by Ann Massey
Sixty years ago the firm of local coal merchants had delivered the last sacks to the household and since then the hatch had remained closed. By the time Mei Li’s questing fingers discovered the bolt that prevented the coalhole cover being lifted from above, she was trembling so much she would have fallen if she hadn’t been gripping the sides like grim death. The house was well maintained. Locks, bolts and hinges were regularly oiled and greased to stop them siezing up, but the obsolete coalhole had long been forgotten. It would be a miracle if Mei Li could release the disused bolt. To her surprise it slid out of the hole at her first attempt, evidence of the longevity of fish wax, the old-fashioned lubricant that was highly regarded in Victorian households.
Mei Li’s relief was short lived. The hinged cover had been designed to be opened from above by strong men. Mei Li raised both arms above her head and pushed against the lid with the flat of her hands. It didn’t budge, but she hadn’t expected it would, not at her first attempt. Next time she pushed harder with strong, sustained pressure, and she felt the wedged-in lid move slightly. Buoyed by success, she pressed against it with renewed energy and was rewarded when she managed to raise it slightly. Straining with all her might, she tried to push it up further but it was too heavy for her. It was all she could do to hold it up, and with a cry of frustration she let go. She only just saved herself from falling to the cellar floor by clinging to the sides of the ladder. The heavy iron lid slammed back down with a resounding ring that reverberated in the tiny room.
Worn out, she kept on trying despite the dull ache of soreness in her arms and shoulders and the pain in her forearms as sharp as a knife. It felt like her bones were separating.
‘I won’t let it beat me … I won’t give up,’ she sobbed, angry at her own weakness, and resolutely she squared her shoulders and raised her aching arms again.
Chapter 36
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DAYS THE SUN WAS SHINING WARMLY and the au pair and her employer’s four year old son opened the gate of one of the loveliest gardens in the whole of London. Kiri thought there was nowhere on earth that could compare with New Zealand, but she had to admit that this garden with its ornamental trees, deep green ponds and ancient lichen-covered statues took some beating. Admittance to the private park was one of the perks of working in Belgravia and she felt happy as she sat down on a favourite wooden bench shaded by a plane tree, even though she had a difficult letter to write to her boyfriend back home in Queenstown.
The Percivals were going to Whistler for Christmas and wanted her to go with them to look after little Oscar. Kiri had learned to ski on New Zealand’s Southern Alps and didn’t want to pass up the chance to ski the picturesque Canadian fields. She stared at the writing pad, wondering how to tell Caden she wouldn’t be home for Christmas.
Oscar was feeling bored. Usually there were lots of other children to play with, but for once he and Nanny had the park to themselves. He’d tried to get her to play soccer with him but she said she was busy and told him to amuse himself. He kicked the ball as hard as he could and it went flying over the metal railings. Oscar knew his father would be angry if he lost another ball, so, after sneaking a look at Nanny, who was biting the end of her pen and staring off into space, he ran down the path and through the gate that opened onto the square.
The bright yellow soccer ball had rolled into the kerb behind a large furniture van parked outside the ivy-clad house where the nice man had picked it up before. Oscar bent down to grab it and was amazed when the manhole cover moved. He looked at it curiously. He’d never seen it do that before. He knew what it was called and what it was for because there was one just like it outside his own house. His daddy had told him it had been used by workmen in the olden days to enter the cellar from the street.
He knelt down beside it. ‘Who’s down there?’ he called in his high-pitched voice.
Blood suffused Mei Li’s face and her eyes lit up with excitement. It was going to be all right. She was going to be rescued.
She yelled back ‘Help! Help!’ and banged her fists against the manhole cover.
Oscar grabbed hold of the handle but he couldn’t lift it. ‘Wait, I’ll get Nanny,’ he shouted, and raced off toward the park.
Mei Li laughed out loud with relief. She would be out of there soon. Just at that moment the light was switched on in the basement, the glow of its beam clearly visible under the bottom of the door.
