“Must be,” Allissa said.
“You sure this is the place?”
Leo crossed the road to get a closer look. He peered in through the filthy window on which a faded menu still clung, the tape that held it yellowed with age. Inside, dust lay across red plastic tables and chairs.
“It doesn’t look open.”
“The Golden Lotus, Cameron Road.” Allissa checked the name of the street on her phone to make sure. “That’s what she said. This is it.”
An air-conditioner on the wall above them rattled to life.
“What time is it now?” Leo asked.
“Five past.”
“Alright, we will give her five minutes. I’m not wasting our time playing games.”
Allissa nodded before peering through the window.
“I’m not eating here either,” Leo said.
“I don’t think they’ll be anything on the menu you’ll like,” Allissa replied. “It’s a shame, I was looking forward to lunch.”
Allissa cupped her hands above her eyes in an attempt to get a better view of the inside.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been open in years,” she said, before crossing to the door.
Trying the handle, the door swung open.
Looking back at Leo, she shrugged.
“Hello?” Allissa shouted through the open door, her voice echoing in the empty room.
There was no reply.
“Hello…?” she shouted again and stepped into the restaurant.
“Don’t…” Leo said, grabbing her by the arm. “It might…”
“Oh, come on,” Allissa said, pulling her arm away. Leo noticed a spark of excitement in her eyes. “We’ll just have a look around, then we’ll go.”
As Leo looked up at the place, a bad feeling started to bubble in his stomach. He folded his arms tight across his chest.
“We really should just wait out here for her,” he shouted to Allissa who was already inside.
She didn’t answer.
“Allissa,” Leo shouted again. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. It’s just…”
Exhaling aggressively, Leo let his arms drop. He knew he couldn’t let Allissa go in there alone.
Looking left and right along the road, Leo tried to ignore the fear which had now risen to his chest. Then taking a deep breath, he followed Allissa into the restaurant.
Chapter 54
Yee had said it would be simple, that no one would get hurt, that it was just to scare them off. Even so, cowering in a passage next to The Golden Lotus restaurant, Isobel felt a sickening feeling rise in her stomach. These people had ruined her plans, but she didn’t want them to get hurt.
Next to her, Jiao knelt down and opened the valve on the restaurant’s gas supply.
Isobel knew what he was doing, she’d seen him tear the gas feed from the stove and set up a detonation device in the kitchen.
“It’s not going to kill them,” Jiao reassured her. “It’s set on a delay.”
Isobel tried to swallow but her throat was dry.
“Opening the back door is the trigger,” Jiao said, pointing towards the kitchen door at the back of the restaurant. “As long as they get out quickly, they’ll be fine.”
“Is this it?” came a voice from the street. Another replied.
The passage was concealed from the street by a thin metal door, from behind which Isobel and Jiao listened. Jiao held a thick finger to his lips and began to smile.
First, Leo and Allissa discussed the restaurant while they waited outside. It took them a couple of minutes to try the door.
Realising it was open, as Yee said they would, Allissa walked inside. A few seconds later, Leo followed.
Isobel swallowed hard and tried to ignore the thudding of her heart. Jiao pulled a key from the inside pocket of his jacket.
“All you have to do is lock them in, so they have to leave through the back,” he whispered handing Isobel the key. “And make sure they see it’s you.”
Chapter 55
“Be careful,” Leo grumbled as he followed Allissa into the restaurant.
“Hello?” Allissa shouted again, her voice sounding loud in the empty room. She thought she could hear movement somewhere, perhaps out the back.
The restaurant smelled of decay, dust and stale air. A dozen plastic tables stood empty, faded murals of rural China covered the walls.
A noise from somewhere in the building, the kitchen maybe.
“Anyone here? Isobel?” Allissa shouted again.
Silence, no reply.
She turned to look at Leo.
“Doesn’t look like she’s here,” Leo said, looking around the empty room. Behind them, now a few steps away, the door remained open.
A noise again, something closing, slamming. Both looked towards the kitchen.
“Hello? Anyone?” Leo shouted.
Nothing.
“Let’s have a look around,” Allissa said, “then we’ll get out of here.”
In the kitchen, pots and pans lay next to a large stove with six blackened rings. An extractor fan on the wall tapped in the wind and a stained steel sink sat next to a door leading out the back. The place was empty.
“There’s no one here,” Leo said standing at the door.
“But why would she want us –”
There was a thud from the front of the restaurant. A door slammed. A key grated in the lock. Both turned to see the door shuddering against its frame. Through the glass panel of the door, they saw, checking it was properly secured, Isobel.
“What are you doing?” Leo shouted as they watched her try the handle. Her long red hair was tied back. Her eyes seemed vacant and puffy.
“Hello!” Leo shouted again, crossing the room.
Isobel didn’t look up, with a morose expression she turned and walked away.
“What was the point of that?” Leo said, turning to look at Allissa. “This has been such a waste of time, playing her games.”
Leo pulled on the door. Nothing moved. It was solid. He tried again. The lock held – if anything he was going to pull the handle from the wooden frame.
