by Tony Davies
Bent then played the recording and looked at Weston expectantly. Weston responded by saying “Let me elaborate further on this. Our client is a mainland Chinese developer, industrialist. We are negotiating with the Hong Kong Government to establish a huge retail and hotel development at Mui Wo called Paradise Cove. You will have seen some of the publicity regarding it already.
“As you probably know, the people who live there are locals who commute into town and the odd expat who can’t afford to live on Hong Kong Island and probably shouldn’t be in Hong Kong in the first place. Nothing has changed there for years and the place badly needs developing. At least, that is what we think. Some of the local population would of course disagree, but you always get some people who are opposed to progress.
“We plan to turn the area into one of the finest shopping and leisure destinations in Asia. It will have everything, retail stores, restaurants, cinemas, hotels, a marina development, a theme park, even an indoor snow resort. You name it, it will have it. We are calling it Paradise Cove and there won’t be anything like it in the world.
“Hong Kong has long needed a major tourist attraction and the government bottled it when they allowed Disney to build their resort on Lantau. Given its size and international profile it must be an embarrassment to Disney, let alone to the government. What we are proposing will increase Hong Kong’s inbound tourism enormously, create thousands of jobs and have an enormous impact on the general economy. You really should see the detailed figures, they are very impressive.”
He smiled as he confided, “There are still a few problems to be overcome though, the main one being that the government hasn’t yet agreed to sell us the land at an acceptable price. We also need to finalise the negotiations with the MTR to extend the line beyond Tung Chung, although we think common sense will prevail there.
“We knew at the outset the project was going to be controversial and would take a lot of our time and effort. There was always going to be numerous hurdles to overcome so we took the project to some of our mainland friends as we felt input from Beijing would help sway the government to grant the go ahead.
“That is where it got a little complicated. Beijing agreed to support it but only on the basis it wasn’t led by one of the big property hongs here. Perhaps a little surprisingly, they wanted it to be seen as a mainland venture with local support rather the other way around. Probably something to do with exercising their political influence and exerting some control over what happens in Hong Kong. Who knows when it comes to dealing with them.
“Anyway, they introduced the client to us and if we wanted the project to happen there was little point in arguing. Naturally, excluding the local big boys was always going to make the project unpopular in some quarters. I can only imagine what influence they are exerting behind the scenes in an attempt to take it over. The government has a problem though, it knows Beijing wants it to go ahead on its terms. Whilst it won’t directly interfere with the planning process, Beijing won’t be impressed if the project got hijacked by the locals and its recommended developer missed out.
“We also expected trouble from the greenies and that is what we got. There is always somebody who will want to protect the natural habitat of the greater speckled Chinese sparrow, or some other bird no-one has ever heard of. It all means the government will have to tread carefully if it is to reap a billion dollar windfall by allowing the project to go ahead on our terms.
“The government can sell us the land it owns there, but will have to issue compulsory purchase orders to resume some the properties the local residents own. They say everything has a price, but some of those families have lived on the island for generations. Unfortunately every other parcel of land we looked at had its own set of problems and we feel Mui Wo is ideal for us if we can secure it.
“I hope I am not boring you with too much detail. I just want to make sure you are fully briefed on the back ground to the project.” Mack nodded his head and Weston continued talking.
“The good news is that this is basically a fairly straight-forward deal. Whilst it involves acquiring a huge tract of pristine land and sets a precedent for the government, there is nothing overly complicated about what we are trying to achieve and the structure we are using. It will make everyone a lot of money, which is why we want to do it. But having said that, if it doesn’t happen because we can’t negotiate a deal with government it is not the end of the world for us. We are doing this for one reason only, to make money. If it’s rejected, Beijing can sort out its relationship with the Hong Kong government. That is not our problem. On that basis, if the deal doesn’t make financial sense we will walk away from it. If one or more of the local developers then decides the numbers work for them then good luck to them.
“We have one of our most senior people handling our side. Troy Wilson is a Eurasian, British father, Chinese mother. He grew up here, went to the UK for university and then back here for work. He knows everyone who matters and whilst he doesn’t come across as that personable, he is very efficient. Naturally, I am directing the overall strategy, but he is more than capable of handling the day-to-day stuff.
“Now, if the allegation is true or we don’t manage it properly, our position changes dramatically. In the eyes of everyone it will be our fault.’” He paused for effect before saying “Lee Wai is a very senior civil servant and is heading the negotiations with us. Can you imagine the fall out if one of our team is discovered to be in a homosexual relationship with him? A disaster is putting it mildly.”
He raised his voice slightly and looked to the ceiling. “Government would end negotiations immediately. It would have a huge impact on our reputation and our competitors would have a field day. The only people smiling would be our PR consultants as they listen to the sound of their cash registers ringing.