‘Oh no, someone’s coming,’ she whimpered. She was certain that an evil force was at work. Why else was she being tormented so cruelly? No one could have such bad luck without the malevolent intervention of the gods. This was her punishment for daring to enter the astral plane without the approval of the spirits. Guiltily, she remembered she’d neglected to propitiate the gods with offerings of tobacco and rice since she fled the longhouse. And even worse, she’d impulsively agreed to marry an outsider without seeking counsel from her ancestors.
Spare me. I promise to lead a good life. Please, please let me live. I swear I’ll obey the laws of my people.
Mei Li’s prayer was cut short when she heard the rattle of the key in the lock. Scrambling down the ladder, she grabbed the shovel and stood back out of sight, against the wall. Joe slid back the bolt, but instead of coming into the room he looked at the width of the door, shook his head and went back to the lift.
‘It’s no good,’ he said to Tan’s henchmen, two hefty Chinese packers from Global Logistics who were manhandling a large storage case nearly as wide as the lift door. They’d had trouble just getting the large pine crate into the small lift and Joe could see there was no way it would fit through the narrow storeroom door. ‘Take it back up. It’ll be just as easy to work up there. I’ll grab her.’
‘Do you need any help?’
‘Not necessary. Just tell Pau and Clarence to make sure there aren’t any servants hanging around the hall.’
He waited until the lift door closed and peered into the gloomy room, ‘It’s no good hiding,’ he warned. ‘You’ll just make it harder on yourself … Owww!’ he yelled as the shovel came crashing down across his shoulders and he stumbled backwards.
Mei Li stepped out in front of him and swung the shovel at his head. Immediately she knew she should have hit him harder the first time when the element of surprise was on her side. She was no match for the Asian gangland leader, who’d won his territory by wiping out all opponents. Watching her arm with the concentration of a mongoose with a mercurial cobra within striking distance, he had ducked sideways a fraction before she swung and then lunged at her, grabbed hold of the shovel and yanked it out of her hand. She gasped, backing away from him, as he advanced towards her, a dangerous glint in his eyes. With no place to retreat, Mei Li turned and fled up the ladder like a panicked mouse deer that had glimpsed the hornbill’s savage beak.
‘Got you!’ Joe stared up at his trapped quarry and placed his hand on the sides of the ladder.
‘Don’t tell stories,’ Kiri scolded Oscar. The au pair’s panic at not being able to find him had been replaced by anger. Holding his hand tightly, she dragged the struggling child past the furniture van. It looked like that Chinese family was moving out. ‘Maybe the new people will have a boy your age,’ she said brightly.
‘But there’s someone down there,’ said Oscar, not to be diverted. He broke free, stepped off the pavement and squatted down beside the manhole.
‘What have I told you about running into the road?’ admonished Kiri. Really, he was getting to be a handful and she was reaching her wits’ end. ‘Oscar, I’m very –’
The rest of the speech was lost as she heard Joe roar. ‘Come down or I’ll shake you off your perch!’
From below street level, Kiri heard a girl scream and realised someone down there was in terrible danger. She glanced at Oscar. ‘Stand back,’ she said sternly and grasped the handle of the manhole cover.
Wild-eyed and gasping like a long-distance runner and covered with residual coal dust and dried blood, Mei Li pulled herself
up through the gaping hole and onto the road. Squinting, her eyes tightly shut against the blinding light, her frantic hands grasped the lid and she slammed it shut. She knew it was impossible to lift the cover from below, but all the same she planted both feet firmly atop of the lid.
‘You call police please,’ she said to Kiri with a look of grim satisfaction.
‘Would someone mind telling me what’s going on?’ asked the bewildered Kiwi.
Cowering in the dark below, Joe trembled. Tan had told him that Interpol suspected the Triads were running a human trafficking ring and he’d boasted about how they would never be able to infiltrate the society because none of the members would ever talk. Now, inadvertently, he had put Dai Bin Tan’s operation in jeopardy and he dreaded the Triad boss’s vengeance. It would be no use begging for mercy. Joe knew how merciless Tan could be to anyone who exposed his criminal activities.
For the last time he whispered the blood oath he’d sworn when he became a Han brother. ‘I must never injure or offend my blood brothers or sworn master. If I do so I will be killed by ten thousand long knives.’
He drew his revolver and thrust the barrel in his mouth. The sound of the approaching police siren muffled the blast.
