‘Yeah.’ He stares at the two of us in the mirror, then shakes his head. ‘Anyway, when I got back onto the street, a patrol car came past, and I just…I kinda panicked, I’m sorry. I shouldna come here –’
‘Stop that.’ I hand him a towel. ‘Did the police see you?’
He presses his face into the towel, lifts it. ‘Maybe. They saw me in the street, they saw the car. I reckon they’d put two and two together.’
‘Then…you’ve got to stay here a while. Maybe overnight.’
‘I can’t do that.’ He glances towards the door of the bathroom. ‘Seriously, Amie, I can’t stay more than a few hours, max. It’s not safe for me to be here. You gotta think of your family.’ He makes a weak grin. ‘Not to mention I think your nanna might get a bit suss.’
‘Okay, then…’ I think, quick and hard. ‘Then we should change your appearance. That’ll work, won’t it?’
His eyes narrow. ‘What do you wanna do?’
‘Cut your hair, for starters. Your hair is sort of distinctive. Change your clothes, if we can find some others that’ll fit.’
‘What about the car?’
‘Maybe they’ll recognise it, sure. But if they see a different guy driving it…’
He nods.
‘I’ll get scissors and a change of clothes.’ I pat his arm, step out and pull the door of the bathroom shut behind me. Walk back up the hallway to the kitchen. ‘Nani, I’m afraid Harris was sick in the bathroom. He’s really not feeling well. I need to get him a change of clothes.’
Nani looks delighted to be consulted about this problem. ‘Your Mami has a box of Uncle Deepan’s old clothes… Now where is it?’ She hops nimbly off her stool and begins the hunt.
With Nani safely on-task, I search for a pair of scissors in the kitchen drawer and try not to think about houses full of dead people. Mass murder in Mildura. I should call Dad, right now. My hands get a little wobble in them – I breathe deep, control it. That can wait. There’s a different sort of emergency happening right now. I head back to the bathroom.
Harris is in the same position I left him, standing over the bathroom sink, only now he’s shirtless. His hoodie and T-shirt are balled in the corner. His jeans are slung low on his hips.
‘Hair-cutting, right?’ he says. ‘How we gonna do this?’
But I’ve been rendered momentarily speechless. I look at his bare chest for one more long second, then give myself a kick. ‘We do this with you sitting on the edge of the bath.’ I’m relieved at how steady my voice comes out. ‘I’ll stand in the bath behind you. Then we can collect the mess easy, and you can take a shower straight after.’
‘Okay.’ He still seems nervy. ‘Okay, sounds good.’
‘Take a seat.’ I make sure the bathroom door isn’t fully closed, so Nani doesn’t get concerned, before stepping over the edge of the bath. Now I’m immediately behind him. His shoulders are incredibly broad and I see his tattoo: the great brown snake, coiled and sinuous, sleeping there on his back. It’s an amazing piece of inkwork. I have to forcibly restrain myself from stroking it with my fingers.
I lay a towel across his shoulders. ‘Gotta warn you, I’m not a professional hairdresser, okay?’
‘Just chop it all off,’ Harris says thickly.
I start snipping. I’m working in a hurry before Nani’s voice “hoo-hoo!’’s out from the hallway. I’m really not very experienced at this: I’ve cut Dad’s hair before, but that’s usually with the clippers. I lift Harris’s locks up and slice about two and a half inches off. Now I have to maintain this length all over. It’s going to be a bit of a shaggy mop when I’m done, but his profile will be different which is what he needs.
His shoulders are still twitching. I don’t think he’s really focused on the haircut.
‘I dunno why they were shot,’ he says, avoiding his own gaze in the mirror. ‘I mean, it was a drug house. Leon’s money and the new batch samples – I was s’posed to be picking it all up.’
‘So the delivery is close?’ I ask.
‘Yeah, it’s close. I was gonna call you tonight. But the house…’ He swallows. ‘It looked like they were caught by surprise. There were some signs of resistance, but not…’
I stop mid-cut as I think of something relevant. ‘Are you sure they were all dead? If someone was left with injuries –’
‘They were dead.’ He looks at me in the mirror. ‘I checked all the rooms.’
The darkness of it clouds his eyes for a second, until he closes them, shivers. I put my free hand on his shoulder.
‘Harris. It’s gonna be okay. Just take a few deep breaths.’ My training for dealing with patients in shock kicks in of its own accord. But my own energy jitters in response to his nerves. I smooth my hand over the towel around him, calming us both. ‘Just take it easy.’
