The White Amah (5 page)

Josh sneaked her into the room he shared with the other band members. He was pleased that they were still out partying and they had the place to themselves. He turned on a CD.

‘That’s a nice track,’ she said, not bothering to hide a yawn. ‘Who is it?’

‘That’s me and the lads,’ replied Josh.

‘Do you think you could turn the music down?’

‘Are you feeling tired, luv? Do you want me to take you home?’ Josh hoped he had enough money for their fares.

‘What’s wrong with right here?’ Crystal pressed her lips down on his and thought of Taylor.

Josh was a sound sleeper. He lay on his stomach hugging a pillow to his chest like a contented puppy. Crystal slipped out of bed, careful not wake him. He was nice, in a boy-next-door sort of way, but she didn’t want to do it again, and as for his suggestion of meeting in Kuala Lumpur … dream on.

While she was in the shower Aryn and Geoff arrived back, both bleary eyed. She overheard Josh telling them he was strapped for cash. She knew they must have coughed up because he shouted her breakfast in the hotel’s sumptuous dining room. She piled up her plate with an assortment of exotic fruits, conscious of the appreciative, surreptitious looks of all the male guests and the hostile vibes from their wives. This is more like it, she thought.

Later they took the Sentosa Express monorail to the mainland and Josh paid for a cab to the Cathay Hotel. Crystal was starting to feel nervous about staying out all night. What would Jimmy
do if he found out she’d been with a man? She could only hope that Melanie had covered for her.

‘I had a good time. Call me some time.’ She pecked Josh on the cheek after she’d checked that her boss wasn’t hovering round the lobby.

‘Is Jimmy in?’ she asked the receptionist.

‘I haven’t seen him today, or any of the girls except for Mel.’ As Crystal turned away with a relieved smile the receptionist said, ‘Just a minute, Mel left this for you,’ and she handed over a sealed enveloped.

Crystal couldn’t imagine why her friend was writing to her. With a sense of foreboding she ripped open the envelope and scanned the scrawled note. It had obviously been written in a great hurry. It was worse than anything Crystal could have imagined. Stunned, she looked around for a chair.

‘What’s the matter, luv?’ asked Josh, who was still hovering in the foyer like a lost puppy.

Crystal held out the letter to him, her lovely face crumpled in shock. ‘Mel says all the girls have been arrested and the police are after us. Oh, Josh, what am I going to do? You’ve got to help me.’

J
OSH TURNED UP THE SOUND ON THE TELEVISION.
‘Sit down. We better listen to this.’

The Chinese presenter had been educated in England; her voice was as plummy as Princess Anne’s:

Members of a European dance troupe could face up to ten years in jail after getting arrested during a sex romp at a private party in Johor. Malaysian authorities have also charged the Singaporean promoter, Jimmy Wong, with running a prostitution ring and supplying drugs.

The colour drained out of Crystal’s face as she watched an overabundance of stern-faced police officers herd four frightened women, still dressed in their tawdry costumes, into the police wagon.’

‘Jeez, that’s you, isn’t it?’

The TV journalist had tracked down the photo taken on the wharf the day Crystal arrived in Singapore.

‘Oh my god, what am I going to do? They’re after me too.’

‘Christ, Crystal, how did you get mixed up in something so risky? They neck you if you get caught with drugs in Asia. You’d have to be blind not to see the warnings in the airport.’

She was shivering, even thought the air was hot and steamy, and tears ran unchecked down her cheeks. ‘I don’t know anything about it. I’d never do drugs. Oh Josh, what am I going to
do? I don’t want to go to prison.’ She clung to him as though the police might break in any moment and drag her away.

Josh looked down at her. She looked so young and lost. He knew it was foolish to get involved but how could he leave her like this on her own after last night? ‘Pack a few things and you can hide out at my place. At least until we can get you home. No, just an overnight bag, the receptionist will think something’s up if she’s sees you with a suitcase. Let’s pray she hasn’t read the papers or turned on the news. Put this over your hair,’ he said and handed her one of Imelda’s gauzy scarves.

