Kiss and Die

Chapter 25

Mann and Shrimp stood talking on the steps of the Mansions.

‘Shrimp, take the girl’s parents to see her body and then come back here for me. Start asking some questions; loosen up some tongues. PJ was obviously nervous. We know Victoria Chan is stirring things up in there. Let’s try and tweak a few consciences and see if anyone wants to share some information about the Outcasts. Someone must know something.’

‘Yes, Boss.’

‘I’m meeting Tammy. I’ll see you back at the station.’

Mann passed the old Indian prostitute leaning against the railings on the corner of Mody Road, her foot up on the fire hydrant, folds of yellow chiffon tucked as trousers between her legs. When it came to sex, Hong Kong had something to cater for everyone’s taste. She’d been there for as long as Mann could remember. She played with the end of her thick black hair, woven into one plait that she wore on the side, gold bangles up her arms and rings through her earlobes. She shimmered in the sharp evening light after the deluge of rain.

He headed down into the subway to get away from the heat; the approaching storm had sent temperatures through the roof and humidity to 90 per cent. He walked in the cool of the long, straight, airy tunnels that took the echo of his shoes and bounced it around the clean walls, took voices and amplified them. The subway was an artery carrying the workers to all the vital organs of Hong Kong. It made him feel like running along the endless tunnels: white, stark, cooling on his head, tolerable on his tired eyes. But something jarred on his ears; from behind him came the click of a woman’s heels and the rustle of a mac. The heels grew louder. He turned to see a woman passing, her head down, her blond hair hanging down her back, thick, neat. She didn’t walk like a tourist: she wasn’t frantically looking at the exit signs in a panicked fashion. Mann watched her walk by. She had a good figure beneath her mac, small waist, long, slim calves. She walked quickly in her heels, black snakeskin with a matching handbag. It was a big bag, the new trend for women. Mann looked back to her hair. Nobody in Hong Kong had hair that colour; that amount of bleach would have destroyed it. If she wasn’t a foreigner then it was a wig. She passed him and disappeared into the crowds.

Mann exited at the harbour and joined a thousand others standing around watching the light display. Every evening at eight o’clock the biggest laser show in the world kicked off. It involved forty-four buildings, cost forty-four million Hong Kong dollars to create and lasted fourteen minutes at a time. Especially composed symphonic music exploded in time to pyrotechnics and laser beams from the rooftops of buildings around the harbour.

As Mann rounded the corner the breeze felt cool, it dried the sweat on his brow, the shirt on his back. He needed that sea air. He needed to clear his tired head. Now the swirling light beams were dancing across the harbour to the clashing of cymbals. He took a right past the statue of Bruce Lee and saw Tammy sitting on a bench, away from the crowd. People were standing nearby, having their photo taken with Bruce Lee. Colour and light exploded into the stormy evening sky.

‘Is everything all right, Tammy?’ Mann sat next to her.

‘Yes thanks, Boss. Good talk yesterday.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Mann sighed, looking away as he spoke. ‘That Lilly is a real troublemaker.’

‘I am getting very close to fixing up a date for my initiation, Boss.’

Mann rested his elbows on his knees as he listened; he stared at the ground and waited. Tammy was hesitating.

‘You all right about that, Tammy?’

‘But, Boss, there’s something else.’ Tammy hesitated. ‘Lilly says it’s common knowledge you’re on the take.’

Mann went silent. Colours shot up the side of buildings, searchlights filled the night sky. ‘Okay. I’ll deal with it.’

‘I asked if she’d seen the Indian girl die. She said she didn’t actually see it, that she was outside when it happened. She said they were told that they were all guilty of it. That if one was to be named they would all be named.’

‘It was all about binding them together then. The girl died to unite the others. It had to be graphic to convince the kids. Just saying it wasn’t enough.

‘You better try and stall the initiation, Tammy. We need to do more ground work. I’ve met Victoria Chan. She’s got a lot at stake. She’s going to be looking out for an informer. We need to make doubly sure before we go in. If I am being set up then we need to be one step ahead. Nothing is worth your life. These people won’t hesitate to take it. We’ll get the headmaster to say you’re ill. We’ll call it off temporarily until we are sure that you’re safe.’

‘All right, Boss.’

Mann watched her walk away, her head bowed, her skinny legs shuffling along in her sparkly cheap jeans and her new trainers. She was disappointed, he knew. To have put in so much work and come out with nothing.

He walked to the railings and gripped them as he stared out at the water. He thought about what Tammy had said. If the rumours were running rife about him being on the take it wasn’t going to help to be seen in company with CK or his daughter. He was leaving himself exposed. There was only his word that his intentions were good. His word didn’t seem to be counting for much at the moment. But it was too late to go back. He had been pushed across that line now and he had to use it or lose it. For a while he had to exist on the dark side.

Ahead of him was a party boat, bedecked with a string of coloured lights. The avenue of stars was still buzzing. The kids had been put to bed now, the couples were out. They perched on the railings like lines of seagulls in a seaside town. The girls sat on the top, the boys took their photos. They look so young, thought Mann. He didn’t think he was ever that young. He knew you had to be young to really fall in love, unconditionally. You had to be full of compromise, still finding who you are, still trying to change into someone better. If Mann could turn back the clock he would have chosen a different route for Helen but not for himself. He couldn’t give Helen what she wanted no matter how much she loved him. He had scar tissue over his heart that never healed; he wished that she’d never fallen in love with him. But the one thing he had promised himself was that he would keep hunting down the men who had met her along the road to death. He would never stop pursuing them. Mann had killed the one who finished her life but he had yet to find the others who tortured her, who did nothing to help her.

Now something nagged at him day and night. The memory of Helen had come back screaming at him. It wouldn’t give him peace.

Mann headed away from the river and called Mia en route.

‘Where is Tammy now?’ Mia sounded tense.

‘I have just told her to stall things, sit tight. I’m suspending Operation Schoolyard. She’s at risk.’

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. He knew what Mia would be doing. He could hear her sigh. She would have closed her eyes. She would have frowned. She would be disappointed but she would respect his judgement.

‘If you think so, Mann, then okay. But it means starting all over again, it took us so long to find Tammy and get her into the school.’

‘I know. But this is uncharted territory. We’ve never put a female officer in this kind of risk before. I’d rather back out now. She’s disappointed too.’

‘Of course, she will be: big risks, big rewards. Talking of big rewards, on your way back come via the car park and look in your space. Your new car got delivered.’

‘What new car?’

‘Well, judging by the keys I have in my hand I would say it’s a brand new Maserati in your space in the car park. Someone’s given you an expensive present.’

Mann turned the corner to see the woman with the blond hair walking quickly away.