by Tom Bradby
A Chinese woman thrust a baby toward the open door. The driver pushed her to the ground, swearing loudly, then spitting on the pavement.
Field made to intervene, but thought better of it. He lit up as he watched the beggar retreat to the side of the store.
Unusually, she appeared to be on her own, so he reached into his pocket, walked over, and pushed a one-dollar piece into her hand. She was young, her eyes expressionless. It was a moment or two before he realized that the baby she was holding was dead.
Field turned back to the car. His breathing had quickened. The driver was shaking his head. Field threw away his cigarette and took refuge in the car again. He leaned against the side window and closed his eyes.
Caprisi pulled the door open and clambered in. He was carrying a brown paper bag. “Central,” he said, tapping the driver on the shoulder.
“Get what you wanted?” Field asked.
“Sure.” Caprisi paused. “When we get back, you’ll go and see if there is a file on Sergei, right?” The American looked at him, his gaze level. “You know, about back there. I hear what you say, and I understand about your father and I’m sorry, but Lena was a prostitute, you know.”
“So it doesn’t matter?”
“I didn’t say that. I just don’t think it is a good idea to get so worked up about it.”
Field looked out of the window again. “You care about it.”
“But I’m looking at you all hunched up in there, with bunched fists, looking like you’re going to kill that little fucker.”
Field didn’t answer.
“You won’t survive in this city if you make everything personal.”
Field looked at him but didn’t respond.
There was a file on Sergei Stanislevich. Like Lena and Natasha, he was from Kazan on the Volga and had attended meetings at the New Shanghai Life.
Field was flicking through the contents when Prokopieff came in. The Russian nodded at him. “The Lentov file,” he told Danny. Field noticed he hadn’t bothered to fill out any paperwork.
Prokopieff leaned back against the desk, crossing his legs. He was wearing long black leather riding boots that looked to have been standard issue for the Cossack officer he said he’d once been. Field realized he was no longer prepared to take anything at face value.
“Where did you learn to punch like that?” the Russian asked.
“School.”
“You punch like a boxer.”
“I was a boxer.”
Prokopieff smiled. “I would stay away from Sorenson. He’s not happy about his jaw.”
Field didn’t answer.
“How is the prostitute?”
“Still dead.”
The Russian shook his head. “Grow up, Field. That’s what happens to little Russian princesses. They get fucked, and then they get dead.”
“You don’t talk like a Cossack officer.”
Prokopieff didn’t react.
Field stood and put the file back down on the desk. “Stanislevich.” Prokopieff clicked his tongue. “Mr. Nobody. You think it was him?”
“No.”
“Put it down to an angry client.”
“Because she was a prostitute, or because she was a Russian?”
Prokopieff looked at Field sourly. “Because she doesn’t matter.”
“And what if there have been others . . . if there will be others?”
The Russian leaned forward, and Field could smell the alcohol on his breath. “It’s an English expression: you make your bed, you lie in it.” He laughed. “You fuck in your bed, you get fucked in it.”
Field knew that Prokopieff was trying to provoke him, but it was still a struggle to tear himself away. He walked to the door and closed it quietly, resisting the temptation to slam it. He took control of himself with each step down to the first floor, where Caprisi had said they would find Chen.
As Field passed, two scantily dressed Chinese girls were being booked by the duty sergeant.
Caprisi was talking to Chen by the entrance to the toilet on the far side of the room, and they both nodded as Field approached. The bench beside them had civilian clothes hanging along it, and the floor was covered with wooden truncheons, which a clerk had obviously been sorting through. Each one had a leather strap, though most had been broken. Four machine guns and a couple of steel helmets had been stacked on top of the iron lockers in the corner.
The place smelled and felt like the changing rooms at the spartan boarding school Field had attended in Yorkshire.
Chen beckoned them both into the toilet, shutting the door behind them and checking that each cubicle was vacant before retreating to the sinks at the far end. The sun streamed through the window, illuminating the side of Chen’s face.
Field thought that most people would probably consider the Chinese detective handsome. He had a square jaw, short dark hair, and steady eyes. He exuded a quiet strength.
Chen touched his ears to indicate why they had come in here. “One of the neighbors,” he said quietly. “A building opposite. An old Chinese, lives on his own. Says he never sleeps. He saw a black car, probably Chevrolet, come up about four A.M. Bodyguards get out street side, but he can’t see who goes in—it’s dark and the car blocks his view. One hour, then whoever it is leaves, car goes off. He sees the girl Natasha come in before this—about three.”
“As she said,” Caprisi added.
“But not Lena. She is inside all night.”
“No other visitors?”
“He cannot say. He’s not always watching. When he is bored, he watches the street. Especially Happy Times. He knows the girls are Lu’s.”
“He didn’t see anyone else?”
“He didn’t say he saw anyone.”
Caprisi frowned and shook his head. “But four o’clock. Krauss said she died at one, if not before.”
