Death Trip (6 page)

The next morning Alfie waited until Katrien went to work, then he parked outside her apartment and buzzed all of the flats until someone kindly released the front door catch. He headed up the stone staircase to the top floor. He walked to the door and took out his handy breaking-in kit, which he had used when he was a wayward youngster and which still served him today as a cop.

He was a little out of practice and it took him a few minutes, but soon enough he was in. The alarm started beeping. Alfie slipped a small tin from his pocket, flipped it open and pulled out what looked like a woman’s makeup brush with a powder canister attached. He brushed the keypad, leaving a trace of charcoal on three numbers on the pad. The alarm beeped faster, louder. Alfie looked at the four dark squares: one, nine and six. Now, what was the order? He tried them numeric ally. ‘Error’ came up on the pad; he pressed clear and thought about it. She was forty. He knew that much. He pressed one, nine, six and six, the year she was born—and the alarm stopped beeping. Alfie held his breath—was it
about to go ballistic? He waited, ready to run, but no. Alfie stepped inside. He raised his eyebrows and looked around appreciatively. She had good taste. It was the opposite of his and Magda’s place. This was chic and minimal—and very expensive. It was gadget world. He had no idea how she afforded this kind of luxury on her salary. The kitchen was black marble, as was the bathroom. Alfie looked at the mirror beside the bath; he wet his finger and dabbed it on the white trail, then he tasted it.

He walked into her bedroom, animal fur, teak furniture, black walnut floor. For a minute he thought it doubled as an office because it had a PC, until he saw the biggest webcam he had ever seen. She was big into Skype, thought Alfie. He jogged the table as he passed and the screen lit up.

She had left herself signed in. Big mistake, thought Alfie. He sat down at her desk and opened her contacts. She had ten new emails. He guessed this was a personal account. Not many people called themselves katcream69, not at work anyway. He opened her emails. Most of them were from different men. They appeared to be clients, lovers. That must be how she afforded this apartment, thought Alfie; either Katrien was a highly paid call girl or she dealt in some heavy-duty drugs. One of them was an appointment for the following day, Friday, at the Erotica Museum. Alfie tried to access her other accounts. Two others came up when prompted. Alfie pressed the link for ‘forgotten password’. He was presented with two queotions. The place she was born and her favourite colour. He wrote down the email addresses and shut the PC down.

Alfie got outside and called his friend in surveillance—he would need a concealed camera. He smiled to himself. Now Alfie was about to uncover a lot more about Katrien than she would willingly show him. He might not fancy her but the Bitch performing sex acts on the webcam, that was too good to miss; and now he knew she had deep dark dirty secrets she really didn’t want anyone finding out.

That night katcream69 signed in again.

Yes
…
Show me.

‘What do I get, Big Man?’

You know what you get. You get my undivided attention. You get my devotion.

Katrien laughed. ‘What else? Say it. It makes me excited to hear it.’

You will be richer than you’ve ever imagined.

‘I have a rich imagination.’ She giggled. ‘But you’re right. I can’t wait to be able to cut out the middle men and grow my own opium, and then we’ll all be rich. But, for now, we’re still reliant on those greedy drug baron friends of yours. Is the next shipment ready to come over?’

They want to wait. They’re getting nervous.

‘No waiting, this is the time to act. We need all the funds we can get hold of if we are. Are they ready for him in the hills?’

Everything is in place, as long as he doesn’t fuck it up.

‘He won’t. This means everything to him.’

The only thing that means anything to him is revenge.

‘And I have seen to that. We will all have what we want from this. Each one of us will come out a winner.’

Show me.

She slipped the bra straps off her shoulders and rolled her hard nipples between her fingers.

Mann came off the night flight from Amsterdam, took the first high speed train of the morning into Hong Kong, followed by the MTR link to Central, and then went on to his flat in Tai Koo Shing. He was glad to be back. He was always glad to return; Hong Kong was always in Mann’s heart, she always drew him back home. But he didn’t like getting back to his empty flat. It held nothing but memories for him.

He punched in his door code, said hello to the doorman and took the lift up to his floor. Stepping out onto his landing should have felt good but it didn’t. Every time he came back he realised he should sell the place, but the same memories that made it hard to live there made it impossible to leave.

