Kiss and Die

by Lee Weeks

  Chapter 55

  ‘Yes sir, I do understand but I am following up on the arrest of your son.’ Shrimp was standing his ground with PJ. He’d left Rizal to it and come in search of Nina. ‘I need to speak to the other members of your family.’

  From the corner of his eye Shrimp saw Nina pass them on the way into the kitchen, head down. She had her sari pulled up over her head and had wrapped the fabric around to cover her face.

  ‘She knows nothing. She is busy. Let her go. Please, I assure you, Nina is a good girl. She works very hard. She doesn’t have time to talk…’ PJ looked ready to burst into tears as he wrung his hands and shook his head.

  ‘I just need a few words. I won’t keep her long. I am only trying to help Mahmud.’

  Nina had just returned from her encounter with Rizal. She was upset. She hadn’t seen Shrimp. She was hurrying through the restaurant laden with groceries.

  ‘Excuse me, miss?’ Shrimp said. Nina hesitated but did not turn to look at him. ‘Can I have a word?’ Shrimp stepped around PJ.

  PJ flushed with panic and exasperation. ‘Okay, okay. Nina, come!’

  Nina walked over and, recognizing him, smiled at Shrimp. PJ signalled to Hafiz to fetch Ali. ‘Sit at the table over there. We will get busy soon but it will be all right for a few moments.’ The place had just a few stragglers in.

  ‘Sorry miss, I just need a quick word.’ Shrimp wished he didn’t feel so nervous.

  ‘You don’t have to answer anything,’ PJ snapped at his daughter but he smiled at Shrimp, obviously flustered but still remembering to be polite.

  Nina’s eyes flicked back and forth across Shrimp’s face. ‘The detective won’t keep me long. I am happy to speak.’ She set down her packs of shopping and gestured to Shrimp to follow her as they went to sit where PJ had said.

  Shrimp could see the sorrow in her pretty face. Her eyes searched his, she looked away, shy. Shrimp’s heart was beating fast. He knew he was blushing. He had an overwhelming desire to kiss her. He shook it off and his voice came out a little cracked. ‘Thank you,’ he coughed to clear it. ‘Thank you for talking to me. I just wanted to ask some general questions about the circumstances leading up to the stabbing of the officer in Mong Kok. Did you know your brother was involved with the Outcasts?’

  Nina shook her head. ‘There is no way Mahmud is guilty of hurting the police officer. Mahmud wouldn’t hurt another human being. He is the most gentle of boys. He hated the gangs. He did not belong to the Outcasts or any of them. He didn’t need to – he was set to become someone all on his own.’

  ‘What do you think he was doing there?’

  ‘I don’t know. Maybe he was tricked. Maybe he was lured there. Maybe he thought he was going to do some good. I just don’t know. But you can’t keep him in prison if he didn’t do it, can you?’

  ‘I caught him with the knife in his hand, Nina. I made the arrest myself. What can I say to you? He is denying it but won’t tell us who did it. His silence will be seen as guilt. I can see him going to prison for it if he doesn’t tell us who was responsible.’

  Nina turned away from Shrimp and her eyes filled with tears.

  ‘I’m truly sorry.’ Shrimp wanted so much to reach over and touch her hands. They were rough from work but they were still beautiful hands. ‘If Mahmud didn’t do it then we have to find out who did and why he is shielding them. Are you a friend of Lilly’s?’

  She looked back at him, her eyes panicking. They flicked up as her father passed. She willed Shrimp to wait before he spoke more. PJ had passed when she nodded.

  ‘I wondered why you were in the flat just now. It looked like there was a problem with Rizal. Is everything okay?’

  ‘Oh, thank you. Yes. I was cooking the curry for Michelle for her stall. She will lose business otherwise. The Filipinos in the Mansions rely on her to feed them. We don’t eat pork you see but she cooks it for them. But Rizal isn’t nice. I won’t go in there again unless Michelle is there. He isn’t a good man.’ She looked away, embarrassed.

  ‘And Lilly? She’s a friend?’

  ‘She’s younger than me. We don’t have so much to talk about. She is more a friend to Mahmud and Hafiz. She’s their age.’

