Kiss and Die

by Lee Weeks

  ‘You don’t have to suspend me, Mia. I resign.’

  ‘No. I don’t accept your resignation. I don’t want your badge. Just go home, Mann, stay out of trouble till we sort it out.’

  Mann took out his weapons belts from his locker. Ng was watching him.

  ‘You’re not alone in this, Genghis. Shrimp and I will do everything we can to clear this up fast and then you’ll be back.’

  ‘I hope so, Ng, I feel like I’ve been nicely sewn up. Mostly by myself. I am no use to you or any one here any more. As Mia said, I’m a liability.’

  Ng watched him leave.

  Shrimp caught up with him as he took the lift down.

  ‘Boss, I didn’t get the chance to tell you something about Tammy’s death. It couldn’t have been Mahmud. I checked the autopsy report of the wound that killed her; the knife went in at an angle, right to left across her body. Mahmud is left-handed. He couldn’t have done it. Shall I get him released?’

  ‘You better check with someone else, Shrimp. I wouldn’t trust my judgement at the moment.’

  Mann walked through the turnstile to the exit. He stood in the garden outside Headquarters, his head bowed, he shook his head. He felt defeated.

  Chapter 91

  Michelle was released. Her body ached for ice. Her heart ached for her kids. Rizal looked up when she unlocked the door. She went to kiss him. He looked her up and down, turned away in disgust and threw the rubbish off the sofa so he could sit. Lilly emerged from the bedroom with just her t-shirt and pants on. Michelle’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two. Lilly stared back, brazen. Rizal looked away sheepishly.

  ‘Where are the twins?’ Michelle started tidying up.

  ‘The twins have gone to the old woman down the hall.’

  Lilly stayed where she was, leant on the doorframe, her midriff showing, her skinny legs were bare.

  ‘Get dressed.’ Michelle stood, a pile of papers in her hands. ‘And go and see that they’re okay. Take them for an ice cream, Lilly. And while you’re out, go to the Delhi Grill and ask Nina if she can help me out with some groceries. I need to get cooking straight away.’

  Lilly screwed up her face and was about to argue but one look at Michelle’s expression told her she should do as she was told. She shrugged, turned and took her time about moving out of view. Michelle watched her. She saw her look over her shoulder at Rizal. He nodded that she should comply with her mother’s request. He looked about for the remote. Michelle reached down the side of the sofa, found it. She held on to it. She searched his eyes for the truth; she found it as he turned to watch Lilly walk past.

  ‘Don’t hurry. I want a word with Rizal,’ Michelle told Lilly as she left. After she’d gone, Michelle turned the volume of the television up high.

  ‘What are you doing? You gone deaf in prison?’

  ‘No. I just don’t want the neighbours to hear what I have to say to you.’

  Rizal swore and opened another beer as he turned his eyes to the television and ignored her.

  Michelle threw the remote at him; it hit him on the side of his head. ‘You will listen to me. I can see what you’ve been doing here. You’ve been having sex with Lilly. Don’t think I haven’t seen the evidence before. I do her washing. I knew when she’d had sex and I knew when she’d been at home that night. You know what is the worst part? I chose to ignore it. I thought it couldn’t possibly be.’

  ‘What the fuck is your problem? It’s not as if she’s my own daughter and you turn tricks at the hotel. Do I get jealous? Lilly is no fucking angel and she’s no baby. She knows what she’s doing.’

  Michelle made a lunge at him. ‘You’re a filthy pig. She doesn’t stand a chance with you here. This is my flat. Get out.’

  Rizal looked at her and snorted in disgust. ‘You need me. You can’t do it all on your own. Anyway, I am the father of the twins. If I go, I take them with me.’

  Michelle’s eyes turned dark. ‘Don’t touch my children. They’re not yours. They never were. Now get out!’ Her body was shaking from the anger.

  Rizal got slowly out of his seat, a mock smile on his face. He came to stand next to Michelle. She stood her ground. Her chest rose and fell as her heart hammered.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ll go. But I can tell you a lot of things about your daughter. The things she likes, the things she asks me to do for her. You wanna ask her where she goes at night. She doesn’t sleep here. She has a secret place where she goes. She stopped being your baby a long time ago.’

