For the first time I actually believed I would get out of here. They must have scared the detective off or maybe bought him off. Either way doesn’t matter. But my contempt for him is totally eclipsed by my hatred for Leo. He buckles his belt and bends down to pick his tee shirt up off the floor.
And I see it.
His knife. It’s on the bedside table, three paces from where I stand.
As he pulls the tee over his head, I drop the quilt, take the three steps and grab it. It feels good in my hand. For the first time I feel I have some control. I hear some yelling as I turn towards him. His head pops out through the neck of the tee and he must hear the yelling too because he turns away from me towards the door.
He’s a metre away.
Perfect!
I whisper a silent prayer and, with a feeling of victory, I plunge the knife in, right up to the hilt.
42
Cal
I don’t know what prompted Inspector Ho’s change of heart but I am grateful for it. When I showed up at the Mongkok police station, demanding to speak with him, they had him on the phone within minutes—despite the late hour—and he immediately sprang into action.
This time he equipped me with a bulletproof vest and let me follow his SWAT team into the Bright Sun Hotel. I hear yelling and the sounds of struggle as Ho’s team take down the staff. After a couple of minutes all goes quiet on the main floor and there are several people face down on the floor and in handcuffs. I recognize Fats among them.
There is more yelling going on upstairs but it soon quiets down. As ordered, I wait on the main floor. It is a small but elegant hotel with furnishings that must have cost a fortune. I know less than nothing about Chinese art but there are some beautiful vases, which must be worth thousands, and even I can tell the artwork on the walls is original.
I don’t have to wait long.
Ho appears at the top of the stairs and waves me up.
As I get to the top, I see several men in handcuffs and a group of scantily dressed girls standing together hugging each other silently. Zelena is not among them.
“Come,” says Ho.
I follow him down the hallway and into the last-but-one room on the right.
There are two SWAT guys in the room.
One is holding the arm of a handcuffed Leo.
The other is kneeling beside the naked body of a girl. A knife is protruding from under her chin. It has been pushed up through her throat and the roof of her mouth and into her brain.
The kneeling cop looks up at Ho and shakes his head.
And I feel the tears stream down my face.
43
Adry
I watch Jason as he makes breakfast. Before I met him and started staying over at his place, breakfast for me was a cookie and a cup of coffee. I worry about the additional calories but Jason is a breakfast-is-the-most-important-meal-of-the-day kinda guy. Even when I told him Kellogg started that idea in TV ads before either of us was born, he still insists on making me start the day with a meal and I love him for it.
Last night, we had the discussion about moving in together. The plan is to get a new place rather than one of us moving into the other’s apartment. I’m just waiting to see if Nick can pull off the plan and restore Stammo Rogan Investigations to its former glory, so that I know I have a job moving forward.
Just as Jason puts poached eggs and toast in front of me, I hear my cell ringing. I think about letting it ring… but only for a second. “I’d better take it, it might be Nick,” I say. Bless him, he just smiles and nods. He knows how important the next eight hours are going to be.
I get into the bedroom by the fifth ring. I grab the phone. It’s Cal’s new number.
“Hi Cal, what time is it there?”
“It’s over,” is all he says.
“You found Zelena?” I can hear the excitement in my own voice.
“Yeah.”
Silence.
“Is she OK?” I ask but I know the answer.
“She committed suicide minutes before we got to her.” I can hear the break in his voice.
Through the tears, I manage to speak. “I’m so sorry Cal. You mustn’t blame yourself.”
“I… do blame… myself,” he manages to say.
“Don’t Cal. It wasn’t your fault.” Silence again. “What did Nick say?” I ask.
“I don’t want to speak to him just yet. Do you think I could ask you to do it for me?”
I can feel a frown wrinkle my brow. What’s going on? “Sure, of course. Is there anything else you want me to do?”
