Page 34 of The Island

“Yes.”

“You’re a doc. How much is in that? Me niece Maya is a nurse and she gets paid shit,” Ma said.

“I’ve been doing well lately. I made Seattle’s Best Doctors this year and, um, well, to be honest, I married into quite a bit of money,” Tom said.

“How much money?” Kate asked.

“My late wife, Judith, came from a wealthy Seattle family. Have you heard of Microsoft?”

Matt and Kate and Ivan all nodded. “We know it,” Matt said.

“Judith’s father was an early investor. We have shares and—”

“Shares! How much do you have in cash?” Ma demanded. “Here in Australia?”

“Just a few hundred dollars in Australia,” Tom admitted.

“But we can get more here tomorrow by wire transfer from America,” Heather added.

“I was coming to that. We can get money transferred here from America quite easily. A lot of money.”

“How much?” Ma asked.

Tom leaned back on his heels. Everyone was looking at him. Moths were flying into the arc lamps. The stars were coming out. The air was freshening. Temperatures were cooling—both literally and metaphorically. He had won them over with common sense and calm persuasion. The thing they didn’t teach you in medical school, bedside manner, was one of the most important skills to learn.

He had this.

Money was the key. They had moved on from revenge to money. Tom knew he had to pick the right Goldilocks amount. Not too much to seem preposterous but not too little either. “Five hundred thousand dollars. U.S. dollars,” he said.

A few oohs went through the crowd.

“Half a million bucks?” Kate said skeptically.

“I have that in my account, yes,” Tom insisted.

“How does the transfer work?” an older woman in filthy blue jeans and a ripped tank top asked. She also had a gun, an ancient-looking rifle that she was using as a walking stick.

“Yeah, how—how is that supposed to work?” Ivan demanded.

“It’s in a checking account in America. I have more in a savings account but I can transfer everything from the checking account without raising any suspicions,” he said.

“It’s a load of bollocks,” Kate said.

“How is it bollocks?” Matt asked.

“If we let them go to Melbourne to get the money, we’ll never hear from any of them again,” Kate said.

More murmuring.

“We keep the nippers here. He goes and gets the half a million in cash and brings it back. And we swap the dough for the kids. A hundred thousand to Danny in compensation for his loss, the rest split between us,” Matt said and looked at Ma for her approval.

“A hundred thousand for a dead wife!” Kate said.

“Well, like me, she wasn’t blood, was she?” Matt said.

There was some laughter from the crowd. Tom saw that the mood was changing. They were becoming more reasonable. “I think that’s fair,” Tom said.

“It might be. Ellen’s only been here a year,” Ma conceded.

---