Roachville

My ploy to contact Kalaroo worked. Through emails I told him where to find us and he turned up at Macondo’s Garden in the early afternoon. He offered great profusions of relief and joy at Ely’s return, even though he only knew him through others. But hey, such is life! After he had given me a bone-crushing hug and Ely had gone into his office to make tea, I frowned at him.

‘You’re not the best bodyguard in the world, are you?’

‘Look, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for Tann and Sommai’s visit.’

‘Was it on purpose by any chance?’

I had been wondering if Kalaroo had avoided being there, so I could be catapulted into deep trouble and have to make my own way out. Making me stronger by overcoming adversity and what not.

Kalaroo blinked and sighed. ‘Possibly.’

I tapped my lips. ‘Well, I guess maybe it was for the best.’

‘You know, most of the times I just follow what guidelines I get from Phuong.’

‘These are risky guidelines. I was very close to giving the naga to Tann,’ I mused, feeling an unpleasant tingle at the bottom of my foot.

‘Yes, but you didn’t.’ He avoided direct eye contact.

‘That’s true, I didn’t.’

‘Well, don’t you feel stronger for it?’

‘I guess.’ I rolled my eyes like a thirteen-year-old. Best to drop my accusations against Kalaroo; after all he could be right. Facing Tann on my own was terrifying, but deep down I believed it had given me a better chance of finding a way to get rid of him.

Ely came back with three mugs of tea. We all settled on the sandy clearing, where Ely and I had engaged in various proceedings. I couldn’t wait to repeat them, but now wasn’t the time to think of sex. I turned my attention back to Kalaroo.

‘You know where Tann and Sommai are staying, don’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up of being the mouse. I think it’s time we started to be a bit more cat.’

Kalaroo smiled. Ely, who had been very quiet until now, spoke.

‘I like it. I don’t know what you’re planning to do when you find him,’ he blew on his tea, ‘but there are a few things I’d like to put across to him.’

‘That’s what I have in mind too. A few things to say or do…’ I looked at Kalaroo. ‘But first of all, it’s your turn to spill the beans.’

‘What do you mean?’ He gazed at a strong plant next to him.

‘I want to know what happened to Mei’s father.’

‘Is it something you absolutely want to know?’

‘I have to know.’

‘Very well.’ His eyebrows joined together briefly. ‘After what happened on the Mekong, Mei’s father decided they should leave Chang Mai and even Thailand.’

‘That’s where the story ends for me,’ I said.

‘Mei’s father thought hard as to where the family should go. He considered going to France – after all, there were a lot of Lao immigrants there and they could speak French. But that would have been too obvious. He imagined himself in Canada, but there were also big groups of Laotian who had emigrated recently. What about India or even somewhere in Africa? In India they’d have to learn English first and then another language, and in Africa they’d stick out like sore thumbs. So it occurred to him that he’d only looked West, but maybe he should turn to the East. So they decided to move to Western Australia.’

‘Ah!’ I interrupted. ‘So that’s how you know Mei?’

‘I won’t tell you how I met Mei now. That’s another story.’

‘Fair enough,’ I said.

‘The family settled in one of Perth’s perfect suburbs. It’s a bit like your Roachville, but bigger and sunnier.’

‘Okay,’ I replied, trying hard to keep a straight face. I didn’t want to hurt his Australian feelings.

‘You wouldn’t like it,’ Kalaroo commented. (Clearly I needed to work on my unreadable face.) ‘Anyway, life was okay for a few years. Mei and her father learnt English with an Ozzie twang but Phuong wouldn’t have any of it and she hardly went out. She was turning into one of those first generation emigrants’ wives who condemn themselves to their own house, strangers everywhere else. But Mei’s father began to think he was okay, that Kenneth Tann would never find him. He was still plagued with visions of suffocating Gaspard to death but for his wife and daughter’s sakes he kept his mind sane, taking each day as it came, concentrating on the now.’

Kalaroo drew a squiggle in the sand.

‘One day, as he was driving back from his job in a peanut factory, he saw a car following him. He told himself he was being paranoid; after all, it could just be one of the many big four by fours cruising along the coastal freeway. But to be sure he turned off at a different exit and stopped at a mall. The car followed and found a parking space nearby. Inside the air-conditioned building, he walked into the very first shop, a supplier of extreme sport equipment. Even though it was around thirty-five Celsius outside, he bought a pair of mountaineering socks, his mind on the four by four lurking in the sweltering car park. As he drove off, the very same car followed in the rear mirror. There was no doubt in his mind: he had been found.’

‘They had found him at work?’ Ely asked.

‘Yup, and he hoped they still didn’t know where he lived. So he drove away through the neat suburbs and after thirty minutes, he had lost them. He went back home like a man sentenced to death. Phuong prepared a small bag for her and Mei and she took the naga too. He embraced her and Mei; they were all crying. A taxi arrived soon after and drove the women away to the international airport. But again, that’s another story.’

Kalaroo took a big drag of the joint that Ely had handed him and paused for a little while.

‘How come you know all this stuff? Are you making up the details?’ I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

Without looking at me, Kalaroo inhaled at length again to blow out a smoky goanna or some such antipodean form.

‘When all this happened, my brother and I had become very close friends with Mei. So all I’ve told you until now is what Mei’s father had told her. Of course, I am relating it in my own style; I do fancy myself as a storyteller.’

‘Sounds like you have enough to write a novel,’ I said. ‘But take us back to Australia.’

‘Sure. So, as Phuong and Mei left for the airport, my brother and I stayed behind in the shadows… And you must be wondering what Mei’s father did next?’

We both nodded.

‘Well, my cute friends, Phuong wanted him to go with her and Mei to start a new life, but he convinced them there was no time for that and they would be safer without him.’

