Kiss & Die (25 page)

Mann didn’t draw the blinds that evening. The sky was clear outside. A plane blinked at him as it passed high above. Mann wished he was on it, he wished he was anywhere but there. He poured himself another vodka and took a slug. The liquor burnt as it made its way down into his empty stomach. Mann gave a drunken sigh, placed his hands against the cold window and leant his forehead against it, closed his eyes. Never had he felt so vulnerable or alone. He rolled his forehead over the glass. The more he thought about things, the less he understood. He had done as Mia had said and he stayed at home sorting his father’s papers. He stood alone in his apartment surrounded by the piles of communications from solicitors and accountants. On the table was the original deed to the Mansions. It had been amongst the last of the papers to be delivered to him. Victoria Chan was right, they had several shared interests whether Mann wanted it or not. He could see why she and CK wanted him on board so badly. His father had made some shrewd investments.

He picked up his phone and dialled a number.

‘Hello stranger,’ a deeply accented Dutch voice answered.

‘Hello Alfie. Sorry, meant to keep in touch but you know how it is–work took over. How are things? How is Jake?’ Alfie took his time answering. ‘Is he there?’

‘No. He is not here much now. I think he is not coping well. We all miss Magda more than I can say.’ Mann bowed his head and listened. He knew Alfie was choked. He knew just how Jake felt. He felt it too.

‘She was a brave woman, Alfie.’

‘Yes.’ Mann could hear Alfie dragging on a joint.

‘What is going on with Jake?’

Alfie sighed. ‘I don’t know. He is drinking, taking drugs. He is getting out of my reach. He stays away for days. He doesn’t want to go to university in October any more. I have tried to talk to him about Burma, about what happened but he will not.’

‘You have to give him time, Alfie. He’ll be all right.’

‘I hope so, Johnny. I hope so. He needs his family.’

Mann showered and dressed. He couldn’t think in the flat. He had to get out. He had already drunk enough to render most people unconscious but the alcohol had little effect. He walked across the shopping mall and down to the MTR station, getting on the first train that came.

Ruby waited until she saw Mann leave. She smiled sweetly at the doorman who was sitting behind his front desk. He got up to let her in. It was a different man than last time. He wouldn’t have remembered Ruby anyway, but they changed buildings on a rota and she hadn’t seen this man before. ‘Sorry, I’ve forgotten my key.’ He looked at her and hesitated. She felt in her bag for her purse and discreetly handed him two hundred Hong Kong. ‘Silly me. I’m so forgetful. I hope you don’t mind?’

‘No, no, of course, miss, please come in.’ He was delighted with the generosity of her tip. She took the floor up to Mann’s apartment and let herself in. She gently closed the door behind her. She opened her bag. She had a special surprise to leave Mann this time. This would really freak him out. She looked at her watch; she hadn’t time to stop longer. She had much to achieve before the night was over.

Mann stood in the stark light of the carriage holding on to the handrail. He felt as if every person in the carriage was staring at him. He felt that he was falling off the end of the world.

He walked into the Cantina. Miriam was talking to someone: a European, a businessman, by the look of him, he wasn’t a local. He was Miriam’s type; tall, fifty-ish, a hint of Cary Grant about him. Mann listened to her laughter, it filled the bar. He smelt her perfume. He watched the curve of her waist, the smoothness of her dress as it rounded her hip.

She came over. Mann looked over to see her friend putting on his jacket.

‘Hello, Miriam. Thought we might pick up where we left off the other night.’

He saw the look in her eyes as she stared deep into his, then he realized the rules had changed.

‘Not tonight, Johnny. I have a date.’ The European was waiting for her.

‘Okay. No problem but, if you change your mind,’ he smiled, ‘there’s always a place for you on my pillow.’

She kissed his cheek. She turned back to smile at him at the door. He knew she was waiting for him to say something else. She wanted more from him. He understood, the way he always did, that their relationship had run its course. She was pushing him, even though she knew in her heart that pushing him just pushed him away. She knew but she couldn’t help it.

