The Borrowed

by Chan Ho-Kei

  Sonny Lok received word at 11 a.m. that there’d been fourteen crime reports, all from concerned citizens who’d seen the video online. The police hadn’t released any information the previous day because there was a chance Candy Ton was still alive, and, however slim that might be, going public with the news too early might endanger her life. But now that the recording was out in the open, they had to make a statement to attempt to calm the situation.

  ‘Hong Kong Police have confirmed that a seventeen-year-old female has gone missing,’ said Inspector Lok at the press conference. ‘A video of unknown provenance suggests that this woman was attacked by four criminals on a Jordan Road pedestrian bridge. The whereabouts of the victim are not known at present. The police are taking a serious view of this case, and the Crime Unit is investigating. As the case is ongoing, we are unable to release more information at present, but hope any witnesses who walked or drove past Jordan Road or Lin Cheung Road on the night of the 21st to the 22nd will get in touch if they saw anything out of the ordinary. In addition, the police urge the individual who shot the footage, or anyone who knows them, to come forward. We will guarantee their safety.’

  ‘Was the injured party Candy Ton?’ asked a reporter.

  ‘Police investigations are ongoing.’

  ‘I’ve heard that police secured the crime scene yesterday. Did you already know about this case then?’

  ‘We did have a report, but can’t say any more than that.’

  ‘Have you got any firm suspects?’

  ‘No comment.’

  A journalist resembling a fox, his eyes pressed into a line, raised his hand. ‘Inspector Lok, does this case have anything to do with the Hung-yi Union and Hing-chung-wo Triads?’

  ‘We haven’t excluded underworld involvement.’

  ‘What I mean is, could Candy Ton’s murder be related to Eric Yeung being Boss Yam Tak-ngok’s illegitimate son?’

  Dammit, cursed Lok inwardly. As the saying goes, you can’t hide fire with paper. The fact he’d most hoped to conceal had been sniffed out by these feral dogs.

  ‘I have no comment to make.’ He maintained his poker face. Nonetheless, he could see that all the other journalists were agog at this revelation.

  ‘This is tough,’ said Lok, loosening his tie back in the office. ‘One drop of blood and those sharks surged towards it.’

  ‘Commander, I’ve pulled Candy Ton’s phone records,’ said Ah Gut. ‘The last call was the one from her office – there weren’t any others.’

  ‘Nothing?’ Lok was startled.

  ‘Nothing. So she hadn’t been erasing her call logs. Maybe she had two cellphones, and this one was just for work stuff.’

  That was possible, thought Lok. But then the other phone was probably in her pocket, and the criminals would dispose of it together with her corpse – assuming she was dead.

  ‘I’ve also traced this morning’s post.’ Ah Gut flipped open his notebook. ‘I got in touch with the chat board and the web host, and got the IP addresses of whoever posted the message and uploaded the video. The first was from the University of Basel, and the second from Mexico City.’

  ‘Switzerland and Mexico?’ This was even more perplexing.

  ‘Probably someone hacking their network to mask their real IP address. We could crack that and find the real location, but that’d take time, and if they looped it via five or six places round the world, we could be searching for weeks.’

  ‘Mm, let’s leave that line of inquiry for now, then.’ Reporters have a wide circle of acquaintances, and Lok guessed whoever posted the video might happen to know a hacker who’d devised this convoluted method of spreading the news. If not for the fear of Triad reprisals, he thought, this person would probably have sold the video to a TV station for a tidy sum instead.

  ‘Mary’s looked into the family background,’ continued Ah Gut, flipping several pages forward. ‘Candy Ton’s parents were unmarried. Her mother, Tang Pui-pui, passed away ten years ago, and her father, Ton Hei-chi, died five years ago. They lived in Sham Shui Po. So she wasn’t lying when she told her agent she had no family.’

  ‘What did they do?’ asked Lok casually. His initial thought was that at least, since she was an orphan, the police wouldn’t have the unenviable task of delivering news of her death to her parents.

  ‘A bartender and a waitress at a Yau Ma Tei bar.’ Ah Gut looked up from his notebook. ‘Mary asked around where they used to live, and the neighbours said the parents were both very young – not a “proper family”.’

