Kiss & Die (22 page)

David called a meeting with the other Africans. More than thirty of them crowded into the bar next to his shop. The place was in sombre mood. David sat at the back of the room and addressed the men.

‘We have to act for ourselves. The Mansions has its own rules, its own government. Each race has its own country in here. Africa is a big country. We should have a say in here. We should have respect. We are allowing these stairwells to run with African blood. We are allowing a bunch of kids to hunt us down. We can’t allow it any more. We know who some of them are in here. We take out a few of the ringleaders and the rest will back off.’

‘What if they don’t?’

‘We have nothing to lose. They will pick us off one by one.’

David stood. ‘I know where to start.’

Three of the men followed him down to wait at the ground-floor entrance. They sat on the steps as they always did, but not just to pass the time, they were looking for one boy, Hafiz.

Hafiz looked across at David as he passed them and moved through the ground-floor money changers and guesthouse touts. He had a smile on his face and a swagger in his walk. He had money in his pocket, a gold necklace and an expensive watch. Since Victoria Chan had befriended him he earned more money from servicing the needs of her wealthy friends than he ever did with Michelle. He looked disdainfully at the Africans. He would have liked to have bent over for David. He wouldn’t charge. But he knew that it wasn’t allowed. The Africans were out of bounds. Hafiz had a new respect amongst the Outcasts. He had stamped on the African’s head. He had shown that even though he might be gay he could be as nasty as the rest of them, nastier even. Hafiz only had to whistle and the whole of the Mansions came alive. He was someone now, in his own right. He didn’t need to work in the restaurant if he didn’t feel like it. He didn’t need to go to school. He had all he needed. Rich men showered him with gifts; he was going to be somebody.

He stood for a second and stared back at David. Hafiz felt triumphant. David could look all he wanted. Hafiz just had to get his whistle out and that would be another African dead down the maintenance shaft. But today was different. Today David stared back at Hafiz with a look that frightened Hafiz. It seemed to look right inside him. It seemed to know all his secrets. Had David seen Hafiz stamp on the African’s head when he was lying on the ground? Had the African lived long enough to tell him? Hafiz doubted it, anyway what did he care? He was the prince of the Mansions.

Hafiz walked on and glanced back over his shoulder.
David had stood and was walking his way. He walked quickly through the crammed corridor, on his way to the stairs. He turned to see not only David but three others following. Hafiz broke into a fast walk and then a run. He had a choice now, as the Mansions thinned out he could run to the back, along the back wall and try and escape that way, but there were fewer stalls that way and more Africans. Instead he chose the stairs and took them two at a time. His hand was shaking as he tried to squeeze it into his jeans pocket and bring out the whistle. There wasn’t time to stop; he could hear them coming. Their deep voices boomed up the stairwell. Hafiz was making small whimpering noises, talking to himself, trying to reassure himself. He was running scared. He dodged along and onto the inside landing of the seventh floor and he ducked down into a doorway and took out his whistle. He was shaking so much, so breathless he fumbled, got it to his mouth, tried to blow and screamed as David’s big foot stamped on his chest, trapping his arm where it was. David took the whistle from him and threw it over the balcony. He dragged Hafiz up by his arm.

‘Please…’ Hafiz was crying like a baby. ‘I’ll do anything. Don’t hurt me please.’

‘I know you’ll do anything. You killed a decent man. My brothers here are going to teach you a lesson. You like cock, Hafiz? You like black cock? You like expensive things, watches, jewellery? We have a necklace that will fit you.’ David grinned at him as he threw him towards the others. ‘This is your lucky day.’

Peter Thorne had had enough of the cocktail bar in Vacation Villas. He was in the Western instead. He had had a long day. The jet lag was getting to him, it was early evening. He was sat at one of the tables for two on the lower level of the bar, which was long and straight and had more than its share of dead animals and antique spurs on the wall. It was a sawdust and spit sort of place that played country music with a touch of hard rock.

