No Good Reason

by Marg McAlister

  “You still there, Georgie?”

  “Bad timing, Bluey? If you’re busy, this can wait till later.”

  “It’s cool. But I’ll ring you back on another phone, okay? Give me a couple of minutes.”

  “Sure.”

  Georgie waited, and true to his word, Bluey called back a few moments later. “Sorry about that, Georgie.” He lowered his voice. “Not sure, but that phone might have been compromised.”

  “Is it better if I send you an email or something first?”

  “No, this number should be fine. Delete the other one. This is something that’s come up just in the last couple of days. Anyway…what’s the problem?”

  Georgie gave him a potted history of what she and Scott had been up to, the plight faced by the Moores, and the information she had so far. “Not much to go on, I know,” she said. “But I thought if you could just see what you can turn up on Jesse Burns, I’ll know what I’m dealing with before I meet up with him. Does that sound do-able?”

  “Next time, give me something hard. I’ll call you back later this afternoon, okay? Or it could be tonight. When did you say you’re meeting up with this guy?”

  “Tomorrow, about eleven. Is that giving you enough time?”

  “Absolutely. Ordinarily I’d probably be able to get you something in a couple of hours, but there’s something here I have to attend to first.”

  “Like a phone that is not secure?”

  “That, and a few other things. Gotta go. Give my regards to little bro.” With that, Bluey was gone.

  17

  Filming

  Walking along the water’s edge at Hyam’s Beach, sandals in one hand, Georgie felt a sense of deja vu. Over the years, she’d participated in quite a few ads for Johnny B Goode’s RV Empire, and she’d made a few more for her little band of retro travelers in the USA.

  Cameramen all seemed to want to the same type of thing: go down there, walk towards me but not too fast, look out to sea, stop and dip your toes in the water… then we'll have Jesse Burns walk along towards you, right, and you’ll greet each other. We’ll have some nice shots of Hyam’s Beach, and even pan up to Jesse’s house…

  They had a couple of goes at it, and she saw that Jesse Burns was just as comfortable in front of the cameras as she was. Probably more so: she had a feeling that he would have spent a great deal of his life opening things, donating money, sponsoring things, being seen at black-tie events and so on. He’d have made a great politician. In fact, she was a bit surprised that he hadn’t already made a run for Parliament.

  They did half a dozen takes until the cameraman was satisfied, and then he futzed around a bit more, getting Georgie to stare out to sea thoughtfully, and then up to the heavens as though she was tapping into the great beyond.

  Cheesy, Georgie acknowledged, but in a strange way not so far from reality.

  The cameraman and his sidekick huddled together to watch the playback, then the cameraman moved his headphones away from his ear and nodded at her, giving her a thumbs up. “Nice work. This is gonna look good. Now if we can get you and Mr Burns to move over here –” he indicated the natural rock formation where he'd set up Georgie's crystal ball “— we’ll do the next take. I’ll get a few shots of you looking into the crystal ball. Let me see —” He turned around and looked to where the sun was. “Yes this'll do it. I can get a few shots of the sea and sky through the crystal ball.”

  “Okay.” Georgie looked over to where Scott was unwrapping her crystal ball and then setting it on the same worn piece of velvet that Rosa had used for years. He knew how much she treasured it, and there was no way he was going to let anything happen to it.

  As she followed the cameraman across to the rocks, Jesse Burns fell into step beside her.

  “You're not what I expected,” he said.

  Georgie turned her head to look at him, and raised her eyebrows. “Really? What were you expecting? Full Gypsy regalia? Maybe a gypsy wagon?”

  He laughed, a rich deep laugh that made him sound genial and approachable. After getting Bluey’s report the night before, she knew that the real Jesse Burns was no such thing; she was seeing his public persona.

  Well, she could play along with this.

  Georgie looked down at her filmy white skirt and the bright cotton embroidered scarf she had draped around the tank top she wore. Without the scarf, the outfit would have been at home on any beach, but the scarf added just the right touch. She’d arranged her hair in loose looping braids, and had added a couple of dangling earrings for effect.

