Crystal Ice

by Warren Miner-Williams

  Alex checked the Customs database for any previous recordings of Graham-Collins. There were none, none for his name, his address, telephone number or his passport number. When Alex checked his international travel movements it appeared that he travelled abroad on average twice a year, his wife and daughters had always travelled with him so it looked as though they were family holidays. The countries they had visited over the last four years were not countries that posed any tangible drug risk, Australia, Rarotonga, and Fiji. However, two years ago they had travelled to Bali, a possible source of drugs. The Electoral Roll confirmed that 24 Weldene Crescent, Howick, was the residential address of Graham-Collins and that his occupation was restaurant manager. There was nothing suspicious about Graham-Collins at all, every answer he had given Phillip Butler at the airport that Sunday matched the data that Alex had discovered. Every fact checked out except he had obviously changed his job before the last census was compiled because his passport stated his occupation was a Biochemist. Phillip Butler had noted the telephone numbers recovered from the cell phone directories of both Tony Graham-Collins and his wife Nadine. The number Tony had listed as work was the same telephone number that Nadine listed as Tony’s work and that number checked out to be that of Terra Brasil, a restaurant on the waterfront in Auckland. Of the other numbers of interest noted from Tony’s phone, one belonged to Levorko Sutic, the restaurant owner, one to Jonathan Littman an import/export broker and a cell phone number listed to a guy called Petera Mokaraka. When Alex searched the Customs database for any entries against these numbers there were none. A search of the Telecom Whitepages confirmed the origin of all the numbers except the one for Mokaraka, which was probably a prepaid cell phone. Though Graham-Collins seemed at first a little suspicious, at the conclusion of all the checks that Alex had undertaken there was nothing of note. So having written the summaries for all the entities, names, addresses and phone numbers Alex closed the file with the concluding statement that “Tony Graham-Collins was of no further interest to Customs at this time.”

  ***

  It was 3pm and standing outside 34 Vincent Street, Nelson, Lisa Davis watched the students of Victory Primary School swarm down Torara Street to the school crossing patrol. With large red and white stop signs the two teachers in charge of the crossing momentarily stopped the traffic on Vincent Street to allow the students to cross. Vincent Street is a busy corridor that connects the Toi Totara district of Nelson to its town centre. Lisa was now a member of New Zealand’s taxpaying population; she was a nanny and as Julian Nichols came running towards her waving his arms and shouting her name in greeting, she wondered if she could still have children herself. Had the methamphetamine wrecked her reproductive system, as it had wrecked her face and body? Scott had said to her when they were lovers that he wanted three or four children, she had gently told him to sod off as having children would be the end of her modelling career. Her fanaticism for her appearance, what she saw as her marketable asset, had ultimately led to her downfall. Now having realised she could never be a model again her outlook on life had changed. Now all she wanted was to be what Scott Pearson had asked her a lifetime ago, his partner and the mother of his children. Sadly, she knew that that was not going to happen, Scott had told her as much before he picked her up from Arohata Women’s Prison. As little Julian Nichols jumped into her open arms her heart saddened as she realised this might be the closest she might ever come to motherhood.

  “Hi Julian,” she said giving the boy a fierce hug, “how was your day at school?”

  “Ouch, you’re squeezing me too hard.” He paused for a moment until he could take a deep breath. “Today was brilliant, we had a visit from the police and this handler guy brought his dog in. Lisa he was so clever he could do all kinds of neat stuff. This other policeman ran across the playing field and Bob, that’s the dog’s name, he ran off after him and grabbed his arm when he’d caught him. If he hadn’t been wearing this padded arm thing Bob would have ripped his arm completely off.”

  “Whoa! Slow down I can hardly understand you’re talking so fast.”

  “The……dog……almost……bit……his……arm……off, is that slow enough for you?”

  “Come on you cheeky so and so, let’s get you home, fed and watered.”

  Lisa held on to Julian’s hand as they walked along Vincent Street and made their way to Abraham Heights where Julian lived. The son of two doctors Julian was a very intelligent little boy and Lisa loved him as if he was her own. His father, Dr Timothy Nichols was a food scientist at the Cawthron Aquaculture research laboratories in Nelson. He was studying the feasibility of farming Paua. Known as Abalone in America and other countries Tim Nichols was trying to determine the concentration of dissolved chemicals that cause the metamorphosis of free swimming Paua larvae into crawling juveniles. The Paua industry in New Zealand is worth many millions of dollars and Tim believed that the best way to conserve the natural stock was develop the commercial farming of Paua. Commercial farming could reduce the market price of Paua meat down to such a level that poaching them from their natural environment would cease to be economically viable. Timothy Nichols was married to both his job and Dr Celia Nichols a local GP who had a joint practice on Hastings Street in the Washington Valley area of Nelson. Both parents worked long hours and so they had employed Lisa to look after Julian until one of them returned home. That meant Lisa took Julian to school for 8.45am, and then did housework for Celia until she collected Julian from school in the afternoon. She would then help the boy with his homework, fix his dinner and then entertain him until Celia or Timothy returned, which was usually between 6.30 and 7.30pm. By the time Lisa herself returned home to Tipahi Street she was usually completely exhausted. She loved her job but hated the hours.