He closed his phone and left it by the beer mat. His wife had hung up on him. He had been curt, cruel maybe and he hadn’t said the words he should have. He hadn’t said he loved her, he missed her. Instead he had berated her about the fact he was working and she was at home. Her life went on as always: the kids got taken to karate, to ballet, she went to the gym, and she met her friends for lunch. Her life was encapsulated into a tiny box world whilst he was working on the other side of the world. Tonight she had tried to talk to him about money. They needed this, that, the other. She saw him as a cash cow. She saw him as someone who was happy to be on his own for six months of the year. It was true, he had been once. He had thought
he was someone then. He had been the bright boy in the company. He had been promoted over those who had served many more years than him but it had meant more travelling. Now, seven years later. His family enjoyed the house with the pool. His kids went to private school. His wife didn’t need to work. But he had lost himself. His pleasures came down to anything money could buy.

He had started having the affairs to bring back some excitement into his life. Buying a woman for the night was like buying dinner. In the beginning he thought it enriched his marriage. He went home feeling like it wasn’t all work, work, work. He could have a few secrets; a life of his own. He could hang on to the single status whilst still enjoying the married one. He thought his wife would never find out. Why should she? He was on the other side of the world paying for sex with a stranger in a hotel room. But now, he looked into his wife’s eyes and he recognized that he had ruined something precious. He realized that they were slipping irrevocably apart.

So here he was listening to ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers and staring into his glass.

Ruby passed the window and stopped to glance in. She saw Peter Thorne. She’d seen him before at the bar in the Vacation Villas. Tonight he wasn’t looking so happy. It was early evening. He sat at a table, rather than the bar. Ruby watched Annie saunter up, her holsters squeezed over her ample hips. Her laugh good and loud as she threw her head back and tried too hard. Even Annie didn’t stop long. Ruby got that gut feeling she always got when she knew he was perfect.

‘So nice to see you again, Inspector.’ Victoria Chan was waiting outside Mann’s block of flats when he came out. ‘I would love to think that it was my charm that you could not resist.’

Mann climbed into the back of Victoria’s Bentley. ‘I decided to accept your explanation of my officer’s death, although I don’t like it. I have to take some of the blame on my own shoulders. I have also realized that my father’s estate will not wait forever. It needs me to deal with it.’

Victoria looked more stunning every time he saw her. It was as if she wanted to show him that she could be every woman rolled into one. Today she wore jeans and a boxy white denim vintage jacket. Her hair was in a pony tail. She looked young and fresh faced.

‘I wanted to show you it doesn’t have to be all about money. It can be about holding on to something precious. We all have regrets, Mann. I have them like everyone else. But I don’t want any more. I want to look forwards from now on.’

They drove out to the New Territories then exchanged
the Bentley for a helicopter. They flew over the reservoirs and nature reserves, hugging the coastline.

‘I wanted to bring you here to this coast. Do you know it?’

‘Of course I know it, every keen surfer knows it. It’s the only beach you can surf in Hong Kong. It’s beautiful.’ They looked down on the fine white gold sand and rolling coastline where the forest came right up to the beach. ‘I’ve been coming here since I was young. It’s a trek but worth it. I’ve never come by helicopter before, of course.’

They set the helicopter down on a stretch of level beach and Mann and Victoria alighted. The pilot switched off the engines. Victoria stripped off, tugging at her jeans and giggling as she nearly fell over. She had on a simple black bikini that drew all the attention to her perfectly toned body. She laughed at him.

He stripped down to his Calvins. The thought of getting into the water was all that mattered to him right now. He longed to feel the sand beneath his feet, the cool water creep over his body. He ran after her as she tried to beat him to the water. He floated on his back, felt the cold water creep over his scalp; he closed his eyes and listened to the dull sound of water filling his ears. He thought of Helen. This would be her idea of heaven. They had come to the beach together many times. Mann dived beneath the water and tried to forget everything just for a while, he wanted to feel his body tired, his mind empty. They stayed in the water for an hour. Victoria talked anything but business. She talked about the scenery, the fish, the shells. She asked him about the things he loved.

‘This is my idea of heaven. In the sea, sun on my face.’

‘Is that what you’d like to be, a Robinson Crusoe? On a desert island, a beach hut?’

‘Yes, absolutely.’

