In contrast to what she had seen earlier, the room they were in now was decorated and furnished and contained all the extras you would expect in a working office. Patrick Yong was leaning against a large rosewood desk and he was smiling.
‘Miss Brooks, there are things you need not know and things you should not know. The difference between the two is neither great nor significant because we’re here for me to obtain information from you, not the other way round.’ The smile stayed on his lips and he tilted his head to one side. His eyes were not smiling.
‘Has ... has it crossed your mind that I could tell you what you want ... what you want to know without all this melodrama?’ Gabrielle held Patrick Yong’s gaze. ‘Let me ... let me try something. I met your brother only a few weeks ago. I fell in love with him and I’ve come to Hong Kong to find him and tell him exactly how I feel. Do I need to be here and tied up to tell you that?’
Patrick Yong stared at her for a few seconds before the smile left his lips. ‘Admirable,’ he said, his eyes narrowing. ‘But not what I wanted to hear.’ He reached behind him and a flick knife appeared in his hand. He pressed the button on the side of the knife and the blade swished into place. ‘This is very sharp,’ he said, ‘and you are very beautiful. It would be a pity if I had to cut you to make you tell me the truth.’
Gabrielle frowned, her eyes fixated by the knife’s blade. ‘I ... I am telling you the truth.’
‘Really? I don’t think so.’ Patrick Yong moved closer to her. ‘Your story might be the sort of thing people want to read in books but I would prefer the truth.’ He rested the tip of the blade on Gabrielle’s chin. ‘Let us start with an admission that you are a policewoman.’
‘A ... what?’ The knife was still touching her chin. Any slip and she would be cut. ‘I am not -’
Patrick Yong moved the knife to the top of Gabrielle’s blouse. With a steady downward flicking motion, his eyes never leaving hers, he cut the flimsy cloth all the way down the front, the buttons popping with the movement of the knife. He shook his head. ‘I told you that if you lied I would use this knife.’
‘I’m not ... I am not lying, I -’
Patrick Yong placed the tip of the knife between Gabrielle’s breasts. With a further flick her bra fell away. ‘As good as I expected,’ he said, looking down and smiling. ‘So shall I start with them?’ Once again he rested the tip of the blade between her breasts. ‘Or your face?’
Gabrielle strained against the chord round her wrists as she automatically tried to cover herself. She dropped her head and squeezed her eyes shut trying to make everything go away. ‘I told you ... I told you, I am not -’ She stopped dead as she felt the blade of the knife under her chin. She lifted her head.
Patrick Yong’s face was only inches from hers. ‘‘Miss Brooks, you’re being very stupid. I do not make idle threats.’ His fingertips whispered across her left breast, but then he squeezed her nipple as hard as he could between his thumb and forefinger.
Gabrielle’s face contorted with the sudden pain.
She screamed.
* * *
‘There’s no reply,’ Adam said more to himself than to Leila. He stepped back and looked up at the height of the building. ‘Mai Ling didn’t have a telephone number for them, did she?’
‘No. I asked,’ Leila said. ‘It was only this address.’
Adam checked his watch. ‘It’s not late. They’re probably out somewhere.’
Just then a European man and woman came up the steps, eyeing Adam and Leila with suspicion. ‘Can we help you?’ the man asked. He was tall, almost bald, in his sixties and was wearing a dinner jacket. The woman, who stayed slightly behind the man, was a similar age, her silver-grey hair piled on top of her head and gold jewellery hanging from her ears, neck and wrists. Her red evening gown smelt of money.
‘Er, yes, you might be able to,’ Adam suggested. ‘We’ve come to see the Elliotts,’ he told them, ‘but they aren’t answering.’
‘The Elliotts,’ the man repeated, turning to the woman. ‘Do we know the Elliotts?’
The woman stepped forward. ‘Yes, dear, they live on the top floor, but I thought they were in England. They lost their daughter and …’ She stopped as though she thought she was saying too much.
