Kiss & Die (18 page)

Mann stormed past CK’s shrieking PA. He grabbed Victoria by the arm as she sprang out of her chair and tried to get away. He pushed her across the room.

‘Is this what you’re all about? Is this what you want me to be a part of? You pleased with yourself? A young woman lies seriously wounded in the hospital. Do you want another death on your hands?’

Victoria backed away. ‘I did not order the attack on your officer.’ But her eyes were shining triumphant; they told him that she had known he would come. He was still a piece on her chess board.

‘You sick bitch…’

She backed up until she could go no further. ‘You want someone to blame, look in the mirror. I warned you.’ She flinched as he pushed her again and she knocked into an Andy Warhol original. It juddered against the wall.

‘She is worth a million of you – you power hungry, mercenary, twisted…’

He watched her eyes flick to something behind him. He turned to face the two same bodyguards from the Oceans bar. Mann reached inside his jacket and took out a set of
six two-inch-diameter stars. He sent them out in an arc and they spun through the air and cut into the face and arms of the two square-set guards. One of them pulled his gun. Mann unleashed Delilah, her cord attached. She struck the bodyguard’s hand before he had time to aim. The gun fell to the floor, his forefinger still attached. He shrieked in pain and clutched his bleeding hand. Delilah recoiled back into Mann’s hand and he held it to Victoria’s throat.

‘It’s all right, leave us,’ she hissed.

The bodyguard reached down to pick up his gun and retrieve his finger.

‘Leave it.’ Mann glared at him. The bodyguards shuffled out. The PA hovered. ‘Get out,’ shouted Mann, ‘before I cut your fucking head off.’

‘Leave,’ Victoria rasped.

She turned to him when they were alone and he released his hold, took Delilah away from her throat. ‘You ought to learn some manners if we are going to work together.’

‘The only thing I am interested in doing is watching you die. Slowly. You disgust me.’

‘It is your fault the young policewoman got injured. If she dies, it will be blood on your hands. I merely passed on the information that she was an officer in the Hong Kong police. The Outcasts have their own rules.’

Mann relaxed his grip on her and threw her down into her chair. She landed awkwardly with a muffled scream; her tight dress rose up over her thighs.

She smiled up at him as she turned her chair to face him. ‘I told you I would play dirty. I warned you when
we met. You did not listen. This is my time to get what I want. I didn’t suffer all those years of living with a bully like Chan for nothing and I will stop at nothing to get what I want. And there is so much more to come. The wheels are set in motion. But you can change everything. You can stand in the road and stop it from happening. Only you have the power. I want you to take it.’

She reached down to the hem of her dress and eased it slowly back down over her legs. ‘You have a bad temper, Inspector. You should learn to step back from your feelings. I could teach you.’ She brushed her hair back from her face. ‘I could share many things with you.’

‘You did all this to set me up? You knew all about Operation Schoolyard?’

‘Knew? Not exactly. Let me just say, I knew enough. This is Hong Kong. I have the power and the wealth to buy most things. I have friends in high places. Don’t think you have any secrets from me, Inspector.’

Mann shook his head, nothing made sense; all he knew was that he had let Tammy down.

Victoria smiled at him, malice in her eyes. She could see his pain, his doubt. ‘You think your world is safe. You think you can trust those nearest to you? Think again. You have a traitor for a friend. I knew just enough to use the information. It is not my fault she got injured, it is yours. I told you to listen to me. I told you I had the power to pick up your world and smash it down over your head and all those you care about. I can destroy you, Mann, never doubt it. But I don’t want to. I want us to be friends. How long do you think you’ll be allowed to stay on in the police force when you are clearly such a risk to your fellow officers?’

‘You low life. I find you repulsive. You are an evil bitch. If you were the last woman on earth I wouldn’t have you.’

Mann saw her face tighten, her mouth twitch. He saw her weakness. She didn’t like to be turned down. He grinned. ‘Be assured: I’ll be watching every step you take from now on. You want a war. You got it.’ Mann walked out, picking up the bodyguard’s finger as he went.

‘Yes sir, I do understand but I am following up on the arrest of your son.’ Shrimp was standing his ground with PJ. He’d left Rizal to it and come in search of Nina. ‘I need to speak to the other members of your family.’

