Blood Sisters

by Caroline de Costa

  ‘And we heard them talk about someone else,’ said Emily. ‘Like they’d done this before. Only—completely.’

  ‘Christ,’ said Drew. ’We’ll have a bit of a look, now, and seal off the site. And get a whole crew up here first thing in the morning to go over the place.’

  ‘Also,’ said Emily, ‘when I was coming down the hill behind the house, in Bayview, before the dog caught me, I stumbled over something that seemed like... like it was a grave.’

  ‘Then we’ll need to look there, as well,’ said Cass. ‘Lord, what monsters are we uncovering here? It sounds like you were right about a serial killer, Drew. Or killers.’

  There was a slight cough and then a voice from the edge of the group. Jordon. ‘Mum, Mindy and I were just wondering, since you’re going to be a bit busy doing all this stuff, could we take your car home? And heat up our pizza? We’ll take Denzel home, too. And Mum, there’s another message on your phone. From Zak. He’s in Cairns! He was going to surprise you. But it was Zak who got the surprise when he got home to find no one there, not even the dog! I’ll fill him in—It sounds like he’ll be there when you do get back, though.’

  ***

  Cass and Drew, plus a squad car of uniformed men, two vans of equipment and a team of scenes-of-crime officers, arrived at the house in Holliday Close at about two in the morning. The backyard was in darkness, but a light was glowing dimly inside.

  Drew began by knocking on the front door. Nothing happened. He knocked louder and shouted: ‘Hello! Police!’

  From inside came voices, indistinct. Then he and Cass heard bolts being drawn and a young woman in a dressing gown, half-asleep, partly opened the door, leaving the chain fixed. Obviously startled by the sight of so many people outside, she was about to close it again before Drew put his foot in.

  ‘Detective Borgese, Cairns Police. We have a warrant to search this property. Is Mrs McFadden home?’

  ‘Yes, yes. I get her. You wait.’ The woman again to shut the door, but Drew kept his foot firmly planted until she opened it. He and Cass stepped inside and stood in the hall. The woman, whom Cass recognised as Marianna, disappeared up the stairs.

  After a few minutes, Tina McFadden appeared, her hair down, wearing a dressing gown of bright blue silk and matching sequined slippers. On seeing Drew, she was initially the portrayal of bourgeois indignation.

  ‘How dare you come into my house in the middle of the night!? I already told you I know nothing about that girl! You’re waking up everyone in the house. I have a young son here.’

  ‘Mrs McFadden, I have to tell you that your husband, Martin McFadden, and his employee, Joseph Fang, are under arrest and will be charged with kidnapping two young women. We have reason to believe that there may be other persons detained against their will on this property. We have a warrant to search the house, yard and adjacent buildings. I would suggest that you send your employee here to take care of your son and cooperate with us in this search.’

  Tina McFadden deflated like a large blue balloon. Without a word she sat down on the bottom stair and burst into loud sobs.

  ‘I don’t know anything,’ she wailed. ‘It’s not me! I never go there. I don’t have keys, he doesn’t let me go there. It’s nothing to do with me. He just keeps them there a while, then they go to Sydney.’

  Cass turned to Marianna. ‘Marianna, please go and take care of the child. We need Mrs McFadden here to help us.’

  Marianna nodded and, without a word, disappeared up the stairs.

  ‘You really don’t have keys?’ Drew addressed Tina.

  ‘No, no, no I was never even there, never even went through the fence.’

  Drew was inclined to believe her. He looked across at Cass, who nodded agreement. The woman was obviously terrified. ‘Then we’re going to have to break in,’ Drew said.

  They stepped back out to the street. By now, lights were coming on and curtains were opening in houses further down the Close.

  ‘Bill,’ Drew said to the senior sergeant, ‘we need two of you, including one woman, to search the house. You’re looking for signs of other people living here, perhaps against their will. There’s also at least one McFadden child and a woman who seems to be a maid or nanny in here. Name of Marianna.