  ‘Do you think she is the cause of a lot of trouble here at the Mansions?’ Shrimp asked.

  Nina shook her head. ‘I think she has been led astray by the older ones. The Outcasts have taken a hold here. Nothing is the same as it was.’

  ‘A young girl was murdered. She was from here. She was an Indian girl.’

  Nina nodded, she looked to see if her father was listening. He was pretending to be busy as he marched past them carrying things that didn’t need to be carried, wiping down already clean surfaces. Nina waited until he had passed. She whispered, ‘We all know about the troubles. We see it every day here. My father hardly leaves this restaurant so he doesn’t see it but we do. I knew Rajini. I liked her. She was quiet. She just wanted to go to school. She wanted to succeed.’ Nina shook her head sadly. ‘Maybe she wanted too much. I feel very sad. I hear she had a horrible death.’

  ‘They cut off her hands.’

  ‘So I heard. They brag about it – their new weapon, they call it, but it’s not new it’s very old.’

  Shrimp looked at her. She realized he didn’t know. She stood and reached one of the Indian artefacts down from the wall. She handed him a coiled whip. ‘Be very careful. It is very sharp. It is called a urumi. It’s an ancient Indian martial arts weapon. This is the weapon talked about by the Outcasts. I see them practising on the roof here.’

  Shrimp took it from her and allowed it to unravel towards the floor: three razor-sharp strips of metal, a flexible whip.

  Chapter 56

  ‘Hey.’ Ali caught up with Shrimp when he came out of the Delhi Grill. He was walking down the stairs. ‘Leave my sister alone. She doesn’t go on dates, not with you or anyone.’

  ‘I didn’t ask her for a date. I am trying to solve the stabbing of a policewoman. I’m trying to find out as much as I can to help save your brother from going to prison. Isn’t that what you want?’

  ‘We told you what we know.’

  ‘Don’t you want to help your brother?’

  ‘It’s not a case of that; we don’t know any more than you. Why don’t you ask him?’

  ‘He’s not talking. He fears something else more than us, more than life in prison. What would that be, do you think?’

  ‘The gangs.’

  ‘How long do you think he’s been a Triad?’

  Ali looked away in disgust. ‘Don’t be stupid. Mahmud is no Triad. Whatever he was doing there, it wasn’t Triad business.’

  ‘What’s his relationship with his father like?’

  ‘He is his pride and joy. You know we all do what we can. Things haven’t been easy. Our mum died five years ago. Since then we all have to help in the restaurant.’

  ‘Even you?’

  He grinned. ‘It’s not my thing. I help in other ways. I buy the extras we can’t afford. I paid for Mahmud to get a better education. I paid for the extra lessons to learn to read and write Mandarin. I can’t do it. Mahmud is clever. He takes his studies seriously. He isn’t out chasing girls or taking ice. He has his heart set on being a doctor.’

  ‘So what the hell has gone wrong?’

  Ali shook his head. ‘We are in crisis at the moment. The Mansions has gone fucking mad. People being chopped, killed. We are all scared of the future but now terrified of the present. We have nowhere else to go. We told you what we know.’

  ‘Did you? I think you left out more than you said.’

  ‘Where are you going with that?’ He pointed to the urumi, wrapped in plastic, in Shrimp’s hand. ‘That’s private property.’

  ‘You’ll get it back. Listen, Ali, no one wants to cause more trouble here. If you just let it run the Triads will take over this entire place and you’ll have gang wars every night. Is that what you want for your family?’

  Ali took a deep breat
h and shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I heard the rumours. I had an idea that it was Rajini, I should have been more helpful. I have to keep my family safe. I have to put them first. I know Mahmud was not involved in the attack on the officer. My father is about to have a breakdown thanks to all of this. I have to go. There’s nothing more I can tell you.’

  As he walked away, he stopped and looked at Shrimp earnestly. ‘But please keep trying for us. I am sorry to be strict about my sister but stay away from Nina, she’s been through enough. She marries next month.’

  Shrimp tried not to look like the news had impacted but inside a small jolt of pain had shot through his heart.

  As he was about to step back onto Nathan Road, Nina caught up with him.

  ‘I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.’ She looked behind her, breathless. She didn’t want to be seen talking to him. She stayed within the threshold of the Mansions.