Chapter 37
‘IT’S ABOUT TIME YOU LET ME PADDLE FOR A WHILE. You must be getting tired, darling.’ David was itching to take over from Mei Li, who was lording it over him like a female version of Captain Bligh, acting as if she was the only one who knew anything about boats. Earlier that morning they’d set out from the town of Miri by canoe and each time he offered to take a turn she had turned him down flat.
‘Get there quicker if I paddle.’
David didn’t have the heart to tell he’d rowed for Cambridge and was considered one of the best oarsmen of his year.
‘Do you fancy a dip?’ he asked, looking longingly at the crystal-clear water.
Mei Li shaded her eyes and looked at the sun. ‘Okay, we’ve made good time,’ she said and headed for the bank where wild lilac orchids were growing on long grassy stems, an entire meadow of them.
‘You look like Eve and this is Eden,’ David said later as he floated blissfully on his back in the warm water, watching as Mei Li weaved a garland from the bunch of flowers he had picked for her earlier, a look of rapture on her face. She was definitely on the road to recovery. There was an excited sparkle in her eyes, which he put down to being back in Sarawak. Happiness was not a state he’d seen her in for a long time and he knew he’d done the right thing in agreeing to postpone their wedding plans until her grandfather endorsed their betrothal.
‘When I was in desperate need in that black cellar, I prayed to our gods,’ she’d told him. ‘I made a promise to obey the laws and customs of my people. If I marry you now, without first seeking approval from my grandparents, I’ll be breaking that solemn vow and there’ll be dreadful consequences for the entire tribe. That’s what we believe,’ she told him. ‘It’s not just you and me who’ll be threatened as a result of my defiance. The whole village will suffer: rice won’t grow; there won’t be any wild pigs around to hunt; people will get sick; and young women will give birth to dead children.’ She looked at him earnestly, hoping he’d understand that the sins of one tribal member would be visited on the whole community.
David had agreed to abide by her grandfather’s decision because he’d come to understand that their marriage wouldn’t stand a chance if they couldn’t reconcile their different customs and beliefs. Mei Li might look like a delicate, enchanting English rose but she’d been reared in a remote, steamy rainforest by fierce headhunters who still worshipped pagan gods and she was a Dayak through and through.
Just look at her, he thought admiringly as she climbed out of the water, laughing, sparkling prisms glistening on her arms and face like the most pure and rare of white diamonds. That was what she was: a peerless diamond, flawless and perfect. It wasn’t an original notion but it was heartfelt and he groaned. What would he do – what could he do – if he didn’t measure up as husband material? It was an unnerving prospect to accept for the gifted young lawyer, long regarded as his county’s greatest catch. According to Mei Li, her grandfather’s notion of the ideal suitor was a gifted carver with the skill to manufacture all the objects a newly wedded couple would need to survive and prosper in the harsh and dangerous forests of Borneo. But much more vital was the ability to carve statues of powerful spirits to protect his family from malevolent deities.
‘Evil spirits can enter the longhouse through unprotected front doors,’ she told him now. ‘Our door is protected by an open-mouthed python. There’s a place between its open fangs where you place a frog so that a hungry demon will feast on the sacrifice and not on any of us. Grandfather carved the panel on the door when he married Grandma – and from when I first learned to walk, it’s been my job to catch the frogs.’
She watched him warily for any sign that he mocked her beliefs, but David was silent as he floated on his back staring at the cloudless sky. How he wished he’d shown more aptitude for woodwork when he was at school. A moment later the whir of a helicopter’s rotor disturbed his unhappy appraisal of his shortcomings.
‘I knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that they’d leave us in peace. That’s the media for you,’ he said, rising up out of the water, growling at the chopper’s pilot and shaking his fist.
Mei Li thought he looked like an enraged, hairy-nosed otter that had lost a young trout he’d been stalking to a skilful hornbill, and she covered her mouth with her hand so he wouldn’t know she was laughing. Not even the pervasive publicity could dampen her spirits. She was back in her country and her senses were sated with its spicy, peppery fragrance.
