David spoke again. ‘I don’t understand why I almost drowned. Usually I swim like a fish.’
‘Did you think of drugs, David?’ Geoffrey shrugged. ‘I’ve been racking my brains but that’s the only explanation I can imagine. When I dragged you on board, you could hardly walk or talk. Did you share a cup of tea with Wu?’
‘Not at all. I made sure I had my own cup and my own drink. I know this nice family too well. He’d poison his own grandmother. If I have been drugged, one of my own stewards must have been bribed to do it – a sobering thought, but I can’t exclude it. Regrettably it sounds very likely. Funny I didn’t think of it before. But in the end it was Wu who was killed. Was that the intention from the start, or a mistake? Was the killer aiming for both of us? Who could want to get rid of both of us – Wu and me?’ David asked, bewildered.
‘The guy with the biggest motivation to get rid of both of you was on your boat, David. That’s pretty obvious.’
‘Wu Junior? That spineless greenhorn? You must be kidding!’
‘Doesn’t it look obvious though? He inherits a fortune now that his grandfather is gone and, if you’re out of the way, he can take over the Chinese company you’ve been haggling over for peanuts… and live happily ever after as they say in fairy tales.’
David shook his head. ‘It’s not that easy, Geoffrey. Did you look at the stock market this morning? Wu’s shares are in freefall – as are mine. Someone is speculating heavily against both of us.’
‘Maybe Wu himself?’ Amanda suggested.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Wu Junior can sell short and buy back his own shares later a lower price – he knows they’re bound to go up when he buys the Chinese pharmaceutical company.’
Geoffrey and David looked at her in awe. ‘That’s risky, but a very clever move, extremely clever… Yeah… that’s perfectly possible. How come you know about these things?’
Amanda laughed. ‘I may be a teacher, but I do happen to read newspapers. Don’t look at me like I’m a giraffe.’
‘A clever giraffe…’ said Geoffrey. ‘I think I’d better invite my banker for a beer tonight, or perhaps something stronger. If I’m lucky he’ll open up and tell me some inside information. But he’ll never do that on the phone. He might have heard some rumours about who’s behind this. Well, that settles my plans for tonight.’ He sighed. ‘What about you, girls? What about a girls’ night out before you go back the hotel?’
‘Why not?’ Susan seemed to warm to the idea.
‘Let me offer you a drink before you leave,’ David pleaded. ‘I’ve been a bad host. I’ve neglected the basic rules of hospitality.’ Not waiting for an answer, he rang for the butler.
Geoffrey made a face and opted for sparkling water. ‘I’d love something more exciting, but the Hong Kong police are so damned stubborn on the principle that drinking and driving don’t match.’
Amanda and Susan chose a glass of Chablis, but Amanda was unusually quiet. Finally she made her mind up and cleared her throat. ‘I think I need to tell you something.’
Immediately Geoffrey and Susan stopped talking. ‘That sounds secretive, anything important?’
Amanda took a sip of her wine and replied, ‘In the light of what has happened, I guess, yes, it is. The day before yesterday Wu Junior knocked at my hotel room door. He was very rude and menacing to me. I should explain first that I met his grandfather two years ago on a cruise ship. To cut a long story short, there was a murder on that cruise ship and although technically speaking Wu was not guilty, he had his fingers in the pie and I found out about it. Wu told me then that he’d never forgive me.’
Astonished eyes met hers while Amanda continued with a wry smile. ‘Wu Junior made it clear that they saw my arrival in Hong Kong not as sheer coincidence. They viewed my meeting with David as a sort of declaration of hostilities. When I told Wu to leave my room immediately he just laughed and explained that the Wu family owns the hotel and has access whenever they wish. That makes me nervous, especially after this last incident.’
‘He said that?’ David asked, fascinated. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Sure! When I told him I’d call hotel security, he just laughed. I felt so stupid – like a silly girl.’
David pressed a buzzer on his desk. Seconds later a capable-looking middle-aged Chinese employee entered the room, dressed in unobtrusive but very elegant business attire.
‘Let me introduce you to Peggy, she’s my PA.’ He turned to Peggy. ‘The Intercontinental in Tsim Sha Tsui belongs to us, doesn’t it?’