  ‘No, you should. It’s no good hiding anything, Nina, it will just come out in the end and make even more trouble. Look, if I can help you in any way, if you need me, you call.’

  She smiled gratefully as Shrimp handed her his card. It occurred to him he’d never seen anyone so lovely.

  ‘Can you read Mandarin?’

  She nodded. ‘I am learning.’

  He handed her his card. ‘My mobile number is on the back.’

  He watched her go. She turned back to smile as she disappeared back into the crowds.

  Chapter 57

  Mann headed back to Headquarters. He went straight to find Sheng. He caught him in the locker room; he smashed him back against a locker, held him by the throat.

  ‘Did you order Tammy to carry on with Operation Schoolyard?? Did you countermand my order?’

  Sheng breathed in his face. He waited until Mann loosened his grip and then he shook himself free.

  ‘No. I didn’t. You don’t need help fucking things up, you can manage it all by yourself.’

  Mann let him go. He took the lift up to the top floor and the stairwell up to the roof. He needed to breathe. He felt his lungs collapsing. The only calm for him was on the roof. He pushed open the fire escape door and immediately the heat hit him. The sun was directly overhead. The sun was in his eyes. The dazzling light bounced off buildings and windows. He put on his sunglasses and stood, breathing deeply. The air was clean. The smell of the ocean. The sea was vast and beautiful on the horizon.

  He walked across to the parapet. The eagle had been there and left its droppings, full of tiny bones. Mann picked up three black tail feathers, beautiful, flawless. He knelt down out of the wind, wrapped them in cloth and placed them inside his shuriken pouch.

  ‘I thought I’d find you up here.’ Mia walked across the roof and stood beside Mann looking at the harbour and the sea beyond. ‘What’s the latest on Tammy?’

  ‘Still critical.’

  ‘I heard you paid a visit to Victoria Chan’s office.’

  ‘News travels fast.’

  ‘Only some news – only when it’s to certain people’s advantage. You better stay away from them now, Mann. I’ve been told by the top brass to warn you off. You can’t go in there and threaten her. This was supposed to be stealth not aggression.’

  ‘I’m playing the game, Mia. I’m doing what they expect. Any less and they’d know it wasn’t for real.’ He shook his head and took a deep breath in. ‘It’s beginning to feel like whichever way I play it I can’t win. Victoria Chan knew about Operation Schoolyard. She knew about Tammy.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘She made it her business. She paid someone here at the department.’

  Mia wasn’t having it: ‘It’s not possible. She’s lying. Only a handful of us knew the details about Operation Schoolyard. It’s gone wrong before, Mann, it doesn’t mean that someone’s corrupt in this department.’

  ‘It’s not the first time we’ve had corrupt police officers either though, is it? Why the hell didn’t Tammy do as I ordered?’ Mann shook his head, slow, heavy. ‘Tom Sheng denies he had anything to do with it. I don’t believe him.’ He stared hard at Mia. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me, Mia?’

  ‘Like what? I know as much as you do.’ She turned back to stare out at the rooftops.

  Mann shook his head, exasperated. ‘Some people have waited a long time to see me in this kind of a mess. My judgement’s all to hell. I am not thinking straight.’

  Mia reached out and rested her hand on Mann’s arm. ‘I know you have too much in your head right now with your father’s mess but don’t be such a hard man. You’re not always in this alone. You want to talk, I’m here.’

  ‘Thanks, Mia, but it’s probably best for me to work it out alone.’

  ‘What about your mother? Is she helping with it?’

  ‘No. She is doing what she does best, ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I don’t blame her. I’ve done my best to do the same but it’s not working so well for me.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘It seems like a massive task. I thought I could walk away from my father’s past. But I can’t. Now it’s up to me to finish the job. The thing is, all the years my mother chose to ignore it and leave it untouched, his wealth has been growing, the investments are now huge. I own a large part of a company that mines diamonds in Sierra Leone; I own several cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast. Each project could take me a year to unravel in order to try and do something positive with it. I wish I could give it all away and forget it existed.’

  ‘What about the family in Amsterdam? Do they have a say?’

