The Labyrinth of Drowning (18 page)

Sara was sitting with a very straight back. Grace looked at her expression and thought she knew what it meant. He’s seeing another woman. Doing it to you again.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’ll be here.’

‘We need to talk about money,’ Sara broke in. ‘That’s why you’re here. Because you’re the kind of person who can be bought.’

‘Careful, Sara,’ Griffin said quietly.

‘You pay me exactly what I ask for,’ Grace said.

‘Then tell us how much you want,’ Sara replied angrily.

‘I’ll think about it first. I’m not going to ask for too little. You pay me half before and half afterwards. Now, how do you want this done?’

‘Pick her up from her house in Chipping Norton, then drive north,’ Sara said. ‘There’s a service centre on the Newcastle freeway
at Jilliby, north of Gosford. Take her there. She’ll recognise the car that’s going to pick her up. You just have to drop her off.’

‘That’s a long drive,’ Grace said.

‘But you’re being paid.’

‘How do I get her to agree to go with me?’

‘She will, believe me,’ Sara said. ‘Just tell her Elliot wants to see her. Get her to bring her ID with her. Her passport, her credit cards, birth certificate, everything. Tell her to dress down, clothes that can’t be traced. Wear something with a hood so she’s not easy to recognise. She’s not to bring any other clothes or personal effects with her and no mobile under any circumstances. You’ll be waiting for her at an agreed location. Don’t use a car that can be traced to you. If you have to, tell her you’re driving her there because Elliot’s going to take her to Coffs Harbour. From there, they’re going to fly to Cairns and then Elliot’s going to take her by yacht to Hong Kong.’

Grace laughed. ‘She’s really going to believe that.’

‘She’ll believe it.’ Sara had a dangerous look in her eyes. ‘If that girl had a brain cell, it wouldn’t just be lonely, it’d be deranged.’

Grace turned to Griffin, remembering Kidd’s words:
he goes after any woman he can
. ‘Who’s Elliot? You? Narelle Wong’s the sort of woman you find attractive, is she? Don’t you like grown-up women?’

Sara threw the remains of her coffee onto the ground. Griffin glanced quickly at her as if startled. Then he turned back to Grace.

‘Why? Are you interested in knowing the sort of woman I’m attracted to?’

‘Maybe. Unless you two are an item.’

Sara was looking at Griffin; waiting.

‘There’s always room for one more,’ Griffin said. ‘Sara wants what I want. She always has.’

He smiled. Sara’s face was expressionless; the kind of mask you use to protect yourself, Grace thought.

‘When does this pick-up happen?’ she asked.

‘As soon as you can organise it.’ Sara stood and picked up the basket with the thermos. ‘I’m going. You and Joel can work out everything else.’

She walked away, moving jerkily without looking back, got into her black Porsche and was gone quickly, too quickly for the narrow park road.

Griffin watched her go.

‘You hurt her feelings,’ Grace said.

‘Did I?’

‘You two are an item.’

He turned back to her, his eyes seeming almost a blank, without emotion. ‘Why should you care?’

‘Because if you are Elliot, how come Sara hasn’t walked out on you?’

‘She can’t.’ He said it matter-of-factly. ‘She’ll always be there.’

‘Why?’

He grinned. ‘We’ve been together since she was fifteen. She’s never had sex with anyone else.’

He was boasting. Grace, feeling repulsed inside, laughed. ‘You can’t know that.’

‘Oh, yes, I can. There’ll never be anyone else. Not while I’m around.’

‘Then that must be true for you as well. She must be your first girlfriend. You’re the same age, aren’t you?’

‘It’s never tied me down the way it has her.’

‘Where’d you meet her?’ Grace asked.

‘At a camp she used to go to. As soon as I saw her and found out who she was, I made sure we got together. I knew she’d understand me and could help me.’

‘But did you understand and help her?’

‘I taught her how to be strong. She didn’t know what strength was before she met me.’

‘So why does she take it from you? Other women, I mean. I wouldn’t.’

‘Wouldn’t you?’ he said. ‘Maybe you don’t understand what’s between us. I’ve shown her a whole world she would never have known about. She’s done things she never would have done but for me.’

‘Oh, yeah? And what are they?’ she asked with a smile.