  ‘Send the rest, including the other women constables, around to the back. The wife says she doesn’t have a key to the building out there, and I think she’s telling the truth. She seems shit-scared. But she should be able to open the back gate into the yard so you can get vehicles in there. I think you’re going to need tools to get into the place. That back building’s our main area of interest, at the moment.’

  ‘Right, sir.’

  ***

  Eight uniformed police officers—men and women—made their way around the side of the house. Tina McFadden opened the back gate from the kitchen with a remote control. She then sat sullenly at the kitchen table, having been told to stay put. The lights were turned on in the backyard, illuminating the whole of the rear building and the dividing fence. A large dog bounded out and was quickly caught and tied up by the sergeant. Police tape was put up on the nature strip and surrounding the whole property.

  Cass and Drew, with the sergeant, two scenes-of-crime officers and two women constables inspected the steel and padlocks on the only door of the rear building. The windows at the front were barred and there were no windows at all in the back of the building.

  ‘We’ll need to use steel cutters to get those padlocks off, sir. We can pick the Yale locks,’ said one of the officers.’

  ‘Go right ahead. There certainly seems to be something in there they want kept quiet. It’s like Fort Knox.’

  ‘You said it!’

  In a matter of minutes, the door swung open. Cass called: ‘Hello! Police! We’re coming in!’

  There was absolute silence.

  Drew felt along the wall on the inside and found a switch. Harsh fluorescent light flooded over a large space, divided by a partition. Immediately in front of them exotic Asian furniture was stored, tables, chairs and chests in cardboard wrapping piled on top of each other. But there was a door in the partition on their right and it had been left open, revealing a living area with a cheap table and chairs. There were also a fridge and sink, and a television. On the floor were two dirty, stained mattresses. In the corner a small door led to a bathroom, with shower and toilet, shampoo and toothbrushes, and towels hung on racks.

  Another door at the end of the living area on the right was more substantial. It was also locked, but the lock yielded quickly to the skills of the officers. This door led into a dark passageway. Again, Drew felt for the switch and the passage was bathed in light.

  Four doors led off the passage. All locked.

  The officers tackled the lock of the nearest door and Drew swung it open, Cass close behind him. The room inside was in darkness, the air thick and lived-in. There was someone there, someone breathing fast. Drew reached for a switch but couldn’t find one. One of the officers handed him a torch which he flipped on and shone into the darkness.

  ‘What the fuck!’ the officer cried out.

  In the light of the torch they could see a single bed on which a young Asian woman lay, with long black hair that had turned white at the roots. She was shackled to the bed—tied hand-and-foot with steel cables. Her ribs could be seen beneath the fabric of her black T-shirt. Her face and arms were covered with dirty sores. She turned a dull gaze towards the new arrivals. Cass moved past Drew and dropped to her knees beside the bed.

  ‘Maria?’ she asked. ‘Maria Ramos?’

  For a long moment the woman neither spoke nor moved. Then she whispered: ‘Yes’.

  Drew knelt beside Cass. He had never seen anything like this in his life.

  ‘Do you understand English?’ he asked gently.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Maria, we are the Cairns Police. We’ve come to rescue you. These police officers here, you don’t need to be afraid of them. They are going to undo these ties,
and then this lady here, Constable Barnett—Trish—is going to look after you. We’re going to take you somewhere safe, away from here, and Trish will be with you the whole time.’

  Trish knelt down and took Maria’s hand. Maria looked at her blankly. She could not take in that her ordeal was over.

  ‘Maria, I’m Trish. You’re going to be all right now.’ The constable’s voice was wobbly with emotion.

  Behind them, Cass and Drew could hear officers opening more doors. There were more cries of alarm from other rooms further down the passage. It was clear that Maria was not the only prisoner in this hellhole.

  ***

  An hour later, Drew sent Cass home. The last of four ambulances was just disappearing down Holliday Close. Four women had been discovered and freed and were now on their way to hospital. Tina, Marianna and Braydon were being moved to a hotel, and would have police guards for the moment.

