Following his instructions, we began to paddle. After a minute or so, Tony called out, "Stroke. Stroke. Stroke." Once we were synchronized, the boat began to gain some momentum. We were going with the downstream current so it was much faster than when we'd sailed the other direction.
. . .
By my watch, it was a quarter to 4 by the time we beached at the small cove. Hu was waiting with a flashlight.
We gathered all our gear and double-checked that we didn't leave anything behind. Once we were out, Murphy jumped back in. He pulled a small can out from behind one of the benches and began to sprinkle it all over. The smell wafted over. It was gasoline.
I asked, "Is that a good idea?"
O'Reilly nodded. "It'll add to the confusion about who and why. And there's no one around to see it."
I shook my head and wondered what Carter would have to say.
Once he was done, Murphy jumped onto the beach and took out a box of matches. He lit one and threw it on the sampan. We watched for a long moment as the flame spread from one end of the boat to the other. Before long, it was ablaze.
We quickly made our way through the woods to Hu's truck.
. . .
It was well past dawn by the time we pulled up on the side street that ran between the Y.M.C.A. and the hotel. None of us had talked the entire drive. Mai and Jerry fell asleep, as did O'Reilly and Murphy. I had sat and wondered about Ricky and where he was and what he'd done. Lee had driven. He and Tony had said a few things to each other in Cantonese but not much.
The whistle of a train pulling out of the station across the street punctuated the morning as we all piled out.
Tony said to me, "We're about to hit the sack. I'm out of commission until Sunday night at the earliest."
I nodded. "That's fine."
Mai looked around. "Is it real?"
O'Reilly pulled her into a hug. "It is. And you and young Jerry will come along with us. You'll be staying with Mr. Williams and Mr. Jones in a suite. We need to keep you under wraps."
Jerry's eyes widened. "Do they have a television?"
I laughed. "I hope not, kid."
. . .
Murphy had arranged with one of the hotel employees to have us sneaked in through the back and up the service elevator. It was almost 8 when I unlocked the front door of the suite. O'Reilly hugged his sister and his nephew. "We're right down the hall."
"We?" asked Mai.
O'Reilly nodded. "You remember John Murphy?"
Murphy smiled and Mai's eyes lit up. "Yes." She smiled and kissed the man on the cheek.
I said, "Lots of time for family reunion later. I need a bath."
Jerry wrinkled his nose. "You really do, Mr. Williams."
. . .
Carter was sitting on one of the sofas reading the newspaper when we walked in. His hair was pointed in every direction and he was wearing yesterday's lightweight shirt and baggy trousers.
He jumped up and said, "You must be Mai."
She nodded and looked around. "This is yours?"
Carter nodded. "It's yours for the next few days."
Jerry ran in and spread out his arms. "Look at all this, Ma!"
She stood in the living room, looked around, and began to cry.
I walked over and handed her my handkerchief. She took it and said, "I'm sorry. I haven't seen anything like this in so long. It's so grand!"
Jerry ran up to Carter and gawked at him. "You're so tall!"
Carter mussed the kid's hair affectionately. "I sure am. You want something to eat?"
"Sure!"
"How about some eggs and bacon?"
The kid looked confused for a moment. Mai said something in Cantonese. He broke into a grin. "English breakfast!"
Carter and I both said, "No!"
. . .
Cheung came over as soon as Carter called him. He walked in and stopped as soon as he saw Mai and Jerry.
I said, "Cheung, may I present Dr. Mai O'Reilly?"
He bowed and said something in Cantonese.
She replied and bowed her head slightly.
He looked at me. "Dr. O'Reilly?"
I nodded. "And this is young Master Gerald O'Reilly." I was guessing that was his actual name.
Mai laughed. "How did you know?"
"Just a guess."
Jerry looked at Cheung and his eyes widened. "Are you a black-road capitalist?"
Mai turned slightly red. "It's the clothes."
Cheung bowed. "I am at your service, Master Gerald."
Jerry looked at me. I nodded.