  Or, Lok thought, these neighbours were probably elderly, and might have been biased against the young couple who left for work in the evening and returned in the small hours.

  ‘I’m heading off now to retrace her steps that night. I’ll start around her apartment building.’

  ‘No, send Mary to do that. You come with me – there’s something more important.’

  ‘More important?’

  ‘We’re going to invite Uncle Ngok to help us with our investigation.’

  ‘But Commander, we have no proof.’ Ah Gut’s face had gone pale.

  ‘I know,’ interrupted Lok. ‘We have no evidence to show he has anything to do with this. But I’d like to see his reaction.’

  Ah Gut knew the police were within their rights to interrogate anyone associated with a case, but when the person in question was a Triad boss, this was reckless – especially as they only had guesswork to go on at this point. If Uncle Ngok was the mastermind, then he’d know they were on to him and would have time to take precautions, such as fleeing overseas; and if he wasn’t, then the Triad would retaliate in some way, to remind the police to treat others as they’d like to be treated. The last time a gangland boss had been brought in for questioning, the regional police station had found itself besieged by more than a hundred thugs.

  In fact, Lok hadn’t initially intended to confront Yam Tak-ngok. A day earlier, the culprit wouldn’t have been aware that the police had the video. That meant the ball was in Lok’s court. But now the whole thing was exposed, he’d decided on a risky gambit, bringing the biggest fish back to the station and seeing if they could destabilize his position.

  Because he was questioning Yam as a witness rather than having him arrested, Lok worried something might go wrong. If Uncle Ngok didn’t play nice and this escalated, there’d be more problems down the road.

  In the end, reality exceeded his expectations.

  Lok and Ah Gut arrived at the enemy camp – Hing-chung-wo’s legal shell company, Hing-ngok Finance – and while the stern, murderous-looking ‘employees’ weren’t particularly friendly, the company’s ‘chairman’, Yam Tak-ngok, seemed delighted to see them. He happily accompanied them to the station.

  ‘Far too many people here – better to talk at your office,’ said Uncle Ngok.

  This was Lok’s first meeting with Yam Tak-ngok. From the pictures and reports, he’d expected a dour Triad boss, only to find himself facing a man who could be any ordinary old uncle. The only unusual thing was that Uncle Ngok’s eyes were far more piercing than the average person’s, not containing the slightest hint of a smile even when he was beaming.

  Uncle Ngok and one of his black-suited associates rode back to Tsim Sha Tsui police station in Inspector Lok’s car. Every officer looked on in amazement as the boss of Hing-chung-wo arrived.

  ‘This way, Mr Yam.’ Lok opened the door of an interview room on the third floor.

  ‘Ah Wah, wait here for me,’ said Uncle Ngok to the suited man.

  ‘But Big Brother—’

  ‘Call me “Boss”.’ Uncle Ngok’s face sank for a moment, but he soon resumed his normal expression. ‘I’m just going to talk alone with these two officers. We’re in the police station – surely you don’t think they’ll torture me as soon as that door is shut?’

  Lok noted the veiled threat in his words, a hint that they’d better not try any little tricks. He thought Uncle Ngok would find it easy to lead an inexperienced officer by
the nose.

  In the room, Lok and Ah Gut sat on one side of the table, facing Yam Tak-ngok.

  ‘Mr Yam, we’ve asked you here today to talk about the Jordan Road...’ Lok began.

  ‘Is this the Candy Ton murder?’ Uncle Ngok didn’t beat about the bush.

  ‘You know that Candy Ton was killed?’

  ‘My guys showed me the video today. To fall from such a height – she must be dead.’

  ‘Why are you so sure it’s Candy Ton? It could just be someone who looks like her.’

  ‘I wasn’t sure to start with, but since you’ve come looking for me, I thought it was certain—’ He coughed. ‘Because my idiot son got beaten up, you suspect I set someone on that woman in revenge.’

  ‘So Eric Yeung really is your son?’

  ‘Mr Inspector, let’s not play around.’ Uncle Ngok smiled unpleasantly. ‘The police must already have established Eric’s relationship to me. Let’s be clear – even though it was that woman who led my son on before changing her mind and running to Boss Chor, I want you to know I didn’t send anyone to take care of her. That’s what you wanted to ask me, isn’t it?’

