Kiss and Die

by Lee Weeks

  ‘Yeah, just make it a small one.’ Mann poured her his idea of a small one and handed it to her. ‘Jesus. I’m glad I didn’t ask for a big one. Mann, how much of this stuff are you getting through?’

  ‘Not enough. Work keeps getting in the way.’ He grinned at her. She didn’t smile back. When she frowned her forehead had one long crease in it, it made her look like a confused child.

  ‘Don’t ever get Botox for that.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘That frown that goes right across your forehead. It makes me smile every time I see it. It reminds me of the night you got drunk when we graduated from police academy. Do you remember that night?’

  They’d been young together. They’d had fun once. They had seen one another go through a lot of things and come out alone. Now nearly eighteen years later neither had found themselves a family. Mia had been mixed up with one married man after the other. The worst was Daniel Lu, another policeman, the head of Crime Scene Investigations. He had been her biggest weakness and it had been a bad one. She had wasted twelve years on him before he called it a day and went back to his wife. With Helen, Mann had probably come as near to finding love as he was ever going to and lost it. But he didn’t think he was ever capable of loving totally. He had given Helen all he could of himself but it hadn’t been enough. She had wanted more. She had called his bluff and left. The taxi that picked her up had taken her to her death. All the time Mann had just thought that she had left she was actually being tortured. She was waiting for him to come after her. Now both of them felt their time had passed. Mann could see it in Mia and the world could see it in Mann.

  ‘Bits of it.’ Mia hid her face in her hands and chuckled. ‘Other bits are very hazy. I had a rough idea what happened when I woke up with “I love cock” across my forehead.’

  Mann laughed. ‘You passed out on me.’

  ‘I’m not surprised. We used to drink a lot in those days. I don’t have any regrets. It was a great time. You were going to be the best police diver that ever was and stamp out all Triads along the way and I was going to be commissioner by the time I was thirty.’

  ‘Yeah. We were young.’

  ‘Christ, we’re not exactly old now.’ Mia tried not to frown.

  ‘I know but I feel it sometimes. I feel like I have seen too much to have any hope left.’ Mann drank his vodka and poured another.

  Mia pushed her drink aside. Sometimes it made her melancholy. ‘Yeah, maybe we should have stayed in that bed. I should have certainly never taken up with Daniel, that’s for sure. Daniel made me think he was offering babies and eternity rings. When I got pregnant I found out he wasn’t free to give them, not to me anyway. I lost it. Now I can’t have kids.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mia. I never knew.’

  ‘Yeah, I had complications. I had a premature baby – it didn’t survive. Daniel said he was sorry but our relationship wasn’t the same after. I think he was relieved.’ She smiled at Mann. ‘At least I had the sense to know all you wanted was a good laugh and a shag and a relationship wasn’t on offer. You were always honest about it and you were a good friend to me, always have been. You mean a lot to me, Johnny. I hope you know that.’ She reached over and touched his hand.

  ‘You know, Mia, I never saw you as the sentimental type,’ Mann said, surprised. It had been a long time since they had been off duty together. ‘But, you know, maybe it’s not too late for us…we can go back to that single bed in my room in the academy halls. I can see it now…’

  Mia laughed. ‘Yeah, so can I. You’d love that, wouldn’t you? Your woman on tap and she’s your boss; you’d have me bent over every desk in the department. But…’ Mia finished her drink and shook her head, ‘…in the end you’d do a better job of breaking my heart than Daniel ever did.’

  ‘Forget men like Daniel and Sheng. You always pick the wrong ones – you attract them. You carry your emotional baggage with you like a third arm. It’s visible everywhere you go, Mia – get rid of it, cut it off, move on. He wasn’t worthy of you then and he isn’t now. You settled for less than you should have. You let your guard down too early. You got caught. You need to find someone outside the force. You shouldn’t bother with men like Sheng.’

  ‘Sheng isn’t that bad. He is going through a bad time at home. His daughter has got in trouble. He’s a good father. But, anyway, I don’t know why I’m listening to you. Your track record isn’t any better than mine.’ As soon as Mia said it she regretted it. ‘I’m sorry, Johnny. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.’

