Alex Palmer - The Labyrinth of Drowning

‘I’m aiming for six. That’s when they’re expecting us.’

‘Can’t you go faster than that?’

‘Not if we don’t want to attract attention,’ Grace said. ‘Now tell me. What did you tell your parents?’

‘I just told Dad I was going shopping.’

‘What about your mother?’

‘I didn’t talk to her. She’s been horrible to me lately.’

Goodbye, Mum and Dad. Lucky what’s supposed to happen to you isn’t going to. She glanced quickly at Narelle who was staring ahead with a dreamy look in her eyes. Are you really that naive? Or am I the one who’s been blinded ?

‘Did it bother you, what you were doing to Jirawan?’ she asked. ‘Sending her down to get raped every day. Or did you get a kick out of it?’

‘What are you talking about? It was just something she had to do. I didn’t know that was her name. What are you talking about her for? She’s dead. I can’t do anything.’

Grace said nothing.

‘If she’d just done what she was told, she’d have been all right,’ Narelle said angrily after a short silence. ‘Elliot said she owed him money. It was her own fault she was there.’

‘You think it’s as straightforward as that, do you?’ Grace asked.

‘She had to pay her debt. It was his money. He was really upset about it. She owed him.’

‘For what?’

‘He looked after her husband’s business for them and they wouldn’t pay him for it. It was a lot of money.’

Protection money. Give and you just keep giving. Like Kidd .

‘Who do you think killed her?’

‘I don’t know! Why should I?’

‘What about Lynette?’

‘None of that’s got anything to do with me. They did the wrong thing by Elliot. I never have and I never will. He knows that.’

‘Every time you look into those amazing blue eyes, you melt, do you, Narelle?’ Grace said. She remembered Griffin staring at her yesterday in Lane Cove National Park. Blue eyes whose only effect on her had been to chill her through and through. Narelle looked at her sideways with a smile.

‘You don’t know what’s between us, what we feel for each other. It’s so real. What do you know about that?’

‘What about the guy who helped you guard Jirawan? Did you like having him around?’

‘He stank! I don’t think he ever washed. I said I could take care of her, she was only little. But Elliot said I needed him.’

‘Including the night you took her down to Jon Kidd’s car and put her in the boot.’

‘That nasty little man? Elliot said he was weak.’

‘Did you know where Jirawan was going?’ Grace asked.

‘No. I don’t know if he did. He was weird. He said all these weird things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Nasty things, like he was probably taking her to hell. Why say something stupid like that? And if that’s what he thought, why did he do it? It’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t want to talk about it any more.’

She took her iPod out of her bag and put on her earphones. Soon she was in her own world, bopping away to her chosen music.

I let Jirawan go with her train fare . Given what Kidd had known about the people he was dealing with, he’d been brave at least once in his life. Twice when you counted Parramatta Park. Narelle was the last of the witnesses. Griffin had no ties; he could, with the right passport, leave any time he wanted. There were any number of ways to leave the country without going near an airport. He wasn’t taking Narelle with him. Presumably he was taking Sara, if only because she’d always been there.

They drove on in silence until Grace reached the Sydney-Newcastle freeway, heading north to the Hawkesbury River. She was ahead of the worst of the traffic. Her phone rang. It was Griffin, speaking to her through her earpiece.

‘There’s been a change of plan,’ he said. ‘Drive to Brooklyn and go to the public jetty.’

‘Why? What’s happened?’

‘Should you care? It’s a shorter drive for you. Sara will be there.’

‘Where are you?’ she asked.

‘Somewhere,’ he said. ‘You want to get paid. Do what I ask.’

Narelle had unplugged herself.

‘Who’s that?’

‘Elliot,’ Grace said.

‘You’re stupid! Let me talk to him!’

She reached to grab Grace’s earpiece; Grace batted her down.

‘Too late, he’s gone. Change of plan,’ Grace said. ‘We’re going to Brooklyn. You know Brooklyn, don’t you?’

‘What’s there?’

‘A public jetty.’

‘Oh, his yacht! He said one day we’d sail away.’

Are you listening, Clive? Get your people down there. Get someone on the river. Do it now .

She was close to Berowra, where she would have to turn off the freeway onto the old Pacific Highway for the run to Brooklyn, a small fishing village on the Hawkesbury River some fifty kilometres north of Sydney, best known for its marinas and oyster farms. Griffin had rung at too opportune a time for her liking. Someone was telling him where she was.

She had reached the turn-off. The old road was a single-lane highway left to deteriorate, its surface cracked and cheaply repaired. It twisted over the hilly, tree-covered ground leading up to the high ridge overlooking the river, much of which was national park or nature reserve.

‘He knows where we are. We’re being followed,’ she said, speaking not to Narelle but to the listeners on the end of her wire.

‘What are you talking about?’ Narelle asked. ‘You’re weird.’

Grace’s phone rang again. This time it was her backup.

‘There’s a motorcycle with a pillion passenger behind you. They’ve been with you for a while. They’re moving faster and getting closer. You’re going to need to take evasive action.’

‘Where are you?’

‘In range. Moving up behind them. Keep the line open.’

‘What was that about?’ Narelle asked.

‘Put your hood up and get down in your seat.’

‘Why?’

‘Just do it!’

Grace put her foot down, speeding up a winding hill towards a communications tower on the summit. She looked in the rear-view mirror. A motorcyclist with a pillion was speeding up to come alongside her on her right. Narelle hadn’t moved. She sat there looking sullen.

‘Get down now!’ Grace shouted at her.

‘What’s happening?’

‘Down!’

Grace swung out onto the wrong side of the road as the motorbike drew level with her, almost knocking the bike over. The rider swerved to avoid a collision, almost went off the road, drew back, and then followed her back to the left lane and was again trying to draw level. Grace saw her backup behind them.

‘What’s going on?’ Narelle’s voice was almost a shriek.

‘Keep quiet and don’t panic!’

The rider was accelerating to come alongside, only to find the backup car on his tail trying to nudge his back wheel. Then Grace’s back window and windscreen shattered almost instantaneously. The pillion on the bike behind her had fired. Narelle began to scream, curling into a ball in her seat. The on-coming air hit Grace like a wall. She hung on to the car, fighting to keep it under control and on the road.

On a tight bend, she came close to swerving onto the wrong side of the twisting road, almost colliding head on with an approaching vehicle, but managed to drag the car back. The car’s horn blared as she sped past it. Then there was a crash.

The bike had still been there, swinging away from her backup to come alongside on the left, beside Narelle. Pushed by the backup car behind, it had collided with Grace side on as she swerved back to her side of the road. She had hit it at full speed. Gripping the wheel, she dragged the car away from the bike up onto the shoulder, where she brought it to a stop. Then she radioed in.