Hell to Heaven

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Lock her up!’ a Filipina shouted. I turned to see her. She was clutching a sobbing blonde girl; she was obviously the domestic helper come to collect the teen.

  I went through the door and the policeman led us down a corridor to an interview room where Leo was waiting. He sat at the table, his face grim. The room looked more like a corporate meeting room than the rooms you see on crime dramas on television. It held a large, eight-seater table with conference chairs around it, and had windows giving a grand view of the harbour. The water police had recently moved to this new building in the reclaimed land of Central.

  ‘Sit here,’ the policeman said, and went out, leaving us alone.

  I put my hand on Leo’s. ‘She’s alive, Leo, we know that for sure.’

  He grabbed me and pulled me into a clumsy hug; the handles of his wheelchair got in the way and dug into my ribs. ‘She’s killed someone, Emma, how is she ever going to live with herself? God, poor Simone, she’s so young to face so much.’

  I held him tight and buried my face into his shoulder. ‘She’ll survive, Leo, she’s the strongest of all of us.’

  ‘We need to find her and set it up so that she can survive this,’ Gold said. ‘We can’t have the police thinking her dead; her identity will be lost and we’ll have to make another one for her.’

  ‘Always thinking of the practicalities, two steps ahead,’ Leo said. He took a deep breath. ‘Any word?’

  I shook my head.

  The policeman came back with a stack of forms and accompanied by another officer from the regular police force, who was carrying a thick file.

  I tapped the stone and covered it with my hand.

  Gold is coaching Leo in what to say, the stone said. We’re getting the story straight and making sure it will keep the police happy. All you have to do is insist that the boat was safety-checked, and that you don’t know what happened because you weren’t there. We will fix this.

  The two officers sat at the table and the marine policeman nodded to the regular police officer to begin.

  ‘I’m Lieutenant Cheung,’ the regular policeman said. ‘We need to complete a full report on what happened. The coroner will be involved, as both the young boy and girl were killed in the explosion.’ He glanced down at the file. ‘Simone Chen is the girl who was killed, is that right?’

  ‘We can’t be sure she’s dead, Lieutenant,’ I said.

  ‘I think we can, ma’am, because you’ve lost all of your family now.’

  I hesitated. ‘No, my parents are fine, and my sisters…Nothing’s happened to them, has it?’

  He flipped open the file. ‘Michelle LeBlanc, died 1999. After she died, you moved in on John Chen Wu, but he died in 2004, leaving you in charge of the family assets in trust for Simone Chen, who’s now—’

  I jumped to my feet. ‘Just a goddamn minute! Don’t try to suggest this is murder! Simone’s out there somewhere and we’re going to find her.’

  ‘We’ll raise the boat and find out exactly what happened, ma’am. Now.’ He turned to Leo. ‘How long have you and Miss Donahoe known each other?’

  ‘Okay, look,’ Leo said, and rapped his hand on the table. ‘I haven’t told you the whole story, but I will now. This is how it happened. I’m in a wheelchair, I can’t go up or down stairs, so I was stuck in the main saloon of the boat. I saw Simone and…Brian?’

  ‘Bevan,’ the policeman said.

  Leo nodded. ‘That’s right, Bevan. They’d gone into the cabin. I never saw them go in—one of the other kids must have distracted me while they sneaked in. They’d closed the door but a wave jarred it open and I saw them. They were naked, and they were getting ready to light up some marijuana cigarettes—’

  Quick. Shocked. Now, the stone said.

  ‘She was having sex and smoking pot on the boat?’ I yelled at Leo.

  Yes, blame him. Good.

  ‘Look, I’m sure Simone gets up to a lot of stuff that you don’t know about, Emma. This is the first time I’ve actually caught her in the act,’ Leo said. ‘I’ve smelled smoke in her room before, and you know those times when she says she’s having a sleepover with a girlfriend…’

  ‘She’s with a boy?’ I shouted.

  ‘Ma’am, everybody outside can hear you,’ Gold said, trying to calm me. ‘I think the press have turned up.’

  I made a hugely obvious effort to control myself. ‘I hope you stopped them, Leo.’

