Alex Palmer - The Labyrinth of Drowning

Grace felt her gun against her ribcage, glad it was there. Did you hear that, Clive? I’m walking into a meeting with two very dangerous people. You’d better be there .

They turned into Cowan Water. The steep waterside hills of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park closed in on them. Then the lights of the tiny suburb were in view. Situated on the banks of Cowan Creek and surrounded by bush in the heart of the national park, it was an isolated, if beautiful, place. From here, the lights of Sydney were a pale glow in the night sky. Soon the boat slid quietly up to a mooring place. There was a dinghy moored nearby. They got into it and Sara rowed them to the private jetty of a three-storeyed house, the last in the short line of buildings on the water’s edge.

There was a light shining dully over a door not far from the jetty; otherwise the house was in darkness. Before they went inside, Sara turned and looked around at the water, the hills surrounding them, and the sky.

‘What are you doing?’ Grace said. ‘Saying goodbye to Cottage Days ? We’re not coming back here then.’

‘Just keep quiet,’ Sara hissed, an edge of tears in her voice. ‘Sound carries.’

She let them both in, switching on the lights to a spacious rumpus room. The decor, from the ’70s, looked old and kitsch. Under other circumstances, the house would have had a comfortable, holiday feel, the kind of place where you could kick your shoes off. There was no sign of Griffin.

‘Is this where you were bringing Narelle?’

‘Check that room over there.’

Grace walked up to a door with a lock on the outside. She looked back over her shoulder but Sara hadn’t moved.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I’m not coming after you.’

It was a small room with one window, too small to get out of and too high to reach. The walls were brick, the door solid wood. Once you were locked in here, there would be no way out until someone opened the door.

‘What was going to happen to her in there?’

‘You were going to shoot her.’

‘I was?’ Grace said.

‘I was going to strip her and then I was going to watch. She was going to cry and beg for mercy and I’d say, too bad, Elliot doesn’t love you any more. But she’s already dead. We don’t have to do that.’

‘Where’s the gun?’

‘It’s the one you’re carrying. You are carrying one, aren’t you?’

‘Why me?’

‘Proving yourself to Joel. Oh, he thinks you’re genuine and I’m beginning to think you are too. But that’s what you were going to do to prove it.’

No, I would have had to arrest you and take you in. The operation would have been aborted . Grace shut the door and once again felt the security of her gun against her ribs.

‘There’s no Narelle. What are we doing here now?’ she asked.

‘Just wait.’

Sara took a mobile out of a drawer, turned it on, sent a quick message, then turned the phone off again and put it in her pocket.

‘All right. We’re moving on. You’re finally going to get what you came for.’ She held up a set of car keys. ‘The garage is two levels up. Let’s go.’

‘This is your parents’ house, isn’t it?’

‘It’s basically mine,’ she replied with a shrug. ‘We’ve had it for years but they never come here. I’m the only one who’s ever used it.’

‘You came here to go sailing. When you were a kid. This is where you learned to sail.’

‘So what?’ Sara replied, a little puzzled. ‘Why do you want to know?’

‘It was before you met Joel. Before you found out about all those things he taught you. You came here and you were happy.’

Before you let him turn you into a murderer.

‘What are you talking about? What are you getting at?’

Sara’s tall and slender figure was shaking. She stared at Grace, almost crying.

‘Nothing.’

‘Then stop talking rubbish and let’s go.’

‘Where to?’

‘Mona Vale Road. We have to hurry. We’re late.’

The car was a Mazda Grace hadn’t seen before. ‘Where’s your black Porsche?’ she asked.

‘Do you want to ride? Or do you want to walk?’

‘Why drive some cheap little blue Mazda when you can drive a Porsche?’

To her surprise, this comment, which was only intended to tell her listeners which car to look out for, had clearly hurt Sara’s feelings.

‘It’ll be good enough to get you where you’re going,’ she said, a crack in her voice. ‘That’s all that matters.’

‘Don’t tell me you’ve had to say goodbye to your car as well as everything else?’ Grace said as mockingly and mercilessly as Sara could have done.

‘Get in! We have to go!’

Sara drove in silence, staring at the road ahead, pushing the car. Her face was set; had she been walking, she would have had her head down and been powering through anything that got in her way. They climbed the steep slope up from Cowan Creek, through the national park, then too fast along the ridge out of the park to the main road. It was getting late. Grace allowed herself to think about Ellie and Harrigan. You’ll see me , she told them. Then Sara turned off Mona Vale Road into Terrey Hills.

‘What are we doing here?’ Grace asked.

‘Going where you want to go.’

‘Terrey Hills? Duffys Forest? What’s here?’

‘Wait.’

She drove deep into the heart of the rural suburb of Duffys Forest. The roads were dark and Grace couldn’t see any street signs. Finally she caught sight of one illuminated in the car lights.

‘We’re out in the sticks,’ she said. ‘The Bush Fire Brigade is just down there.’

‘But we’re not going there, are we?’ Sara replied with a razoredged smile.

There was a car a short distance in front of them along the road. Its lights were turned off. It drove for a little longer, then turned into a driveway. Grace watched a man get out and open the gate. Griffin. He cut his engine and coasted down the driveway. Sara had already turned off her car lights and followed him. When they turned into the driveway, Grace could just make out a For Sale sign out the front of the house.

‘Is this your house?’ she asked. ‘Or is it empty because it’s for sale and you’re just using it?’

‘Quiet!’

They coasted down the driveway into a garage with a light on overhead. Griffin had already pulled up in a white Toyota Camry. Sara stopped behind him. Grace recognised the numberplate: the car that had stalked Harrigan and Ellie to Kidz Corner.

‘Get out,’ Sara said.

Grace did so. She had her gun, they knew she did. Would it be enough to protect her from the two of them? This was enough. Time to bail out.

‘Why are we here?’ she asked Sara, who was standing by the open door of her car. ‘Why come here? It’s time to go.’

‘Not yet,’ Sara said.

Griffin came over. Grace stood where she could see both of them. Griffin didn’t even look at her.

‘Why are you so late?’ he asked Sara. ‘I’ve been waiting for your SMS for hours.’

‘She killed Joe Ponticelli.’

‘What?’ He turned to Grace, seeming to see her for the first time. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘Because he tried to kill me. The same way Kidd got gunned down. I ran them off the road. They got Narelle. She’s in the bush.’

‘He wasn’t after you, he couldn’t have been. Unless-’ He stopped. ‘It doesn’t matter one way or the other now. Did you get Marie’s ID?’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay. We’ve no time now. Coopes won’t be with us tonight.’

‘Oh, why not?’ Sara asked, not hiding her disappointment.

‘Who’s Coopes?’ Grace asked.

‘An old friend,’ Griffin replied dismissively. ‘He can’t be involved. There’s no time.’