He smiled. "I want some candy!"
Mai said a few words in Cantonese. Jerry replied a little defensively. She turned her head slightly. He nodded and turned to Cheung. He bowed slightly and said, "I'm sorry, Cheung."
He replied regally in Cantonese and bowed. Turning to me, he asked, "Will your guests take the second bedroom?"
I nodded. "Please. And, Cheung?"
"Yes, Mr. Williams?"
"This is just between us, OK?"
Cheung nodded. "Of course. Have you seen today's Morning Post?"
I sighed. "No."
Carter handed it to me as Cheung said to Mai, "May I suggest bathing while breakfast is ordered?"
She nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Cheung."
He led the way to the second bedroom. Mai and Jerry followed.
I looked at the paper. It was a special edition. There were blaring headlines but no photographs.
Dr. Mai O'Reilly Escapes China
Explosion At Shumchun Camp
Two Red Army Guards Killed
Red Army Accuses H.K. Of
Enemy Action
Consul Calls Governor
Report of Sir Alexander's Call To London Foreign Office
Border Closed At Shumchun
"Oh, shit," was all I could think of to say.
"Not bad for a night's work," said Carter.
"I would hug you but..."
He nodded. "I could smell it while you were standing in the hallway. Did you fall into a latrine?"
I shook my head as I walked into the bedroom. "Worse."
"How could there be anything worse?"
I began to strip my clothes off while Carter closed the door behind him and locked it.
I walked into the bathroom and turned on the tap in the bathtub. "Ricky was there."
Carter was still in the bedroom undressing. "What the hell did you say, son?"
I turned and looked at him. "You heard me. Ricky was there."
He shook his head and said, "You get in first and scrub yourself down."
I laughed. "It must be worse than I thought."
Carter nodded.
I did as he said but apparently not to his satisfaction. He climbed in with me, took the washcloth I was using, and proceeded to vigorously scrub me down.
"Ow!"
"This is what we were taught to do if anyone was exposed to radiation. I really should have a brush"
"Damn!"
"Yeah. I figure if it gets off radiation, it'll get rid of funk. Now, tell me about Ricky."
"I don't know how, but he was following us. We first heard him when we were walking through the woods by the bay." I thought for a moment. "He must be who Dr. Rice-Harris saw in the bar. And who was following us on the road yesterday."
Carter sighed. "What did he say?"
"Nothing. I was standing guard while the others were in the camp. You know. Like we talked about."
Carter kept scrubbing. "Go on."
"He came up behind me. I knew who it was. I'd seen him clearly across that dirt road when we stopped outside the camp." I shook my head. "He must have wanted me to see him."
"You think so?"
I nodded. "He looked triumphant. And he kissed me."
Carter stopped scrubbing. "He did?"
"Yeah. He must have swum in the sewage because he smelled awful."
"So that's what this is?"
"Yeah." I replayed the scene wit
h Ricky in my head again. "How did he know where we were going?"
"Easy. He must have talked to Captain Thomas before he killed him. Once he got here, all he had to was to ask around. Everyone knows who Mai is. And they know where she was being held."
I nodded. "Yeah. It was weird. And creepy."
Carter put his arms around me. He turned me around, kissed me, and then quickly stepped back. He hopped out of the bathtub and grabbed the bottle of mouthwash provided by the hotel. Handing it to me, he said, "Rinse!"
I took some, gargled with it, and spit it out.
Carter said, "Repeat."
I did so and then handed the bottle back to him. He put it on the counter and jumped back in the bathtub. He leaned down and inquiringly stuck his tongue inside my mouth. "Mmm. Much better."
Chapter 19
The Peninsula Hotel
Saturday, February 19, 1955
Mid-morning
O'Reilly and Murphy joined us for a massive breakfast that ended up being an English one with the beans and that awful black sausage.
Carter and I had our eggs and bacon with toast and marmalade. Everyone else had a field day with the rest. Sliced tomatoes and beans just didn't seem like breakfast to me. But what did I know?
