The Roadster pulled up close to the Ford sedan with Farquar at the wheel. There was one other man in the front seat. Both were watching the entrance and the media throng. Cavalier aimed at the back right tyre and fired off two shots.

‘Go!’ he said. Haut put his foot down and sped off. Looking back, Cavalier could see the two men getting out of the car, gesticulating and examining the punctured tyre.

*

Haut took a room at Rydges for the night and at dawn the next morning he and Cavalier checked out of the hotel. They drove to Haut’s home, where the sickly odour of the triple killing still lingered in the staircase. Haut packed two suitcases while Cavalier sat in the Roadster, alert to every vehicle coming up the road, or from the street behind him and further up the top of the mountain. Haut took a stressful hour. He had his phone to his ear all the time, talking to his parents, friends and business acquaintances. He told them he was going away and would not be back for some time. He kept on phoning over the next fifteen minutes as he drove them both to the airport. It was 7 a.m. when they arrived. Cavalier slipped off the shoulder holster and Glock and placed it under the seat.

‘Better not get caught with that,’ he said.

‘I’m having my accountant pick up the car,’ Haut said. ‘I’ll tell her to take it, the Uzi, the Bentley and the other Glocks to Ken Pringle. He can look after the car and hide the weapons in the van.’

‘Not that it matters,’ Cavalier said, alighting from the car. ‘I can’t see Farquar complaining to the police that there are three missing murderers whom he sent to kill you.’

‘I’m going to leave the keys under the seat,’ Haut said. ‘My accountant doesn’t have a set for the car or the house.’

‘They should be okay in sleepy Hobart airport.’

The airport was quiet. About a hundred passengers were waiting for the first flight out.

There was one seat left on a flight to Melbourne that was scheduled to board in five minutes. Cavalier insisted Haut take it.

‘No one spoke to me, except your friend Jane, Pringle and the Danish crowd. I’ve been like a ghost in Hobart.’

‘Did Farquar recognise you at the casino?’

‘Doubt it. I had my back to him at the bar and then when I sat with the Danes there was that stylish opaque partition between us.’ Cavalier smiled and added, ‘Last night he ducked when I blew the tyre out.’

‘Yeah, I saw that too,’ Haut said with a nervous chortle before checking in. One of his luggage pieces was stuffed with business papers.

Cavalier walked with him to the lounge area on one side of the small airport. Passengers were boarding.