He turned back to the bar and finished his drink then he took a taxi across town. He turned his phone off. Mia was trying to reach him. He didn’t want to be found. He had a lot to think about.

He walked into the Blue Velvet lounge, just before midnight. It was a place he hadn’t visited in a long time. It had once been a trendy nightclub on the edge of town, now a hostess bar with pole dancers and dwarves serving drinks, dark corners, and private booths. Enigma was playing: haunting erotic music.

He sat watching the stripper. She wore a long blond wig and a shiny red bikini. She squatted in front of him and her thighs opened as she held on to the pole and leant back, crotch in his direction. He smelt the aroma of cheap perfume and stale sex and as he held his drink on his chest he felt the ice-cold glass penetrate into his heart. He looked across at the other punters in this lowlife club, a Triad hangout. It was a place that the bosses like CK kept a tab open for their officers’ entertainment. Ice was laid out in white lines on one of the tables at the side of the room. A noisy group of
49s
were out of control at the far end of the bar and grabbing at the dancers, drinking each other unconscious with shots.

Mann was aware that someone had come to stand next
to him–too close to be anything but a friend or an enemy. He turned. It was Lilly.

‘You buying drinks, Mr Rich Policeman?’ The pole dancer left for pastures new.

‘Finished your homework, Lilly?’

‘I don’t need to learn anything else, Mr Policeman. I could even teach you a few things. You look like you need a friend. You want to buy me a drink and I’ll tell you all about it?’

Shrimp came out of the lift and walked through the lounge bar. The place was rowdy and full. The evening was in full swing, the atmosphere loud as the drink took the voice levels up and the inhibitions down. He spotted at least one of his colleagues, sat on a lounge chair reading a guide book. The large television screen at the end of the lounge had changed from showing sports to catwalk models. Shrimp walked on through to the bar. The place had a liberal sprinkling of sex workers, small groups of guffawing businessmen and then the lone peanut eaters at the bar. He spotted another colleague looking suitably melancholy on a stool at the far end.

Shrimp found a space in the middle of the bar. He could see the girls in the band from there. No Michelle, she was still being held by the cops, just Cindy and Sandy, their repertoire severely cut down from not having Michelle. He looked about to see if there was anyone else he recognized. No, he was pretty sure no one would know him. He had chosen just the right look to blend in: open-necked shirt, high-waisted jeans, wire-rimmed glasses. His hair was parted differently, roughed up a little but not quite stylish. His wedding ring was large and loud.

He looked at the few lone girls sat at the tables around the bar. He made eye contact with one of them. She got up and walked away. For a moment he thought it was Lilly with a caramel-coloured long wig and short skirt. She disappeared somewhere behind him. His eyes settled on another. They played the game: look up, look down. Shrimp fiddled with his fake wedding band. He made sure he kept up the staring. He had to look desperate. He pretended to check his phone and then placed it on the bar. He ordered a Coke from the barman with the gelled hair. He put Shrimp’s drink on the beer mat and scribbled the amount on his tab.

‘Thanks for your help, buddy. You’re doin’ a great job.’

Shrimp looked up to see a girl watching him from one of the side tables. She had thick black hair. In the subdued lighting it was hard to see her face. He smiled. She smiled back. He looked away and looked back to make sure the signals were loud and clear. She was still looking his way. She’d kept her eyes focused on him. She was pretty, thought Shrimp, she was keen. He slid from the stool and walked over to her at the same time as he whispered into his wire, ‘Contact made, am on the move.’

Shrimp’s heart hammered. ‘Can I buy you a drink?’

‘Okay,’ the girl tilted her head to one side and giggled.

