Saving Billie — Peter Corris

When journalist Louise Kramer hires Cliff Hardy to find Billie Marchant, Hardy heads to unfamiliar territory of the far southwest suburbs of Sydney. Billie claims to have information about media-wheel Jonas Clement … the subject of an incriminating expose by Kramer. Clement doesn't want Billie found the Clements enemies want to find her first. Hardy tracks Billie down, but ‘saving Billie' means not rescuing her from herself. Billie, ex-stripper, sometime hooker and druggie, is a handful. Hardy gets help from members of the Pacific Islander community and others, but the enemies close in and he is soon fighting on several different fronts. Clement and his chief rival, Barclay Greaves, have heavies in the field, and Hardy has to negotiate his way through their divided loyalties. Some negotiations involve cunning but others have guns.