  ‘For the sex part, it was too late, but I told them to throw the pot over the side and get dressed,’ Leo said. ‘Then I wheeled myself to the back of the boat to check on the kids on the roof…’ He hesitated, and took a deep breath. ‘That was when the whole front of the boat exploded.’

  ‘Was anybody cooking on the boat?’ the marine policeman said.

  ‘We warmed up some pizza in the boat’s oven,’ Leo said.

  ‘Gas?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you smell any gas?’ the policeman said.

  Leo grimaced. ‘Yeah, I did, and this is my fault. I should have made sure they didn’t light up; instead I just told them to throw the drugs overboard and walked away. I was embarrassed because they had no clothes on, and I was really upset to see Simone like that. I smelled the gas, but I thought it was just from starting up the oven—it hadn’t been used in a while. It would have been okay if they hadn’t lit up…but they did.’ He put his head in his hand. ‘This is all my fault.’

  ‘You walked away?’ Lieutenant Cheung said. ‘You can’t walk!’

  ‘Wheeled. Walked. Same thing for me.’

  ‘When was the boat’s last safety inspection?’ the marine policeman said.

  ‘Two months ago; you should have the records of that,’ Gold said with confidence. ‘I can retrieve the documents from my files.’

  ‘And when was the last gas-bottle swap?’ Lieutenant Cheung said.

  Gold hesitated. ‘I don’t know. The crew arrange that.’

  ‘Was it due for a new hose?’

  Gold appeared embarrassed. ‘I don’t know, sir. That was the responsibility of the crew. It is possible they may have forgotten to have the hose replaced.’ He grimaced. ‘And we see those advertisements on the television all the time saying that hoses need to be checked.’

  The marine policeman glanced at the regular policeman; he appeared satisfied but Lieutenant Cheung obviously didn’t want to let it go.

  Oh crap, this is the policeman that interviewed you when that copy of you was found in a dumpster about nine years ago, the stone in my ring said. He was after you then, and he has the seniority to really go after you now!

  Leo and Gold shared a look; they’d heard.

  The door opened and another policeman stuck his head through. ‘Girl turned up alive,’ he said in Cantonese. ‘Boy is dead. They washed up on the shore in Pok Fu Lam. We have an ambulance down there picking them up.’

  ‘Simone’s alive, ma’am,’ Gold said. ‘They found her.’

  If you can burst into tears of relief right now that would be helpful, the stone said.

  ‘Oh, thank God. Thank God,’ I moaned, and put my head in my hands.

  Gold leaned over and patted me on the shoulder. ‘She is being taken to the hospital?’ he asked the policemen in Cantonese.

  ‘Yes. Queen Mary,’ the marine policeman said.

  Cheung was staring at me, obviously not believing my relieved act.

  ‘She’s in Queen Mary Hospital, ma’am,’ Gold said.

  I jumped to my feet. ‘Let’s go!’

  ‘We need to take statements first,’ Cheung said.

  ‘Can’t this wait?’ I said. ‘I want to see my stepdaughter—’

  ‘Did you marry this girl’s father?’ Cheung said.

  ‘No, we were engaged, but she’s like a daughter to me.’

  ‘Humph,’ Cheung said and looked down at the folder he had on us. ‘Then don’t call her your stepdaughter. That is wrong.’

  ‘Then she’s a little girl who means the whole world to me!’ I sn
apped.

  Cheung glared at me. ‘Sixteen is not little girl.’

  ‘She is to me!’

  ‘Can we see her and come back to do the paperwork?’ Gold said in Cantonese. ‘We just want to be sure she’s okay.’

  Cheung turned his glare on Gold. ‘No. You fill in the paperwork first. I want to hear all the stories.’

  The marine officer snorted with disgust, roughly put his papers together and rose, shoving his chair back. ‘Can I talk to you outside?’

  Cheung rose as well and they went out of the room together.

  ‘Let me relay,’ Gold said softly. His voice changed to that of the marine policeman: ‘This is chee seen. Crazy. This is the third gas-bottle explosion in the last year on a boat from this bad batch of gas-bottle hoses. You see conspiracies everywhere.’

  ‘This girl’s mother, grandparents and uncle were murdered in Ho Sheung Heung. Then her father had his head cut off after this gweipoh moved in. Now the little girl nearly dies on their boat. Can’t you see what’s going on here?’