  Lok hadn’t expected him to guess the police hypothesis so completely.

  ‘When you say “deal with”, do you mean “threaten” or “murder”?’ Lok deliberately raised his voice on the last word.

  ‘I didn’t send anyone after Candy Ton – she’s got nothing to do with me.’ Uncle Ngok’s expression hadn’t changed one bit.

  ‘You said she led Eric Yeung on? According to whom?’

  ‘That’s what Eric said. Mr Inspector, you can choose not to believe him, but I don’t think my son would lie over something so trivial.’

  ‘But if he was drunk?’ Ah Gut cut in.

  ‘Okay, fine, perhaps that woman didn’t exactly “lead him on”, but I don’t think the word on the street is entirely accurate. Eric might have been a tiny bit keen – but then women are like horses, you have to break them in before use.’

  Lok and Ah Gut both thanked their lucky stars that Mary wasn’t in the interview room. She’d have started yelling at the Triad boss for being a chauvinist pig.

  ‘You say you didn’t send anyone to deal with Candy Ton. But Eric Yeung was ambushed and assaulted – aren’t you even a little upset about that?’

  ‘If I said I wasn’t furious, you wouldn’t believe me,’ said Uncle Ngok calmly. ‘Which father’s heart wouldn’t ache to see his son get beaten up? But you can’t just lash out in anger. You have to look at the big picture.’

  ‘What big picture?’

  ‘Mr Inspector, let’s be frank. You run the Crime Unit, you know very well the balance of power in this region. In two years at most, the name of Hing-chung-wo will vanish from the underworld. I’m getting tired of this endless back-and-forth, anyway. I’ve done plenty of bad things in the past, too many, and if you want to pin this one on me, fine. I’ll probably spend the rest of my life in Stanley or Shek Pik Jail, but I don’t want to take my gang down with me, and I particularly don’t want Eric, stupid as he is, to take the same road I did.’ Uncle Ngok paused. ‘The world of entertainment isn’t straightforward, but at least it’s law-abiding. If I’d hurt even Candy Ton’s little finger and word got out, wouldn’t that just damage Eric’s prospects?’

  Lok was taken aback by this. He’d never expected the ‘big picture’ to be Eric’s future in the entertainment industry.

  ‘Mr Yam, you’re openly admitting to being part of a criminal gang – aren’t you afraid I’ll charge you?’ Hong Kong law was clear: to even proclaim oneself a Triad member was a crime.

  ‘You’re dealing with Candy Ton’s case right now. What good would it do you to arrest me?’ Uncle Ngok grinned. ‘Besides, your drug guys already have that fellow Chiang in their hands, you don’t need to come after me too.’

  Lok remembered what Kwan Chun-dok had said – that the Narcotics Unit had enough evidence to charge Yam Tak-ngok. ‘That fellow Chiang’ was probably some witness. Lok didn’t know the details, but he could guess. By the sound of it, Uncle Ngok was mentally prepared to do jail time.

  Nothing in his words gave Lok an opening. Either he was a crafty old fox, or it was all true.

  ‘Mr Yam, let me ask you one more time.’ Lok looked him straight in the eye. ‘Did you or didn’t you send someone to attack Candy Ton? If one of your men accidentally killed her, the sooner he turns himself in, the more likely it is he’ll get away with a manslaughter charge. I don’t need to tell you how much lighter that sentence would be than for murder.’

  ‘I didn’t order anyone to harm a hair on her head,’ said Yam Tak-ngok, no longer smiling. ‘Just as I said earlier, I’d never do anything that might damage my son’s career.’

  ‘In that case, Mr Yam, is it possible that your subordinates are deceiving you? Wanting to take revenge for your son, and attacking Candy Ton behind your back?’

  Uncle Ngok was silent, and for just a second Lok saw his brows contract. After some time, he said slowly, ‘I trust them. They’ve obeyed my orders all these years.’

  ‘Perhaps, knowing their Big Brother was going inside soon, they wanted to do something to help you?’

