The Son Read online

  ‘I can’t let you keep them, not until this is over. It wouldn’t be safe. But later on you can have them. Permanently.’

  ‘Perhaps I can keep them for him,’ I suggested.

  Roger gave me a sharp glance, as if suspecting me of wanting to see Eric behind his back, but Eric looked at me with such a hopeful expression that he didn’t have the heart to refuse.

  ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘As long as they stay with Paul. It’s for your own safety, Eric. You must understand that.’

  He nodded, his head bent over the prints, moved almost to tears.

  I let him drive on the way back. He had a licence, and I was glad to sit back and relax for a change, while I thought about what lay ahead. As far as Hao was concerned I told myself not to get my hopes up, but I was deeply excited that shortly I’d be seeing her again, and bringing her back to the flat. What happened after that I could only dream of.

  Now it was Eric I was worried about. The day had gone very well. Roger and his team had handled it expertly, like the professionals they were. I thought they’d genuinely liked him as well, and I had no doubt they’d do their best to protect him. But their objective first and last was to exploit his access to get as much information as possible before Loc arrived, and perhaps go beyond that and ask him to play a more active role. I knew they wouldn’t sacrifice him wantonly. But when it came to the crunch I wasn’t so sure they’d put his safety first.

  That was where we parted company. I was prepared to help all I could, and had brought Eric to them knowingly, for just that reason. And in return I had extracted the maximum price I could hope for. But no way could I stand by if his safety was compromised. I knew I’d have to keep a close eye on things, whatever Roger said, even if for the time being I was barred from having further contact with him.

  Meanwhile Eric drove on, in a haze of contentment. If he still felt any doubts about what he was doing they had been swept away when Roger gave him the photos. That had been a masterstroke, even if I had thought of it first.

  Which, to his credit, he hadn’t forgotten.

  ‘Thank you for getting those photos,’ he said after a while.

  ‘You’re welcome. I’m sorry they couldn’t do much about your father’s family yet, but we can ask them again when this is all over. I’m sure they’ll come up with something.’

  I didn’t tell him about the passports. It was too early for that.

  ‘Do you think I could join them later on?’

  I smiled. I’d been pretty well expecting that question. The combination of spycraft, Sam’s smile and his father’s memory was irresistible.

  ‘I don’t see why not,’ I said. ‘You’ll need to go to university first. Get a degree. And you’d have to become an Australian citizen. But I’m sure that can be arranged.’

  ‘I’d like to do further study. Asian history. And languages. Vietnamese for a start.’

  ‘You couldn’t go wrong with those. But what about Britain? Don’t you want to go back to Leeds?’

  ‘No. I’d rather stay here. I never liked Leeds much anyway. Especially after Uncle Khiem died.’

  ‘Your aunt told me about that. You must miss him a lot.’

  ‘Yes. He was always very kind to me. She had a hard time after he died.’

  I wanted to ask more, about what kind of man Khiem had been, but I didn’t know what questions to ask, that would help me visualise him, and I didn’t want to give Eric the impression I was spying on her. I thought of George, or whoever that man was, waiting for her. I wondered if she’d tell me about him.

  We finished the trip in friendly silence. On the outskirts of Sydney I took over again for the last lap. I drove along the M5 to King Georges Road, then up through the tangle of back streets to Marrickville. I pulled up around the corner from the cousins’ house.

  ‘Aren’t you coming?’ he asked, suddenly suspicious.

  ‘In a while. It’s safer if we’re not seen together. Even by the cousins. How long do you think you’ll be?’

  ‘Not long. I don’t want to hang round the cousins.’

  ‘Tell her I’ll be there in half an hour. Now off you go, before it gets too late. And take care of yourself, alright? Don’t do anything stupid. If things start to look dangerous I want you to come away fast. Doesn’t matter what Sam or Roger tell you. I don’t want you to take unnecessary risks.’

  ‘I’ll be OK. Stop worrying.’

  ‘I’ll stop worrying when this is all over.’