The man was looking at Leila. ‘That could be why they aren’t answering,’ he said, switching his attention back to Adam.
‘Would you be so kind as to let us in so that we can check, I -’
‘They are back from England,’ Leila said, interrupting. ‘We telephoned them earlier this evening from the hotel. We only arrived in Hong Kong late this afternoon. They’re expecting us.’
‘Come on, Archie,’ the woman said, ‘stop being so suspicious.’ She produced a key from her evening bag and walked towards the door. ‘You don’t look the sort of people who are here for any other reason than to visit friends,’ she added as the door swung open. ‘I apologise for him. He thinks any stranger is up to no good.’
‘Thank you,’ Adam said, smiling.
A couple of minutes later they were outside the Elliotts’ flat.
Adam checked the number but as he went to press the bell he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. He looked at Leila and pushed the door with one finger.
It swung open.
Stepping inside, he heard the sound of the television but nothing else.
‘Hello!’ he said, not too loudly.
No reply.
‘Hello!’ he repeated. ‘You check that way,’ he told Leila, ‘and I’ll go this way.’
Eric Elliott’s blood had spread over the white tiled kitchen floor. His eyes were open and his lips were slightly apart, but it was the deep gash across his throat on which Adam’s eyes focussed.
The flashback was immediate.
* * *
‘You’ll be wondering where you are,’ Patrick Yong suggested. He was still leaning against the desk, smiling down at Gabrielle. ‘I’m sorry I had to hurt you but you really must understand that I am serious.’
‘You ... you have to -’
‘No, I don’t have to do anything. I suggest you don’t say any more before I tell you a little about where you are and perhaps a little about me. You’re a lovely looking woman, Miss Brooks, and as I’ve already suggested, I hate damaging lovely things. This is an oasis,’ he went on, indicating the office, ‘in the middle of a wilderness. I own this building and one day I might get round to doing something with it but for the time being it serves its purpose. I come here to relax. I stand at that window over there and look out at the harbour and imagine what the future might hold for me. Most of my work is done via that computer, and behind those doors over there is all the entertainment I could want. The door in the corner leads to a bedroom and bathroom and the one next to it to a small kitchen. You see I have everything I need here, everything.’
Patrick Yong crossed the room to the window. ‘So, you will be asking, why do I have the apartment you came to with your friends and this one here?’ He turned. ‘You see, Miss Brooks, I lead two lives which I suppose are in total contrast with each other. In my first life, the one you saw earlier, I’m a well-respected Hong Kong businessman. I have lots of friends who seem to enjoy my company both from a business point of view and socially.’
Gabrielle was listening and watching but she was not taking it in.
Her mind was trying to come to terms with where she was now. It was obvious that this man was intent on hurting her but she hadn’t the faintest idea why. He believed she was somebody she wasn’t and knew something she didn’t. He had hurt her, and sitting in the chair half naked she felt totally helpless. Could she be more vulnerable? She didn’t know where she was, and she was with a man who wanted something from her that she could not give him. She was used to being in control and now she was not. There was no point in showing the fear she felt; she had to stay rational and think clearly. He would make a mistake; he had to make a mistake. All this had to do with Adam and astonishingly that�
��s what she was really worried about. Not her own safety, not the fact that she believed she was in real danger; it was the fact that this man wanted to hurt her because of her association with Adam.
‘This office,’ Patrick Yong was saying, ‘is where I operate the other side of my business interests, the more lucrative side, that is. But then you know all about that don’t you?’ He went back over to the chair.
Gabrielle frowned. ‘I -’ She started to say she didn’t know what he was talking about, but then changed her mind and let him speak.
‘You’re not what I expected,’ he went on, ‘and, oh yes, you were expected! I knew the English police would eventually put two and two together and even they might realise the connection. But as I said, you’re not what I expected.’
He smiled as he moved back to Gabrielle. ‘For a start I didn’t expect a female cop and even if I had, it certainly wouldn’t have been one that looked like you.’ He placed the tip of the knife against the torn material and pushed the blouse away from her shoulder. ‘You seem far too delicate, too feminine to be a policewoman.’