“Bitch,” Leo said, trying the door again. “What is this girl playing at? This is why we don’t get involved.”
Pushing the door in anger, Leo turned to Allissa.
“I mean, what is the point?” Leo strode across the restaurant and back into the kitchen. “Hold on. Can you smell that?”
The smell was faint.
Allissa stopped moving and sniffed the air. “Yeah, what is it?”
“Not sure.”
Leo looked around the room, he’d seen the cooker, stained with years of hot, fizzing oil. Then he noticed a gap where it had been pulled from the wall. Leaning over, he looked down the back, six inches or so between the wall of the kitchen and the steel of the appliance.
The hose hissed gently, filling the room.
“Gas,” he shouted across to Allissa. “It’s gas – that smell. We need to get out of here now.”
Chapter 56
At the end of the street Jiao stopped and turned to face the restaurant.
“We wait to check it’s done,” he said, letting go of Isobel’s arm. Her skin stung where his fingers had dragged her away.
Around them, traffic surged in both directions. A taxi pulled in and three tourists got out, their eyes transfixed on the towers which surrounded them. They were free, like Isobel had been just days ago.
She could run. Try her luck, head to the embassy, the police, anywhere. It wouldn’t matter as long as it was away from Jiao and away from Yee. The thought of Yee made her throat sting.
She had no money, no passport, but anything would be better than facing him again.
“You can try to run,” Yee had told her before leaving the previous afternoon. “I’ll call my friends in the police, they’ll pick you up at the airport. They’ll stop flights leaving if needed. You don’t build a city like this,” he said stepping closer and trying to catch her eye, �
��without making influential friends. I’ve done deals with every important person in this city. Some of them honest, some of them not.”
But could he really do that? Was anyone really that important? It might be worth a try.
Next to her, Jiao stared at the restaurant. Watching for any sign of the explosion.
A bus nudged its way towards them through the traffic. If she got on, would Jiao risk making a scene by pulling her off? Was the risk worth it?
Isobel thought of Yee’s smile, the cold touch of his fingers, the smell of drink on his breath. She couldn’t go back.
Looking at Jiao, the mask of a smile fixed to his face as he watched expectantly, Isobel made a decision.
It may take him a second to notice that she’d gone. Hopefully a second was enough.
Chapter 57
The smell of gas which had at first given a sweet chemical zing to the air now lay heavy and thick. The broken pipe behind the cooker continued to hiss as gas filled the kitchen and streamed out into the restaurant.
“This wasn’t an accident,” Leo said, peering down behind the stove. “Someone’s cut it.”
“Isobel?” Allissa questioned. “But why would she want to do this?”
“Well, we’ve sort of messed her life up,” Leo held the pipe trying to reduce the flow of gas. His knuckles whitened with the pressure. “We need to get out of here now,” he looked at Allissa, “this could catch at any time.”
Allissa tried the handle of the front door again – locked solid. The glass of the front window would be thick; commercial windows were designed to be difficult to break for security reasons.
“Try that door,” Leo shouted, pointing with his free hand to the door which led out the back. “It’s probably locked, but worth a try.
Through the door’s dirty, barred window, Leo could see bins, rotting storage boxes and a pair of broken chairs in the small yard. He could taste the gas now, it was clawing, choking, clogging his throat and nose. He started to cough.
Between his fingers, Leo felt it run as his grip weakened.
He couldn’t stop coughing.
Reaching the door, Allissa held her breath as she tried the handle.
All Leo heard was his own raspy coughs and the peaceful hiss of the noxious gas.
The handle moved.
Allissa pulled open the door.
“Out, now,” Allissa shouted. “Go.”
Rushing through the door, neither noticed the device which Jiao had set begin its countdown. It was a simple thing. Just a large remote-controlled cigarette lighter from which a flame would appear at a particular moment. Normally harmless. But in a room full of flammable gas, explosive.
Chapter 58
Jiao knew that from a distance an explosion appears to be one complete sound. It’s only when you get up close that it breaks down like the players in an orchestra. To begin with there’s the high whining sounds, increasing in pitch as flames start to rip. Then the sound of the windows shattering. Then the thump and flutter as oxygen is dragged in by the hungry fire.
Neither Leo nor Allissa expected the explosion as they stumbled out into the street. Each taking deep, greedy breaths.
Leo was forced to the floor and Allissa against the wall of the opposite building. But they were out, and they were alive.
Allissa leaned on the wall as her breathing calmed. Leo stood hunched, hands on his knees and spat the taste of fire and gas from his mouth.
“That girl has some serious issues,” Leo said, wiping his hand across his mouth and straightening up. “How did she…”
“I just don’t know.” Allissa said, coughing.
“That girl,” Leo pointed back at the restaurant, his hands blackened, “the girl you were so bothered about, just tried to kill us.”
“But why?”
Leo took a deep breath and spat the taste of fire again. Allissa stood, straightening her back. She had an ache in her thigh. She must have bashed it during the escape.
Thoughts crowded her mind like the smoke which now poured into the sky. How had she got it so wrong? Had she let the vulnerable women she used to protect cloud her judgement? Allissa knew her mistake had almost killed them both.