  He took one last look at the photos, then got out of the car. I watched him stride off into the night and silently wished him luck. He and I would both need it over coming days.

  PART IV

  HAO’S STORY 2

  CHAPTER TWENTY - THREE

  There was an odd little incident when I picked Hao up at the cousins’ house thirty minutes later. Eric had gone and the front door was closed but the porch light was on and she opened as soon as I knocked. She was dressed to go out, in a dress and heels with a coat on top, and her luggage stood in the hallway behind her. She even wore hose and had put her hair up. But she also looked rather harassed. For a second I feared the worst.

  ‘Are you alright?’ I asked. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind, and you’re on your way to the airport!’

  ‘No, of course not! I’m coming back with you. Oh Paul, I’m so glad to see you!’

  She came forward and stepped into my arms. I hugged her cautiously back.

  ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry I walked out on you like that. I didn’t mean to hurt you. But I had to get away, I needed to think–’

  ‘I deserved it. I behaved like an idiot.’

  ‘No you didn’t.’

  We clung to each other for a moment, while I marvelled at the way my luck had changed once again. Then she disengaged.

  ‘I’m ready now, but I still have to say goodbye. Could you come in? I – I’d like you to be there.’

  She took my hand and I followed her in. I hadn’t been past the front door before. She led me through to the back of the house, where the whole family was gathered around a large kitchen table, making chả giò, the small Vietnamese rolls, for the shop no doubt: father, mother, several children ranging from toddlers to young adults, and a grandmother or aged aunt of some sort. They looked up as we came in but no one said anything and when I said hello all I got in reply was a curt nod or two, which I thought odd. Vietnamese are normally very polite to strangers.

  ‘You remember Paul, don’t you?’ Hao said, still gripping my hand. I could feel the tension in her, like a tremor. ‘Anh Chị nhớ Anh Paul không? I’ll be going with him now.’

  She let go my hand and took an envelope from the pocket of her coat. She spoke to the mother, a grim-faced woman in brown slacks and a grey cardigan, who looked back at us with hard suspicious eyes.

  ‘Chị, I must thank you for letting me stay here. I know it hasn’t been easy for you. You’ve been very kind to me. But it’s better this way.’ She spoke in Vietnamese, in the northern accent, which gave a sharp edge to her words. The family, I remembered, were northerners, like Khiem, and although born and bred in the south Hao could speak pure northern when she wanted, thanks to her father. My own Vietnamese had much improved in recent weeks and I understood most of what she said.

  ‘This is for you. I’ve already given you money for my room but this should cover any other expenses.’

  She held the envelope out, but the mother made no move to take it. Hao put it on the table. The envelope was unsealed and contained a bundle of notes, in hundreds and fifties.

  ‘Please. Take it. It’s yours. I would hate to think you’ve lost money because of Eric or me.’

  The woman hesitated, then took the envelope and put it in the pocket of her cardigan.

  ‘Chắc Ông nay giàu lắm, nên Cô mới có nhiều tiền như thế!’ she said in a cutting tone. She had the kind of grating voice common to many Vietnamese women, which seems made for sarcasm. I translated
mentally – This gentleman must be very rich, for you to have so much money. Hao flushed angrily.

  ‘Anh Paul là người hiền và đạo đức, và tôi không phải là gái bán thân! Tiền này là tiền của tôi!’’ she retorted. (Paul is a kind and decent man, and I’m not a prostitute who sells her body. This is my money!) ‘But he’s been very helpful to me and I’m very happy to be going back with him!’

  I couldn’t resist.

  ‘Tôi cũng mừng lắm, vì Cô Hảo la một người bạn quý mến,’ I said in my best Vietnamese. (I’m also very glad, because Hao is a dear and precious friend.) Everyone stared, Hao included. She was the first to recover. She bent down to the older woman, said a few words of farewell, then turned to me. Vietnamese are invariably respectful towards the old, no matter what the circumstances. ‘We can go now,’ she said in a low voice. There was a sheen of tears in her eyes. She took my hand again, I nodded around one more time, received a few more nods in return, and we left, picking her luggage up on the way.