  See, Mr Burns, she said silently. You're not the only one who knows how to project an image.

  He put a hand on her arm to slow her down. “So tell me,” he said in a low voice, deliberately lagging behind the cameraman. “Is this stuff for real, or is it a show? Like those illusionists in Vegas?”

  Georgie turned her head to meet his eyes. She kept a smile on her face, but made sure the smile was in her eyes too. She wanted Jesse to trust her – right up until the time she could bring him down. “I really am an eighth-generation Gypsy, Mr Burns. My great-grandmother owned this crystal ball before me, and what she can do puts me in the shade.”

  Will his eyes sharpened and he gave her a quick nod. “Okay, I get it that you're an eighth-generation Gypsy, but you didn't really answer my question. Is this stuff for real?”

  “There are plenty of people that have told me so,” she said. “But why don't you wait and see? I'll do a reading for you, and you can make your own decision.”

  “Suitably vague,” he said. “But I believe that’s how it’s often played. All right, then. What sorts of things are we going to be looking at?” He kept his voice casual, but Georgie was attuned to him now, and it wasn't hard to sense the underlying caution. This was a man with a lot to hide – he certainly wouldn't want some of the deals he’d been involved in exposed in a TV interview that thousands and thousands of people would see.

  She tapped him playfully on the arm. “Don't worry Mr Burns. I never embarrass my clients. It'll be easy enough for you to shut me down, if you think I'm venturing into territory you don't want made public.”

  That made him stop in his tracks. He turned to face her, glancing again at the cameraman first to make sure he wasn’t in earshot. “Is there likely to be a reason I would want to shut you down?” He squinted at her in the bright sun. The cameraman had made them take their sunglasses off, the better to see their faces. “Because I don’t take kindly to being set up.”

  Oh, yes, he has something to hide, all right. Georgie shook her head. “Mr Burns –”

  “Call me Jesse,” he said with a hint of impatience. “I've told you that.”

  “Jesse, then.” Georgie regarded him seriously. “When I read a crystal ball, I do sometimes see… shall we say, sensitive information. If I do, I don’t disclose it publicly. Especially in a TV interview. I know the aim of this is to attract people to the area, so I’ll play to the crowd, give them what they want. Don't worry, you'll come out of it looking good.”

  He glanced over to where the cameraman was giving them hurry up motions, looking at his watch. “And if there is any… sensitive… information, are you going to pass that on, or not?”

  Georgie was instantly reminded of how Drew had asked virtually the same question a few nights ago.

  “That’s up to you. I’ll give you the opportunity to hear it privately, if you wish.”

  “At a cost, no doubt.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words, but Georgie just smiled back and shook her head.

  Jesse gave her the kind of look that meant he was reconsidering his first impression of her. Georgie took care to keep her face open, friendly and approachable. Sure, she wanted him to respect her, and respect what she did – but there was no need to send a signal that she could be dangerous to him.

  The cameraman patted the flat rock on which the crystal ball was placed, with room for Georgie to sit beside it. He'd spread the towel that Scott got out of the ca
r on the sand beside it and told Jesse to sit there, so the camera crew could get shots of him gazing up at Georgie, getting her reactions, with the crystal ball neatly between the two of them.

  “Okay,” said the cameraman, once he was satisfied that he had them where he wanted, with the sun in the right position. “Let’s test the sound. Georgie, can you just say a few words?”

  “My name is Georgie Goode,” Georgie said. She had been through this so many times she was on autopilot. “I’m delighted to be giving Jesse Burns a reading today. Mr Burns is an active person in the local community, and I'm sure he’s going to enjoy this as much as I am.” She gave a big smile right into the camera. “I hope to see many of you along to the markets on Saturday.”

  “Nice. That'll do. Now you, Jesse.”