He thinks for a moment. Then, “There is one thing. The Hong Kong police will talk to the VPD who’ll send someone over to tell her parents. I think they need to hear it from one of us first. Could you ask Nick to do that? He’s had experience telling parents. You might not think so but he’s good at it.”
“Sure, no problem. We’ll go together.”
“Thanks.”
More silence.
“Cal, there is some good news. Connor McCoy called, everything seems to be going according to plan.”
“Oh, right. OK. That is good news I guess.” His words give me an uneasy feeling. It’s more than just the guilt and distress of losing a client. I need to ask him. I take a deep breath but before I can say anything he hangs up.
I hope it’s just the shock but I don’t think so.
44
Cal
Friday
The Jaguar is new and the smell of the leather is good as I slide into the back seat. But the good stops right there. I can’t shake the feeling that Inspector Ho is going to take me to his police station rather than to the airport. He gives an order in Cantonese to the driver and we pull away from the curb.
“Mr. Rogan,” he says in his posh English voice, “I appreciate your desire to leave Hong Kong so soon but I did want to speak with you before you left the Territories.”
“Sure. But let me ask you something first.”
“Of course,” he says it more graciously than I can manage right now.
“When I came to you and told you I thought Zelena was being held at one-oh-five Temple Street, you basically blew me off. It wasn’t until I came back, after getting her brother out of there, that you agreed to make the raid and even then it was too late. Why?”
“Yes, you will never know how much I regret that. But I had a good reason. I have spent most of my career fighting organized crime. When you first came to see me, I was suspicious of you, so I had one of my men follow you. When you left the police station, you went straight to the office of Jiang and Lee. We have long been suspicious of those two but never had any solid evidence to tie them to the triads. Needless to say, when you went there, you fell under suspicion too. So when you came to me with your story, I thought it might be a trick to lure me into a trap. It wouldn’t be the first time they have tried to kill me.
“When you came back with Aleksander in tow, I didn’t know what to think. I knew I needed to raid the place, but it took me some time to put together a task force big enough to take the place if it were heavily guarded.
“Then of course you threw me into another round of confusion immediately after the raid when I found you waiting outside with Jiang.”
His words have the ring of truth. “Have you arrested them?” I ask.
He chuckles. It’s the only time I’ve seen him exhibit any genuine humour. “Oh, yes,” he says. “Your sworn statement was enough to get me arrest and search warrants. Messrs Jiang and Lee are in the cells right now, as is the man you know as Leo and several members of their gang. Providing you keep your word and come back to give evidence at the trial, I feel confident we can put them all behind bars for a very long time.”
“That reminds me,” I say. “If you go back to Temple Street, in one of the upstairs rooms you’ll find a young man named Harvey Lim duct taped to a bed. He’ll be hungry and thirsty and will smell pretty bad but, apart from about ten millilitres of sugar water in his veins, he’
ll be OK. He lives in Canada and has the job of procuring girls for the gang to enslave. We don’t want him back, so if you could put him in jail here, the Canadian people would thank you.”
He smiles again. “Well done. We were wondering about Mr. Lim. When we raided the Bright Sun Hotel, we rescued several young ladies from different parts of North America who have been victims of the gang. They all mentioned coming to Hong Kong with a Mr. Lim. We wondered who he was.”
“It must have cost them a lot of money to kidnap these girls,” I say.
“It’s all relative Mr. Rogan. They were probably charging their clients somewhere between fifty- and a hundred-thousand Hong Kong dollars for a night with each girl.”
“You can tell them they were rescued thanks to the smarts and the bravery of Zelena Gutkowska.”
“I will do that.”
He spends the rest of the trip to the airport, telling me about the evidence they have found so far at Jiang’s office and at the Bright Sun Hotel. It’s an impressive list but I’m only listening with half an ear. I’m thinking about seeing Ellie and Sam at the airport; our planes arrive at about the same time. And I’m thinking about Tina. And I’m thinking about two emails: one I just sent and one I received eleven days ago. But most of all I am thinking about one element of the case that I don’t understand and the answer to that is back in Vancouver.
