Tall, Dark & Distant

by Julie Fison

  ‘He had acne scars on his face and he had a tattoo,’ she said confidently.

  ‘A tattoo?’ the officer asked. ‘What kind of tattoo?’

  Georgia thought some more. ‘I think it was a … star tattoo.’

  ‘You think, or was it definitely a star tattoo?’ the officer asked. ‘This is important.’

  Georgia nodded. ‘It was a star tattoo … like the ones of the Russian mafia.’ She could see the tattoo in her mind quite clearly now.

  ‘And was this one of the men you saw in the tinnie?’ the officer asked.

  She nodded slowly. ‘The men in the tinnie were wearing masks. But I remember tattoos. They both had tattoos on their shoulders.’ Georgia thought some more. ‘I’m pretty certain they were the same guys that kidnapped Alice.’

  ‘Pretty certain?’ the officer asked.

  ‘Certain,’ Georgia replied. ‘I only saw their outline in the car. It was dark. But I’m sure it was them.’

  And so Georgia went on, with more and more conviction, describing the men who had kidnapped Alice and tried to extort half a million dollars out of Nik. There was no-one to contradict her description – Alice had suffered amnesia after the accident. She woke up in the hospital with no recollection of the previous night. The last thing she could recall was leaving the apartment on New Year’s Eve. After that – everything was a blank. Nik couldn’t add to the story, either. He had disappeared completely.

  ‘It’s unlikely these men are still in the region,’ the officer said. ‘But just in case, we’ll put a patrol in your area.’

  ‘Thanks, I feel better about that,’ Georgia said. But she didn’t really. She felt numb. She knew she’d done the right thing, sending Nik away – but she missed him too. All she could think about was his arms around her, his hand stroking her face, telling her everything was going to be all right, even though she knew it wasn’t. She had never felt so alone.

  Since the kidnapping, Alice had withdrawn to the couch, watching television for hours and crying. Even though she couldn’t remember her ordeal, she seemed depressed by it – maybe her subconscious had taken everything in and trapped it.

  When Georgia tried to update her on developments, or the lack of them, Alice fixed her with a blank stare.

  She saw Ella and Mei a couple of times in Hastings Street, but when she smiled at them, they just looked right through her. And how could she blame them, after the way she had let everyone down? Any one of them could have been kidnapped just because they were friends with Nik. She imagined how life would have been if she’d never met him. Alice would be her old self. Ella and Mei would meet her on the beach and try to give her boy advice.

  As the kidnap crisis dragged on and the police failed to come up with any concrete leads, Georgia became more determined to find some answers herself. She gave up running and took up internet research. She spent hours on Wikipedia, wading through blogs, posting to forums and google-translating pages and pages of Cyrillic, trying to understand how the Russkaya Mafiya worked.

  She had no doubt that they were behind Alice’s kidnapping. She’d read reports of the mafia’s involvement in organised crime in Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast. There was no mention of the Sunshine Coast, but it wasn’t much of a stretch to infer they were in Noosa – or had been.

  She shivered at the thought of what might have happened to Alice if the car hadn’t crashed.

  Late one night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Georgia stumbled upon an old Russian news story about the mafia. She was tired and she had just been skimming over the report, but she woke up quickly when her eyes hit the name: Morozov. Georgia’s heart stopped. What had she found?

  She looked away from the screen, dropping her face into her hands. Georgia could hardly bring herself to look at the story. Were the Morozovs part of the Russian mafia? It would explain why Nik was so secretive. It would explain why he had been so reluctant to get the police involved when Alice was kidnapped. Georgia wasn’t sure she was ready for that kind of revelation.

  Slowly, she let her eyes return to the computer screen. She forced herself to look at the story and, without skimming or skipping, she read. It was a chilling account of the worldwide reach of the Russian mafia and their involvement in human trafficking, drug deals and money laundering. Right at the end of the story was a reference to a kidnapping in Georgia. The Russian mafia had been blamed, although it was still unclear who was behind the crime. But the victims were the Morozov family.

