They walked into the outer office. ‘Marg will be at lunch,’ Zoe said looking at her watch. ‘But not for much longer. Come on.’ They crossed the room and Zoe turned the brass handle to the inner office.
‘Bugger. Locked.’ She turned to Marg’s desk. In the top drawer was a set of keys. She smiled and dangled them in front of Faith. She tried the first two but they didn’t fit. With sweating palms she tried the third and sighed with relief as the bolt clicked over and unlocked. She hadn’t been in the room for weeks and the memories of the last couple of times Paynter had talked to her in it made her feel ill.
Zoe walked over to the desk and opened the top drawer. The matchbox sat in a corner next to a box of cigars. She picked it up and read aloud the address on the back, ‘1127 Karangahape Road.’
Faith smiled.
‘OK, let’s get out of here,’ Zoe said, moving to put the matchbox back.
‘We need to take it with us,’ Faith said.
‘But what if he notices it missing?’
‘He’s probably got a heap of them. Come on, let’s get outta here.’
Back in the car they sat staring at the box of matches in Faith’s hand.
‘Do you think we should pay The Secret Garden a visit?’ Faith said eagerly.
‘We can’t. We need to meet Detective Abernathy in the city in less than an hour. We don’t have time. But at least we’ve got something solid for him.’
‘What, like missing women and break-ins aren’t enough?’
Zoe smiled. ‘You know what I mean.’
*
Zoe and Faith walked into the Starbucks on Queen Street, grabbed a coffee each and headed to the window table where Detective Abernathy had caught their eye and waved to them. He was well over six foot tall and when Zoe shook his hand hers almost disappeared into his — it seemed the size of a baseball mitt. He had a full brownish-red beard that compensated for the thinning red hair on his head. Zoe had thought he would be in his mid-fifties but his freckled forehead and kind blue eyes made him look younger.
Faith sipped at her coffee while Zoe filled the detective in on what they’d found. ‘We think the local police sergeant, Max Vincent, may be involved somehow, and also a local businessman, Richard Bailey.’
He lowered his head to note down the names, then nodded at her to continue. ‘Lillian, my mother, was very ill towards the end. She had Alzheimer’s and, I don’t know, maybe some of this was in her head.’ She looked into his eyes, hoping he wouldn’t agree.
‘Look, you’ve given me a huge amount to go on. I just need to see if I can put these pieces together.’ He smiled at her and she immediately trusted him. The relief she felt was immense.
‘You said Tania and Megan have no family? Apart from the Crawton police and you two, is anyone actively looking for them?’
‘I’m actually not sure,’ Zoe said. ‘Nobody has come forward asking about them as far as I’m aware. Tania, as far as I know, is homeless. A friend of mine, he’s homeless as well, reported her missing six months ago but I’ve just learnt that Max Vincent did nothing to look for her. Lillian reported Megan missing, as I said. I also understand both were into drugs.’ Zoe didn’t like mentioning the last bit. Maybe the fact they were into drugs explained why they were missing, why no one had bothered to find them.
Abernathy nodded, raising the pencil to his red hair to scratch his scalp. ‘So these women don’t have any close family who would care enough if they went missing. Sounds like whoever took them, assuming that’s what we’re dealing with here, was relying on them not being missed.’
Now it was Faith’s turn. As she told him about her experience he listened, nodding and every now and then making notes. When she had finished he said, ‘Thanks, Faith. I know that must’ve been hard to tell.’
Faith shrugged, playing the tough girl again, sipping her coffee and looking out the window.
‘We also came across this,’ Zoe said, passing him the matchbox.
‘What is it?’
‘One of Lillian’s notes mentioned The Secret Garden, here in Auckland. Have you heard of it?’
He shook his head.
‘It’s on Karangahape Road.’
‘Could be a bar or some kind of club,’ Abernathy suggested. ‘I’ll check it out. Where did you get this from?’
When Zoe told him he wrote down Harold Paynter’s name with a small grin.