  Michelle turned her eyes away from his. His beer breath was rank in her face.

  He grabbed her face and turned her to look at him. ‘I’m going out with the boys. I need to get out. You make me sick.’ He squeezed her face until her neck was stretched and she began to feel the pain as his fingers dug. ‘But when I feel like it, I’ll come back. Do you hear me? I will come back when I am ready and you better have something good waiting for me and you better accept it.’

  He pushed Michelle away and she landed painfully against the corner of the cabinet.

  ‘Remember, you don’t mean nothing to me. Lilly is getting somewhere. She’s making connections, wealthy ones. She is going to be somebody. You don’t have any moral high ground to stand on. You’re just an old junkie hooker.’

  After he’d gone, Michelle sat on the sofa and cried. She realized it had been a long time since she’d done that. The television blared as her shoulders shook and a pain shot through her heart at the realization of what she had become. She looked around the flat; it was a stinking mess, it smelt of sweat and beer and decay. She felt a huge feeling of shame but she also felt something else. She felt a seed of hope inside her. She hadn’t had ice for the time she’d been in custody. She’d already weathered the worst of the withdrawal. She stopped crying. She got a bin bag and began throwing all Rizal’s belongings inside.

  Chapter 92

  Rizal headed down to the bars. He was fuming. He took the stairs all the way until he saw Nina and Flo waiting for the lift on the fifth landing. They were making their way down to the Delhi Grill. The mourning was draining on them all. Hafiz’s body was in the morgue. More people arrived daily to pay their respects. Flo had been for a rest and was now ready to face it again..

  Rizal stared at Nina. He stared at the flesh beneath the folds of sari. He didn’t bother to hide it. ‘You’re looking real pretty today, Nina.’

  Flo’s head turned at the sound of his voice. She leaned on Nina’s arm. ‘Is that Michelle’s man?’ she asked in Urdu.

  ‘Yes, Grandmother.’

  Flo smiled his way and nodded. ‘He’s a pig.’

  Nina smiled to herself.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ Rizal was weaving on his feet. He stank of sweat. His eyes had turned nasty. The lift was a long time coming. There was no way they could turn back. It took her grandmother a long time to go anywhere.

  Nina shook her head. ‘Nothing.’ She was feeling anxious now. Flo had a habit of speaking her mind.

  ‘He smells like a pig.’ Flo nodded her head. She grinned her toothless grin.

  He shook his head angrily. ‘What is it, old woman? What’s so funny? I’ve had enough of people taking the piss. I will wipe that smile off your old mouth in a minute.’ He was getting riled.

  ‘She means no harm. She’s old. Her brain’s not right.’ Rizal looked ready to flip.

  ‘I said you are a pig,’ Flo spoke in English. ‘I said you smell like the meat you eat.’ She gathered up some phlegm and spat it out. It landed at his feet.

  Rizal froze. He looked down at the phlegm and lifted up his hand to strike her. The lift doors opened. Mahmud stepped out. His eyes were on the floor. When he lifted them he saw Rizal about to strike his grandmother. He charged at him, his arm still in plaster. Rizal wasn’t expecting it. He fell back against the wall opposite and the open windows of the maintenance shaft. He grabbed on to them either side, and landed painfully against the edge as he stopped himself falling into the filthy shaft. Nin
a hurried Flo into the lift.

  Mahmud stood his ground and glared at Rizal before stepping in to join Nina and Flo. ‘Don’t ever come near us again or I will kill you.’

  Flo was back in her room when she heard the door open. Nina had brought her back for her nap. Nina was running errands.

  ‘Nina? Is that you?’ Flo called out. No one answered. She listened to the sound of soft feet walking towards her room. Her hearing was good. She could tell if it was a man or a woman, she could tell if they were tall or short. Something wasn’t right.