‘That ... that’s because I’m not a policewoman. I’m -’ She lost her breath when Patrick Yong grabbed hold of the blouse and ripped it completely away.
‘Don’t test my patience, Miss Brooks. Why else are you here?’
‘You haven’t given me the opportunity to explain,’ she said defiantly. ‘If you had then ... then none of this would be necessary.’
‘You may be the most unlikely policewoman I’ve ever met but I give you one thing. Your obvious lack of bodily strength is countered by your courage. Perhaps I will have to find out just how courageous you are.’
‘There’s no need -’
‘There is every need. I’m not going to let either you or that supposed brother of mine upset what I’ve worked for.’ He bent down and started to untie the chord round Gabrielle’s ankles. ‘I should have done this from the outset,’ he said, looking up at her. ‘And don’t even think of kicking me. I can assure you that escape is not an option.’
‘I think it would be best if you just let me explain.’
Patrick Yong moved round behind Gabrielle. ‘I don’t want an explanation, I want the truth.’
As the chords came free she rubbed her wrists, her nakedness temporarily forgotten. ‘The explanation is the truth.’
She tried to stand up but he put a hand on her shoulder and forced her back into the chair. ‘I’ll tell you when to move.’
‘But -’
‘You thought it was all over?’ he said, smirking as he went back to his desk. ‘Miss Brooks, what you’re about to experience has only just begun. You may now stand up and this time I’ll at least allow you to take off the rest of your clothes.’
Gabrielle’s hands shot to her chest, covering her breasts. ‘What?’
Still at the desk, he smiled as he looked at her long and hard. ‘I want the truth, but first your clothes, please.’
‘I’ve told you the truth. I am not in the police -‘ She stopped and lowered her hands. ‘Are you a Christian?’
Patrick Yong shook his head. ‘A Christian? Are you going to try to appeal to my better nature, my Christian ethic, Miss Brooks? I haven’t been anywhere near a church of any faith for over twenty years. Does that answer your question?’
‘Going to church -’
‘…does not a Christian make? Miss Brooks, please stop wasting time. Either you do it or I do.’ He moved away from the desk.
‘All right, all right,’ Gabrielle said holding her hands out in front of her. ‘I am not in the police because I’m a Minister of the Church.’
Patrick Yong’s eyes widened before he started laughing. ‘A minister? A minister? Don’t make me laugh and stop wasting my time.’
‘That is the truth.’
Picking up the knife from the desk-top, he moved towards Gabrielle. ‘As I said, you’re wasting my time, Miss Brooks.’
Tears came to Gabrielle’s eyes. In desperation she fell to her knees, the little self-belief she had left totally gone. She only had God to believe in now. ‘Why … why are you doing this?’ she managed to say as Patrick Yong’s fingers gripped her tightly round her neck.
* * *
‘We must call the police,’ said Adam in a daze, his mind not believing what he was looking at. He was sitting across the room from Elizabeth Elliott’s body which was lying just a few feet from him, her face turned towards him with a look of horror and incredulity. She, like her husband, had bled to death from a deep wound across her throat running from ear to ear. It was her unseeing eyes that transfixed Adam. Seeing Eric Elliott caused the immediate flashback but it was Elizabeth who made him see Lucinda once more. It was an image he had pushed to the back of his mind as far as he could but now it was there again. It was the same expression, the same look of utter disbelief. He waited for her eyes to flicker into life but no such movement came.
‘I think I know who did this,’ Leila responded.
Her words did not penetrate Adam’s mind at first but then he looked at her. ‘What did you say?’
‘I said I think I know who did this.’
Leila had shown no emotion on finding Elizabeth Elliott. She had seen death so often before that now it was simply an alternative state to living - in fact, she often thought the dead looked so much more at peace than the living. But she did know who had murdered the Elliotts. Even if she had not discovered the man she knew as Number Sixty-Six was Adam’s brother, she would have known who the Elliotts’ murderer was. She didn’t know who he was or what he looked like, but she did know he was one of Number Sixty-Six’s main assassins.