After their swim, they lay on the hot sand. Mann turned on his side and ran a fistful of sand through his fingers. He hadn’t felt so relaxed in ages. But he had to give himself a reality check. He looked across at Victoria. She was sunbathing. Mann could see her freckles coming out. Her strong features softened as she relaxed. Her face looked pretty as it turned pink in the sun. Her hair was wet and loose and splayed out on the towel. She was showing him that she wasn’t Miss Immaculate; she could take the make-up off and get sand in her hair. She was his type of woman.

‘Why is it you look like an angel but you behave like a devil?’ he asked.

She opened one eye, put up her hand to shade her eyes and looked at him. ‘Haven’t you realized yet?’ She lay back down and closed her eyes whilst she talked. ‘I am everything you ever wanted in a woman, a partner, lover. We are the same, you and I. We were caught between two worlds when we were young. We were lied to by our fathers. We have a legacy whether we like it or not. Okay – I might be a little more self-serving than you. We can’t all devote our lives to public service, but I need someone like you in my life to balance me. Of course,’ she sat up and rested on her elbows, ‘it helps that the someone is just as rich as me. I could never settle for anything less.’

‘You play a deadly game, Victoria. Your Outcasts are killing people, not just other gang members. They are running through the Mansions in vigilante groups. They
are killing anyone they don’t like the look of. Is that what you had in mind?’

She closed her eyes again. ‘They are the product of society, not me.’

‘Oh, I think they’re your babies. Whether you can control your offspring, the monsters that you have created, I don’t know.’

‘I have been honest with you, Mann. I want to redevelop the Mansions. I told you that. I promised them a place in that redevelopment.’ She sighed and smiled. ‘I can see you’ll take some persuading to trust me.’

‘Yeah. Don’t hold your breath. The more I see the less I trust.’ Mann got up and got dressed. ‘Let’s go. I need to get back to the office.’

Victoria looked momentarily disgruntled but she recovered. ‘Okay, of course, Inspector. Your wish is my command.’

They got back into the helicopter. The pilot circled around the beach area one last time.

‘It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ Mann answered. ‘Beautiful, remote, unspoilt, and hard to get to.’

‘Yes. The perfect place to build the most expensive beach resort in Asia.’

Mann looked at her incredulously. ‘You’ll never get permission. This is owned by the Park.’

‘It was. I bought it. Well, to put it precisely,
we
bought it. You and I. If you want, we will keep it as it is. Then you can build yourself a shack on the beach and have your own private slice of the sea. We don’t have to develop it. We can keep it just for ourselves. We can come out here
every weekend and lie naked on the beach and swim in waters that no one else swims in.’ The helicopter circled in the air, its shadow like a dark flying dragonfly buzzing over the surface of the water. ‘Or, you can see the place you love turned into an all-inclusive spa resort. You see, you have the choice. You can join me and influence the decisions I make. You can haggle with me for the amount of government housing I erect alongside plush residential developments or you can refuse and let me do it my way. But then, we all know what my way is, don’t we?’

She smiled at him and Mann could see that the sun had already brought a golden glow to her face.

‘So what’s it to be?’

Mann looked down as the sea turned turquoise in the shallow waters and folded along the shore.

‘Your beach to leave alone, unspoilt, untouched for whatever reason you choose or you can leave me to build my beach resort. It’s up to you. You have the power in your hands to build a better Hong Kong, a better world.’ She laughed. ‘But only with me, of course.’

It was late by the time Mann got dropped off back at Headquarters. Mia was waiting for him.

‘What is it?’ he asked.

‘A man’s head has been dredged up by some fishermen. It has been in the water a few months. They’ve pulled it up at Aberdeen. I need you back on the job now.’

‘Caucasian?’

‘We don’t know – there’s not much of it left.’

Mann was already out of the door.

‘Do the fishermen have the exact co-ordinates where they found it?’ Mann and Mia were speeding along the road on their way to the scene.

‘No, only a rough position.’

‘Are we positive it’s not Max Kosmos?’

‘Yes. It’s in an advanced state of decay. There’s very little of it left. We’ll get divers down at first light to see if we can find any more of it.’

‘I’m going with them.’

‘You’re no longer part of the police dive team, Mann.’

‘The more divers we have on this the better.’ He changed
the subject. ‘Where did Ng get to with checking out missing businessmen?’

