Past, Present & Future

Sarah spent the rest of the week combing through the internet as she tried to find more information about the Southern Mafia Boss. Sarah parsed through the data and was able to piece together a simple profile of the Boss.

She could confirm that the Boss was a male and was in fact not that much older than her, the age range was presumed to be twenty-five to thirty years of age. She had been able to find an old article dated eighteen years ago from a local paper in Sydney that briefly mentioned the term 'southern mafia' but in the context of a brawl between two rival groups that led to a couple deaths and many hospitalisations.

Another article from around that time, uploaded as an image which she'd found by coincidence when browsing through some forums, also made note of rumours of infighting and leadership ructions within the Southern Mafia. However, she was disappointed to find that upon a further search for the author of the article, it turned out he had died some years back from a heart attack.

The only other things she could find were that the Boss was Caucasian and was the third boss of the Mafia since their sudden rise to power about fifty years ago.

A little disappointed and frustrated at this elusive shadow she was chasing, Sarah decided to make herself a tea to calm down. She made herself comfortable on the sofa with her cup of green tea and was pleasantly surprised to hear a notification come from her computer that had been running the Identification Program.

Getting back up with a groan, Sarah ambled on over to find that the program had run through all possibilities of the second photos location and generated as complete a report as possible given the input. The program had narrowed down the location to a certain hotel in Sydney.

The W Hotel with their trademark and distinct room design was easily identified by the program. It was also able to find that the event had taken place in one of the VIP rooms of the hotel. Facial recognition was able to confirm that the man indeed was the Police Minister and as for the woman, the program was able to find a record of her visa and Vietnamese passport photo upon entry into the country. It also made note that she had travelled on a student visa and had nominated her aunty as her guarantor, with whom she was currently staying with.

The program had also helpfully listed the address of the aunt's house which was at most a twenty-minute drive from her office. It had also generated a profile of the two women from all publicly accessible information, mainly from their social media profiles. There was even a link to the aunties LinkedIn page.

Sarah finally felt as if she was on the verge of a breakthrough in this story. She knew she should act on this quickly as there was an instinctual feeling of unease coming from her gut, she feared something would happen to the young girl and decided to give the aunt a call.

"Hello? This is Elaine and to whom do I have the pleasure to speak with?"

"Ah, hello Elaine, my name is Sarah Longford and I am from the Eight Network and I was wondering if you had time to help me with a story I am currently working on. It also involves your niece Kate, it is just a story on international students in universities."

"Hmm…okay, I have time, give me your number and I will text you my address."

Sarah was a little surprised that Elaine had been so willing to speak with her. However, Sarah was a little embarrassed when Elaine had even decided to invite her to her home, after all Sarah already knew where Elaine lived. She quickly gave Elaine her number and they arranged to meet in the

afternoon.

Whilst she had been on the phone with Elaine, Sarah had to decline a call from her boss Leigh and she knew her boss would understand. Just as she was about to call back her phone notified her that there was one unread voice message. Sarah knew it must have been left by her boss Leigh and decided to listen to it.

"Sarah, you really should stop looking into this story of yours. Those that have been asking around have either mysteriously vanished or suffered from suspicious accidents. It isn't worth the risk to your life. Stop investigating it any further, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Please. You promised to give me the final say. So, please look no further."

Sarah had never heard Leigh's voice sound so strained, it was clear that Leigh knew something but was unable to say it. Sarah could clearly infer that it was something large enough that it prompted Leigh to ask Sarah to stop investigating, after all according to Leigh people had lost their lives.

At this point Sarah's usually decisive demeanour had cracked a little and hesitation began to creep in. Her earlier conviction where she wished to pursue this path to the end even at the cost of her life warred with her promise that she would listen to Leigh and would stop looking if she asked for it.

Sarah had always lived by the sword, yet she also knew she should not break promises lightly, after all her job was built on the words she said, wrote or published. However, in the end her instinctual need to keep on digging and her curiosity won out. Sarah decided the path she would take and would do so without any more hesitation and felt it would be best to not call Leigh back straight away.

Sarah did not dawdle for long and promptly made her way to the nearby suburb of Marrickville and parked her car on the street outside the address Elaine had given her. It was a single storey brick house sandwiched between two other double storey houses. A remnant of the blue-collar history of the suburb.

Sarah walked up to the door and pressed the bell once. A standard *ding* *dong* emanated from within the house and a voice yelled out

"I'm coming, I'm coming, give me a second."

The door opened to reveal a beautiful Asian woman who looked to be in her early thirties. If Sarah didn't know any better, she would have assumed she had knocked on the door of a model's house. Sarah quickly supressed her surprise and held out her hand along with her id and introduced herself.