He opened the door and the smell of floor cleaner and window polish greeted him. His cleaner had to work overtime to find something to clean. He looked around: same plasma TV, same two chairs and same rattan elephant table with a glass top. Same everything, except him.

He took his bag into the bedroom and unpacked it on the bed. He tried to ignore the look of the crisp white cotton and the thought of the last woman to have slept in this bed. Two years after Helen had left in the taxi, Georgina showed up. He remembered the first time he’d seen her in Club Mercedes. His eyes had started at the feet and worked their way up. And his heart had stopped more than once. She had made him feel alive again, but that was when Helen’s body had turned up and all hell broke loose. He took his eyes away from the sheets and the memory of Georgina wrapped in them and knew he had to acclimatise and to think things over. His head was in turmoil. The gym helped him think. His body was designed to be used. If he didn’t, it got tetchy. He saw his body as his tool, his weapon and his protection—it was vital to keep it strong and supple. He stood six foot and two inches and weighed fourteen stone. Mann worked out most days. His body was firm and lithe, naturally muscled without being bulky. He had studied weight training schedules and alternated high reps and light weights days with maximum power days and he ran ten kilometres every other day. He liked being powerful but he didn’t like it showing. He liked to be light on his feet—he needed to be. He went to the gym on the top floor and spent an hour running through everything in his head. Magda had opened up new roads to emotions he had either buried or didn’t even recognise. The feelings he had towards Jake had unlocked his memories of his father. Jake was the same age Mann had been when Deming was murdered. At the time
when Mann was pinned down and made to watch his father’s execution, Magda must have been nursing a newborn, Jake. That summer had changed Mann forever. And this one would change Jake. If he survived this he would never be the same. He would be strong, resilient but also vulnerable. He would always have an Achilles’ heel, just like Mann. Mann hadn’t got the answers to his questions about his father’s death and that was one of the reasons he had accepted Magda’s invitation. He wouldn’t rest until he knew everything he could about his father. Maybe Magda held one big piece of the puzzle over his execution. There were few coincidences in life: Deming died at the same time as he had a secret family on the other side of the world. If there was a connection, Mann would find it.

Saw ran past, distracted, and stopped to talk to Toad. He was agitated and preoccupied.

‘Shit! Lucas, get up, quick.’ Thomas and Jake looked at one another and both knew that the moment had gone. Toad had looked up just as Lucas fell at his feet and called ahead to Weasel.

‘Watch it, Lucas, Weasel is coming,’ Jake said as Weasel’s tall, lanky frame trotted back, his pin head swivelling round to watch them and his small shifty eyes always looking for someone to inflict pain on.

Lucas didn’t answer. His hands were tied and he struggled to lift himself from the ground.

Weasel was over him in a flash. He grinned and tilted his head from side to side as he looked at Lucas struggling. He picked up a stick and jabbed Lucas with the point of it. Lucas flinched and groaned as the stick found its mark. Weasel giggled manically. He jabbed at Lucas like a cat toying with a mouse. Jake stepped forward between them and knelt down to help Lucas. He managed to get his hand under Lucas’s shoulder and started to help him to his feet but Weasel put his
foot against Jake’s back and pushed him down on top of Lucas. He held his foot against Jake’s back as he kept him squashed on top of him. Lucas groaned in pain. Toad appeared beside them. At first the tone of his voice was jokey, then it became serious and Weasel reluctantly released his foot. Jake got another hold of Lucas and helped him up.

‘You okay?’ He examined Lucas’s face. It looked grey. The blood had left his face and he had messed himself. There was a foul sulphuric smell. ‘Lucas?’ Lucas stood but his legs were buckling. He looked in a lot of pain as he clutched his stomach and turned away to vomit. It was bright with blood.

Weasel picked up another stick and started poking Lucas in his back as he was bent double. When he finished there was blood smeared across his hand as he wiped his mouth. Jake grabbed the end of the stick and wrenched it out of Weasel’s hand. Weasel’s face contorted in anger as he took one long stride to reach Jake and he began to shout, his words a torrent of rage. He spat into Jake’s face as he took hold of his throat and squeezed it, and began whimpering softly like an excited puppy. The expression on his face turned to desire as, with his left hand, he reached down and cradled Jake’s testicles before he began to twist and squeeze and pant like a rabid dog.

