‘No, Miss. But Mrs Yong, she blame Mr Yong.’
Gabrielle frowned. ‘Have you any idea why?’
‘There so much shouting and I not like listen. I sometimes hide in kitchen so I not hear noise.’
‘I understand, so there is nothing else?’
‘Not from what I hear, Miss, but before we come England, when Miss Lucinda young, I see something.’
* * *
Adam’s eyes were closed.
He did not want to open them because if he opened them he knew what he would see.
He convinced himself it had been Lucinda.
But Lucinda in all the times they had made love had never made him feel so totally fulfilled. He felt as though every last ounce of energy had been drained from him. If he were destined to die soon then let him die now.
He could feel her thighs either side of his, her hands still resting gently against his chest. He could feel her warmth as she still engulfed him.
He knew Leila was watching him.
He knew if he opened his eyes he would see a meaningful smile on her lips. No woman could do what she had just done and not know it.
She had taken his strength.
Leila was indeed looking down at him and she was definitely smiling.
But behind the smile was confusion.
What she did not understand was that in the past sex was no more than what she used to get her information. She used her body to obtain what the Master wanted to know and she believed she had never failed him. But on this occasion the Master was the last person on her mind. She had actually wanted to satisfy this man she was now looking at. He was her priority and she had dismissed all else to the back of her mind. She could not remember the last time she did that.
Why now?
The man who was lying exhausted between her thighs was still a stranger yet it mattered. It mattered that she had been able to give him what he so obviously needed. If he were to tell her now what she ought to have already found out, then all well and good. But at this very moment she could not care less whether she found out anything or not.
Why?
She had done no more than she’d done many times before. She had looked down at so many other faces. There were times when she felt disgusted but more often than not there was no emotion in her whatsoever.
It wasn’t just a job, it was her duty.
It was her duty to the Master.
But on this occasion she did not just want to do it but also needed to do whatever she could to give this man some pleasure.
Why, she asked herself again.
What was so special about Adam Harrison?
* * *
‘How much you know?’
‘About what, Lolita?’
‘About why Master Adam come England when young.’
‘I know what led to Adam being sent to England and I know that visits to him in England were infrequent. I know that at his graduation he saw Lucinda for the first time since he was banished from Hong Kong.’
‘Banished?’
‘Sent away. After it was discovered their relationship had become physical at such a young age, he was sent away.’
Lolita nodded. ‘Yes, I think that what start everything. Mr Yong dead and Mrs Yong in hospital because of what happened then.’
‘But that was nearly twenty years ago, Lolita. Surely ..-’
‘Twenty years a very short time, Miss.’
‘Can you tell me? Can you tell me what happened? I need to understand. If I’m going to go to Hong Kong to find Adam and bring him home, I need to understand.’
* * *
Finally Adam opened his eyes.
And Leila was still looking down at him.
Her eyes were smiling, her mouth was smiling, her whole face was smiling. Her hands still rested against his chest, her fingernails just brushing his skin.
‘So, Mr Harrison, can you explain?’
Adam let his gaze move from Leila’s face, down the length of her body to her thighs and then back to her face. ‘Explain what?’ he asked a little huskily.
‘Just a few hours ago you were full of guilt and now you are as you are. Why?’
‘And how am I?’
‘Different.’
He put his hands on Leila’s smooth thighs. ‘I think you may have had something to do with that.’
Leila bent forward and kissed him on the forehead. ‘You’re learning,’ she said smiling once again. ‘Do you know what time it is?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘No.’
‘Then perhaps this time we should both go and have a shower.’
* * *
Lolita made them both another cup of coffee. ‘You know they have brother?’
‘Yes, Patrick?’
‘Yes, Master Patrick. He not come England with Mr and Mrs Yong. He stay Hong Kong. When he young and before Master Adam come England for school, Master Patrick not like brother.’
‘Yes, but I was led to believe it was more resentment than anything.’
‘Sorry, resentment?’
‘Er, he felt that Adam had pushed his way into the Yong family.’
‘But he only five when he adopted.’
Gabrielle shrugged. ‘I agree but these things happen.’
Lolita took a deep breath. ‘When Master Adam sent back England, Miss Lucinda, she change. She very angry. She angry with Mr and Mrs Yong, she angry with Master Adam and she angry with herself. She angry with everybody.’
Gabrielle saw the fire in Lolita’s eyes and suppressed a puzzled smile.
‘Master Patrick he not like Master Adam and he did learn hate when he find out Master Adam and Miss Lucinda …’ Lolita’s voice trailed away.
‘Were having sex?’ Gabrielle volunteered.
Lolita looked embarrassed. ‘Yes, Miss.’
Gabrielle covered Lolita’s hand and this time she did smile. ‘I may be a minister of the church but I do know about sex,’ she said reassuringly.
