by Lee Weeks
‘You had choices just like everyone.’
‘Did I? Even when we were kids you never understood what it was like for me. At school in England we lived as brothers. We were inseparable. But there was one big difference – when we came home in the holidays you went back to your parents’ nice home in the Mid-levels. I went back to government housing – ten to a room. I suffocated in the heat and dirt. One hundred and fifty people shared four open toilets. I saw the violence and the depravity of living without dignity, without money. Going to England showed me I could be anyone as long as I had money. Being sent to the UK for my education was the one piece of luck I had –’
‘It wasn’t luck, it was paid for by your hard-working relatives and you repaid your benefactors by joining the Wo Shing Shing?’
‘I had no choice. In my neighbourhood you did as you were told. I was recruited the summer I was fifteen. I hated it, but it brought its rewards. I accept I could have led a more honourable existence. But you never understood how it was for me. I had to take every opportunity I could in my life. I had to make it at any cost. You didn’t have that terrible weight of poverty and desperation hanging over you. All you had to deal with was being mixed race. It didn’t hold you back. You had the best of both worlds. You could choose to step effortlessly into either world, whereas I belonged to only one – a world that will get you if you don’t get it first. I had to climb my way out of the gutter.’
‘Yes, you had it tough, but you didn’t have to turn your back on everything decent. Life is full of choices, Chan, of roads to walk. You chose the lowest path you could find.’
‘The night of my father’s death. You were ordered to keep me away from the house until a certain time.’
‘Yes, I was ordered to.’
‘My father was a good man. He treated you like a son.’
‘Huh! He treated me like a poor relative. He kept me at arm’s length, made it quite clear he didn’t want his son mixing with me.’
‘You checked your watch so many times that night. I remember saying, “What is it? You late for a date?” You laughed and all the time you knew that my father was being tortured.’
‘I could do nothing to prevent it.’
‘Then, at the allotted time, you left me at my gate and you knew they were waiting for me.’
‘I told you – I had no choice. Triad orders.’
‘I was made to watch his execution. Do you know what that did to me? It didn’t make me fear the triads. It made me determined to wipe every one of you out.’
Chan looked about him. The water was closing in. He was becoming frantic now – Stevie was leaving it very late.
‘For friendship’s sake, Mann, take me back to shore. Let me disappear. You’ll never see me again. For the boys we once were?’
Mann didn’t answer him. He kept his eyes ahead and steered the boat further into the darkness. ‘Do you want to know how Helen died?’ Chan said, desper ation in his voice. ‘Do you want to know the man who killed her? If I tell you, will you let me go? I have a film of her death. I will give you that film if you take me back to shore.’
Mann cut the engine. The boat bobbed on the still water. The only sound was the distant horns of passing ships and the lapping of the water around the boat’s hull. Behind them, just a few lights from Cheung Chau’s seafront restaurants and bars winked at them from the shoreline. Mann thought of Helen. Her calmness, her strength, her beauty. He knew what he must do. Across the darkness, their eyes reflecting the iridescent white of the boat’s hull, they stared at one another.
‘I know all I need to know. I will search till I find the man who physically killed her and I will bring him to justice, one way or another. But I know that you are the person who is ultimately responsible for her death. I will have to live with my part in it. I will regret letting her get into that taxi till the day I die.’ Mann took out a knife and reached over to cut Chan’s bonds. ‘But I can undo something I have done. I saved your life years ago, Chan, saved you from drowning when we were boys.’ A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it commits another mistake. ‘Sink or swim, it’s your choice.’
115
‘How long have I been asleep?’
Mann stood at the entrance to his bedroom, watching her.
‘A few hours. You fell asleep in the car on the way here. I carried you in and put you to bed. How are you feeling?’
‘Better.’ Georgina smiled sleepily. ‘What time is it?’
‘It’s nearly ten.’
‘What about you – did you get any sleep?’
‘I dozed a bit.’
Mann came to sit next to her on the bed. She found his hand and held it.