While the Cambridge Blue paddled strongly with a steady easy rhythm, determined to show Mei Li he was as good as any Dayak when it came to boating, Mei Li searched through Rubiah’s jewellery for the collar of the matriarch. She lifted her hair and slipped it around her neck. When she saw her people she would be wearing the tribal talisman proudly. Rubiah had been a wealthy woman. David had estimated Rubiah’s estate, which included property, her salon, a sizeable bank balance and her magnificent jewellery collection at close to a million pounds. At least Grandma and Granddad won’t starve, she thought, and she choked back her tears. Riches couldn’t compensate for a murdered daughter.
‘How much we get if we sell this?’ she said to David, holding up the little golden locket. It was the only item of jewellery that had not been bought by Rubiah’s Chinese lover, a tawdry trinket that Roger had bought her when Mei Li was only a baby.
‘It’s pretty and that could be a real ruby, but it’s not valuable. It’s certainly not in the same league as the diamond necklace and the emerald bracelet. I guess Rubiah kept it for sentimental reasons. Why don’t you open it? There might be a picture of her inside.’
As soon as he uttered the words he wished he could take them back. If there were a photograph, it would undoubtedly be of Rubiah’s lover, the gangster Joseph Ling. David crossed his fingers and mumbled a prayer under his breath.
It seemed like his fears had been confirmed when Mei Li gave a little cry and held out the locket to him in a hand that was trembling uncontrollably. Her eyes were wide and every drop of colour had drained from her face. The small oval case contained just two mementos: a lock of silky, baby hair and a photo of a beautiful young woman laughing into the camera, a pigeon perched on her hand, in front of the fountain in Trafalgar Square.
‘Oh, David,’ sobbed Mei Li. It was the photo she’d sent to Rubiah’s mobile when she still thought there was a chance of developing a relationship with the only mother she’d ever known. ‘She loved me all the time.’
‘No doubt of it,’ agreed David. ‘Let’s get you back to the longhouse.’ he said and put his arms round her comfortingly. ‘You belong with your own people, Mei Li.’
‘Our people,’ countered Mei Li and they smiled at each other. It was time to go home.
Epilo
gue
THEY’VE SEEN US, THEY’RE WAVING,’ SAID TUFF, waving back from the television company’s chopper. ‘Let’s buzz them.’
‘I don’t think David will be thrilled to see his future mother-in-law, Ducky,’ said Benny with a knowing smile, ‘and we don’t want to get him offside. I had a devil of a job getting him to agree to take part in the program in the first place.’
‘Hari’s been sick,’ interrupted Rashni, one of Tuff’s adopted twins. He tugged at Tuff’s sleeve urgently.
‘Oh my god, not again,’ wailed Tuff.
Lady Chadwick, who was seated across the aisle, smiled in her friendly fashion. ‘It’s hell travelling with kids. Get your brother to suck this, Rashni,’ she said, taking a couple of barley sugars out of her capacious bag. ‘And there’s one for you too. I’ve got some tissues if it’s a help, Tuff.’
Accepting the tissues from her former lover’s wife ungraciously, Tuff glowered at her agent. It had been his idea to remove her adopted sons from their boarding school and foist them on her. ‘Why did I let you talk me into bringing the twins, Benny? They were perfectly happy at school in Scotland. It isn’t as if the doco has anything to do with African orphans. It’s just about trees, for christ’s sake.’
‘Excuse me for trying a last-ditch attempt to rescue what’s left of your reputation. Why don’t you trot along, Ducky, and look after the nippers while I have a chat with this lovely lady.’ He smiled across at Sandy Chadwick, who was making out that she was interested in her book and wasn’t paying any attention to their quarrel.
‘Do you mind if I sit down, Lady Chadwick?’ asked Benny, eyeing the empty seat.
‘Call me Sandy,’ she said, moving her book off the empty seat vacated by her husband, who was sitting up front with the producer talking shop. ‘We’ve never really had a chat, have we? You know, I’m really pleased you persuaded Josh to make this program. I’ve not seen him so excited about anything for a long time and of course it’s giving him an opportunity to get to know his daughter,’ she added happily. There wasn’t a jealous bone in Sandy’s pleasantly plump body.