"Hi, my name is Sarah Longford and I am from the Eight Network, we spoke on the phone earlier. I am currently researching for a story on university life for international students. I was just wondering if your niece Kim was home?"

Sarah could clearly see the suspicion and wariness in the eyes of Kim's aunt, which slightly faded as she reached out and confirmed Sarah's id.

"Oh, you're the journalist, Sarah huh. What type of story are you writing? Not one of those racist ones about Asians taking up all the university spots, right? My friends keep sending me articles on WeChat about all the ones written by 'journalists' that keep blaming internationals for everything. Bus too full, Asian fault. Train too full, Asian fault. Traffic jam, Asian fault. No more baby formula, Asian fault. Sun too hot, Asian fault. Not enough rain, Asian fault. It's ridiculous."

Sarah heard the rant and could only nod her head and smile as she waited for Elaine to finish.

"No, no, I don't write stories like that. You know that story where the Tax Commissioner was caught trying to hide his children's income, that was one of the stories I worked on."

"Oh, I heard about that one, so that was found out by someone like you huh. Then I guess this isn't a simple house call. Uh, where are my manners, let me introduce myself again, I am Kim's aunt, Elaine, please do come inside and take a seat. Kim went out not too long ago to get some groceries, she should be back soon."

Under Elaine's invitation Sarah entered the house and remembered to take her shoes off at the door. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a nod of approval from Elaine's face, before she turned around to walk towards the kitchen.

"Take a seat where you feel like, would you like some water? Tea? Coffee?"

"Thank you, water will do. You have a nice house. Is it just you and Kim that live here?"

"It's an okay house. When my parents first moved to Australia those many years ago, fleeing the war, this was the first place they were able to afford, and I have lived here since. It may look a bit shabby, but it is still my home. My husband and son moved out last year for work, but I decided to stay here to look after little Kim."

Elaine placed a cup of water before Sarah and then also took a seat.

"So, Sarah what really brings you here? I can see that you're a smart woman, no need to beat around the bush."

Unsure of how to reply to Elaine's honesty nor where to start in order to broach the reason she was here for, Sarah decided to go slow.

"Okay, I'm not here to write a story about university students. Sorry for lying, but there is a reason for that, I just have some short questions for Kim. Have you noticed anything unusual about Kim lately or her activities?"

"Sarah, are you sure you're only a journalist? It better be a good reason."

"Yeah, I get that a lot in this line of work. People always wonder whether I'm not really an undercover cop or agent. But I am only a journalist. I just want to find out the full story and I am sure you will not like the reason, but you will understand, I think."

"Hah, very interesting but journalism truly is an admirable occupation. However, I have not noticed anything different about Kim lately, other than she has quit drinking. Oh there was that one night, not that long ago, she came home very drunk, it looked like she had been crying but she wouldn't say anything. The next day when I asked her, she just said she was going to quit drinking. Now I am no saint and I indulge in the occasional drinks but what she was doing was something else entirely. Every weekend, always going to the club with her friends, three nights in a row, coming back drunker than the last. To be honest, I would be surprised if she still has a liver. I thought she was turning over a new leaf."

"The night she came back and then decided to quit drinking, what day was it exactly?"

"About two months ago, I think on the fifteenth. Thinking about it now, I guess you could say Kim has been quieter recently, goes out less with her friends. Since you're asking about that night, I am guessing something happened?"

Sarah, felt she had gotten a good grasp of Elaine's personality and decided to show her the photo.

"Uhm, this might be a little confronting, but I think you should see this."

Elaine's eyes widened, and a hint of fury flashed across her eyes before she glared back at Sarah.

"Who is this bastard in the photo? You know him, right? How dare he place his filthy hands on my Kim!"

"Yes, this is the reason why I came today, I received this photo about a week ago. I have been digging around and I was able to identify who it is. But I think it's best for you to not know who he is."

"Oh, so he is someone important? Don't worry I can protect myself, tell me who he is."

Under her persistent tone, Sarah gave in and told her who it was.

"That piece of shit. Just because he is in a high place, he thinks nothing of us little people. Disgusting."

"Well, to be honest I don't know the circumstances around how they got there, which is why I am here today and wanted to ask Kim about it."

"I think you have said enough. Please leave us for today. We will deal with this our own way. Don't worry I will not steal your thunder and break the story before you. If you have other questions please send them my way and leave Kim alone. I would really appreciate it. Well Sarah perhaps under other circumstances we could talk more but not today. I have a lot to think about and I won't see you out."

Sarah saw that Elaine had drawn a line in the sand and got up and said her goodbyes before leaving

the house. She got into her car and pulled back onto the main road, distracted by Elaine's various reactions, the date she was given and generally a little worried about Kim, Sarah did not see the car coming right towards her.