The Red Pole of Macau

by Ian Hamilton

  The women passed on dessert and ordered cognac. Larry was now sleeping soundly. As they sipped, Ellen asked Ava if she was married.

  “I’m a lesbian,” Ava said.

  “That wouldn’t go down so well in Shaker Heights,” Ellen said.

  “I’m from Toronto. Not so bad there, but in Hong Kong it makes you a pariah.”

  “Funny world.”

  “Not to me.”

  The bill arrived and Ava reached for it, but Ellen was there first. “No, you have to let me pay. You have been charming and so very helpful. I suspect that when I’m back in Ohio and I’m at a dinner or party and someone asks me what I remember best about Asia, I might very well tell them it was this meal.”

  “That’s kind. Thank you.”

  Ava departed first, leaving Ellen to wake Larry and get him to their room. She found herself missing Maria in a way she had never done before.

  ( 8 )

  She woke at just past eight with an urgent need to pee. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept so soundly, so devoid of dreams.

  She thought about running but didn’t have the patience for Victoria Park, and if she couldn’t run in the park she didn’t want to run at all. So she made a Starbucks VIA instant coffee, read the South China Morning Post, and then headed downstairs to the business centre with her notebook.

  Despite — or maybe because of — her business experiences, Ava’s proposals tended to get too detailed, too concerned about what could go wrong. So what should have been simple became horribly complicated, until even she could hardly understand what she meant. She persevered, starting from scratch four times, until it finally began to take the form and clarity she intended. It was important to her that Michael and Simon not see this as charity in any way. This was business. She was offering to buy in to their business and lend them money under terms and conditions that were serious, professional, demanding, and equitable. In truth, if they objected to them she knew she was capable of walking away.

  She finished at around eleven thirty, made three copies of her offer, and then headed for the shower. Uncle called just as she was walking back into the bedroom wrapped in a towel. Her first thought was that something positive had happened with Lok.

  “Uncle,” she said.

  “I received your breakdown of the money in the Kowloon bank. I sent the Wongs’ share on to them immediately. They phoned me this morning to say how grateful they are,” he said.

  Her deflation was immediate. “That’s fine.”

  “May Ling was particularly anxious that you know that.”

  “Know what?”

  “How grateful she is.”

  “Uncle, we’ve talked about this. I have no interest in what May Ling thinks.”

  She heard him sigh. He had said more than once that he thought she could be a powerful ally for Ava. “I hope that will pass,” he said.

  “She betrayed my trust,” Ava said.

  “That is true, but she has acknowledged that and explained herself. What more can she do?”

  “I don’t care what she does.”

  “When I spoke with her,” Uncle said, “she asked if you would at least take her phone call. I told her I was not in a position to answer that question.”

  “She is the wealthiest woman in Hubei province. What does she want with me?”

  “I told you before, she believes that you and she are connected.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it any more,” she finally said.

  He sighed again. “Just do not close the door entirely.”

  “You taught me never to do that.”

  “That is all I can expect,” he said.

  “Now, Uncle, you must excuse me. I have to get ready to meet with Michael and his partner.”

  “You are not going to try to talk to Lok again, are you?”

  “No, I know you’re correct in your assessment. I just need to go over some other business with them.”

  “I am sorry there is not more I can do.”

  “Momentai.”

  “When will you leave Hong Kong?”

  “Tomorrow, I think.”

  “Please call me before you do.”

  It was eleven thirty. She reached for business clothes: a powder blue button-up shirt with French cuffs and a modified Italian collar, a black pencil skirt. She brushed her hair, fixed it with the ivory chignon pin, and then put on a light touch of black mascara and scarlet lipstick.

  At twelve she was in Man Wah at a table next to the window. She ordered jasmine tea and waited.

  At twelve ten she began to look towards the door for some sign of Michael or Simon.

  By twelve fifteen she found herself getting annoyed.

  At twelve twenty she became agitated.

  By twelve thirty she was furious, and reaching for her cell to call her brother. That’s when her phone rang and she saw Michael’s name on the screen.

  “Where are you? I said our meeting was at noon,” she said.

  “I’m in my apartment, the Mid-levels,” he said, his voice wavering. “Ava, we fucked up. Simon and I, we really fucked up.”

  “What’s happened?”

  “Can you come here?”

  “Where are you?”

  “We’re on Queen’s Road,” he said.

  “Give me the number.”

  As he did she heard crying in the background. It sounded like Amanda.

  She took a taxi, her imagination working overtime as the cab dragged its way through heavy traffic. The Mid-levels was on the Hong Kong side of Victoria Harbour. The streets to that area ran from the harbour through Central and up the mountain towards Victoria Peak, or “the Peak,” as it was commonly referred to. The higher the real estate, the greater the cost. The Mid-levels, as the name implied, was halfway between the harbour and the Peak. The neighbourhood was mainly residential, nearly entirely apartment buildings, and home to the comfortably retired, senior managers, and a younger crowd that aspired to eventually buy higher.

