The Son (30 page)

That night as I lay in bed vainly chasing sleep I thought again about Roger's advice. In a way he was right. The worst thing I could do was stick my oar in at the wrong moment. If they were watching Eric – and the fact that they'd had his meeting with Samantha under surveillance showed they had their doubts – then I might well be attracting more suspicion towards him by trying to ring him. On the other hand I was the man who was going to marry his aunt, I had every reason to want to keep in touch, especially if I had a message to pass on from her. I thought I'd better try again to ring her in the morning.

I thought too about what he'd said about Bach, and the response from the States. If anything that was even more worrying. Roger was right, the refugee camps had been in a mess at times, it was perfectly plausible for records to be lost, or be very sparse. Refugees had come through in their thousands, tens of thousands, processing had sometimes been haphazard. I remembered Pulau Bidong, the island camp off Malaysia's east coast, where we had done most of our interviewing, the long queues forming up as new boats arrived and disgorged their human cargo, squatting in the open for hours while waiting to be processed, the difficulty of keeping track of people as agencies and selection teams from different countries worked around each other, sometimes overlapping, sometimes leaving gaps. It would be easy for someone to fall through.

But I also remembered how thorough the vetting process had been, when we came upon individuals who looked as if they might have some intelligence value. And even more if we thought that person might be a plant, an agent of the Vietnamese intelligence services, trying to infiltrate the refugee flow. The destination of choice for people like that was always the US, and the Americans had been particularly watchful.

So if someone of Bach's background had been knocked back by them, you had to ask yourself why. What was it that had made the American selectors suspicious? Was it as Roger had suggested, that they'd just passed him by in the lottery of selection? Or was there a more sinister reason? I didn't know. But all my instincts told me something wasn't right. I remembered what Quang had said. That he had been on the verge of uncovering something about Bach. And my conclusion, that that was quite possibly why he'd been killed. If that was the case, then the situation was even more dangerous than I had imagined.

But there was no point in trying to discuss this with Roger. Even if he agreed he wouldn't say so. Bob Maynard? Maybe. Something told me Considine would be the best bet. With his cop's instinct and his desire to do his job well I sensed he would be the better ally.

By Wednesday morning I was starting to feel rather jaded. But I was too keyed-up to rest. Just a few more hours, I told myself. Like that refrain from
My Fair Lady. A few more hours
. By five I was up, and at six I was back at the phone booth in Martin Place. It was too early to bother Considine, but I had to talk to Hao. If all went well we'd be rejoicing that night, congratulating ourselves on a job well done. If my fears were correct and the worst came to pass, it might be the last time she'd ever speak to me.

She was home this time.

‘Paul?' she cried as soon as she heard my voice. ‘I've been trying to ring you since Sunday! Where have you been?'

‘Here and there,' I said. ‘Why? What's happened?'

‘I have to go to the US, to San Diego. My mother's had a stroke. She's in hospital. I have to go and see her, Paul.'

‘Of course! Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How bad is she?'

She had rung her brother, who had told her. They'd been trying to contact her, and didn't know she was back in Leeds. Her mother's condition was serious: she was conscious, but her speech was impaired, and they feared she might have another stroke. Hao had booked a flight to the US, for the next day (it was still Tuesday evening in Leeds). She didn't know how long she'd be there.

‘I'm sorry Paul, I won't be able to get back as soon as I hoped.'

‘Don't worry about that. Stay as long as you want. Do you need more money?'

‘No, I'm fine, they've given me all my severance pay at work, I've got more than enough. I'll even be able to pay you back what I borrowed.'

‘Don't be silly!'

‘Can you tell Eric, please? How is he?'

‘He's fine,' I said, lying in my teeth. ‘Everything's going well. We should be through in a couple of hours. I'll give him a ring as soon as I get to work.'

‘Are you alright, Paul? I'm worried about you.'

‘Yes, I'm fine too. Don't worry about me.'

‘You're not going round seeing all your old girlfriends while I'm away?'

‘What do you think!'