The clerk was so busy she didn’t even look up as Josh and Crystal passed through the revolving door and got straight into a cab. Josh asked the driver to drop them off in Scott Road. As soon as the taxi sped off, he hailed another.

‘We’re changing cabs to put the police off the track in case they check if any of the drivers who service the Cathay Hotel picked you up.’

‘That’s smart. What will your friends say when you turn up with me?’ she asked, looking into his eyes anxiously as the reality of her situation sank in.

‘Geoff and Aryn will be all right. You’ve met them. They’re mates …’

‘But?’ she said worriedly, sensing he was holding back.

‘There are no buts.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘There’s no way I’m going to leave you to face this on your own. It’ll be all right, we’ll get you home safely somehow,’ he said with an assurance he was far from feeling. Although he was certain his pals would say yes to protecting Crystal, he wasn’t so sure about Tom and William, the two former members of the Satyrs.

Tom and William had met at university and teamed up with two other students to form the Satyrs. They were a strange pair and at times Josh was sorry he and his mates had joined forces with them. After just a few weeks of their company, he understood why the Satyrs had split up. He just hoped the same wouldn’t happen to Speed but their anticipated tour of South-East Asia had been marred by persistent bickering. The main point of contention was who was going to front the group. Tom wanted to be the lead singer and he didn’t relish sharing the limelight with Josh, who had always sung lead for Speed.

But it wasn’t just professional rivalry that was the root of their problems: it was a mismatched partnership all the way down the line. The Satyrs had been a coming band with a strong following before the fallout and they treated the garage-band boys like rank amateurs. But while Speed was a Cinderella band by comparison, Josh knew they could really play. And they didn’t just play the same old stuff. He was a talented songwriter and his compositions set them apart from other groups struggling to get known. The trio of friends felt good about themselves. Somehow they knew they’d make it and they were getting tired of Tom’s putdowns and William’s patronising remarks about their accents and education. So what if they hadn’t sat their A-levels? At least they were into normal stuff: football, girls and booze. None of them were into serious drugs. Josh’s mam would’ve killed him and the same went for Geoff and Aryn.

He wasn’t so sure about Tom and William. They kept to themselves and rarely joined them on their nights out. Josh sometimes wondered if they were poofters, except that Tom was a chick magnet and there was always a new babe in his bed.

Luckily everyone was out when they got back to Sentosa. Crystal raised her eyebrows when he took a box of hair colour out of the bathroom cabinet.

‘Yeah, it’s mine. The fans don’t dig ginger-headed metal singers,’ he said in his blunt, down-to-earth manner. ‘I bet I wouldn’t have pulled you if you’d known I was a ranga.’

‘That would have been my loss,’ she said, looking beautiful even wearing a ridiculous pink plastic shower cap with black hair dye running down her cheeks.

While she waited for the dye to take, Crystal racked her brains for a way to persuade Josh to let her stay. Nothing would be worse than going home in disgrace. She could imagine the hateful stories that would circulate and she’d never live it down. But the worst part would be her father’s cold, emotionless contempt.

Josh made a credible job of cutting and dying Crystal’s hair.

‘Your own mother wouldn’t recognise you,’ he said when she’d washed off the colour.

Josh’s innocent remark was a gift, the perfect opening. Lifting her chin, she spoke in a wavering, small voice. ‘My mother’s dead. Both my parents were killed in a car crash when I was seven.’

Josh looked stunned. ‘I’m sorry, luv. I didn’t realise. But you must have other relatives that care about you. Who brought you up?’

‘I lived with Nanna at first, but she passed away when I was thirteen. After that I was placed in foster care.’ She shuddered convincingly, proving her father wrong when he’d said she’d be better off taking cooking than drama because at least she’d learn something useful. ‘I ran away when I was fifteen and, well, I’ve been on my own ever since. To tell you the truth I never want to go back to Perth. I’ve got really bad memories. That’s
why I took this job. I thought it was going to be a brand-new start for me and look what happened. The only good thing to come out of this whole fiasco is finding you. Please don’t send me away.’

