Alex Palmer - The Labyrinth of Drowning

‘However much those women are making for that brothel by working for nothing, it’s still small beer compared to the money it’s really turning over. Why do it?’

‘That probably means we’re dealing with someone who likes to exercise control over other people for the sake of it,’ Grace said. The same way you do, she added in the silence of her thoughts.

‘Maybe that person can be goaded,’ Clive replied. ‘Lynette had the key to the strongbox in her jacket pocket. The search our killer carried out was pretty basic. Probably he just wanted to get out of there. But did she tell him she’d given this passport to the last person she spoke to, which is you?’

‘We can’t know what she said.’

‘No, and no one can know the truth, including her killers. They only know they don’t have this passport. It’s feasible you’ve stolen it. You had the opportunity.’ Clive was watching her closely. ‘Exactly what are you prepared to do?’

‘What does that mean?’

‘A sting. What if you offer this passport for sale back to both Marie Li and Kidd and see who bites?’

‘Are you telling me it’s no longer necessary we keep Jirawan’s name secret?’ she asked. She felt an intense snap of anger. After all that fuss and with Jirawan dead.

‘I’m saying we need a new strategy. What’s your answer?’ ‘Why would I want to do a thing like that in the first place?’

He opened a manila folder and placed three slender identical documents on the table in front of her.

‘You’re badly paid. Or not enough for you anyway. You’re bored. Now your partner’s not a top cop any more, he’s just not interesting enough. You don’t like motherhood, it bores you too. There’s no excitement in your life and not enough money to make it happen. You’re thinking about having an affair, if you can just find someone.’

‘That’s all in here, is it?’ she asked.

‘Yes. The written agreement and clear directions you wanted,’ he said. ‘Read it. Tell me what you think.’

‘Before we go anywhere, I’m definitely not thinking of having an affair with anyone.’

‘It’s an option you don’t have to follow if you don’t want to. You’ve got the face to make that scenario work. But no organisation has the power to direct one of its operatives to act in that way. We all know that.’

‘Good,’ she said, and picked up the documents, looked through them. ‘This is detailed. You didn’t prepare this sting overnight.’

‘I’ve been thinking about the possibilities ever since Jirawan Sanders was found dead. Her murder means our target is almost certainly in Australia.’

‘You still haven’t said who or what that is.’

‘That document says I will brief you in full when the time comes. And there’s something else. There’s a wild card at work here.’

He had a nakedly manipulative look on his face.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘These people following you, phoning you last night. Who might they be? Do you think it’s Newell?’

‘Newell couldn’t have known where I was last night. Harrigan has a lot of enemies. It’s more likely to be one of them.’ She never referred to Harrigan by his first name in front of Clive.

‘What about the people behind these two women’s murders? As you’ve said, how could anyone know where you were last night unless they were following you from Parramatta? If they’ve identified you, then they’re already interested in you. If you go seeking them, they may well want to deal.’

‘We can’t know that.’

‘No. But it’s a possibility.’

One that put her in even greater danger. She didn’t say this; she didn’t want him to think the possibilities frightened her.

Clive opened his folder and took out two photographs, placing them next to each other like playing cards. Jirawan lying in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park; Lynette as she’d been found in her hotel room.

‘Take these pictures with you,’ he said. ‘When you’re reading that agreement, keep them on the desk in front of you.’

Rather than argue, Grace gathered them up.

‘Who do I talk to first?’

‘ When you’ve read and signed the agreement, you talk to this Marie Li or Narelle Wong or whatever her name is. Then you call on Kidd.’

‘Do I tell Harrigan?’

‘That’s all in there,’ Clive said a little sharply. ‘I told you to read it. If you sign the agreement, then I’ll want to speak to your partner about the operation myself. Don’t worry, you’ll be there when I do. If you don’t want me to do that, I’ll take you off the job now.’

She pulled back a little from the abruptness with which he spoke.

‘Are we sharing any of this with the police?’ she asked.

‘I’ve decided we are, at least with Borghini. He’ll know about the role you’re playing but no one else will. I’ll brief his senior command myself on what they need to know. You were a sworn police officer once. You can appear to be seconded back while this operation is going on. But the proviso is this. Both you and Borghini take your directions from me and no one else.’

‘Borghini probably won’t like that.’

‘He can take it or leave it,’ Clive said. ‘The question is, will you?’

‘I’ll let you know this afternoon,’ she replied and walked out.

Give Clive his due, he had set it out in detail. There was nothing in these pieces of paper to trap her; it was the reverse, the details were comprehensive. Despite that, the job was both dangerous and secretive, even by Orion’s standards. The worst aspect of her work had always been its loneliness. This agreement isolated her further. On her desk, she had a photograph of Paul holding Ellie at her naming ceremony. She remembered thinking at the time, how had she got here? How had she managed to achieve so much just by blundering around the way she always did? The photograph held a world, one that mattered to her more than anything. Clive’s agreement cut her off from that world and left her isolated in another one. The two photographs he had given her lay on the desk; they showed her exactly what she was walking into. They were openings into some other kind of darkness, a place that had nothing to do with the life she lived outside her work. Clive might say that he meant them to make her think twice about what she was taking on. But really he knew her well enough to realise they would have the opposite effect.

She looked at the picture of Paul and Ellie again and the anxiety came back. What happens to my daughter if something happens to me? But it was there on paper: backup, safety, an opt-out clause if she couldn’t handle it. Orion was careful with its operatives’ safety. Her own experience had demonstrated that to her. She would have to step away from both Paul and Ellie in her mind. If she didn’t, the focus she needed, the cold-bloodedness, would not be there. If she once wavered in her intent, not only would she be in danger but she could put the operation at risk and other people who were involved as well.

Clive was asking a lot of her and it angered her to think he probably realised just how much this would cost her. And, regardless of the detail in this document, the real aim of the operation was being hidden from her. All she was being offered was a briefing sometime in the future. In other words, she was being asked to fly blind; she was being used. But she wanted this person, these people, whoever they were, as much as he did. This was her agenda and it was just as important as whatever Clive might have planned. No one was safe when people like this were out there, including the people who meant most to her. She picked up her pen and signed the documents.

Back home in Birchgrove, Harrigan rang his old mate and former 2IC, Trevor Gabriel. He and Trev had worked together for years.