‘Where did you go? On Monday and Tuesday?'

‘Oh … I just had to go out a few times. Don't worry, I explain it all later.'

‘You sound so mysterious. Are you sure everything's alright?'

‘Yes, don't worry, everything's fine. You just worry about your mother.' There was no way I could tell her the truth. Especially not at that moment. ‘Anyway, I'm not asking where you spend your evenings. I tried to ring you on Monday night, but you weren't home.'

‘I went out to dinner.'

‘I thought as much.'

She paused. Maybe she too was having trouble deciding how much to tell me. She chose to tell the truth.

‘I went out with Robert.'

‘Ah.'

‘He asked me out. I thought I owed him that.'

‘How did it go? If it's any of my business.'

‘Of course it is! I told him about us. He was pretty unhappy. He said he was going to ask me to marry him. He wants to leave his wife. I told him he was too late. He should have thought of that a year ago. And even then I would have said no. He asked me if I knew what I was doing. He said he could give me everything I wanted.'

‘Pretty tempting offer. All that money, plus sex on demand.'

‘Are you serious? You're the only man I want, Paul! I told you. Stop talking nonsense. And stop being jealous too. There's no need. I told you it's over.'

‘You're right. I'm contrite.'

‘But I'm glad you are,' she added.

I asked about her house. She said she'd found a good agent, who'd put it up for sale, she could expect over three hundred thousand pounds. More than twice that in dollars. And he'd sell the furniture for her as well. Meanwhile she'd sold her car to a friend at work.

‘You'll be rich.'

I suggested she put the money in a trust, for herself and Eric. She gave me her brother's number in San Diego. I said I'd ring her on the Thursday evening, local time. That would give her time to get there.

‘I'd like that. Listen, about Eric, I'll wait until I get there, but I think I'd like him to come. To San Diego. To see his grandmother.'

‘Of course.'

‘She hasn't seen him for over five years. Do you think you could help him, the way you helped me? With his visa and things? I'm sorry to be such a nuisance.'

‘Don't be so silly. Of course I will.'

‘What about you, Paul? Would you like to come? We could all fly back to Sydney together.'

‘Do you want me to?'

“Of course I do! I want you to meet her.'

‘I'd like that too. Let me work on it. We'll talk about it again on Thursday.'

‘You won't forget to call him, will you?'

‘I won't.'

‘When you ring me on Thursday, can you ask him to be there too? I'd like to talk to him.'

‘I will.'

‘I miss you.'

‘I miss you too. I hope it's not too serious about your mother. People recover from strokes, you know.'

‘I know. But I'm very worried.'

‘I love you.'

‘I love you too. I really do. I can't wait to be back with you.'

We hung up on a tender note, that brief moment of tension pushed aside. I felt guilty about my deception of her. But I had no choice. And something else had come out of that phone call: she had given me the perfect excuse to call Eric. It was too early to ring him, assuming he was back in town, and I thought I'd better talk to someone else first, to make sure I didn't cross any wires. Considine would be best. I'd ring him as soon as I got to the office.

I went back to the apartment. Vivien was up now. I gave her Hao's news, asked if she could be in the office before nine.

‘I have to ring Eric, and I may need your help.'

‘Of course. Oh, poor thing. She must be so worried!'

I had a quick breakfast, went home, changed, went to the office. At eight I rang Considine, at the operational number he'd given me. He wasn't there but I said it was urgent and gave the codeword,
Dragon
. Within seconds his deputy was on the line.

‘Ric Barnes. Anything I can help with?'

‘Thanks, Ric, but it's something I have to discuss with Brian direct. It follows on something we talked about on Sunday. It's pretty urgent.'

‘He should be here soon. I'll get him to contact you as soon as he comes in.'

I sat back and fretted. At eight-twenty Viv came in, and soon after Considine rang.

‘I tried to ring you last night,' he said.

‘I had to go out for a couple of hours. Why? What's up?'

