The Scottish Banker of Surabaya

( 22 )

Alone, more alone than she could ever remember being, Ava sat in the chair by the window. The fog that had enveloped her was gone. The world around her was vivid again. Outside, the city was going about its business. She looked down into the garden and watched a woman wearing a cone-shaped straw hat picking up debris from the ground. She pulled herself from the chair, went to the desk, and called the concierge. “This is Ava Lee, could you connect me to hotel security, please?”

“Is there a problem, Ms. Lee?” a female voice asked.

“I need to speak with the head of security. Please put me through.”

The woman hesitated. “That is Pak Indra.”

“Is he in the hotel?”

The woman paused. “Just a moment, I have to check.”

The phone went silent. If he’s not in the hotel then they can go and get him, Ava thought.

A male voice came on the line. “Indra here, Ms. Lee.”

“Are you in the hotel?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I need to speak to you.”

“Can you give me some idea of what this is about?”

“No, not over the phone.”

“What do you suggest?” he asked, caution creeping into his voice.

“Do you have an office?”

“Yes, I’m downstairs on the ground floor, behind the front desk.”

“I’ll see you there in about fifteen minutes,” she said, hanging up before he could reply.

She opened her notebook and found the phone number for Perkasa in Jakarta. He didn’t answer so she left a message on his voicemail. “This is Ava Lee. Call me.”

Time to get dressed, time to move, she told herself. She brushed her hair and tied it back. She rooted in her bag for a pair of underwear and her sports bra, her hand shaking as she took them out. She struggled to get them on and then climbed into her Adidas training pants and pulled a black Giordano T-shirt over her head. The roll of bills she had taken out to pay Vivian Ho still sat on the dresser. She peeled off five of them and put them in her right pants pocket. Her cellphone went into the left.

She was halfway down the stairs towards Indra’s office when her phone rang. “Ava Lee.”

“Bu Ava, this is Perkasa. I got your message.”

“Uncle spoke with you?”

“I’ve been waiting for your call.”

“Can you get to Surabaya today?”

“Of course. There must be twenty-five flights a day between here and Surabaya.”

“Get in this afternoon. There’s a Sheraton Hotel attached to the big downtown plaza. Check in there and then call me.”

“Okay.”

“Uncle said you had some men in Surabaya you could use.”

“How many do you need?”

“Two should be enough.”

“No problem.”

“They have to be men you really trust, men who know how to keep their mouths shut.”

“No problem.”

“I’m not sure if we’re going to need weapons, but if we do, can you access them?”

“Whatever you need, I can get.”

“A picana?”

“What is that?”

“An electric cattle prod.”

He paused. “Yes, I’m sure the men in Surabaya can find one of those.”

“Fine. Then have them do that today.”

“I will do that,” he said, this time without hesitation.

“Good. Then I’ll see you this afternoon.”

Ava ended the call, already feeling good about Perkasa. She liked his confidence, his directness. Men who talked too much or asked too many questions also tended to think too much. She didn’t need any thinkers.

As she approached the front desk, she saw a well-dressed man with grey hair standing next to a young female associate. The look he gave her was all she needed to know. “Pak Indra,” she said.

“Ms. Lee, I thought it would be less disruptive if we met out here. Maybe sit in the lounge?”

Ava said, “I’d like to meet somewhere where there aren’t security cameras. So we can go to your office or we can go outside and stand on the street in the heat.”

“My office would be the best of those options,” he said, motioning for her to go to the door that led from the lobby to behind the front desk. He opened the door and then stood aside for her. There was another door at the back of the work area, with a security lock. He punched in six numbers and said, “After you.”

His office was small, with barely room for a desk, a small credenza, a filing cabinet, and two chairs. There was a picture on the credenza, a much younger Pak Indra with a woman and seven children. “This is my personal space,” he said when he saw her staring at the photo. “Next door is the real security office, with our monitors.”

“Thank you for seeing me.”

“You made it hard for me to refuse.”

He was a big man. Ava guessed he’d been a policeman, and from the way he spoke and carried himself, he’d been an officer. “Do you know why I’m here?” she asked.

He began to answer and then stopped when Ava’s eyes caught his. She stared, not blinking, expressionless, right into him. Whatever he had been going to say was left unsaid.

“Do you know what happened to me last night in this hotel? I have some idea but I would like you to tell me.”

He moved his right hand onto a manila file folder on the desk and slid it in front of him. He took out a sheet of paper, read it, and said, “According to the report from my man on night duty, you and a companion were having drinks in the lounge when you became incapacitated. Your speech was slurred and you were groggy, almost asleep. Your companion told my man that you had been drinking all evening and that a combination of the liquor and jet lag had hit you quite suddenly. He said he wanted to take you to your room and make sure you were safely in bed for the night. He asked my man to help him take you there. Which he did.”

“And then left me alone with him?”

“Yes, that too,” Indra said, his eyes shifting away. “When they got to the room, your companion said he would look after you. My man had no reason to stay.”

“Have you run the security tapes from the time indicated on that report?”

“Yes, I have. In fact, I did it before you even called. Anytime a report is filed I review whatever I can on video, assuming we have video.”

“And what did the video show?”

“Videos. One from the lounge, the other from the elevator. They supported the story that my man recorded.”

“Story is the right word.”

Indra shifted his weight on the chair and put his elbows on the desk, as if he was remembering whose office he was in and who should be in charge. He looked at her. “Ms. Lee, I am quite unclear about what point you are trying to make.”