“Maybe Krauss is wrong.”
Caprisi slammed his fist down on one of the washbasins.
“Prokopieff tailed me there,” Chen said. “How fucking stupid does he think I am?”
Caprisi’s frown deepened. “He tailed you?”
“From here. I went on foot, down Foochow, and he was there . . . sticking out . . .”
“Did he want you to see him?”
Chen shrugged.
“All right,” Caprisi said. “This feels to me like we’re going down the same road that led us into trouble before with the opium dens. Wherever possible, we have to work together. If we leave this building to do anything, we should try always to be together, and armed.”
The door opened and a uniformed Chinese officer walked in. He was young—just a constable—and he nodded at Chen respectfully.
Caprisi took Field down to the car but wouldn’t tell him where they were going. They drove through the French Concession and out toward the edge of the old Chinese town before going on foot. The day had lost its heat, but not yet its light. Dust kicked up by the human traffic hung beneath the curved rooftops of the buildings that lined the narrow lane along which they walked.
They turned into a still-narrower alley, passing tiny shops with carved, inlaid wooden shutters, beneath paper lanterns that had not yet been lit. They could hear the sound of a flute, and ahead of them a group of small boys was playing in the dirt. The smell of human excrement made Field gag.
They turned into a tailor’s shop. Every inch of space had been used to the full. A dummy stood in the middle of a square cutting table. There was a mirror on the far wall and only just enough room to stand. Caprisi was smiling. “The best tailor in Shanghai. We’re going to get you out of that suit.”
“I . . .”
“You can pay me back.”
The old man smiled and held up his tape measure. A young boy stood beside him, his face expectant, and Field felt it was churlish to complain. He allowed himself to be measured while Caprisi talked to the man in rapid Shanghainese. As he watched and listened, he realized how little experience he had with the local people, beyond his day
-to-day police work or his living quarters at Carter Road. He admired the ease with which Caprisi slipped into conversation with them.
“He asks if all my friends are this tall,” Caprisi said.
“I got that bit.”
“He’s asking about Lu.”
“I heard his name mentioned.”
“Says Lu’s men boast they control all of the police in Shanghai.”
Field didn’t respond.
“I told him Lu’s men were in for a surprise.”
The old man thrust the tape measure roughly into Field’s groin and pushed him irritably when he did not turn quickly enough. Then he pulled out a book of cloth samples and flicked through it before pointing at the one he thought most suitable.
“I explained that it was for summer use.”
“That’s fine.”
Uneasy about Caprisi’s generosity, and uncomfortable with the tailor’s brusqueness, Field couldn’t wait to get out. He stood in the alley as the American continued to talk to the old man.
“Ready in two days,” Caprisi said when he emerged.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“No really, it was—”
“One good deed deserves another.”
Field looked blank.
“I like having a partner who knows how to fight.”
Field smiled.
“There’s a teahouse around the corner,” Caprisi said. They stepped over a prostrate beggar and walked up to a building with a low entrance and dark wooden panels along its hall.
The tearoom overlooked a small but pretty oriental garden, the delicate sound of its fountain still audible above the hubbub. They were shown to a table and Caprisi ordered.
“You’ve been here before,” Field said when the waiter disappeared.
“A few times.”
“You have Chinese friends here. In the city, I mean.”
“Some.” Caprisi looked at him. “You’ll get there, Field. It’s not just about language.” The American touched his forehead. “You have to want to understand the people, and most foreigners don’t.”
Field lit a cigarette and leaned back in his chair. “Doesn’t the poverty bother you?”
“Of course.”
“I worry that it doesn’t bother me enough.”
“There’s poverty everywhere.”
“Yes, but it’s so extreme here.” Field leaned forward again. “And yet, it doesn’t put me off the city. It doesn’t stop me being excited about being here. It doesn’t repel me. I feel guilty about that.”
“You’ll get over it.”
Field looked at the American. “So why do you stay?”
Caprisi sucked on his cigarette. “It feels like home now.”
“I’m not sure what that means anymore.”
The American didn’t answer.
“You won’t go back to Chicago?”
Caprisi shook his head.
“Never?”
“Probably not.”
“You don’t have family there?”
Caprisi’s jaw tightened.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean . . .”
“It’s all right. I don’t much like talking about the past, that’s all.”
Field nodded and the American’s face softened again. “I understand.” After a few moments Field added, “I feel the same.”
The waiter returned with a tray. He placed a red and gold china teapot in the center of the table and a cup and saucer grudgingly in front of each of them.
“You see?” Caprisi said as he moved away. “We’re foreigners. We’ll always be foreigners.”
Field watched him pour the tea. “It seems to me sometimes,” he said, “that everyone here is escaping, in one way or another.”
“Except for the ones who can’t.”
Field frowned.
“Look at the Russians. The girl I saw you mooning at.” Caprisi smiled as Field’s face reddened. “It’s a gilded cage, but that doesn’t stop it being a cage.”