‘Oh, and Aroha,’ Zoe said, shocked and guilty that she’d forgotten to mention the teenager.
‘Aroha Kingi?’
Zoe nodded.
‘I talked to Emma this morning. She said this Tai …’ Abernathy flicked through his notebook. ‘Tai Ngata looks to be involved. Police are on the lookout for him. Could’ve gone into hiding.’
Zoe nodded. ‘Will she be OK?’ It was a pathetic question she knew he couldn’t answer. She felt guilty that she’d put the teen in danger.
Abernathy smiled at her, his eyes sympathetic. ‘I can’t answer that yet. Sorry, Zoe. But I do plan to get some answers for you. For both of you,’ he said, looking at Faith. ‘I think I have everything I need. You’ve given me a huge amount of information here. You can stop digging now. Emma told me your house has been broken into twice, and if they’ve taken Aroha because she knew too much, I’d say you two are probably on their radar as well.’
‘No shit,’ Faith muttered.
‘Faith!’ Zoe said.
‘It’s OK,’ Abernathy said. ‘I guess that was stating the obvious. I have your number, Zoe. I promise to keep you informed. But all of this is going to take a bit of time, so don’t expect to hear back from me for at least a couple of days.’
‘No problem,’ Zoe said, already feeling as if a weight had been lifted. ‘Thank you for this.’
They said their farewells at the door of the café and Detective Abernathy turned up the collar of his beige jacket and stepped into the light rain that had started falling.
‘To the Secret Garden?’ Faith asked, lighting up a cigarette, turning in towards Zoe to avoid the breeze.
‘Really? Do you think we should?’
‘Hell, yeah. I want to see what the place is like.’
‘Shit,’ Zoe said. ‘Yeah, OK. Let’s go.’
Chapter 49
Unable to find a park on Karangahape Road, Zoe found one a block over, paid for parking and slipped the ticket onto her dashboard. They had to walk quite a distance, counting the numbers on the buildings as they passed, trying to find The Secret Garden. There was a mix of restaurants, cafés, barbershops and clothing stores; interspersed between these were massage parlours, adult stores and clubs with neon lights that were being turned on as the other shopkeepers locked up for the day.
Number 1127 Karangahape Road had a black frontage with no windows; a bouncer stood in front of glossy red double doors. There was no signage, no indication of what lay behind.
‘Are you open yet?’ Faith asked.
‘In five minutes,’ he said, looking closely first at Faith and then at Zoe.
‘This is The Secret Garden, right?’ Faith said.
The man said nothing.
‘Are we able to come in?’
‘I’ll need to see your membership card.’
Faith and Zoe looked at each other. Both knew they weren’t getting beyond the double doors.
‘You two don’t look like the normal clientele. How did you find out about us?’
‘Just from a friend,’ Faith said, and grabbed Zoe’s hand to leave. They crossed the busy road and walked up to Symonds Street, Zoe checking over her shoulder a couple of times as they got further away, and each time the bouncer’s eyes met hers. They filled in half an hour taking in the window fronts and dodging commuters. They found a Chinese restaurant on the opposite side from The Secret Garden from where they could view the entrance.
They ordere
d sweet and sour pork, beef and black beans and two beers. They turned to the window to watch The Secret Garden. The building to the right had been painted powder-blue and was named Francine’s Florals. There were rustic bunches of flowers in old wooden buckets and wheelbarrows, the lights beyond in the shop had just been flicked off and someone, maybe Francine herself, flicked the Open sign over to Closed, locked up and walked twenty metres down the street to the bus stop. To the left of The Secret Garden was a building painted the same inky black colour. Its front windows had been painted over in white and there was a ‘For Lease’ board in the front window.
Zoe shivered, looking at The Secret Garden, wondering what could be happening inside the building. Were Megan and Tania in there? She hoped Detective Abernathy looked into the place as quickly as possible.
As they waited for their food they watched men and women in business attire waiting for buses or marching down the street towards cars and home. A steady rain was falling, and the street was slick. Caught out by the spring rain, people jogged between shops, looking for cover.
