The Two Sisters of Borneo (24 page)

from House of Anansi Press

in February 2
015

Read on for a preview of the next thrilling Ava Lee novel,
The King of Shanghai

Ava’s plan was to go back to work after four months. She thought that would be enough time to get over the death of Chow Tung, the man she had called Uncle. For ten years he had been her business partner, her mentor, her friend — the most important man in her life. Then cancer took him. Ava was in her mid-thirties now; she was wealthy, had friends and family who loved her, and was a partner in a venture capital company called the Three Sisters. But she was emotionally adrift, still mourning the passing of Uncle.

She had left her downtown Toronto condo only once during the first month back from Hong Kong. She went to the neighbourhood bank, where she had a safety deposit box that contained Moleskine notebooks detailing every job she and Uncle had undertaken together. They had been debt collectors. Their clients were desperate people who had exhausted all legal and conventional means of recovering the money that had been stolen from them. It was a business fraught with peril: it was one thing to find the money, but it was entirely another to convince the thieves to return it. Over the years Ava had been kicked, knifed, shot, hit with a tire iron and a baseball bat, and kidnapped and held for ransom, as well as withstanding assassination attempts. Without Uncle she would never have survived. Now she had decided to relive every single case, every adventure.

She put away her computer and cellphone, closed the condo curtains, and spent her days sitting at the kitchen table, reading the notebooks and filling her head with memories. But she didn’t disconnect her land line or cut herself off completely from the outside world. Her mother, Jennie, called and visited several times. Her girlfriend, Maria Gonzalez, came by with food. Maria wanted to stay but Ava wouldn’t let her, and she refused to have sex.

“I’m not ready,” Ava said.

Maria was forlorn. It wasn’t until after two more rejections that she stopped asking and came to accept that Ava had to find herself again.

It is Chinese tradition to wear white for ten days after the death of a loved one. Ava wore white every day for the entire month. There was no plan; it just felt like the right thing to do, until one morning it wasn’t. She had finished reading the last notebook the night before, and when she woke and went to her closet, she found herself reaching for an orange T-shirt. That afternoon she went for a long run.

The next day she ran again. When she got back to the condo, she phoned Maria. “I’d like to go out for dinner, and then maybe you can come back here and spend the night with me,” she said.

Connecting with Maria was her first step back. A few days later she drove to Richmond Hill, a northern Toronto suburb, and had dim sum with her mother. Then she called her best friend, Mimi, and arranged to visit her and her baby.

After a week of running and when her energy level felt close to normal, she walked to the house of Grandmaster Tang. She hadn’t seen her instructor in more than two months, but he welcomed her as if they’d been together just the day before. For two hours they practised bak mei, the martial art that he had been teaching her one-on-one — as was the custom — since she was a teenager. Her body ached when she got back to her apartment, and it did so every day for the next week, as she made repeat visits. When the aching stopped, another piece of her well-being fell into place.

In the middle of the second month, Ava began to chat with May Ling Wong and Amanda Yee, her friends and partners in the new business. Three Sisters had already taken ownership positions in a furniture-manufacturing business in Borneo and a warehouse and distribution company based in Shanghai, managed by Suki Chan, a long-time associate of May Ling. Ava knew that her partners were actively seeking other investments, but when she called them, she made it clear that she wanted to be the one to initiate contact, and that she had no interest in discussing business matters just yet.

Shortly thereafter she received her first phone call from Shanghai, from the man she knew as Xu. When she saw the Chinese country code, she assumed that it was May Ling. She answered at once, thinking that something terrible must have happened if May Ling was calling against her wishes. Instead she heard the soft, confident voice of Xu. He spoke to her in Mandarin, and she had never heard anyone speak it better, each word carefully pronounced as if it had a value that set it apart from the others.

“I hope you’re well and I apologize if I’m inconveniencing you. I think often of Uncle, and whenever I do, you come to mind. No two people could have had a better mentor.”

“I am well enough,” was all Ava could say, flustered by the unexpectedness of his call and by the way he linked them through Uncle.

She hadn’t known that Xu existed until the day before Uncle died, and she had met him exactly once — at Uncle’s funeral. Any doubts she had about the depth of the relationship between the two men had been put to rest when she went through Uncle’s papers. The men had been close. What alarmed her was that most of their correspondence concerned Xu’s management of his triad gang in Shanghai.

During the course of their first conversation, Xu focused solely on his memories of Uncle, and Ava found herself sharing some of hers. It was cathartic for her, and when he asked if he could call again, she said yes. He became a regular contact. Xu was well-read and they shared an interest in Chinese films and good food. And then, of course, there was Uncle; every call involved at least one story about him.

One time Xu veered off into a discussion about his business, and Ava had to pull him back. “I don’t want to talk about how you make your living,” she said.

He retreated, but not without saying, “My business is in a constant state of flux. What it is today could turn into something entirely different tomorrow. When things are settled in your life, I would like you and Madam Wong to visit me in Shanghai. We may have some areas of shared interest,
mei mei
.”

At Uncle’s funeral he had made the same request. Ava had put it down to politeness. Now it had more import, but not enough that she wanted to pursue it. “Tell me more about that young female film director from Yantai you mentioned last week,” she said, changing the subject.

In her third month at home, she felt the urge to travel. Maria took a week of leave from her job as assistant trade commissioner at the Colombian consulate in Toronto and they flew to Aruba. Four days into the trip, Ava felt the first touch of guilt about being idle. By the end of the week she’d had enough of beaches and eating out and was ready to go back to work.

She called May Ling as soon as she got back to Toronto. “I want to step into the business,” she said.