  Ava had no idea what to expect when she reached the apartment, other than that she was sure it somehow involved Lok and Wu.

  They lived in an older apartment building, only twenty storeys high, with red-brick walls and small windows, but still posh enough to have a doorman. She told him who she was there to see. “They called down,” he said as he opened the door for her.

  Their unit was on the eighteenth floor. As Ava stood in the elevator her anger turned into anxiety. If those guys are going to keep doing stupid things they’ll have to do it on their own, she thought.

  When Amanda opened the door, her face streaked with black where the mascara had run, her eyes puffy, her nose running. She threw herself at Ava, wrapping her arms around her neck.

  “What’s going on?” Ava asked.

  “He’s in the bedroom,” she sobbed.

  “Then let’s go to the bedroom,” Ava said, untangling herself from Amanda’s embrace.

  Amanda grabbed her hand and pulled her across the room, which was furnished in black leather with large glass tables. The walls were bare and the tables had nothing on them. A man’s apartment, Ava thought.

  Michael lay on the bed. He was wearing the same slacks and shirt she’d seen the day before, except now the pants were grimy and torn at one knee and the shirt was stained with blood. He was holding an ice pack to his face, and when he heard them enter the bedroom, he removed it. His lip was cut in two places. One ear was red and mangled. There was dried blood under his nose.

  “They’ve got Simon,” he said.

  Ava sat on the bed so she could have a better look at the damage they’d done. It was mainly superficial, except for a cigarette burn on the back of his hand that would leave a permanent scar. Nothing was broken. She opened his shirt to look for bruising but didn’t see any, which calmed her conc
erns about injuries to his internal organs. Overall it was the kind of abuse that sent a message, meant to scare more than to hurt.

  Michael seemed to be in a state of shock, his body twitching of its own accord. She knew his reaction was out of proportion to the physical beating he had taken, but he was someone who had probably never encountered physical violence and didn’t have the psychological means to put it into perspective.

  “I think it would be better if you moved around a bit, assuming you can,” she said.

  He sat up.

  “I’d like Amanda to take you to the bathroom. Have a warm shower and change into some clean clothes. Then we’ll sit and talk, okay?”

  He nodded.

  “And, Amanda, wash your face too. He’s going to be all right. It looks worse than it is.”

  Ava sat at their kitchen table and waited. The refrigerator door was plastered with photos fixed with magnets. Michael and Amanda at Tokyo Disneyland. Michael and Amanda at the Happy Valley Racetrack. A picture of Michael with three other young men, perhaps his brothers — her brothers. She moved closer to have a good look and the family resemblance almost blew her away.

  When Michael emerged from the bathroom, he had already regained some of his natural colour. Amanda had washed, and without makeup she was actually prettier than with it, Ava thought.

  “Do you have coffee?” Ava asked.

  “I brewed some an hour ago,” Amanda said.

  “Perfect.”

  “I’ll have one too,” Michael said.

  As Amanda fussed with the cups, Ava reached out to Michael, her hand caressing his cheek. He flinched and she knew he still felt unsteady.

  “How did this happen?” she asked.

  He drew a deep breath. “We were so fucking stupid.”

  “That’s obvious, but it isn’t helpful. You need to tell me what happened.”

  “He phoned me last night around seven o’clock.”

  “Lok?”

  “Yes, Lok. He phoned me to say that he and Wu had been talking and that they felt badly about the way the meeting had gone. He said they thought there might be room for compromise, and that if we were willing to sit down with them, then they’d sit down with us.”

  “Did he mention what compromise he had in mind?”

  “No.”

  “Did you ask?”

  “Yes, and he said it was something they’d rather discuss in person, but that we shouldn’t come if Simon was going to keep being a hothead. Then he made a big point about my being able to keep Simon under control. I said that if they were really going to put a compromise on the table, Simon wouldn’t be any bother. And then I added that if they were that worried about Simon I’d leave him in Hong Kong and just bring you to the meeting.”

  “And he wasn’t agreeable to that?”

  “Not in any way. He said they didn’t want you at the meeting. No outsiders, just the principals.”

  “And that didn’t make you suspicious?”

  “I wasn’t exactly thinking straight. I was still distraught about how things had gone down and this seemed to be a way out, so I guess I just wanted to believe everything I was hearing.”

  Amanda put cups of coffee in front of them and joined them at the table, her grief giving way to interest.

  “Where did they want to meet?” Ava asked.

  “Macau, of course.”

  “And you were still not suspicious?”

  “Lok said they’d meet with us anywhere in Macau we wanted. They had no preference.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told him I had to talk to Simon.”

  “And you did, and Simon leapt at the chance to make things right, didn’t he.”

  “Yep.”

  Ava sipped her coffee. “So off you went.”

  “I called Lok back and told him we’d meet him at Morton’s Steakhouse in the Venetian at ten o’clock. He pushed me about Simon again, insisting that I keep him under control. He said that if I did that he’d be able to get Wu to go along with something that was fair for both sides.”