“I suppose . . .”
“Where can they go? No visas. No passport. They don’t belong anywhere anymore, and yet they once inhabited a world they had every reason to believe would last forever.” Caprisi fell silent. “You say you feel the same, polar bear, but I don’t think we can begin to understand.”
Fifteen
By the time Field came out of the station, the day was fading fast. A rich red shroud had settled upon the buildings around him, the banners silhouetted against a darkening sky.
He walked quickly, gripping his holster, his jacket draped over his arm. He still had his tie undone and was grateful for the faint breeze.
Field hesitated at the entrance to the Carter Road quarters. He didn’t relish spending the evening in a ringside seat at Prokopieff’s circus.
But the Russian was out, and Field found, as he entered his own room, that a letter had been pushed under the door.
The envelope boasted the crest of the Municipal Council, and his name had been written in blue ink in a flowing hand.
My dear Richard, Geoffrey had written. It was good to see you again after all these years and to welcome you to Shanghai, albeit belatedly, for which, again, many apologies. I’m afraid the workload of a municipal secretary is rather a burdensome one.
We would be delighted if you could join us for a late supper tonight at home, however. I believe you have the address. About ten should do it, though alternatively you could join me earlier at a function at the headquarters of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, and we might manage a drink before dinner. I have a talk to give at eight—some local worthy women—but should be free by nine. It’s in the conference room on the first floor. Mention my name at the door and explain who you are.
Penelope and I would be delighted if you would treat our home as your own during your time here. We know how lonely it can be to be so far away. I’m rarely in during the early evening, but Penelope usually is and would be very pleased to see you whenever you wish.
Fond regards, Geoffrey.
Field looked at his watch and then at the dinner jacket that hung from a line of cord he’d strung in the window. It didn’t sound like the kind of occasion at which a dinner jacket would be required, but he put it on to be on the safe side, then walked out and hailed a rickshaw.
If anything, the dinner jacket was hotter than his suit, but the wind had risen again, and as he turned onto the Bund, it was strong enough to keep him cool for the first time that day.
The waterfront was still busy. A crowd milled about on the sidewalk in the semidarkness beneath the trees on the far side by the wharf. A bright moon now shone above the well-lit buildings, which were decorated in honor of the king’s impending birthday. The Union Jack on the dome above the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank twisted and snapped in the breeze. Field paid the rickshaw man and walked through a line of parked cars. A group of Chinese children was patting one of the bronze lions guarding the bank’s entrance. Local superstition encouraged them to believe that it would give them strength.
Inside, the huge wooden doors through to the main hall were padlocked, so Field turned back and walked to the rear entrance. A wide stone staircase led up to the first floor and, at the top, a sign announced that Geoffrey Donaldson, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Council, would be giving a talk entitled “The New Jerusalem.”
Two stout women in dark jackets sat behind a trestle table, next to a uniformed bank security guard.
“I’m Richard Field, Geoffrey Donaldson’s—”
“Yes, of course. He said you might be coming.” The woman smiled and wrote down his name, then handed him a leaflet. The doors to the room had been thrown open and he could see Geoffrey already at the lectern.
It looked like a ballroom. The carpet was crimson, and huge gilt-edged mirrors lined the walls.
“Here,” he heard his uncle say as he moved closer, “we are privileged to have an eyewitness view of the future. And this is the future, let no one be under an
y illusions about that. China is a developing market, on a scale undreamed-of in the history of commerce. And which nation leads the charge into this land of promise? As the secretary of the Municipal Council, I should perhaps not be partisan, but I hope you’ll forgive me a little native pride.” He smiled, surveying his audience. “British companies are leading this charge. Thirty-eight percent of all foreign holdings in China are British, and three-quarters of our 600-million-pound investment is here in this great city.
“But let me put back ‘my secretary of the Municipal Council’ hat. We are not technically part of the British Empire here, as you know all too well. And I know you share my frustration that we do not always get the support from Washington and London that we feel is our due.
“Anglo-Saxon values have built the greatest empires the world has ever known: decency, honesty, integrity, justice, a sense of fair play. A society based on all of these principles is what we are building so successfully here.”
Geoffrey shifted his weight from his good leg for a moment. He touched his mouth with his hand before smoothing the hair around one of his temples. “All of us are, I know, offended at times”—he had changed his tone and was speaking more quietly—“by the poverty we see on the streets every day, and may I say again, I am not alone in admiring the Volunteer Corps of Shanghai for the tireless work it does—you all do—in alleviating some of the suffering, but this, let me tell you is the rub . . .” He leaned forward onto the lectern, a finger pointing toward the ceiling. “Every man jack out there in this city knows that if he works hard and is honest, then he can pull himself up by his bootstraps and secure his family a better future. That is what we are about here. That is why there is no city that has a future as golden as Shanghai’s. That’s why, I believe, we have every right to say that this is the New Jerusalem. A profitable city, of whose values we can be justly proud.”