Hungry Ghost

by Stephen Leather

  She came back into the room and handed him a yellow mug of coffee.

  ‘M goy,’ he said.

  ‘M sai,’ she replied and sat down next to him, one leg curled underneath herself so that she could face him. She rested her arms on the back of the sofa and placed her chin on them, looking up at him with wide eyes.

  ‘What is happening, Geoff?’ she said.

  He reached across with his good arm and brushed her cheek. He had already worked out how he was going to get her to help him. He’d told her about Grey but from here on he’d have to be careful, because there was no way she’d help him if she found out that he’d kidnapped a child. He’d have to lie.

  ‘That man who gave me the money tonight, Jack Edmunds, is a thief. And he’s a friend of mine. He’s what they call a safe-breaker, do you understand?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘He opens safes, sometimes in banks, sometimes in offices. He is one of the best in the world. And I’m a friend of his.’

  ‘You help him steal?’

  ‘Not steal. But I help him get rid of what he has stolen. I help him sell the things he steals. That’s why I was attacked. The man Grey thought I had some diamonds and they were going to kill me and steal them. But I didn’t have them. Jack had given them to another friend of his. This afternoon Jack wants me to collect the diamonds and to get them out of Hong Kong. It’s very dangerous, Amy, because if they find out I have the diamonds then they are likely to attack me again.’

  She nodded, her brow furrowed. ‘My friend can help you leave Hong Kong.’

  ‘Good. I’ll be able to pay him in gold. Will that be all right?’

  ‘Of course. In Hong Kong gold is better than money. But how will you get gold?’

  ‘It was with the diamonds. Jack said I was to use it to pay for my fare. Thirty-two ounces.’

  ‘Wah!’ she said in surprise. ‘So much.’

  ‘Amy, I am going to need your help. I cannot do this on my own. I will need your help. Will you help me?’ He looked at her earnestly and gave her a half-smile, trying to look as if it was the most important thing in the world to him.

  ‘Of course I will help you, Geoff,’ she said. ‘What do you want me to do?’

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, and leant forward to kiss her softly on the lips. Her mouth opened immediately and she pressed herself against him, careful not to put pressure on his right arm. She moved her head from side to side as she kissed him on the mouth, and then she moved to kiss him above each eyebrow, the way she’d soothe a child. She looked deep into his eyes then and solemnly promised that she’d do anything he wanted, and then she kissed him again, opening her mouth wide to allow his tongue to move between her teeth and she moaned and said his name.

  Howells tentatively reached for her breasts with his left hand, gently smoothing them with his palm before beginning to unbutton her blouse, slowly because he didn’t want to frighten her; he wanted this to be perfect, he wanted her to enjoy it like she’d never enjoyed it before. Because then she really would do anything for him. And because it would be her last time.

  Getting the diamonds and the gold was no problem for Ng Wai-sun. The old man had some fifty taels of gold in the safe set into the floor under the wood panelling at the foot of his bed, and he could call in plenty of favours among the colony’s diamond dealers to lay his hands on $250,000 of good quality stones, especially when he was paying for them in cash. The first dealer he woke up was around at Golden Dragon Lodge half an hour later with a selection. Ng Wai-sun held them in his palm and looked at them in the early morning light.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked his son.

  ‘I think we should use fakes rather than risk real diamonds,’ said Thomas.

  ‘They are a small price to pay if they get back my grandchild,’ said Ng Wai-sun.

  ‘It will not come to that, Father. This time we will catch the gweilo.’

  ‘Beware the over-confidence that comes from underestimating the enemy,’ said Ng Wai-sun, carefully pouring the diamonds from his hand into a small green velvet pouch with a draw-string at the top. He handed the bag to his son.

  The two were standing at the round table, on which were lined up thirty-two small oblongs of gold bearing the imprint of the Hang Seng Bank. Thomas Ng put the gold and the diamonds into a small brown leather attaché case. He zipped up the top and passed it to Dugan, who was sitting at the opposite side of the table.