  “Did he ask you if you’d called me?”

  “No.”

  Lok’s smart, Ava thought. He pushed just enough of the right buttons in the lightest possible way. Dangle the carrot, don’t overpromise, don’t make a big issue over her, and make it sound as if Michael and Simon actually had some control over the situation.

  “How was Simon when you saw him?”

  “Excited. He talked all the way to Macau. I kept reminding him that he had to behave himself. He said he’d kowtow and eat shit if he had to, and I know he meant it. Until the lunch meeting I don’t think he’d really accepted that we might lose all our money, and when he did it was like his life was over. He kept saying this was a second chance and he wasn’t going to blow it. And truthfully, Ava, I think he was really pleased that it was just me and him going over, a sort of reaffirmation of our partnership.”

  “And neither of you considered for a second that this was a set-up?”

  Michael closed his eyes, his teeth grinding. Amanda shot a glance at Ava that said, How could they be so dumb?

  “We heard what we wanted to hear, and we were going to Morton’s. What could happen at Morton’s?” he said.

  “So you get to Macau . . .”

  “Yes, and they’re waiting for us outside the station. We start to walk towards the taxi stand when Wu — who has a big cast on his arm — and another guy come up to us. The guy has a coat on, a gun sticking out of it. Wu tells us to follow him,” Michael said. “We should have run at that point, I guess, or screamed, or done something, but neither of us has ever had a gun in our face. We were so shocked, so scared that we just went along. They took us to a white van that was parked near the station. There was a driver I didn’t recognize. They opened the rear door and made us get in. The guy with the gun jumped in after us. Wu took the gun and held it while the guy tied our hands behind our backs and blindfolded us. Then I think Wu went to sit in the passenger seat while the other guy sat in the back with us.”

  “Did anyone say anything to you?”

  “Not a word.”

  “How long did you drive?”

  “Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, maybe more. I’m not sure; I was completely disoriented.”

  “So, no idea of direction.”

  “No.”

  “Did you stop at a border crossing?”

  “No.”

  “Do you remember anything at all about the trip, anything out of the ordinary?”

  “When we got to where we were going, the van stopped and I heard the driver yell at someone to open the gate. That’s it.”

  “And then they took you inside a building?”

  “Yes, we climbed five or six steps. I heard a door open and then I heard Lok ask Wu if anyone at the station had paid any undue attention to us.”

  “So Lok was there.”

  “Oh yes, he was there,” Michael said, his voice cracking.

  “Have some coffee,” Ava said.

  She finished her own. Amanda pointed to her cup, asking if she wanted another. “Sure,” Ava said.

  Michael barely touched his. She saw that his hand was beginning to shake. “Do you mind if we take a break?” he said.

  Ava shook her head. “No, we need to get this out of the way. Drink some coffee.” She waited for him to take a couple of careful sips. “Now you’re in a building with Lok and Wu and they start to beat on you, right?”

  “They put me on my knees and left me there for maybe ten minutes. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear anything. Then out of nowhere someone punched me on the ear. I fell over, then they picked me up and left me again.”

  “Where was Simon?”

  “I don’t know. They separated us when we went inside.”

&nb
sp; “Did you ever see him?”

  “No.”

  “Okay, no Simon, just you on your knees getting punched. Did they say anything?”

  “Not while that was going on.”

  “How many times did they hit you?”

  “Maybe ten times, I don’t know,” Michael said.

  “I’m sorry to have to ask these questions,” Ava said, patting the back of the hand that wasn’t burned. “I’m almost done.”

  “Maybe ten times — three or four times on my ear, less on my nose, my mouth, my chin.”

  “And nothing was ever said?”

  “No. I sensed that someone was always near me though. I tried to stand once and they hit me immediately. After that I just stayed on my knees. That was the worst thing — not knowing when I was going to get hit, not knowing what else they might do to me.”

  “How did they end it?”

  “Someone just grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to my feet. They walked me into what I think was another room and made me sit on a wooden chair. I could hear mumbling, whispering, but I couldn’t make out the words. That’s when someone grabbed my hand and put the cigarette out on it. I screamed, and I pissed a bit in my pants, and there was a lot of laughter.”

  Ava saw tears well in his eyes and she felt them in hers too. Amanda sniffled and then began to cry.

  “Is that when they finally spoke to you?”

  “How did you know?”

  “Who spoke?” she said.

  “Lok.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said they were going to hold Simon until we paid the money we owed them. He said they were giving me forty-eight hours to come up with the money, and if I didn’t they would kill him. He said that if I went to the police, they’d find out and kill Simon anyway.”

  “Did you ask to see Simon?”

  “No, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I said I would do what I could, and then someone punched me. It went quiet and I thought I was going to get hit or burned again, but Lok just said they were going to take me back to Hong Kong, and that I was to call him on his cell when I had the money.”