Inlet Boys Read online

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  INLET BOYS

  P.I. Kowalski – Book 1

  Copyright © 2019 Chris Krupa

  Cover Art Copyright © 2019 D. Robert Pease

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  ISBN (EPUB Version): 1622531779

  ISBN-13 (EPUB Version): 978-1-62253-177-6

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  Editor: Kimberly Goebel

  Senior Editor: Lane Diamond

  Interior Designer: Lane Diamond

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  PUBLISHER’S NOTE:

  At the end of this novel of approximately 59,230 words, you will find two Special Sneak Previews: 1) TALL DARK HEART by Chris Krupa, the second novel from this “P.I. Kowalski” series,” and; 2) BROOMETIME SERENADE by Barry Metcalf, the first novel in “The Oz Files,” another Aussie crime thriller series we think you’ll enjoy. We provide these as a FREE extra service, and you should in no way consider it a part of the price you paid for this book. We hope you will both appreciate and enjoy the opportunity. Thank you.

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  eBook License Notes:

  You may not use, reproduce or transmit in any manner, any part of this book without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews, or in accordance with federal Fair Use laws. All rights are reserved.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only; it may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Disclaimer:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.

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  A Note from the Publisher:

  Given that the author is from Australia, and the story takes place in Australia, we have decided to leave this story in Australian (British) English rather than Americanize it. Therefore, some spellings may look off to you, along with things like single quotation marks versus double in dialogue, but that’s simply the difference in language.

  BONUS CONTENT

  We’re pleased to offer you not one, but two Special Sneak Previews at the end of this book.

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  In the first preview, you’ll enjoy the First 3 Chapters of Chris Krupa’s TALL DARK HEART, the next book coming (Book 2) in the exciting series of crime thrillers from Down Under, “P.I. Kowalski.”

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  Stay tuned to Chris Krupa’s page at our website for updates as they become available.

  Chris Krupa at Evolved Publishing

  In the second preview, you’ll enjoy the First 4 Chapters of Barry Metcalf‘s award-winning BROOMETIME SERENADE, the first book in the fantastic “The Oz Files“ series of paranormal crime thrillers from Down Under.

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  ~~~

  OR GRAB THE FULL EBOOK TODAY!

  FIND LINKS TO YOUR FAVORITE RETAILER HERE:

  THE OZ FILES Series at Evolved Publishing

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  BONUS CONTENT

  Dedication

  INLET BOYS

  PART ONE

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  PART TWO

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  PART THREE

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Special Sneak Preview: TALL DARK HEART by Chris Krupa

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  More from Evolved Publishing

  Special Sneak Preview: BROOMETIME SERENADE by Barry Metcalf

  Dedication

  For Kerrie

  PART ONE

  Chapter 1

  ‘Somebody killed Rob last week,’ Zio Fausto said. ‘Bashed his fucking brains in with a concrete block.’

  I sat on a foldout chair on a small patch of lawn that passed for a backyard before it fell away to a steep hill that had never been landscaped.

  My uncle, Zio Fausto, sat opposite me and nursed a glass of homemade wine, like an Italian version of the actor Brian Dennehy, all chest and skinny legs with salt and pepper hair. He wore a short-sleeved, unbuttoned, collared shirt over a singlet, beige knee-length shorts, and casual Italian loafers, a more than suitable get up for the mild late-February weather.

  I, in direct contrast, wore my usual ensemble: a plain black tee shirt, black jeans, and black lace-up motorcycle boots. To an outsider, we might have looked like a bouncer conferring with the head of the cosa nostra. On a table next to us sat an open bottle of wine, a spare glass, a folded-up newspaper, and a manila folder.

  Zio poured me some wine and shook his head. ‘I haven’t spoken to my brother Carmine in over twenty years. He called last week and spoke to your Zia Valeria. She told him you were a private investigator. This is what happened to his son Rob last Monday.’

  He passed me the folder.

  I opened it and pulled out a small pile of 8x10 photographs. The first one showed a male figure lying on the ground on his side. Judging by the long shadows cast by the body, the photo was taken early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Wooden pallets crept into the top left corner, and wrappers and cans lay strewn by his feet.

  So this is how my cousin Rob ended his days.

  I hadn’t seen Zio Fausto’s nephew since he was a kid, and couldn’t reconcile this prone, pale figure with the excitable ten-year-old child from my memories. He wore a dark tee shirt, blue jeans, and white Nike runners. His right arm crossed his torso as if mid-turn in sleep, and a thick gold necklace lay entangled within the folds of his shirt. Strange shadows on Rob’s forehead caught my eye. I flicked to the next photo, a close-up of the top left portion of his temple. Blood had pooled under the skin, and a dark purple bruise spread down the entire left side of his face.

  I’d seen something similar in a forensic pathology book where a young girl found the crumpled corpse of her mother in an empty bathtub; she’d been in the same position for over twenty-four hours, and her face had shown similar discolouration.

  The remaining photos showed the same scene from slightly different angles, obviously taken by a police photographer, or someone in a similar capacity.

