The Allegation: A John Mackworth novel

by Tony Davies

  He reached down for another beer. It was warm, but that didn’t matter. He opened it and took a large gulp. It was going to be a long night. A night with his demons.

  ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

  Lindy’s mobile phone rang at 6.10am and she lazily reached across to answer it. It was still dark in her room, although she knew the sun was already rearing its head outside. It was going to be another hot day.

  She looked at the caller display and saw it was Mack’s number. She pressed the answer button and put her head back on the pillow.

  “I have worked it out. I know who is behind all this.” Mack sounded tired and she wondered if he had been drinking the night before.

  “How have you worked it out?”

  “It came to me earlier. The missing connection. They were brought up in the same village. It was on Luk’s record sheet and it was in the personnel file. The same place. That is how they know each other.” Despite his tiredness, he sound excited.

  Lindy yawned slowly. “Okay, who?”

  “I’ll tell you that when I see you. First, I need you and Ping in the office straight away. I have to ring Don.”

  The phone went dead and Lindy slowly pulled the sheets back to get out of bed. She pressed the speed dial number for Ping and waited for him to answer.

  Chapter forty three

  Things are never quite what they appear to be

  At 7.30am Ping left the office and headed towards Stephen Chan’s apartment block.

  By 8.30 am he had knocked on the door of eight apartments and spoken to five people. The ninth apartment was to prove successful. Whilst he had to listen to the occupant ramble on for more than ten minutes, he got the confirmation he was seeking.

  …………………………………………………………………………………………..

  At 10am Mack’s phone rang and when he answered it Don Taylor said “The local boys are getting into position and should be ready to move shortly. Before this goes any further, I had better warn you that if it turns out badly you could be in a lot of hot water. Okay, you got a lucky break in seeing the asset statement and realizing he owned a house in the same village Luk was born in.”

  Don paused and his voice turned reproachful. “But you should have told us you recognized Luk when you saw his file after he assaulted you. A lot of this could have been avoided if you had done that.”

  Mack silently accepted the criticism. He couldn’t have stopped Debbie’s abduction, if indeed she had been abducted, but he could have acted sooner in trying to locate her. He would have to deal with the consequences of that later. Now the important thing was to find out where she was and get her out of harm’s way.

  Don then said “You can’t do everything on your own big fella. Even if you come out of this clean, it doesn’t make your reticence to talk to us right. You need to remember who your friends are.” He hung up and Mack was left alone with his thoughts.

  …………………………………………………………………………………………..

  There were four roads out of the village and another three footpaths, which led to the nearby hills. Don Taylor was pleased to find that a platoon of Police Tactical Unit officers, the force’s elite anti-riot group, had been scheduled to do a day’s training hike in the adjacent national park. Their commanding officer had been only too happy to be roped in to assist. It was better than hiking over mountains in full kit in the middle of summer. With the additional manpower he had more than enough men to ensure no one got in or out of the village without his permission.

  He knew the politics of the Hong Kong Police. If it turned out to be a waste of time there would be some red faces and explanations asked for. But he could live with that. He had had more successes than failures over the years and he had learnt to trust his hunches. Sure, sometimes things went wrong, but risk not, gain not. He was never going to make Police Commissioner after all.

  He thought about Mack’s phone call to him. His analysis of why the girl could be in this village seemed to make sense. Either way they had to do something. They couldn’t simply dismiss it out of hand. He knew Mack was a good operator and wouldn’t knowingly waste his time. It didn’t mean he wasn’t a prat sometimes though.

  While the uniformed officers kept a tight ring around the village, one of his plain clothes men walked past Luk’s house. They didn’t want to alert the occupants of their presence until they knew what they were dealing with.

  The house was a typical three-story village property with a small front garden and a parking space off to one side. It was in reasonable condition, but needed a coat of paint and some work done in the garden. It was just another village house in the New Territories. The front door was closed and there was no sign of activity.

  The officer then walked on to the other house and immediately saw the difference. Whilst it was also a three-storey property, it was in much better condition. It had recently been painted and the garden was beautifully landscaped. What stood out most were the two men who were sat in the garden smoking cigarettes.

  The men were in their thirties, heavily built with numerous tattoos across their forearms. They looked up inquisitively as the officer approached, but they quickly dismissed him as just another passer by. He didn’t stop and kept walking past the house, ignoring their presence. At the end of the street he turned left and circled back to the command post.

  Five minutes later he was stood in front of Don Taylor.

