Gelignite (16 page)

Feiffer nodded. He got down on his haunches and peered into the hole. You could see where the tunnel went, but the entrance was half closed with fallen bricks and debris. 'I want the opening cleared.' He called out to Spencer, 'Flashlights, prods and cardboard boxes.' He looked across to a shop that seemed to be still intact, 'Get them from that shop over there.' He called out, 'Give them a receipt.'

Ho said, 'A what—?'

'Shut up. You get onto the Commander and tell him that the political tab just finished.'

'Oh, no.'

'You do what you're told!' He called down into the crater to the Forensic man, 'Have you got anything for me?'

Ho said, 'I've already been onto him. The tab stays.'

The Forensic man, looking up, was much younger than the glasses made him at first appear. He was a pock-marked Chinese in his early twenties, wearing a masonry-dust-covered grey suit. He shook his head. "The device was planted just here. Fragments. Nothing else.' He said, 'I haven't been into the tunnel yet.'

'Clear it when you're finished. I've got equipment coming. I'll go down with my own people.' He called down to the Forensic man, 'When they're free, I'll get the ambulancemen to take the body out of there.' He called down, 'I assume he's dead?'

The Forensic man didn't look at the face and the hand. He nodded. 'Yes.' He looked a little ill. Feiffer said, 'As fast as you can. We'll go in carefully in case you've missed anything so you can give it a second go when we've gone. OK?'

The Forensic man nodded.

Feiffer said to Ho, 'Where's Dien? I want to talk to him.'

Ho said, 'It only reaffirms the theory in the Commander's mind that the job is political.' He said, 'I agree with him.'

'Why?'

Ho shrugged. He said, 'The scale.' He was going to add something.

'Where's Dien?'

Ho said, 'He was taken away in one of the ambulances.' He said, 'If you're thinking that he was behind it all and he posted a letter bomb to himself knowing it'd be defused you can forget it.' He said, 'He didn't plant this one.' He said, 'He's got the perfect alibi.'

'What's that?'

Ho said, 'He's dead.'

Feiffer called down into the hole to the Forensic man, 'Just get on with it, will you!'

*

The explosion when it had come had thundered and roared back along the length of the tunnel. There was water seeping in through the moss-covered bricks on the roof and, here and there, there were dead rats rolled up into tight lifeless balls. Every six or eight feet there was a cairn of fallen brick and masonry and shards of light coming in from the sunshine in the street above. There was dust everywhere, grey and black and green, that rose and fell in convection currents in the flashlight beams like cigarette smoke in the light from a cinema projector. The tunnel was dank and silent. They stopped.

Feiffer said to the three detectives behind him, 'Drop back.' He said, 'Three or four feet apart, behind each other. I want you all to walk very carefully. If you see anything, don't disturb it.' He called back to Spencer, the last in the file, 'Have you got those cardboard boxes ?'

'Yes.' Spencer put the light from his flashlight on the back of Auden's suit coat. In the darkness, the material looked grey and furry.

'If you see anything, call a halt and put one of the boxes over it to protect it. Anything he may have dropped, a footprint—' he threw the light from his flash onto the floor of the tunnel and saw that it was running with water from the roof— 'Anything at all.'

O'Yee, behind him, said, 'Right.' He found it difficult to draw a clean breath. He coughed with a fall of dust in his lungs.

*

In Matsu Lane, Constable Yan nodded. He said to Doctor Macarthur by the last ambulance, 'OK.' He said, 'You got the old woman in the first building?'

Doctor Macarthur offered Yan a cigarette from his pack. (Yan shook his head.) 'Yes. That's the last.' He looked back down the street at a ragged circle of blood that ran from inside one of the crashed cars, out of the car's wrenched open door, and onto the street and drew in deeply on the smoke. Tell whoever's in charge—'

Constable Yan said, 'Feiffer.'

'Is it? Tell him that it'll be a while before the autopsy reports are—' He said, 'You know what to say.' He got into the front seat of the last ambulance by the driver and said, 'OK?'

Yan nodded.

'Good.' Macarthur said to the driver, 'Right,' and the ambulance started off and went past the southern corner on its way to the Mortuary.

Yan watched it for a moment, then went towards the hole to wait. In a doorway by the Indian curry shop the young man from Forensic had taken off his thick glasses and was being blindly and violently sick behind a pile of fallen masonry.

Yan pretended not to notice.

*

The unfamiliar voice at the other end of the line said, 'Yellowthread Street Police Station.'