  ‘No, you’re right, Mia. My track record stinks. I treated Helen badly. I couldn’t commit to her. Something about the grass is greener. But you know what they say about greener grass, don’t you, Mia?’

  ‘Yeah. It still gets weeds and it still needs mowing.’

  Chapter 21

  The next morning Mann, Tom Sheng and Mia met at the far end of the incident room. In the background an Urdu translator could be heard on the phone. He had been brought in to phone the Indian groups and see if anyone could identify the dead girl.

  ‘We are pretty sure she came from the Mansions,’ said Mann.

  ‘Then we flood the place with uniformed officers asking questions-’ Sheng said.

  ‘No,’ interrupted Mann. ‘The Mansions are a volatile, unpredictable place. There are an awful lot of people who will run when they see uniforms coming in. They will think it’s immigration. Even if they have nothing to fear they will panic.’

  ‘Christ, we have created another walled city,’ muttered Sheng, ‘and right in the middle of the business district. The sooner it’s knocked down the better.’

  Mann shook his head. ‘You’re wrong. It serves a good purpose. It’s the cheapest place to stay in Hong Kong. One hundred and twenty nationalities live there at any one time. Where are they going to go?’

  ‘They’re mainly made up of illegal immigrants, overstayers and drug pedlars, every type of scammer and Triad. Fights are commonplace. Deaths are a daily occurrence. Now we have young Triads taking over in there.’

  ‘You go in there like some fucking stormtrooper and they’ll split, reform and make an even bigger problem somewhere else. It’s not only them in the Mansions. We also have the impoverished backpackers, poor migrant workers. Four thousand people live there amongst the sweatshops and saunas.’

  ‘I agree with Mann.’ Mia looked tired. They were all fractious. ‘Mann and Shrimp can achieve a lot more by being discreet in there. We want to try and find out why she was killed as well as who she was.’

  ‘I’ll get down there as soon as this meeting’s over with,’ said Mann. ‘I have other business in there. One of the schoolgirls active in the recruitment is a girl named Lilly Mendoza. Her mother Michelle is a singer.’

  ‘Have you had trouble with her before?’ asked Mia.

  ‘Now and again. Sometimes she had to double as a hooker just to make ends meet and feed her habit. I’ve ticked her off a few times. She used to have a bad habit of fleecing the johns she went upstairs with after her set. We haven’t had any complaints for a while. Either she’s stopped or found a new angle. When I’m in the Mansions I’ll pay them a visit.’

  ‘What about Victoria Chan?’ Sheng was watching Mann very closely. ‘You met with her?’

  ‘Yes.’ Mann put down his coffee cup and looked hard at Sheng. ‘She wants to redevelop the Mansions. She says she wants to make it a community project. I think we can be pretty sure she is lying and intends to make a luxury development out of it. She hopes that if her new group, the Outcasts, cause enough trouble then the Mansions will have to be pulled down.’

  ‘Why does she have to go to those lengths, why doesn’t she just do it?’

  ‘Because the Leung Corporation doesn’t own the majority share. I have inherited the majority share of the Mansions.’

  A silence spread through the incident room.

  Sheng shook his head and grinned. ‘This is all a very convenient home from home for you, isn’t it, Mann?
Doesn’t it feel more than a little fucking ironic that we devote our lives to hunting down and eliminating Triads when we have one on our own doorstep?’

  Mann looked at Sheng and then at Mia. She was willing him not to rise to the bait.

  ‘The thing is, your father wasn’t just a Triad; he was a damn good one. He made a lot of money selling heroin to the kids of Europe. I wonder how many lost lives he was personally responsible for taking. A lot more than we have ever saved, that’s for sure.’ Sheng looked at Mia. ‘How can someone whose inheritance includes large chunks of Triad dough, be considered a secure officer in the OCTB? We don’t know where his loyalties lie. Do you trust him to watch your back? Because I fucking don’t.’

  Mann thought about it. ‘You’re right, Sheng. You are so right.’ Mann stood; Sheng got to his feet. ‘I am never going to watch your back. I don’t give a shit who sticks a knife into it. And…’ He picked Sheng up by his jacket lapels. ‘…If I do ever cross the line, Sheng, believe me I’m coming for you first.’