  “So we don’t know who is inside the house.” He was ostensibly talking to the three other officers, but in reality he knew he was simply thinking out loud. In situations like this junior officers always let the senior officer take the responsibility for the difficult decisions. It was the way careers were made within the Hong Kong Police.

  “Two heavies in the garden and they can see us coming from a long way off. We need to get close to them, find out if there is anyone inside and contain them before anyone panics and does something silly. We don’t want that to happen and put the girl in danger. If she is even there that is.”

  The other officers knew that it was only a hunch from one of their boss’s friends that she was even in the house. This could go all wrong and she may not even be there. Lots of upside and downside.

  They waited in silence while Don considered his next move.

  “Follow me. I have an idea.” Don headed towards the street containing the house, and he hoped, a safe and sound Debbie Chan.

  ……………………………………………………………………………………

  Mack was shown into the room by a frail woman in her mid-fifties. It had white walls, poor quality furniture and looked austere and soulless. Government buildings were all the same and he had been in many such rooms during his time in the police.

  The woman left but came back after two minutes with a glass of dark boh lei Chinese tea. She put it in front of him and left without saying a word.

  Five minutes later Lee Wai came in the room and sat at the table. He stared at Mack and without shaking his hand said “Your phone call was intriguing. You have achieved your first objective in getting a meeting with me. Now, what do you want?”

  “Thank you for sparing the time to meet me. We could have done this in a coffee shop if you had preferred. Either way, it’s just an informal conversation. What you do after it is up to you.”

  Lee nonchalantly nodded his head. “Please get to the point. You mentioned the name Stephen Chan when you called. I know Stephen through tennis. His death was such a shame. Why do you want to speak to me regarding him.”

  “He was tied up in something that was way out of his depth. Something you are tied up in as well. It cost him his life. I don’t want it to cost you yours.”

  Lee looked at him and said “I think you are being a little dramatic Mr. Mackworth. On the phone you mentioned you were a private investigator. I just s
poke to a police officer I know who remembers you. He said you were a loose cannon and that you probably haven’t changed. I hope that is not the case for your sake.”

  “We shall see.”

  Mack looked intently at him and tried to gage whether the show of defiance was all bravado. They say that the best form of defence is attack and he wondered if that was Lee’s approach. Of course, attacking successfully often depended on standing and fighting your ground until the bitter end. Something told him Lee wouldn’t do that and would crack if enough pressure was applied.

  In any event he had to do something. Weston’s position was becoming perilous and he was to be of any assistance to him he had to act quickly. If that meant taking risks, then so be it. It was time to go on the offensive.

  “Mr. Lee, it took me a little while to work out why you have acted as you have, but I got there in the end. Whilst I am officially working for Westminster in this matter, there is no reason that I can’t give you some free advice that you should definitely follow. You see, it is going to end up badly for you no matter what happens. How bad depends on you. So tell me, how long have you been a member of the La boheme Club?”

  …………………………………………………………………………………………..

  Don Taylor was glad he always wore Hawaiian shirts. They made him look like an American tourist. Well, a fat American tourist if he was honest with himself. He always knew those bright coloured shirts and his overweight, florid features would come in handy one day. Today was that day.

  As he walked slowly up the street, he swayed slightly from side to side. His disheveled state, with sweat stains under his arms and stubble on his chain, made him look like a drunk coming from a heavy night out. He stopped at every property and looked at the front door before moving on. It appeared he was looking for a particular house, but was having no luck.

  As he approached the house the two men in the garden noticed him and stood up to watch him.

  “Can you help me? I am looking for John’s house.” He slurred his words slightly as he spoke.

  The men shook their heads and told him to move on in Cantonese.

  He grinned and replied “You what? Sorry, me no speak Chinese. I am looking for John’s house. Does he live here?”

  One of the men laughed at him, while the other frowned and shouted an expletive at him in Cantonese.

  Don kept grinning and slowly staggered towards the front gate. As he got there he put his hand on the latch and as the gate opened he fell forward into the garden.

  The front door open and a man walked into the garden. He was huge and had a scar running down the side of his face. Don recognized him immediately.

  He could see behind the man into the open plan living room and kitchen. Whilst he couldn’t be sure, there didn’t seem to be anyone else there so he knew he had to grasp his opportunity.

  Before Don could speak the man snarled in an angry voice “Get out of here you fat gweilo. Or else I will get you out.”

  Don stood up, belched and staggered towards the man. As he did so the man came to meet him, at which point Don fell to the floor and laughed.

  The man looked annoyed and moved to pick him up. As he bent down to do so, he felt the barrel of a Sig Sauer P250 pistol being thrust into his kidneys.