She went over to the body and moved Elizabeth Elliott’s hair away from her neck. ‘There,’ she said. ‘There is the proof.’ On the back of Elizabeth’s neck were three lines, one under the other and about an inch long. ‘Come and see.’
Adam joined her, gingerly looking down at the gruesome wound. ‘What does it mean?’
‘It’s his signature.’
‘Whose?’
‘I don’t know, but your brother, Number Sixty-Six, will have ordered these killings.’
‘But why?’
‘Because of their association with this Gabrielle Brooks you’ve told me about.’
‘So where is Gabrielle Brooks? She’s not here’
‘If she’s not dead already, she will certainly be facing death. And soon.’
Adam shook his head. ‘I really can’t believe what’s happening.’
‘We must go,’ Leila said.
‘Where to?’
‘I know where your brother and Gabrielle Brooks might be.’
‘How?’
‘I’ll explain later. But first, for your sake, we must do as you suggested. We must call the police but we mustn’t be here when they arrive.’
* * *
Her head was bowed as she tried not to let the humiliation and shame overwhelm her. Although she thought her confidence had gone, she now had to remain strong and resolute if she was going to stand a chance of surviving what she knew he planned doing to her. Previously her mind had not let her accept what was happening but now it was all too evident. She felt her body begin to shake but found that biting her bottom lip and tensing her muscles helped a little.
She was now completely naked.
For whatever reason, he had put a blindfold over her eyes. She was kneeling on a soft rug and he’d tied her hands behind her back. She knew he was looking at her although nothing had been said for what seemed like many minutes. Her nakedness was nothing compared with what she knew was going to happen. She had remained still as he cut away the remainder of her clothes; struggling would have been pointless. She thought about provoking him into killing her because death seemed her only escape, but she had seen enough to know she would suffer and the pain he would inflict would be excruciating.
Silence was part of her torture, but suddenly she found her voice. She took a deep breath. ‘I … I cannot see what will be g
ained by you treating me like this,’ she said. ‘Whether clothed or not, I am still not who you think I am. I have nothing to do with the police. Whether you want to believe me or not, I am a minister in the Scottish Episcopal Church. I came to Hong Kong to find Adam Harrison because … because I’m in love with him and I want to take him home. He is lost in himself and I’m fearful for his safety.’
Gabrielle waited.
She sensed he was still there but there was no sound of movement. All she could hear was the whirr of the air-conditioning.
Nothing else.
When he did speak his voice was almost a whisper and it was tinged with amusement.
‘You are fearful for his safety? You don’t know where you are - nobody knows where you are - you are naked and you are very frightened yourself, and yet you try to tell me you are fearful for his safety. If I were you, Miss Brooks, I would let a little selfishness creep in and start feeling fearful for your own safety.’ He stopped and Gabrielle sensed movement. ‘However,’ he continued with his lips close to her ear, ‘I’m beginning to believe you so this is going to be better than I expected.’ He put his hand on the nape of her neck before running his fingers down the length of her spine. ‘Perhaps you are telling me the truth.’ She tensed as he traced a line over her hip and along her thigh. ‘Nobody in their right mind who looked like you would try to pass themselves off as a minister of the church unless it was true.’ Patrick Yong gripped her hair and yanked her head back. She did her best to stifle a scream. ‘But then again perhaps you’re just trying to be clever.’ She could feel his spittle on her face, and then his mouth covered hers, the pressure forcing her head backwards even further. His hand went to her breast and he pushed her so that she fell over onto her back. ‘I think the time for playing games is over, Miss Brooks.’
Her hands were twisted under her and the pain was intense, but knowing what was going to happen next almost stopped her breathing. What should she do? Should she kick out? Should she scream? Nobody would hear her; nobody knew where she was. She automatically forced her knees together as she felt his hands on her thighs.
In Denial Page 34
