by Lee Weeks
‘Yes, absolutely.’
After their swim, they lay on the hot sand. Mann turned on his side and ran a fistful of sand through his fingers. He hadn’t felt so relaxed in ages. But he had to give himself a reality check. He looked across at Victoria. She was sunbathing. Mann could see her freckles coming out. Her strong features softened as she relaxed. Her face looked pretty as it turned pink in the sun. Her hair was wet and loose and splayed out on the towel. She was showing him that she wasn’t Miss Immaculate; she could take the make-up off and get sand in her hair. She was his type of woman.
‘Why is it you look like an angel but you behave like a devil?’ he asked.
She opened one eye, put up her hand to shade her eyes and looked at him. ‘Haven’t you realized yet?’ She lay back down and closed her eyes whilst she talked. ‘I am everything you ever wanted in a woman, a partner, lover. We are the same, you and I. We were caught between two worlds when we were young. We were lied to by our fathers. We have a legacy whether we like it or not. Okay – I might be a little more self-serving than you. We can’t all devote our lives to public service, but I need someone like you in my life to balance me. Of course,’ she sat up and rested on her elbows, ‘it helps that the someone is just as rich as me. I could never settle for anything less.’
‘You play a deadly game, Victoria. Your Outcasts are killing people, not just other gang members. They are running through the Mansions in vigilante groups. They are killing anyone they don’t like the look of. Is that what you had in mind?’
She closed her eyes again. ‘They are the product of society, not me.’
‘Oh, I think they’re your babies. Whether you can control your offspring, the monsters that you have created, I don’t know.’
‘I have been honest with you, Mann. I want to redevelop the Mansions. I told you that. I promised them a place in that redevelopment.’ She sighed and smiled. ‘I can see you’ll take some persuading to trust me.’
‘Yeah. Don’t hold your breath. The more I see the less I trust.’ Mann got up and got dressed. ‘Let’s go. I need to get back to the office.’
Victoria looked momentarily disgruntled but she recovered. ‘Okay, of course, Inspector. Your wish is my command.’
They got back into the helicopter. The pilot circled around the beach area one last time.
‘It’s so beautiful, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Mann answered. ‘Beautiful, remote, unspoilt, and hard to get to.’
‘Yes. The perfect place to build the most expensive beach resort in Asia.’
Mann looked at her incredulously. ‘You’ll never get permission. This is owned by the Park.’
‘It was. I bought it. Well, to put it precisely, we bought it. You and I. If you want, we will keep it as it is. Then you can build yourself a shack on the beach and have your own private slice of the sea. We don’t have to develop it. We can keep it just for ourselves. We can come out here every weekend and lie naked on the beach and swim in waters that no one else swims in.’ The helicopter circled in the air, its shadow like a dark flying dragonfly buzzing over the surface of the water. ‘Or, you can see the place you love turned into an all-inclusive spa resort. You see, you have the choice. You can join me and influence the decisions I make. You can haggle with me for the amount of government housing I erect alongside plush residential developments or you can refuse and let me do it my way. But then, we all know what my way is, don’t we?’
She smiled at him and Mann could see that the sun had already brought a golden glow to her face.
‘So what’s it to be?’
Mann looked down as the sea turned turquoise in the shallow waters and folded along the shore.
‘Your beach to leave alone, unspoilt, untouched for whatever reason you choose or you can leave me to build my beach resort. It’s up to you. You have the power in your hands to build a better Hong Kong, a better world.’ She laughed. ‘But only with me, of course.’
Chapter 70
It was late by the time Mann got dropped off back at Headquarters. Mia was waiting for him.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘A man’s head has been dredged up by some fishermen. It has been in the water a few months. They’ve pulled it up at Aberdeen. I need you back on the job now.’
‘Caucasian?’
‘We don’t know – there’s not much of it left.’
Mann was already out of the door.
‘Do the fishermen have the exact co-ordinates where they found it?’ Mann and Mia were speeding along the road on their way to the scene.