‘Here we go,’ said Faith as a man walked up to the entrance. He looked to be in his fifties and was dressed in a navy-blue suit. The bouncer nodded hello and glanced at a card the man displayed and then pocketed. The door was opened and he entered.
‘God, I wish I knew what went on in there,’ Faith said, sipping at her beer.
Zoe’s phone sounded from her handbag and she rummaged around trying to find it before she missed the call.
‘Zoe, hi, it’s Emma. Are you busy? Can we talk?’
‘Go for it,’ Zoe said, mouthing to Faith ‘It’s Emma.’
‘We’ve got the fingerprint results back today from the break-in. Turns out the guy already has a record, so it was pretty easy. His name’s Nate Bond. Ring any bells?’
‘No,’ Zoe said. ‘Should it?’
‘Probably not. But he does work for Richard Bailey.’
‘Are you kidding me?’ Zoe said, wide-eyed, ignoring Faith who was desperate for information.
‘We’ve brought him in and searched his place. Didn’t take much, your laptop was right on his dining-room table. He’s been charged and will go before the court in the next few days.’
‘Did he mention anything about Bailey?’
‘No, kept his mouth shut.’
‘Will Bailey be questioned?’
‘No,’ Emma said.
‘Why?’ Zoe knew she was being unreasonable.
‘Because there’s no evidence he’s involved in the burglary.’ Emma was quiet and Zoe waited, sensing there was more. ‘Plus Max has told me to stay away from Bailey.’
Zoe shook her head.
‘Did you talk to Ryan?’ Emma asked, changing the subject.
‘Yeah, we did. He’ll get back to me — and you too, I guess — if he finds anything.’
‘Great. I’m sorry I couldn’t get Bailey for you, Zoe. Ryan’s the right guy for the job, though. I’ll talk to you later.’
Zoe ended the call and relayed what Emma had said back to Faith. ‘It was him,’ said Faith. ‘Of course it was.’
Zoe agreed. ‘They wouldn’t have found anything of interest on my laptop.’ The fact that any clues she’d found, plus the papers signed by Lillian were hidden, made her feel slightly better.
Their food arrived and they ate still watching The Secret Garden. When Harold Paynter walked up to the door and showed his card to the bouncer, Zoe almost choked.
‘That’s him,’ she said. ‘Harold Paynter.’
Faith looked at him with distaste as he entered through the red door. ‘What was he like as a boss?’
‘The worst. Every move he made was dictated by money or how he was going to look. He never wanted me as a teacher at his precious school. If his staff could’ve been all male he would’ve been a happy man.’
They finished their dinner and watched for another ten minutes as more men arrived. ‘No women,’ Faith said.
Zoe nodded. She’d noticed the same thing, and it made her feel uneasy.
Chapter 50
Megan looked at the clock on the wall: 7 p.m. She had woken that morning to a cacophony of coughs, groans, snoring and whimpering. From the muted light coming from the light bulb by the door on the far side of the room she saw that each mattress was now occupied. The women were all shapes and sizes: some were naked, some wore only underwear, others had cocooned themselves in their sheet leaving only their faces visible. Every face she looked into bore eyes that held pupils the size of pinpricks, haunted, without fire or life.
She looked at the girl to her left. Tania? Moving closer, she pulled the sheet down slightly to reveal her face. Her sheet was soaked through and even in sleep she was shaking. She stirred and opened her eyes. She frowned, confused. ‘What are you looking at?’
The Tania she had known had been strong, tanned, with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes. This shell before her was nothing like the woman she’d known.
‘Tania?’
‘What?’ She frowned again, then yelped in pain. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and brought her knees up to her chest.
‘Shit, are you OK?’
‘What does it fucking look like?’ She threw the sheet off, giving no indication that she recognised Megan, who took in her skeletal frame and gasped.
Tania walked to the bathroom on unsteady legs and threw up.