  ‘Be careful with it,’ he said. ‘That’s a lot of money.’

  ‘I’ll try not to lose it,’ said Dugan. He looked dead tired, bags under his bloodshot eyes, his clothes rumpled. He’d fallen asleep in the chair outside and had been woken up by screaming peacocks just before dawn.

  Lin Wing-wah appeared at the double door wearing brown cord trousers and a green and brown camouflage jacket over a white polo neck. He’d carefully arranged his small ponytail so that it lay over the collar of his jacket.

  He nodded at Ng Wai-sun. ‘Good morning, Lung Tau.’

  ‘Good morning, Lin Wing-wah,’ the old man answered. Thomas noticed how easily his father had slipped back into the role of Dragon Head. It was as if he had never stepped down. ‘Come in and sit down.’

  When all four of them were seated, equally spaced around the table, Ng Wai-sun said: ‘There must be no mistakes today. None at all. I have lost one son to this gweilo, there must be no more deaths.’ He spoke in Cantonese, knowing that Dugan was fluent. ‘We must continue the search this morning; if we wait until this afternoon then he will have the advantage of surprise. Cheng Yuk-lin, can you relay this to the other triads and ask for their co-operation?’

  ‘I shall, Lung Tau.’

  ‘Mister Dugan has brought us valuable information. We know that the gweilo has been shot and must be receiving medical attention from somebody.’

  ‘We have already checked the hospitals, Father. Today we begin to question the legal and the illegal doctors,’ said Thomas Ng.

  Ng Wai-sun nodded. ‘Good. Again, we must move quickly. I think we must assume that once the gweilo has the ransom he will leave Hong Kong. That brings us to the next problem. If we do not track him down before we are due to hand over the ransom, then we must decide how we handle it. At what point do we try to take him? Do we do as your brother planned to do and try to seize him when the ransom is handed over? Or do we follow him after we have given him the diamonds and we have Sophie back? Or do we simply give him the ransom and assume that he will keep his word?’

  ‘The gweilo did not keep his word last time,’ Cheng said slowly. ‘We must not trust him on this occasion.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Thomas Ng. Dugan did not know whether or not he was supposed to contribute to the discussion, but he nodded in agreement with Cheng and Ng.

  ‘That is also my feeling,’ said Ng Wai-sun. ‘Do we agree therefore that we try to capture the gweilo and then force him to tell us where he has Sophie?’

  They all nodded.

  ‘So be it,’ said Ng Wai-sun. ‘Lin Wing-wah, you must have our Red Poles prepared. I think it best that we do not involve the other triads in the actual ransom, I think we must keep that firmly under our control. It would be best if we have our men spread around Hong Kong so that we are sure to have some men close to where the handover is due to take place. As soon as we know when and where you must be able to contact our men and get them in position. This time there must be no mistake.’

  There was no malice in his face but Lin flinched at the subtle reprimand and he was overwhelmed with shame at having failed Simon Ng. This time there would be no mistake, he swore to himself. He would have the gweilo, or die in the attempt.

  ‘I have a suggestion,’ said Dugan, speaking for the first time. Ng Wai-sun raised his eyebrows in surprise, but then smiled and asked him to speak.

  ‘I think you should have a fallback position,’ he said. Though they had invited him to sit in on their war council, he was still reluctant to say ‘we’ while in their company.

&nbs
p; ‘What do you have in mind?’ said the Dragon Head.

  ‘Bearing in mind what happened last time, I think you should bug the ransom. Place a transmitter, a homing device of some sort, in the case with the gold and the diamonds. Then if he does get away you still have a chance of following him.’

  ‘But what if he finds it?’ asked Thomas Ng.

  ‘We can stitch it into the bottom of the case. The CCB technical department has some ultra-thin models that they’ve been testing. They use small batteries that are only good for twelve hours or so but they can be detected up to a distance of two miles. You pick up the signal with a radio directional finder, a small hand-held job. It would mean that you could have men in cars close to the handover point and they could follow him at a distance.’