  Chapter 22

  ‘Tailor, sirs? Copy watches? Copy bags?’ It was the middle of the day and the Indian touts were out in force. They swarmed around the pink-skinned tourists like flies on fresh meat.

  The Mansions were at the harbour end of Nathan Road. Nathan Road was the place to get anything made or copied. It was nicknamed the Golden Mile: it glittered, it sparkled, even when it was real it looked fake. It was a great snapshot of Hong Kong. Twenty-foot-high neon signs flashed their adverts. Girls with thigh-high socks and mini skirts chased one another across the linear images. Music videos blared down next to ginseng sellers and noodle bars. The middle of the buildings bulged like saggy pot bellies over the road, weighted with fifty competing neon signs. The back streets were impassable by car.

  Shrimp was waiting for him. Mann hadn’t any trouble spotting him – he had slicked his hair back Saturday Night Fever -style and was wearing a vintage black suit, purple shiny shirt, thin black tie.

  ‘Hello, Boss.’

  Mann held him back as he went to walk up the steps. ‘Did you dress especially for this?’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Never mind.’ Mann smiled to himself.

  Shrimp shook his head and followed Mann up the steps to the Mansions.

  Within a few paces they were engulfed by the din and chaos of another world. They wound their way through making slow progress amongst the money changers and the touts for guesthouses. The place was like every type of bazaar or busy market, a snapshot of Africa, India, Asia. Together they set up their food stalls side by side blaring out their brand of music. The Mansions belonged to no country. It was its own world under the canopy of fluorescent lighting and overhead pipes. It had corridors like narrow hospital wards. By day the ground floor was crammed with shoppers and stalls selling goods from around the world, food stalls that offered goat and Halal food, all castes, all colours catered for and fed. But there was a tense, precarious harmony.

  Mann steered Shrimp through and towards the second set of lifts on the left. ‘We’ll start on the third floor. I have a friend who might be able to help us narrow down the search.’

  The lift coming back down was taking its time. They stared at the TV screen above the lift doors. The lift was stopping frequently; people were getting in but then getting out again and sending it on its way. Mann called the security guard over and pointed at the screen. The guard nodded, stepped forward and waited for the lift to arrive.

  ‘Out of the way, move.’ The security guard pushed the queue back.

  The lift stopped; the door opened. A young black woman was unconscious in the corner. The guard stopped people getting in whilst he held the door open for Mann and Shrimp. They knelt beside her. Mann pressed his fore and index finger to the side of her neck.

  ‘She has a pulse, just.’

  Shrimp felt inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a slim plastic pouch. He unclipped the top and opened it out. It had two syringes inside. He tore the plastic off one, pulled off its protective needle cover and pulled up her sleeve.

  The queue started grumbling. There were now so many people waiting that single file had become treble. The security guard held his hand up for patience. In this city time meant money, whether you were dying or not. Shrimp injected into the muscle in her upper arm, her bicep. A few minutes later the colour began coming back to her face. She breathed deeply. She opened her eyes and looked at them. She knew instantly what had happened. She tried to stand.

  ‘You want to wait for an ambulance?’ Mann helped her up.

  She shook her head. She staggered forward, leant on the side of the lift wall for just a few seconds and then lurched off towards the mall and was swallowed up by a thousand anonymous people.

  ‘What did you give her, an opiate blocker?’ asked Mann. They were joined in the lift by twenty others. Mann didn’t bother whispering; out of the nationalities in the lift probably just he and Shrimp spoke Cantonese. With them were three Africans, four Indians and some giggling Filipinas.

  ‘Yes. Naloxone. I got it when I was in the States. The other is epinephrine – adrenalin. If they’re still breathing you use one. If not, the other.’

  They were crammed inside the lift with Africans, Indians and giggling Filipinas. Mann turned to see Shrimp staring at the Africans. They spoke English to one another because they came from different parts of Africa. They were stereotypical in their appearance, striking in their presence; they had ebony skin and bald heads and big muscular bodies. They brought a menacing presence to the area; they were mistrusted because of their colour, their size. Shrimp was still staring at them. Mann smiled to himself as he caught Shrimp looking at their feet. The Africans stopped talking. One of them followed Shrimp’s gaze to his feet and then waited till Shrimp’s eyes came back up to meet his.

