Kiss and Die

Chapter 29

‘Immigration police?’ David asked.

Shrimp shook his head, slowly, cautiously, not sure what would be the best reply.

David reached out and slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Good,’ he said in a deep strong voice, still maintaining the grin but this time accompanied by a laugh. David turned and nodded to his friends at the door. ‘He’s okay. Bring him a drink.’

David turned back to Shrimp. ‘You will have a drink with us, Shrimp?’

‘Sure.’

David took the top off a bottle of Coke and handed it to him. Shrimp looked him over. The heat in the room was unbearable. The heady smell of the plastic clothes wrap was overpowering. Shrimp looked back to the corridor. More Africans were staring in at him. Shrimp drank his Coke.

David slapped him again and boomed laughter. ‘I like you. Come.’ He stood and picked Shrimp up by the arm. ‘We will talk of the Mansions with you.’

He led Shrimp to the bar next door. They sat on stools in the small space, just two tables and a dozen stools. David angled a tabletop fan onto them.

‘I’ll help you if you help me. What trouble are you here about? This place is nonstop trouble.’

‘Have you heard of a new young group of Triads called the Outcasts?’

David nodded. He began rolling a cigarette; he licked the edge of the paper with his pink tongue.

‘Of course. They are running wild in here. They take a block at a time. They were running this evening. Every night they pick on someone else. They pick on us a lot. That’s why we stick together on this landing. They don’t dare take us on together. Like little rats they watch all the time. They wait. They whistle up and down the corridors, calling to each other. It wasn’t always this bad.’ He shook his head sadly, looked down at his glass and then out at the corridor. Outside life had returned to normal. The sound of laughter and music returned. David’s face clouded with thought, his eyes filled with a faraway sorrow. ‘This place has been my home for six months. I came here looking for my brother. He’s been missing for a year now. I ask everyone here. I show them this photo.’ He took out a photo from his shirt pocket and slid it across the table to Shrimp. ‘This is my younger brother, Ishmael.’ It was a sunny photo of David with his arm around the younger man’s shoulders, he was taller than David by a few inches. He was less bulky, his young face was full of laughter. He had a baseball cap on his head. On the right side of his face he had a scar that sliced his face from his ear to his mouth.

‘Somewhere in the Mansions there is the answer to where Ishmael has gone. If I cannot find him alive, I will find his body and have something to take home to our mother. Ishmael was a peaceful man. He liked his women, but he didn’t like to get into fights. I want to know what happened to him. Do you understand?’

‘Yes. Can you get me a copy of this photo?’

‘Yes. Take it. I have many.’

‘Do you think it has anything to do with the kids in the Mansions?’

‘Yes. I do. Someone here knows something. One of these kids knows what happened to him. Now I have watched them grow these last few months. They have lost their minds. They are out of control. They have become their own masters. They run around the roof like rats. They are always watching. They kill whoever they want to. They show no mercy. They care for no one or nothing. They are Satan’s children. I will show you something.’

They stood and David led Shrimp through to the kitchen. The smell of rotting meat was intense. Sections of a skinned goat’s carcass were hanging from the ceiling and crawling with flies. David led Shrimp into a room off the kitchen. In the corner a mattress had been laid out on the floor. A black man lay on it, on his side. His breathing noisy, his body very still. He had large wounds, pink in his dark flesh.

‘What happened to him?’

‘He was drunk. He laughed at them. They came after him with knives. The attacked him for no reason. They cut him to pieces.’

‘He needs a hospital.’

‘No. He is an overstayer, an illegal immigrant, and he is dying. He will be dead before dawn. It is better that you go.’

They left the dying man where he was and went back out to the corridor.

‘Here’s my card, David. You find out everything you can about who’s controlling these kids, who’s at the heart of it and I will do everything I can to find out what happened to your brother.’

Shrimp looked at the black men and he saw their faces. Each one homesick, sad and scared of dying.

David gave Shrimp his card in exchange and he held on to it with two hands and looked Shrimp in the eyes. ‘We will meet again, Shrimp. Remember my face and I will remember yours.’