The Allegation: A John Mackworth novel

by Tony Davies

  At 7pm Mack walked into one of the area’s most popular watering holes, Agave on Lockhart Road. The bar sits on the first floor and offers an uninterrupted view of the street and the bars opposite. It is notionally themed Spanish/Mexican, but like most such places in Hong Kong there wasn’t much about it that was authentic.

  He took a seat at the window and looked around the room. He had been trying to cut down on his alcohol consumption in recent months so he had stayed away from the bar whenever possible. It had worked to some extent, although in many instances it simply meant he arranged to meet his police friends somewhere else instead.

  He accepted alcohol was an occupational hazard, especially for detectives who worked long, unsociable hours. Given his current line of work he still regarded himself as a ‘detective’ in many respects so he knew he had to be careful when it came to alcohol. He was certainly being that and Lindy’s remarks about him drinking too much weren’t particularly objective. She was Chinese after all, and they typically drank far less alcohol than gweilos. He remembered something he had read once ‘The first step to rectifying a problem is to accept that you have one’.

  His thoughts were interrupted by a group of noisy gweilos coming up the steps. He looked around the bar and saw it was relatively quiet for a week day night. He didn’t recognize anyone, but that didn’t surprise him. Lots of people now came to Hong Kong to work for a few years before going on somewhere else. The days of the old colonial who spent a career in the place were well and truly over.

  The two elderly expats sat at the far end of the room were clearly exceptions to this. They were ‘Old China Hands’ who looked as if they had participated in all the good and bad things Hong Kong had to offer. Their glasses were almost empty and Mack would have bet his life on the fact they would order another round before leaving. He was not to be disappointed as one of them waved to one of the waitresses and pointed to the glasses.

  In a quite corner sat a middle aged Chinese man who was in quiet conversation with a much younger, attractive Chinese woman. An after‐work drink with a colleague or a clandestine rendezvous in a place few of his Chinese friends were likely to venture to? Mack told himself he had been a policeman too long. It was probably his daughter, but the way the man had his hand on her knee seemed to imply otherwise.

  As he looked around the room one of the Filipina waitresses came up to him and smiled. She was in her late thirties and was wearing black pants and a bright yellow loose fitting tee shirt with Agave printed on it. She shook her head as she approached him and said in a disapproving tone “Hi big guy, long time no see, you don’t love us no more?”

  “Hi Anna, sorry, been flat out recently, no time to socialize. Here to meet my friend.”

  “Ah, your friend Don. He is seeing Marina, you know that? She is no longer working here. She got lucky and meet a nice guy.” She sighed and looked off into the distance for a moment. Perhaps one day that would happen to her.

  Mack didn’t know about Don and Marina, but the news didn’t surprise him. She was one of the part‐time waitresses at the bar and he easily recalled she had two wonderful attributes that would appeal to most men, including Don. They were 38D’s or so she had told him the morning after they had spent a fun night together.

  Don was a divorcee with no kids who needed someone to occasionally brighten up his life. Or at least that was what Mack thought. Perhaps Don was looking to finally settle down. If he was, he wasn’t sure if he knew what he had let himself in for. Marina was in the market for a husband, something Mack had quickly discovered. He wondered if that was another reason he had stayed away from the bar.

  Mack shook his head and the waitress asked “You know she sweet on you? How come you do nothing about it?”

  He laughed and replied “Ah, a long story, I am the shy type.”

  Mack had no intention of discussing his personal life with one of Marina’s former colleagues. Filipinas love to gossip and Anna probably already knew of their fling. He ordered a San Miguel beer and sat patiently waiting for his friend.

  Fifteen minutes later Don Taylor walked into the bar and perched himself on the stool next to him. He was bald, with a florid face and cabbage flower ears. He was wearing a green Hawaiian style shirt, which covered both his expanding paunch and his personal issue Sig Sauer P250 pistol.

  Don was a celebrated member of the Hong Kong Police Force who was in his mid‐forties and had recently begun show the effects of long hours and late nights propping up bars in Wanchai. Whilst he had once been an accomplished rugby player, it was evident his body had not seen any exercise for some considerable time. Mack didn’t think exercise with Marina counted.

  Mack inwardly smiled to himself, when they sat together they certainly wouldn’t be mistaken as brothers. He had a full head of dark brown hair and dark blue eyes which women apparently found alluring. Or so he had been told.

  Before Mack could speak Don interjected “What a day, flat out, not even time to fart, took on a new case, need a beer.”

  Anna came over and punched Don jovially in the ribs. She took his order for an extra cold Carlsberg and took away Mack’s empty bottle. He knew she would bring him a replacement without being told to. Don smiled and looked around the room. “Nothing changes much around here then. Suppose that’s a good thing.”