  Shrimp grinned, embarrassed. ‘Cool trainers.’

  The African laughed, deep, guttural, but his eyes showed a menace, a mistrust.

  The lift stopped at level three. A strip light flickered above their heads. A cockroach scuttled across the floor. The muted noise of the dishes clanging came from the direction of a kitchen to their right. The Indians got out and disappeared that way. The Africans and giggling Filipinas stayed put. Mann and Shrimp got out with the Indians. The smell of curry greeted them. The landing had three doors. Two were unmarked; the third had a glass panel and above it was a sign: The Delhi Grill golden on a red background.

  ‘Have you eaten here before, Boss?’ asked Shrimp.

  ‘Many times. I’m half British remember; we don’t go a week without a curry. But I haven’t been here for a couple of years…’ Mann didn’t finish that sentence. It should have ended: ‘…since Helen died.’

  The restaurant door opened and a tall, robust-looking Indian with a turban on his head and a handlebar moustache stood waiting to greet customers as they alighted from the lift.

  ‘Hello PJ.’ The two men had known one another for seventeen years since Mann joined the police force and PJ took over the restaurant on the third floor of the Mansions.

  PJ came forward to shake Mann’s hand. ‘Welcome back, Inspector. It’s good to see you again.’

  ‘This is Detective Li,’ Mann introduced Shrimp.

  ‘Pleased to meet you. Please come inside. Try our speciality of the house – seafood tandoori – freshly made.’

  He opened the door onto a chaotic scene. The small space, once intended to be an apartment, was now converted and filled with long, bench-style tables crammed with diners.

  Mann held up his hand to thank him. ‘We don’t have time to eat unfortunately, PJ.’

  They looked around sharply as the restaurant door opened and a lad, who Mann recognized as PJ’s son, appeared. ‘Go back to work. Go back to work, lad, there’s no trouble here,’ PJ addressed him affectionately.

  ‘This is one of your sons, isn’t it? Mahmud? He has grown up. Last time I saw him he was a boy.’

  PJ summoned him forward. Mann shook his hand.
The lad had not inherited his father’s stature; he was slight like his mother had been. His face had an intensity: large brown eyes, eyebrows that met in the middle, a serious face but handsome in a way.

  PJ nodded and beamed with pride. ‘Yes. I have high hopes for Mahmud.’ Mahmud looked embarrassed, shy, bright. ‘He will be a doctor some day, an accountant maybe. Who knows? He is such a clever lad. Now go, my son, back to work; otherwise we will have no money to pay for university.’ He laughed, happy and proud, as he ushered Mahmud back into the busy restaurant.

  ‘I hear you’ve had some trouble here, PJ,’ Mann said. ‘A young girl was murdered the night before last at a Triad initiation ceremony. She was Indian, possibly from the Mansions. We think her father is a tailor here. Have you heard anything?’

  PJ looked nervous as he stepped out into the corridor and allowed the restaurant door to close behind him. The din died down and they were left with the heat and silence of the corridor. He wiped his face with his apron. He shook his head and gave a small nervous laugh as his eyes swept the vicinity. ‘It is better if you mind your own business in the Mansions.’ He leaned towards Mann and kept the smile on his face but he looked nervous. ‘It will fetch worse problems down on my head if I don’t. We have problems with the Dalits – the untouchables. We are not used to so many coming into Hong Kong. Now with them crossing over from India to China every day, hundreds more arrive and the Mansions is where they come. They bring with them conflict and it’s not just them, now we have the Africans too. I worry about the way things are here. The Mansions have become a place of fear. The Triads are taking our children from us. The new Indians are causing trouble. The Africans are killing one another and raping our women and no one is stopping them. They are time bombs waiting to go off. They are attracting unwelcome elements into the Mansions. Some people are using it to their advantage. I am afraid for our future here. There’s talk about us leaving – being forced out.’