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skull plates, he wouldn’t have given us the front bar of the Royal in Footscray. You want to eat one day? Lunch?’
    ‘You’re inviting me to eat? Soon you could be introducing me to your friends. Male friends.’
    ‘I don’t know any men I’d like to be related to by intercourse,’ I replied.
    ‘Don’t worry about it. I’d rather be introduced to men by a warder at Pentridge. Or wherever they put the crims now. Lingalonga Social Adjustment Facility Pty Ltd.’
    ‘They’ll be the same people I know,’ I said. ‘Former clients.’
    ‘Funny thing with lawyers,’ Rosa said. ‘The respectable ones I know don’t have former clients. They have clients. It’s only the ones like you who have former clients. Former because someone shot them dead or because you couldn’t keep them out of jail.’
    ‘Respectable?’ I said. ‘I didn’t know you knew respectable lawyers. Name one.’
    ‘I can name one. One of many. I was at the races with one two weeks ago, in fact.’
    ‘Laurie Phelan. I saw you at Flemington with Laurie Phelan.’
    ‘Exactly. A commercial lawyer. Why didn’t you show yourself?’
    ‘Trying to avoid guilt by association. Know what they call Laurie? They call him Mr Omo. Why is that?’
    ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to know.’
    ‘Because he washes whiter than white. He launders money for drug dealers.’
    There was a long silence.
    ‘Well,’ Rosa said, ‘he’s got nice hands.’
    ‘Must be using a kind soap powder. Donelli’s in Smith Street, Collingwood. Sunday, twelve-thirty. In the courtyard.’
    ‘Courtyard? A courtyard in Collingwood? I don’t think you’ve got a full grasp of the courtyard concept. They don’t have courtyards in Collingwood. Courtyards don’t have Hills hoists in the middle. With big old underpants and bloomers and bras like jockstraps for elephants hanging on them.’
    ‘Don’t bring Laurie Phelan.’
    ‘You bastard.’
    I caught the last ten minutes of ‘On This Day’. Rod Pringle’s dense and shining hair kept sliding over his quizzical right eyebrow as he tried to get the Premier of New South Wales to concede that you could buy planning permission in Sydney’s western suburbs.
    The Premier was confident, serious and convincing. Then an overhead camera zoomed in on his sweating scalp, showing the transplanted hair plugs, like an enhanced CIA satellite picture of a failing crop in Afghanistan. After that, he didn’t seem quite so convincing.
    After a commercial, Linda came on, fetching in dark blue, standing in front of a flashy Sydney building. She pointed over her shoulder.
    This building, called Cumulus, is Sydney’s newest and most dramatic. It belongs to a private company owned by one of the most private millionaires in Australia, Steven Levesque. We hear little about him from year to year. Yesterday, he came into the spotlight as the buyer of a forty per cent shareholding in Sanctum Corporation, the country’s fastest-growing property development company. But Mr Levesque is more than a businessman. He is also said to speak directly into ears at the highest levels of politics.
    The camera cut to a vast minimalist office, dwelt for a moment upon a large Storrier canvas, then went to a man sitting behind a glowing slab of 300-year-old jarrah, a handsome man in his forties, perfect navy suit, blue shirt, red tie, lean and tanned face, squared-off chin.
    Linda opened with a fast inswinger.
    Mr Levesque, people say that you have far too much influence over both the Prime Minister and the Premier of Victoria. Why is that?
    Levesque smiled, put his head to one side in a puzzled way. His straight fair hair was naughtily unwilling to stay in place and he disciplined it with long fingers.
    Why is what?
    Why is this impression current?
    Is it? I can’t imagine why. The Prime Minister probably wouldn’t recognise me, the Premier of Victoria I’ve known for a long time but I don’t see much of. It’s usually on public occasions. We commiserate