  ‘What do you want? Where is Nina?’ Flo asked as her door opened and she felt the presence of someone standing in her doorway. ‘What do you want?’ she asked again, trying to put force behind her voice. ‘I am tired, get out. Go away.’ No one answered her. Flo’s head turned as she followed the sound of the person entering her room and walking around to the side of her. ‘Nina. Nina…’ Strong arms held her tight. She clawed at the hands but she could not reach them. She was being strangled.

  Chapter 93

  ‘Tom?’ Mia stood in her office calling Sheng’s mobile. It went straight to answer phone again.

  There was a knock at her door. Ng walked in with Shrimp behind.

  ‘Has Michelle been released?’ asked Mia. Ng nodded. She sighed and sat back down, exasperated. ‘With Mahmud cleared as well, we’re back to square one. I had them as our team. I thought they would turn out to be working it together. I keep coming back to Victoria Chan and

  CK.’

  ‘Mann’s going to try and take them on alone. He can’t do it at the moment. It takes someone with all his wits about him to take on one member of the family, let alone two. I know CK too.’ Ng was aware of Shrimp staring at him with a new respect. Ng glanced his way.‘Yes, you aren’t the only person to have gone undercover, Shrimp. I was a rookie then. I spent a time in the Triad ranks as a 49 and then a Red Pole. It was the most difficult thing I ever did. You have to be able to separate your mind from what is going on around you. You have to immerse yourself completely and still be aware it’s not really you. It’s a very hard thing to do.’

  Shrimp patted Ng on the back. ‘Big respect, old man.’

  ‘It was a long time ago but that kind of experience stays in the mind and CK hasn’t changed at all. Mann is no match for him at the moment. Mann’s father’s estate is a curse. It is attracting trouble to him like an open wound in a shark-infested ocean.’

  ‘I know, and the trouble is that conflict of interests is going to be a permanent problem unless Mann can resolve it,’ said Mia.

  ‘Given time, he will make the right decisions,’ said Ng. ‘He needs the pressure taken off him to do that. They are forcing him out of the job he was born to do and back into a world he was born into. It will break him. He will snap if he is forced to bend against his will.’

  ‘So, we carry on without him and hope that we can clear his name,’ said Mia, sounding as upbeat as she could but feeling anything but.

  Shrimp and Ng agreed. It was the only thing they could do. They walked back to their office. Ng reached over to turn on his PC and hung his jacket over the back of his chair. He turned to look at Shrimp whose face was frozen in a puzzled expression. He was staring across at Mann’s desk: papers, files, messages in his in-tray, memos stacking up on his desk.

  ‘What do you think he’s doing right now?’

  ‘He’s probably drinking himself into a stupor.’

  ‘What’s he going to do, Ng?’

  ‘I don’t know, Shrimp.’

  Shrimp looked lost. Mann had been his mentor and his friend. He couldn’t imagine him leaving the force. Mann lived for it more than any of them.

  ‘I’ve seen him go through some bleak times. I’ve seen him be self-destructive but I’ve never seen him as bad as this. He’s always had his work but it’s not enough at the moment. I think it’s almost like he feels he doesn’t belong here any more.’

  ‘What can we do?’

  ‘We have to leave him alone, wait until he comes out of it one way or another and then we have to clear his name.’

  ‘I’m on it.’ Shrimp picked up his jacket.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘I need to get them to leave Mann alone. I’m going to go and see CK. I’m going to face him and tell him we’ll have him in for questioning about the murder charges. We’ll bring his daughter in for inciting racial hatred, for being an accessory to the murder of a police officer.’ Shrimp stood and picked up his vintage denim Gaultier jacket.

  ‘No. You’ll blow your cover. Anyway, we mustn’t be hasty. We must think it through. He is not a man to be easily outsmarted.’

  Shrimp wasn’t happy about it but he shrugged and left, throwing his jacket over his shoulders.

  Ng waited until Shrimp was out of the office and then he dialled CK’s number.

  ‘I need to see you.’

  Chapter 94

  Ruby stood over Sheng’s naked body. The ball gag was in his mouth. His arms were tied together and chained to the wall behind his head. His legs were open and chained to the wall either side of the mattress. The lamp shone down onto him. Ruby was very pleased with herself. She might be young but she understood that sex was every woman’s ultimate killing tool. A woman’s body was her weapon. She had fooled three policemen in one night. Sheng was still recovering from the Rophypnol.

