by Clive Hindle
“But this is a serious business,” Philip said, “It was a brave decision to come to Hong Kong, but I would have expected no less from you. You always were a courageous one, willing to stand up even against your own people if you thought what they were doing was wrong.”
Jack reddened at the compliment and then told Philip what Mr. Ma had done to get the Triad thugs off his back. “As far as I can tell, it worked. Until now.”
“Ma! He is a very powerful man, Jack! He has gone from strength to strength since I had the good fortune, with your immense sense of justice, to have him acquitted of that scandalous case. Coincidentally our deceased friend was closely involved with it.”
Jack nodded in agreement, “It’s astonishing how all these threads are intertwining.”
“Ma is of course one of my greatest supporters. Like his sense of obligation to you he has gone out of his way to turn the immense propaganda weapons of his newspapers in my favour. He dealt with K.K. Chow for you? That must have been demeaning for him, to have any truck with that cove!” Just as Jack remembered him, his English was still so precise, so correct and old-fashioned in its way. He spoke almost like a Victorian patrician.
As they walked across the reception hall Philip’s chauffeur held up his hand in recognition and rushed out to get the car. As they drove back to the Mandarin, Jack mentioned Graham and told Philip of the episode on Lantao and what had happened since, including his cover up of, first, the Amie Chan and then the Philippines incident. Philip nodded his head as Jack spoke but he was noncommittal about the ICAC Commissioner. Jack had the feeling he was holding something back but he couldn’t cajole it out of him.
A check at the Mandarin revealed no word from Diana but someone had been on the telephone. A man, speaking English. Reception couldn’t help Jack further because he hadn’t left a name or return number. Beside himself with worry he re-joined Philip and told him of the call. “Well,” Philip said, “it may be you are right to worry, it may not. One surprising thing is no one was on the telephone earlier. I would have thought they would contact you straight away. Just in case you called the Police. I don’t think they’d want that. It made me think you were mistaken but now you have had a call from someone....” He held out both hands in a gesture of uncertainty.
“Maybe they wanted to make me sweat,” Jack said.
“For a short time, yes,” Philip replied. “Tell me,” he continued, “who knew you were at the Mandarin?”
“No one. We’d only just got back. We came an unusual route,” and Philip laughed as Jack told him of their escape from Russia and the trip back.
“Jack, you never cease to astonish me! I must meet this lady of yours.” He put his hand on Jack’s arm, “and, don’t worry, I will!” Jack wished he felt as certain. “I’m sorry to ask it,” Philip mused, “I know it must be hard, but could she have got cold feet, just walked out?”
“Don’t apologise, and yes, it is possible. I frequently wonder what she sees in me, but all I’m sure of is she wouldn’t walk out and leave me in a sweat. She’d tell me face to face. She’s a woman of real courage. She doesn’t buck issues.”
He nodded, “In that case think about it carefully. Who other than you two knew you were here?”
“Well she claimed to have some friends?”
“Anyone connected with Gerry?”
“No way!” He had Philip’s drift now and was thinking hard. “There’s only Graham but that’s impossible.”
“Impossible? Are you sure?”
“Well, highly improbable.”
“Jack, you know the old Holmesian adage: eliminate the impossible and what you have left is the truth, however improbable.” Graham? Yes, he thought to himself, he had been behaving strangely, but what would he get out of kidnapping Diana? That was just about as impossible as it got. “Did he have any interest in this material which K.K. Chow thought Gerry had left with you?”
“Now you mention it, yes. A sort of covert interest, as if he too wanted to know what it was. And those Neanderthals he sent to see me, that wasn’t just because they were looking for Gerry.”
“Maybe he knows what exactly it was that Gerry left with you?”
“Before you ask, Gerry didn’t leave anything with me in England, they all had it wrong...” Philip was nodding, listening closely. “But...” Jack added and Philip craned forward “…that’s now changed,” and Jack went on to mention the letter his office had mailed to him and what he’d euphemistically named the Montrose box.
“And no one else knows you have this?”
“Just me and Diana.”
“Where is it?”
“I took it back down to the hotel strong room. I didn’t want to leave it in the room.”
“A wise precaution, my friend, but I think we should look at it, don’t you?”
It was a big step for Jack to take Philip into his confidence like this. What was in that box might be the only bargaining chip he had. Showing it to Philip might deprive him of it, but he was off his own patch here and so he had to trust someone so in for a penny!
“We have to assume that if you are right and she has been kidnapped, whoever has done that also knows now where the box is,” Philip looked at Jack meaningfully.
Jack nodded. The same thought had crossed his mind and his heart was breaking at the thought of what the Triads might have done to get that secret out of Diana but he tried to stay rational, “It would be unreasonable to suggest she won’t have told them.”
“Yes, and you should know our ICAC Commissioner does have connections with K.K. Chow?”
“What? Surely that can‘t be right?”
