The Immortality Plot

The Immortality Plot - chapter 23

North Carolina and Seventh Streets were waking up for the evening. The Eastern Market in Washington DC was emptying as the bargain hunters and shoppers headed for home. The banter and noise of the stallholders and traders filled the air as Delaney walked with Grace Ryan to a restaurant she knew.

Ryan walked quickly like she was anxious to put her shadow behind her. Delaney strode by her side with Ryan’s blonde hair bobbing about the level of his shoulders. There was a light breeze scudding around the sidewalk, picking up the dusty paper wrappers, out-of-date sales leaflets, onion peel and crumpled fragments of market debris. People from all over the nearby Capitol Hill were pouring out of offices, some heading for home, others for bars and restaurants, looking for good company and maybe adventure.

Delaney was wondering what reaction his post would have. With some luck it would stir up a minor storm. He’d have to let Bob Messenger handle the press and the police since they would almost certainly be making contact. But then again, it was just a website and it was just a post. What the hell!

Grace Ryan led the way to a side street restaurant that served a range of styles. It was noisy and brash but classy at the same time. She was known here and it didn’t take long to find a table not far from a small stage where a couple of guys were strumming some nice folksy tunes and singing in harmony. They weren’t too loud or too quiet but just Delaney’s level.

They ordered drinks; a dry Martini for Ryan and an ice-cold beer for Delaney. She looked at him coolly.

“I’ve surprised myself,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever offered a strange man house room after knowing him for ten minutes. You must have some kind of charisma.”

Delaney just smiled. “I’m grateful for the bed by the way. Don’t think I’m taking you for granted. Miles Dunning told me you were the queen of lost causes. You seem to do quite well out of it.”

“Dear old Miles. He’d never come across anyone quite like me. I think I frightened the shit out of him. Maria was much cooler than me. I could imagine Miles doing everything he could for her. But I just couldn’t play with those prima donna editors and publishers. Either they want my stuff or they don’t and they should do because I’ve been involved with some hairy cases in the last couple of years. And I kinda like lost causes.”

“Tell me about Australia,” said Delaney. “Don’t they have campaigning civil rights lawyers down under? Why bring in an American?”

She looked at him. “Good question. It’s the first question I asked myself. I think, in this case, they needed someone that didn’t have baggage attached. They needed someone who wasn’t part of the system.”

“What’s the case about?”

Ryan took a deep breath just as the waiter arrived to take their order. When he had gone she said. “Do you really want to know?”

“I really want to know.”

She paused again.

“An eighteen year old Aboriginal girl has been accused of wounding with a knife a forty year old white male who had been systematically raping her for a year. The community knew about it but did nothing. She was doing odd jobs at a bar he was running in a small town in the Northern Territories. When she finally fought back against the abuse, she stabbed him, not fatally but she was arrested and put in jail without representation. The case exploded as the bigger issues of aboriginal and indigenous peoples rights came into the equation and there was a lot of trouble and violence in the rural township where it took place.

“Since then, ten other women have come forward claiming to have been raped by men in the town so the Aboriginal Civil Rights Association became involved and the whole situation blew up into a national story. I’ve had some experience with Native American legal disputes over here so the Association looked around and found me. They thought my presence would help by bringing a broader perspective to the case and bring the wider issues of civil rights into the picture. So I became part of the legal team defending the girl and bringing cases against a group of rapists. As you can imagine, it has polarized opinions, not just in the township but right across Australia. I’ve become the target for anti-American vitriol. I’ve been accused of sticking my big Yankee nose in other people’s affairs and why don’t I go live in Iraq if I’m so hot on civil rights.”