Josh’s heart was pounding in his throat with fear, excitement and joy. ‘Come here, lovely, lovely girl. As if I’d let you get away.’

Aryn and Geoff didn’t immediately recognise the lovely, darkhaired girl with the Halle Berry short haircut. The brassy blond hair had been replaced by a soft, natural style that feathered appealingly around her pixie face. She looked more like the girl next door than ‘Scary Spice Meets Dolly Parton’, as Geoff had dubbed her when she’d barged out of the karaoke bar with Josh firmly in tow. Neither had heard about the drug bust and they were both shocked when Josh told them the story but, as he had anticipated, his pals were as ready to help as he was.

‘I don’t think we should let on who you are to Tom and William, though,’ said Geoff, who had as low an opinion of the other two as Josh.

‘Agreed,’ said Josh. ‘It’ll be safer for you if they think you’re just a girl I’ve met up with. We haven’t known them all that long,’ he explained to Crystal. He felt he had to explain his reluctance in confiding her situation to the two missing members of the band.

‘We better think up a plausible story and stick to it then,’ said Geoff.

‘Okay, how about this,’ said Aryn, who’d been listening intently. ‘You were backpacking with a mate but she’s hooked up with some guy and gone off with him and left you in the
lurch. We met up last night, hit it off and invited you to come along with us.’

‘They won’t like it,’ said Geoff.

‘Too bad,’ said Josh, more confidently than he felt.

Just then the door opened and Tom sauntered into the room wearing suit trousers and suspenders with no shirt and bare feet. His dark hair was tied back in a ponytail with a beaded leather thong. The stubble of two days’ growth lay on his stubborn jaw. Slightly built and of medium height, he had an intriguing, silky, offbeat style.

‘Do I know you?’ he asked, smiling at Crystal, coal-black eyes gleaming dangerously.

Crystal shook her head and smiled nervously.

Tom listened as Josh explained Crystal’s predicament, his expression unreadable. So that’s how it is, he thought, noticing Josh’s arm placed proprietarily around her waist. He smirked. Taking her away from Josh would be amusing. He turned to the tall weedy guy with the aviator glasses and the slicked-back hair who was staring at Crystal as if she was a piece of trash.

‘Hey Willie, how about going up to the bar and getting a couple of bottles of champagne? This calls for a celebration. Drinks all round,’ he said good-naturedly to Josh, who was stunned by his friendliness.

Giddy without having anything to drink, Crystal leaned back against Josh and peeped up at Tom through her lashes. Once again she’d fallen on her feet.

T
HE
R
IVERINE
N
IGHTCLUB IN
K
UALA
L
UMPUR WAS AN OPULENTLY REGAL ROOM.
A full gallery of portraits of the Malaysian royal family in ornate gilded frames were mounted on lavish gold-leaf walls. The luxurious ambience of the salon was enhanced by two crystal chandeliers suspended from the high-domed ceiling, reflecting high-wattage light onto the white linen-covered tables arranged around a central stage, which was dominated by a grand piano.

Josh looked around unhappily. It was too posh, too over the top, and he knew he’d have his work cut out creating the right look and feel for the show. Right now all he wanted to do was try out some special effects. He didn’t have the patience to listen to Crystal, who’d kept him awake half the night pestering him about joining the band.

‘Face facts,’ he said to Crystal now. ‘Metal is dominated by males. Our fans won’t respect us if we have a girl in the group. Isn’t that right, lads?’

‘I disagree,’ said Tom. ‘There are plenty of female metal singers and some of them are truly amazing.’

‘Yeah,’ said Aryn, joining in unexpectedly on Tom’s side. ‘There are metal bands that are all female.’

Crystal looked over at Aryn with a smile and mouthed,
Thank you.
He blushed, embarrassed. Crystal smiled to herself; making up to Josh’s shy best mate had paid off.

‘Can you play an instrument?’ Josh asked Crystal, glaring at Aryn for encouraging her.