The Son (25 page)

The next day, Tuesday, was a holiday. Anzac Day, 25th of April, 1995, twenty years to the day since we'd flown out of Saigon in that RAAF plane, leaving behind all those we should have taken along. I didn't remind her of that anniversary.

Instead I took her up to the Hunter Valley, to see my sister and my brother-in-law. It was too early yet to expect any report from Eric. We spent the day there. Hao had already met them when they'd come down to visit me after my beating, now was a good time to know each other better. It was moving to see how easily they accepted her in the family. Geoff took us on the obligatory tour of the vineyard (it didn't look its best at that time of year, with the leaves mostly fallen and the pruning not yet begun, canes and suckers straggling like a mad woman's hair, but that didn't lessen his enthusiasm) and Cathy showed her round the old farmhouse, Hao looking like a boy beside her.

‘This one's special,' Cathy said to me before we left. ‘You'll look after her, won't you? Don't let her go, like all the others. I think she needs you.'

‘I won't. I need her too.'

The next morning we came back to a harsher reality. We had just settled in at the office, at the start of our first working day together, when Jack Lipton rang: the police had released Quang's body, he was being cremated that morning, ten thirty, at Rookwood Cemetery crematorium. It was the first time we'd spoken since that fateful morning nine days earlier, when he'd rung to announce Quang's murder, and his voice was still heavy with suspicion.

‘I tried to ring you yesterday,' he said. ‘What about your lady friend? Hao? I don't know how to contact her.'

‘I'll tell her. I'm sure she'll want to come too.'

‘Of course I want to come,' Hao said when I told her. ‘What about Eric? Do you think we should ring him?'

‘Better not. It mightn't be safe if he was seen there with us.'

‘I suppose you're right,' she said a little sadly.

‘We can take him there later, when this is all over.'

‘Yes. I think we should.' I could tell she was disappointed. We still hadn't heard from him. I was beginning to fret.

It was a sad little group that met at the crematorium later that morning. The service had started when we arrived but we gathered outside afterwards, near the rose garden where Quang's ashes would soon come to rest. Jack and Sen were there of course, and so were Nghiem and Ann: I didn't know they knew Quang, until Nghiem explained they'd been at school together. The world of the old Saigon elite was small. There was also a cluster of elderly Vietnamese in ill-fitting suits and
áo dài
that had grown too tight. I wondered if Quang's informant was among them. I recognised Linh, the white-headed doctor who had treated me, and we exchanged a few words. He seemed glad to see me. A bonze in grey robes chanted some prayers.
Nam Mô A Di Đa Phật
.

Jack introduced me to a thin, scholarly-looking Vietnamese woman in her twenties, looking remarkably like her father.

‘This is Nga. Quang's daughter. She's just arrived from France. She's staying with us for a few days.'

‘I was terribly sad at your father's death,' I said to her formally. ‘I didn't know him very well but I admired him a lot. We shall all miss him.'

‘Thank you,' she said simply, in strongly accented English. ‘I hadn't seen him since many years. But I will miss him also. Thank you for coming.'

‘Nga lives with her mother in Paris,' Jack explained while she talked with Hao and Sen. ‘They'd been separated for years. Quang had the sense to send them abroad before the end. He was prepared to stay and work for the new regime, but he didn't trust them very far.'

‘Why didn't he stay in France too when he came out?'

‘He didn't want to live there. He blamed them too for the mess in Vietnam. He said it would never have happened if they hadn't insisted on regaining their colonies in Indochina after World War Two. Same for the Americans. He didn't blame them so much for the war, they'd let themselves get sucked into it, but he couldn't forgive them for the way they had dropped the south in the end. He said at least Australia had a clear conscience, whatever our reasons for going to Vietnam we'd actually tried to help the country, and we'd also paid a heavy price. He liked this place better.'

I'm not jingoistic, but it made me proud for a moment of being Australian. Maybe that was the advantage of being a minor player on the world stage. We were less inclined to exploit others for our own ends.

Another visitor joined us: Detective Sergeant Emerson, dressed in grey this time. He gave me a grey look to go with it.

‘I didn't know you two knew each other,' he said, making it sound like an accusation.

‘Hello, Peter,' Jack said a little uncomfortably.

‘We were together in Saigon,' I explained. ‘How are you getting on with your investigation? Any ideas yet?'

‘We have some leads,' he said non-committally. ‘Early days.' He looked at me. ‘Are you sure you've told us everything you know?'

‘Of course. Why would I want to hide anything? I'm as anxious as you to see his killer brought to justice. More, if anything. Quang was becoming my friend.'