‘Thank you for rescuing me, Johnny,’ she said but her eyes were sad.
‘Please don’t thank me. I am sorry that it took me so long to find you. How are you feeling?’
She didn’t answer; she just shook her head. Her eyes filled with tears. She gripped his hand tighter.
‘Is Ka Lei dead, Johnny?’
‘Yes she is, I’m sorry.’
She gasped. A sob cracked from her throat. She sat up and Mann rocked her in his arms. Gradually the sobbing abated.
‘How did she die?’ she asked, her head still buried in his shoulder. His T-shirt was wet from her tears.
‘She jumped from the balcony.’
She pulled back and looked at him. Her eyes were filled with anguish and pain. It hurt him to see it. ‘I knew she was dead. I felt it, Johnny. I saw it. I was lying on this bed. I couldn’t move. A man had his hands around my throat. I couldn’t breathe. Then I saw her. It was raining. I held on to her hands. We were laughing and spinning around and around in the rain.’ Georgina smiled at the memory. ‘Was it raining the night she died, Johnny?’
‘Yes it was.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘She’s gone. She’s been cremated.’
Georgina rested back against him.
‘I so wanted to see her – one last time. What will happen to me now, Johnny?’
‘The fallout from Sixty-Eight is going to be around for a long time, and in a lot of places in the world. Lots of men will be very nervous for a while. CK says that you will be safe in Hong Kong, as long as you do not talk of what happened in Sixty-Eight. With Chan out of the way, that’s probably true.’
‘Why does CK care so much about me?’
‘You are a witness to things that happened at Club Sixty-Eight – the people who were there. You may not know who they were, but they know. And CK will feel responsible to them because of Chan’s involvement.’
She hugged his neck. ‘Do you want me to stay, Johnny?’
‘I can’t tell you what you should do. If you stay I will help you to start again. The first thing we are going to do is find an island.’
She smiled. ‘Become castaways?’
‘Yes. Just you and me – hide from the world. Get the colour back in your cheeks. Work on those freckles.’
‘We can’t hide forever, can we, Johnny?’
‘No. And I have to go and show my face at work now.’
‘Don’t go yet!’ She held on to him as he sat up.
‘I will come back. Then we’ll plan, okay?’
She smiled a watery smile and nodded.
‘I will be gone a few hours. If you need something to eat – take the keys with you. I’ll leave you some money on the table, there’s a supermarket a couple of blocks down. Otherwise I’ll get us something when I get back.’
Mann didn’t want to leave her but he had some things that just wouldn’t wait. Two of them were about to face a bullet.
116
He arrived at Headquarters and went straight in to see Superintendent White, to find him packing his belongings into boxes. The photos, the rugby trophies, memorabilia of forty years of service were all coming down and being neatly wrapped in newspaper and packed away.
Mann stood at the doorway and watched him for a minute. ‘Bit premature
, isn’t it, David? You’ve got a few more months yet.’
‘They decided to let me go early.’ White looked up and smiled ruefully.
‘When are you off?’
‘I’ll be here for another week or so. They added up all the holiday I might not have had and decided it was time to go now. I have the house to pack up and the cat to find a home for. Do you want it?’
‘I’d love to, David, but I’d forget to feed it. Give it to my mother, give her something to fuss over.’
‘Okay. I’ll do that.’
Mann glanced around the empty room. ‘I’m sorry, David.’
‘Don’t be, Mann. I’ve had enough. I’m ready to go, believe me.’
‘What did they say?’
