ThornyDevils by T. W. Lawless Page A

responded by pouring herself another drink and avoiding eye contact. Peter held on firmly. ‘What about you, Slugger?’ Peter turned to face him.
    ‘I don’t want to hit you, Jack,’ he said with a hint of sadness. ‘Don’t force me.’
    ‘Fine.’ Peter released his grip on the bag and continued walking through the lounge room, ‘I’m not getting hurt to get a story.’
    Slugger followed Peter all the way back to the Stag. ‘Wait, Jack,’ Slugger said finally, as Peter was opening the car door. ‘We need to talk.’
    Peter stopped. ‘I thought we’d already done that—or tried to.’
    ‘This is off the record,’ he said. ‘You know what that means, don’t you?’
    ‘Of course I fucking know what that means. You’re going to tell me what really happened and I can’t use it. Like taking a beautiful woman to bed and finding out she has an extra appendage.’
    ‘Ivy doesn’t know anything,’ Slugger began. ‘The boys always kept her in the dark.’
    ‘Where did she think Pat went for two years?’
    ‘She thought he was living with two Thai women in a beach villa in Phuket. He was having a mid-life crisis.’ Slugger stopped for breath. ‘Or that’s what she was told.’
    ‘Lucky him,’ Peter replied. ‘So why did he come back if his every need was being attended to in Thailand? Sounds like he’d already died and gone to heaven, except he comes back here to die. This time for real.’
    Slugger began to shift uneasily on his feet. ‘Not saying anymore,’ he blurted. ‘I’ve helped you enough.’
    ‘You know,’ Peter began, slamming the car door behind him and drawing nearer to Slugger. ‘I’m starting to get this.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘You bring me here tonight on the pretext that Ivy is going to tell me everything, when you know she knows stuff all.’
    ‘I don’t get you.’
    ‘I write a sympathetic story about the O’Leary widow and the filthy press leave her alone. Maybe everyone will leave the family alone. You’re thinking like a lucid man all of a sudden.’
    ‘You should be a bloody writer. Talk about fantasy land.’
    ‘Was that your plan? Why are you protecting her, Slugger?’
    ‘I’m going inside.’
    Slugger walked away, over the lawned frontage of the high rise. Peter followed.
    ‘Why are you protecting her? Off the record. You worked for them on the docks, didn’t you? You were the standover merchant?’
    ‘Leave me alone,’ Slugger cried as he spun around and pushed Peter to the ground.
    Peter fell onto the soft grass and lay there, winded momentarily. Slugger rushed over to him and pulled him up by one arm into a sitting position. ‘I’m sorry, Jack,’ he whined. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you. I don’t hurt mates.’ He squatted down next to Peter.
    ‘Part of the game, I guess,’ Peter croaked, shaking his head. He pulled a blade of grass out of his mouth.
    ‘Ivy’s my lover,’ Slugger gushed. ‘That’s why I look after her.’
    ‘Say again?’ Peter shook his head with disbelief.
    ‘Promise you won’t publish this?’
    ‘Okay,’ Peter agreed reluctantly. ‘It’s just between you and me.’
    ‘Ivy and me became an item not long after she married Pat. When I was the best boxer in Australia and she was the best looking sheila in Melbourne. Not that anyone knew we were seeing each other. Pat was always at work and I had an unhappy marriage. We sort of found each other.’ Slugger chuckled at the memory. ‘Ivy and me would meet at the Windsor every Friday for a bit of a cuddle. I had money in those days. Our afternoon delight, we called it. You know. If Pat had found out—whew! He would’ve…’ He took a deep breath, ‘But we loved each other so much that we were planning to run away. I wanted to go to the States and fight. Make some really big money.’ He paused, brow wrinkled. ‘Then Ivy fell pregnant. Just before the big fight with the Yank.’
    ‘Did she have the child?’
    ‘He’s an O’Leary now.’ Slugger flopped