  ‘You should have gone home hours ago,’ Drew said to Cass,’ but I know you wanted to see what was here. Now you really need to go and so do I. We’ve got all these technicians and generals here now. There’s a huge amount of evidence to be collected around whatever the hell’s been happening here. In Bayview! Right under our noses, literally, the other day! But just now, you and I need some sleep.’

  A young constable dropped Cass home. Her car was not in the carport, but Denzel was sound asleep in his kennel and Zak was waiting up, half asleep on the couch. He sprang up on her arrival and flung his arms around her. They kissed for a long time.

  Finally, she said, ‘It’s so good to be with you! I’m sorry I wasn’t back earlier. But what are you doing here?’

  ‘They’re very short-staffed in ED here, so I was asked to come back. For a while. Maybe even to the end of the year. But not tomorrow!’

  Cass looked around her. ‘Did Jordon take the car?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, I thought that would be okay. He’s gone to Mindy’s place tonight. We all sat around eating pizza when they got back and they told me the whole story, where you’ve been—crazy stuff. Mindy’s great! And he’s mad about her! Seemed they could go back to her place and be alone together. I didn’t think you’d need the car tonight!

  ‘Also,’ Zak continued, ‘I decided to empty the bathwater, and fish out the book that was at the bottom. It’s hanging over the laundry sink; if it goes out in the sunshine tomorrow, I think it’ll dry out nicely.’ Cass burst out laughing.

  ‘Yeah, things all went pear-shaped very quickly,’ she said. ‘It’s been an astounding night and we’ve seen some dreadful stuff. Really dreadful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as bad. But it’s being taken care of now, so if you’re thinking of getting into my bed right away, well, I can stay awake for that.’

  ***

  Late on Friday afternoon, Drew and Cass met at the hospital with Susie Ortega, who had been given overall responsibility for the care of the five women admitted, including Marcie.

  ‘At first we put Maria Ramos in intensive care,’ Susie told them, ‘but she’s actually turned out to be in quite good shape, mentally, and we think she’ll be better in a single room with a view out to the sea. There’s security at the end of the corridor, but we wanted to keep them out of sight so she doesn’t feel that we’re detaining her. We’ll have to keep her here for several weeks until she gains weight and her health is back to normal. She’s like someone out of a concentration camp.

  ‘Although she speaks quite good English, we’ve got two women interpreters available, too. Not surprisingly, she definitely finds it easier to speak Tagalog. There’s also a representative from the Philippines Embassy who’s been sent up from Canberra, but he’s pretty useless. However, several of the women from the Filipino women’s help group are on board, and they’re really terrific.’

  ‘That all sounds good,’ said Cass. ‘Have you got much of a story from Maria yet?

  ‘Yes. I’ve taken a full medical history with one of the inter-preters. She says she’s been a sex worker, mostly in a place called Angeles City, ever since she was 14. She thinks she’s now 23.’

  ‘Is she well enough for us to talk to her?’

  ‘I think she is. Come on, we’ll go in. There’s an interpreter with her now. If she gets tired or distressed, we can just stop.’

  Maria was sitting up in bed, propped up with several pillows. Her collarbones stood out above the neck of her hospital gown and her upper arms were like matchsticks. But she was polishing off a plate of fish and rice. She was obviously pleased to see them both, remembering them from the night before. When she had swallowed her last mouthful, Drew said to her: ‘Maria, we’d like to ask you some questions about what happened to you at home in the Philippines, and in Australia.’

  She nodded. The detectives sat down by the bedside, Susie perched on the end of the bed and the interpreter translated Maria’s answers.

  She had been brought to Australia in 2010, the interpreter said, recruited by a man who ran a bar and brothel in Angeles. She was told that her fare and visa costs would be paid but that she would have to repay these once she started work in Australia.

  ‘Did they tell you how much that would be?’ asked Cass.

  ‘Yes, in Angeles the man said six hundred dollars. But when I came here the mamasan said ten thousand dollars.’

  ‘You mean Australian dollars?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Drew whistled, and Cass shook her head, appalled.