  ‘What was that all about?’ I asked as we drove off. She sat upright in her seat, clutching her coat around her, still visibly upset.

  ‘I didn’t know you still spoke such good Vietnamese.’

  ‘I’ve been revising it. I wanted to give you a surprise.’

  She smiled faintly.

  ‘She called me a whore.’

  ‘I thought that’s what she said.’

  ‘Not just then. On Friday, after I called you. And yesterday, when I told her I was coming back with you. She said I was behaving like a bar-girl, the way I was chasing after you, I was bringing shame on the family, and on Khiem’s name. If only she knew!’

  ‘What a nasty thing to say! Didn’t she know why you came to stay the first time?’

  ‘I don’t think she cares. All she could think of was the family name. She said who did I think I was, with my fancy clothes, running after white men, if I wanted you so much why had I come back, you must have got tired of me–’

  ‘You should have told me, I could have come yesterday–’

  She shook her head.

  ‘It was my fault. I shouldn’t have gone back there. I knew what she was like, and they’ve only got a small house, and they’re a large family – but that’s the way with Vietnamese, when you’re family you can always make room for one more, and it wasn’t as if I didn’t do anything, I paid for my board, I helped as much as I could, in the house, in the shop–’

  ‘You certainly paid them enough. That was quite a sum you gave her.’

  ‘I didn’t want them to think I was leaving because I owed them any money.’

  I reached across and put my hand on hers. She gripped it briefly, then released it so I could concentrate on my driving.

  ‘How was your trip to Canberra?’ she asked. ‘Did everything go as you wanted?’

  ‘Pretty well. Did Eric tell you about it?’

  ‘He hardly said anything. He said you’d explain. But he was very excited. He kept talking about some photos you’d got him.’

  ‘They’re photos of his father. I’ll show them to you later. I asked if they had any and they got some from records.’ I knew I owed her a detailed explanation, but I didn’t want to go into it just then.

  ‘I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Everything went well. Don’t worry. They liked him.’

  She didn’t say anything. When we got home we put her luggage in her bedroom, then went to the sitting room. The flat was chilly and I switched on the heater. I asked if she wanted something to eat but neither of us was hungry. I helped her off with her coat and recognised the brown dress with white spots she’d worn when I’d taken her out to dinner, nearly four weeks earlier.

  ‘I love that dress,’ I said. ‘That’s the evening I started to fall in love with you.’

  She smiled.

  ‘I bought it specially that day. I went into town straight after your phone call. I was so happy that you’d seen Eric, and you seemed to be getting on.’

  She put her arms around me. I held her close, feeling her slender strength through the thin material. I still couldn’t quite believe my luck.

  ‘You do love me, don’t you Paul?’ she asked. ‘You weren’t just saying that?’

  ‘No. I mean it. Why, don’t you believe me?’

  ‘I do. But I need to be sure. People sometimes imagine things.’

  ‘Believe me, I’ve never been surer of anything. What about you? Do you love me?’

  ‘Yes. I do. Very much.’

  ‘Well then, it’s alright, isn’t it. We don’t need that talk after all.’

  ‘Yes we do.’

  ‘Alright. Let me clean up first. I feel rather grotty after that long drive.’

  She sat down and I went off to have a shower. I shaved as well, even put on deodorant. Whatever the evening held in store I wasn’t taking any chances. I changed into clean clothes and went back to the sitting room.

  Hao was still sitting where I’d left her, staring gloomily at the heater. I sat down next to her.

  ‘Don’t let that woman get to you,’ I said. ‘She’s probably just jealous. I’m sure deep down she wishes she could be like you, wearing fine clothes, free to do what you want …’

  ‘Maybe. But she was right, you know. I have behaved like a whore.’

  ‘Don’t say that.’

  ‘Not with you. Before. I had an affair, Paul. When Khiem was still alive. And I behaved pretty badly.’

  ‘It’s alright. You don’t have to tell me. It’s none of my business.’