From the corner of his eye Shrimp saw Nina pass them on the way into the kitchen, head down. She had her sari pulled up over her head and had wrapped the fabric around to cover her face.

‘She knows nothing. She is busy. Let her go. Please, I assure you, Nina is a good girl. She works very hard. She doesn’t have time to talk…’ PJ looked ready to burst into tears as he wrung his hands and shook his head.

‘I just need a few words. I won’t keep her long. I am only trying to help Mahmud.’

Nina had just returned from her encounter with Rizal. She was upset. She hadn’t seen Shrimp. She was hurrying through the restaurant laden with groceries.

‘Excuse me, miss?’ Shrimp said. Nina hesitated but did not turn to look at him. ‘Can I have a word?’ Shrimp stepped around PJ.

PJ flushed with panic and exasperation. ‘Okay, okay. Nina, come!’

Nina walked over and, recognizing him, smiled at Shrimp. PJ signalled to Hafiz to fetch Ali. ‘Sit at the table over there. We will get busy soon but it will be all right for a few moments.’ The place had just a few stragglers in.

‘Sorry miss, I just need a quick word.’ Shrimp wished he didn’t feel so nervous.

‘You don’t have to answer anything,’ PJ snapped at his daughter but he smiled at Shrimp, obviously flustered but still remembering to be polite.

Nina’s eyes flicked back and forth across Shrimp’s face. ‘The detective won’t keep me long. I am happy to speak.’ She set down her packs of shopping and gestured to Shrimp to follow her as they went to sit where PJ had said.

Shrimp could see the sorrow in her pretty face. Her eyes searched his, she looked away, shy. Shrimp’s heart was beating fast. He knew he was blushing. He had an overwhelming desire to kiss her. He shook it off and his voice came out a little cracked. ‘Thank you,’ he coughed to clear it. ‘Thank you for talking to me. I just wanted to ask some general questions about the circumstances leading up to the stabbing of the officer in Mong Kok. Did you know your brother was involved with the Outcasts?’

Nina shook her head. ‘There is no way Mahmud is guilty of hurting the police officer. Mahmud wouldn’t hurt another human being. He is the most gentle of boys. He hated the gangs. He did not belong to the Outcasts or any
of them. He didn’t need to – he was set to become someone all on his own.’

‘What do you think he was doing there?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe he was tricked. Maybe he was lured there. Maybe he thought he was going to do some good. I just don’t know. But you can’t keep him in prison if he didn’t do it, can you?’

‘I caught him with the knife in his hand, Nina. I made the arrest myself. What can I say to you? He is denying it but won’t tell us who did it. His silence will be seen as guilt. I can see him going to prison for it if he doesn’t tell us who was responsible.’

Nina turned away from Shrimp and her eyes filled with tears.

‘I’m truly sorry.’ Shrimp wanted so much to reach over and touch her hands. They were rough from work but they were still beautiful hands. ‘If Mahmud didn’t do it then we have to find out who did and why he is shielding them. Are you a friend of Lilly’s?’

She looked back at him, her eyes panicking. They flicked up as her father passed. She willed Shrimp to wait before he spoke more. PJ had passed when she nodded.

‘I wondered why you were in the flat just now. It looked like there was a problem with Rizal. Is everything okay?’

‘Oh, thank you. Yes. I was cooking the curry for Michelle for her stall. She will lose business otherwise. The Filipinos in the Mansions rely on her to feed them. We don’t eat pork you see but she cooks it for them. But Rizal isn’t nice. I won’t go in there again unless Michelle is there. He isn’t a good man.’ She looked away, embarrassed.

‘And Lilly? She’s a friend?’

‘She’s younger than me. We don’t have so much to talk about. She is more a friend to Mahmud and Hafiz. She’s their age.’

‘Do you think she is the cause of a lot of trouble here at the Mansions?’ Shrimp asked.

Nina shook her head. ‘I think she has been led astray by the older ones. The Outcasts have taken a hold here. Nothing is the same as it was.’

‘A young girl was murdered. She was from here. She was an Indian girl.’

Nina nodded, she looked to see if her father was listening. He was pretending to be busy as he marched past them carrying things that didn’t need to be carried, wiping down already clean surfaces. Nina waited until he had passed. She whispered, ‘We all know about the troubles. We see it every day here. My father hardly leaves this restaurant so he doesn’t see it but we do. I knew Rajini. I liked her. She was quiet. She just wanted to go to school. She wanted to succeed.’ Nina shook her head sadly. ‘Maybe she wanted too much. I feel very sad. I hear she had a horrible death.’

