Cadillac Cathedral Read Online Free PDF Page A

home.
    “Suppose we drive away right now and Herbie gets in touch with his pals and his pals are able to tell him who’s the legal owner of this hearse. Unless you have a gun in your apron pocket and use it right now to shoot all three of us, I’ll turn this machine around and we’ll be on our way.”
    “You’ll have to drive it over me first,” the woman said. She moved in front of the hearse and spread her arms.
    “It’s a pleasure to see such determination,” Arvo said. “But I’ll tell you what we’ll do.” He stepped down and crossed the dirt to the Fargo and removed the portable license plate and carried it back through his own raised dust to the hearse and hung it off the door handle at the rear. “I have no intention of stealing the hearse, or even borrowing it. I came prepared to make a trade if I had to. I’ll take this old hearse that was never meant for heavy labour off your hands in exchange for my three-ton Fargo in good working order — far better for the sort of work your sons are doing here. And, since you’ve obviously been getting away without a license or ownership papers up here in the bush, you’ll be able to do the same with the Fargo. There’s no sleeping compartment on the back but I’m sure your sons will be so pleased to see the trade you made they’ll offer to build you one.” He removed the sleeping bag and handed it to the woman.
    Once he’d got into the hearse and started moving ahead, she lost interest in risking her life and stepped aside to shower him with curses.
    Peterson waited until they’d got a hundred metres down the first slope to bring the Henry J to a stop, roll down his window, and wavefor Arvo to pull up beside him. “You had that trade in mind from the start?”
    Arvo grinned. “Did you think we were driving two vehicles all the way up here just to turn around and drive three vehicles back?”
    “Sonofagun,” Peterson said. Then he said, “Now that I seen that thing, I’m having second thoughts. It may be a little crazy to think you’ll drive her all the way down to the city for Martin.”
    “She looks in pretty good shape to me,” Arvo said. “I’ll tune her up a bit before I go.”
    “And what if she breaks down on the road? What if the cops catch sight of you and decide to confiscate that hearse and throw you in the can?”
    It was a legitimate concern, but Arvo chose to shrug it off. “So, it will be an adventure either way.”
    “It’ll be an adventure once the undertakers in town get wind of what you’re up to — horning in on their business. If you’re stopped by the cops it will be Henderson or one of the others have put them up to it. They’ll sue your skinny ass off.”
    Arvo narrowed his eyes. “Is this your way of saying you don’t want to come along?”
    “Sonofabitch.” Peterson grinned. “You got any more surprises up your sleeve?”
    “What I’ve got up my sleeve will have to stay up my sleeve for a while. Let’s get moving. We’ll need to stop somewhere to fill ’er up and give ’er a bit of a wash.”
    “Wash or no wash, we still don’t know why that hospital should hand Martin over to us. I hope you’ve got that bit of information up your sleeve as well.”
    “I’ve got those papers Martin had me sign,” Arvo said. “I just have to remember where I put them.”

CHAPTER 3

     
     
    FOR THE REST OF THAT afternoon he kept the doors to his workshop closed and barred. If anyone were to see him tinkering with a vintage hearse, phones would soon be ringing all over the district. Matt Foreman would cross the road to bombard him with questions he was not prepared to answer. Was he sure it was legal to be doing this? Who did he think would want this old thing once he had it back in good running order? Before long, half the district would be standing in his doorway to watch, everyone with an opinion.
    He wasn’t about to forget the way they’d reacted when he’d been spotted hauling in an orange Renault