  ‘Could you get us the equipment?’ asked the Dragon Head.

  ‘I am sure of it,’ said Dugan.

  Howells woke up slowly, drifting up through layers of sleep, until he became aware of his arm being kissed, just above the elbow, slowly and sensually, a tongue licking the flesh in small circles, warm and wet. He became aware then of Amy’s hair lying across his upper arm, shielding her face as she caressed him with her mouth like a vampire preparing to feed. He became fully awake then and felt the warmth of her lithe body, her legs entwined with his, her shoulder against his hip, her lips on his skin.

  ‘Good morning,’ he said sleepily. ‘What time is it?’

  She looked up and smiled at him, and this time she didn’t put her hand up to cover her teeth.

  ‘It’s eleven o’clock,’ she said.

  ‘That was the sexiest alarm call I’ve ever had,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Kissing me like that. It was a lovely way to wake up.’ He was lying on his left side, his left arm up on the pillow, his right lying across his chest. The sling lay on the floor, along with the rest of his clothes that Amy had so carefully taken off him hours before. Her clothes were on top of his, because she’d stripped him naked and kissed him all over his body before undressing and slipping on top of him, careful to keep her weight away from the upper half of his body, so that she wouldn’t hurt him. She was a gentle and considerate lover, matching her pace with his, taking him first slowly, then moving faster and harder, timing it so that she came a second or two before him and then slipping off him and lying next to him, exhausted but happy. Happier than she’d been in a long time. Now she was his, body and soul.

  ‘Do you want coffee?’ she asked.

  ‘Please,’ he said.

  She slid out of bed and put on his shirt before going to the kitchen. Howells sat up and gently rotated his arm, the injured one. It hurt, it hurt like hell, but it was healing, and so long as he didn’t put too much strain on it he reckoned he could do without the sling. The painkillers were still in the plastic bottle, untouched.

  Amy came back into the bedroom and handed him a mug of coffee. She rubbed her hand through his thick hair as he drank, enjoying the feel of it as it ran through her fingers.

  ‘Do you think I’d look Chinese if I had black hair?’ he said.

  She laughed. ‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘You want to be Chinese?’

  ‘No. I want to look Chinese. And you can help. I need something to dye my hair black. Can you get some?’

  She nodded eagerly. ‘I go now. I will buy some food for breakfast as well.’ She changed into a clean dress, carrying it from the wardrobe to her lounge and making sure that he couldn’t see her, suddenly shy and not knowing why. Then she rushed back to kiss him before going out to shop. Howells watched her go, with a smile.

  Dugan got out of the lift at the 26th floor, C Division’s territory. He walked along the corridor and passed a stuffed camel, its haughty head almost scraping the ceiling. The camel was one of C Division’s little mysteries; nobody knew what it was doing in the corridor, nor how it had got there in the first place. To Dugan’s knowledge it had been there for at least four years, possibly longer. He’d asked one of the C inspectors once but he’d just shaken his head mysteriously and tapped the side of his nose. Dugan was damned if he’d give them the satisfaction of asking again.

  He found Dave Rogers bent over the innards of some electrical equipment that looked as if it had dropped from a great height and bounced badly.

  ‘Whotchya, Dugan,’ he said. They were good friends, drinking partners and both were on the police rugby team.

  ‘Hiya, Dave. Can you do me a favour?’

  ‘Sure.’ Rogers was like that, helpful and trusting to a fault. You wanted something, he’d give it you; you needed help, you got it – no questions, no comebacks. He was a lousy copper, but he had a degree in electronics from some Scottish university and after a few years working out of a poxy station in Sha Tin they’d realized that he’d be of more use on the technical side than he was chasing villains.

  ‘You remember those bugs you were telling me about, the slimline model? Can I borrow one for a while?’

  ‘Yeah, little beauties. Expensive little beauties. You won’t lose it, will you?’ he said.