“This is sooner than you thought,” May said.

“I think I’ve worked through enough of the pain.”

“Are you sure? We can wait.”

“There will always be a hole in my heart where Uncle was, but I can’t let it paralyze me. He wouldn’t want that either.”

“Well, in that case, how about meeting Amanda and me in Shanghai in a few days?”

“Shanghai?”

“It’s year-end for Suki Chan. I’ll be going over her numbers and looking at her plans for the coming year. She tells me she has some ideas she wants us to consider. I could use your input.”

“How about Amanda?”

“She has her own project there, some mysterious investment proposal that she tells me has to be seen.”

“Seen?”

“I’ve asked for the business plan. She says she’ll give it to me when we’re in Shanghai.”

“That isn’t like Amanda.”

“I know, but she’s quite giddy about it. I was going to go there anyway. She’ll be even giddier knowing that you’re coming.”

“Yes,” she said softly.

“Ava, is something wrong?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You don’t sound particularly enthusiastic.”

“It’s Xu,” Ava said.

“What about him?”

“He’s been calling me.”

“What does he want?”

“We share memories of Uncle. It’s helped me get past some things.”

“He lives in Shanghai,” May said. “Is that the problem?”

“Yes. He asked me at the funeral, and again over the phone, if you and I could meet with him there.”

“Both of us?”

“He hints that he has some business interests that could be mutually beneficial.”

“Why on earth would we ever do business with a triad gang leader? I know he’s sophisticated and doesn’t look like your stereotypical gangster, but he didn’t get to be as successful as he is without a very sharp cutting edge.”

“I’m not suggesting we do business with him, May,” Ava said. “I just don’t think I can go to Shanghai and not meet with him. If you’re uncomfortable with the idea, then I’ll go alone.”

“Is this about both of you being tied to Uncle?”

“It’s partly that, of course, but I also can’t forget that I owe Xu my life. We both know I would have been killed in Borneo without him,” Ava said. The memory of being kidnapped and held for ransom by a local triad gang was still fresh. Uncle had been in Shanghai with Xu when it happened and had prevailed upon him to send men to rescue her. Ava was saved, but ten men died as Xu exacted revenge for reasons that had nothing with her.

“He did what he did for Uncle. I’m not sure you owe him anything.”

“That could be true, but I can’t deny that there’s a connection that runs between us and that there’s an obligation — if not a debt — that must be recognized. Meeting with Xu, especially socially over dinner or lunch, would be a trivial thing for us, and it’s the only thing he’s ever asked of me. So I can’t go to Shanghai without telling him, and I can’t be there and refuse to see him.”

“All right, I’ll go along,” May sighed. “I’ll ask Amanda to build a meeting with him into our schedule. Which do you prefer, dinner or lunch?”

“I think dinner shows more respect.”

“Dinner it is.”

“When Amanda forwards me the entire schedule, I’ll call Xu and make sure the time works for him.”

“From what you’re telling me, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t make any time work,” May said.

“Perhaps, but regardless of when we end up meeting with him, I don’t want Amanda there. He was quite specific about it being me and you. Will she be offended by that?”

“She isn’t that sensitive, but in any event I’ll tell her it’s strictly a social thing.”

“Okay.”

“Ava, do you have any idea what he wants with us?”

“No.”

“Really?” May said.

“I don’t have a clue.”

This is the sixth book in the Ava Lee series, and as Ava’s life expands, so does the number of people who have made contributions.

As always, my family’s support has been paramount as the first readers and editors of any Ava Lee book, and then as drum-beaters after the books have been released.

My thanks to Sarah MacLachlan and her team at House of Anansi Press.

Very special thanks — again — to my editor, the great Janie Yoon. In addition to being the custodian of Ava’s and the book’s style, in this case she also contributed a key plot change.

My agents, Bruce Westwood and Carolyn Forde, continue to keep my back covered. Their enthusiastic support has brightened many a bad writing day.

Last, I want to acknowledge the input I receive from readers, and in this instance, two of them in particular. As our readership has grown, so has the number of emails and letters I get. They arrive now on a daily basis from virtually all over the world and — complimentary or not — I answer them all. Some of them point out mistakes and offer advice.

Fawn Gao, who lives in Vancouver, has been especially helpful with her advice about the proper use of Chinese terms and phrases. So I thank her and hope she keeps passing along her knowledge.

Helena Ying, known professionally as Dr. Helena Lau, sent me an email that had quite an impact. She found an error in the
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya
that was contained in a single line. On the face of it, the error was quite minor. But the repercussions for
The Two Sisters of Borneo
were more telling, and I rewrote part of the book based on her comment.

A very special thanks, then, to Helena and to all the other readers who keep me on my toes. Please don’t stop — I do pay attention.

IAN HAMILTON
is the author of the Ava Lee series:
The Dragon Head of Hong Kong: The Ava Lee Prequel, The Water Rat of Wanchai
,
The Disciple of Las Vegas
,
The Wild Beasts of Wuhan
,
The Red Pole of Macau
,
The Scottish Banker of Surabaya
, and
The Two Sisters of Borneo
.
The Water Rat of Wanchai
was the winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel, an Amazon.ca Top 100 Book of the Year, an Amazon.ca Top 100 Editors’ Pick, an Amazon.ca Canadian Pick, an Amazon.ca Mysteries and Thrillers Pick, a
Toronto Star
Top 5 Fiction Book of the Year, and a
Quill & Quire
Top 5 Fiction Book of the Year. The seventh book in the Ava Lee series,
The King of Shanghai
, will be published in February 2015.

House of Anansi Press was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”