The Labyrinth of Drowning

‘Don’t you have some ID?’ Narelle asked, an angry, suspicious look on her face.

‘I don’t think you need to be interested in seeing my ID, Narelle. Not if you want me to help you.’

‘Why do I need your help?’

‘Don’t you want to see your boyfriend again? He won’t just have forgotten about you, will he?’

This hurt. Narelle’s mouth opened a little. She looked like a child, angry and spoilt; wanting to answer back but unable to.

‘Have you got any cigarettes? I wanted Duncan to get me some but he won’t do it. Why don’t you get some? Then maybe we can talk.’

She was no longer forcing her voice into its late-night up-market gloss; it had become ordinary, almost squeaky. Maybe this was why she’d never made it as an actor; she had the face but not the voice or the presence.

‘He doesn’t like you to smoke,’ Grace said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your boyfriend. He didn’t let you smoke in your own flat.’

‘I don’t need to when he’s around. Are you going to get me some?’

‘No, Narelle, you can wait for your cigarettes. Let’s talk about Coco.’

‘She never worked there. I don’t know who she was!’

‘Don’t talk rubbish. Look at this. I bet you’ve seen this before.’

Grace handed over a photocopy of the photograph page of Jirawan’s passport. Narelle looked at it once, then screwed it up and threw it on the floor.

‘I don’t know anything about that!’

For an answer, Grace took a miniature recording device out of her bag and pressed the start button.

‘Marie would leave the clients there, and often enough they’d come back to me and say they didn’t want that. It wasn’t what they’d paid for. Then Marie started getting angry with Coco because she wouldn’t cooperate. One day, madam dragged me down there and told me to sort her out. What was I supposed to do? Coco was wrapped up like this tight little ball. You could see her shaking. I lost it. I shouted at that little bitch for once. I said, you can’t fucking do this! It’s creating too many bad vibes. That shut her up. Anyway, after that Coco disappeared.’

‘Lynette didn’t like you, Narelle. She called you a nasty little cow.’

‘She was just a fat, ugly, old woman. I don’t know why they didn’t get someone better than that.’

‘She’s dead now. Does that worry you?’

‘Why should it?’

‘Want me to play you some more of that tape? There’s enough on it for me to put you in gaol. If I do, do you think your boyfriend’s going to come and visit you? He wasn’t there the other night. He left you to deal with the police all on your own. Sink or swim. Your problem.’

Instantly there were tears in Narelle’s eyes. She bit her lip and stared at Grace with a strange, bunched expression on her face.

‘Why would you want to put me in gaol?’

‘You locked Coco away without thinking about it. Why shouldn’t I lock you away?’

Narelle’s eyes were still filled with tears. ‘She didn’t care. I don’t think she felt it. I don’t even know why the men paid. She was just this plain little thing.’

For a second, Grace wanted to take Jirawan’s photograph, the one taken in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, out of her bag and slide it under Narelle’s nose. But they had agreed she wouldn’t do this. It was easy now to speak sharply.

‘Narelle, there are things you don’t understand. You’re the fall guy in all this. That’s what you were doing there, being set up to fall. Everyone else can run for cover but you can’t. I can get an arrest warrant for you like that.’ Grace snapped her fingers. ‘Do you want me to do that? Or do you want to talk business?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘How much is that passport worth to you? Because I’ve got it in a very safe place. And if you want it back, it’s going to cost you. That passport and this tape together. Just exactly how much are they worth to you?’

Narelle made a face of exaggerated rejection and shrugged her shoulders. The tears were flowing down her cheeks.

‘You want to go to gaol,’ Grace said in the silence, ‘fine by me.’

There was a knock on the door. Narelle hadn’t locked it after she had let Grace inside. It was opened and Duncan stood there. He was about to speak when Narelle sat upright and shouted at him in Chinese. He looked away but not before Grace had seen a look of deep humiliation on his face. The door was shut abruptly. Narelle nodded her head in satisfaction. She turned back to Grace.

‘Where’d you get that passport?’

‘Where do you think? Lynette gave it to me.’

‘Aren’t you with the police? What are you doing this for? It’s some kind of trick, isn’t it?’

‘You can think what you want. You’ll have plenty of time in gaol. Let’s just say I’d like a bit of extra money. It would give me some excitement in my life. It gets a bit dull sometimes. Do we have a deal? That’s what I want to know.’

There were more tears. Grace watched her without a shred of sympathy.

‘I’d have to ask my boyfriend what he wants to do,’ Narelle managed at last.

‘What’s he got to do with this?’

Narelle gave her a single dark look of pure suspicion. ‘Why do you want to know? Don’t you want to get paid?’

‘Be careful, Narelle. If you want me to be nice to you, then you’d better behave yourself. You go ahead and talk to whoever you want to, but you’ve only got forty-eight hours to do it. Take this.’ Grace handed her a card.

‘What’s that?’

‘My private number. You can call me whenever you want. But if you don’t-too bad.’

‘What if I tell people you came here and said all these things?’

‘Go right ahead,’ Grace replied. ‘Do you think anyone’s going to believe you? You’re still going to gaol.’

She got up to go. Narelle sat up again.

‘Aren’t you going to get me some cigarettes? You said you would.’

‘Why don’t you ask your brother again the next time he comes to see you?’ Grace said with a sweet smile and let herself out.

Duncan was in the kitchen with his mother. When Grace appeared, he gestured for her to sit down. He seemed unable to speak.

‘Why did you say we could be in danger?’ Mrs Wong asked.

‘You may not be aware of this but the young woman who was found murdered in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park some days ago worked at the parlour where Narelle was the manager.’

‘Did Narelle know that?’ Duncan asked. Almost he got to his feet, his face gripped with anger. Quickly, his mother put out a hand to stop him.

‘She was told the night Life’s Pleasures was raided,’ Grace said. ‘We have reason to believe that this young woman, who went by the name of Coco, was trafficked here. Given her fate, it’s very advisable for anyone who knew her to cooperate with the authorities.’

‘Is my daughter in danger?’

‘Not if she cooperates with the police. If you do feel worried in any way, this is a number you can ring. They will know Narelle’s name and they will be able to help you.’

Mrs Wong looked at the card and began to cry.

‘Was she involved in this trafficking?’ she asked.

‘No, we have no evidence of that. But her parlour was the last place where this young woman worked.’

‘She didn’t tell us any of this. I can’t talk about it.’

Mrs Wong got up and walked out of the room, tears running down her face.

‘Did Narelle know?’ Duncan asked.