  ‘Did you know that was very much more than it really cost?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, maybe, but what could I do? It’s better to come here than go to Malaysia or Japan. At least that’s what I thought then,’ the interpreter translated for her, and Cass nodded.

  Maria came to Australia with two others, sisters called Rosa and Maria Delacruz. All three had student visas. The man in Angeles said they would have time to study and they would be studying English. The man said that if they improved their English, they would get a certificate and then they would be able to get a good job when they came back home. But they never did study English or anything else. They shared an apartment, using one bedroom for the three of them to sleep and one for work. Sex work, Maria said with a shrug.

  At Cairns airport when they arrived, they were met by a woman called Tina. In a big red car? Yes. She kept their passports. Straight away they were driven from the airport, given mobiles and then they started work the same day. They were told about the laws in Queensland. Only one of them could work in the house at a time, the other two worked outside. There was at least one girl away for a week at any one time, in one of the mining towns. They had to keep a record of everything they earned, and Tina took most of it. She would do spot checks, suddenly turning up to see what they were doing and checking their mobiles.

  Tina told them that Cairns men liked new girls in town, so after four months, Rosa and Maria Delacruz were sent down to Sydney.

  ‘Does Maria know if they arrived there?’ Drew asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said the interpreter, ‘she spoke to them on the phone. They were together in the same place and they said Sydney was busier than Cairns. They were sending more money back from there and they expected to go back home after about six months. Their mother lives not far from Angeles and they have several younger brothers and sisters.’

  ‘And, so then what happened to you, Maria?’ asked Cass.

  ‘For about a month after Rosa and her sister left, I was on my own,’ the interpreter translated. ‘Then Tina came one day and said pack up your things; tomorrow you’re going to Sydney. You can see Rosa and Maria—the other Maria, that was. So, she packed up and waited for her the next day. She was really happy; she thought she would make more money in Sydney and then she could go home. And she would see her friends.

  ‘The mamasan—that’s Tina,’ the interpreter translated, ‘she came and collected me in the red car that day. But we didn’t go to the airport. We went the other way, to her house. I had never been in that part of Cairns. She said I would have to wait
a little while there until I could get the plane. She took me and put me in a room at the back of the house. It is a very nice house, very, very expensive.

  ‘I never knew her in Angeles, but I could tell she had once worked the bars there, just from how she talked. I knew she must have met her husband there and got married and come to Australia, and I was very jealous that she had been so successful. But I didn’t suspect anything.’

  ‘Did you meet her husband at all while you were working in Cairns, up till that time?’ Drew asked. ‘Martin McFadden?’ Maria answered him directly in English.

  ‘No, I didn’t know him at all then. Or Fang.’ Maria pronounced Fang’s name with great trepidation. ‘But I did know that someone else was the boss, and telling the mamasan what we must do, and if we didn’t do it, they would make trouble for us. And maybe for her.’

  The interpreter took over again. ‘So like Maria told me, she sat in that room for a while and then she saw out the window that Tina was driving away, and she had a little boy with her who must be her son. So, she was surprised. And then she got worried: where was she going? What was she doing? So, she got up and tried to go outside but found the door was locked. She called out, but no one came. Then she realised that she had left her bag with her phone outside that room. She got really, really worried, but she couldn’t call anyone.

  ‘After about half an hour, another car came into the backyard. She saw two men get out. They were him, the boss, and Fang—a Chinese guy from Manila. Maria hadn’t met either of them before, but she guessed they were running the show and that Tina did what they said. When she saw this, she was less worried.’

  Here the interpreter stopped for a moment, seeking the right words. Then she said: ‘Maria thought she might need to have sex with these men, and then they would take her to the airport.’

  Maria said in English: ‘Yeah, I thought okay, maybe I just got to let them fuck me and then it will all be all right’.

  The interpreter continued: ‘The men came in and said I had to go with them to a room at the back. I thought, okay. We went across the yard and I saw the door, how it had locks, and bars on the windows. Then I was really frightened and I started to scream. Fang grabbed me and said shut up, and then they quickly dragged me inside that place.’ The interpreter’s voice was quavering as the story grew worse.