“My companion, you know who he is, right?”

“Of course, Mr. Cameron is a regular patron.”

His eyes drifted away. Ava sat quietly, waiting for him to look at her again. When he finally did, she said, “Your regular patron, he drugged me. That’s why I was groggy.”

Indra slowly shook his head. “All my man could see was a woman who was having difficulty. Under the circumstances, I believe he acted in a responsible manner.”

“I’m not here to condemn your man, so you don’t have to defend him to me.”

“As for Mr. Cameron —”

“He raped me,” Ava said.

He flinched, his eyes flickering. “Ms. Lee, that is an incredibly serious charge.”

“I don’t know for certain about the drug yet, as the lab won’t get back to me until later today. As for the rape, well, I had a doctor visit me at the hotel this morning, and if you don’t want to take my word for it, you can talk to her.”

“I’m not sure that is necessary.”

“He also robbed me of some jewellery — a very expensive and valued set of jade cufflinks.”

“If this is true, and I’m not saying I doubt you, you should be calling the police. You do intend to call the police, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t,” she said.

Indra cocked his head to one side, as if trying to see her from a different angle. “Ms. Lee, I have to tell you I find your reaction quite strange,” he said, his voice acquiring an edge.

He thinks I’m trying to shake down the hotel, Ava thought. “Mr. Indra, you were a policeman, I believe.”

“I was.”

“An officer?”

“Yes, a senior officer.”

“So tell me. I’m here on a two- or three-day visit, a tourist. Cameron lives here. Even if the police are entirely capable, not prejudiced, and not corrupt and I go to them, what kind of investigation will really take place? Are they going to pursue the interests of a fly-by-night tourist or are they going to do everything they can not to offend the local big-shot banker?”

“You seem to be a very intelligent young woman,” he said carefully.

“I like to think I am.”

“And you’re familiar with how things work in this part of the world.”

“I think so.”

“Then I won’t insult you by pretending that Mr. Cameron’s status wouldn’t have an impact on how this matter would be handled.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded. “That said, and given that you have already made the decision not to go to the police, I am struggling with the reason why you’re here talking to me.”

“I wanted to confirm what happened to me in the lounge last night. I wanted to know for certain that it was Cameron who took me to my room.”

“I have confirmed that, I believe.”

“Yes, you have. And now what I want is for you to supply me with some information.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I want to know about Cameron.”

“You’re confusing me.”

Ava reached into her pants pocket, took out two hundred-dollar bills, and put the money on the desk. “I want to know where he lives; I want to know his home and mobile phone numbers; I want to know what car he drives and what his licence plate number is; and I want to know what he does during his spare time.”

Indra looked at the money and then at her. “I still don’t understand any of this.”

“I’m prepared to pay you two hundred dollars for the information, and if you can get it for me by three o’clock this afternoon I’ll pay you another two hundred.”

“Ms. Lee, I’m not sure what you have in mind.”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does if your purpose is to do something illegal.”

Was he being serious or sanctimonious? Ava couldn’t tell. “You have to forgive me,” she said. “I’ve never been raped before, and I’m not sure what the appropriate response is.” She looked at the photo on the credenza. “You have three daughters. What would you do if one of them was raped by someone you knew, someone you trusted?”

“I would go to the police.”

“Like hell you would,” she said, staring him down again.

Ava saw him glance at the money. “Take it,” she said, “and get me the information I want.”

“And if I can’t, Ms. Lee?”

“Then I’ll get it elsewhere. I just thought it would be easier to keep everything in-house, so to speak. No reason to involve other people, is there. You don’t have to start explaining things to senior management and I don’t have to run around the city talking to lawyers and private detectives and the like. I know how to keep my mouth shut, Pak Indra, and it strikes me that you have that quality as well.”

He picked up the money.

Ava stood. “Could you send the information to my room when you get it?”

He looked up at her and she saw questions in his eyes. Don’t ask, she thought, because I’m not sure you would believe my lies.

Ava left his office and found her way back to the lobby. Through the hotel door she could see the day was a bit overcast, the rainy season starting to signal its arrival. It was humid but the masked sun made the weather bearable — good enough for running.

She turned right from the hotel and started along the route she had taken the day before. She hadn’t run more than a kilometre before the sense of purpose that had energized her when she was speaking to Perkasa and Indra began to dissipate and the realization of what had happened to her began to take a grip. Since she had awakened, she had been operating like Ava: Identify the problem, put together a plan, and execute it. Call the doctor, order a lab test. Start organizing Perkasa. Confirm Cameron’s complicity and get the information needed to go after him. Through it all, though, it had been as if she were operating on behalf of someone else. It was as if she were treating herself as a client. Except she wasn’t a client.

An image popped into her mind. She shut her eyes and gave her head a brisk shake. The image didn’t go away. Then she stopped running, the pictures in her head almost paralyzing her. She was lying on her bed and it was her, not some stranger, not any client. Andy Cameron was on the bed. He had finished with her, but her legs were still open and he was rubbing his penis across her breasts, leaving a trail of semen. He had a grin on his face, and he was happily humming a tune she didn’t recognize.

Ava had stopped just outside a coffee shop. She couldn’t run anymore. She needed water, she thought, and was starting to walk into the shop when a tear rolled down her cheek. She hesitated, her hand reaching out for a wall. Another tear fell, and she felt a weakness in her legs. She turned and pressed her back against the wall for support as she began to sob, her body shaking uncontrollably.