‘Nothing. That's the trouble. We still haven't heard from Jason, and there's a bit of a flap. We'd like to know what's going on.'

‘You and me both. Look. I'm going to try and ring him. I've just spoken with his aunt in Britain.' I gave him a quick rundown of my talk with Hao. ‘I have every reason to want to speak to him now.'

‘Do you think you should clear it first with Bentinck?'

‘No. You can tell him if you want, but this is something I have to do. In fact I'll ring as soon as we've finished speaking. But I thought you ought to know first.'

‘Thanks. If it's any help I agree with you. Will you let us know what happens?'

‘Of course.' A thought struck me. ‘Listen, did he and Medea have any arrangement, for when he rang? Some kind of code, in case he couldn't speak freely?'

‘Let me check. Maynard may know. If not I'll have to wait until Bentinck gets here. I can't get in touch with her myself. He should be in in about an hour.'

‘I don't think I should wait. By all means check up, but I'll ring him anyway. I'll just keep my ears open. I'll ring you back after.'

‘Good luck.'

I asked Viv to make the initial call. If anyone other than Eric answered it would sound less suspicious, and she could explain why she needed to get in touch with him. I listened in on my extension as she dialled.

A Vietnamese voice answered, a young man by the sound of it, in the rough approximate English I was getting used to.

‘Hello, may I speak with Eric Tran please?' Viv said in her most civilised tone.

‘What you want him for?'

‘I have a message for him from his aunt. His adoptive mother, Mrs Tran.'

‘He sleep.' At least he was there, I thought with relief. ‘What message?' It sounded like ‘messit'.

‘I'm sorry. I have to speak with him myself,' she said more firmly. ‘She's asked me specially to ring him. It's very important. It's about his grandmother.'

‘I tell him.'

‘No, I need to speak to him directly!' She could sound like a prim headmistress when she chose. ‘Please ask him to ring me as soon as he wakes up! It's most important, and very urgent! Are you sure he's not awake? Tell him it's Mrs Berridge calling.'

Something in her tone must have got through. There was a brief silence, then a grudging:

‘I go and see.'

We waited. I heard muffled sounds, voices in the background, footsteps, breathing, then Eric's voice on the phone.

‘Hello,' he said drowsily.

‘Eric? Is that you?'

‘Yes. Who's that?'

‘It's Viv, Eric. Paul's assistant.'

‘Oh, right.'

‘I have a message for you, from your aunt. Actually Paul has it, he spoke with her earlier. I'll put him on.' She switched me through without waiting for his answer.

‘Hello, Eric,' I said quickly. ‘How are you?'

‘Oh, fine. And you?'

‘Fine too. Listen, I'm sorry to ring you like this, but I spoke with your aunt earlier this morning, and she asked me to give you a message. It's about your grandmother.'

I told him briefly what Hao had told me, and asked me to pass on.

‘I'll be speaking again with her tomorrow, after she gets to San Diego. She said she'd like to speak to you too then if that's possible.'

‘Oh … I'm not sure if I'll be free then …'

‘She said she'd like you to come to San Diego as soon as you can. She's very worried about her mother. They're afraid she might have another stroke.'

‘Right. Thanks. I understand.'

‘Are you alright? You sound a bit funny.'

‘Yes, I'm okay. I think I got a bit of a chill.'

‘Nothing serious I hope.'

‘No, I'm fine. I'll live.'

I was listening hard. No sign of a code there.

‘When do you think you'd be able to go?'

‘Oh … I have to think – sorry, I'm a bit tired, I didn't sleep too well … I'll be right after today …'

‘About going to see her. Would you like me to help? I can get the ticket for you if you like. Be glad to. She asked me to help.'

‘Thanks.'

‘When do you think you can go?' I insisted. ‘In case she rings back, I'd like to be able to tell her.'

‘Well … not today, obviously …' I could almost feel him getting his brain into gear. ‘I guess it would take time to get seats – not tomorrow or Friday, I think …'

‘Saturday then? I can make a booking for you.'

‘I don't have enough money–'