  Lisa had just cooked Julian his dinner when Tim Nichols came home, early for once. Today was pay-day and Tim handed her a cheque for $840, out of this Lisa had to pay tax and because she knew that Tim Nichols claimed tax relief for employing a nanny, she had to be honest and diligently paid almost a third of her wages into a separate tax account. Knowing that she was now $560 better off gave her a little more spring in her step. Scott was taking her out tonight, to The Honest Lawyer Country Pub. She was early and planned to have a long hot bath before getting ready to go out. Lisa had the impression that Scott was up to something tonight and wondered what it was.

  As Lisa and Scott walked into the restaurant the place was packed out with customers, it was lucky they had booked. They followed the maître d′ as he wove his way through the tables to the rear of the restaurant and their table. Lisa’s heart almost stopped when she saw who was already seated at table, it was Scott’s parents. In a mega-argument they both had disowned Scott when he told them that he was going to help Lisa live a normal life after she left prison. In her previous life, when she was an international model, his parents had accepted her as a daughter and Scott often mentioned that back then he would tactfully have to dodge questions about their marriage every time he spoke to them. Lisa knew that following her drug conviction they hated her with a vengeance and they certainly did not approve of their son fraternising with a convicted felon. They had told him that only bad would come of his liaison with Lisa and if he wasn’t going to marry her why was he bothering with her rehabilitation? From what Scott had told her, his parents weren’t speaking to him anymore, so to meet them socially, here in Nelson, was a real ‘bolt out of the blue’. Judging by the look on his parents’ faces it was as much a shock to them as it was for her. Scott’s mother was first to speak;

  “Come on Charles I think we had better go.”

  Scott looked at his father, silently appealing to him to stay.

  “Moira, I think we need to stay, sit down please,” commanded his father.

  “Well let me put on record that I am staying under duress. This girl is trouble Charles, you know it as well as I do. Nothing but pain and suffering will come of this relationship, of that I can be certain.”

 
“Oh, Moira sit down and be quiet for once, let Scott explain why he has arranged this meeting, give the boy a chance.”

  “We gave him a chance before, when he said he was still visiting the drug addict in prison. Against our wishes he continued seeing her and now he lives with the girl. My son living with a convicted criminal is not something I can celebrate.”

  “It’s me who should leave; I’ve caused enough trouble between Scott and both of you. I am sorry.” Lisa turned away from Scott and his parents and as she moved away, she started to cry.

  “Lisa please stay, we need to get this sorted.” At first, she thought it was Scott’s voice, but as she turned back towards them, she realised that it was his dad that was speaking.

  “No good will come out of running away, either for you, or Moira. We need to talk about this and now is the time to do it. Sit down Lisa please.”

  The atmosphere was tense as they ordered their meals, even the waitress picked up the negative feeling.

  “Enjoy your meals; please let me get you a complimentary glass of house wine.” And with that the waitress, with Amy on her name badge, scuttled off to get the wine.

  “Look Mum, Dad, I know that you don’t approve of my actions but Lisa needs me now. She needs stability in her life, someone that cares about her, someone who is there for her when she is down.”

  “She is a drug addict Scott,” declared his mother, “you need to think about yourself, your career, your future. You need to be looking for someone that you can spend the rest of your life with, settle down and have children with. Lisa made her own choices back then.”

  “Please don’t talk as if I am not here. I have feelings as well I…” said Lisa until she was interrupted by Moira Pearson.

  “As far as I am concerned, you’re not here, because if I’m honest people like you make me sick. You’ll not only trashed your own life you destroyed the lives of those around you, and as long as I have breath in my body, I’ll make sure you don’t destroy my son.”

  This time it was Scott who rose to leave, and once again it was Charles Pearson who intervened.

  “Scott, Lisa I am appalled by what my wife is saying. I love you Scott and like your mother I want what’s best for you. I appreciate that Lisa needs you at this time in her life and I will support you as much as I can. I think Moira you have a short memory because it wasn’t so long ago that you were pushing these two into marriage.”

  “Yes, and thank God, they ignored me. God knows what would have come of such a marriage.”

  “Don’t be bitter Moira, it doesn’t become you. You should be standing beside your son not confronting him. If Scott told you that he never wanted to see you again you would wither away and die heartbroken. We have to put aside our personal feelings and help Scott and Lisa as much as we can, and I intend to do exactly that.”