‘There are two hotels in that area of Kowloon, sir. Do you mean the one opposite to the Peninsula?’
Her English was impeccable, but Amanda would not have expected otherwise.
‘Yes, that’s the one.’
‘That property indeed belongs to one of our real estate holding companies. Is there anything I can do?’
‘Can you put a call through to the hotel’s MD? I think his name is Phil – but please check before the call when the management contract expires.’
‘Certainly, sir, give me a few minutes and I’ll be back.’
Peggy was true to her word and reappeared only five minutes later.
‘The contract will expire in eighteen months, sir. The hotel wants to prolong it and we’re favourable to their request – actually quite advanced in the negotiations.’
‘Excellent.’ David beamed. ‘Now, let’s have a bit of fun. Please call the MD and put him through to me.’
Amanda was puzzled by this exchange – had Wu Junior been bluffing to frighten her? But she couldn’t pursue her line of thought as the phone buzzed and David started talking.
‘Hi, Phil, this is David Li. I have an issue to discuss. One of my friends, Miss Amanda Lipton, is staying in your hotel… No, you don’t need to apologize, you couldn’t possibly have known… Yes, an upgrade would be nice, what about a nice suite, I guess she’d prefer that…’
He winked at Amanda and Susan who listened spellbound, Amanda blushing, Susan looking intrigued.
‘No, of course you won’t charge her. If she needs anything, you can debit my account… Oh, that’s not necessary? Great.’ He paused, then continued. ‘There’s another issue though, Phil, quite a serious one. Miss Lipton was harassed in her room – apparently security let someone undesirable pass. Not a nice story by any account. I expect you to step up security and make sure that nobody enters or comes close to her suite without previous clearance. Am I understood? Yes, that’s good then. Good to remember that the management contract will need to be renewed and I don’t see myself signing it if a friend of mine can’t stay peacefully in your hotel.’
David grinned as the voice at the other end seemed to reach a crescendo of purest panic.
‘That’s fine, I understand you’ll vouchsafe personally for her security from now on. Thanks, Phil, nice talking to you. Yes, I understand, Miss Lipton will be accompanied by you personally. No, I have no idea what kind of flowers or drinks she’d prefer. I have confidence that you’ll manage it beautifully. Goodbye.’
Amanda was stunned; finally she managed to say, ‘Thank you, David, but that’s totally unnecessary.’
‘The suites are quite nice, you’ll see. Take it as a small compensation for our somewhat unlucky boat tour yesterday, Amanda. And be sure that you can sleep in peace now. I wouldn’t be surprised if Phil decided to sleep personally outside your door. He’ll lose his job if something goes wrong. This hotel is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in income for the group – they will not dare jeopardize that. Wu Junior can go and frighten other people if that’s what he likes to do as a pastime, but he won’t come close to you again.’
‘I’ll come with you!’ Susan looked thrilled. ‘I always wanted to see what a suite in a five-star hotel looks like.’
‘I’ll try to catch my friend the banker in the meantime. Anyhow, how could I rival the attractions of a suite?’ Geoffrey said with a smirk. ‘I’ll sacrifice myself in a pub and I
won’t be available tonight.’
‘Welcome to a nasty hangover tomorrow?’ Amanda winked.
‘Most probably – don’t be surprised if I look my father tomorrow.’ He winked back.
‘Well, there’s not a lot that we can do now but wait for some further news.’ David shrugged. ‘A most unusual, not to say most unpleasant situation.’
‘That was the understatement of the year,’ Susan said later as they drove back to Kowloon. ‘“Unpleasant situation”! We’ve had two deaths, attempted blackmail – very unpleasant indeed…’
‘I just wonder who’s the mastermind behind all this?’ Amanda frowned.
‘Who wouldn’t? And to be truthful, we’d better find out before there’s another victim.’ Geoffrey was concerned. ‘What’s your bet?’