‘No, only a rough position.’
‘Are we positive it’s not Max Kosmos?’
‘Yes. It’s in an advanced state of decay. There’s very little of it left. We’ll get divers down at first light to see if we can find any more of it.’
‘I’m going with them.’
‘You’re no longer part of the police dive team, Mann.’
‘The more divers we have on this the better.’ He changed the subject. ‘Where did Ng get to with checking out missing businessmen?’
‘We have a long list. Ng decided on cross-referencing in two areas; reported missing by family or close friends, not just work, and last seen in Hong Kong, still missing.’
‘Is Sheng here?’ Mann asked. He looked across at Mia and realized it was the first time he’d seen Mia with make-up on in a long time. She couldn’t have been at the office either when the call came.
‘No, just Daniel Lu. Sheng’s unavailable, we couldn’t find him.’ Mia didn’t look at Mann.
‘How far did you get with Victoria Chan?’
‘She offered me my own private surfing beach.’
‘She certainly knows the way to a boy’s heart.’
‘To mine, anyway. I am waiting for the killer strike. She’s laying the world at my feet, all I have to do is kiss her hand and sign a pact with the devil.’
‘What did she say about the Outcasts?’
‘She says they have a life and a direction of their own. She says she is just the figurehead, her intentions are good, that they were bound to exist even without her help; all that bullshit. I don’t believe her but some things she says ring true. She is offering me a lot to come onto her side. She wants us to work together, find a balance between her way and mine.’
‘Ouch, that’s good. She’s clever. She has made a study of you, Mann. She knows all of your buttons and she’s going to keep pushing them until they add up to a jackpot.’ Mia looked across at him. He had a look on his face that seemed to be wondering if everyone knew him better than he knew himself. ‘Use it then, Mann. We need to reverse the fishing reel and hook her in with whatever it takes. You are our bait, I’m afraid.’
Mann looked out as they drove. He tried not to look at the road. He felt sick. ‘Make no mistake, CK feels nothing for anyone. CK is as cold-hearted as they come. Maybe he’s just setting his daughter up to fail. Victoria is a chip off the old block. But, you’re right, I do need to use it.’ He looked across at her and grinned. He was a little surprised. ‘Never had you for the mercenary type, Mia. You’re making me walk the plank with a tank full of piranhas beneath me.’
‘You don’t have to do it, Mann. It’s a big ask, I know. You can just say no, take some time off.’
‘The last thing I need is time off, Mia. I can’t bear my own company at the moment. I need to work. I need to be useful. I will take it all the way and hope I can deliver.’
‘Then stay focused. I don’t need one of my officers off his face 24/7.’ He glanced across at her. ‘Yeah, maybe that was a little harsh of me. But it’s tough love. I know you, Johnny. I want you to put it all behind you, move on.’
Mann looked out of the window, at the harbour just ahead he could see the flashing blue lights of several squad cars. ‘It’s easier said than done,’ he said.
Mia didn’t answer, she just drove.
They parked up by the cordon of flashing police cars around the water’s edge and
walked over to join Shrimp and Ng.
They’d reached the water’s edge and Mann’s attention was diverted. ‘Jesus, is it in a lobster pot? Are these the fishermen who found it?’
‘Yes, Boss.’
Mann knelt down over the pot. A large lobster scuttled around the basket and settled on the skull. ‘There’s still a small amount of flesh, the pot must have protected it to a certain extent, apart from providing the lobster with a permanent meal.’
‘The lobster’s young,’ said Shrimp. ‘It’s probably not the first lobster to feed here.’
Mann took Delilah out of his pocket, poked her through the slats and dislodged the lobster. ‘Where did you find it?’
The fishermen pointed out to sea.
‘Can you be more specific?’
They looked at one another and then collectively shook their heads.
‘They say they were fishing in the permitted zone when they trawled it up in their net. It must have come loose with the bad weather.’ Ng leant down to whisper to Mann. ‘I think they’re bullshitting. They were somewhere they ought not to be or up to some kind of illegal bomb fishing. Whatever it was they caught themselves a net full of trouble.’