  Georgia’s heart sank. She closed her eyes. She was relieved that the Morozovs weren’t involved with the mafia, but her heart ached for Nik.

  She took a breath and read on. The family had been holidaying in Georgia when Nik and his mother had been kidnapped. They’d been held for three days until an undisclosed ransom was paid. Local police had been implicated in the kidnapping. This all happened eleven years earlier – when Nik was nine.

  Georgia felt her body turn to ice, even though it was thirty degrees. She switched off her computer and flopped onto a sofa, trying to take everything in. Suddenly Georgia had an explanation for the way Nik had responded to her name when they first met.

  She also knew why Nik reacted the way he did to the extortion note and Alice’s kidnapping. He didn’t want the police involved because he didn’t trust them. Georgia understood why Nik was such an emotional basket case – he’d been kidnapped as a kid. How could he trust anyone after that?

  Georgia wished she could reach out to Nik and hold him. To tell him she was sorry, that she understood what he’d been through and that she wanted to help him. But it was too late. She had sent him away again, and there was no going back on what she’d said to him.

  She closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep.

  ‘There’s been a bit of a breakthrough,’ the bald police officer told Georgia the next morning when she was called back to the police station. ‘We think we found the Halloween masks that you were talking about.’

  ‘That’s great,’ Georgia said, glad to finally hear some news.

  ‘They were under the front seat of a black Mercedes.’

  ‘Of course,’ Georgia said. ‘The thugs from the tinnie. They’re the ones who kidnapped Alice. They’re Russian mafia. I’m certain.’

  The officer cleared his throat. ‘We can also share with you some information on the owner of the black Mercedes.’

  ‘It’s a mafia car,’ Georgia said without waiting for more information ‘They’ve got cells in Australia.’

  The officer shook his head. ‘The black Mercedes belonged to a Mrs Valerie Simm.’

  ‘Mrs Simm!’ Georgia said. ‘Are you sure?’

  The officer nodded. ‘It was reported stolen from Hastings Street. Info’s only just come through, because the plates had been swapped with an unregistered bomb. Created a bit of confusion. We’ve been talking with Mrs Simm’s son who, was the last one to use the car before it was stolen.’

  ‘Dim?’ Georgia said.

  The officer scratched his chin. ‘Yes, it would appear so.’

  By the time Georgia left the police station, her head was spinning. The police were on the wrong track completely. They needed to be chasing down Russian mafia criminals, not bugging Mrs Simm about her Mercedes. The Russian mafia wouldn’t need to steal cars from the Simms – they’d definitely have their own.

  All the same, it would be worth talking to Dim. She hadn’t seen him since the kidnapping. Surely he would have told the police everything he knew. But she wanted to hear it for herself.

  Georgia rushed out of the police station, wondering where to start looking for Dim. As soon as she saw the size of the waves crashing on the beach, she knew where to find him. Everyone who owned a surfboard would be out today, making the most of the king tide. Georgia ran into the national park, to Dim’s favourite break. She didn’t have to wait long before she saw Dim and Cameron running down the track, boards under their arms.

  ‘Hey guys,’ Georgia smiled. She was half-concealed by a tr
ee beside the track. ‘How’s the surf?’

  ‘Bloody hell!’ Dim said, dropping his board. ‘What are you doing here? You scared me.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Georgia said. ‘What’s up?’

  Cameron looked away, shuffling his board.

  ‘Any news on who stole your car?’ Georgia asked.

  Dim’s face started to twitch. ‘No. No, I don’t know anything. I don’t know why everyone thinks I know something about that. Someone stole the car after I parked it. What would I know about kidnappers? I don’t know why everyone is blaming me.’

  Cameron nudged Dim. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘The waves are really pumping.’

  Georgia stood aside, startled by Dim’s outburst. She hadn’t accused him of anything. The whole thing must have really got to him. He looked shaken and tired. They both did – dark circles under their eyes, just like Alice’s. Although Alice’s eyes were bruised from slamming into the airbag in the back of the Mercedes.