  Don grinned as he said “Oh, fat am I! You don’t look so good yourself. Now stand back.”

  He looked at the two heavies and grinned again. “This is fun isn’t it.” He glanced to his right to see four PTU officers running up the street. The Calvary was on its way.

  Chapter forty four

  Confrontation

  At 6.15pm Mack was escorted by another of the never ending chain of tall, elegant Chinese receptionists into Westminster’s boardroom. She asked him politely in almost perfect English if he required refreshments of any kind. He shook his head slowly and she turned and left.

  Weston was sat at the table along with Bent, Troy Foster and two Chinese males, one of whom Mack recognized as Darren Tsang, the company’s CFO and the other as Thomas Lu, who was in charge of the company’s trading desk.

  Weston stood up and walked the short distance to shake Mack’s hand. None of the other men made any attempt to do so.

  Weston seemed friendly enough when he said “You look as if you have had a bad day.”

  Mack smiled weakly. After a sleepless night he had risen early as a result of his light bulb moment, as he called it. The rest of the day had flown by and he was now feeling the strain of it.

  “Thanks for seeing me at such notice. I see you are in a meeting.” “Yes, just a review of where we stand with our shareholders.”

  “I won’t keep you long. I am here to tell you that I know who is behind everything and why events have unfolded as they have.”

  He had expected someone in the room to make a comment, but they all sat quietly waiting for him to go on.

  Weston smiled at him. “Really? This should be interesting. Do you want everyone to leave?”

  Mack shook his headed and replied “No need. They can all stay.”

  Weston offered him his seat at the head at the table and as Mack sat down in an empty chair next to Bent.

  Mack tried to keep his tone neutral when he said “I must say that it never ceases to amaze me what people who will do to further their careers or line their pockets.”

  He looked at Weston and Bent. “Let me start by saying that when Lee was appointed to the Paradise Cove project he was told by the culprit, and I shall call him that for the moment, to be deliberately obstructive in the negotiations. It was important that Andrew was frustrated enough to resort to any means to get it approved.”

  “The culprit provided just information to create the illusion of a homosexual relationship between Stephen Chan, and Lee Wai. The hope was that Andrew would try using it to coerce Lee Wai into approving the project. If Andrew had tried that, Lee would have gone public with his denial, thus destroying Westminster’s case and of course, Andrew’s reputation.

  “You see, that has been the aim all along, to destroy Andrew Weston.

  Mack paused for a few moments for them to digest what he had said. He followed on with “Ah, but there is a loose end. Stephen Chan. His problem was that he fell in love with the wrong man. The culprit put the wheels in motion by introducing Stephen and Lee, but he couldn’t persuade him go through with having a homosexual relationship with Lee. Stephen may have been in love with the culprit, but he wouldn’t do that for him.

  “For some reason a video of Stephen and his lover having sex was made. It was never used as part of the campaign and we can only surmise as to why not. Somehow Stephen got hold of a copy and from there it went down hill for him. He became a lose end and ended up dead. Can we prove that the culprit killed, or had him killed? Well, that is for the police to sort out, not me.

  “Unfortunately, the culprit’s henchman found out I had discovered who had made the video. You guessed it, he was killed too. More on that later.

  “Anyway, back to Lee. How do we know Lee would have gone public? Well, the culprit had him in the palm of his hand. You see, Lee was a pedophile and was being supplied his boys through the La boheme Club. Our culprit was instrumental in securing those boys.

  “When Andrew didn’t attempt the blackmail, the culprit reverted to plan B. He got Lee to issue a scathing report, which attached all the blame to Andrew. Lee either published that or the culprit released details of his pedophilia.

  “By the way, please don’t try to use your mobile phones. Anyone doing so will be stopped by force if necessary. The same applies to anyone trying to leave before I have finished.”

  “So, where was I? Oh yes, we know the culprit was Stephen’s lover. We showed his photograph to everyone in Stephen’s apartment block and as you would expect, there was someone who was eager to help us out. Not everyone likes gays.

  “What the culprit hadn’t planned for was Stephen’s sister Debbie. As a result of his death she dec
ided to look into Andrew and his activities. The culprit found out about it and needed to find out exactly what she knew that could affect his grand plan. He couldn’t take the risk that she would uncover his grand plan.

  “So he had her abducted by his henchman. Fortunately she has been rescued before any harm could come to her.”

  He looked around the room to see who might be affected by the statement. No‐ one flinched and he resumed talking.