Chapter One
"She's dead, then?"
"Yer."
"What did the coroner say?"
"Nat'ral causes."
"So what now?"
"Gonna leave town for a bit."
Bert raised his eyes from his pint and slid a glance at his best friend.
"You be okay?"
"Too right."
Cec shook his head.
"Don't get me wrong, it's a shame she's gone and all. But me and Alice're rapt."
"What ya got to leave town for then?"
"Alice gets the Ballan house. We've got to go and see the family. In Echuca. Sign papers and stuff."
"Then what?"
Cec eyed Bert apprehensively. "We're thinking we can sell the house and buy a little flat down here. Then fix a wedding date."
Bert studied his pint, expression a blank.
"Will you be okay?" ventured Cec.
Bert grunted, and slid a sidelong glance with a half-smile.
"Cec, you're my mate, not my mum."
Cec grinned in relief, and Bert continued.
"Go and get Alice her inheritance. I'll still be here when you get back."
Cec nodded, then his face fell and he slapped a hand on his knee in frustration. "Blast!"
"What's up?"
"The ring," said Cec. "I left it at a jeweller to be re-sized – Alice's fingers are smaller than my nan's. Be ready Thursday, but that's when we've got an appointment with the lawyer in Echuca."
"Want me to get it?"
"Ah, ya beaut! Cheers!"
Pints were clinked and drained, and the red raggers went their separate ways in comfortable harmony.
Bert didn't regret his offer, precisely, but there were tasks he'd rather have tackled than the one he undertook a couple of days later.
"Got a ring to collect. Name of Yates." He felt utterly out of place in the luxurious atmosphere of the jeweller's, and reacted by leaving his hat firmly on his head and sticking his jaw out pugnaciously, as though expecting the assistant to take exception to his presence and punch it. The man's demeanour, though, remained stately.
"Certainly, sir. All paid for, I believe. One moment," and he shimmered away to a counter at the rear of the shop to rummage through a drawer. A minute later he returned with a small leather box. "Here we are." He flicked open the lid and displayed its contents proudly.
"Strewth!" was Bert's startled response, before he remembered that he was unimpressed by displays of filthy capitalism; but he reflected inwardly that Cec must really love Alice a lot, and Cec's nan must have been a lot filthier a capitalist than Bert had previously suspected. The gold band supported three stones; two matching diamonds nestled alongside an improbably large and lusciously deep red jewel which was surely a ruby.
"Would sir like me to wrap the box?"
Bert stared at the assistant, momentarily nonplussed; then collected his wits. "Nah. Nah, it's fine." Stuffing it unceremoniously into his coat pocket, he beat a hasty retreat, stumbling past two well-built gentlemen who were trying to enter the store as he left. He'd left the taxi parked by the kerb, and sank gratefully into the driving seat, reaching for the starter and waiting only for a precarious truck to pass before pulling away.
He was so intent on the truck's load, which seemed likely to collapse onto any vehicle that risked approaching too closely, that he didn't look in his mirror to see two well-built, newly irate gentlemen erupt from the jeweller's onto the pavement, look frantically around and sprint – fruitlessly – in his taxi's haphazard wake.