Jackpot

36

Teddy Fay hung up with Millie Martindale and poured himself another glass of water from the hotel suite’s bar. Normally he wouldn’t have cared at all when or where Arrow Donaldson traveled, but something rotten was happening in Macau and it seemed to center on Arrow Donaldson and his resort. If Donaldson was going to Hong Kong and the CIA saw that as enough of a flag to contact him, then Teddy knew where he needed to be: Hong Kong.

First, he wanted to talk to Sonny Ma. Li Feng was a moving target with too many layers of political nonsense around her to be useful for Teddy. Teddy had no interest in what she was doing for the CIA or Arrow Donaldson; all he wanted was to find out who had tried to frame and blackmail Ben and Peter. After he’d made the perpetrators pay for their wrongdoing, he could get back to L.A. in time to take a few days rest before starting his next project.

Someone was going to a lot of trouble to make it look like Sonny Ma was the one behind it, but a man like Sonny Ma would have made a lot of enemies during the course of his criminal career. Maybe the man would have an idea about who was trying to set him up. Teddy didn’t know where to find Sonny Ma, but he didn’t think it would be too hard for a man with his skills and experience. So far Teddy had tried to stay away from the film festival part of the business as much as possible, so that Peter and Ben’s good work wouldn’t be tainted by Teddy’s unorthodox methods. But now that they were back in the U.S. and someone had burned down their production offices in Macau, he was already down the rabbit hole.

So instead of running around Macau trying to track down friends and family of Sonny Ma and hoping to get lucky, Teddy went to the organizing offices of the film festival where someone certainly would know how to reach the man who was the shining star of the closing night showing and benefit.

The concierge looked as if she were straight out of central casting. Teddy matched her confident and friendly smile with his own as he approached and handed her one of his Centurion Studios business cards.

“I’m Billy Barnett and I have a meeting with the film festival people here, but I can’t for the life of me remember where I’m supposed to go.”

“We’re so excited to have all of you in our wonderful establishment for the festival,” she said in clear English.

“I’m excited myself to meet Sonny Ma,” Teddy said. “Is he with the rest of the organization’s quarters or is he—”

“Seventeenth floor,” she said, her tone turning brusque. “They have the whole floor.”

It seemed Li Feng wasn’t Sonny Ma’s only detractor in town. Teddy slipped her a bill from his tip stash.

“Thank you. I’m sure I can find my way from there.”

The suite of rooms the festival occupied were AS bland as Teddy had expected they would be. He’d been in hundreds of these kinds of suites in multiple countries on multiple continents, and in every case the hospitality and business suites had the same banal executive scheme.

“Good. You’re here,” Dale Gai said, popping her head out of one of the doors at the far end of the suite. “I wondered how long it would take.”

Teddy blinked for a moment. “Nobody knew I was coming here,” Teddy said. He was more than a little irritated at finding himself one step behind this woman yet again.

Dale waved him in and pointed to a large dining table where the festival organizers were congregated.

“You might fool most people as unpredictable or stealthy,” she said, pouring him a drink from the bar set at the back of the room. “But to someone who isn’t distracted by your flash or your... image, you’re quite predictable.”

“I need to find out who this ‘someone’ is.”

She laughed as she handed him the drink. They sat down next to each other at the end of the table, opposite the organizers. Across from them were three women and two men, all but one of them Asian. Dale introduced Teddy and then motioned for him to talk when it was his turn.

“I need to meet with Sonny Ma,” Teddy said, watching their reactions as he talked to gauge how much of the truth he needed to give them to get what he needed.

“You’re with Centurion Studios,” said a tall woman in a pale yellow suit and comically large glasses.

“Yes. I work with Peter and Ben.”

“Who are now back in the U.S.,” the two men said, almost at the same time.

This was great. It seemed like they were hoping Teddy could fill in for Peter and Ben. Teddy could work with that.

“Right. Something came up and they had to go back. I was in Hong Kong and they asked me if I could come over and help.”

“You were in Hong Kong making a movie?” the woman in the suit asked.

“I was on a layover. Waiting to fly back to the U.S. Just scouting locations all over for Peter and Ben.”

“You mentioned something about talking with Sonny Ma,” Dale said.

He cocked an eyebrow at her, then turned back to the others.

“He’s very important to this event, and I know he was very important to Peter and Ben. I want to make sure he feels taken care of.”

“Very good,” the woman in the suit said. The others nodded. “That’s what we were hoping to hear. Dale Gai will take you to the room where he is waiting to talk to you.”

“Oh she will now, will she?”

The organizers all looked at each other, confused. Teddy wondered if he’d just undone all of the good work, but Dale quickly jumped in and ended the meeting amicably before Teddy could ruin it any further. He kept his composure and managed to wait until they were well out of earshot of the others before he stopped her and asked her what she’d been up to after she left him alone to deal with the police about the burning production office.

“That’s none of your business, and I couldn’t tell you the truth even if I wanted to,” she said.