Top of the Lake

You probably thought about aborting me. It's OK.

I mean, you didn't, so yay.

We need to talk about Al Parker's case against you.

He seems to be saying that the shooting was personally motivated.

Got something here! She was pregnant.

The foetus' DNA wasn't matching China Girl's.

Ray! China Girl's a surrogate.

- It's also good for making focaccia. - Mm.

I mean, it can toast any thickness.

What about a mini pizza oven?

It's a really unusual gift.

Is she a party animal?

Just a sec. Hello?

Yes, Stally.

Really?

Hey, we thought you'd want to hear this.

He's talking about China Girl.

Says he's going to make a confession.

I can't help it. I need a lot of sex, you know.

It's like you can't tickle yourself, can you?

You need someone else to do it or it doesn't work,

someone outside your own nervous system.

- Is this going somewhere, Toni? - Yeah, sorry.

OK, so I'm with this girl, she's gorgeous,

and she's inspecting my dick, she's twirling it around,

she's flicking it back and forth,

and so I slip my hand up her leg, and, er, I get to her panties,

and, er, I slip a finger into her vagina and give a little schwizz.

- What's a schwizz? - Oh, it's like, um, you go in like...

That's disgusting, mate.

So, anyway, next thing I know, the mamasan

and her gorilla come bursting in, and they're like,

"Get out my shop, you bloody fucking this!"

and, "You bloody fucking that!"

I didn't want any trouble, so I just got up and left.

Mm-hm. So what happened then?

Um, I waited outside in my car, and then the girl came out.

I went over to her and apologised.

And, um, she said she needed to go down to Bondi,

so I... I offered her a lift.

OK, you didn't force or coerce her into the car?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no.

At this stage, it was all very friendly.

So we go down to Bondi and pull in the car park and... and, um,

I... I hopped in the back seat with her.

- She was already in the back seat? - Yeah.

- What, just waiting for you? - Yeah, yeah.

It's all going well, and she's lifting up her arse

and letting me slip off her panties.

That's always a good sign, isn't it?

Now, I didn't have a condom on, so maybe that was the issue,

I don't know, but I promised not to come.

Anyway, I'm inside her.

Next thing I know, I feel this sharp prick on the back of my neck.

I'm like, fingernails, you know? I thought, she's digging them in!

And I realise she's... she's actually stabbing me

with a knife in the back there.

You can probably still see a bit of a nick.

So I grabbed her face and I held her away from me at arm's length.

You know, it's a small space in the back of a Corolla,

so it was stuffy.

- Now, I don't know, maybe... - Where were you holding her?

Um...

- Oh, here and... - The throat?

Yeah.

- With two hands? - Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

And next thing, she starts going very quiet.

So I let her just lie back on the... on the seat,

thinking that she's going to come out of it, you know? And, er...

And she doesn't.

She just... she just, er, gets whiter and, er...

starts going blue around the lips.

So why didn't you call the police?

Oh, mate, I couldn't, I couldn't.

I was so sad and upset. I just...

It was like the worst night of my life.

So I, um...

I tucked her up in this beautiful picnic blanket and, at about 3am,

I carried her out into the water, and I waded out past

the first breakers there, and then I just let her...

just let her drift off into the outflowing tide.

Yep, you just...

You just let her go, wrapped in a blanket that you happened

- to have in the back of your car? - Yep.

Yeah, she deserved it.

- No suitcase. - Yeah.

Yeah, you're right. The confession's all bullshit.

Can we chat in my office?

- I wanted to see you. - What's there to say? He's a liar.

There are other things.

Is this your office?

That's what we call it. Come on, fix you a drink.

What do you want, cocktail?

Probably wondering what my deal is.

I'm kind of between relationships at the moment.

Doing it pretty tough, to be honest.

Yep, I know what that's like. So what can I do for you?

I mean, you could be asking yourself what could I do for you?

Like what?

Seven or eight of the best nights of your life,

complete discretion, total respect.

Look, I'm attracted to you, all right? I'm not an idiot.

I understand that we're not relationship material, you and me.

We are... We're different.

But it's that difference that'd make it fun.

- I'm not in it for fun, Stally. - Maybe I could change that.

Look, you don't have to answer me now.

You can have a think about it.

You know, take your time.

- Thanks for the offer. - So you'll think about it?

Probably not.

Can we have a detective

to attend the front counter, please?

A detective to attend the front counter, please.

Hey. You OK?

Yeah. Didn't sleep. What's up?

The DNA tests on China Girl are back.

The foetus is not hers.

Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?

- How do you know? - Miranda told me.

She said you're checking to see

if there's a match with the mother and father on our database.

When?

- When did she? - Last night.

I was over there yesterday evening.

I heard some loud talking. Thought it was Liam.

- Who's Liam? - My brother.

They just met and they seem to get on.

Adrian, what if China Girl's death is

the result of a breakdown in the surrogacy arrangement?

Like?

Like she demanded more money or blackmailed the parents

and there was a struggle.

- Are you listening? - Yeah.

Who's Liam?

Er, how do you know him?

He's her brother.

I don't know him.

She thought I was Liam at your place last night.

Hey, I think we should...

I think we should start with Sydney's IVF clinics.

We could identify the parents with a record of multiple attempts

at pregnancy, people who are desperate to try anything.

Hey, Adrian, what is happening?

What is going on?

Why am I in an apartment opposite Hilmarson?

She's reporting to you, is she?

Let's take a walk.

OK, we've got to let you in on something.

We're on together.

What?

- On together? - OK.

- We're an item. - Right. OK.

Well, I'm glad that's settled.

And congratulations.

Yeah, well, it's all about the baby.

It's a second chance.

I'm in love.

Completely taken me by surprise. It's actually very exhausting.

Hang on.

Don't let me forget.

I've lined up my lawyer to talk to you

if this whole Al Parker business gets out of control.

I don't want to speak to him. No.

It's not a choice.

- Is she OK? - Oh!

30 minutes. Thanks. Bye.

I've got an appointment at Assisted Fertility.

White bread?

Why do you want to go to Assisted Fertility?

It's an IVF clinic I saw on the internet with a surrogacy pathway.

We should go.

You think China Girl's a legal surrogate?

No, too young.

You have to have had a child of your own and be over 25.

I'm betting the baby's parents would have made multiple IVF attempts

before they tried surrogacy.

They'd be known to the clinic as desperate.

- Do people ask you who the dad is? - Actually, no.

And how did you and Adrian get together?

- Get close? - Yeah.

Well, I knew he was married, so I didn't think about him like that.

I just thought he was an excellent boss,

a decent man, kind of straight.

- Do you really want to know? - Yeah.

I imagined he'd be really critical of me as a woman,

- the "too much" tag. - Mm.

And then we were driving back from a seminar on DV from Gosford.

It started raining so heavily we were crawling along,

and then the hailstones started and we had to pull over.

The funny thing was, we couldn't get out of the car.

The electrics had jammed the locks, and we rang for help but they

said it'd be at least two hours, there was a lot of flooding.

And when I heard that, two hours, I started to really panic.

I felt something serious was going to happen.

And there was a bottle of red I'd slipped under the seat after

a party, and I really needed to calm myself, so I opened it.

He wanted a swig, too.

We drank it together straight from the bottle and, even before we'd

finished, we were kissing each other, completely out of control.