‘We have a long list. Ng decided on cross-referencing in two areas; reported missing by family or close friends, not just work, and last seen in Hong Kong, still missing.’

‘Is Sheng here?’ Mann asked. He looked across at Mia and realized it was the first time he’d seen Mia with make-up on in a long time. She couldn’t have been at the office either when the call came.

‘No, just Daniel Lu. Sheng’s unavailable, we couldn’t find him.’ Mia didn’t look at Mann.

‘How far did you get with Victoria Chan?’

‘She offered me my own private surfing beach.’

‘She certainly knows the way to a boy’s heart.’

‘To mine, anyway. I am waiting for the killer strike. She’s laying the world at my feet, all I have to do is kiss her hand and sign a pact with the devil.’

‘What did she say about the Outcasts?’

‘She says they have a life and a direction of their own. She says she is just the figurehead, her intentions are good, that they were bound to exist even without her help; all that bullshit. I don’t believe her but some things she says ring true. She is offering me a lot to come onto her side. She wants us to work together, find a balance between her way and mine.’

‘Ouch, that’s good. She’s clever. She has made a study of you, Mann. She knows all of your buttons and she’s going to keep pushing them until they add up to a jackpot.’ Mia looked across at him. He had a look on his face that seemed to be wondering if everyone knew him better than he knew himself. ‘Use it then, Mann. We need to reverse
the fishing reel and hook her in with whatever it takes. You are our bait, I’m afraid.’

Mann looked out as they drove. He tried not to look at the road. He felt sick. ‘Make no mistake, CK feels nothing for anyone. CK is as cold-hearted as they come. Maybe he’s just setting his daughter up to fail. Victoria is a chip off the old block. But, you’re right, I do need to use it.’ He looked across at her and grinned. He was a little surprised. ‘Never had you for the mercenary type, Mia. You’re making me walk the plank with a tank full of piranhas beneath me.’

‘You don’t have to do it, Mann. It’s a big ask, I know. You can just say no, take some time off.’

‘The last thing I need is time off, Mia. I can’t bear my own company at the moment. I need to work. I need to be useful. I will take it all the way and hope I can deliver.’

‘Then stay focused. I don’t need one of my officers off his face 24/7.’ He glanced across at her. ‘Yeah, maybe that was a little harsh of me. But it’s tough love. I know you, Johnny. I want you to put it all behind you, move on.’

Mann looked out of the window, at the harbour just ahead he could see the flashing blue lights of several squad cars. ‘It’s easier said than done,’ he said.

Mia didn’t answer, she just drove.

They parked up by the cordon of flashing police cars around the water’s edge and walked over to join Shrimp and Ng.

They’d reached the water’s edge and Mann’s attention was diverted. ‘Jesus, is it in a
lobster pot
? Are these the fishermen who found it?’

‘Yes, Boss.’

Mann knelt down over the pot. A large lobster scuttled around the basket and settled on the skull. ‘There’s still a small amount of flesh, the pot must have protected it to a certain extent, apart from providing the lobster with a permanent meal.’

‘The lobster’s young,’ said Shrimp. ‘It’s probably not the first lobster to feed here.’

Mann took Delilah out of his pocket, poked her through the slats and dislodged the lobster. ‘Where did you find it?’

The fishermen pointed out to sea.

‘Can you be more specific?’

They looked at one another and then collectively shook their heads.

‘They say they were fishing in the permitted zone when they trawled it up in their net. It must have come loose with the bad weather.’ Ng leant down to whisper to Mann. ‘I think they’re bullshitting. They were somewhere they ought not to be or up to some kind of illegal bomb fishing. Whatever it was they caught themselves a net full of trouble.’

‘Were you out in the storm?’

The captain nodded.

‘Maybe this pot was dislodged from its home. Come to police headquarters in the morning. I want you to show me on a map exactly where you were fishing.’

The captain started to grumble.

‘You’re not going anywhere with this boat till we’ve had a chance to take a good look at it. Co-operate and we’ll speed things along. Piss me off and I’ll impound it for good.’

Daniel Lu came to join Mann and Shrimp and took a closer look at the head. ‘It’s not Max Kosmos then?’

Mann felt sick. He stood and took a few deep breaths. ‘Somebody get that fucking lobster out.’