‘Oh, you know. The usual. Didn’t seem to be able to keep command of the troops any more. Best to hand it over to someone else.’ He paused in his packing, shook his head and sniffed. ‘And maybe they’re right. But I don’t want to follow some of these new orders and I don’t want my men to have to.’ He put down his box and turned to face Mann. ‘I am bloody proud of you, Johnny. Of course, it’s highly unlikely you’re ever going to make more than Inspector now. I think you can kiss promotion goodbye, but you will make a difference to the force and to Hong Kong, and that’s more important. And Mann…your father…he would have been very proud of you. Very proud indeed. He would have expected no less from his son, mind you. He was a good, honourable man, a real gentleman. But you could not have saved him from his fate, Mann, no one could. Live your life now. Don’t try to change the past any more. Draw a line under it and walk your own road. Keep on doing what you think is right, Mann, but try to work within the perimeters of the law. If you step outside too often, even to do good, you become like the men you hunt. There’s a thin line, Mann. Be careful not to cross it. And now, take some leave – you deserve it, plus it would be better to lie low for a bit.’
‘I will, David. Just want to tie up some loose ends first. What’s happening about the brothers?’
‘They’ll be gone in the next day or two, to Beijing and a bullet. We are still getting results back from the lab – we know who the skin and the scalp belong to.’ He handed Mann the sheet of paper with the lab results.
‘Jesus. They must have hated her.’
‘Yes. A bullet is no more than they deserve.’
‘But there are others who deserve it just as much, David.’
‘They will get it in the end, Mann. Karma and all that.’
‘Does karma come with laser sights?’
David White laughed. ‘Just watch it, Mann, and try to stay alive for Christ’s sake. Come and visit me. Maybe you’ll end up back in England one day.’
‘Visit, yes. But Hong Kong is my home. I couldn’t live anywhere else.’
‘Okay. Well, take good care of your Hong Kong. She’s a heartless whore at the best of times.’
‘Yes, and a beguiling mistress at others. But I can handle her.’
‘I have no doubt of it…her and her daughters. By the way, where’s my bloody boat? It better be in one piece?’
‘Back safe and sound at the yacht club.’ Mann fished in his pocket and pulled out the keys. He threw them across to White who threw them straight back.
‘You keep it. Leaving present.’
Mann walked down the corridor to his office to see Li.
‘Did you get your copy of the report into last night’s disturbance on Cheung Chau, boss?’
‘I did. The report was good, Shrimp. The drug-smuggling theme was brilliant. Exaggerating the heroin stash from two grams to twenty kilos was maybe a touch too much, though.’
‘Sorry, boss. I got carried away. But, boss – Peter Farringdon – the surgeon – he’s clean. Can’t find a thing on him.’
‘Keep looking, Shrimp. Everyone’s got something on them.’
Mann stepped outside into the corridor and made his way down the stairs. He was going to see the brothers for the last time.
Max didn’t move as Mann approached his cell. Only when Mann called his name did he slowly turn his head.
‘Did you find her – Miss Geor-gi-na?’
‘Yes. I found her, Max. She is safe. We also found your stepmother.’
Max grinned, and nodded his head, satisfied.
‘She came back one day, to demand more money from my father. We argued. She had a heart attack and died right in front of me. After she was dead, I let Man Po skin her.’ He looked up sharply. ‘They won’t let me see him – my brother!’
‘He’s all right. You’ll be moved soon.’
Max nodded. ‘I know.’ He had accepted his fate. He turned away from Mann and lay down on his bunk. He was finished with conversation.
On his way out, Mann stopped to speak to the sergeant in charge of the prisoners.
‘Move Max in with his brother. Make sure they stay together now, and pass on instructions that they should remain so till they face the bullet, till the last minute – together.’
117
Big Frank awoke with a smile on his face. He bounced out of bed and sang his way into the shower. The maid came and put his breakfast tray on the table. He shouted his thanks from the bathroom and emerged, his hair extensions dripping and a flapping hand towel slung around his waist. He just missed the maid as she disappeared at bullet-speed out of the door.
Big Frank was in the best of moods; everything felt right about the day. He strapped himself into his corset and, while humming the Wedding March, sat down to eat his hash browns and grits and wait for Lucy.
Lucy gave up packing. She called Max’s number again – he didn’t answer. She hadn’t seen him since she stopped working at the club. Where was he? Sleeping? It wasn’t like him not to answer her calls. She would have liked to have said goodbye to him, but it wasn’t to be.