‘They cut off her hands.’

‘So I heard. They brag about it – their new weapon, they call it, but it’s not new it’s very old.’

Shrimp looked at her. She realized he didn’t know. She stood and reached one of the Indian artefacts down from the wall. She handed him a coiled whip. ‘Be very careful. It is very sharp. It is called a urumi. It’s an ancient Indian martial arts weapon. This is the weapon talked about by the Outcasts. I see them practising on the roof here.’

Shrimp took it from her and allowed it to unravel towards the floor: three razor-sharp strips of metal, a flexible whip.

‘Hey.’ Ali caught up with Shrimp when he came out of the Delhi Grill. He was walking down the stairs. ‘Leave my sister alone. She doesn’t go on dates, not with you or anyone.’

‘I didn’t ask her for a date. I am trying to solve the stabbing of a policewoman. I’m trying to find out as much as I can to help save your brother from going to prison. Isn’t that what you want?’

‘We told you what we know.’

‘Don’t you want to help your brother?’

‘It’s not a case of that; we don’t know any more than you. Why don’t you ask him?’

‘He’s not talking. He fears something else more than us, more than life in prison. What would that be, do you think?’

‘The gangs.’

‘How long do you think he’s been a Triad?’

Ali looked away in disgust. ‘Don’t be stupid. Mahmud is no Triad. Whatever he was doing there, it wasn’t Triad business.’

‘What’s his relationship with his father like?’

‘He is his pride and joy. You know we all do what we can. Things haven’t been easy. Our mum died five years ago. Since then we all have to help in the restaurant.’

‘Even you?’

He grinned. ‘It’s not my thing. I help in other ways. I buy the extras we can’t afford. I paid for Mahmud to get a better education. I paid for the extra lessons to learn to read and write Mandarin. I can’t do it. Mahmud is clever. He takes his studies seriously. He isn’t out chasing girls or taking ice. He has his heart set on being a doctor.’

‘So what the hell has gone wrong?’

Ali shook his head. ‘We are in crisis at the moment. The Mansions has gone fucking mad. People being chopped, killed. We are all scared of the future but now terrified of the present. We have nowhere else to go. We told you what we know.’

‘Did you? I think you left out more than you said.’

‘Where are you going with that?’ He pointed to the urumi, wrapped in plastic, in Shrimp’s hand. ‘That’s private property.’

‘You’ll get it back. Listen, Ali, no one wants to cause more trouble here. If you just let it run the Triads will take over this entire place and you’ll have gang wars every night. Is that what you want for your family?’

Ali took a deep breath and shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I heard the rumours. I had an idea that it was Rajini, I should have been more helpful. I have to keep my family safe. I have to put them first. I know Mahmud was not involved in the attack on the officer. My father is about to have a breakdown thanks to all of this. I have to go. There’s nothing more I can tell you.’

As he walked away, he stopped and looked at Shrimp earnestly. ‘But please keep trying for us. I am sorry to be strict about my sister but stay away from Nina, she’s been through enough. She marries next month.’

Shrimp tried not to look like the news had impacted but inside a small jolt of pain had shot through his heart.

As he was about to step back onto Nathan Road, Nina caught up with him.

‘I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.’ She looked behind her, breathless. She didn’t want to be seen talking to him. She stayed within the threshold of the Mansions.

‘No, you should. It’s no good hiding anything, Nina, it will just come out in the end and make even more trouble. Look, if I can help you in any way, if you need me, you call.’

She smiled gratefully as Shrimp handed her his card. It occurred to him he’d never seen anyone so lovely.

‘Can you read Mandarin?’

She nodded. ‘I am learning.’

He handed her his card. ‘My mobile number is on the back.’

He watched her go. She turned back to smile as she disappeared back into the crowds.

Mann headed back to Headquarters. He went straight to find Sheng. He caught him in the locker room; he smashed him back against a locker, held him by the throat.

‘Did you order Tammy to carry on with Operation Schoolyard?? Did you countermand my order?’

Sheng breathed in his face. He waited until Mann loosened his grip and then he shook himself free.