Toad finished talking to Saw, then he pushed Weasel away from Jake and stepped between them as he looked down at Lucas. He stared at him and then he said something that made Weasel laugh as he pointed to Lucas. He shouted something to one of the men and the bags
were pulled off the mule’s back and it was led forward, its back shining with sweat.

Toad picked Lucas up as if he weighed nothing, although Lucas was a foot taller than him, and he dumped him onto the animal’s back. It stood patiently waiting, taking the opportunity to eat the young shoots that sprung from the forest floor.

Saw was coming up behind them. Jake felt his fingers tingle with adrenalin and his guts twist. Saw stopped at Anna. Anna stared back. Jake admired her for her courage. She was always defiant. Saw walked past Silke and Jake’s breath caught in his throat as he watched Saw pull at her clothing. He saw Thomas twisting the piece of wood in his hand. He hadn’t been able to drop it without attracting attention. Jake looked at him. Thomas glared back as if begging Jake to let him try. Jake shook his head and his eyes dropped to the piece of wood in Thomas’s hand. Thomas let it fall.

Silke flinched away from him and Saw’s eyes rested on Jake. For a minute Jake thought he knew everything. He knew about the failed escape attempt.

Saw spoke to Toad before turning to Jake.

‘Friend?’ Saw gave his men a sidelong glance as he sneered and pointed towards Lucas. ‘Friend?’ He repeated it and pointed again towards Lucas as if the word conjured up a ridiculous image.

Jake nodded. Saw turned to Weasel and grinned. Weasel giggled and mimicked Jake. ‘Friend. Friend.’ He wiggled his hips like a woman.

‘Friend sick—maybe fall from mule, huh?’ Jake didn’t answer. He knew that it was best to keep quiet. Saw
wasn’t looking for conversation. Saw jabbed him to make Jake look at him again. ‘Soon, come Steep Pass—only room for one person.’ Saw looked back at his men; he was speaking to the audience, not to Jake. ‘Your friend fall, I think?’ He called to Handsome to pass him some rope. As the mule looked at him incuriously, Saw tied the rope around Jake’s waist and looped the other end around Lucas; pinning Lucas’s arms around the mule’s neck, he secured them together. Jake’s side was pressed against the mule and he would struggle both to keep up and to avoid catching his legs in the mule’s hooves. His body would get in the way on the narrow path. Beside him the steep ravine plummeted and, below, the tops of the teak trees seemed a long way off.

‘He fall—you fall. He friend? You keep him alive.’

Saw laughed and his men whooped and seemed to walk with a new energy as they dragged their captives onward.

Saw stopped by Anna and looked back at Jake and grinned—his mouth dark red, he spat phlegm into Jake’s path. He looked Anna up and down and nodded knowingly in Jake’s direction as if he knew that they were lovers. Saw did know. His animal senses detected every weakness, every failing. His perception of the world was animalistic. He smelt her body on Jake. He smelt her sex. Saw walked back past Jake, fixed him with his black eyes as he grinned, leaned towards Jake as if about to strike him, then slapped the mule hard on its rump.

Mann waited whilst Ng ticked off his preferences from the dim sum menu. Bamboo baskets full of steamed dumplings were already arriving before he’d finished his order in the small side street café in Western District.

‘Thanks for meeting me, Ng.’

‘What is it you need, Genghis?’ Ng and Mann had known one another for so many years that Mann had come to regard Ng as his friend, not just his colleague. Ng named him Genghis because in his youth he had looked like a wild man. Nowadays Mann was more groomed but inside he was the same lost soul. Ng was full of wisdom, both street and ancient. He knew the world and its failings. Ng saw the broad picture. He didn’t have Mann’s hot-headed temper. Ng was calm—a deliberator and negotiator. They had seen one another through difficult times. When Mann’s world collapsed after Helen was murdered, Ng was the one who Mann leant on, and when Ng needed back-up Mann was the first to risk his life for his friend. Mann trusted his opinion. Ng looked at him now with his puppy dog eyes. ‘It looks like you haven’t
slept recently. You should cut down on the gym and eat more.’

‘I’m all right. I went away for a couple of days. I’ve got jetlag, that’s all.’

‘No, it isn’t. You haven’t been all right for a long time now, Genghis. It is five years since I saw you happy. You need to get yourself a woman. Did you ever get back in contact with that Eurasian girl?’

‘Georgina?’

‘Yes! That’s the girl. She was just right for you.’

