"Not like San Francisco?"
I shook my head. "Nope. Not a bit."
"What's that they say about summers there?"
I hated that saying but I replied, "The coldest winter..."
Tony picked it up. "I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
"Yeah." I closed the door.
Tony padded over to his bed. In the dark, I watched his shadow as he stretched out.
I walked over and laid out next to Carter. He was making that slight snoring noise that he did when he was sleeping.
"He always make that noise?" asked Tony.
"Yeah. It puts me to sleep."
"Huh."
We lay there in the dark for a long while. Finally, Tony said, "I'm glad I met you two."
"Same here. Thanks for your help with getting Mai out."
"Sure."
"When do you wanna go home?"
"I'm in no hurry but I don't wanna be in the way."
"Maybe you'll meet some nice guy in Sydney."
"Nah. I'm happy the way I am."
"Really?" I never thought anyone was ever really happy if they were alone.
"Yup. My life is good. I have plenty of friends."
"You wanna work for us?"
He was quiet for a while. "Doing what?"
"We can find something."
He didn't say anything for a minute or two. I was just about to ask him if was asleep when he said, "My home is on Oahu. That's my life."
"So, I guess you don't want to move over to the Thompson House on Kauai."
"Nah."
"Fair enough. Think about it and I'll check with Mike."
"Who's Mike?"
Carter answered, "He's the President of our company."
I laughed. "Did we wake you up?"
He put his arm around over my chest. "Yes. But don't let me interrupt."
In answer to Tony's question, I said, "Like Carter said, he's the President of our company. He's also a former cop. And he's a great guy. If you came to work for us, he'd be your boss."
Carter began to ran his hand up and down my chest. He said, "He was Nick's first true love and also the one who saved Nick from a life of crime."
Tony and I both laughed.
"That true?" asked Tony.
"He was my first love. That part is true."
Carter laughed and turned on his side to look at me. "Both things are more true than not."
I thought about Ricky for a moment. "Yeah. I guess you're right. Did you ever get him those cigars?"
"They were on his desk Monday morning when he got back from the airport." He leaned over and kissed me. "Marnie took care of it."
Tony asked, "Who's Marnie?"
"She's the best secretary a guy could ever have."
Carter added, "She's also Nick's step-sister."
Tony asked, "Sounds like you're all related at that company of yours."
Carter laughed. "We're all family, whether we're related or not."
I said, "Yeah. We are."
Author's Note
Thank you for buying and reading this book!
This story, like all the others involving Nick & Carter, came to me out of thin air.
Many thanks, as always, to everyone who has read, reviewed, and emailed me about the Nick & Carter books. It is deeply gratifying in ways that words will never be able to fully express. Thank you.
Acknowledgments
Having never been to Hong Kong, I found one particularly wonderful website to be extremely helpful: gwulo.com. There are numerous photographs and memories available there of old Hong Kong. I was able to get a good feel (I hope!) of what that marvelous city was like when it still hadn't quite become what it is now.
I also want to acknowledge D.S., who read my first draft and offered several insights into what Hong Kong was once like. Her memories were immensely helpful in improving the story.
Many thanks, once again, to the wonderful Beta readers who helped me flush out this story. I deeply appreciate your support and your help.
Historical Notes
This book takes place from Sunday, February 6, 1955, through Monday, February 21, 1955.
The primary characters are all fictional. There are, however, a handful of historical persons and locales portrayed in a fictional manner.
Sir Alexander Grantham was the 22nd governor of Hong Kong from 1947 through 1957, having previously been the 17th governor of Fiji. His wife, Lady Grantham (Maurine Samson), was born in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Everett F. Drumright, the American Consul for Macao and Hong Kong in 1955, was most famously known for his work as Ambassador to Taiwan from 1958 through 1962.
Hong Kong in 1955 was not the city we know it to be today. It was in the process of absorbing the many hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing mainland China following the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. The colony, under the leadership of Sir Alexander, made room for its new inhabitants as quickly as it could, experiencing a massive building boom all through the 50s and well beyond. That foresight made it possible for Hong Kong to evolve into the important world-class city that it it became and remains today.
The Peninsula Hotel is considered to be one of the best hotels in the world and has been for many years. It was built in 1928 in the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon, Hong Kong. An English-style afternoon tea is still served in the lobby, just as it has been since the hotel first opened.
Shumchun is the old British name for the town that in now known in English as Shenzhen. This border town grew into a small city of thirty-thousand inhabitants by 1980 when it was designated as one of the five Special Economic Zones in China where "socialism with Chinese characteristics," or a kind of market capitalism, was given room to develop. The maps from the 1950s that I was able to find have just a small dot where Shumchun was located. If you were to look at a map today, you would see that Shenzhen is a massive city now numbering over twelve million inhabitants. A lot has changed in a short time.
The character of Dr. Mai O'Reilly is very loosely based on a real person, Han Shuyin. Her father was a Chinese engineer and her mother was Flemish. She did practice medicine at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong in the late 1940s. She was also a prolific writer. Her novel, A Many-Splendoured Thing, was a best-seller, is semi-autobiographical, and recounts her relationship with an Australian reporter while she worked at Queen Mary and who died in Korea in 1950. The novel was translated onto the screen as Love Is A Many Splendored-Thing, starring Jennifer Jones and William Holden, filmed on location in Hong Kong, and released in August of 1955.
One additional note (August 5, 2017): A reviewer pointed out that I flubbed the dates on the formation of the Lincoln Brigade. I originally wrote that Tony's lover, Pete, had sailed off in December of 1935 and that he'd received a few letters from Spain in February of 1936. Those dates were too early by a year and I've now corrected them. The Lincoln Brigade (a.k.a. Brigada Abraham Lincoln, a.k.a. XVth International Brigade) was a multi-national and multi-lingual all-volunteer force consisting of a number of battalions that first assembled in Albacete, Spain, in January of 1937. It fought on the side of the Spanish Republic. I always appreciate hearing from readers about any and all things, particularly any needed corrections to historical references.
More Information
Nick Williams Mysteries
The Unexpected Heiress
The Amorous Attorney
The Sartorial Senator
The Laconic Lumberjack
The Perplexed Pumpkin
The Savage Son
The Mangled Mobster
The Iniquitous Investigator
The Voluptuous Vixen
The Timid Traitor
The Sodden Sailor
The Excluded Exile
The Paradoxical Parent
Nick & Carter Stories
An Enchanted Beginning
Golden Gate Love Stories
The One He Waited For
Their Own Hidden Island
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