Kiss and Die

Chapter 20

It was late by the time Mann got back to the office. Shrimp and Ng were out. That left just him, a massive file mountain that he was too wired to tackle and a few sickly looking spider plants on his windowsill. He sat at his desk and closed his eyes for a few seconds. The evening had given him a lot to think about. His personal life seemed to be meeting his professional one head on.

‘Mann?’

A hint of rose banged on the bridge of his nose like smelling salts. Mann didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. ‘Hello, Boss.’ He swivelled his chair around to face her; his head still resting on the backrest. Mia Chou stood in the doorway.

‘How did it go?’

‘Interesting. I met Victoria Chan.’

Mia raised an eyebrow. ‘What was she like?’

‘Ruthless, serpent-like, ice cold like her father, just like he was in the old days, greedy for power and wealth. She has taken over Chan’s job of advisor – Paper Fan.’

‘CK seems on board?’

‘Yes. I’d say he’s grooming her to take over one day. But this is her proving time. She has to get this right.’

‘Why is she interfering with recruitment?’

‘He’s letting her make decisions on all levels. He is letting her prove herself. She doesn’t have to work her way up the ranks. She’s jumping straight in at the deep end.’

‘It’s a brave choice for both of them. CK must have a lot of faith in his daughter,’ said Mia.

‘Or maybe he’s setting her up to fail?’ said Mann. ‘Either way, we’ll see, but she’s not to be underestimated. It feels to me like she has waited, bided her time and now she is ready to strike. She has been using her time wisely over the years with Chan. I get the feeling she knows a lot about what her late husband was really up to, more than you’d expect a trophy wife to. I think she made it her business to know, and she’s been playing a game. She’s not even making pretence at playing the grieving widow – she’s reborn.’

‘All those years she’s been planning this?’

‘I think so. But there is something about her – she has many faces. She can be many things. She played the dutiful wife, she plays the dutiful daughter. I think she was just waiting for her time to come and now it has. Marriage to Chan must have been a living hell. He was a lowlife. I did her a favour when I made him swim for the shore.’

‘You left him in the middle of the ocean knowing he couldn’t swim and had a phobia about the water, that’s not quite the same.’

‘I don’t feel bad. The sharks would have finished him before he drowned. That was nothing to the agony and suffering he caused to countless others…’ Mann’s voice trailed off. Helen’s face came into his head. But it wasn’t the face he wanted to remember, it was the face of her dying, stretched plastic across it. He shook his head. ‘I did the world a favour. She wouldn’t disagree. I liberated her. But perhaps I swapped one enemy for a worse one. She has already done a good job of setting me up. It’s going to get really tough convincing anyone I’m in it for the right reasons soon, Mia. I’m not sure I’m ready to offer myself as the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. I am not sure there’ll be enough of me left to go round.’

Mann smiled at Mia. He opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle of vodka. ‘For emergencies.’ He got out two glasses. ‘It’s been too long since we had a drink together.’

‘Yeah, just make it a small one.’ Mann poured her his idea of a small one and handed it to her. ‘Jesus. I’m glad I didn’t ask for a big one. Mann, how much of this stuff are you getting through?’

‘Not enough. Work keeps getting in the way.’ He grinned at her. She didn’t smile back. When she frowned her forehead had one long crease in it, it made her look like a confused child.

‘Don’t ever get Botox for that.’

‘What?’

‘That frown that goes right across your forehead. It makes me smile every time I see it. It reminds me of the night you got drunk when we graduated from police academy. Do you remember that night?’

They’d been young together. They’d had fun once. They had seen one another go through a lot of things and come out alone. Now nearly eighteen years later neither had found themselves a family. Mia had been mixed up with one married man after the other. The worst was Daniel Lu, another policeman, the head of Crime Scene Investigations. He had been her biggest weakness and it had been a bad one. She had wasted twelve years on him before he called it a day and went back to his wife. With Helen, Mann had probably come as near to finding love as he was ever going to and lost it. But he didn’t think he was ever capable of loving totally. He had given Helen all he could of himself but it hadn’t been enough. She had wanted more. She had called his bluff and left. The taxi that picked her up had taken her to her death. All the time Mann had just thought that she had left she was actually being tortured. She was waiting for him to come after her. Now both of them felt their time had passed. Mann could see it in Mia and the world could see it in Mann.

‘Bits of it.’ Mia hid her face in her hands and chuckled. ‘Other bits are very hazy. I had a rough idea what happened when I woke up with “I love cock” across my forehead.’

Mann laughed. ‘You passed out on me.’

‘I’m not surprised. We used to drink a lot in those days. I don’t have any regrets. It was a great time. You were going to be the best police diver that ever was and stamp out all Triads along the way and I was going to be commissioner by the time I was thirty.’

‘Yeah. We were young.’

‘Christ, we’re not exactly old now.’ Mia tried not to frown.

‘I know but I feel it sometimes. I feel like I have seen too much to have any hope left.’ Mann drank his vodka and poured another.

Mia pushed her drink aside. Sometimes it made her melancholy. ‘Yeah, maybe we should have stayed in that bed. I should have certainly never taken up with Daniel, that’s for sure. Daniel made me think he was offering babies and eternity rings. When I got pregnant I found out he wasn’t free to give them, not to me anyway. I lost it. Now I can’t have kids.’

‘I’m sorry, Mia. I never knew.’

‘Yeah, I had complications. I had a premature baby – it didn’t survive. Daniel said he was sorry but our relationship wasn’t the same after. I think he was relieved.’ She smiled at Mann. ‘At least I had the sense to know all you wanted was a good laugh and a shag and a relationship wasn’t on offer. You were always honest about it and you were a good friend to me, always have been. You mean a lot to me, Johnny. I hope you know that.’ She reached over and touched his hand.

‘You know, Mia, I never saw you as the sentimental type,’ Mann said, surprised. It had been a long time since they had been off duty together. ‘But, you know, maybe it’s not too late for us…we can go back to that single bed in my room in the academy halls. I can see it now…’

Mia laughed. ‘Yeah, so can I. You’d love that, wouldn’t you? Your woman on tap and she’s your boss; you’d have me bent over every desk in the department. But…’ Mia finished her drink and shook her head, ‘…in the end you’d do a better job of breaking my heart than Daniel ever did.’

‘Forget men like Daniel and Sheng. You always pick the wrong ones – you attract them. You carry your emotional baggage with you like a third arm. It’s visible everywhere you go, Mia – get rid of it, cut it off, move on. He wasn’t worthy of you then and he isn’t now. You settled for less than you should have. You let your guard down too early. You got caught. You need to find someone outside the force. You shouldn’t bother with men like Sheng.’

‘Sheng isn’t that bad. He is going through a bad time at home. His daughter has got in trouble. He’s a good father. But, anyway, I don’t know why I’m listening to you. Your track record isn’t any better than mine.’ As soon as Mia said it she regretted it. ‘I’m sorry, Johnny. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.’

‘No, you’re right, Mia. My track record stinks. I treated Helen badly. I couldn’t commit to her. Something about the grass is greener. But you know what they say about greener grass, don’t you, Mia?’

‘Yeah. It still gets weeds and it still needs mowing.’