The girl on Megan’s right sat up in bed, long blonde hair covering her naked breasts. ‘So you’re the new Rose,’ she said, looking her up and down. ‘You’re definitely prettier than the old one. Although the fresh ones always are. You’ll be in high demand.’ She nodded towards the bathroom. ‘She’s pretty close to expiring, I’d say.’
‘Expiring?’
‘Yeah. Donna always tells us we have an expiry date. They’re the fuckers that get us addicted to the stuff, then they get rid of us because, well, there we go. Exhibit A. Can’t do the job anymore. Too much of a mess.’
‘What is the job?’ Megan asked, even though she already knew.
‘Fucking.’
Megan swallowed.
‘The drugs make it easier. Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine.’
Megan put her face into her hands, trying to stop the sobs. ‘What will happen to Tania?’
‘Fuck knows, but I’m pretty damn sure we don’t get dropped off at the nearest street corner and sent on our way.’
‘They’re going to kill her?’
The girl was silent. She either didn’t have the answer or didn’t want to say.
‘How long have you been here?’
‘Oh, my manners,’ she said, mocking. ‘I’m Lily, I’ve been here … Fuck, I have no idea. Months, I guess.’
‘What’s your real name?’
‘Who cares?’ Lily avoided Megan’s eyes. ‘Doesn’t matter.’
‘Were you taken, like me?’
‘You think I came to this hellhole of my own free will?’
‘I … No, I guess not.’ Megan looked around the room. All the girls seemed to move in slow motion. ‘Have you tried to get out? To escape?’
‘There’s no getting out of here, honey.’ Lily’s laugh was more like a cackle, which turned into a hacking cough. ‘The sooner you realise this is it, the better. No one gets out of here. Unless,’ she said, watching Tania shuffle across the room to her mattress, ‘you expire. Worthless. They don’t want worthless. Remember that and look after yourself.’
Megan nodded. ‘Do we stay down here all the time?’
‘Shit, no. Each night we get taken upstairs to our rooms.’
Megan remembered the stairs she’d come down, the door she and Tai had come through. Was there a chance she could get to it, get out into the alley and away?
‘You’re still thinking of getting out of here, aren’t you?’ Lily smiled at
her as though she was some naïve child. ‘You’ve got to stop. It’ll drive you mad.’
‘Where the fuck is Donna?’ one girl said. She had clear pale skin and short hair, only half an inch long. ‘It’s five past seven. She’s late.’
‘Here I am.’ Donna appeared without apology. Megan noticed that all the girls perked up. Some walked over to her and Donna shooed them away; others who had been lying almost comatose on their beds now sat up, eager, waiting.
Donna was followed by four men, heavy-set and unsmiling. They placed trays of food in front of the women. Megan was starving and started eating a ham sandwich. She stopped to watch the girls watching Donna. They all ignored the food. Donna sat at a small table in front of them. She laid out ten syringes in a row and Megan felt as though her few bites of the sandwich were about to come up.
‘Have you all showered?’ All the girls murmured that they had, some nodding vigorously. Megan had that afternoon joined two other girls in the shower stall which was open to the toilet and sinks in the bathroom. She shielded her naked form but then realised neither girls, both petite with protruding hipbones, was interested in her. They stood under the shower for at least five minutes without moving, the act of washing hair and body seeming like a marathon effort. Megan had dried herself and changed and they were still standing under the stream of hot water, deaf to the yelling that had started from the other girls waiting.
‘Who’s first?’ Donna said
There were giggles from the girls, their excitement palpable. All day the room had felt heavy with confusion and depression but now it was filled with spark and anticipation. Girls raised their hands as if they were sitting on the mat in front of their teacher.
‘Daisy, you first,’ Donna said to Tania.
Tania’s face lit up, the sunken skin on her face stretching into a smile. Donna tied the band around Tania’s arm and after a few seconds of rubbing and tapping to find an adequate vein sank the syringe into the skin. Tania slumped back into her pillow, eyes closed, the happiest and most peaceful Megan had seen her since she’d been here.
Donna returned to the table. ‘Rose. You’re next.’
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