  And that’s when Georgia’s mind started whirring. ‘Guys!’ she shouted. ‘Wait!’

  Cameron and Dim glanced over their shoulders, but they didn’t wait, they started running. Georgia chased after them. Cameron turned round. His face was masked by white zinc, but she could tell – it didn’t just look weary, it looked battered.

  Just like Alice’s.

  The guys left the track and scrambled down an embankment, launching their boards into the water. Georgia stood on the path watching them paddle off, and things began to unravel in her mind. She had to get back to the apartment. Alice had to remember something.

  Her sister was sitting in her usual position in front of the television when Georgia returned. She sat down beside Alice, trying to keep a calm smile on her face, so as not to scare her.

  ‘I saw Cameron and Dim just now,’ Georgia said.

  Alice had barely even looked at Georgia for a week, but when she heard the guys’ names, something snapped. Her head spun around, and a flash of panic spread across her face.

  ‘Cameron and Dim?’ Alice said in a thin voice.

  It was a second or two before she was able to control her features and fix Georgia with the usual blank stare, but Georgia had already seen the change. She knew Alice remembered something.

  ‘Dim’s really freaking out about what happened,’ she said. ‘He thinks everyone’s blaming him.’

  Alice burst into tears. ‘It was Dim’s fault. It was all his idea.’

  Georgia blinked. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘The kidnapping,’ sobbed Alice. ‘It was all Dim’s idea.’

  ‘I didn’t think you could remember anything about the kidnapping.'

  ‘I remember now,’ she whispered.

  ‘What are you saying?’ Georgia asked in a low voice.

  Alice pulled away from her sister and ran out of the apartment in her pyjamas.

  ‘Alice!’ Georgia called after her.

  She raced outside, trying to process what her sister had just said. Even with no training for the past week, Georgia could easily catch Alice. She grabbed her sister by the arm and spun her around. ‘Alice! Were Cameron and Dim in the car with you?’

  Alice’s face had gone white. She looked around wildly, then seemed to slump. She nodded slowly.

  ‘What happened to the kidnappers?’ Georgia asked desperately.

  Alice looked down. ‘There were no kidnappers.’

  Alice’s words hit Georgia like a thump in the chest. She struggled to catch her breath. But she still couldn’t understand what had gone on.

  ‘But there was an extortion note,’ she hissed. ‘And two masked thugs chased me in a tinnie. I didn’t imagine those things, Alice. They actually happened!’

  Alice stared at the ground.

  ‘You?’ Georgia said. ‘You and Dim and Cameron – did all of that?’

  Georgia thought back to the day on the yacht. Dim and Cameron had disappeared right before the tinnie almost ran over her. She felt sick that her friends had done that to her.

  ‘It got out of control. It was just meant to be a stupid joke.’

  Georgia stared at Alice. ‘A joke?’ she said slowly. ‘You tried to blackmail Nik! You threatened me! You tried to run me over! And you think that’s a joke?’

  Alice started sobbing. ‘It was Dim’s idea. He forced me to.’

  Suddenly Georgia felt sick. She saw everything in a new light. No-one had ever forced Alice to do anything. She had probably planned the whole thing to teach Georgia a lesson for not inviting her on the yacht trip. No wonder she’d tried to stop Georgia from calling the police after the accident. She had feared she’d be blamed because she was to blame. That was why her amnesia didn’t manifest until the day after the accident. The doctors had puzzled over that.

  Why did Cameron and Dim get involved? Was it for money? Or did they just think it would be funny? Then Georgia remembered their fishing trip with Nik, and his refusal to take them to Sydney. It was just the kind of thing to make Dim do something as stupid as his name.

  ‘What have you done?’ Georgia whispered to Alice.

  ‘What have you done?’ Alice wept. ‘You’re the one who told the police about the star tattoo. You started the whole kidnapper story. You turned some random runner into a potential rapist and then into a Russian mafia kidnapper. You’re the psycho here.’

  Georgia opened her mouth to fight back but all she could manage was a whimper.