‘Were you out in the storm?’
The captain nodded.
‘Maybe this pot was dislodged from its home. Come to police headquarters in the morning. I want you to show me on a map exactly where you were fishing.’
The captain started to grumble.
‘You’re not going anywhere with this boat till we’ve had a chance to take a good look at it. Co-operate and we’ll speed things along. Piss me off and I’ll impound it for good.’
Daniel Lu came to join Mann and Shrimp and took a closer look at the head. ‘It’s not Max Kosmos then?’
Mann felt sick. He stood and took a few deep breaths. ‘Somebody get that fucking lobster out.’
Chapter 71
‘According to the fishermen’s co-ordinates they were just west of here when they dragged up the head in their net.’ The six-man team of divers included Mann. Daniel Lu was along as part of the forensic recovery team. ‘Allowing for the movement from the storm, it could have come off the coast around Stanley. There are places along the wall where people fish, deep areas that you access quite easily. We’ve tried north and now we’ll try south. We’ll take the boat in south of the beach, where the sea defence is deepest.’
‘This has to be the last dive for today, Mann. I have to get back to the office. We’ve been out here since seven o’clock this morning. It’s four now.’
Mann was stood looking towards the beach. It was dotted with families. Either side of it were the tall sea walls, sloped with boulders in places to accommodate the storm swells.
‘If the perp doesn’t have a boat, this place would not be deep enough to throw in a body, even if you rolled it down the stone boulders and into the water.’
‘I understand that, Mann, but Hong Kong is completely surrounded by water. We can’t check every part. People are allowed to fish off any wall, any beach. If someone wanted to weight a body and throw it in they could throw it off countless places.’
‘Sure. I know what you’re saying. It’s a difficult thing to work out but Ng and I looked at drift patterns, storm surge. It hit this defence pretty hard. It could have shifted anything that was underneath. We’ll drop one at a time, at five-metre intervals. We’ll sweep the defence. Further along…there.’ Mann pointed to a place where the wall met an overhang. He shielded his hand from the bright sun. ‘By those small buoys tucked in beneath the overhang.’
The boat came to a stop and bobbed in the water. The first diver dropped into the water at the start of the sea defence. Mann strapped his oxygen tank on. He pulled on his mask and slipped over the side. As he dropped into the murky water, he sucked in air through his mouthpiece and listened to the sound of his own lungs working. He felt the cold water close over his body and scalp. Hong Kong’s harbour wasn’t the cleanest. It was dark. It was full of debris, cloudy and thick. Discarded fishing nets were a major problem; lethal to fish and dive.
He felt the pressure around his ears as he dropped down into the cold darkness. His weight belt took him slowly down. He reached out his hand and touched the stone wall of the defence. He shone his torch towards the wall, to the lines leading down from the buoys, and he shone his torch downwards. The wall had been constructed more than thirty years ago. It looked neat from above the waterline but below it descended into jutting crevices. An eel stared at him, its massive head amplified by the water. Mann hated snakes. This was enough like one to make him jump as it came out towards him and then made a dart into one of the cracks.
He held on to the wall as he worked his way downwards. His hands touched the top of a lobster pot. A creature disturbed the bottom and a flurry of silt clouded up into Mann’s face. Mann recoiled instinctively; he dropped his torch, fumbled and reached out to find for it in the dark waters. He shone it into the pot and a green face stared back at him, an eel had made its home in the mouth. Mann shone his torch to either side. It was not alone.
Chapter 72
Ruby lay on the beach, shielding her eyes as she looked out to sea. The sand was warm beneath her and she ran her feet through it, feeling the sensation of the grit between her toes. She was watching the police boat bob in the water. She watched the divers like black seals as they plopped into the water and she played a game with them. ‘Getting warmer, getting warmer, no cold again, hot very hot.’ She watched Mann turn backwards and flip off the boat’s side and into the still water and she knew he would find what he had searched for all day.