Briefly, he was angry. ‘Why do you keep talking about her? Let’s
talk about you and me instead.’ He grew calmer. ‘You’ve turned yourself out a bit better today. Better than the nothing clothes you had on yesterday. You’re attractive. You should dress better than you do.’

You’ll never see me dress the way I like. That happens in my other life
.

‘Why don’t you let your hair out?’ he asked.

‘Why?’

‘I want to see how long it is. Maybe women with long hair attract me.’

Unwillingly, but hiding it, Grace let out her dark brown hair, which slipped onto her shoulders and then down her back. Griffin reached forward to touch it. Instinctively, she drew back.

‘You don’t want me to do that.’

‘You’ve got a girlfriend. Sara. You’ve been with her from the beginning. You’ve just told me I don’t know what’s between you. That means you’ll always go back to her.’

‘I thought I’d made it clear that doesn’t have anything to do with you and me.’

‘Maybe it does for me. Maybe I see myself as special. I’m not the kind of person who shares.’

‘You are special. I told you that yesterday. I meant it. When the time comes, it will be just you and me. But right now I want to know what you know.’

He seemed to be searching her face, much as Clive had done earlier that day, looking for something.

‘What do you mean by that?’ she asked. ‘What is it I know?’

‘Chris Newell is dead,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘I said, Chris Newell is dead.’

She sat still, unable to speak. She did not feel shock; it was relief so powerful she almost lost her grip on her persona.

‘How do you know that?’

‘Just take it from me. I’ve got good contacts, I hear things.’

‘How did he die?’

Griffin smiled. ‘You don’t want to know the answer to that. The best thing for him is that it’s over now. Let’s just say he paid a debt. I can understand that. I always expect people to pay their debts.
You can tell me what it was like to look him in the eyes just before he threw petrol over you. Because he’s dead. He can’t come after you again.’

She said nothing. Thought: I never have to be afraid of him again.

‘Aren’t you going to answer me?’

‘I wasn’t thinking about anything at the time,’ she heard herself say. ‘It happened too quickly.’

‘No. There must be a memory in your head somewhere. Otherwise why were you so frightened of him?’

‘I met you to make a deal. We’ve made a deal and now I’m leaving.’

‘Answer my question or there’s no deal,’ he said.

‘I made one with Sara, if not with you.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’m the one who calls the shots. If I say it’s not on, then that’s the end of it. You don’t get any cash.’

This time, she was the one searching his face, trying to work out why he was asking her this. He really did want to know. It was the first time he’d shown any genuine emotion. He leaned forward, staring at her, almost impatient, his whole body in the grip of anticipation. She didn’t speak.

‘Tell me. What did you see?’ He was impatient.

Someone unrecognisable. Maybe you could paint those eyes but not describe them
.

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘It was like looking into the dark.’

He sat back, watching her. Disappointment. Then detachment. All at once, she might have been a dressmaker’s dummy sitting there.

‘You have beautiful hair,’ he said in a distant voice. ‘It’s your hair I’m going to remember.’

‘I’ve got to get going. People will wonder where I am.’

He stood up. Another persona flicked into place, overlaid on the negative he had just shown her. The public Joel Griffin was back.

‘I’ll hear from you,’ he said. ‘I’ll need bank account details for the payment.’

‘I’ll get them to you. See you.’

She walked to her car at a normal pace; glanced back to see him watching her; waved in a simple way and drove away, resisting the
desire to put her foot down, to speed. She was shaking but she held on. The only thing in her mind was the process of making her way safely through the traffic; it anchored her. She realised she could not tell Paul that Newell was dead. And he was. She was convinced of the truth of Griffin’s information. She had walked through a door into the strange taste of freedom, only to have it quickly replaced with the shock of her whole encounter with Griffin.

Her phone rang.

‘Your backup has you in view,’ Clive said. ‘You’re not being followed.’

‘I’m on my way to the motel.’

‘We’ll be waiting.’

This time the motel was close to Chatswood shopping centre. Grace parked outside the room. Before she went inside, she put her hair up in a simple knot.

Borghini was waiting with a cup of coffee. ‘For you. I reckon you need it. I noticed you like it strong.’

‘Thanks,’ she said, managing a smile and sitting down. Borghini stood watching her, his hands on his hips.

‘You’re a brave lady,’ he said.

Clive sat in the chair beside her, putting himself between them.

‘You did that very well. You held your nerve.’

‘Christ,’ Borghini said, taking his seat. ‘That guy’s a fucking murderer!’

