Alex Palmer - The Labyrinth of Drowning

‘I’m only here because Coco’s dead,’ he said. He didn’t look at Grace. ‘She had to be illegal. When you went and saw her, she’d freeze up. The last time I saw her, she was curled up on the bed, really tense. I walked out. I asked Lynette if I could see one of the other girls instead. It just wasn’t fun.’

‘Who’s Lynette?’ Grace said.

‘The receptionist. She said I could swap if I wanted to. I didn’t have to pay again.’

‘Was there any other reason you thought Coco might have been illegal?’

‘Her English wasn’t very good. I thought if you were here legally, you’d have to have some English. And she was new. She started just a couple of months ago.’

‘Why did you keep seeing her?’ Grace prodded gently.

‘No one’s going to know?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘Passing on this information would be a criminal offence.’

The reassurance seemed to help. He held his hands together on the table, looking ahead. His face went red.

‘You didn’t have to wear a condom,’ he said.

‘I don’t think you told the police that,’ Grace said quietly.

‘I didn’t trust them to keep their mouths shut.’

Orion had given him a paper-thin sense of safety where he could reveal himself. His sense of guilt must have weighed on him every night before he went to sleep.

‘Were there any other workers you didn’t have to wear a condom for?’ Grace asked.

‘No. Not that I knew about anyway.’

‘You weren’t worried about your health? Or your wife’s?’

‘Marie said Coco had regular health checks. Me and my wife don’t have sex that often. She doesn’t seem to like it much.’ His voice was flat.

‘Who’s Marie?’

‘ Miss Marie Li. The manageress.’ He drew quotation marks in the air. ‘She hasn’t been there that long. She’s mainly decorative. Lynette’s the one who makes things happen.’

‘Except in this case,’ Grace said.

‘Lynette said Coco wasn’t anything to do with her. I should always talk to Marie about her.’

‘How did you hear about Coco in the first place?’

His face was still red. ‘It was on the net. They’ve got a website. Ask Marie for something special . I thought I’d see what it was.’

‘How often do you visit?’

‘Once a fortnight. I build up my flexitime at work and go before I come home.’

‘How do you pay?’

‘Cash.’

Doesn’t your wife notice the money? She must know .

‘What sort of an establishment is it?’

‘Well run. It’s got a lot of girls, a spa. It’s private.’

‘Private?’

‘You don’t have to walk in off the street. You’d know what I mean if you went there.’

‘Were there any other workers there from overseas?’

‘Oh yeah. I’ll tell you what, they’re beautiful girls. I know men who go there just for them. There’s an African girl-she’s out of this world. But you have to pay extra, a lot extra. Coco and the other girls, you didn’t.’ He looked away, his heavy body seeming to be weighed down. ‘Is that it? I should get back to work.’

‘One last question. Did Coco ever wear any jewellery when you saw her?’

‘She didn’t wear anything.’

‘No rings?’

‘Nope.’

She glanced at his left hand. He was wearing his wedding ring. Did he take it off before he visited? Not a question to ask.

‘Thank you, Doug. That’s all. You will have to wait until the transcript’s printed out because you have to read and sign it as an accurate record. But that won’t take very long.’

‘My family’s not going to hear about this?’

Grace shook her head. ‘No. That’s a promise. Shall I get Carol outside to get you a coffee?’

‘Yeah. White, one sugar.’

‘It’s on its way.’

Grace left quickly. She had another meeting, in a room much deeper into the centre of the building, where Clive was waiting for her. She’d already sent him a brief summary of her morning’s work.

In contrast to the noise outside-the aircraft flying overhead and the daily clamour of the city’s traffic-this room had a quietness that ate sound. Again there were no windows but this time the lights were muted. Grace sat down without speaking a greeting. The table was often bare; its function was to serve as a barrier between them, something to lean on. Today Clive had brought a folder with him; this meant he had plans of his own.

‘What did our informant have to say?’ he asked.

‘A bit more than he told the police. You didn’t have to wear a condom when you had sex with Coco. The brothel put out a teaser on the net for clients. Which means our informant also surfs the net.’

‘We’re not interested in his tastes. Are there any other workers there with that same job description?’

‘He didn’t know about them if there were.’

‘Is this man telling the truth?’

‘Oh, I think so. It’s cost him a lot to come forward. He’s the perfect informant for us. All he wants is complete secrecy, particularly from his family.’

‘His wife really doesn’t know?’

‘Of course she knows,’ Grace replied briskly. ‘She probably knows down to the last cent what he spends. And whatever he says, he probably knows exactly how much she’s prepared to tolerate. It’s the lack of a condom she won’t know about, and that’s what he doesn’t want her to find out. He’d be in the family court the next day.’

Clive smiled with scorn and turned his attention to her interim report.

‘It’s interesting what you have to say about Kidd from this morning’s meeting.’

‘There’s a possibility of corruption here,’ she said. ‘If Kidd was involved in this woman’s escape in any way, that’s a weakness we need to identify.’

Clive was looking at her distantly. He had a red-covered document in his hand. ‘Is it only that? I’d say you haven’t forgiven him for saying you were responsible for Coco’s death. In the meantime, read that. When she supposedly escaped, I decided we should follow your judgement and have a good look at this Mr Kidd. That’s what the finance people came up with.’

His comment had caught her off guard, wounding her a little. She flicked open the dossier on Jon Kidd. A single man in his late forties and a long-term employee with the Department of Immigration, based at their Parramatta offices. Once a wealthy man, his financial records indicated a constant and substantial drain of money over the last three years, including the sale of shares and investments, culminating in a 100 per cent mortgage on his house in Mosman, where he lived with his mother. There was also a large personal loan with his car, a Mercedes, as surety. Previously he had been a regular visitor to Thailand and Cambodia and, until recently, a generous donor to orphanages in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. Those trips had stopped in recent months, presumably due to a lack of funds.

‘Looking at his travel records, he mainly preferred the Cambodian orphanage,’ Clive said, ‘but he still spent time in Thailand.’

‘What did he do with these children from the orphanages?’ Grace said. ‘Take them away on holiday with him? Whatever it was, he doesn’t do it now. He’s almost bankrupt. He’s being blackmailed.’

‘Bled dry,’ Clive agreed. ‘I’ve directed our IT people to trace his computer traffic and, if they can, to hack into his own computer. I’ve also put out a “don’t touch” order on him just in case any other agency knows about his existence. The Thai woman’s escape was interesting. An act of desperation if ever I saw one, and Kidd was the person best placed to make it happen. I want to know if he is in fact responsible and what’s behind it.’

‘Does this mean we’ve decided once and for all that Coco is Jirawan Sanders, as the initials on her wedding ring would suggest?’