‘So are you saying he stayed?’

‘Yes, he didn’t make any attempt to escape.’

‘Maybe he wanted to atone for his crime?’ Ely said.

‘That’s what I thought,’ said Kalaroo. ’I expect he’d had enough of reliving Gaspard’s murder. It took half a day for Tann and Sommai to find his house and when they rang his doorbell, Mei’s father recognised Kenneth Tann and his Lao henchman straight away. They sat him down and tied him to a chair without a word. It was just like déjà vu; the setting was different but the atmosphere was the same as all those years ago on the bank of the Mekong:

’“Have you heard of the Nullarbor?” Tann started. Mei’s father nodded; he knew what the Nullarbor was – a desert on the South Australian Coast between the end of the Western Australian state – and Adelaide and he had no intention of visiting it.

’“Lately I have become fascinated by it, almost obsessed, but what intrigues me the most about the Nullarbor are its cliffs. They call it the Great Australian Bight. Have you heard of those?” He clicked his eyes in a reptilian manner. “And while I’m here on the other side of the planet, I must go and see those cliffs that are probably the closest to what the end of the world is – as the Greeks had imagined it, anyhow. You know, miles and miles of immensely high cut-off cliffs, signifying the end of the Earth…” He studied Mei’s father before asking, “Fancy taking a dive off them?”

’Mei’s father didn’t reply.

‘“Of course, we shall have to extract information from you before we take a trip there. I think we might stop in Esperance on the way, although I don’t expect you’ll find much hope there. Besides, I’m a bit out of touch and I need to practise my dermatologist skills.”’

My toes curled up and Kalaroo glanced at me with his dark brown eyes.

‘So what happened next?’ I asked.

‘Well, take a guess.’

‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘you’re the one telling the story.’

Ely remained as silent as a hot knife on a well-polished kitchen surface, biding his time.

‘Come on, use your imagination,’ continued Kalaroo.

I breathed out, clearing my thoughts.

‘I expect Mei’s father was tortured, maybe with liquid nitrogen… but the thought of his wife and daughter made him hold on. They dumped his poor mutilated body over those cliffs and he died taking his secret with him.’

‘Ah ah ah!!’ was Kalaroo’s manic reply. ‘Nope, wrong. Completely wrong.’

‘They did torture him, but he told Tann everything,’ Ely said.

’Not quite, but close. It wasn’t torture that broke him. Kenneth Tann was very crafty, you see. Mulalloo and I had gone into invisible mode and we crouched just outside the living-room window where Mei’s father sat and we watched in morbid fascination, while Tann retrieved a silver can from his car, then he got Sommai to lie Mei’s father down and tie him up securely. Mei’s father didn’t resist. He eyed the silver can without emotion. It even looked like he might welcome physical torture and Tann probably realized that.

’“You think if you feel pain, real pain, it might make up for the fact that you killed poor old Gaspard?” he asked.

’Mei’s father closed his eyes.

’“I must say, I was amazed you could kill a defenceless old man with your bare hands. I’m not sure I could do it myself. I mean, I would have killed him if you hadn’t, but not with my bare hands, especially if he had been an old friend.” And so Tann went on, until Mei’s father’s face was wet with tears. He hid his head in his hands, but Tann grabbed his hair and jerked him backwards.

’“Open your eyes!” Tann screamed and shoved a skull in Mei’s father’s face. “This is what’s left of Gaspard!”

’Mei’s father moaned, shaking his head wildly.

’“How could you do this to him?” Tann went on.

’“Please, take it away, please…” Mei’s father sobbed. “My wife has the naga. I will tell you everything I know, as long as you leave my family unharmed.”

’Mei’s father couldn’t take the sight of the accusing empty eye sockets. In the baking heat, outside the house, my brother and I stared at each other, knowing we had to warn Mei.

‘She didn’t want to believe us to start with, but in the end she had to accept the fact that her father had betrayed them. Phuong severed all links to her husband, while we kept spying on Tann, who left Australia a few days later, but we don’t know what happened to Mei’s father. Once Tann realised he couldn’t reach Phuong, he may have murdered Mei’s father or maybe he killed himself. We’d have to ask Tann to be sure.’

We all remained silent for a while, our heavy thoughts making their way to the ambient pollution high above.

‘So have you been checking up on me?’ I asked. ‘In case I would switch to Tann’s side?’

‘Well, yes. After all, you did take his money, didn’t you?’

I closed my eyes, straining to remember what I had done with it. Had I spent the money Kenneth Tann had given me during our two encounters in Hotel Blue? I pressed my fingertips hard against my forehead for a few seconds. Then I stood up, walked into Ely’s office and rummaged in my handbag. The crumpled notes had been there all the time, in one of the secret zipped-up pockets.

How strange that I had forgotten about them! Maybe I had subconsciously blocked their existence, so I wouldn’t have to face what these notes meant? I gazed towards Kalaroo, understanding his point of view a bit better. Back on the sandy clearing inside Ely’s jungle, I folded the notes in four and tore them into tiny confetti. Among the dark silence of the trembling green leaves, I got a lighter out of Ely’s back pocket and dug a small hole between the three of us. All there was left to do was to burn the torn-up money and bury the feathery ashes under white sifting sand.

‘Do you trust me now?’

‘I’ve decided to trust you for a little while, but you can see why we were taking precautions,’ Kalaroo said.

‘Yes. That’s only fair. But why didn’t you just take the naga away from me?’ I said.

‘Phuong was against it. Until the time was right, we were to respect you as the naga’s guardian.’

‘Do you know why?’

‘No, but there must be a good reason. Do you not know why?’

I took a long look at Kalaroo and I cleared my throat.

‘I think I do,’ I said, my thoughts lingering on cats and mice.