  Moira Pearson was stunned into silence; she did not know what to do. Her husband had just delivered an ultimatum that had boxed her into a corner. If she left the restaurant she would be on her own. She realised that she couldn’t bully Scott into abandoning Lisa. She had underestimated her husband, how he felt, and she had to agree with him that if she made an enemy out of her own son, she would only have herself to blame. She couldn’t live with that. Biting back the tears she looked at both Scott and Lisa and said,

  “I am sorry Scott; your father is right; I have been bitter and selfish.” She turned briefly to her husband and tried to smile; the words had almost choked her. “I would be devastated if there was a serious rift between us. I know that you loved Lisa dearly before all the drugs. So, as you are going to support her, I will try very hard to come to terms with that. I admire your principles and I know that you are doing what you hope is the right thing. It was wrong of me to turn away from Lisa when she needs our support most.”

  With tears in her eyes Moira Pearson stretched out and put her hand on Lisa’s. It was one of those moments when the world changes, one of those seismic seconds. Lisa stood up and leaving her bag on the table said that she had to go to the restroom. Thirty seconds later Moira got up and followed her. Both Scott and his father were speechless. Charles Pearson knew how much it had hurt his wife having to apologise, it was not her way to say sorry for anything she did. As Amy, the waitress served the complimentary wine, both men drank theirs in one go. As the women didn’t return for over twenty minutes, they drank theirs as well. By the time a second bottle was on the table, the earlier acrimony was almost forgotten.

  Scott held Lisa’s hand as they were served dessert. He was happy with the way the evening had worked out. He owed a lot to his father’s management of his mother’s behaviour. With the beginnings of a successful reconciliation, between Lisa and his mother, Scott could sleep more peacefully. He hated being at odds with either of his parents and since he and Lisa had moved to Nelson talking to his mother on the telephone had been hell. The whole purpose of the evening had been to re-establish the loving relationship he had always had with his parents and for this he needed both of them to accept that he was not going to abandon Lisa when she needed him most.

  Lisa had never really known her father as he had left her mother when she and her younger sister, Sharon, were still babies. Lisa and Sharon had lived with their mother, an alcoholic, until she had died when Lisa was nineteen. Life with their mother had been a living nightmare if she wasn’t in a police cell drunk, she was at home unconscious, stupefied by the alcohol. This all came to an abrupt end when, staggering home one night ‘pissed as a rat’ she lost her balance and fell in front of an oncoming car.

  For years Lisa had been more of a mother to her younger sister Sharon than their alcoholic mother had ever been. With no one else to help Lisa had arranged the cremation. An obituary in the paper unearthed an unknown uncle, though once the funeral was over, he disappeared back into anonymity. From that moment on they were on their own and sadly much better off. Without the burden of subsidising her mother’s drinks bill, Lisa and her sister almost prospered. When Sharon left school and obtained a full-time job, they were positively rich. A chance meeting one evening with the director of ‘Le Femme,’ an international modelling agency, led to Lisa’s entry into the modelling business and from then on money was never a problem. A year later Sharon followed Lisa into modelling, making her own success in the business of fashion modelling.

  Scott came into Lisa’s life when she was modelling the clothes of Liz Mitchell, for NZ Women’s Weekly, Scott was the photographer. Before long the two were deeply in love. Although their respective careers meant they were rarely together their love for each other sustained them through their enforced absences. When Lisa moved to New York at the pinnacle of her career, her separation from Scott and the pressure of her work led to her first encounter with drugs. As the drugs inexorably gained control of her life the modelling agencies began to strike her name from their registries and her fall from fame and money began. Ashamed that she would end up as her mother had done, she turned her back on Scott. Before very long she was prostituting her body to feed her drug habit. In two years, she had changed from the beauty of an international model to a rotten hag. Unbeknown to Lisa, Scott had done his utmost to find her but as she slept on the streets of Auckland, she had become one of the anonymous street community, almost lost forever in a world of filth and depravity.

  It was by pure chance that Scott found her, one evening in Queen Street, when Lisa begged him for money. Stunned by her appearance he took her back to his flat on Hobson Street, cleaned, fed and clothed her. For a month she stayed with Scott before she fled his care and returned to her life with drugs. Just two months after running away from Scott she was arrested for the possession of 5 grams of methamphetamine. Scott learned of her trial when the New Zealand Herald ran her story “Fashion Queen to Drug Queen” which detailed her fall from an international modelling career to life on the streets. Scott was never ashamed of what Lisa had become. The woman he loved he knew was just below the surface and he vowed that he would be there f
or her when she was released from Arohata Women’s Prison. His mother never forgave Lisa for the shame she felt in the eyes of her social circle, not least of which was amongst the other Freemason’s wives in her husband’s lodge.

  Now, hopefully, with the past forgiven, Lisa could hold her head up again. Even though her looks had all but gone her heart was not broken. With the passing of each day Lisa grew stronger, happier and in Scott’s eyes more beautiful.

  3.