We present an extract from The Invisible, by Michelle Dunne
Set in Cobh, Co Cork,The Invisible, is a gripping crime novel dealing with the topical issues of human trafficking, prostitution, rape, and the criminal underbelly in Irish society. The protagonist, Lindsey Ryan, a former elite soldier is spurred into protective mode when Lena, a raped and badly beaten Syrian woman, literally falls into her life. When, to Lindsey's horror she discovers that children are also being trafficked she’s is left with no choice but to find her part in this new war.
Four o'clock the following morning, the witching hour, brought with it a frantic knocking on her door. Instinctively she knew that it was Charlie. She was out of bed and half way down the stairs before he’d finished knocking and as she swung open the door, he practically fell into the porch. 'Hey, it’s OK.’ She caught him by the shoulders to keep him upright.
He was shaking from head to toe and despite her current situation, she’d never seen such terror on a person’s face.
‘Charlie, what is it? What happened?’
Charlie jumped dramatically when Frank came sniffing furiously around them.
‘It’s alright; it’s just Frank.’ She used one hand to hold Charlie steady and the other to get Frank to back up. Which of course he did.
‘You said you’d help me. You told me to come here.’ He was panicking.
‘I did. I’m glad you came.’ Lindsey’s calm and rational tone came so naturally to her, she didn’t even have to try.
But the last thing she felt was calm or rational right now. Was she about to add another person to her f**ked-up situation?
‘Look, you just need to get me out of here, OK? I know you’ve been doing it, Lindsey. Everyone knows it. Please…?’
He was becoming hysterical and Frank was getting wound up too. Lindsey looked at Charlie in silence, as she wrapped her hand around the top of Frank’s head and scratched at his ear. She was trying to think. Of course she had to help the kid. But first she needed to know what was going on.
‘You’re safe, Charlie.’ She nodded finally, with as much reassurance as she could muster. ‘Just tell me what happened?’
‘You said you wouldn’t ask. I just need you to get me out of here, like, tonight.’
‘What makes you think I can get anyone out of anywhere?’
‘He would have killed that woman for running. But you got her out of here. Everyone knows it and apparently she wasn’t the first or the last.’
She muttered under her breath.
‘So why is everyone saying it, if it’s not true?’
‘Because they’re idiots. Now tell me what the hell is going on here.’
‘I can’t.’ Charlie started to cry. Then he dug his knuckles into his eyes in an attempt to either blind himself or plug the tears.
‘I said I’d help you and I will.’ She put her hands on his shoulders and with a little bit of force, she lowered him into a chair. ‘But I need to know what I’m up against or I won’t know what I need to do.’
Silence again, expect for Charlie’s choked sobs. ‘Whatever you tell me now stays with me. You have to trust someone eventually, Charlie so I’m asking you to trust me now. I need to know what my options are.’
More silence. This time she let it settle, sure that Charlie would feel the need to break it sooner or later. She sat there, quietly watching him.
It took a while for him to straighten the details out in his head. At least well enough to be able to explain them.
‘Ben got me a job in there.’ His voice was no more than a whisper. His head was in his hands as he spoke.
‘In Patrick’s place?’ He nodded.
Lindsey cursed Ben and the horse he rode in on. ‘OK. And?’
‘I hate it in there. Everyone looks sick or something.’ More silence.
‘My job is just to do this and that; tidy up the place, bring drinks to people and that kinda thing. Tonight when I went to work, everyone was like, panicking or something. I asked Derek what was going on and he said to keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way.’
‘Derek?’
‘One of the security guys. But he’s alright.’ ‘OK…?’
‘I was taking empty glasses out of one of the rooms when Derek came through the door. Literally, Lindsey! He was thrown through the door, by Hector. He kept shouting, Where are they, tell me where they are… but he was hammering him at the same time. Derek couldn’t have answered if he wanted to. Then Hector started kicking him in the head, like a football. Over and over and over again until there was nothing left to kick.’ His shoulders started to shake and he seemed to almost convulse as the tears started to flow.
Lindsey couldn’t blame him. Charlie was gonna carry this with him for the rest of his life. But she couldn’t help him with that.
‘Did he kill him?’
‘I don’t know. He wasn’t moving when Patrick came in.
Then the two of them dragged him out.’
‘Who were they looking for?’ She wanted to know how much Charlie knew. She suspected, very little.
He shook his head. ‘I heard one of the women say that the boys were gone.’
Lindsey didn’t respond.
‘There weren’t any other boys there though. Only me. There aren’t any other jobs there for men, only security.’
She marvelled at his naivety. Her heart would have broken for him if she could think that way for a minute. But she couldn’t afford a minute. She needed every second now to think of a way out of here for these people. Now she needed to know if that included Charlie.
‘Are they after you? Did they know that you were watching?’
He shook his head. ‘I shoved myself in beside the wardrobe. They didn’t see me.’
She waited.
‘But Patrick told Hector to get Ben on it. Ben will make me help him. I don’t want to, Lindsey.’
‘OK. It’ll be alright. Wait here a minute.’ She got up and headed for the back kitchen.
She went through the kitchen doors and leaned against the wall. She let the back of her head knock against the cold concrete for a minute. It seemed her five-pound bag was now holding fifty pounds of s**t against a giant fan.
The Invisible is published by Bad Ink Press.