“So, hopefully we can stop the allegation going public. If we can’t, then we need to be able to prove it is a total fabrication designed to derail the project and damage our reputation. Whatever the real position is, we need to find out who is behind it.”
Weston smiled at Mack, in a half-hearted attempt at lightening the mood in the room and said in a soft voice “I don’t want to approach Lee Wai with this at this stage as he would almost certainly resign from the project. It wouldn’t be a matter of whether it was true or not. He would have to go to his superiors with it and then inevitably it would all come out into the open. Sure, government would defend him, but without clear evidence that the allegation is false they would have to suspend him and possibly the project. Eventually it might all get back on track again, but I somehow doubt it.”
Mack gazed at the view of the harbour for a moment before replying “I have to ask an obvious question, why use us? There are much bigger and better known firms out there that could handle this. You could even handle it internally.” Mack looked at Bent and saw a faint smile on his face appear for an instant.
“We want to keep this low profile for the moment. High priority, but without a lot of fanfare. If we bring in the big boys there is a greater chance of a leak and we are always keen to form relationships with innovative operators. Any preliminary thoughts?”
Mack reached for his glass of water and sipped it slowly as he gathered his thoughts. After a few moments he replied, “It is obvious someone has inside information about your operation, but how much they actually know is anyone’s guess. At this stage there is no indication what they intend to do next. You want me to establish whether the allegation is true or not, which in itself sounds straight forward enough. What happens when we discover the truth is of course, another matter.
“As for the caller, the obvious beneficiary of you losing the project would be one of the other developers who could take it on. It could also be one of your competitors who would like to see you fail or perhaps a disgruntled employee who bears a grudge against you?” Having asked the question he sat back in his chair and waited for a response.
Weston and Bent looked at each other befo
re Weston shrugged his shoulders and said “No-one springs to mind. I know some of the big property boys play it fairly dirty, but somehow I doubt it is one of them. Or at least, not directly. They definitely wouldn’t want it traced back to them so I think that would put most of them off. As for employees, we always have people coming and going, but we haven’t lost anyone recently who is connected with the project.”
Mack replied, “If we can find that person the picture becomes a lot clearer, but you don’t have much to go on at the moment. Am I being asked to find the identify of the caller?”
“Leave the caller to me” answered Bent in a quiet voice.
Mack considered him for a moment and wondered what he should read into that short statement. “It is not someone on the Paradise Cove project. They haven’t got the balls to get involved in something like this and stay working with us. Besides, they are all going to make a lot of money out of it. We can’t rule out a competitor having a source here, but again I doubt it, our security checks are ongoing and quite thorough. This has all the hallmarks of an extortion case, next up will be their demand. Before we deal with that we need to know if the allegation is true.”
Before Mack could respond Weston looked at him and interjected “Who knows what the reason for all this is and I don’t think that is our first priority. We need to know if the allegation is true, so Mack, you need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible. Paul will handle trying to identify the caller. With both of you working on this we should get things sorted quite quickly. Mack, when can you start?”
“You have not asked what my fee is yet.”
Weston got up and stretched his tall frame. He wanted to end the meeting and discussing Mack’s fee was the least of his concerns. He answered “You can send your appointment letter to Paul and he will sort it out. We won’t argue over fees, we never do. As long as we get the result we want we are happy to pay for it.”
“Okay, my assistant will be in touch with a fee proposal. Sign it and send it back. We will use the case name ‘John Jones’ on all correspondence. I will need Stephen Chan’s file so have it sent to my office this afternoon. I will be back to you within a week with a progress report. In the meantime if you get another call, contact me.”
Chapter five
Paranoia
Statute Square is strategically placed in the heart of Central and is surrounded by Princes Building, the HSBC building, the Legislative Council and The Hong Kong Club. Each of the buildings has played a role in the development of Hong Kong.
Princes Building has historically housed Hong Kong’s leading legal, accounting and investment firms. The HSBC building is the head office of one of the world’s biggest banks, the Hong Kong Club has the very elite of the former colony’s business community as its members and finally there is the Legislative Council. The last is supposedly the seat of government, although many see it as a place where ineffective politicians endlessly debate issues that have already been decided elsewhere.
In Mack’s opinion, a cabal of property developers and financiers runs Hong Kong and even the man in the street knows that. ‘Big Brother’ in the form of Beijing may have increasingly exerted its influence since 1997 and the handover, but to all extents and purposes nothing had changed. Beijing had simply replaced London in the role of elder sibling, but the business interests of the big hongs, as the Chinese refer to companies, still prevail.