45
Nick
Thursday
The reception area is weirdly familiar. It’s a lot more luxurious than his old office, with modern décor and expensive-looking leather chairs, but the same photos are on the walls. They all feature Big Bob in various settings with the glitterati and the wealthy of Vancouver. Vanity pics Rogan calls them… Hmm, Rogan… He’ll be getting on the plane soon. He’s avoided my phone calls. There can only be one reason for that.
“We’d like to speak with Mr. Pridmore,” Adry says to the receptionist.
“Do you have an appointment?” she responds. She’s very pretty but with a bit too much makeup.
“Tell him Nick Stammo and Adry Locke are here to see him.”
“Mr. Pridmore doesn’t see anyone without an appointment,” she says with a smug look on her face.
“Just tell him we’re here,” I growl at her. “He’ll see us.” I say it with more confidence than I feel. Then again, maybe Pridmore would like to gloat over us.
She makes an elegant gesture and looks at her watch. “He has another appointment in ten minutes, so I am afraid he won’t be able to see you.”
“That appointment’s cancelled. He’s meeting us instead.” She looks confused for a moment then picks up the phone. I think of something that’ll get his attention and make him want to speak with us. “Tell him Connor McCoy sent us.”
She relays the message, pauses, repeats it, pauses again and hangs up. “He’ll be right out.” The surprise in her voice makes me chuckle, less at her but more in anticipation of Pridmore’s surprise.
He steps out of a corridor into the reception area. That was quick. “What do you want?” he says, drilling his eyes into me.
“Good afternoon, Bob.” I give him a big grin. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking. How are you doing?”
“Cut the crap Stammo, what’s this about Connor McCoy?”
I glance at the receptionist. “Are you sure you want to have this conversation out here?” I ask.
“Yeah, I am. It’s going to be a short conversation anyway.”
“Yes.” I can’t keep the grin from my face. “I suppose it is. I have a message from Connor. He said to say thank you so much for the five million dollars investment in his company. He was surprised when the cheque cleared by the way. He said he decided to change the use-of-funds clause in your agreement. He’s going to pay the money to Marly Summers so she can pay it to the Royal Bank.”
Confusion, surprise, anger: they’re all fighting for position on his face. “He can’t do that,” he splutters.
“Oh, I think you’ll find he can. As a matter of fact, he already has,” I say. God, I am loving this. “By the way, Marly asked us to say a big thank you as well.”
The anger comes to the front of the line. “Well you can tell Mr. Connor McCoy I’ll sue the ass off him. He’s going to be spending most of the next few years in court.”
“Hmm. That sounds like an expensive proposition. You’re a corporate lawyer, not a litigator. How are you going to come up with the five-hundred-an-hour fee for a good litigator?”
“That’s for me to know.” He checks his watch. “Now get out of here before I call security.”
“Expecting someone are you?” I ask. His eyes narrow in uncertainty. I wish Rogan was here to share this. “You see Bob, I don’t know a lot about corporate finance but it seems like you don’t either. Normally investment deals, like the one you made with Connor McCoy, take months. Yet you pulled it off in two days. Didn’t that seem odd to you?”
“It was a great deal. McCoy was desperate for money so he agreed to all sorts of shit clauses. In six months, I’ll have control of his precious Dark Energy Systems.”
“Oh, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby. You didn’t do your due diligence did you?”
“My contract with him is airtight. Like I said, he’s gonna be spending a lot of time in court.”
“Do you think Arnold Young will want you to spend his money in litigator fees?” Arnold’s name is like a slap in the face. Bob’s eyes go wide and his mouth is moving, but nothing’s coming out. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. Arnold says he won’t be here for your meeting in what…” I make a big deal of checking my watch, “…ten minutes. Or, for that matter, ever. He said to tell you the deal’s off.”