  ‘I think you see too much, my friend. With all due respect, this really looks like a standard gas-bottle incident. We’ll raise the boat and find a blown-up gas oven.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ Cheung said. ‘Let’s take their statements. Miss Donahoe with me; Mr Alexander with you. I bet you a hundred that their stories fall apart after ten minutes.’

  ‘You’re on,’ the marine policeman said, and they came back into the room.

  ‘Miss Donahoe, you will give your statement to me,’ Lieutenant Cheung said. ‘Mr Alexander, go with Senior Marine Constable Tin. Mr Gam, stay here, please. An officer will keep you company while you wait.’

  Don’t worry, it’s all under control, Gold said silently. Go with him, and I’ll help out. He continued speaking to me as Cheung led me down the corridor to another room similar to the first. What they’ll do is take extremely detailed statements, asking the same questions over and over, asking for a detailed time line, that sort of thing. They’ll be trying to find a hole in your story, or any discrepancy between your statement and Leo’s.

  But I wasn’t there!

  Even so, they’ll want you to tell them exactly what you were doing and when, and tell them over and over without changing a single detail. If you’re lying, you’ll eventually make a mistake or contradict yourself. If you’re telling the truth, your story, no matter how detailed, will be consistent. Hang tough, Emma, we can do this.

  I just want to get to Simone.

  Gold’s voice changed slightly in my head. The Celestial has summoned all of us. We have a hearing in the Celestial Palace in four hours.

  Oh no, not right on top of this, I said. ‘Poor Simone,’ I added out loud.

  ‘She is a lucky girl,’ Cheung said.

  ‘I don’t know whether I should hug her or punish her when I do see her,’ I said ruefully. ‘I thought she was better behaved than this.’ I sat at the table in the interview room and put my head in my hands. ‘I’ve failed as a parent. Sleeping with boys and smoking pot—how could she do these things?’ I sat up and wiped my eyes. ‘This is all my fault.’

  Bravo! the stone said, the hint of sarcasm in its voice made all the more cutting by its British accent.

  ‘How is the boy?’ I said. ‘You said they found them both?’

  ‘The boy is dead,’ Cheung said. ‘Head injury from the blast.’

  The boy was Jade, Gold said. The real Bevan was yinned, gone completely. Jade won’t be back for a while; she’s in the tenth level of Hell now.

  I rested my head in my hands again. ‘Oh no, that’s awful. What am I going to say to his parents?’

  ‘Worry about that when you get there. Right now,’ Cheung opened a folder and pulled out some forms, ‘I need you to give me a statement. So why weren’t you on the boat?’

  Repeat after me, the stone said: I was at the Immigration Department…

  ‘I was at the Immigration Department,’ I began, and followed its coaching for the next forty minutes.

  Finally, after he’d grilled me on my movements four times, Cheung closed the folder. ‘I’m sorry to have to put you through this, Miss Donahoe,’ he said, and smiled. Smiling made him seem much more human and approachable, and I relaxed slightly. ‘I think I’ve been mistaken. You obviously do care for Miss Chen and you’re doing your best to look after her. I will have to pursue this further when the boat is raised, but in the meantime please go visit her in the hospital. If there’s anything else I need, I’ll be in touch.’ He rose and held out his hand; I rose too and shook it. ‘I wish you good luck in talking to Miss Chen,’ he went on. ‘She will probably need counselling after this.’

  ‘I’ll arrange it. I just want her to recover and be happy again,’ I said with feeling. I nodded to him. ‘Thanks so much for being understanding, Lieutenant. I hope you see that I really do care for Simone very much.’

  ‘Oh, I do,’ he said, and opened the door for me. ‘This way.’

  Is he lying as much as I think he’s lying? I asked the stone.

  Twenty-four-carat lies. He’s after you; he’s convinced you and Leo have been picking them off for their money, Leo being the brains and you the muscle. Watch your face!

  I carefully controlled my expression. Leo the brains and me the muscle. Yeah, right.

  Oh, well done, Emma! the stone said, even more sarcastic now. Way to go, he didn’t miss that triumphant smirk!

  Geez. And I was doing so well.