  She went over to him and knelt beside him and whispered in his ear:

  ‘You fell for the oldest trick in the book. Never judge by appearances.’ She ran her hand down his body until it settled on his cock. She stroked it. ‘You were ruled by this weren’t you?’ He didn’t move. ‘Tut tut tut. You should have kept your eyes open. You looked away once too often. I have very quick hands. I have very nimble fingers. I can put something in your drink faster than you can look down my cleavage.’ He was still dopey, coming round slowly. ‘You’re still not listening to me. I know just how to wake you up.’ Ruby picked up the autopsy pliers and she rested Sheng’s little finger between their open pincers and then she shut them- snap – tight.

  Sheng’s eyes opened wide. He stared straight at Ruby and then at the finger she held in her hand and he screamed into the gag.

  ‘One finger, two fingers, three and four.’ Snap snap snap…she cut his fingers off and placed a finger on each of the dolls’ laps and when she had run out she began cutting off Sheng’s toes.

  Chapter 95

  Mann didn’t answer the door straight away. He sat in his armchair in the lounge; Daniel Lu had let Mann keep the lounge furniture. The bedroom was empty; every item removed and now being scrutinized in the lab. The telly blaring. He thought it was Ng. He shouted, ‘Fuck off,’ and turned the volume on the telly up. The knock came again. Then Mann realized the knock was different; it wasn’t Ng’s. He paused the film and slipped out of the chair. He walked to the side of the door and called out.

  ‘Who is it?’

  A woman’s voice answered. ‘Victoria Chan. I need to speak with you. It’s urgent.’

  Mann looked through the spy hole. Victoria Chan looked back.

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘To talk, as I said.’

  She raised her hand, knuckles at the ready to knock again. She wasn’t going to go away. He unlocked the door and walked back into the room, his back to her. She walked straight in and seemed oblivious to the mess. She was wearing a black pencil skirt, a checked jacket, red stilettos, matching red handbag, red lipstick. Her hair was tied up.

  She strode over to the armchair and sat down. ‘There were things I didn’t want to discuss in public, things that are just between us.’

  Mann looked at the TV. He threw the mess off the other chair and sat down. He cleared the glass-topped table and placed the bottle of vodka down on it. He studied her with a cold eye.

  ‘You have nothing to say that will interest me.’

  ‘I had nothing to do with the death of your officer. I cannot help the fact that I used the information given to m
e and told of her infiltration into our ranks.’

  ‘Shut up. I don’t want to listen to you. I know where the blame for it lies. I have been suspended, and when I look at you, I see you had a big hand in it. Congratulations. But, before you start gloating, it won’t be for long. And just because I am suspended from the force doesn’t mean I have switched sides.’

  She sat with her legs to one side, her hands on her lap. She looked around the room. ‘I can’t see you getting reinstated in a hurry, can you? I see that you have been going through your father’s papers.’

  Mann studied her. She had balls. She was a woman who would never give up. She looked at the pile next to Mann’s chair. He’d been going over Tammy’s autopsy report. He picked it up and moved it out of her line of sight. ‘Believe it or not, there’s a system to this chaos. Now, can we get to the point? I’m a busy man.’

  Victoria settled back into the chair. ‘Take the afternoon off. Let me get some food in. You look like you could do with some time out. Take a shower, relax. I may not be a friend but I am a business associate whether you like it or not. We have things to talk about. I expect by now you have seen that what I said is true. Many of your late father’s enterprises are linked with the Leung Corporation dealings.’

  Mann rubbed his face. He pushed his hair away from his eyes. He suddenly felt completely drained. She was right, at least in that one small thing, he needed a break. ‘Okay.’ He stood up. ‘There’s a list of numbers in the kitchen. They all deliver. You choose.’ Mann got up and began to pick up the piles of papers.

  ‘I’m surprised you live alone here. No adoring girlfriend?’ she called to him from the kitchen. ‘Although it does look like a woman lived here once. There are things in here that no man would buy.’