“You sons-a-bitches.”
He collapses onto one of the leather chairs. I just sit in my wheelchair watching the gears turn in his mind but he finds no way out. “Fuck!” he says, but it’s more to himself than to us. Then a sly look comes onto his face. “At least I’ll be able to enjoy watching you and Rogan fighting off the drug charges in court. With a bit of luck, you could get convicted. How’d you feel about being in jail in that chair Stammo?”
“Drug charges? What do you mean?” I ask.
“Come on Stammo. You know what I mean. The police busted you for having possession of the drugs I got Lee Linsky to plant on you.”
“Drugs? Busted?” I fake confusion.
“I saw you on the news being led away by the police. By the way, did you ever wonder how the CBC and the Vancouver Sun got those pictures and videos?”
“One of your many problems Bob is you don’t know how to delegate. You see, Lee Linsky didn’t plant those drugs on us. Mr. Linsky didn’t want to get his hands too dirty. When you decided to scam Marly you asked your boy Lee to seduce her and get some financial details. Without telling you, he sub-contracted the job to an actor he knows. Then when you decided to scam us too, Lee got the same actor to pretend to be a blackmail victim. You know about actors, don’t you Bob. You hired one in Toronto to pretend to be Marly Summers and take out that loan.”
He now looks bewildered. He wonders how I know all this stuff.
“But do you know about facial recognition software Bob? The Vancouver Police Department used it to analyze that tape. They were able to track down the actress you used. When they got their colleagues in Toronto to pick her up, she told them everything.”
The bewilderment has vanished. Now he looks like a caged animal trying to find a way out.
“Anyhoo… the actor Lee Linsky used was named Roland McCoy and, being a lazy s.o.b., Roland used his successful older brother’s name with Marly and with us.”
“It’s all circumstantial,” he growls.
I pull out the digital recorder covered by the blanket across my lap. “Except that you just admitted to getting Lee Linsky to plant drugs on us. On top of that Lee and Roland have both agreed to turn Queen’s evidence and testify against you.”
Everything else disappears from his face and gets replaced with rage. He stands and
starts towards us, then stops in his tracks looking past us. I hear the door being opened and soon-to-be-Inspector Steve Waters walks in. He strides over to Big Bob.
“Robert Charles Pridmore, I have here a warrant for your arrest…”
I don’t need to hear the rest of it. I’ve heard it so many times before.
Besides, we’ve got a party to go to.
It’s a small party, just four of us here so far. Arnold Young politely turned down our invitation. Just as well, I don’t think he’s a party kind of guy. Marly Summers looks her usual stunning self and Connor McCoy is pouring champagne for all of us. To my surprise, he’s not all over Marly. His smiles seem directed at Lucy more than anybody and she is glowing in his attention.
“Where’s Cal?” Marly asks.
“On a plane coming back from Hong Kong,” I tell her.
“I love Hong Kong,” she says. “Was he there on vacation?”
“No, not exactly.”
“It’s a shame he’s not here, I wanted to thank you all for what you did, rescuing me from Pridmore’s clutches… again.” She hands me an envelope. “The balance, with a little bonus. It’s an extra thank you for getting your friend at VPD to call the Royal Bank and confirm they had been the victims of a crime. They were effusive in their thanks when I transferred the five million dollars to them.”
“Thank you.” I feel a bit embarrassed for some reason but I’m saved from having to say more by the arrival of Adry, Jason and Stewart with a tray of fancy snacks from the caterer downstairs in our building.
As everyone is being introduced to everyone else, I feel so grateful I have this group of people in my life.
Lucy puts on some music and it starts to feel like a party. Stewart brings me a glass of champagne and a plate of nibbles. “Better than coffee and cookies,” he says as he sits beside me. He raises his glass. “Cheers, Nick.”
Cal Rogan Mysteries, Books 4, 5 & 6 (Box Set) Page 72
