Jazz Baby Read Online Free PDF Page A

hurry?’
    â€˜Watch yourself.’
    He hauled himself to his feet. Ignoring the taunts he searched the outskirts of the two-up circle. There was no sign of Ted. Everyone looked pretty much the same: down at heel, drunk, dirty and impoverished. All the things he wasn’t. What in God’s name had possessed him to come here kitted out like this?
    Jack straightened his cashmere coat and left the backyard. Bodies littered the smoky interior of the shop and lined the hallway. Surreptitiously he checked each face. None carried the disfiguring scar or the piercing blue eye.
    Inside the old shopfront the bottles of grog neatly wrapped in brown paper bags continued to change hands. The clink of coins and mumbled thanks filled the air. Casting one final glance around, Jack followed a line of customers to the door and squeezed his way past the bouncer.
    â€˜You didn’t stay long. Not good enough for the likes of you?’
    Jack ignored the barb and stepped out into the street. The soft rain had turned into a regular downpour and he rammed his hat further over his eyes and shrugged deeper into his coat.
    Without a shadow of a doubt he’d come face to face with Ted. He’d know him anywhere, even if half of his face looked as though it had been put on hot and spread. Jack’s breath burnt as his lungs filled with self-loathing. He’d left his mate for dead once — he’d no intention of doing it a second time. To have survived the flaming inferno when Ted’s plane hit the ground beggared belief…and why didn’t Dolly know her brother was alive?
    After the ruckus he’d caused he couldn’t go back to Susie’s tonight. Tomorrow evening he’d return, and every evening after that until he found Ted; only next time he wouldn’t be dressed like a toff, sticking out like a pimple on the arse of Darlinghurst. Big mistake. In working clothes he’d blend into the crowd and no one would take a second glance at him.
    Sidestepping the overflowing drain he squinted down a rain-slicked laneway past a crowd of staggering drunks and his thoughts drifted back to Dolly. She’d be thrilled to know Ted was alive and that she wasn’t alone. She’d always been her brother’s biggest admirer; he was a hero in her eyes long before he’d ever considered signing up. The image of her face with her big wide-open grin and excitement lighting up her bright eyes filled his mind — eyes just like Ted’s.
    â€˜Jack!’
    His name ripped into the silence of the deserted street stopping him in his tracks.
    â€˜Ted?’
    â€˜Over here.’
    Jack peered into the side alley. A figure loomed in the shadows. ‘Ted?’
    â€˜What d’you want?’ Ted’s belligerent tone held nothing of their shared past, only his pain.
    Jack didn’t know where to begin. What did you say to the mate you’d deserted and left for dead? He pulled his hat off and wiped the sweat from his forehead. No matter how difficult it was, he owed Dolly. He’d already failed Ted and he had no intention of failing her. Ted was all the family she had and if she knew he was alive she wouldn’t be working at a place like Millie’s.
    â€˜Dolly’s in town,’ Jack began, ‘she’s —
    â€˜I don’t want to see her.’ Ted turned aside giving a clear view of his scarred face.
    The ragged cicatrix sliced through his empty eye socket, traced an angry line down his face, curled under his jawbone and disappeared. Jack wanted to reach out and hug the man close. Tell him he’d fix everything. Make it up to him. Turn the clock back. ‘Dolly thinks you’re missing, dead…’
    â€˜Might as well be fucking dead.’
    Ted’s fist filled his vision. Cartilage crunched against bone. Pain exploded. The rough brick wall slammed into his spine. His knees buckled. The stench of Ted’s rank body and his own blood mingled in his