  I placed the photos on the table, sat back, and met my uncle’s eyes. ‘How’d you get these?’

  He looked at me cautiously. ‘Angela.’

  I barely stifled a grunt of annoyance at the mention of one Angela Stanchowski, a disgraced ex-sergeant from Redfern Local Area Command, and a casual acquaintance of the family. She’d voiced her disdain for my line of work on more than one occasion over the years.

  Zio lifted a thin arm, took a pull on his wine, and looked at the ground. ‘I wanted to stick my nose into Rob’s murder, and Angela was the only way to get information.’

  The fact that he still rubbed shoulders with her boggled my mind.

  ‘My brother,’ he said, ‘is a selfish prick. He will sw
ear his son was an angel, but I know the shit Rob got up to. The arsehole had it coming.’

  I took a long pull on the wine and let it coat my mouth. Zio made it from Sangiovese grapes, which meant it had high tannin levels and left a bitter taste on my tongue; but it had the desired effect and relaxed me.

  ‘Do the police have anything to go on?’

  He shrugged.

  When I was a kid, I looked up to my uncle. He did all the things adults do that you think are cool when you’re twelve and impressionable—he drank, and smoked, and swore. Now seventy and retired from the retail sector, he’d become recalcitrant. If I were to sum up Zio in one word, it would be ‘brusque.’ He was, like a lot of my family, a cross-cultural blend of old-school Italian and modern Australian.

  My sister and I had the distinction of being first generation, with all the cultural baggage and expectation that entailed.

  He said, ‘You remember Rob and his brother?’

  ‘Yeah, I remember them. It’s been ten years since I saw them last. Little smart arses, but nice kids.’

  He nodded in appreciation of the evaluation. ‘You remember Carmine?’

  I shook my head. ‘Not so much.’

  He tossed the newspaper across the table. ‘Carmine sent that to me.’

  I opened it to find a copy of the Sussex Inlet Advertiser from the previous Wednesday. I flicked through the pages and found what I needed on a half-page spread on page three. A story reported the mysterious death of Robert Demich, twenty-three, found at a multi-million-dollar construction site in the early hours of Tuesday morning, under suspicious circumstances. Police were treating the incident as a homicide, and if anyone knew anything, they should contact the authorities.

  Not important enough for the front page, I guess. ‘You want me to look into this?’

  He nodded his head, and when he looked at me, I noticed a flicker of worry in his eyes. Then he winked and drained his glass. ‘Hurry up and drink. I want to finish the bottle.’

  It surprised me. Ever since achieving my private investigator’s accreditation, the New South Wales CAPI licence, I was sensitive to whispers from within my family about the less than honourable career path I’d chosen. Patriarchal tradition dictated decades of toil at the Port Kembla steel works—legitimacy borne from blue-collar grit.

  I told him I’d look into it, and asked if Carmine knew what happened.

  He took a heavy belt of the wine.

  I did the same.

  He shook his head, perhaps dislodging a troubling thought, or a bad memory.

  I said, ‘Zio, how close were you with Rob?’

  ‘He was a fucking arsehole.’ He ran a hand over his face as if to smooth away the creases, topped his glass up, and knocked back two mouthfuls in quick succession. ‘Listen, Matthew, for Carmine to send this to me...? Jesus Christ! He must be in a bad place.’

  He took another drink and slowly exhaled.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes, and I sensed Zio kept some cards close to his chest. Italians were known for their guilt-ridden pauses, and I’d had a lot of first-hand experience in that particular psychological arena. I drained the wine in my glass and decided to share my thoughts.

  ‘I’ll pull some strings with my boss to get a week off work, meet Carmine, and look into who might have killed Rob.’

  He seemed happy with the proposal, and raised the wine bottle.

  I refused, needing to stay under the limit.

  We talked movies and football for twenty minutes, until the conversation died naturally.

  ‘Ciao.’ I shook his hand and made my way back into the house via the back door. I crossed through the downstairs garage strewn with sewing machine parts, and climbed the carpeted stairs back up into the main part of the house.

  Zia Valeria sat in the kitchen removing the casings from a dozen Italian sausages. Next to the stovetop rested a bottle of red wine, a plate of diced onions, clumps of ricotta, and a kilo of grated pecorino Romano cheese. The bag of fresh rigatoni gave the game away—Zia was preparing her famous ‘Rigatoni alla Calabrese’ for lunch.

  She asked what we’d talked about, and I explained.

  She nodded sadly and sighed as only older Roman Catholic women can. ‘Oh Matthew. Poor Rob. Mannaggia.’

  ‘Mannaggia’ is a well-loved southern Italian word from my childhood, and hearing it always reminded me of my Nonna. She usually muttered it under her breath when she couldn’t prise the lid from a sauce jar, or upon acquiring a particularly salacious piece of family gossip. The English equivalent of the word is “dammit.”

  Zia tried to blow a stray hair from her face.

  I pushed it back behind her ear.

  ‘Thank you, mio nipote.’ She sighed and said, ‘Carmine called me last week, because... you know, he doesn’t talk to Fausto. I don’t know what it is between them. I don’t ask, and he doesn’t tell me.’

