In Denial (55 page)

‘
Jeremy Jacobs, but he is Adam’s best friend.’ Annabelle’s words flooded back to Gabrielle. She had been right all along.

Christina nodded. ‘He was also Lucinda’s, among other things.’

‘
Other things?’

‘
There is so much you don’t know.’

‘
Please tell me whatever I need to know in order for me to find Adam.’

Lolita came into the room with a tray containing two mugs of coffee and some biscuits. She set it down on the small table in front of Christina, then turned to leave.

‘
No, Lolly, please stay. It’s about time you knew the truth and I’m sorry to have lied to you before.’ Christina warmed her hands on her mug of coffee before looking up at Gabrielle. ‘It goes back to a time long before Adam was even born. The day I married Joseph he told me he was a member of a secret society in Hong Kong. The society was called the 7th Dragon and my husband joined when he was only sixteen. On our wedding night he swore me to secrecy after telling me what would happen to me if I ever revealed his secret to anybody else. But to everybody else, including Adam’s real parents, Joseph was a legitimate businessman. He was held in high regard within the Hong Kong community and we moved in the social circles that went with his position. I had no idea who I was marrying and what he was really involved with. By the time Patrick was sixteen, my husband had risen to be the Master of The 7th Dragon. I discovered only after Lucinda’s death that he had recruited his own son and daughter into the society. When I heard this I couldn’t believe I had spent so many years living with a man who, having told me on our wedding night of his own involvement, had withheld so many secrets from me. But I know now, and I believe Joseph knew also, that if he had told me of Patrick and Lucinda’s involvement, and if I could have found the courage I would have ended my own life. When he told me on our wedding night, I had no idea what he was really telling me, and now I wonder why he told me in the first place. If I had known about Patrick and Lucinda and if the opportunity had been there I would have wanted to take them with me because they had no way out. To try and leave would have resulted in their deaths anyway. Knowing now what I do, my son’s slide into crime was perhaps inevitable, but Lucinda’s was down to nothing more than her vulnerability. When Adam was sent back to England to go to school, I thought it was to protect Lucinda’s innocence, but if Adam had stayed in Hong Kong it might have meant I didn’t have to lose my daughter to a life of crime.’ Christina shook her head slowly. ‘I walked around with my eyes and ears closed. I felt my family was something to be proud of. My husband was a success and we built on that success by opening restaurants in Hong Kong and then in Japan, the USA and here in the UK. I was in denial of what he told me the day we got married. We didn’t need the money from the crimes committed by my family and the other members of the 7th Dragon.’ Christina looked into Gabrielle’s eyes. ‘See this house? I’ve been living in this house for over ten years and I didn’t know it could have been bought with money obtained from human suffering. Even my restaurants, the management of which I handed over many years ago, were and are still being used as the cover for criminal activities. Lucinda and Adam’s marriage was arranged. At the time it was my husband, not me, who insisted we should allow them to meet again when Adam finished at university. Joseph gambled on the fact that Adam was still besotted with Lucinda and when she presented herself to him after so long he would fall into the trap they had planned for him -’

‘
They?’ Gabrielle asked.

‘
Yes, I’m sorry, my dear, I do mean they: my husband, Lucinda and Patrick. They planned the trap for him. It was the respectability of a mixed-race Asian girl marrying a thoroughly English boy that gave their warped minds another base from which to expand their criminal activities in the UK. When Adam was working in London, leaving home on a Sunday evening for the week, his beautiful wife, my beautiful daughter, already had her own schedule for the week. Even after Timothy and Charlotte were born she carried on with her work. Gabrielle, my beautiful and innocent daughter Lucinda was the brains behind one of the biggest prostitution rackets in Europe. She controlled the illegal trafficking of young girls from all over South East Asia to not only England but the rest of Western Europe. Once the girls arrived in the right country they were sold on to other controllers who forced the girls into prostitution. Those that refused or became difficult were disposed of. Nobody knew of their existence so who was there to ask questions if they disappeared. So, you see, my beautiful, innocent daughter was also a murderess. The Asian side of the business, if I may call it that, was controlled by my son, Patrick. He, like his father, was well respected in Hong Kong’s business society but also, like his father, he was leading a double life. I don’t understand nor do I ever want to know how I could have been so blind. How can I ever start to explain to anyone? My entire family, except for Adam, were the sources of human misery and death. Perhaps now you can understand why I was so willing to let the man who had hidden so much from me for so long add me to his list of murders. I was probably his only failure.’

Gabrielle and Lolita stared at Christina.

Their faces mirrored their shock and disbelief.

Gabrielle could feel every nerve in her body screaming in agony as she tried to understand. She remembered what Patrick Yong had told her about his double life. She looked at Christina, not wanting to believe what she had heard. Christina Yong had thought it best if her daughter and adopted son were separated until they were old enough to understand life. Christina Yong had agreed with her husband that before Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese in 1997, it was best for her family and her business if they moved to the UK. Christina Yong had wept when her son had decided to stay in Hong Kong, and more tears flowed when his visits to see them in England were so infrequent. Christina Yong’s life had been a lie, a lie that was even bigger than the lies her husband, son and daughter had told her.

Gabrielle wanted to weep for her.

‘
Lucinda and the children?’ she asked, her voice husky with emotion. ‘The police -?’