She called another cab and while she waited she sat back, staring out of the window at the Hong Kong she would not see again for a long time. She was moving to Florida with Frank. She would be his wife, and they would have children and she would be the best-kept hostess on the planet. She shook her head sadly. How ironic: the dream – marry a passport, get a ticket out – only now it wasn’t a ticket for two; her beloved Ka Lei was dead and now she must go alone.
She sniffed, wiped her nose, stood and straightened the creases from her trousers. She looked towards the door. For a moment she thought she heard a key turn. She listened again. Nothing. She was getting jumpy. The sooner she got out of Hong Kong, the better.
Frank was waiting for her. His bags were packed – he was ready. He squeezed her so hard that she squealed in pain. She was still feeling the effects of the attack.
‘Flank, you gonna kill your little Hong Kong girl before we get married?’
‘I’m gonna eat you, honey.’ He scooped her up and carried her into the bedroom.
‘We gonna miss the flight, Flank!’
But he didn’t answer – his mind was elsewhere…
They arrived at the airport late. Lucy raced Frank through to check in. She stood nervously by Frank’s side, tucking herself as close to him as she could get, as they waited for their tickets and passports to be checked. She looked furtively around her. She didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone, but she was searching for small groups of smart-looking men. It didn’t even have to be a Wo Shing Shing member. Rival triad societies made pacts with each other in order to carry out a crime more effectively. She might never be safe from Chan. Wherever there were Chinese businesses there were triads.
Lucy hurried Frank through to Departures and straight to the boarding gate. She clung to his arm the whole way. They wouldn’t dare take Frank out too, she thought. They would have to separate them first, and there was no way she was going to let that happen.
Twenty minutes later they boarded an American Airways flight to Miami. Lucy’s eyes were fixed on the window. The minute the plane took off she knew she would be able to relax. They fastened their seatbelts and Lucy sighed gratefully as the plane
began its taxi down the runway. Phew – that was it. She smiled at her reflection. She was safe, for now at least. She turned back from the window and smiled sweetly at Frank.
‘Not long, Flank. We gonna be husband and wife. Did you make the arrangements?’
‘I sure did, honey, you gonna be mine forever.’
Lucy smiled at him. ‘You’re so sweet. Yes, I am, Flank. I’m never gonna leave you.’
‘I know that, honey. You know why?’
Lucy shook her head.
‘Becoz,’ Big Frank slid his massive hand beneath Lucy’s fleshy bottom, ‘I’m gonna brand you. That’ll stop you runnin’ off. I’m gonna put a big fat F brand here.’ He pinched her hard.
Lucy tried to wriggle away. ‘Oooh! That’s enough, Flank! You’re hurtin’ me.’
Frank leaned across. ‘Enough? Enough, honey? I’m just gettin’ started.’
Lucy noticed that Big Frank’s left eye had gone into spasm again.
118
Georgina awoke three hours after Mann had left. It was lunch time. She got up and showered. She was starving. She rummaged through his kitchen cupboards and found a lonely Pot Noodle and a pack of Earl Grey tea. That would do for now. She sat in the lounge and waited for Mann. She really hoped that he would come back soon. She wanted the chance to talk to him properly.
The mid-afternoon sun stretched in through the lounge window and warmed Georgina through. She waited. Mann would be back soon, she was sure, and yet the day was trickling away. She turned on the TV and waited.
Dusk came, and she found herself still sitting alone. She began to feel panicky. Surely if Mann wanted her to stay he would be back soon? She got up and walked around the flat. The evening’s shadows made her shiver. The flat felt suddenly cold and unwelcoming. Then she realised it wasn’t just the flat. She didn’t really belong in Hong Kong. Hong Kong hadn’t been kind to her. It had chewed her up and spat her out. Maybe, she thought, it was time to go home. She wished Mann would come back and reassure her, provide her with the answers, tell her what she should do. But then she wasn’t sure he could or would do that.