had the house rebuilt after a fire had destroyed the previous one, she hadn’t wanted any doors between the bedroom and the balcony. A friend had talked about feng shui and I could remember Lily’s response.
    ‘Bullshit,’ she’d said. ‘Breezes and access.’
    I told Townsend about the layout. ‘Even assuming that the computer guy came in after Lily was killed, he’d have to be working for some time in full view of her.’
    ‘I can’t see it, can you?’ Townsend said. ‘A computer whiz who’s that much of a hard case?’
    I shrugged. ‘It’s possible. They let them play with computers in jail. And they reckon some of the game players are so desensitised to violence that they could play while their mothers’ throats were being cut.’
    ‘D’you