Lights Out (31 page)

Lily looked at Lam and nodded silently. She turned and looked at the
body on the floor next to her. Looking back toward Lam she mouthed, “Thank
you.”

“I just need to make a call,” Lam said stepping out of the room,
“I’ll be right back.”

She slowly walked out of the room and pulled out her cell phone.

She dialed the Chiefs number, and holding her arm tightly, waited for
him to pick up.

“Lam”, the familiar voice warmed her.

“Chief” she said as she slid down the wall and rested her back
against it. She could feel the loss of blood had made her weak.

“We’re almost there”, he said. In the distance Lam could hear the
faint sound of sirens. She liked the sound.

“Good” she replied and closed her eyes.

When Sarah Lam woke up, it was to light pouring in behind a closed
white blind.
The sun seeping around the edges making it too
bright for her eyes.
She turned on her left side with her back to the
window to try and darken the room, only to be tugged back by the drip still
attached to her hand. She sighed heavily remembering why she was there and
absentmindedly stroked her heavily bandaged arm with her free hand. The
morphine was doing its job for now, but she knew that once removed, she would
be on her own. She sat up in bed as best she could, trying to work out which of
the electronic buttons was the correct one to press, and waited whilst the bed
slowly whirred and moved her into a sitting position. Just then her door opened
the Chief walked in. He was all smiles and carried a large bunch of flowers,
which he sheepishly placed on the table at the foot of the bed.

“I didn’t expect to see you up and moving so soon.” He said happily
sitting himself down heavily on the plastic visitors chair next to her bed.

‘You look better, you have a bit of
colour
.”
He stated giving her a good once over. His eyes moved to the morphine drip next
to her bed.

“Looks like you’ve used your quota for the night.” He chuckled
signaling to the empty plastic bag.

“Thanks for coming Chief, you’ve brightened my day.” She said dryly
returning the banter.

“Actually I don’t feel too bad. My arm’s a bit stiff.” She said
trying to maneuver her arm and wincing. ”But I’m OK”.

“Well, there’s no rush. You’re signed off until you are fit to come
back, and that’s an order.”

“What time is it?” Lam asked scanning her nightstand, remembering
that her watch had been removed.

“It’s 10am.” He said. “You’ve been here since last night. Do you
remember what happened?” He asked, his face now suddenly full of concern.

“Only up until speaking to you. After that, I have nothing. Sorry to
leave you such a bloody mess.” She stated.

“You did a good job, Lam, I’m just sorry that we didn’t get to you
sooner.”

“And Lily, how’s she doing? She was in a pretty poor state by the
time I got there.” Lam said, remembering the blood stained pillow and bruises
around her neck.

The Chief shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. It was a trait
of his that Lam had picked up on over the years, which normally signaled bad
news.

“She vanished.” He said simply.

Lam’s heart sank.

“We arrived minutes after talking with you. We found the two dead
Officers by the entrance, and then Ghost Face. We searched everywhere, but she
managed to slip by us.”

“We nearly lost you Lam.
You had lost so much blood by the time we reached you. You needed two
transfusions during the night, and thirty stitches, you were in surgery for two
hours. You’re lucky to be here.” He said, and for a moment rested his hand on
hers, like her Father would have done.

He moved it way quickly, and she looked at him.

“Have you been here all night?” She asked, noticing for the first
time that his shirt looked wrinkled and his eyes tired and bloodshot.

“I thought you wouldn’t make it.” He replied, his voice now quiet and
gave her a weak smile.

“Chief, I’m OK.” She said to him.

“So what will happen to Lily now? She asked, moving the conversation
back to the case and away from anything personal.

“It was a no deal. We’ll keep looking for her, but I’m guessing that
by now, she has a new identity. She’ll either be abroad, or, if she’s here. It
will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. The money has still not been
traced, so we’ll continue with the search. We may have to wait until the notes
begin to circulate, but we can at least satisfy the Commissioner and the Bank
that we caught and killed the ring leader.” He reasoned.

“And Harper, what will happen to him now?”

“Well, he co-operated well and has told us everything that he knows.
He has the chance to go back to his old job, John McIntyre and the Board
have
been very sympathetic. We don’t see Lily as a huge
threat to him any longer, and with Ghost Face now gone, he should be free to
carry on as before. Although he did say that he had plans to go back to
England. A fresh start for him, which is understandable.” He said.

“And
Luk
?” She asked.

“Oh we still have him.” The Chief said with a wry smile. “He’s
willing to talk. He’ll be good for us in that way. He’s trying to negotiate
which prison he’ll serve his time in, but he’s squealing like a pig, so we’ll
let him carry on for now, we have a few years of ground to cover.”

A nurse bustled in and checked Lam’s blood pressure and changed her
morphine bag. She gave the Chief a stern look and tapped her watch with her
finger, indicating that the Chief’s visiting time was over.

Once she had finished and left the room, the Chief stood and
collected his jacket from across the back of the chair.

“I’ll come and see you tomorrow”, he said, we have a lot to talk
about.

Lam smiled, and reached across to his hand and touched it.

He turned and looked at her. As tough as he knew she was, she looked
so fragile in this room.

“No more partners for a while boss.” She said with a sincerity that
touched him.

“No more partners,” He replied as he left the room.