He moved off, giving me another sceptical look. I wondered why he'd come. To pay his respects? Did he expect some dramatic revelation, the killer to appear and be struck down with guilt? Or was it just routine police procedure? I also wondered, irrelevantly, whether Quang had believed in God. I doubted it, for much the same reason that I didn't. Not the kind that allowed a murder like that to take place, or the sort of vileness that Hao and her sister and countless others had been subjected to.

‘We're having a small wake at our place,' Jack said. ‘If you'd like to come.'

‘Sorry. I'd love to, but I have to get back to work. Hao might like to.'

‘No. I'd better come back with you, Paul.'

She looked sad. I guessed she too felt this was a poor send-off for someone like him.

Hao was thoughtful on the way back. I put it down to the funeral, and worry about Eric. But there was something else on her mind.

‘Would you mind if I went back to Leeds?' she asked suddenly. I felt a little stab of terror.

‘I mean now, by myself. To sort things out.'

‘I thought we were going to go together, when this is all over.'

‘I don't think I should wait that long. There's such a lot to do. I have to put the house up for sale, and the car, and I need to organise my departure from work …'

‘You're not having second thoughts, are you?'

‘Of course not! How can you think that!'

‘Because I can't quite believe my luck. When you see someone like Quang die so easily, it makes you realise how fragile everything is.'

She put her hand on mine.

‘No! It's nothing like that. It's just – I hate the place, Paul! All that unhappiness, the things I did, watching Khiem die … I don't want to go back. But I have to, and the quicker I do it the better. And if you're not there it'll be easier. I don't want you to be contaminated with all that, when I come back I want to start afresh. You understand that, don't you?'

‘I suppose so.'

‘Besides, it'll be easier for you too. I know you're not telling me everything. I can understand, I expect there are things you can't tell me, but I don't like it, and I don't want that to lie between us, as it's doing now. It'll be better if I'm not here.'

‘What will you tell Eric?'

‘He'll understand. I'll just tell him I have to go back to sort things out … just promise me you won't let anything happen to him. Whatever happens. Promise me you'll look after him, and make sure he'll come to no harm.'

‘I promise. I don't want anything to happen to him either.'

In return I talked her into letting me upgrade her to business class. Flights were heavily booked at that time of year, this way she'd be surer of getting an early seat – and coming back earlier too. I trusted her, but Robert not at all.

‘Let me check with Roger about your visa. To make sure you have no problem getting back.'

There was a travel agent on the ground floor of our building. I rang Roger while she went down to check on flights.

‘I was about to ring you,' he said. ‘I'm coming up tomorrow, maybe we could meet.'

‘Of course,' I said. ‘But first I need your help.'

I explained about Hao's trip, and the visa. He listened with resignation.

‘I'll see what I can do,' he said. ‘I'll have to ring you back.'

‘Thanks. What's happening with Eric? Have you heard from him?'

‘He rang Sam last night, they're due to meet tonight. That's why I'm coming up. We should know more after that. I've got a meeting in the morning, but we can have lunch together if you're free.'

‘Sure. Is your meeting about Eric?'

He hesitated. ‘Yes,' he said.

‘Can I be there too?'

‘No. I'll fill you in afterwards. It's an inter-agency thing and we'll be discussing matters that don't concern you.'

‘Everything to do with Eric concerns me! Who'll be there? A-S Ten?'

He laughed curtly. An old piece of Agency slang, to refer to ASIO if there was fear of being overheard. Read the last two letters as digits. ASIA was A-S 14.

‘Of course they'll be there. I told you they'd have to get involved.'

‘You also told me they'd want to talk to me. What better time?'

‘Look, it's strictly insiders only! You don't have any clearances any more!'

‘Then get me cleared!' I cried. ‘Come on, Roger. I'm not trying to tell you your job. But I'm involved too. Who knows, I might even be of some use. I'm the one who started this whole thing, remember?'

He was silent for so long I thought he'd hung up.

‘I'll try,' he said finally. ‘You're pushing your luck.'

Then he did hang up.

He rang back an hour later. Hao had come back and was sitting at her desk. I didn't have to say much.

‘On one condition. You don't interfere. You're there simply as an observer. Is that understood?'

‘Perfectly.'

‘Eleven thirty. Their office. Know where it is?'

‘Still in the same place?'

‘Yes.'

‘Thanks. I'll be there.'

‘Your lady friend's visa. Done. Multiple re-entry visa, valid for three months. But she'll have to go to Immigration before she leaves to make sure it's amended on her passport. That do you?'

‘Yes. Thanks. I really appreciate that.'

‘So you should,' he said. Hao looked up as I put down the phone.

‘That was Roger,' I said. ‘He's coming up tomorrow, and we're having a meeting. He's going to bring me up to date.'

I told her about the visa. She said she would go to Immigration at once.

‘Thank you, Paul. And thank him.'