  “My name is Jesse Burns,” said Jesse with a grin at the same camera that Georgie had just targeted. “I'm really excited about this, the inaugural seasonal markets to take place at Sussex Inlet. As you can see, I’m at the beautiful beach near my home, here at Hyams beach, but the whole area is filled with beautiful waterways and lovely spots to picnic. It's also filled with –”

  “Okay, good,” the cameraman interrupted. “That'll do it. We'll do the intro later.” He moved the tripod slightly and adjusted the camera again. “That's better. We’re ready to roll. Just do what you normally do, Georgie. At the end we might have Jesse ask you a few questions, get you to give more answers… That kind of thing. Okay with that?”

  “Totally fine,” Georgie said.

  Jesse Burns echoed her sentiments, and they got underway.

  Georgie went into her usual spiel at the beginning, about guaranteeing nothing and about how she was sometimes just as surprised as her clients and what she was able to see, and then smiled at Jesse. “Sometimes I just sit here and look into the crystal ball, and see what comes up. Sometimes my clients ask me questions. How would you like to approach this?”

  Jesse looked at her challengingly. “If I ask you a question, wouldn’t that give you a bit of a heads up as to what I'm interested in? Wouldn’t it be better to just let you run with this?”

  Georgie smile back at him sweetly. “Whatever you like. I'm happy to just get started, and see what we can find out.”

  Ignoring the camera crew, she closed her eyes for a moment and ran her fingertips gently over the crystal ball. She was aware of Scott, not far away, supporting her as always in anything she did. She let her attention drift away, and felt the crystal ball grow warmer under her hands. Scott had kept it covered and in a cooler bag so it didn't get too hot in the sun while they were filming the initial walk down the beach, and now she could already feel a different definite difference in the temperature.

  Slowly, she smoothed her hand her cupped hands down over the sides of the crystal ball and let them rest gently on the lower half of the globe.

  Bright and clear, the crystal ball blinked back at her.

  Darn. Was it going to be one of those days? Surely she wasn't going to have to say, “Sorry, it seems the universe doesn't have anything to tell me today.”

  That wouldn’t do much to bring the crowds in.

  “Am I supposed to be saying anything?” Jesse asked, peering at it. “Or am I supposed to be seeing anything?” He winked at the camera. “Nothing mysterious here, folks!”

  Despite herself, Georgie felt a frisson of annoyance. Couldn't the man be generous enough to know that he was doing this as an ad to bring people to his area? To his town? No, apparently Jesse Burns was one of those people who thought it was always about him.

  “Cut.” The cameraman put his hand briefly in front of the camera lens, and took it away again. Georgie knew from her previous experience with this that that was a signal to him when new footage started.

  He looked at Jesse. “Mr Burns, it's probably best if we keep this positive, as an ad for the markets.”

  “No,” Georgie said, tilting her head to look up at the cameraman. “Let it go. You need to show this like it is. Don't worry, this sometimes happens at the beginning – but it's rare for me not to get anything. We'll just get keep going, let people see what the real experience is like.” This time, she couldn't help herself: she had to shoot Jesse a challenging look.

  Jesse clearly didn’t like being reprimanded. “Alright, let’s go again.” He looked at his watch. “I do have a meeting to get to in about half an hour, so it'd be good if we could wrap this up soon.”

  I'll wrap you up all right, thought Georgie. And it'll be my pleasure to do it.

  18

  More to Know

  Although he didn’t seem to want to ask her a specific question, Georgie had a good idea of what Jesse Burns might want to know. Thanks to Bluey, she knew he had a multi-million dollar deal pending: a mega development in one of Sydney’s popular suburbs. She also knew that Jesse had already been notified, through clandestine channels, that it should get the green light today.

  The development hadn’t been popular, with people protesting against the plan because of heritage listings, but Jesse had a few politicians in his pocket, and also had managed to bury his interests several levels deep in shell companies.

  Of course, that kind of thing was no barrier to someone like Bluey. Exactly what Bluey did, or how he did it, Georgie wasn’t sure – and he wasn’t saying. She had come to know that Scott’s brother had his own code of ethics – if he could see that someone deserved to be taken down, he wouldn’t hesitate. Unless, she surmised, it went contrary to the interests of some long game he was playing.