  ‘What did Carmine say?’

  ‘Rob worked on a construction site in Sussex Inlet. It’s going to be a huge retirement village with security gates, gardens, everything you could possibly imagine. The foreman found his body, and Carmine thinks, maybe, he was dealing drugs and something went wrong. Who knows? Who knows what happens?’

  She invited me to stay for lunch, and I declined despite the enticing smells wafting from the kitchen.

  She looked at me with a pained expression. ‘Will you help Carmine? You know you’ll be helping Fausto too.’

  I told her I’d be happy to help, even though I didn’t have any experience with homicides. If I was truthful to myself, the pull to find Rob’s killer enticed me. I needed to tread carefully with the family situation, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. I had the expectations of my aunt and uncle to satisfy, and if I looked deeper, a compunction to commemorate my youthful reverence of my uncle.

  Zia said, ‘Have you seen this?’ She led me into the dining room and pointed at a framed photograph on the wall.

  I’d seen the picture, but never knew its context. Taken in the 1960s, it showed four young men in a paddock. They all had rifles slung over their shoulders, and two of them held up dead rabbits. One of them was Zio Fausto as a young man. He wore a collared shirt and high-waisted, chocolate-brown, pleated pants—a good-looking guy with the touch of Gary Cooper about him. He stood proudly next to a shorter man with thick wavy hair and a close-mouthed smile.

  ‘That’s Carmine,’ Zia said. ‘They were so close, Matthew.’

  I saw something in the way Zio stood next to his brother—a warm closeness, a familiarity, good times before things went bad. I went to give Zia a hug goodbye, but she raised her meat-covered hands in apology. I kissed her on the cheek instead, careful not get sausage on me, and promised I’d keep in touch.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I think this will really help. You might be the one to heal the old wounds. Thank you.’

  No pressure, then. Mannaggia, indeed.

  Chapter 2

  To most, Wollongong was a holiday town on the south coast of New South Wales, replete with a golden chain of surf beaches, cafes, eateries, and a thriving shopping district. To me, ‘The Gong’ hid a thriving criminal underbelly, much like the 1986 David Lynch film, Blue Velvet. The place was a veritable melting pot of volatile ethnicities: Macedonian, Greek, Yugoslavian, Lebanese, and Italian, all vying for their piece of the underworld. Fringe properties housed makeshift meth labs, and cannabis crops thrived in the dense rain forest escarpment.

  It was a place of heavy industry with lots of port activity, and during the post war years the promise of manufacturing work enticed European men to emigrate, my Nonna being one of them. In recent times, local journalists reported the shootings of local criminal figures with ties to the Balkan mafia. Positioned between Sydney and Melbourne, The Gong was an ideal location for the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. Dealers sold to the white-collar crowd in Sydney, and supplied the growing lower socio-economic users on the far south coast.

  In the mi
nimal Friday morning traffic, I thought about the impending machinations I’d have to go through to get a week off from my boss.

  Reggie Cash—surely, that wasn’t his real name—was a decent boss. My instinct told me he’d fled the U.S., maybe running from a tax fraud charge, and had fled to Australia to cover his tracks. He married an Aussie, and now considered himself an Aussie by proxy. I didn’t care about his troubles—as long as they didn’t affect me.

  I had two insurance cases that needed closure, but I needed to act on Rob’s murder case immediately.

  Spying and filming people who were going about their daily business, when they were supposed to have severe back injuries, was fun and interesting work, yet living in my car for endless hours was giving me back problems. Waiting for someone to emerge from their house only held its charm for so long, and was beginning to get tiresome. Recently, I’d started second-guessing my choice to take on private investigative work. I’d received accolades from those agencies that recognised excellent work in the form of commissions and financial bonuses, before I settled on working exclusively for Reggie.

  I drove north on the Princes Highway, took the off ramp at West Wollongong, and eased into the driveway of a drive-thru coffee house. Maybe a caffeine bribe would assist with negotiations.

  A variety of girls dressed in black crop tops and short shorts served the row of cars in front of me. A bright-eyed Polynesian girl approached my window with a smile, and tapped my order into her iPad—two tall blacks, hot.

  Once armed, I drove to my office at Cash & Messenger on Ralph Black Drive, fifty square meters of industrial office space leased from the council. I eased the car into a small space at the end of the parking lot, and walked through the glass doors into the makeshift offices that once housed an indoor childhood play centre.

  I carried the coffees into Reggie’s workspace, the first office on the left. File boxes littered the floor, and his desk was inundated with papers, folders, and an old PC. In the beginning, Reggie had dropped the white pages into my lap and told me to cold call the names in the files. I had, and even built up some trust, but phone work wasn’t my forte. I’d convinced him to hand me those cases no one else wanted, to send me out to housing commission sites, and interview welfare folk trying to make a quid suing rich folk. If a great grandmother fought a corrupt councilman, I’d make it so that she’d win. If some degenerate bogan wanted money for smokes and booze, I’d swing it to keep the status quo. No point taking away from those who had nothing.