Alex Palmer - The Labyrinth of Drowning

He leaned over the table towards her. Grace sat upright, preventing herself from drawing back. ‘Did you at any time tell Jon Kidd or the police that we were seeking a woman of that name?’

‘No, of course I didn’t.’

‘Then this is for you.’ He pushed a photograph across the table. It was sourced from Interpol and labelled as top secret. The Thai woman, Coco, was sitting at a table somewhere shyly smiling for the camera. The name underneath the image was Jirawan Sanders.

‘You had a photograph after all,’ Grace said in a neutral voice. ‘Why didn’t we just take her out of there? And why couldn’t you tell me you knew who she was?’

‘I had no reason to believe she wouldn’t be safe in Villawood. I didn’t want to broadcast just how interested we were.’ He smiled again. ‘This is the first significant job I’ve given you. I had no way of knowing I could trust you. I wanted you to prove that I could.’

‘I’ve worked for Orion for five years. You had no basis for assuming that I couldn’t be trusted with classified information.’

‘I wanted to know if you were competent. It’s turned out you are.’

Grace sat for a few moments not trusting herself to speak. You as good as killed her . Kidd had said that to her. Orion, via Clive, had as good as killed Jirawan Sanders by looking to finesse for advantage instead of acting in the most straightforward way. In that moment, it became crucial to Grace that she saw this through and found whoever had murdered the Thai woman.

‘Can we call her Jirawan in that case?’ she asked, her voice calm.

‘If you think that’s necessary. What I want you to do at the brothel tonight is to see if you can confirm our informant’s information. See if there’s anyone there who might have acted as this woman’s gaoler. And watch Kidd. See what he does. Does he know or is he known to anyone there? Any detail you can pick up. We’re already monitoring his phone calls.’

‘What’s our relationship with the police on this?’ she asked. ‘So far, they’re running it as a murder investigation with me as an observer. Are we going to bring them into this operation? They must be wondering why we’re still in there.’

‘Not just yet. If we’re watching Kidd, I don’t want them getting in the way. Right now, I want to know how you’re feeling about this job. My judgement is you’re emotionally involved.’

‘No, it’s just another a job.’

‘No, it’s not. Not this time.’

He looked at her silently. The tension in the room made her sit rigidly in her chair. She hated it here where there was no place to hide. Things said in this room could be as intimate as those said between her and Paul but without the warmth or the connection. Clive knew almost as much about her as Paul did. The biographies of all his officers were secured on his hard drive, variables that might affect someone’s work.

‘You’re not the woman I was expecting to meet when you came back from maternity leave,’ he said finally. ‘From everything I’ve heard about you, I’d say you lost a skin or two in that time. Your personal life has taken a lot of hours recently, which I’ve accommodated at our inconvenience. In this profession, your work comes first. But I’m still going to keep you on this operation.’

‘What made you decide that?’ she asked, managing to keep her anger out of her voice.

‘Let’s assume Kidd is corrupt and being blackmailed. His security clearance means he knows you’re an agent with Orion. If the person who has him on a string also knows you’re from Orion, they might come looking for you. Let’s find out.’

‘Wouldn’t it be more likely they’d give me as wide a berth as possible?’

‘Think of that escape. A desperate act. Wouldn’t they want to try and find out exactly what we know?’

‘I’m the bait, you mean. For what? I still have no information on what this operation’s really about or who or what the target is.’

‘When you need to know, you’ll be told. I don’t think that time has come yet. But I can tell you this is a very significant operation. Being involved in this way would be quite a feather in your cap.’ He tossed this cliche at her as if it were a hook.

‘How much danger would that scenario put me in?’ she asked.

‘You’d have full backup. My judgement is you’re still professional enough to deal with it.’

‘Is this a direction from you?’ she asked. ‘And if it is, is there any agreement to support it? Normally when this kind of arrangement is made, there’s a written agreement and a set of directions on how to proceed.’

‘That’s a refusal.’

‘No, it’s a request for clear, written directions.’

‘Then we’ll see what happens first. In the meantime, you stay assigned to this operation under my direction.’

Again, he opened his folder. This time, he spread out a series of photographs. Jirawan in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Photographs Grace had taken herself.

‘There’s something else I think we should discuss,’ Grace said, keeping her irritation under control. ‘Given this woman is Jirawan Sanders, what about her husband? Is he missing? Or is he dead?’

Clive looked up from the photographs. ‘He’s dead. Peter Sanders. He was an Australian who ran an import-export business in Bangkok, which is where he met this woman. That’s the last piece of information I’m going to give you right now.’

‘She has a child somewhere. If both parents are dead, shouldn’t we find out where this child is, or at least ask someone to locate him or her?’

‘Whatever’s happened to that child, it’s not our responsibility.’

It’s our first responsibility ! Grace wanted to shout, but choked back the words. She couldn’t risk losing this job.

Finally Clive gathered up the pictures and put them away. ‘The man who did this-’

‘Man?’ she interrupted.

‘Apart from the evidence of sexual assault, do you think a woman would have the physical strength to do this?’

‘A woman could watch. She could administer a beating.’

‘Yes, she could. But whoever did this likes to kill. That’s my opinion. Report to me tomorrow about tonight’s raid. One other thing. Have you heard the news in the last hour?’

‘No. I haven’t had time.’

‘You should go and listen to it.’

‘Why?’

‘Chris Newell was snatched as he left court today in a very bloody affair. Two people are dead and several badly wounded. We both know about Newell’s connection to you. If he turns up on your radar, I need to know.’

‘I’m going to make a personal call. Excuse me,’ Grace said, and left the room immediately.

At Orion, personal calls were only tolerated under very unusual circumstances and had to be made on your own phone. Walking at speed down the hallway to her office, Grace rang Harrigan with a shaking hand. She was desperate to talk to him, but nothing would have made her call in front of Clive.

The phone was answered almost at once. ‘Harrigan.’

She breathed relief. ‘It’s me. Are you all right? What’s happened?’

‘I’m okay, babe. I don’t have a scratch on me, which is more than you can say for some of the people here. It’s bad. Two men shot dead. It happened in front of me.’

‘You’re okay?’

‘I’m handling it. It’s like being back on the job again.’

‘Someone did that for Newell? Why?’

‘Don’t ask me. He’s not worth anything like this. I can’t talk to you now-I’ve got people who want me this end. What time will you be home tonight?’

‘Late. There’s an op going on. I don’t know when I’ll get back.’

‘We’ll talk about it then. You take care.’