They walked to the lifts. The girl obviously knew the layout to the hotel. She knew where the lifts to the rooms were. She kept her head down. She didn’t make eye contact with him; instead she turned her back on him and read the adverts on the walls of the lift. Shrimp tried to engage her in conversation. She wasn’t keen on doing anything but hiding her face and giggling. Even if they had cameras in hotel lifts, which would cause a riot if they tried, the amount of businessmen who played away, they still wouldn’t have caught a proper look at this girl. He opened the door for her to walk in before him.

‘Shall I make you a drink?’ she asked, hovering by the minibar.

‘A Coke will be great.’

Shrimp watched her closely. If she was going to try and drug him, this was her chance. He watched her open him up a mini Coke and pour it straight into a glass. If she had managed to get anything in his drink she would have had to be some magician. Still he didn’t touch it.

She was looking ill at ease now. She sat on the bed and
stared at him, a sickly smile stuck to her face. Shrimp wasn’t sure if she was nervous or smug.

‘Do you want me to pay you now?’ he asked.

She shook her head, embarrassed, and smiled shyly. ‘That’s okay. You can give me a present later.’

Shrimp needed to push her on a couple of vital points. He felt his face heat up. Now, alone in the room with her he was struggling not to show he was a novice and he was acutely embarrassed. ‘Do you want me to use a condom?’ She giggled behind her hand and nodded. ‘Do you do any bondage, you know, S & M?’

The girl’s eyes opened wide, she shook her head. She got up to go to the bathroom. He spoke into the microphone. ‘I don’t think she’s the perp.’

‘She may have changed her MO,’ the reply came back from the undercover agent listening in the next room. ‘Whatever happens you have to hold on to her for at least an hour. You can’t be seen going back to the bar too early. You have to make it look like you are still on the prowl.’

‘I’m a real sleaze bag.’

‘Yep.’

The girl came back in her bra and pants and giggled coyly as she stood holding on to her clothes. Nope, no sign of a whip anywhere, thought Shrimp as he sat back down on the edge of the bed and handed her a game controller.

‘It’s your turn–Super Mario.’

Mann’s mouth tasted like a dog had shat in it. He had been dreaming of drinking a gallon of water. His head was so hot he was sweating hard. He pushed back the sheet that covered him and realized he was lying next to someone. He reached out a hand. His hand lingered as it touched a woman’s body and then it moved up over her waist, along her ribcage, up over her arm and froze. He realized it wasn’t the body he was expecting. He thought he would feel Miriam’s familiar curves but he didn’t, instead it was a skinny little body. He withdrew his hand sharply and opened his eyes. Lilly was lying on her side smiling at him. Mann jumped up. He had his boxers on. That was a tiny consolation. Lilly lay there, naked.

‘Shit…what the hell? Lilly, get up. Put something on.’ Mann backed away from the bed.

‘That’s not what you said to me last night.’

Mann shook his head. He tried to remember he couldn’t. ‘There’s no way, Lilly. How the fuck did you get in here?’

Lilly laughed, she leant up on her elbows. Mann felt sick. Her skinny ribs stuck out, her pierced navel, her tiny
breasts. She was a child. Mann turned his head away, sick to his stomach. Lilly got out of bed and picked up her clothes as she went. She paused as she passed him. ‘You couldn’t get enough of it last night. Practically forced me to do stuff I didn’t want to. I just wanted a place to stay. Come home with me, you said, you can sleep in the spare room, you said.’

Mann closed his eyes, his heart was racing, he felt the bile build in his throat.

‘Lilly, do this. Lilly, do that.’ Lilly stayed where she was and made sure Mann had no choice but to look at her. ‘Tut, tut, tut, Inspector Johnny Mann. You should be ashamed.’ Lilly grinned. ‘Well, I can’t hang around. I got school to go to. Thanks for a very nice evening though. I am sure we’ll see each other again.’