Ruby lay back and closed her eyes in the warm sunshine. The night had been a long one for her. Peter Thorne had pleaded and cried like a baby in the end. He had cried for his wife. He had cried for his children. The more he cried, the longer she took to kill him.
She spread her hands out and clutched the sand in handfuls. She had a strange feeling inside her. She knew now it was all coming to an end. She knew that she must plan for it. She would not let them simply track her down. She would choose her moment. With her babies, in her room. With a man worthy of them, that would be her moment. A strange sound escaped from her throat: anguish, despair. Ruby gripped the sand hard, her arms outstretched she stared up at the sky and watched the Earth turn. She knew it was time for her to leave this life. She must go home and plan. She had Peter Thorne’s body waiting for her. She had work to do. She picked up her bag and walked back along the beach to catch the bus home.
Chapter 73
As Mann walked into the incident room that evening Mia’s expression told him she had something she wanted to say. He’d missed two calls from her but he’d had a rush to get back from the morgue after the autopsies. Mann raised his eyebrows and nodded towards the door. She shook her head. Whatever it was would have to wait.
‘We have identified four so far. All of the heads are less than a year in the water. The two newest, less than a week. We haven’t identified those two. It’s likely that they haven’t been reported missing yet.’ Ng turned to the white board and the photos of the dead men. ‘The four we know about are: Max Kosmos, a man named Louis le Poul, went missing five months ago on a stopover from Singapore, worked for an oil refinery, selling parts to rigs. A man from the UK, a Welshman called Colin Humphreys, bit of a playboy, worked for a luxury cruise company out here to take on staff. He’d been in the water about eight months. The other is a Korean engineer called Sam Lee, doing a tour of Asia, overseeing projects for Hyundai, his wife reported him missing three weeks ago.’
‘Do these men have any connection to each other?’ Mann asked.
‘No. All frequent visitors to Hong Kong, all travelling married businessmen.’
‘Where were they staying?’
‘All in hotels around the Mansions. All off Nathan Road, big hotels with twenty-four-hour cocktail bars. They were all married, all well known for playing away. Their disappearance was never traced directly to
Hong Kong because they moved all over Asia. Some airline records were accurate about who bought tickets but some weren’t.’
‘This is her serial killer ID: she kills foreign businessmen who play away,’ Sheng said, fiddling with his watch strap, a sports Rolex. He looked as rough as ever. His face was blotchy, sweaty. His shirt button strained across his stomach.
‘They have to be married,’ added Mia, ‘but they don’t have to be Caucasian. We have a Korean amongst the dead. Saheed estimated the other heads had been in the water anything from two days to a year. The head that the fisher – men found seems to be the longest in the water of the seven. Saheed said it was in the water about a year. It’s hard to tell because the lobsters do a pretty good job of stripping the flesh and eating the bone as it breaks down. We only have a partial skull left. But Saheed said he is pretty sure it’s not Caucasian. He thinks it’s African.’
‘Have them check the rubbish dumps, building sites, alert all fishermen. She must be disposing of the bodies somehow,’ said Sheng. ‘Post surveillance in Stanley.’
‘Perp won’t use that site again,’ said Mann, sipping his coffee. ‘They’ll have seen us, I’m sure.’
Sheng flashed him an irritated look. He looked like he was about to add a comment but decided not to. Mann was beginning to feel like he’d been the subject of some conversation and it wasn’t friendly.
‘We have thirty million visitors a year; most of them come here for business,’ said Ng. ‘The average stay is three days. We are a major stop-off point for other countries. Every few seconds men pass through on business trips and every few weeks some men go missing in Asia.’
‘It’s easy to see why: burnout. They’ve had enough of being mortgage slaves and opt out,’ said Sheng. ‘They get so used to being on the road. Their wives don’t even care whether they come home or not in the end as long as the bills get paid. You go and set up home in the Philippines or Thailand, it costs pence to live there. Find a few girls to double as bed mates and cleaners, no one need ever be found again.’