‘She went back to England, as you know. She wanted to go home; she’d been through a lot.’

‘You could have stopped her.’

‘Wrong time, wrong place, Ng. Anyway…’ Mann shook his head. ‘That’s what it always comes down to for you—food and females. The last thing I need is someone who needs me, Ng. I can’t give it the time or the dedication. I’m strictly a single man, in love with his work.’ Mann smiled.

‘Huh…I thought being single was supposed to be fun. You don’t look like you’re having fun. You haven’t taken any time off since that investigation in the Philippines, that’s over a year now. Take some time off, go lie in the sun, go wave riding—what’s it called, surfing?’

‘Yeah, maybe you’re right…’ Mann smiled and rolled his eyes in defeat. ‘I’ve had a lot on my mind. Actually, I have put in for some leave starting tomorrow, but it’s unpaid.’

Ng lifted the tops from the dim sum baskets and began piling dumplings onto Mann’s plate. Mann put his hand up to stop him.

‘Eat,’ Ng said, as he filled his own plate. ‘Where are you going? Back to the Philippines?’

‘Thailand.’

Ng looked at him and almost choked. ‘You mad? No one is going to Thailand at the moment. Those kids were kidnapped, they haven’t been released. It’s not safe.’

‘
Those
kids are why I’m going. I found out something about my father. I got an email from a Dutch woman, Magda. She told me she and my father were…lovers. Not just lovers, they had kids together. One of them is one of the kids who’s been kidnapped. I am telling you this, Ng, because I trust you to keep it to yourself. Mum would hate the whole world knowing.’

Ng looked confused. ‘Did your mother know all this?’

Mann nodded. ‘She found out after my father was murdered, when Deming’s will was read.’

Ng stopped eating, placed his chopsticks on their holder and thought for a few minutes.

‘That’s very sad, Genghis. Sad for everyone. But what does the Dutch woman expect you to do, exactly? Things are kicking off in Thailand and Burma. It’s not a safe place to go right now.’

‘If I go soon, I will be okay. I will always be able to get out overland and by boat.’

‘I read the latest on the kids—they say they are almost certain to have crossed into Laos. It’s a mess out there.’

‘I can at least investigate what actually happened. The parents are being told nothing. I am going to take
a day here to get all I need and then I fly to Chiang Mai tomorrow and follow their footsteps until I get to the jungle and then we’ll see.’

‘What do you know about tracking kids through jungles?’ Ng stuffed a dumpling into his mouth.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ng.’ Mann grinned at his old friend. ‘Don’t hold back.’

Ng gulped down some water.

‘I am just concerned, that’s all.’

‘I know, and you’re right; it’s new territory for me—all of it—but I am hoping to buy myself some help along the way.’ Mann looked across at Ng. He knew by the look on Ng’s face that, although he would always support Mann, he didn’t think Mann should go. ‘In reality, I have no choice. The fact that he is my brother makes this a situation I cannot ignore. I am glad she came to me. It makes me feel somehow good. I can’t explain it—I feel as if I have some purpose to my life again. I might be able to uncover more about my father and I might fill up some of the emptiness I feel inside.’ He smiled, embarrassed. Although he was close to Ng, he wasn’t one for sharing confidences or pouring out his heart. ‘Anyway, I can go out there and talk to people, suss out what happened. I might not be an expert at trekking through jungles but I am sure I can find someone who is.’

‘This is totally out of your depth, Genghis, but okay. You will need help and you will have it. I will get Shrimp working on it.’

‘Thanks, Ng. I knew I could count on you. I need you to do something else for me…I need you to
investigate my father. I need to know what he was doing in Amsterdam. I need some closure on all of this, Ng. This has made me realise that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life searching for answers. I want to move on.’

‘You may never know the truth, Mann. Sometimes we have to accept and leave it there.’ Ng shook his head. ‘Life isn’t that black or white. People are not just parents, they are flesh and blood. Men are built to sow their seed.’

‘Maybe, or maybe it was love. The last summer I spent with my father was great. It was the happiest I had ever seen him. He seemed different, quick to laugh. He seemed like he wanted to get close to me. The night when I came back to the house and found him being tortured, when I saw him executed, I accepted that he was a brave man who had died because he wouldn’t pay money to triads. But, do you know what, Ng? I don’t even know who he was. Everything I believed in is gone.’