  They had joined the force at the same time and over the years had become firm friends. If either of them got married it was a given that the other would be his best man. Not that it was likely to happen, neither was the marrying kind. At least, that was what Mack thought.

  On a professional level Don knew Mack sometimes needed a helping hand and as the head of CID at regional headquarters he was occasionally in a position to provide it. The world needed more people like Mack and he was not afraid to tell people that is how he felt.

  Mack smiled and “So there I was planning to go to the gym when my friend cried off with a migraine and suggested we go for a beer instead. I thought, yeah why not. He is probably lonely and needs someone to talk to, someone who understands he is a kind, soft hearted soul who is deeply misunderstood by his fellow man.”

  Mack grabbed Don’s hand and growled “Now tell me, are heterosexual men allowed to call a headache a migraine or is that reserved for women, transvestites and gays?”

  Don wrenched his hand free and laughed. “Yeah, well, this is much better for you than the gym. All that effort and sweat. Here you can replace the fluids you would have lost by going there.”

  “So what have you been up to?” asked Mack trying to change the subject and feigning a yawn as he did so. There was no point in extolling the virtue of regular exercise to Don.

  “Dead body washed up in the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter. Chinese, cause of death appears to be drowning but that will be confirmed shortly. Nothing really suspicious about it, but there was some bruising on his upper arms and shoulders conducive to him being held under water. He may have got that by fighting with his girlfriend for all I know though. It could also have been a robbery that went wrong as although his wallet contained his ID card it no cash in it, I know, I know, he could have just spent all his money and decided to top himself for fun. Either way we can’t jump to conclusions on this one. His sister is a journo. Something odd about it too.”

  Mack felt a small lump form in the pit of his stomach. He tried to keep his expression blank as he joked “Don’t tell me, his name was Chan and he was dressed in a Santa Claus outfit. Now that would be odd.”

  “Well, you got one thing right, his name was Chan, but no outfit. Apparently he was quite a strong swimmer so how he drowned in the mill pond we call a harbour is up for debate. No sign he had bumped his head and fallen off a boat. So the local boys bumped it up to us to have a look. Lazy sods, bit premature doing that, but anyway, we shall see what the autopsy report comes up with. So what’s your news? Don’t tell me, you are not seeing anyone. No surprise there. You know, you should come straight out and ask her. She may just say yes”.


  Mack took a moment to reply while he considered the implications of what Don had just told him.

  Before he could reply Don said “Seriously, it is time you settled down. Neither of us is getting any younger, or prettier for that. As for Lindy, ‘Hello, hello, earth calling space station Mack.’ She is gorgeous and is absolutely perfect for you and the only person in the world who can’t see it is you. I give up!”

  Don went silent for a moment and then announced in a voice that seemed to say he had just come to a decision “And I had better tell you something now before you find out from someone else.”

  Before Don could finish the sentence Mack said “You are seeing Marina.”

  “How do you find these things out? She was sworn to secrecy”. Don laughed as he said it. “Okay, so much for secrecy where Filipinas and romance are concerned. Didn’t you have a fling with her once? I seem to remember leaving you here with her one night and assuming it had all ended well for you.”

  “I am sure if I had I would have boasted about it to you.”

  Don gave him a knowing look. “Good answer. You have always been very tactful and discreet when it comes to things like that. It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s all going quite well, so I am not going to spoil things by digging into something that doesn’t concern me. Changing subjects, what have you been up to? I suppose I had better sound interested.”

  “Not much, doing something connected with a guy called Lee Wai, a Permanent Secretary. You ever come across him?” Mack waited to see if the name registered with him. Fortunately it did.

  “Yeah, I came across him once, a few months back. This is just between us, okay?”

  Mack nodded agreement and Don confided in a low voice “I was looking into a pedophile case involving mainland Chinese boys. He was seen in a teahouse in Tsuen Mun of all places, talking to someone we had under surveillance. One of my boys picked him out. He had transferred over from government so had met him before. My boy couldn’t really tell if they knew each other or had just struck up a casual conversation. Anyway, I took it upstairs to Freddie Leung and he said not to record it and that he would follow it up. A couple of weeks later Freddie told me to forget it, Lee had checked out clean and there was nothing in the meeting to concern us.”

  “Well, how does that help me!” said Mack.

  They both laughed and gestured to Anna to bring two more beers. Don knew better than to ask Mack what the case was about, plenty of time for that if and when police involvement was required. They then spent the next hour talking about rugby and catching up on the latest force gossip. They deliberately avoided the subject of Marina and Mack didn’t mention the issue that he knew would consume his thoughts in the coming days.

  ……………………………………………………………………………………………...

  “So Stephen Chan is dead?” Lindy‘s voice sounded incredulous. Mack had just told her and Ping the news. It was 9am and they were having their morning briefing in the boardroom.

