Jackpot

24

Teddy hung up after talking to Kwok Lin and frowned. After telling Teddy that the triads had no interest in the nonexistent film industry in Macau, Kwok Lin had called back and told him the opposite.

“You know of famous gangster Sonny Ma? I have some highly placed sources in the underworld, and they say that Sonny Ma is looking to get back to his criminal ways.”

From everything Teddy had read about Sonny Ma, this seemed unlikely. From all accounts he’d worked hard after being released from a harsh Chinese prison, and was now making a lot of money in the tech field. He was about to make his biggest investment yet in online gambling, which stood to make him an even wealthier man. Even a hint of scandal would be enough to blow the whole deal dead.

Maybe Sonny Ma was just a rotten apple who had no choice but to succumb to his criminal temptations, even when the risk was so high. Or, Teddy thought, someone was trying to frame Sonny Ma.

Teddy decided the best thing to do was stick to his original plan of playing the part of the annoying American movie producer, going around to the sites where Peter and Ben had been filming to see if he could shake anything loose. Peter and Ben said they’d been filming at the casino, and Teddy assumed they’d meant the Golden Desert. But according to Dale Gai, they’d been referring to a pawnshop the locals called “the casino one.”

The pawnshop near the casino was not what Teddy expected. Pawnshops in Macau were used mostly as underground banks to help tourists take out gambling money that the Chinese government wouldn’t know about. This pawnshop looked less seedy, more like a warehouse for an upscale auction house.

Even though the location was in the heart of an area that looked like a movie set designer’s idea of a Chinese pawnshop neighborhood, the interior of the wide-open space was bright and clean and packed with a highly organized stock of luxury goods. Teddy’s entrance was quickly noticed, and a short, elegant older man approached him.

“I am the owner here. How can I help you?” the man said.

“I’m a producer for Centurion Studios and wanted to follow up on a lead about filming at this location. I understand my colleagues already reached out to you?”

“Oh. The movie.”

The old man looked as if Teddy had just told him that his entire family had died. He stumbled backward a few steps, then took a seat behind the main counter of the store.

“Are you okay?” Teddy asked.

“I’m just tired of all of this. All dreams and no reality.”

“A strange perspective coming from a man who makes his living from the casinos.”

“I do not make my living from the casinos. I provide a mutually beneficial service, yes, but the casinos could go away tomorrow and I would still have my business.”

“My colleagues, two Americans. Did you talk to them?”

Teddy watched the old man’s face before he answered. The man wasn’t trying to place Peter or Ben, he was constructing a lie. Teddy had seen enough of it in his years with the CIA, and he’d trained plenty of agents himself on how to do it better. This man likely had to lie quite a bit professionally, but he looked uncomfortable lying to Teddy.

“They wanted to use my business to make their movie.”

“Did you agree to that?”

“No. There were rumors that things had happened at their other locations. I didn’t want to put my people in danger.”

“There were attacks at other locations?”

The man nodded and crossed his right hand over his left in front of him on the counter.

“What did you hear about the attacks?” Teddy asked.

The man leaned closer to Teddy like he was about to tell him a secret, then he smiled crookedly and leaned back in his chair.

“No. I’m not a gossip. I’m no fan of criminals, but once a man has paid his debt to society, I have no business with how he spends his time.”

Teddy felt like he was playing an amateur-hour game show, but the old man seemed to be enjoying himself.

“You would have been paid for letting them use your business, right?” Teddy asked.

“As I told you — I always find a way to make a living, with or without the casinos.”

“It seems a shame that rumors of an attack would cost you a good deal.”

“It is heartbreaking,” the man said. “The total would have been substantial.”

Teddy reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills and handed them to the man.

“I’m sorry to hear about these events. Centurion hopes to be a good ambassador of the American film industry, not to cause trouble.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t carry substantial amounts of cash on me, but I do hope that can help with the goodwill we would have enjoyed while working together highlighting your beautiful city.”

“You are a good man, Mr....”

“Barnett. Billy Barnett,” Teddy said, holding out his hand across the counter. “Centurion Studios.”

“You are a good man, Mr. Billy Barnett,” the man said, shaking Teddy’s hand, “unlike Sonny Ma.”

Teddy didn’t like where this was going. The story was too easy. It fit too perfectly with Kwok Lin’s revised story. Teddy never trusted anything that was too easy.

“Sonny Ma attacked the other film sets?” Teddy asked.

“Not himself, of course. He is above that now from his high-tech penthouse apartment. But he still commands respect on the street. It would be easy for him to find many men to do this in his name.”

“Is it possible that Sonny Ma doesn’t know these things are being done in his name?”

That possibility was immediately diffused by the horrified look on the old man’s face.

“Nothing is done in Sonny Ma’s name without Sonny Ma’s permission.”

“Maybe he’s too busy with his new investment to keep up with what’s happening on the street the way he used to,” Teddy said.

“The street is his life. It’s his identity. They are showing a movie about him at the film festival, all about his criminal life.”

“I’d heard that.”

“Sonny Ma authorized the film,” the old man said. “Sonny Ma will be at the premiere. Sonny Ma bathes in this image.”

“That seems dangerous to his new investment opportunity.”

“It’s his brand. He needs a way to stand out, and his criminal background makes his gambling product more enticing.”

Teddy wasn’t sure he bought that, but he’d gotten enough from the old man to help with the rest of his investigation. They shook hands again and Teddy headed back to the casino to see if he could find Dale.

When Billy Barnett left the pawnshop, Bingo emerged from the back office where he’d been watching the visit on the security monitors.

“You told him what he needed to hear?” Bingo asked the old man.

“I gave him as much truth as I could spare to make him believe.”

Bingo wondered if the man was lying. The audio on the security feed was terrible and Bingo had missed much of what was said.

“You’re not lying to me?”

“No, sir.”

The man looked at the ground at Bingo’s feet. Even though he’d done terrible things and would do many more, Bingo hated being an intimidating presence. It made him uncomfortable. Intimidation was for people like Ziggy Peng who were evil, lacking in empathy. Bingo told the old man to look at him. The eye contact was awkward, but Bingo kept it until the look of terror was gone from the old man’s face.

“You’ve been very helpful. Thank you. You have my gratitude, and you have Arrow Donaldson’s gratitude.”