Mack was sat in the square facing the HSBC building reflecting on the meeting with Westminster. It was an oppressively hot day, with the sky a beautiful azure blue and not a cloud in sight. On a bench a short distance from him was a Chinese man reading a newspaper and slightly further away were two Filipina maids talking incessantly in Tagalog, the dialect used in metro Manila. Mack had spent enough time in the company of Filipinas to recognize the language.
Further away were two middle‐aged expats who Mack assumed were American tourists. Their brightly coloured Hawaiian shirts and shorts gave them away and their tourist maps and cameras slung over their shoulders confirmed it. The lunchtime crowd of office workers who had bought their traditional rice boxes or sandwiches from western style stores such as Oliver’s had returned to their offices.
Mack glanced towards the Princes Building and saw the Chinese man sitting about thirty feet away looking directly at him. He immediately looked away when he saw Mack had noticed him. He was in his early forties and was wearing dark trousers and a white short sleeved open necked shirt. He was holding a bottle of water and had placed a small black shoulder bag on the ground beside him. There was nothing memorable about him and he appeared to be just another local businessman. If he hadn’t turned away when he had glanced at him Mack would not have registered his presence. He continued looking at the man, who studiously avoided looking in his direction.
After a few minutes Mack stood up and walked towards the entrance to the MTR. His path took him directly alongside the man and as he approached him the man stared at the floor and seemed to deliberately avoid making eye contact with him. At the entrance to the MTR Mack turned left and went to into the Princes Building.
Many of the large buildings in Central are connected through air‐conditioned overhead walkways, which is an attempt by the government to reduce the congestion on the pavements and transform the city into a modern metropolis. It seemed to be working in Mack’s opinion, at least he didn’t have to put up with car fumes when he came to Central and moved between the major office buildings.
Mack stopped outside the Georgio Armani store and turned around to face the way he had come. He didn’t recognize any of the people who walked past and after a few minutes he retraced his steps back to Statute Square. He sat down at a vacant bench and saw that while the American tourists were still there, the Chinese man had left.
After a few minutes he told himself he was being paranoid. It was just another Chinese office worker who, much to his embarrassment had been lost in his thoughts and had ended up staring at a gweilo. As many locals did, Mack often used the word ‘gweilo’ when referring to expats. It meant ‘White skinned ghost’ and whilst it was not a term of endearment it was not offensive either. The thought persisted though that the man’s reaction to being discovered was not caused by embarrassment.
Human beings are complex animals and Mack acknowledged that he was no different from everyone else in that regard. Loyal and generous to a fault when it came to family and friends, hard working and diligent when it came to his work, he knew his good points far out‐weighed his bad ones. Which didn’t make him perfect of course. There were lots of people who would attest to that.
He knew people often saw him as a positive person, a definite ‘can do’ type of guy that was usually helpful and friendly. No matter how bad things got, he managed to get through the situation with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders. The truth was somewhat different and, like many others, he hid behind a public persona that was not a true reflection of himself. He often lay awake in the early hours of the morning worrying over events he knew he had no control over. ‘And in the dark the demons come’ is how he had once jokingly described it to a former girlfriend after far too much red wine. With the morning light sanity returned, as if night had been a dream that was to be banished by the bright sunshine of the day ahead.
In periods of introspection, he never found anything in his childhood that indicated why, at thirty-seven, he would be living alone and prone to heavy drinking bouts with his friends. He had been brought up in a loving family in Guildford, had gone to a good university and joined the Hong Kong police when a friend told him they were about to stop recruiting expats and he should grab the opportunity of three years fun in the far east while he still could.
Whilst Mack had enjoyed his time in the police and had been an exceptional officer in the eyes of many of his colleagues and superior officers, like all good things it had to come to an end at some time and he was not overly sorry to move on to other things. On his departure it was only a question of what to
do next. He had wanted to remain in Hong Kong and had been offered positions with the HSBC and several investigation agencies. He certainly didn’t want to go from one bureaucracy to another so when his friend Don Taylor had jokingly suggested he should set himself as a ‘super sleuth’ so he could continue to work on cases that interested him he took the plunge.
Whilst the first year had been the hardest, the business had gradually grown. He had a number of his former colleagues to thank for that as they had introduced him to various people who needed the services of someone with his ability and discretion. He now worked with Lindy and Ping and had the luxury of only taking on cases that appealed to him. It had been a good decision to set up on his own and he had no regrets about having done so.
While he seemed to be in control of his work life, his personal life was another matter. He couldn’t quite work out what his relationship with Lindy meant to him, or to her for that matter. Despite her quirkiness, she came across as intelligent, mature in many ways and not least, desirable. It was obvious they were very close and she was someone he could open up to. But nothing was going to happen unless he instigated it. Lindy was far too professional for that.