  She passed her fingers over the crystal ball again, opening herself up to whatever the messages might be. She knew that she wouldn’t necessarily see anything, but she’d kind of hoped that today she would, with the cameras there recording everything.

  She looked at the crystal ball again. Still, nothing. Then she gradually became aware that this time, she was receiving information in a different way.

  Images, words, sensations were coming together and coalescing into definite impressions.

  Oh yes, Jesse Burns was on tenterhooks. He needed desperately for his big investment to go through without anyone being the wiser that he was at the helm. That was probably part of the reason he was antsy today: he was waiting for the big news.

  There was nothing she would have liked better than to expose him to the world, but that was going to come soon enough without her intervention. Right now, she needed to focus on her immediate problem: a wonderful little family here at Sussex Inlet whose livelihood had been destroyed this man.

  Jesse himself interrupted her thoughts again. “Are you seeing anything yet?” She heard the faint note of derision in his voice, and disliked him even more, if that were possible. Masking her true feelings, she looked up at him with a small smile. “Yes. I’m getting quite a lot, actually – don’t be misled by the fact that you can’t actually see anything in the crystal ball. Often, people do – but sometimes, the information is for me only.”

  Jesse let out one of his jolly laughs, projecting the image of a staunch local supporter who was happy to go along with the facade that she was putting up, for the sake of the markets. “And tell me, what do you see?”

  Georgie ignored the larger question that he had in his mind, and opened her mind to smaller things, things you could reveal in front of the intrusive eye of a TV camera. She pictured Jesse Burns’ body and organs, opening up her mind to his general state of health. That usually revealed something – there were not many people who didn’t have something wrong with them, or who hadn’t had some injury in the past.

  Sure enough, an image flashed into her mind of a small blonde-haired boy, about eight or nine years old, hopping along on crutches. His right ankle was in plaster.

  Her eyes met his. “When you were a boy – I’m guessing, maybe eight or nine – you had an accident. Judging by the plaster, I think either a broken leg, a broken ankle? Something like that. I’m seeing you on crutches – and that leg still pains you.” She nodded, glancin
g at his tanned leg in designer shorts. “Your right leg.”

  At last, a spark of interest entered Jesse’s eyes. “Yes, you’re right. I did break my ankle as a kid. Skateboarding accident.”

  Satisfied that she had snared him now, Georgie nodded.

  More images flooded in. She focused on Jesse’s children, his family. “You have three children. Two boys and a girl.”

  Jesse shook finger at her. “True, true. But that information is everywhere. Now, Georgie, if we want people to come along and see you and find out things they can’t find out from anyone else, you need to give me more than that.” Staring straight at the camera he hammed it up a bit, raising and lowering his eyebrows a couple of times then out flashed the beaming, trademark Jesse Burns smile. The smile said I’m just kidding around, but Georgie could clearly feel his underlying impatience. Despite the information about his childhood accident, he was still skeptical.

  Under her fingers, the crystal ball grew warmer still. She glanced down, and was satisfied to see the familiar soft grey-white mist forming in the centre.

  Jesse’s eyes followed hers, and she heard an intake of breath. “Well, look at that. The crystal ball is turning cloudy inside. What does that mean?”

  “Sometimes it means that images will start to appear; sometimes it just stays that way and anything I see is in my mind only.”

  Jesse stared hard at the crystal ball. “Okay. So, what else can you see?”

  This time, unbidden, an image floated into Georgie’s mind of a sleek-looking woman with artfully streaked blonde hair, dressed in expensive casual clothes, with a butterfly shaped pendant suspended from a thin gold chain. The crystal ball still showed nothing, but the image in Georgie’s mind was as clear as a photograph. Certain that the woman was Jesse’s wife, she said: “Your wife – she has a beautiful pendant, or a necklace. It’s in the shape of a butterfly, studded with what looks like rubies and diamonds – a very nice piece.” More information flooded into her mind. She looked up at Jesse again. “No, she had it… she doesn’t own it anymore?”