  ‘I just wanted to go sailing on the yacht,’ Alice said. ‘Was that so much to ask?’

  There it was – the confession Georgia had feared. Georgia had refused to invite Alice on Nik’s boat, and her petty, spoilt sister had decided to pay her back.

  ‘You and Nik were the ones who caused the crash,’ Alice added for good measure. ‘You’re the ones to blame.’ She turned and stalked away.

  ‘We have to tell the police,’ Georgia called after her.

  ‘What does it matter now?’ Alice said, returning to the apartment. She slammed the door behind her.

  Georgia stared at the closed door, her pulse racing as she thought about admitting that she’d misled the cops with the star-tattoo story. There had been no kidnappers, no stalkers – just a jealous sister and her stupid friends playing a dumb prank. There was nothing to be gained from telling the truth, but Georgia had a responsibility to set things straight. She decided to do it by phone.

  But more importantly, she had to find Nik, and tell him everything. That she wanted to do in person.

  Maybe he was in Switzerland with his mother? Georgia knew she had an apartment there with a view of Lake Geneva.

  Where are you? she texted, desperately hoping he hadn’t changed his number. We need to talk.

  Georgia pulled out a bag and started packing. She would fly wherever he was to explain things to Nik. She owed Nik that much. She’d been so sure she knew right from wrong. As it turned out, she didn’t know anything. But now she had the chance to make things right between them.

  Early the next morning, Georgia was woken by a text. She blinked at the screen in the dim light – a reply from Nik, at last, and a photo. He was standing in front of what looked like a vegetable garden, with a spade in his hand. She hardly recognised him. He looked like he was working.

  Greetings from Nyanza, the text said. Miss you.

  My god, Georgia thought. He’s in Kenya. What was he doing there? Nyanza Province wasn’t exactly on the tourist trail – no ski fields, a long way from the nearest diving spots, probably not too many art galleries, either. Plenty of poverty, refugees and a disturbingly high rate of maternal mortality. Was Nik in Kenya to see a hospital? Georgia grabbed her bag from the bedroom.

  She was going to find out.

  Just before lunchtime, some days later (she didn’t actually know how many), Georgia climbed out of a taxi at Nyanza Provincial General Hospital. The driver pulled her suitcase from the boot and handed it to her. She thanked him with a sigh. She was exhausted from the hours and hours she’d spent sitting on planes, nap
ping in plastic chairs on stopovers, fighting through security and finally battling her way out of the airport.

  But as she stared at the newish concrete building in front of her, the ordeal seemed to slip into the distant past, and all Georgia could think about was the future. She was actually in Africa! She took it all in – the people on the streets, the buildings and even the trees. She tuned into the different sounds – the singsong language, music pumping from a car stereo. She breathed in the smells – something pungent was cooking nearby and a storm was brewing.

  But what she felt most strongly was anticipation. Tonight, at last, she would be reunited with Nik. She hadn’t actually heard from him since his initial text, but Georgia had managed to get hold of Dr Freeman, her father’s friend who worked for the Fistula Foundation. The doctor knew the name Nik Morozov instantly. Nik had made a big impression on her with a massive donation to the foundation the previous week.

  Nik? The guy who loved sports cars, super yachts and partying had turned into a philanthropist? What had happened to him?

  As far as Dr Freeman knew, Nik was still in the country – visiting a refugee camp with a group of medics. They were all due back that evening.

  Georgia had just started walking towards the hospital when a car pulled up behind her. A bunch of young guys piled out, looking even dustier than she felt. She half-hoped that Nik would be among them. She smiled as they walked past, trying not to be disappointed when he wasn’t there.

  And then she heard a voice that made her heart stop.

  ‘Georgia! What are you doing here?’

  She turned. Nik was climbing out of the back of a 4WD. Georgia dropped her bag and ran towards him, launching herself into his outstretched arms.

  Nik swung Georgia around, laughing and kissing her. ‘Georgia, Georgia, Georgia!’ He kept saying her name over and over between kisses, as if he hardly believed it was her.