"Which you probably have to expect if you drive a car that's been there a while out of a pub carpark while the cops are around."
"That's true. And she'll probably turn up on the front page of tomorrow's Centralian Advocate, resisting arrest after she'd been breathalysed in a respectable neighbourhood."
"So her first name would be Peg?"
The silence on the other end of the connection suggested he'd dropped a major bombshell
"Got a phone call from an old acquaintance called Peg Harvey this morning," Ballantyne went on. "Around breakfast time this morning. She was distraught. As you would be under the circumstances."
"Go on."
"So she's been pulled over driving the new family car after dropping her husband off at the airport. Nick's a guidance officer with the Education Department. Had a meeting in Darwin this morning, so she dropped him off at the airport. Stopped in at the pub to play the pokies and have a counter meal since the kids are away at a school camp. So she leaves the pub, black woman in an expensive-looking brand new car. Obviously sus as far as your average Territory balanda copper is concerned. So it's pull over driver and blow into the little bag, isn't it?"