  ‘Listen to yourself, you daft bastard. How the fuck am I going to lose a homing device?’

  Rogers laughed and opened a drawer under his workbench. ‘I suppose you’re right,’ he said. He took out a small stainless steel cylinder about the size of a lipstick, but slightly thinner. Rogers held it in his palm, turning it from side to side.

  ‘See the black button? Press that and you activate it. Push the one next to it to turn it off.’

  ‘You said the battery lasts for twelve hours?’

  ‘About that.’

  ‘And how do I keep track of it?’

  Rogers took out another piece of equipment, this one about the size of a small voltmeter, black plastic with a clear plastic dial at one end. He switched it on, and then pressed the black button on the transmitter. He showed Dugan how the needle on the dial followed the transmitter as he moved it.

  ‘Simple,’ said Dugan.

  ‘A child could use it,’ agreed Rogers. ‘I don’t want to pry, Pat, but when are you going to give it me back?’

  ‘Tomorrow. Either that or your money back.’

  ‘You any idea how much that baby costs?’ Dugan shook his head. ‘About as much as you earn in three months.’

  ‘Fuck me, Dave.’

  ‘If you lose it, I might well do,’ warned Rogers, only half joking.

  Dugan had taken pains to make sure that no one saw him enter CCB headquarters, and he was equally careful when he left. A Mercedes was waiting for him around the corner.

  Howells waited until he was sure Amy had left the building before making the call. The phone was answered by an old Chinese man and he asked to speak to Thomas Ng. When he came to the phone Howells asked him if he had the diamonds and the gold ready.

  ‘It is here,’ said Ng.

  ‘You are to take the ransom to the same place as last time, to the pier at Hebe Haven. At four o’clock this afternoon. I want there to be just one man there, do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ng. ‘But you’ll forgive me if I don’t appear in person. After what you did to my brother, I’m sure you’ll understand my reluctance.’

  Howells snorted. ‘I don’t care who you have there. My only concern is the money. And I would have thought that you would have been more concerned about your niece than your own skin.’

  ‘Think whatever you like, someone else will be there with the diamonds.’

  ‘And the gold.’

  ‘And the gold,’ repeated Ng.

  ‘Whoever is there must be alone and unarmed,’ said Howells. ‘I want him to be wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. And the tighter the shorts, the happier I’ll be. I don’t want there to be any place where he can conceal a gun, do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ng, feeling the anger grow inside. He wasn’t used to being spoken to as a child. He was a giver of orders, not a taker.

  ‘I will send someone to collect the ransom, a girl.
She knows nothing about your niece or where she is. If you make any attempt to prevent her leaving with the diamonds your niece will die. If you attempt to follow her your niece will die. Only after you allow her to leave Hebe Haven safely will I call you and tell you where Sophie is. Do you understand?’

  ‘I understand,’ said Ng.

  ‘If anything goes wrong, anything at all, I will kill your niece and you will never hear from me again.’

  The arrogance of the gweilo finally got to Ng, and he snapped. ‘And where do you think you can hide, Howells? Where do you think you can fucking well go where we can’t get to you? And when we get you the pain we’ll inflict on you will be nothing to what you’re feeling just now.’

  If Howells was surprised that Ng knew his name he gave no sign of it, other than a slight pause before he spoke.

  ‘Just have the diamonds there,’ he said coldly and hung up.

  Ng could feel his cheeks reddening as he put the phone down, a sick feeling in his stomach. He saw Cheng looking at him and he averted his eyes from the old man’s withering stare. Losing his temper had been a mistake. Telling the gweilo how much they knew had been a mistake. Damn the gweilo, damn him for ever.

  Dugan arrived back at Golden Dragon Lodge in the Mercedes and walked up the path to the house. Thomas Ng was there to meet him.

  ‘You have it?’ he asked. Dugan showed him the homing device and the directional finder. ‘It is so small, are you sure it will work?’ Ng asked. Dugan gave him a quick demonstration.

  ‘Has he called?’ asked Dugan.