“Not at all,” Philip explained, “I discovered it when I was asked to take on K.K. Chow’s case, the one that our mutual and sadly deceased friend was accused of compromising.” Philip added that he had turned down the brief because of the political ramifications of the trial but not before it had become clear that K.K. Chow was pleading a connection with the Hong Kong Government through the ICAC Commission, particularly the head man. “You see,” Philip added, “where that takes us? The reason these kidnappers did not get in touch with you earlier is they thought they knew whom you would contact.”
Yet again Jack was astonished by his friend’s speed of thought, “Graham!”
Philip’s pointed chin formed an inverted double pyramid with his thumb and index finger as he returned Jack’s look, “Precisely,” he said, “and when you didn’t get in touch with him they must have begun to get extremely worried.” Jack listened carefully. He had a sixth sense that the problem was tied up in some way with the political upheavals of this part of the world. “If we could bottom that, Jack, it would help us find Diana. If I am right that Graham Witherspoon is somehow implicated in these events that augurs well for her safety. The unexplained death of a European national would cause some fallout.”
They crossed to reception where Jack asked for the safety deposit key. "It may seem a stupid question,” he asked Philip, “but what did you think of Gerry Montrose? Did you think he was corrupt?"
"On the take? No way!" Both hands shot sideways in a gesture of finality, "Oh Gerard had his weaknesses but he was not corrupt in the way so many are on this island. No, I think his frailties were all exposed in the upholding of the law, not the breaking of it. He sometimes went over the top to prove a case, shall we say? As with Ma?" he shrugged, "there was a suggestion, yes, with the K.K. Chow trial, how it all seemed to go wrong for the Crown, and then Gerard started working for the Mok brothers afterwards. K.K. Chow of course fronted their empire. Tongues were bound to wag."
"But you didn't believe them?"
"Not at all. I'll let you into a little secret, Jack. I know it will go no further and it may put your mind at rest, on this score at least." He went on to enlarge on the K.K. Chow case. He’d returned the brief because of the unsavoury elements involved. When he'd been purely a practising lawyer, they would have caused him nothing more than a moral dilemma, but, now that he
was the spokesman for a great many of the dispossessed in Hong Kong, his acting for that faction might have been interpreted as approval. "It made it a very interesting case, I can tell you. I was sorely tempted to take it, knowing that I was on a sure fire winner, that I could bring the Hong Kong Government to its knees. If it had not been for the dramatis personae, I think I would have had salad days with it."
“I am sure you would have enjoyed giving Gerry a bloody nose too, figuratively speaking of course! You certainly owed him one.”
Philip played down his personal feelings about Gerry, suggesting that any rivalry was purely professional and if, from time to time, it appeared bitter, then that was tactical. "Nevertheless, it was a surprise when he went to work for the Mok brothers and effectively put himself in league with Chow, a slithy tove if ever there was one. That I never quite understood. But I knew from what I had seen that it was not Gerard but some other anonymous official who was the cause of the collapse of that case."
They were led through into the strongroom where Jack’s key released one of the boxes from the wall. "Perhaps, we will find some of the answers to these puzzles in this box."
"Of course, we may very well find the answers we need and in turn we may learn how we can rescue your dear lady. Well, Jack, shall we look and see if, like its predecessor of western mythology, the famous Pandora’s Box, it has all the world's ills in there?"
Jack nodded grimly, realising all too clearly the truth of the analogy. Once the lid was off this thing it might never fit back on again.
CHAPTER 4
It was dark when Diana awoke. Only the steady whirr of the air-conditioning disturbed the silence. Memory returned almost immediately and she tried to struggle to her feet but she was bound by the hands and legs. She had no idea how long she’d been out but the memory was vivid of the syringe being jabbed forcefully into her arm and then of feeling as if she belonged to another plane of existence. In addition to the aircon there was the noise of a tap dripping. Nothing else suggested human presence. She didn’t have to think too hard about what these people wanted of her; she knew it must have something to do with the safe deposit box, and she somehow believed that the sooner she revealed its existence the sooner she’d be no more for any plane of existence. She had to hold out, somehow, but she was under no illusions that they would have ways of breaking her spirit. After a few minutes she lay back, exhausted by her thoughts. A different sound suddenly made her alert: footsteps echoed in a passage and the door opened. She feigned unconsciousness.
Dimly, through partially closed eyes, she saw a figure flit into the room. He came over to the divan and stood there motionless looking down at her. As her half-closed eyes became accustomed to the darkness she realised it was Tall Man Hung. He was entirely still as he stood over her. His posture was vaguely threatening but she could hear his breathing; it sounded as if he was hyperventilating. He seemed to hover like that for an age. The tension was almost unbearable. She had no idea what he’d do next. She tried to stop herself trembling and then he reached down and touched her. She felt it suddenly, the feel of cold steel against her skin, and she realised he was stroking her thigh with a knife. What was he going to do to her? She couldn’t even resist. She was going to scream but discretion got the better of valour. Who was there to hear? This might as well be a mausoleum. But why was he holding back? Why didn’t he just get on with it? Was he prolonging the moment simply for his own pleasure? She held her own breath, expecting him to rape her any moment. She could feel how he trembled. It was an exercise in self-control for him to hold back this long.