  ‘No. I want to tell you. You need to know about it, if we’re going to be together. I’m only afraid you’ll think what a slut I’ve been.’

  ‘I’ll never do that.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY - FOUR

  His name was Robert, and he was one of the partners at the place where she worked. It was a family firm; George, the managing director, was his older brother. She worked for them both. He was about forty-nine, married, handsome – she liked him, they got on well together. She was even attracted to him. And she knew he liked her too. But she never expected anything to happen.

  ‘I was going through a bad stage at the time. I’m not saying that to give myself an excuse. But Khiem and I weren’t happy together. I’m not sure why, we still loved each other in some ways, but it was as if we’d grown apart, lost touch with each other. Maybe it was the strain after all these years. We both worked hard of course, but apart from Eric we didn’t have much to talk about, we seemed to live almost separate lives. We hardly even made love any more. I often felt very lonely.’

  ‘One evening I went to a party, at George’s place – a large dinner party, for friends and contacts of the company, over a hundred people. They have a big house just outside Leeds. Khiem was supposed to come too but he’d decided to stay home. He said he was tired, he still had work to finish for the following week, and anyway he didn’t like large parties like that very much. I was angry. I’d been looking forward to it, we didn’t go out very often. I told him he was being selfish, these were the people I worked for, he could make an effort. But he wouldn’t budge. “You go,” he said. “You’ll enjoy it better without me.” So I went alone.’

  ‘Robert was there of course, without his wife, she was visiting their daughter in the US. He asked me why Khiem hadn’t come. I told him. I’d told George and his wife that Khiem wasn’t feeling well, but I was tired of making excuses and I told Robert the truth. I said we’d had a quarrel, Khiem preferred his work to my company. I even said my marriage wasn’t going well. I shouldn’t have, it wasn’t very loyal, but I was still angry with him.’

  ‘I tried to enjoy myself. I mixed with people, helped to look after the guests. There was a band there, people were dancing, I danced with Robert. He kept me company, when he wasn’t busy with guests. But it didn’t work very well. I was too depressed. I also drank a bit too much. I don’t normally drink very much. At one stage we went out, to find somewhere quiet. It was towards the end
of the evening, the party was very noisy. He took me to another part of the house, some kind of guest wing, there was no one about. In one of the rooms he kissed me, he told me he loved me, I kissed him back–’

  ‘Nothing happened that night. Nothing else I mean. He wanted me to stay back after the party, but I wouldn’t. We went back in, and soon after I went home. But afterwards I kept thinking about it. I didn’t love Robert. I liked him, a lot, but that was all. But when he’d kissed me – it was as if something had snapped. I’d almost given in. It was only the thought of Khiem that had stopped me. He’d even – I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be telling you this. I was wearing stockings, I’d put them on specially that night, I’d hoped earlier that Khiem and I might make love when we went home after the party. Robert had pulled my dress up and started caressing my legs. That was when I stopped him. I couldn’t, not like that. Khiem was asleep when I went home. I wanted to wake him up, to shake him, tell him what I’d done, what had almost happened, but I didn’t. I just lay there all night, thinking about it. I kept wishing I’d said yes.’

  ‘After that I suppose it was just a matter of time. Two weeks later Khiem went to London for a maths conference. Eric wanted to stay over with a friend. I told Robert. His wife was still away, she wasn’t due back for another week. He asked if I was sure this time. I said I was. He took me out to dinner. Afterwards we went to a hotel, and I spent the night with him.’

  ‘I’d never done anything like that before. I’d never been with anyone other than Khiem. Unless you count those men on the boat. I don’t know what I was expecting – something like Khiem I suppose. But when it happened – it was totally different. It was like a dam breaking. We made love all night. Literally. We hardly slept. I’d never felt anything like it. The next morning I didn’t even feel guilty. The first time after the party I’d felt like a criminal. This time all I felt was a – an enormous sense of liberation. As if it was something I should have done long ago. When Khiem came home I just said I’d had a quiet weekend, gone to see a film …’