  “Yes he is. Don Taylor is keeping a watching brief on it, at least until they know whether it was murder or not. I may have to come clean with him about the case, but not yet. It is bound to come out at some stage but hopefully not until we have a clearer picture of what is going on.” said Mack.

  They were silent for a few minutes while they each tried to assess whether his death was directly linked to the case, and if it was, what the implications for them were. The enormity of someone killing him over the allegation would have a profound effect on the way Mack approached the case.

  Lindy spoke first “I know you don’t believe in coincidences, but I can’t believe someone murdered him just because of his relationship with Lee Wai. Assuming there was a relationship of course. This is Hong Kong. People don’t murder each in Hong Kong very often and certainly not over something like this.”

  Mack’s response was not what Lindy wanted to hear.

  “The problem is that we don’t actually know what ‘something like this’ is. We have only scratched the surface in terms of the allegation and who knows what we will find when we dig a little deeper. We are not even sure he was murdered, but I have to admit the timing of all this is too much of a coincidence. Unless it can be proved it was an accident I think we have to treat it as murder for the purpose of our case.”

  “I was afraid you were going to say that. We have never worked on a murder case before, which doesn’t mean we will be now. Our client has only asked us to find out whether the allegation is true, not if and why Stephen was murdered.” She waited expectantly for Mack to reply.

  “I agree with you. Perhaps we should first establish whether Westminster wants us to proceed and if they do, on what basis. We can then decide what approach we should adopt towards the police investigation, if indeed there is one.

  “But even if they don’t think he was murdered, shouldn’t you tell Don about the allegation? It might affect his decision whether to investigate the death further.”

  Mack knew they were walking a fine line between protecting their client’s interests and withholding information pertinent to a police investigation. To make matters worse, the investigating officer was likely to be his best friend.

  “Lindy, you know I have to protect the interests of M and A. At the same time, I won’t withhold information if I think it means a murderer will go unpunished. Let’s leave that for a moment. Sometimes no decision is the best decision. I am sure something will happen in the next couple of days to make our decision much easier.”

  He waited while Lindy digested what he had said and when she nodded her head he inwardly sighed. He knew he would have to address the issue sooner than Lindy released.

  Lindy tried to lighten the tone when she spoke. “Anything you want to bring to our attention?”

  “Thanks, I had better tell you something else about Lee”. He then told them about Lee’s meeting with the pedophile.

  “Mack, let me sum it up as I see it. We have a senior government servant being accused of a homosexual affair with the employee of a company he is negotiating a major deal with. It starts with an anonymous call from someone who appears to have inside knowledge of the project. Before anyone can do anything about it, the employee drowns, despite being a good swimmer and the police are uncertain if he was murdered. The government servant apparently talked to a pedophile in a coffee shop some time ago, but we are told by your friend Don that a very senior police officer told him there was nothing to it. Have I got everything so far?”

  “Yeah, that’s about it so far” answered Mack in a rather resigned tone. “But remember, Don doesn’t know about the call, as far as he is concerned he just has a suspicious death on his hands.”

  “Then I think we should be able to wrap this one very quickly” she replied with a degree of sarcasm in her voice. “Remember what I told you earlier. We have only been hired to do one thing, establish whether the allegation is true. Let me set up a meeting with the client to establish how they want us to go forward.”

  Mack nodded his headed, but Lindy seemed far from happy with his less than unequivocal reply. She looked at him accusingly and said “So why have I got the feeling that you don’t agree with me? That you are going to get sidetracked into investigating his death. I know you now. Will you do me a favor, whatever you do, can you make sure we get paid for doing it?”

  She smiled at him and the tension in the room eased. Mack had always thought her face lit up when she smiled, and for a moment he would have done anything to keep her smiling for the rest of their lives. He suddenly realised Lindy was still talking and he had let his mind wander.

  “If it does turn out to be murder then everything will change and your friends in the police will take charge and I hope you will then see common sense and leave it to them. Will you promise me you will do that? No, I know, you don’t make promises you can’t keep. As I said, we have to get paid otherwise I will have to cancel my round the world trip which I was going to put on your American
express card.” She smiled sweetly.

  Ping looked at them and wasn’t certain he had correctly understood what had just taken place. He assumed Lindy had been joking about the around world trip, but foreigners were strange people. Lindy was Chinese, but she was also a foreigner, she had spent too much time in the US to be wholly Chinese. They are different from us Chinese, not better, just different he told himself. Mack was a good man, but sometimes he was too good. He should think more about himself and his business, not about his clients and trying to solve every case they were given. He should definitely make up his mind about Lindy. These foreigners are strange people indeed.

  Before they could take the discussion further the doorbell rang and Lindy walked out to the small reception area. She came back a few moments later. “It is your friend Don and he wants a word with you. And he doesn’t seem very happy.”

  Chapter eleven