“I’m sorry,” she said, stepping across to Leo. “I could have got us killed. I just saw something in her that needed help.”
Leo took a deep breath, letting the last bit of his frustration go.
Across the road the fire still burned.
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he said, looking at Allissa who stood next to him.
Without warning, Allissa hugged him. Pulled her body close to his. Leo stood rigid in shock until he realised what was happening, then put his arms around her.
“But if she’s done this to us, what’s she going to do to Yee?” Allissa said, breaking from the embrace and stepping backwards. “I hope his family aren’t at home.”
Leo said nothing.
“She’ll be going there,” Allissa said. “She must be angry at people for messing with her plans. She’ll want revenge against him too, I’m sure.”
From the grind of the city and the rumble of the fire, sirens became audible. Allissa looked towards the sound.
“I suppose you’re going to say we need to stay here, wait for the fire brigade and that what happens with Isobel, Yee and his family is not our problem?” Allissa said, brushing herself down.
Leo tried to think but his mind was still clogged with adrenaline of the fire and the intimacy of their embrace. As his thoughts cleared, Leo realized they hadn’t asked for this. Isobel had brought this on them. They’d done their job and now she’d dragged them back in. Then he thought about how nice it felt to hold Allissa close and how, in reality, he would do anything for her.
“Hell no,” Leo said, brushing the soot off himself as the first fire engine rounded the corner, blue lights strobing. “Yee has a family, and there’s no telling what Isobel will do.” Leo said, running in the opposite direction. “We’re involved now.”
Chapter 59
“With the new evidence presented, you can’t seriously be continuing to charge my client with murder?” Jamie’s lawyer berated the judge, pacing up and down the courtroom. It was an emergency hearing, called on the back of the revealing new evidence received yesterday. Photos of Isobel, alive. One of these photos, Isobel walking into an office building, was being displayed on a large screen.
“This could have been taken at any time,” the judge said, taking off his glasses and leaning forwards.
The lawyer flicked to the next image – Isobel in the reception area of OZ Architecture. The time and date was stamped clearly in the top right-hand corner.
“As you can see, Isobel is alive and well and living in Hong Kong,” the lawyer said, standing still for a moment to add gravity to his next statement. “She is the one who should be charged as she has taken the identity of my client in order to claim the salary of his job. We have a written statement from the company.”
“How do we know these pictures are real, your honour?” came a voice from elsewhere in the room.
“I’ve had the court’s expert look over them,” the lawyer replied. “They show no signs of being tampered with – you have his report in front of you. May I read this statement, your honour?”
The judge nodded. The lawyer read the statement, loud and slow, pausing before the final sentence.
“This bit is particularly interesting,” he said, looking at the judge. “We have had no reason to doubt her” – the lawyer paused allowing the importance of the pronoun to sink in – “honesty, but since learning of these claims she has been dismissed.”
“In the light of this evidence,” the judge said, clearing his throat, “a murder charge is inappropriate. It’s clear the young lady is still alive. Mr Price, you are free to go.”
With the words “free to go,” months of tension flowed from Jamie’s body. He was free. It was over.
After all those nights of captivity, shadows and sleeplessnes
s, he was free.
He’d not felt the sun on his face, not seen his friends, nor really seen his family other than across the metal table of the visiting room for one hour a week.
An hour later, he walked from court and looked up at the sky. When he’d gone inside the sky had been grey and dreary. The pastel wash of a new year. Now a harsh blue curved above him, smelling and tasting like spring.
“Those guys did a great job finding her,” Jamie’s brother said from beside him, crossing to a waiting taxi.
“What? Ah, yeah, they did,” Jamie replied in a daze, following him into the car. “They’ve pretty much saved my life. I’d better send them the money.”
Chapter 60
Isobel knew she had a second, maybe less, to put some distance between herself and Jiao’s impenetrable grip. Looking at Jiao as the explosion sounded, his eyes widening greedily at the fire, she knew this was her time. She darted for a group of tourists, gawping at the window display of a designer shop.
As the group scattered, Isobel expected at any moment to feel Jiao’s fingers around her shoulder or neck, but it didn’t come.
Not daring to look back, she sprinted on, pushing pedestrians to the left and right, her flat shoes making easy work of the pavement. Jiao wouldn’t be far behind. She needed to get as far away as quickly as possible. Ideally out of Hong Kong.
Pushing herself up Nathan Road, darting left and right through the crowds, Isobel started to formulate a plan.
She needed to get away from Yee, his henchmen and everything he owned or controlled. But how? She had her passport and some money in her hotel room. Yee and Jiao didn’t know anything about that, did they?
Looking at the traffic, growling past at a pace slower than she was running, Isobel had a thought. The hotel was only three streets away. If she ran all the way, she could get back there quicker than Jiao would by car, even if he knew where he was going.
She could get in, grab her passport and money, and be out by the time he arrived. It was daring and dangerous, as it was the obvious place to go. But if she was quick enough, she could be out with everything she needed before they caught up. There would be seconds to spare. It felt like her only option.
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