‘Wu Junior,’ Susan replied immediately. ‘It’s more than obvious – and women have a sixth sense for crime. I saw Wu Junior at Cynthia’s party. Believe me or not, I felt some kind of shiver, a premonition…’
Amanda laughed. ‘Are you sure your shiver wasn’t caused by the air conditioning? But you have a point, he’s got a lot to gain from his grandfather’s death – but I don’t see how he could profit from Cynthia’s demise? Or am I missing a point here?’
‘Maybe he wanted to poison his grandfather and Cynthia was unlucky enough to pick the wrong drink?’ Susan was not prepared to let Wu Junior off the hook. ‘You saw them standing together.’
Geoffrey objected. ‘He’d need to be quite cold blooded to first poison Cynthia, then drug David and his grandfather, and hatch a plan to make the yacht almost capsize. I mean, it’s possible, but do you really think he’d be the kind of person to dream up and execute such a bold plan?’
‘I don’t know. But you never know – and who else could be involved?’ Amanda asked.
‘The Chinese mafia would be an option,’ Geoffrey said calmly. ‘They also play the stock market. If they can manipulate share prices at the cost of a few lives, they wouldn’t mind – on the contrary, that would look cheap to them. If both men, David and Wu Senior, had drowned, the shares of their companies would have plummeted like a stone. A tempting idea for some people.’
‘I truly hope we can stay out of this. I really don’t fancy another adventure of that kind!’ Amanda felt slightly faint.
In the meantime they had reached the driveway of the hotel where the grand illuminated fountain gushed in ever-changing colours. But if Amanda had hoped to sneak back to her room unnoticed she was mistaken. A delegation from the hotel was waiting for her; Peggy must have informed the hotel management that their new VIP guest was on the way. Susan and Amanda were led among a cavalcade of bellboys, receptionists and managers upstairs to the suite that had been newly assigned to Amanda.
Needless to say, all her belongings had already been transferred and unpacked by her new private butler, as she was informed. The managing director welcomed her and excused himself at length for the – as he called it – unhappy occurrence. Then Phil gave her his private phone number: ‘You can call day and night, Miss Lipton, I’m always at your service.’
Amanda sighed as she closed the door behind the last hotel employee. ‘I didn’t know that being a VIP could be so stressful. David meant well, but I’d rather they’d leave me in peace.’
‘I like this!’ Susan looked around her with a satisfied grunt. ‘Look at the beautiful flowers. A bottle of iced champagne is also most welcome. But most importantly, Wu Junior won’t be able to set foot in your room. Your story sounded terrifying – you should have called me immediately by the way, you silly goose.’
Amanda nodded; she accepted the last point. Susan was right, she should have raised the alarm immediately. Taking in all the little details she looked around her. The suite was truly luxurious. It was decorated with unobtrusive elegance in soft colours, perfectly framing the stunning view onto the harbour and Hong Kong Island.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a popping sound. ‘I think we deserve this.’ Susan smiled as she passed a glass of champagne to Amanda.
‘To Hong Kong – and let’s hope we find the killer!’ Amanda raised her glass.
Susan suddenly made a face.
‘What’s happening, darling, aren’t you feeling well?’ Amanda asked.
‘I suddenly remembered one of my mother’s favourite sayings: Sometimes one should better take care of what one might truly wish….’
Accidents will happen
Susan and Amanda were going to meet Geoffrey for a late, late lunch, totally understanding his point that anything too early was totally out of the question after his night out.
Neil was tied up with meetings, the convention being in full swing now. Some delegates had gladly embraced the option to spend New Year’s Eve in Hong Kong, but most wanted or needed to be back home before then.
The girls met Geoffrey in a small Italian restaurant in the basement of one of the narrow streets neighbouring the busy Nathan Road. It was a typical restaurant of its kind, with terracotta tiles worn by the time, faded prints of antique landmarks and the indispensable dusty Chianti bottles in all kinds of quirky shapes. Only very critical minds would be bothered that the Italian costumes of the staff couldn’t change the fact that the servers were exclusively Chinese, which rather spoilt the authenticity; none of them were capable of pronouncing the Italian names of the dishes correctly.