She guessed suddenly that he wasn't allowed to touch her, much as he wanted to, but he was interrupted suddenly by a shout from the doorway. It nearly made her start but she continued the pretence of unconsciousness. Light flooded in from the passage making the shadow of Tall Man Hung’s body dance uncontrollably. A man no older than her attacker came into vision. It was K.K. Chow, her former boss. He gazed down curiously at her body. Tall Man Hung stood, his head bowed, whilst the man castigated him for his trespass. The ferocious Red Guard nodded his head furiously as he was criticised, Communist fashion, by his boss. He said nothing but, "hai! hai!" in response to every verbal lashing. Finally he was peremptorily dismissed. He slunk out of the door, not daring to look back.
"Crazy fool!" the man said to Diana in English. “Come on, my dear, you not fool me, nor need protect yourself against me.” He covered her over with a show of decorum.
She stopped pretending then, "You just can't get the staff these days," she replied scathingly.
K. K. Chow looked down at her prostrate form. He couldn‘t help but find it amusing, "You did well, my dear. Lauder Saang bound to give what we want."
“This was not supposed to happen. Now let me out of here.”
He ignored her entreaties, “It a pity, however, that you given such a shot. You been out too long. We lose valuable interview time and we need find out what you know of Montrose and what Mr. Lauder possess.”
"I don‘t know what you are talking about! We are on the same side, remember?”
“Are we? Are we indeed?”
“Of course we are. I did what I said I would do, didn’t I?”
“But did you change sides in process?”
“Don’t be foolish! Of course not. I have always been loyal!”
“In that case tell me answer.”
“He may have nothing in his possession.”
"Is that possible? I think not. Why else he come back here? He know something now he not know when last here. You went Russia with him. Maybe our friends there told him something. It impossible to trust anyone these days."
"Maybe he doesn't know anything! Maybe it's all bluff. Maybe he went to Russia because Gerry had disappeared and that’s the last thing they discussed. He may know nothing more than last time he was here. Ma told you he had nothing, remember?”
“Ma!” K.K. spat, “His day of reckoning will come. He offend dragon. Ma will say things help Lauder. He had better have answer for his sake. He need to know something to guarantee quick death. If not, death come slowly. He not take any secrets to grave. Anyway, it certain that Montrose got information to him. They were good friends. Why else would Lauder give him half a million Hong Kong? He know a lot. Too much for good of his health.
“He knows nothing, take it from me,” the nervousness in her voice was clear to any observer.
“Really? Can we take risk? It too close now to the Legco closing when that thing happen. There will be political rally. Big crowds hide an assassin. It bad enough that Montrose got into our computers. It mean we must act now, tomorrow. It is no longer a question of political assassination but of survival.” He sighed, “This most displeasing. It very bad organisation.” He spoke as if he was planning a company conference. He prodded Diana firmly in the midriff, “I can see what Hung saw in you! Lauder saang must be very convincing. But you right, we no time lose. My theory Lauder saang tell his friend not true. We bluff him if we can. We make many mistakes. Perhaps I not be say that to you, eh?”
“Let me go. I have done nothing wrong. I did what you asked. I followed him and I found out nothing. A woman can serve only one master.” She was trying to convince him now but it didn’t come out right.
“Ah, but which master? The Chinese dragon or the English lion? Maybe there time for you redeem yourself. Eh?” His snigger betrayed his self-confidence. He found nothing equivocal in that remark. There was silence for a few moments then she almost jumped in shock as he touched her skin, "Oh yes, beautiful rose of the west, eh? Or more like an orchid. Very sweet, very lovely, very dangerous. It such a shame, if I must give you to men. But they entitled to share of good things. They tear you apart." He laughed. “Maybe I give you Tall Man Hung, first. He lose face if I not. And he want you, eh? I surprised he not try anything while you in UK together!”
“You wouldn’t!” Diana shuddered in her bonds.
“What? Let Tall Man Hung take his bitch! I
watch every moment of that.” His lip curled, “I want Lauder alive witness that. I want him on knees in front, watching every moment!” Chow laughed again in his sinister way and bent over Diana. It was almost as if he was inhaling her scent. "Oh yes," he said, "very beautiful. There must be proper hierarchy in this as in heaven. Once Hung finished I reward loyal fokis. I give you to snakeheads. Those crazy fishermen torture you. They keep you alive for months. They use you every night. We see what Lauder Saang think when he know that.” He seemed to be thinking about it. “Of course, you tell me where files are Montrose stole from me and…..” he left the sentence unfinished.
He didn’t wait for an answer. Diana heard him leave the room and close the door. She heaved a sigh of relief, quickly followed by foreboding. She lay there in the dark for a period of time impossible to assess. She dozed fitfully from time to time, the drug coming at her in waves, then she was suddenly fully awake as she heard the door go again. Oh my God, not Tall Man Hung again she thought.