Mann heard the door bang behind her and the sound of her laughter as she walked down the corridor. He stripped off and stepped into the shower. He closed his eyes as the water streamed over his face. He leant against the side of the cold cubicle. His head was banging; he rested it on the cold tiles. Could he really have had sex with Lilly? The only sound in the flat was the ticking of the clock coming from the bedroom. He needed to get dressed. He needed to sort his life out. He walked along the wooden floor, staring straight ahead at his open bedroom door. He nudged it with his foot. It glided open. The clock’s ticking was so loud now it blocked out everything else. Mann stepped inside and looked to his left, his bed unmade; he pulled off the sheets and threw them in a heap on the floor. He swore out loud so many times it became part of his breathing. He picked up his socks from
the floor, as he bent down he saw a bag under his bed. He pulled it out, opened it, peeling back layer after layer of plastic. He peeled back the last layer. A familiar face stared back at him.

‘Give me the clothes you were wearing earlier, before you showered.’ Daniel Lu stood in Mann’s bedroom and handed Mann a forensic suit. ‘Touch nothing.’

Mia was hovering outside in the hallway. Ng was suited up and helping with the search of the bedroom. He’d been the first to arrive after Mann’s call. Mann looked behind her–no Sheng.

‘Don’t be fucking ridiculous. This is my home. I’ve touched everything in here.’ Mann took the suit all the same and slipped it on over his t-shirt and boxers. He hadn’t got very far with dressing.

Ng emerged from the bedroom and stepped over the officer on his hands and knees searching for hairs on the carpet. ‘They’ll never find anything in this mess, except a dead mouse or something.’

‘You know what I mean. Don’t move anything.’

Flash bulbs went off around the room. Daniel’s team were busy grid searching his lounge. The whole of his building was sealed off.

‘Were you alone here last night?’ Mia stood in the doorway, waiting for an answer.

‘No.’ He didn’t look at her. He knew if there was one person who would guess he was trying to hide something it would be Mia.

‘Well, did you get her name by any chance?’

‘No.’ Mann didn’t like lying to Mia but he had to give himself time to think. This was his problem and he had to think it through before he involved anyone else.

Mia sighed. ‘You better start remembering, Johnny, because whoever she was she put a head under your bed.’

‘It’s not just any head. I know him. I met him the other night at the bar in Vacation Villas.’

‘Still believe in coincidences?’ Daniel Lu spoke whilst at the same time bagging up Mann’s bed sheets. ‘Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to set you up, Mann. They must want you bad.’

‘What did she look like?’ Mia was exasperated. Her frown line had gained extra depth. ‘Mann, talk to me. This girl you had back here last night, what did she look like?’

Mann shook his head. ‘I didn’t get a good look at her. She’d left by morning.’

‘That good, huh? Bloody hell, you’re a liability at the moment. You’re going out of your way to mess up. What the hell do you think you were doing getting blind drunk and picking up women when we are in the middle of a murder investigation and one, may I add, in which your operative, your officer, Tammy Wang, was killed? Does it mean shit to you, Mann?’ Mia was too fuming now to stay any longer. ‘Take the head down to Saheed. This is your baby, Mann. This is all yours. You messed up, you clean up and then I want you in my office with a full report on my desk. I want that girl found. I want her DNA off those
sheets, Daniel. Mann, you are a walking disaster at the moment.’

The men said nothing after Mia left. Mann finished getting dressed. The whole of his flat seemed to be being taken for evidence. All he was left with was the piles of his father’s life–the one thing he didn’t want. Daniel came to find him in the kitchen. Mann was holding on to the edge of the sink, head bowed, trying not to throw up.

‘You can get this down for Saheed to look at now. He’s ready to do the autopsy. We’ll be a while longer here. It’s better that you leave us to get on with it.’

Mann nodded. ‘Where’s Sheng?’

Daniel Lu shook his head and shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine. He hasn’t been seen since yesterday.’ He picked up his key to leave. ‘And you better get your locks changed, Mann. If it wasn’t your mysterious woman then someone else went to a lot of trouble to leave this here.’