Carter and I sat back and let O'Reilly drive the conversation. Everything we'd been through had been for that wonderful moment of just sitting around the breakfast table and talking about anything and everything.
Once he'd served us, I'd stood and walked Cheung to the door. I said, "We need some time alone." I handed him three thousand dollars, Hong Kong. He looked at them and appeared to be insulted.
"I really need you to stay quiet about all this. You saw the papers." He nodded and tried to push the money back to me. I pushed it back. "Give it away if you don't want to keep it."
He stood there for a moment. Finally, he said, "It is a great honor to meet and to help Dr. O'Reilly in whatever way I can. I have family that she has helped. I cannot accept this." He pushed it back on me again.
I shook my head. "Then make a donation to the Red Cross or give it to someone who needs it. I insist."
He bowed. "How can I refuse such a gift?"
"You can't."
I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
He stood back and looked at me in surprise. He put his hand where I'd kissed him. For the first time, he smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Williams."
"You're welcome, Cheung. We'll call you when we're done."
"Very good." He opened the front door, backed out, and bowed again before pulling the door closed.
. . .
Once everyone had their fill, Carter leaned back and asked, "What happened?"
I looked over at Murphy. He winked at me and started telling the story. Once he got to the part where he held up three fingers, I leaned in. I wanted to hear what happened when they went into the camp.
"We sneak right up to the fence and moved around to the side by the road. We found the gate open and no one guarding it, so we walk right in. About thirty feet in, we see Tony and Lee arm-in-arm singing The Internationale. Lee's singing in Cantonese and Tony in some other language—"
Captain O'Reilly said, "It was Russian."
Murphy nodded. "Well, the guards had no idea what to do. They was just lookin' at the two of them and shaking their heads and mutterin' about who the foreigner was. Meanwhile, Danny and me, Irish as the day is long, walk in right behind them. We come to a tent with a child coughin'. I stick in me head and ask, 'the Irish doctor?' The mother says she's just down the line and in the small building with a red cross on it. So we jog down that way and bust in."
Mai said, "At first I thought it was the guards. I'd heard the noise at the gate but had fallen back to sleep. Then I sat up and saw Daniel standing there. I didn't believe it was him." She put her hand over her mouth and started crying.
O'Reilly, who was sitting across from her, stood up and walked over to her. He squatted down and hugged her for a long moment. Finally, she said, "I'm good. I still can't believe we're here. And with you."
O'Reilly nodded. "Me, neither, truth be told. But you are and it's good." He reached over and mussed up Jerry's hair.
The kid turned and looked at me. "Do you think there's a television here?"
I shook my head. "I don't think so."
Mai said something and Jerry nodded. "I'm sorry, Mr. Williams, for interrupting."
I smiled. "How old are you, Jerry?"
"I'll be 15 this year." He was in the place where he was like a little kid but had the budding sensibilities of an adult. I was wondering when that budding adult was going to show up.
"How'd you learn English?"
"From my Ma." He turned and grinned at her.
She smiled in return.
"Can you do me a favor?" I was on shaky ground, hoping I didn't sound like my father.
"Sure!"
"Can you pay attention to the conversation? There's a lot you can learn here." I didn't sound like my father. It was worse. I sounded like one of my teachers from school.
Carter leaned in. "If you can bear with us for a little while, I promise you that Nick and I will take you for a drive around the city in a big car before lunch. How's that?"
Mai shook her head. "I don't think we should be out in public."
The budding adult suddenly showed up. "Ma, I can take care of myself."
She frowned slightly.
I added, "That'll give you and Captain O'Reilly time to catch up."
She sighed. "Yes. Maybe that is best."
"Mr. Murphy, I can tell you what I thought."
"What was that?"
"That you were spies finally come to rescue us."
Murphy nodded and didn't say anything for a moment. I could feel tears coming to my eyes, for some reason.
He said, "I guess you could say that, me lad. That we were."
O'Reilly nodded. "That we were."