‘He can lead us to our target,’ Clive said.

‘And what the fuck is that? What result do you really want?’

‘I’ve brought you into this much more than I would bring most people in. You can repay me by not asking questions like that. I’ll tell you what you need to know.’

Grace’s hair slipped out of its knot and fell onto her shoulders again. ‘Excuse me a moment,’ she said.

‘You can leave it out,’ Clive said.

She didn’t answer or even look at him. She went into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Standing in front of the mirror, she needed to make sure she was really there. She took out her mobile. She wanted to ring Paul. She wanted to say, ‘It’s me. I’m
here.’ Instead she put her phone away and redid her hair, then made sure her make-up was in place. The role-playing wasn’t over yet. There were hours to go before she went home, when her hair could come down the way she liked it to. No one touches me or my hair but you and Ellie, she said to Paul wherever he was. Then she went outside to get on with her work.

‘We have a deal with our targets,’ she said, sitting back at the table. ‘The question is, do I deliver Narelle Wong?’

‘Yes, you do,’ Clive said.

‘How do we stop her ending up dead?’

‘We’ll be following you every step of the way.’

‘After today, I’m very sure my anonymous caller the other night was Sara McLeod,’ Grace said. ‘That’s a dual connection between this operation and whoever was stalking us. Her and the Ponticellis.’

Borghini was sitting with his arms folded, watching. He leaned forward.

‘I know the boss has enemies. I know that includes the Ponticellis. With them, you’re dealing with people who don’t forget. I was trying to talk to you about this earlier. Is Griffin connected to them? What are his contacts? How did he know Chris Newell was dead? This whole thing smells. We’re not playing them. They’re playing us. They’re drawing you in to delivering this woman but is that going to get us any closer to what we’re trying to achieve?’ He turned just to Grace. ‘They trusted you, the two of them, just like that. Why? Everything Griffin says to you, it’s so fucking personal. You’re not stalking him. You just told us. They’re stalking you.’

‘Life’s Pleasures,’ Grace asked Clive. ‘Santos Associates owns it. Have we found out anything else about that company yet?’

‘We haven’t been able to locate any of its office holders,’ he said, ‘but given that its main business is money laundering, we’re very certain it’s part of the Ghost network. Life’s Pleasures is still operating but the building went on the market yesterday. As we know, all the income had already been moved offshore.’

‘Are they selling up the farm? Leaving the country?’ Borghini asked.

‘That’s a very likely scenario. They’re removing all witnesses, liquidating assets. They may well consider Grace to be their puppet, the way Kidd said. But it’s still a dangerous situation to have an organisation like Orion investigating them. Their safest course of action is to disappear overseas under assumed identities.’

‘Then Mark’s right.’ Grace was sitting with her arms folded, looking Clive in the eye. ‘They have another agenda. We’re playing their game.’

‘No, they’re playing ours.’

‘No one’s told them that,’ Borghini said.

‘We’re walking into something they’ve set up,’ Grace said. ‘We have to ask ourselves what it is. It’s my safety on the line.’

‘You have every resource I can put out there to rely on,’ Clive said. ‘The only way we can find out what they’re really up to is for you to go in deeper. We will not close down this network until we know its full extent. We don’t have anything like that information yet. If Griffin has a fix on you, then maybe he’ll reveal his connections. You have to keep getting closer to him. You can’t do anything that will make him back off.’

‘It’s too dangerous,’ Borghini said.

‘I can do it,’ Grace replied.

‘I didn’t say you couldn’t. I’m sure you can. That’s not the point.’

‘What we do is keep to our plan,’ Clive interrupted. ‘We plan Grace’s next meeting with Griffin.’

‘I’ve got some info first,’ Borghini said. ‘We’ve been checking out where Jirawan Sanders was found in Ku-ring-gai Chase. Standard police work but the results are interesting enough.’

‘Send me a written report,’ Clive said. ‘We don’t have time for that now.’

Borghini was silenced. Throughout the rest of the meeting he said almost nothing, but Grace saw him watching both her and Clive intently. She wondered if his role as the liaison officer was likely to be terminated soon. She would have kept him on but she had no authority. She reminded herself that she was here because she had made her own decisions and had her own aims in mind. But she would be sorry if Borghini was no longer there. No one else stood up to Clive the way he did. It was a pleasure to watch.