Lam lay back against the bed, her head nestled in the soft white
pillow. She moved her hand to the tube that connected the morphine bag to her
hand and pressed the self-dosage button. It beeped once, flashing a green light
and she closed her eyes as she felt the cool liquid enter her vein sending her
into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Lily thought that she was dreaming when she felt the pressure on her
body release, and again still dreaming when she heard two voices. One was a
woman’s voice, she thought to herself in her foggy state, and then silence
again. She was still in darkness, her eyes closed and the buzzing now replaced
by a ringing in her ears, broken from time to time with the same two voices.
Her body now forced her to breathe. She sucked in air, filling her lungs to the
limit, aware of the burning in her chest and throat. She gasped again, this
time coughing and wheezing, her body needing more air. Lily tried to open her
eyes. As she blinked against the harsh light, she could feel something being
thrown over her legs, then the voice of a woman.

“Sorry” The woman said softly as she leaned toward Lily and tugged at
the duct tape across her mouth. She hardly noticed the short stab of pain as
the skin on her upper lip tore, or felt the trickle of blood in her mouth.

Her arms now free, Lily was aware that the woman was wrapping her in
her quilt. She saw that she was badly injured. Blood was oozing quickly from a
wound on her arm. Lily tried to help as the woman shifted her body into a
sitting position on the bed.

Then the woman spoke again.

“It’s OK, he’s dead.” She said gently to Lily, as though she was a
child. “You’re safe now.”

Lily looked at the woman, a surge of pure gratitude welled in her
chest. She couldn’t speak. Her throat was too sore and felt like sandpaper when
she breathed. She nodded to the woman and mouthed, “Thank you.”

Lily sat, numbly aware of the body lying on her bedroom floor. She
forced herself to move, her brain slowly catching up with her, forcing her to
acknowledge the reality before her. She listened for a moment to the woman in
her hallway and heard the tail end of a conversation. In the far distance she
could hear the faint sound of sirens.
Realising
that
she only had minutes, Lily stood, slightly shaky and scanned the room for the
rest of her clothes. She saw that her mobile phone had fallen out of her pocket
in the attack and reached for it, quickly slipping it back into her jeans. She finished
dressing quickly. Grabbing a pair of shoes, she carefully stepped over Ghost
Face’s motionless body and slid open her balcony doors.

The drop was not too far, she thought as she looked down. Lily’s body
ached as she landed heavily on the deck below. She was alert now and could hear
the siren’s getting closer. Once outside she knew that the rest would be easy.
She ran quickly now behind her house and into darkness, the wind whipping her
hair into her face, the adrenaline kicking in. She didn’t look back. She kept
pushing on, running as fast as she could across the open ground and down the
hill toward the lights of Hong Kong.

3 months later

The China Club was full of activity as usual as the waiters busied
themselves between tables serving guests, pouring water and wine and removing
plates silently, without disturbing the course of conversation. The
Matre’D
stood at the entrance of the vast dining room
scanning the tables until he located the one that he was looking for. He turned
to the young woman waiting patiently at his side.

“Miss Li your table is ready.” He announced with a broad smile.

She followed him, weaving between the diners and gaining admiring
looks as she did so until they reached a table for two by the window.

Theatrically the
Matre’D
drew out her chair
and bid her to sit, and then walked back to the entrance.

She sat still whilst a waiter, dressed in a formal white high
collared jacket and wearing white cotton gloves, delicately draped the starched
white napkin over her lap, and poured her a glass of still water with lemon.
With a silent nod she was left alone to take in her surroundings and browse the
menu whilst she waited.

Even though the restaurant was filled with chatter and noise she
concentrated on the gentle music that played in the background. She listened
again, straining her ears and then smiled. She turned in her chair and looked
behind her. There, in the corner, sitting on a perch in a tall black bamboo
cage that reached halfway from the floor to the ceiling, was a solitary bird.
It chirped and sang to her from behind its bars, just loud enough for her to
hear. She listened for a while and then turned back to her table. She took a
sip of the lemon water and gazed out of the window. In it’s day the building
where she now sat had been the tallest in Hong Kong, the original Bank of
China. It boasted seventeen stories, of which she was on the fifteenth floor.
The restaurant owners had followed the original styling and recreated an old
Shanghainese
tea house, updating it with a long bar, a
gentlemen’s smoking room and private dining rooms. The sweeping staircase
entrance was decadent and filled with a fine collection of Chinese modern and
contemporary art. The
floors,
covered in hand tufted
silk rugs that felt soft and plush underfoot. Inside the main restaurant the
room had been sympathetically renovated, recreating a 1950’s China. The dark
wood paneling that reached halfway up to the high ceilings, complimented the
wooden square tables inset with white marble. The chairs were high backed
traditionally styled with scrolled arms and the light fittings were a mixture
of bold and bright lanterns in red and lime silks with gold, knotted tassels
dropping from the
centre
. Overhead ancient metal fans
spun slowly, a perfect finishing touch.

She looked at the building opposite. It was such a contrast, she
observed. From her elevated position she could still only see half way to the
top of the building. It sprawled before her, a mass of modern metal and glass.
The World Asia Bank had been constructed in 1985, a feat of architecture and a
mere thirty-five years after the stone building where she sat.

Considering this point, she was deep in thought when her guest
arrived. She quickly stood as the
Matre’D
followed
the same routine as with her, pulling out the chair and guiding her guest
carefully into the seat.

“How are you Lillian?” Her Grandmother said reaching over and placing
her hand onto Lily’s.

Lily could feel the warmth work it’s way up her arm until it reached
her face and she smiled.

“I’m good. Better now that I am seeing you”, she said with genuine
affection.

“I’m told that they serve very good Jasmine tea here.” Her
Grandmother said with a wide smile, crinkling up her old face.

“Then we have come to the right place.” Lily replied.

-THE END -