It was quite dark inside and Amanda couldn’t help feeling that this had been the major motivation for Geoffrey’s choice of location. Despite the dimmed lights he was sitting at the table with his sunglasses on; it must have been a long night…
‘I think I’d better not ask how you’re feeling,’ said Amanda. ‘You look terrible, if I may say so. You have my full sympathy.’
‘Better not go into details,’ was the croaky reply. Geoffrey took a long sip from a glass filled with a dark reddish juice and eyed it doubtfully. He caught Susan’s questioning glance. ‘It’s a Bloody Mary loaded with tabasco and Worcester sauce,’ he groaned. ‘Some say it helps. Not sure, but it can’t possibly make things worse.’
Susana and Amanda took their time to make their choices from a large menu while Geoffrey tried to work his way back to human being status. Orders taken, Amanda opened the conversation. ‘Was your effort at least crowned with success?’
Geoffrey nodded. ‘Yes…’ His voice failed and he quickly took another sip of the evil-looking liquid. Fortified, he continued. ‘I made him talk but it took a whole bottle of whisky. Cynthia sold shares in David’s company shortly before she died – considerable amounts actually – and not only that, she made it known “in confidence” to some other big players. Wu joined the bet and timed the sales for this week. My pal in the bank couldn’t resist – he played the game as well and thinks he’ll make a fortune, by the way. It’s illegal, of course – if ever the banks finds out…’
‘But if Wu sold David’s shares, he certainly never had any genuine intention to come to an agreement with him on the yacht.’
‘Exactly, it was probably just a smokescreen. In truth, the Wu family never wanted any agreement, they had already signed a deal with the Chinese investor. My friend thinks that Wu only wanted to know if David was hiding another ace up his sleeve.’ Geoffrey nodded. ‘But the day before yesterday, the same happened with Wu’s shares. An unknown seller sold for several million. As soon as the news of the accident was published, Wu’s shares of course dipped to an all-time low and the guy who sold short made a fortune.’
Susan interrupted. ‘Well, Cynthia is out now, that’s a fact. I told you from the start, Wu Junior is behind all this, mark my words.’
‘That’s a possibility. But…’
‘But didn’t you tell us David was worried that Cynthia had given carte blanche to Jacky? He could have been giving orders in her name,’ Amanda finished for him.
‘You do have an excellent memory, Miss Lipton.’ Geoffrey seemed baffled.
‘I’ve also developed a sixth sense of when people are che
ating. As a teacher you have to – either you learn most of the tricks or you drown. Jacky is not a straight customer, I knew it as soon as I laid eyes on him.’
‘Now you mention it, I remember,’ Susan intervened enthusiastically. ‘When I saw him at Cynthia’s party, I had a premonition. It’s him or Wu Junior, trust me.’
Amanda winked at Geoffrey who winked back. She replied, ‘I agree, darling, nothing can beat a woman’s sixth sense.’
‘That’s what I always say. Some people simply don’t understand,’ Susan replied smugly. ‘But if you think I didn’t notice you were winking at Geoffrey, you’re mistaken. You’ll see I was right and you’ll apologize.’
‘Well, there’s not a lot we can do today to find out more.’ Geoffrey shrugged. His pizza had arrived in the meantime and he took a large bite.
‘I’m feeling better already. Give me one more hour and I’ll be almost human again.’ He sighed with satisfaction. ‘No idea if that’s the effect of the pizza or of the Bloody Mary. Any plans for this afternoon? A bit of fresh air would do me good.’
‘Not really,’ Susan replied. ‘Neil’s out for the whole day but I decided to duck the convention – it’s so unbelievably dull. Neil was threatening to drag me into some terribly boring seminar again. His speciality: toxic plants and animals from the Amazon. I love him dearly, but how grown-up people can spend hours discussing weird-looking animals with endless Latin names is simply beyond my understanding.’
‘I guess we all share that point of view,’ Amanda agreed. ‘Let’s play tourists then. What can you recommend for us, Geoffrey?’
‘The Peak. It’s a must for all tourists. And – if you let me come with you – ideal for me, plenty of fresh air.’
‘Of course we’d love to have you with us. How do we get there?’
‘Let me be your guide. I’ll dope myself with a double espresso, that’s all I need now.’
Death in Hong Kong Page 10