Murphy wiped his face with the back of his hand. "So, once we convinced Miss Mai that we weren't ghosts or guards, they were up like a light and we were out of there lickety-split."
Jerry laughed. "What's that mean?"
I answered, "It means really fast."
He made an owl face that suddenly reminded me of Walter. "Oh!"
Murphy continued, "So we run through the camp and past the guards who are still watchin' the two lads singing and carousing. We hustle around the fence and that's when we met you, Nick, my boy."
I asked, "Have either of you talked to Tony or Lee about the machine guns or the big gun or the explosion?"
Murphy nodded. "When I was sittin' up front with Hu, I asked Lee about it. It's a very strange thing that I'm still scratching me head over."
"What's that?" asked Carter. He glanced at me out of the side of his eye.
"Seems like we had some help, it does."
"How so?" I asked.
He leaned in. "Well, after they saw us run past, they stood up. Lee took out that pistol and told the guards to put their hands up. They were slowly moving to the gate when a big shot rang out. Seems that it hit a diesel tank, which started leaking. Lee said he could smell the fumes. Tony, who kept his wits, asked him about stealing a truck. They ran into the camp and the guards started shooting at them. They were bad shots and missed them by several feet. They found a truck and had trouble starting it so they jumped into the next truck. While they was doing this, the sniper started shooting off a big gun. It hit the tank again and then it got one of the guards who went down"—He looked down at Jerry for a moment—"pretty badly hurt. He shot once more into the tank. By then, the smell of diesel was strong. Lee managed to get the truck started and they were crashing through the fence when the tank exploded. He said it lifted the truck off the ground. People was screaming and running away. They made a big circle outside the fence and found the road and then found us."
I nodded and looked over at Carter whose face was grim.
"Might you be knowin' who this was?" asked Murp
hy, looking dead at me.
I turned and looked out the window for a moment. I could see the harbor beyond the train station and the clock tower beyond that. I sighed and said, "I do, but let's skip that part." I turned back to the table and continued the story. "Lee and Tony picked us up. Lee drove down the dirt road. He said it was a Soviet truck. It sure felt like it. We ditched the thing and made our way back to the sampan. Then Captain O'Reilly put Tony and me to work rowing."
Murphy added, "Mr. Hu picked us up at the cove—"
"Where Johnny set the sampan on fire," I said.
Carter looked over at O'Reilly. "Really?"
The captain nodded. "You'll notice that's not mentioned in the paper. In fact, they don't seem to know who did it."
Mai sighed. "So much trouble just for the two of us."
Murphy extended his hand across the table. "All worth it, darlin'. All worth it."
. . .
Carter kept his promise and asked Cheung to arrange an hour-long tour in one of the hotel's Rolls-Royce sedans. The hotel provided a tour guide, a British gal by the name of Miss Stephanie Hawkhaven.
Carter and I sat next to each other in the back seat while Miss Hawkhaven and Jerry sat in the jump seats.
When the car pulled into a park up on a hill, Miss Hawkhaven said, "Let's take a moment to stroll around the grounds. It's quite a lovely view from here."
We all piled out. It was a nice view. There was a white house with a gate in front just below where we were standing. Beyond that was a large white building and then below that was the harbor.
Miss Hawkhaven was talking to Jerry. "Do you see the tower across the harbor?"
"Yes, Miss."
"That's the train station in Kowloon. Just to the right is the hotel. Do you see that?"
"Oh! Yes, miss. I do." Jerry had been given a strict talking-to in Cantonese by his mother before we left. He was on his best behavior. I was feeling really old as he kept saying, "Yes, Miss," to our guide who was all of 22, if that.
Miss Hawkhaven turned to Carter. "That building with a gate is Government House. I believe there will be a reception this evening in your honor, Mr. Jones."
Carter blushed slightly.
I said, "There will be."
Miss Hawkhaven smiled at me. "The bequest is quite marvelous. We really do need all the hospital beds we can get."
We began to walk back to the waiting sedan.
The Sodden Sailor (A Nick Williams Mystery Book 11) Page 19