‘No. I didn’t. You don’t need help fucking things up, you can manage it all by yourself.’

Mann let him go. He took the lift up to the top floor and the stairwell up to the roof. He needed to breathe. He felt his lungs collapsing. The only calm for him was on the roof. He pushed open the fire escape door and immediately the heat hit him. The sun was directly overhead. The sun was in his eyes. The dazzling light bounced off buildings and windows. He put on his sunglasses and stood, breathing deeply. The air was clean. The smell of the ocean. The sea was vast and beautiful on the horizon.

He walked across to the parapet. The eagle had been there and left its droppings, full of tiny bones. Mann picked up three black tail feathers, beautiful, flawless. He knelt
down out of the wind, wrapped them in cloth and placed them inside his shuriken pouch.

‘I thought I’d find you up here.’ Mia walked across the roof and stood beside Mann looking at the harbour and the sea beyond. ‘What’s the latest on Tammy?’

‘Still critical.’

‘I heard you paid a visit to Victoria Chan’s office.’

‘News travels fast.’

‘Only some news – only when it’s to certain people’s advantage. You better stay away from them now, Mann. I’ve been told by the top brass to warn you off. You can’t go in there and threaten her. This was supposed to be stealth not aggression.’

‘I’m playing the game, Mia. I’m doing what they expect. Any less and they’d know it wasn’t for real.’ He shook his head and took a deep breath in. ‘It’s beginning to feel like whichever way I play it I can’t win. Victoria Chan knew about Operation Schoolyard. She knew about Tammy.’

‘How?’

‘She made it her business. She paid someone here at the department.’

Mia wasn’t having it: ‘It’s not possible. She’s lying. Only a handful of us knew the details about Operation Schoolyard. It’s gone wrong before, Mann, it doesn’t mean that someone’s corrupt in this department.’

‘It’s not the first time we’ve had corrupt police officers either though, is it? Why the hell didn’t Tammy do as I ordered?’ Mann shook his head, slow, heavy. ‘Tom Sheng denies he had anything to do with it. I don’t believe him.’ He stared hard at Mia. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me, Mia?’

‘Like what? I know as much as you do.’ She turned back to stare out at the rooftops.

Mann shook his head, exasperated. ‘Some people have waited a long time to see me in this kind of a mess. My judgement’s all to hell. I am not thinking straight.’

Mia reached out and rested her hand on Mann’s arm. ‘I know you have too much in your head right now with your father’s mess but don’t be such a hard man. You’re not always in this alone. You want to talk, I’m here.’

‘Thanks, Mia, but it’s probably best for me to work it out alone.’

‘What about your mother? Is she helping with it?’

‘No. She is doing what she does best, ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I don’t blame her. I’ve done my best to do the same but it’s not working so well for me.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘It seems like a massive task. I thought I could walk away from my father’s past. But I can’t. Now it’s up to me to finish the job. The thing is, all the years my mother chose to ignore it and leave it untouched, his wealth has been growing, the investments are now huge. I own a large part of a company that mines diamonds in Sierra Leone; I own several cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast. Each project could take me a year to unravel in order to try and do something positive with it. I wish I could give it all away and forget it existed.’

‘What about the family in Amsterdam? Do they have a say?’

‘My brother Jake is named in some of the documents. I will try and guide him through it all when I’ve negotiated my own way first. His stepdad Alfie is a nice guy. He’ll want me to do what I think best. He’s a cop. He’s not going to
want Jake inheriting Triad money. I’ll talk to him. I keep meaning to call. I just don’t know what to say. I wish my dad’s business could wait until the murder investigation was over but with Victoria pushing me and causing chaos I think I have run out of time. I feel like she’s out to break me. I feel like she knows every move I make. Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind. I can’t stop thinking about Helen. I even feel her presence in the flat, smell her perfume. I feel like someone’s been in there, someone’s been looking through my drawers, looking through the papers.’ He shook his head. ‘Maybe I’m just getting paranoid. But now, with Tammy going against my orders I’m wondering if I ever gave her them. Did I not make it clear?’

‘Let’s see if the Indian boy can tell us any more. He’s waiting to be interviewed now.’

‘Okay but…’ Mann sighed. ‘I don’t think it’s him, he’s covering for someone he cares about.’

Mann left the bodyguard’s finger on the parapet for the eagle and followed Mia off the roof.