Lolita’s eyes widened and she was about to comment but appeared to think better of it. ‘Miss ... Miss Lucinda, she become bad girl. I with Mr and Mrs Yong for only few days when I meet Miss Lucinda first time. She just sixteen but she wear short skirt, low top and too much make-up. I see in Mr and Mrs Yong’s eyes their worry. Miss Lucinda, she not care, she treat her mother and father with great disrespect and then I see him.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I see him and Miss Lucinda.’
Gabrielle shook her head, not understanding. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Mr and Mrs Yong they away and it my day off. I visit my sister, she also in Hong Kong, but she not well so I go back to house early. I go upstairs to collect towels from bathroom and I hear noise but think Master Patrick and Miss Lucinda both out, so I go to Master Patrick’s room and open the door.’
Lolita stopped for a few seconds. She closed her eyes. ‘They both got no clothes on. Miss Lucinda she kneeling on the floor and she got blood all over her body.’
* * *
‘Shall we go down for breakfast or do you want to use room service?’ Leila asked as she slipped on the cheongsam she had worn last night.
Adam was already dressed and was standing by the window looking at the ferries plying their way between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Below the hotel the traffic was heavy as the rush hour began to take hold. He heard what Leila asked and knew what his answer ought to be.
Neither.
It had all been a mistake.
He should never have allowed anything to happen. Sharing the taxi should not have happened, the dinner should not have happened, and taking Leila back to his hotel room should not have happened.
‘Adam?’
Turning from the window he looked at her. She really was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen and what she had tried to do for him, for whatever reason, should have made her even more attractive. But there was something in the depths of his brain telling him he must try to salvage what had be
en, and then follow what could be. If he had paid Leila for what she had done, what they had done, then it might have been different. But he had not. In the space of only a few hours he had become emotionally and sexually involved with a complete stranger, and even after what they had done she was somebody who was still a stranger. He knew she was deep thinking and he knew her body but he did not know anything else about her, and yet he still felt this longing to just hold her and pretend she was really his.
He wanted her to be Lucinda.
‘I think it would be best if …’
Leila lowered her head. She had guessed this was going to happen and knew she should not have let the feelings that had been dormant for so long to even begin to emerge. She should have suppressed them the moment she felt anything out of the ordinary was happening. She was a fool. She had a job to do.
‘You want me to go?’
‘That makes it sound awful.’
‘Is there any other way of putting it?’ Leila crossed the few feet between them and took hold of Adam’s hands. She smiled. ‘Adam, this is no big deal. Even after such a short time I thought that perhaps we might just have something going for us but,’ she squeezed his hands, ‘obviously you don’t feel the same. It’s sad but that’s life, isn’t it?’
‘I feel so guilty …’
‘Don’t you dare say you feel guilty about last night and this morning. I’m a grown woman and I took from you as much as you did from me. I-’
‘You’re very different, aren’t you?’
‘What do you mean?’
Adam shrugged. ‘Well, you’re just different. There’s something very special about you.’
Leila reached up and let her lips brush against his ‘I suppose that’s some consolation and one way of describing it. Right, I hate goodbyes, don’t you? You’re a lovely man, Adam Harrison, but you have to move on. It’s what Lucinda would have wanted.’
She picked up her bag from the bed. For a few more seconds before she crossed the room she stared into Adam’s eyes. Then she walked to the door and turned round abruptly. ‘I could have loved you, Adam, and that would have meant more to me than to you.’
The door closed gently behind her.
Adam suddenly felt very alone.
He went to bathroom to swill his face with cold water and as he looked into the mirror he saw that she had anticipated the last few minutes. On the mirror she had written in lipstick her telephone number, followed by the words:
If you change your mind, call me Lx.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘Blood?’ Gabrielle repeated.
‘Yes, Miss, she got blood on her hands, her body and her legs.’
‘And where was Patrick?’
‘Master Patrick he standing next to her with a knife in his hand.’
‘A knife? Are you saying that Patrick hurt Lucinda?’
Lolita shook her head slowly. ‘I not know, Miss, it all happen quickly. I open door, see Miss Lucinda and Master Patrick, the blood, and I scream, run away. I hear Miss Lucinda scream as well. I in panic, not know where I go or what do.’
Gabrielle saw tears forming in Lolita’s eyes but she had to let her go on. ‘I run downstairs to my room but Master Patrick he catch me and push me into kitchen. He very rough.’
Lolita paused.
‘What happened? Did he hurt you?’
‘He very strong, Miss. Yes, he hurt me. He push me against table and he rip my top open. He hold knife here,’ Lolita indicated a spot between her breasts, ‘and he say he kill me if I tell what I see.’
‘And you never told anyone?’
‘No, Miss, not till now.’ Lolita picked up a napkin from the table and wiped her eyes.
‘But Miss Lucinda can’t have been hurt. Her mother and father would have noticed.’
‘Yes, Miss, I mean no. She not hurt. She have shower and blood all go away. I think it some sort of rit ... rit ... some sort of ceremony.’
‘You saw her?’
‘Yes. She come to me after when she clean and tell me same thing as Master Patrick.’
‘And you’ve never told anyone about this?’