‘
The police? I can’t even say the police were stupid. If I, her mother, did not connect Lucinda with the underworld what hope had the police? A beautiful Asian woman living such a reputable life in Ashbourne, how could she ever be involved with people-trafficking and prostitution? They would never have believed her if she’d told them herself, let alone believe any evidence they may have found. Ashbourne was chosen for that very reason. So the police didn’t have any evidence, not then. They suspected poor Adam of course, but not all my family are bad.’

‘
Then who?’

‘
There’s no proof of what I’m going to say, but my husband believed it must have been another Triad, another society. Lucinda and Patrick had tried to expand their business but her competitors were very angry with what they were doing. She was warned but she didn’t listen and she and her innocent children paid the ultimate price. My husband and Patrick blamed themselves for losing Lucinda, but for my husband the loss of two innocent children, his grandchildren, was too much for him to bear. He -’

‘
But you said that Charlotte -’

‘
Was not Adam’s?’

Gabrielle nodded.

‘
No, she wasn’t. That was something else my husband told me. When Charlotte was born Lucinda and her lover had been having an affair for over a year, and she hadn’t been sure when she fell pregnant of who the father was. It could have been Adam’s or this other man’s. She made her lover have a blood test and it proved positive. He was the father.’

‘
So Jeremy Jacobs knows it was his daughter who was murdered?’

‘
Evidently not, but I can’t explain why he doesn’t know, because I don’t know all the details. Lucinda used some other reason for the blood test, but as I said I don’t know the details. She had to stay with Adam because if she didn’t there would have been a scandal and their well planned cover could have suffered. Anyway, the only person who knew other than Lucinda was my husband. She told him so that if anything ever happened to her then the truth could be revealed and …’

Christina’s voice trailed off as she bowed her head. She had managed to maintain her composure while relating what she knew to Gabrielle and Lolita, but now she was on the point of breaking down. ‘I wish … I just wish that -’

Gabrielle leant forward and put a hand on Christina’s arm. ‘You told all this to Adam?’

She nodded slowly.

Gabrielle looked at Lolita. ‘Did he take the car we came in?’

‘
Yes,’ Lolita replied.

‘
Is there another car here?’

‘
Yes, two,’ Lolita said.

‘
My husband’s and mine. I suggest you take the Porsche. Do you know where Adam might have gone?’

‘
Yes, I think I know where I’ll find him, but I must leave now.’

‘
Are you sure you’re well enough to drive?’

‘
If I am to find Adam, then I have little choice, Mrs Yong.’

‘
Then you must go, but answer me one question ...’ said Christina.

‘
Of course I will, if I can.’

‘
Do you love my son?’

‘
I think I do, yes. No, I don’t think I do, I
know
I love him.’

‘
Then once more I must ask you to find him and bring him home.’

She had never driven such a powerful car before and to start with she had to drive very cautiously. Time was of the essence, so she hoped that once she reached the motorway her confidence would improve and she could speed up.

The Porsche had very little fuel in its tank.

Stopping at the first petrol station she came to in Blandford Forum, Gabrielle attracted a lot of attention. She filled the car and as she was paying for the petrol she bought a road atlas. She could only guess that the distance from Blandford to Loch Lomond was over four hundred miles, probably nearer five hundred, and even in a Porsche it was going to take her at least eight or nine hours and that would be without any breaks.

She estimated that Adam had about a two-hour start. Lolita had shown her the mobile phone Adam had left behind, so she could not call him.

Ignoring the admiring looks she got as she returned to the Porsche, she moved the car a few yards away from the pumps and reached for the atlas so that she could plan her route.

She also prayed.

Gabrielle drove through the night.

She stopped twice to fill up with fuel again and to grab a sandwich and a drink. Her strength and her confidence, miraculously boosted by the thought of her vital goal, did improve and she was able to hold the car at a steady eighty for a lot of the way.

Loch Lomond was where he had gone the first time and she prayed over and over again that it was where he was heading this time. She scanned every vehicle she saw but she hadn’t really taken any notice of what type of car Adam had hired. She knew it was a red saloon but didn’t have the faintest idea what its make and registration number were. Even if she had contacted the police, she wouldn’t have been able to give them sufficient information. She thought about the radio but as she believed Adam was driving with one aim in mind he would not be listening to the radio.

On four occasions before crossing the border she was held up because of accidents and on each occasion she looked anxiously to see whether a red saloon was involved. She also kept on glancing down at her mobile phone on the passenger seat willing it to ring, willing the caller to be either Christina or Lolita telling her that he was back at Forestgreen Lodge or at least telling them where he was.

But there were no calls or messages.

She was alone and somewhere miles in front of her he was also alone.

At just after nine o’clock on the Monday morning Gabrielle pulled into the Oak Tree car park. Because of the accidents, one of which had temporarily closed the motorway, the journey had taken her nearly eleven hours.

There was one other car parked on the far side of the car park.

It was a red saloon.

It was in exactly the same spot Adam had parked the Lexus in what seemed like months ago.

She thought she recognised the car.

She prayed she was right.

She parked the Porsche next to the other car and ran round to the passenger door.

It was not locked.

She yanked open the door and looked inside.

In the door-well were the tissues she had used the previous day.

Her first prayer had been answered.

Then she noticed a piece of paper on the driver’s seat on top of which were the ignition keys.

Please return this car to Hertz. Thank you.

Racing back to the Porsche, Gabrielle drove to the edge of the Loch where she had first met Adam. It was as though time had stood still. Nothing seemed to be any different - except he was not there.