  ‘Not possible. No one in my gang would be so dumb. Besides, Candy Ton is outside the organization, and you know we believe wives and children shouldn’t be touched.’

  Uncle Ngok’s words were firm, but Lok and Ah Gut could see he was wavering. The human heart is unknowable, and even his right-hand men couldn’t be guaranteed not to go against orders.

  Lok knew he wouldn’t get a name out of Uncle Ngok that day, so he let him leave, after remarking that they might look him up again for further assistance with their inquiries. He hoped that this meeting would send a clear message – that if a Hing-chung-wo member had accidentally killed Candy Ton, surrendering himself would be the best option, firstly to show Hung-yi that the death wasn’t intentional and thus prevent an all-out gang war, and secondly as grounds for a reduced sentence. Rather than waiting in fear for Boss Chor’s retaliation, it’d be better to put everything out in the open.

  Still, Lok was hardly naive enough to pin all his hopes on this elderly gang leader. He asked his Intelligence Team to find out what every member of Hing-chung-wo was doing on the night of the killing, as well as to check if anyone in the gang had suddenly vanished since the incident. Guys on the outer fringes of the organization were often happy to turn informant, and while there was a risk that they were double agents, they were the most reliable source of information. There’d been at least four assailants, which meant four mouths rather than one to keep shut – if they had come from Hing-chung-wo, the culprits might have bragged about it afterwards, or else got frightened and confessed to their colleagues.

  Still, four days went by with no new reports. There were attempts at retaliation by low-ranking Hung-yi Union thugs who were unhappy that Hing-chung-wo had apparently attacked someone outside their organization, but these were isolated incidents. There was absolutely no movement from the upper half of the hierarchy. No witnesses had turned up either – no one even seemed to know how Candy Ton had travelled from Kwun Tong to Jordan. A night bus passed along that stretch of road at half-hour intervals, but none of the drivers remembered seeing anything out of the ordinary, including a chase, an attack, the moving of a casualty or the road being hosed down. If they were telling the truth, the criminals must have studied the bus timetables and the pattern of routine police patrols, in order to make sure the whole incident took place unobserved.

  Entertainment circles were abuzz with the news, with many voices raised in sympathy or denouncing the attackers, but others hinting that Candy Ton had got exactly what she deserved. Reporters tried to interview Boss Chor, but a Starry Night publicist told everyone he was away on business for a few days.

  Five days after the press conference, Ah Gut took a phone call and rushed over to Lok. ‘Commander, a female corpse has been found in Castle Peak Bay.’

  ‘Candy Ton?�
�� said Lok, immediately alert.

  ‘Don’t know. A police patrol boat dredged her up. She’d been submerged a few days, and her face is gone. A long-haired woman, between fifteen and twenty-five.’

  ‘Clothes?’

  ‘She was naked,’ said Ah Gut. ‘Want me to go take a look?’

  ‘I’ll go with you.’ Lok grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair.

  Lok and Ah Gut got to the Kowloon Public Mortuary in Hung Hom, only to find the body hadn’t arrived yet. In the waiting room, both men were uneasy, half hoping this was Candy Ton, because her body would provide more clues, but also hoping she was alive and well despite everything that suggested otherwise.

  ‘It’s here,’ called a worker, summoning them into the morgue.

  As Ah Gut said, the body was not in good shape. Not only were its features swollen from days in the water, the body itself was damaged all over – impossible to say if fish had been nibbling or if it had got entangled with boat propellers. Fortunately the fingertips seemed all right, so they should be able to identify her from her prints.

  The pathologist arrived while they were still looking at the body. He seemed surprised that the police had got there before him, but after hearing that Inspector Lok was in charge of the Candy Ton case, understood why they’d were anxious.

  ‘A detailed autopsy will take time – I’ll do a quick examination first,’ he offered.

  According to the pathologist, the cause of death was drowning. There were many broken bones, with visible wounds to the skull, all inflicted before death. This would be consistent with what they had seen on the video.

  ‘I’ll let you have the fingerprints, and you can run them through your system.’ He lifted the corpse’s right hand, and very carefully dried the fingertips before dabbing them in ink and taking the prints.