‘No, Miss, not till now.’
‘And why now?’
‘Because of Mr and Mrs Yong, Miss, because you with church.’
‘I understand.’ Gabrielle did not want to ask her next question but she had to. ‘You said what Patrick and Lucinda were doing was some sort of ceremony. Have you any idea what Patrick and Lucinda were actually doing, Lolita?’
‘No, Miss.’
* * *
Gabrielle did not ask any more questions. She felt she had put Lolita through enough. But what Lolita told her made her even more determined to go to Hong Kong and find Adam. She would go and see Christina Yong in hospital before she left, and make sure Lolita understood she would be all right no matter what happened. Gabrielle wanted to leave the country with a clear conscience about both women.
She turned over, away from the window so the moonlight was not in her eyes. The images that had flashed through her mind preventing sleep earlier, returned immediately. She saw a naked but faceless Lucinda covered in blood, she saw Lucinda’s brother Patrick, again faceless, standing next to her with a knife in his hands - and she wondered.
Patrick had not used the knife to punish his sister. If he had, her parents would have known.
Gabrielle opened her eyes wide.
She did not have any answers but there had to be a connection.
There had to be a connection between what Lolita saw and what happened in Ashbourne twenty years later.
* * *
Leila waited.
She contacted Number Sixty-Six and was told they would meet at the Star Ferry Terminal on Hong Kong Island. The locations always varied and she was happy with this one because she was able to use an overdue visit to one of the Travel Centres on the Island as an excuse.
She waited at the right place for nearly thirty minutes.
She was worried.
Normally she had something to report but on this occasion she had nothing. Adam had told her nothing more and she had not asked any more questions.
She saw Number Sixty-Six coming towards her and when she caught his eye he nodded towards a door which led out onto a viewing area. It was a pleasant morning, the temperature was in the seventies and there was a light breeze coming from the harbour. Leila went over to the rail and Number Sixty-Six joined her a few feet away.
Except for an old man sitting on an upturned box thirty feet away they were alone. It was too early for sightseers and tourists.
‘Report,’ Patrick Yong said, his eyes scanning the harbour.
‘There is nothing to report.’
Patrick glanced sideways, his expression showing his dissatisfaction. ‘You know what any form of failure means, Number Thirty-Nine. It means your usefulness is over. Do you wish to reconsider your reply?’
Despite it being a warm morning Leila shivered. ‘When I say there is nothing to report I mean there is nothing the Master would be interested in,’ she said boldly.
‘Since when have you decided what the Master may or may not be interested in? Let’s start with something very simple. Confirm your target’s name and his age.’
‘Adam Harrison and he’s thirty-five years old, nearly thirty-six,’ Leila said and as she spoke his name she felt as though she was being disloyal. It was a strange sensation.
‘So you did find something out,’ Patrick said sarcastically. ‘Did you sleep with him?’
Leila lifted her head and focussed on a distant liner docked on the other side of the harbour. ‘Yes.’
Patrick nodded. ‘So this Adam Harrison is at least human. And did he enjoy what you had to offer him?’
Number Sixty-Six had never done this before. He had always been professional and businesslike; he had never goaded her before, not like this. ‘I don’t see what -’
‘If you slept with him, Number Thirty-Nine and he took from you then he must have off
ered something in return because if he didn’t you really are losing your touch, and as I said, your future is down to your continued usefulness.’ Patrick let his words rest for a few seconds. ‘Now, am I going to have to drag every detail out of you or are you going to tell me willingly?’
Leila looked down at her hands. He was right, she was being stupid. She had found out as much as she could. It had happened before where there had been nothing to report, nothing that would have interested the Master anyway. These men had either been very small fish in a very big pond and not worth bothering with, or it was a case of mistaken identity. Adam Harrison, she believed, fell into this latter category. The Master or his advisers had thought he was somebody he was not and by confirming that fact interest would be immediately lost. Leila knew she was reluctant to tell the truth because by doing so she would have to move on - as she had advised Adam to do - and any need for contact would be lost.
She took a deep breath. ‘Adam Harrison is in Hong Kong because he is mourning the loss of his wife and his children. His wife, her name was Lucinda, and his son and daughter, Charlotte and Timothy, were murdered a few months ago. They lived in Ashbourne in England. The murders have never been solved.’ Leila took another deep breath. ‘Adam and his wife were born in Hong Kong, in fact they grew up together as brother and sister because Adam was adopted by Lucinda’s family after his own parents were killed in a plane crash.’ Leila lifted her gaze so she could see Lion Rock in the far distance where the crash had happened. ‘He is here because he either wants to bury the memories or he wants to relive them. He doesn’t know which it is.’
‘And?’ Patrick said, encouraging her to go on.
‘There really is no more. I do not believe Adam Harrison is involved in anything that the Master would be interested in.’
‘As I told you earlier you are not qualified to decide what the Master is or is not interested in. What else did he tell you?’
‘There is nothing more.’
In Denial Page 25