Nicola Feiffer said, 'Who's this?'

'Constable Yu, Yellowthread Street Police Station.' Constable Yu said in good English, 'Can I help you, madam?'

'Detectives' Room, please.'

Constable Yu said, 'Who's calling?'

Nicola Feiffer said, 'You're new, aren't you?'

Constable Yu said, 'I'm from North Point.' He said, 'This is North Point. We're taking calls for Yellowthread Street.' He asked again, 'Who's calling, please?'

'Where is everybody?'

Constable Yu said, 'May I have your name, please?'

'Mrs Feiffer.' She waited.

'Yes?'

Nicola said, 'Isn't there anyone there at all at Yellowthread Street?'

'How can I help you, madam?'

'You can answer my question!' She said, 'I'm sorry.' She asked, 'Where is everybody?'

Constable Yu said, 'I'm not permitted to give out that information over the phone, madam.' He said, 'I can take a message if you'd like.'

'Tell the Chief Inspector I'm going out to find something myself.'

'Which Chief Inspector, madam?'

'The
Detective
Chief Inspector!'

Constable Yu said, 'Name?'

'Feiffer!'

'No, the name of the Detective Chief Inspector, madam.'

There was a pause on the line.

Constable Yu said, 'Madam—?'

'Rats!'

Constable Yu sounded like he was writing it down. He said back over the line, 'Detective Chief Inspector R-A-T—?'

Nicola Feiffer said, 'To hell with it!' She hung up.

*

A hundred feet down the tunnel, there was a click. Feiffer said to Auden without turning around, 'Put it away.'

Auden said, 'What?'

'The gun.'

Auden said, 'It was the flashlight.' He said quietly, 'I won't need a gun if I set eyes on him.' He said to O'Yee in front of him, 'It was the flashlight.'

The drain widened out where there had been falls from the roof and the walls. The falls had turned the drain into a tunnel and there was the sound of rushing water coming from somewhere to one side of it. O'Yee said, 'What was the name of the American in
The Third Man
?' He said, 'Holly something. He wrote Westerns.' He said, 'Holly something.'

Spencer said, 'Rollins?' He said helpfully, "The sewers in that one were in Vienna.' He asked, 'Who was the one who shot Harry Lime?'

O'Yee said, 'That was him. Holly something.'

Spencer said, 'Joseph Cotten and Orson Wells. Joseph Cotten was the writer. Holly Rollins.'

O'Yee said, 'It wasn't Rollins. It was something like that, but it wasn't Rollins.'

Feiffer moved ahead past the falls back into the drain proper and shone his flashlight on the brick floor. There was a rivulet of dark water running back past him and a footprint on a mud bank in the centre. He stopped to examine the print as the rivulet broke through its seawall and washed it away. Part of the mud flat held for a moment and he saw claw marks where rats had been and the prints of some larger animal. The rivulet washed them away.

Auden said, 'There was a little girl outside the Indian shop with both her arms blown off.'

Feiffer shone the flash ahead and looked for more mud flats. There weren't any. Auden said, 'She was with her mother—'

O'Yee said, 'Shut up.' He asked Feiffer, 'Anything?'

'No.' Feiffer moved forward carefully, 'Watch for handprints on the walls.' He said, 'There was a shoeprint, but it's gone.' He said, 'And animal tracks.'

'Water rats.'

'Bigger. I only saw them for a moment.'

Spencer said, 'Foxes.' He thought, "You don't get foxes in the middle of Hong Kong."

Auden said, 'Foxes?'

Spencer said, 'Something else.'

Auden asked, 'Are you a fox-hunting man?'

'Are you?' Spencer sounded interested.

Auden said, 'No, I'm not' He said, 'I used to see the rich buggers hunting foxes as they went past our little peasant's working class hovel, but I never knew anyone who actually was enough of a rich bugger to do it.' He asked in an evil voice, 'Did you ride to fox?' He asked equally evilly, 'Is that the expression?'

Spencer said, 'Ride to hounds.'

'Oh?'

Spencer said, 'Sometimes.'

Auden said, 'I didn't know you were a rich bugger.'

'Well, I'm—' Spencer said, 'My older brother's the one who—' He said quickly, 'No hand marks on my part of the wall.'

O'Yee said, 'Robinson, not Rollins—no, something like that.'

Auden asked, 'Are you rich, William, old boy?'

