I went to the front sitting room, which offered a full view of the street, and saw cars leaving Sam’s house. Something was definitely wrong with this whole scenario. I had seen Sam at his house yet he denied being there. The men by the boat were now out of view. I walked to Craig’s front yard and popped my head over the hedge. There I saw two Asian men walking from a parked car opposite Craig’s house back into Sam’s house. Now there was only Sam’s car in the circular driveway. Sam was not alone but he wanted me to believe he was. The driveway may have only consisted of Sam’s car but I’d counted at least four people in the house and another four on the boat.
There was no way that I was going to enter that trap, so I didn’t even call to cancel, I simply didn’t show. I told Ming to crack open the vodka, then hung out in Club Mayhem for a few more hours to observe what would happen next. An hour after my arrival time the men hidden in the boat emerged and went back inside the main house.
I found out what he was up to weeks later. I was called into work because two ladies rang in sick. I hadn’t seen Sam since that fateful evening, but there he was kissing Grace at the door as he left. He hadn’t seen me, thankfully, and once I knew that he was gone, I took my client to the door, gave him a peck and rushed back to the ladies’ lounge and the smiling Grace.
‘Wow, you look happy with yourself, wouldn’t have anything to do with that gorgeous man that I saw you escorting out, would it?’
‘No, he’s a regular but tonight he gave me a hundred-dollar tip.’
It hit me—Grace and I were similar in appearance except that she was taller than me and not as busty. I wanted to warn her not to use the number I was sure was written on the back of her tip, but I didn’t want to pry. She might’ve told management that I saw clients outside of work. She might’ve thought that I was jealous, since Grace always believed that she was in competition with me. She was fairly upfront with her animosity towards me.
The next shift we worked together was the following night. We began every shift with a coffee and a gossip. I offered Grace a biscuit but she declined saying she’d had a huge late lunch. Once again my ears pricked up, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. How could I warn her not to pursue this relationship?
‘Oh how nice, where did you go?’ Erica inquired, taking the words right out of my mouth.
‘Paddington,’ was all she said, but it was all she needed to say.
One week later I got a phone call from Louise: ‘Kate, could you please come into work, we’re short on blondes.’
‘Why, what’s happened with the others?’
‘Well, Grace has probably checked in to Betty Ford, no one has heard from her in days.’
I had to talk to the other girls. I was deeply concerned about Grace.
The other girls who knew Grace better than I did told me that Grace had a sister. After much cajoling they gave me her number. The following day I rang the number incessantly until I got an answer. Her sister was distraught—she hadn’t heard from Grace in over a week and there were no clothes missing from Grace’s room. I arranged to meet with her that day.
Sharon was only sixteen and depended entirely on her sister for support because their mother was a heroin addict and their father had not been heard of in years. The similarities between Grace’s life and mine were striking. Had Sam chosen us because we had no strong family ties? I wasn’t sure what exactly Sharon knew of her sister’s occupation, so I had to be slightly cagey. I told her that I worked with her sister and had knowledge about a man I suspected she’d been seeing. I told her about my night two doors up from Sam’s house, and she burst into tears.
We went to the police station together. She had already filed a Missing Persons report. The police were undeterred by my occupation, and they took lengthy notes and seemed sincerely concerned by her disappearance.
Then one officer asked, ‘Do you still have his pager number?’
‘No I threw it out, I’m sorry.’
‘What is Sam’s surname?’ asked the same officer.
‘God, I never thought to ask.’ The officers looked at one another in annoyance.
‘Thank you, ladies, for coming in and offering your information, we’ll check it out. If anything comes of it we’ll contact you straight away.’
But nothing did come of it. I never did hear from Grace again and neither did her sister. Two months later, Sharon called me to give me her new phone number. She had been evicted from her apartment and got a job in Target. Completing school was no longer a priority. What else could she do?
***
Sydney had brought nothing but pain to me, all the death, violence, drugs and sadness. I had to get away from it. Why was I hanging around? Ben was flying small charter flights from Cairns to Brisbane. I desperately needed to feel real love and safety again. I felt I didn’t need support—I had a house full of things and a small nest egg—so I wouldn’t be a burden on my family or Ben. I called Ben to make sure that he was happy to have me until I got on my feet, and to my delight he was rapt to have me in arm’s reach. Lickety-split, I put all my worldly possessions in a storage unit and made tracks for sunny Queensland.
21
Escaping the Sex Industry