by Alex Palmer
‘The hours would be more demanding, but you’ve got your partner to look after your daughter for you. Yes, you would be working closely with me. That’s the point. But it is a step forward in your career.’
‘I shot a woman that night.’
‘The autopsy showed that it was the police marksman’s bullet that killed Sara McLeod, not yours.’
‘I still shot her. I’m not sure I ever want to do that again.’
‘In this position, you won’t have to,’ Clive said.
‘Someone else does the dirty work.’
‘You handled that situation very well. Whatever you think, you have a great deal of potential. Maybe you’d like time to think this over.’
‘No, I’ve already done my thinking,’ she said, and, opening the folder she’d brought with her, took out an envelope. ‘This is my resignation. I’ll complete any outstanding tasks, I’ll be available for debriefings and court appearances as required, but I want to leave by the end of the month.’
‘Why?’ Clive asked, suddenly angry, suppressing it quickly.
‘It’s all in there.’
‘I don’t think the real reason will be there. People don’t put those things on paper.’
‘That night there were two things you didn’t do. I asked you to ring Harrigan. You didn’t.’
‘I didn’t have the time. To point out the obvious, he wasn’t able to answer his phone.’
‘You should have tried to call him. I was going into a situation where my life was in danger. He had a right to know. You also told me you would pull me out as soon as I asked you to. You didn’t.’
‘If your partner hadn’t gone in there and interfered with Griffin’s information in the first place, we would have come in.’
‘I gave you the pull-out signal before we knew those records were missing. Then I called you twice more when I was in great danger. You said you would come in and you didn’t.’
‘I’ve handled this whole affair with great discretion. Your partner’s investigations could have derailed this operation. I could have charged him if I wanted to, but I haven’t. I think you should consider that.’
‘His being there probably saved my life. Why didn’t you come in?’
Grace’s question was greeted with silence.
‘Why leave me there?’ she asked again. ‘They took my wire. You couldn’t even hear what was happening.’
‘I told you that Griffin’s business records were our main prize. I needed to find out whether he would go and get them when he left Duffys Forest. I’ve been through your notes in detail. They’re as good as listening in. We know who our man is and we have him. He’ll never see the outside of a prison wall again.’
‘He didn’t go and get those records. And you were almost too late to stop him killing the both of us.’
There was silence. Clive closed his folder and sat there staring at her.
‘All right. Consider your resignation accepted. You can leave as soon as you’ve finished anything that’s outstanding. Today, if possible. Don’t worry, you’ll still get your bonus.’
‘Then I’ll say goodbye.’
He didn’t speak.
She got to her feet and walked to the door. She glanced back to say goodbye one more time but he was staring down at the table. She walked out, closing the door behind her silently. Later, she’d think that he hadn’t been able to break her to fit the mould he’d wanted and she would always be one of his failures. At the time, she only wanted to clear her desk and go.
‘What will you do?’ Harrigan asked.
They were sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee. Ellie was alternately playing and demanding their attention.
‘I don’t know,’ she replied, taking Ellie up onto her lap.
‘Go back to the police?’
‘No. It was too much like a snake pit the last time I was there.’
‘Work with me.’
She smiled, shaking her head. ‘Too close.’
‘Then let’s have a party,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘To celebrate our non-marriage.’
She laughed. ‘Why do we need to do that?’
‘Because it must be safe to do it. No one can touch us now, babe. We’ve been through it all. Call it a break with the old world. A chance to get rid of the past. We can be normal.’
‘We could have a party,’ she said. ‘Invite everybody. Play lots of music. Dance all night. Ellie, here’s your chance to be at your parents’ non-wedding. You can embarrass your first boyfriend’s family by telling them all about it.’
‘Is that a yes?’
‘Yes. But I still have to work out what to do for a living.’
‘Think of the world as your oyster,’ he said.
‘Maybe I will.’
About The Author
Alex Palmer is a Canberra-based novelist who took up writing full time when she was made redundant from the Australian Public Service. With Blood Redemption, she won the Ned Kelly Award for best first crime novel, and shared the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for best crime novel by a woman with Gabrielle Lord. The Tattooed Man won the 2008 Canberra Critics Cricle Award.
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Books by Alex Palmer
Blood Redemption
The Tattooed Man
The Labyrinth of Drowning
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2009
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Alex Palmer 2009
The right of Alex Palmer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Palmer, Alex, 1952–.
Labyrinth of drowning / Alex Palmer.
ISBN: 978 0 7322 8574 6 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 0023 3 (ePub)
Murder–Investigation–Fiction.
Sydney (N.S.W.)–Fiction
A823.4
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