Feiffer said, 'Bloody water!' There was nothing. It was luxurious to be away from the things that had happened an age ago in the lane. He said to O'Yee, 'Rosser?'

'Who?'

'Joseph Cotten in the film.' He said, 'I saw it on television a few months ago.' He said, 'No, it wasn't Rosser either.'

O'Yee said, 'What was it?' There was an evil smell coming from the other end of the tunnel as they approached the bay.

Feiffer said, 'There's a grating coming up.' He passed under it and shone his light on it to see if it had been disturbed. The rust and grime around the seal was intact. He went on. O'Yee said, 'Funny how you can't remember things like that' He said, 'I once lay awake all night trying to remember the name of the actor who played Long John Silver in
Treasure Island
'

Spencer said easily, 'Robert Newton.'

O'Yee sighed. He said patiently, 'Everyone knows that. I meant, the first version of
Treasure Island
.'

Auden said, 'That
was
the first version.'

'Crap! That was the second version!'

Spencer asked, 'Who did?'

'Did what?'

'Played the part of—'

O'Yee said, 'I couldn't remember.' He said, 'You just reminded me by bringing it up.'

Spencer said, 'You brought it up.' He said, 'Anyway, I happen to know it was Wallace Beery.'

"That's right!!' O'Yee said accusingly, 'You lousy bastard, you knew all the time!'

There was a second grating. The rust and grime had been disturbed. Feiffer said, 'This is it.' He stopped and shone his flash upwards. He listened. Outside, it was very quiet. He wondered where they were. He lifted himself up to the level of the iron grating, pushed it aside easily (he saw that the rust had been removed and the whole thing covered in grease), and looked out.

*

Constable Yan began the long process of questioning the residents of Matsu Lane.

*

There was no one. Auden took his hand from his gunbutt and drew a clean breath. The area was deserted. The bomber had come out on a vacant lot. There was nothing. The vacant lot stretched towards the harbour in an unending nothingness.

Auden said, 'Where the hell are we? Mars?' He said, 'Are we still in Hong Bay?' He looked for a landmark he knew. 'What the hell's the area over there?' It was a series of artificial hillocks five hundred yards away, and the outline of what looked like a small, ruined English church with a stone bell tower. He asked again, 'Where the hell are we?' There was a small stone tablet of some sort on the ground, moss covered and faded with age. It had the remains of a series of characters written on it but they were too eroded to make out. He saw another, and then another, all in varying stages of decay. He glanced back at the English church. Everything was very still. He asked Feiffer, 'Do you know where we are?'

'Yes.'

Auden said, 'Is this a place?' He asked, 'What are all these bits of stone?' He looked at O'Yee. Feiffer said to O'Yee, 'You know where we are,' and O'Yee nodded.

Spencer said, 'Is it a cemetery?'

Feiffer nodded.

Auden said, 'How the hell did we come out in a cemetery?'

Feiffer said, 'It's the one Dien owns.' He looked at O'Yee, 'And your friend Conway Kan.' He said to Auden as a matter of historical information, 'It's what's left of one of the first Chinese cemeteries in Hong Kong.' He glanced around, 'We're in the paupers' section at the back of it. It's the one that fronts onto Great Shanghai Road. In the main section there are rows and rows of tombs.' He said significantly, 'Not far from Soochow Street where Mr Tam lives.' He said to the open grating, 'This is where he came in carrying the bomb and where he got out when he'd planted it.' He asked, 'What sort of premises are there in Matsu Lane?'

Auden shrugged. He said, 'All sorts. The Indian shop, a few rice merchants' offices, a couple of jewellers—'

Spencer said, 'A few shops: metalware, a leather goods shop, the bank on the corner—' He stopped.

Feiffer said, 'Go on.'

'That's all.'

O'Yee said, 'The main offices of the funeral societies.' He glanced around at the stone tablets and shivered.

Feiffer drew a breath.

Spencer said, 'Surely, the bank—?'

Feiffer said quietly, 'We'll go back to the Lane now.' He said, 'I want to know who Dien had gone to see there.' He said, 'I want to get out of here as quickly as possible, before we're seen.'

Auden said, 'God, he'll be a hundred miles away from here by now!'

Feiffer glanced around. He looked at O'Yee's face. 'I didn't mean him.' He said abruptly, 'Let's go.' He said to Spencer, 'Put the grating back the way it was.' He began walking towards the harbour perimeter of the Double Tranquillity Resting Place of Heavenly Peace (now closed). He quickened his pace.