  ‘My brother Jake is named in some of the documents. I will try and guide him through it all when I’ve negotiated my own way first. His stepdad Alfie is a nice guy. He’ll want me to do what I think best. He’s a cop. He’s not going to want Jake inheriting Triad money. I’ll talk to him. I keep meaning to call. I just don’t know what to say. I wish my dad’s business could wait until the murder investigation was over but with Victoria pushing me and causing chaos I think I have run out of time. I feel like she’s out to break me. I feel like she knows every move I make. Sometimes I think I’m losing my mind. I can’t stop thinking about Helen. I even feel her presence in the flat, smell her perfume. I feel like someone’s been in there, someone’s been looking through my drawers, looking through the papers.’ He shook his head. ‘Maybe I’m just getting paranoid. But now, with Tammy going against my orders I’m wondering if I ever gave her them. Did I not make it clear?’

  ‘Let’s see if the Indian boy can tell us any more. He’s waiting to be interviewed now.’

  ‘Okay but…’ Mann sighed. ‘I don’t think it’s him, he’s covering for someone he cares about.’

  Mann left the bodyguard’s finger on the parapet for the eagle and followed Mia off the roof.

  Chapter 58

  Shrimp stood opposite Kin Tak in the autopsy room. ‘Could this be the weapon?’ He took out the urumi and allowed it to slowly unwind to the floor.

  Kin Tak coughed as a gasp turned to a phlegm rattle in his throat. He took the urumi from Shrimp with outstretched arms as if it were a baby. He laid it flat out on the counter and reached for his tape measure. He measured the strands of the urumi and wrote down his findings. He examined it under a magnifier. ‘I can say, without doubt, that this is the weapon. This is it.’

  ‘I have downloaded a demonstration from the Internet. It’s awesome,’ Shrimp said when he got back to the office. ‘This little baby has three one-inch bands of razor-sharp steel. It’s basically a flexible sword.’ Shrimp let it unravel slowly towards the floor.

  ‘It looks tricky to use.’ Mann watched, fascinated. He appreciated the centuries-old skill that had first dreamt up the weapon.

  Shrimp went back to his desk and turned his monitor so that Mann and Ng could see. ‘It’s not easy. It was only given to the most gifted apprentices in Indian martial arts schools.’ Shrimp pressed the play button on the video link and two combating Indian men, practising urumi combat, came to life on the screen. They were sp
arring with the urumi and using a two-bladed knife to defend themselves. ‘You need some strength but it’s mainly down to agility and technique. This is the ideal weapon for a woman. You can tuck it into your belt or pop it into your handbag, and you can take out several opponents at once with this little baby. Someone knew what they were doing to be able to use it accurately. The damage it causes is easy to identify when you’ve seen it once. The speed with which it comes through the air, the razor-sharp edge of the three blades makes an unmistakable wound. It took Rajini’s hands off like a hot knife through butter. And it made a mess out of Max Kosmos.’

  ‘It’s a horrible-looking thing.’ Ng shook his head as he picked a Danish pastry apart; he didn’t share the others’ enthusiasm for weaponry.

  ‘You see how the metal coils are whipped in circular movements in the air and then cracked down on the opponent, blocked here by a sword?’

  Mann peered in at the video. ‘Blow it up for me, Shrimp.’

  ‘It will lose definition but I’ll try.’

  He clicked to enlarge the picture and Mann leaned across and pressed the pause button. The picture was a little blurred but still clear enough to see what Mann wanted. ‘Look what they have in their hands. It’s not a sword. It’s the same knife we found on Mahmud, the one used to stab Tammy. It’s the double-bladed one.’

  ‘Right, are you all ready?’ Mia appeared at the door.

  Shrimp was busy typing in the knife’s details into a search engine. ‘Bundi knife. That’s its name.’

  Mann picked it up from his desk. ‘let’s see if Mahmud knows what it’s called.’

  Chapter 59

  Mahmud looked every inch a frightened little boy – he also looked like he’d been passed over a cheese grater, his face and arms cut from when he was thrown headfirst into the police van the night before. Mann sat across from Mahmud in the interview room and stared at him. Shrimp leant on the wall and watched. Mia was watching from the monitoring room.