  Emma, do me a favour, dear, get that demon essence cleared out of your system so you can go live on the Celestial Plane…

  I know. Where I won’t have to deal with overzealous police officers.

  Exactly.

  And what about Simone, who wants to live on the Earthly?

  The stone was silent at that.

  Fortunately, the parents had left by the time we returned to the reception area. Monica and Marcus were sitting on the plastic chairs waiting for us.

  Gold didn’t speak until we were some distance from the station, walking through the pedestrian overpass that would take us across Gloucester Road to the car park under The Centre. ‘Marcus, take Monica and Emma home. I’ll take Emma’s form and drive Leo up to the hospital—’

  ‘No!’ Monica and I said at the same time.

  ‘Emma, you can’t touch Simone. If you don’t rush up there and give her a huge hug, it will look very bad,’ Gold said. ‘Let me do it, and then I’ll bring her home.’

  ‘I want to go too!’ Monica said.

  ‘My Boxster is only a two-seater,’ Gold said ruefully, ‘and neither you nor Leo can drive it.’

  ‘I’ll drive Marcus home in the Boxster, and you three can go…’ I stopped. ‘Okay, that won’t work. I would definitely wreck the love of your life, Gold. We’ll do it your way.’

  Gold let his breath out, obviously relieved.

  ‘How about we all go?’ I said. ‘You take my form, Gold, and give me your form.’

  ‘Yes!’ Monica said. ‘We can all go and see her!’

  Gold shrugged. ‘That would work.’

  We arrived at the car park, and paid at the shroff office before taking the lifts down. I hesitated before walking out of the lift.

  ‘What, Emma?’ Leo said.

  ‘This is where I was attacked by that Mother and put into the hospital,’ I said.

  Gold hesitated for a moment, checking. ‘No Mothers here.’ He grinned. ‘Except for Leo.’

  ‘Damn straight,’ Leo said, and wheeled himself to the car.

  ‘You still here, stone?’ I said.

  ‘I’m here.’

  ‘Contact Lok. Tell him about Jade.’

  ‘Why?’ the stone said.

  ‘Because she has three children.’

  ‘I will take them, ma’am,’ Monica said. ‘We can look after them.’

  ‘They’re dragons, Monica.’

  ‘They’re children first, ma’am.’

  ‘Can’t do anything underground, Emma,’ the stone sai
d. ‘It will have to wait until we’re out of the car park.’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Leo said. ‘Lok says it’s under control. Jade arranged for them to go stay with their father. He came and collected them from the Folly an hour ago.’

  ‘Their father?’ I said.

  ‘Qing Long.’

  CHAPTER 12

  The hospital complex in Pok Fu Lam was enormous. We parked in the multi-storey car park near the entrance to the main building. Gold got out of his Boxster, then changed into me. He concentrated on me and the world around me grew a glimmering pearly halo as I took on his form. Gold walked ahead of me to the lifts to the hospital’s main entrance.

  ‘I need to work out more,’ I said as I followed him.

  He turned. ‘Ma’am, you’re nearly forty. You’re allowed some spread. Besides, you know more than anyone that appearance means nothing. Nobody can match you with a sword.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Gold,’ I said as we waited for the lift. ‘Just about anyone can take me down—I’m a human. I might be a match for another human, but against a Shen I’m usually overmatched.’

  Gold gave a resigned shrug.

  ‘And tidy up your hair,’ I said. ‘I never have it all coming out like that—you’re exaggerating!’

  ‘He’s an exact copy,’ Leo said. ‘Stained shirt and all.’

  Gold proudly displayed the T-shirt I was wearing, which had an oil splatter along the bottom.

  ‘I spilled some oil on myself last time I oiled my weapons,’ I said, the excuse sounding feeble even to my ears.

  ‘That’s why we have aprons for that sort of thing,’ Gold said, turning back to the lift and giving me a discomforting view of my growing behind.

  The hospital’s main lobby was tired and worn from the passage of so many people through it. There were about twenty bored-looking people sitting in chairs on one side, and a few patients wandered around in plain white cotton pyjamas.

  We went to the reception desk, which was heavily barred with a small vent at the bottom to talk through. Gold leaned in to speak to the receptionist in Cantonese. ‘Chen See Mun, please. Simone Chen. We’re her family, to pick her up.’