Sharp Turn by Marianne Delacourt Page B

lips. ‘Don’t tell anyone. Not much to do on practice days. Race day, well, that’s something else.’
    ‘Is he fast? Lu Red?’
    ‘Fifty-six seconds flat last practice. He’s real fast when the bike’s working. Had a fair bit of bad luck lately though. Gig Riley’s getting real close. Fifty-six-oh-three this morning. Gig’s been getting in a bunch of practice. The Suzuki’s going like a dream.’
    ‘You know a bit about bikes?’
    ‘Bikes, cars, sidecars, motocross. I’ve got four brothers and they’re all petrolheads. Besides, it’s my job.’ She clicked the stopwatch as Red came past the post. ‘Fifty-five-ninety-eight. Oh my God, he’s close to the lap record.’
    I glanced over at Bolo. Red’s girlfriend had joined him. Bolo wasn’t watching the track anymore and their conversation looked heated.
    I nodded towards them. ‘You’d think they’d be happy about it.’
    Sharee finished writing the time in her little notebook and looked up. ‘Lu deserves better than her. She so like . . . controls him.’
    ‘How do you mean?’
    ‘Makes all his decisions for him. You know . . . how high and when. Have you seen his tee-shirts?’
    I thought about the ironed-in creases. ‘Yeah, I noticed that. What’s her name anyway? No one bothered to introduce me.’
    ‘Sally something or other. From some rich family over east.’
    ‘Does she like him racing?’
    Sharee shrugged. ‘Never talked to her. Only know what I’ve heard from . . . you know . . . around.’
    ‘Sure, time I got going,’ I said. ‘See you tomorrow.’
    She nodded. ‘Yeah. Good lunch by the way. Jim always puts too much salt on it.’
    ‘I’ll tell Cass. Thanks.’
    And I did, on the way home. For a moment she almost looked pleased, but that could have just been her face muscles getting tired of scowling.

Chapter 11
    C ASS HAD FIRST SHOWER , then went off to retrieve the washing from JoBob. While she was doing that, I lay on the bed thinking about what I now knew.
    For starters, the owner of Team Riley was an arsehole. Then there was the Lu Red–Clem thing happening over the blonde woman, who I’d also seen arguing with Bolo. And then there was the fight between the two mechanics, Clem and Riley’s guy. The latter definitely sounded worthwhile investigating. Then another thought occurred to me.
    I called Wal and he answered quickly. ‘Yeah, boss?’
    ‘Your friend, Leonard, can you check him out? See if you can find out what he’s been doing since you last worked together.’
    ‘He’s cool, boss, I tell ya.’
    ‘Will you do it, Wal?’
    He grunted his agreement and hung up.
    Cass returned with a basket of folded clothes and two cookbooks. ‘Your mum says hello.’
    ‘Is that all?’ I asked suspiciously.
    ‘Ummm, she also said to remind you about Saturday night. Dinner with Phillip something?’
    ‘Uggh.’ Somehow I needed to find a way out of that one.
    Cass curled up on the fold-out bed and began browsing the cookbooks. I knew she couldn’t read but there were plenty of glossy pictures. I went back to thinking about the things I had to do. Talking to Nick was number one. Kate and Louise at Madame Vine’s next. I included Crack on my list – he might know something useful now I had a better idea what questions to ask. Tomorrow I had to meet Smitty and Rampant Kindy Mum, and the next day I was babysitting Ed at his photo shoot. When that was finished, there was the nightclub gig for Mr Hara.
    I couldn’t see much in the way of sleep over the next few days so made a mental note to get to bed early tonight. Not a bad thing to have in mind given I was having dinner with Tozzi.
    I thought about ringing Smitty for clothes advice for my dinner date, but it was acid hour at her place. I settled for Bok instead, calling him from the garden so that Cass didn’t hear my tragic wardrobe dependency problem.
    ‘Darling,’ he said. ‘Thanks for sorting it with Ed.’
    ‘He wants me to come to the shoot with him. That okay