The Borrowed

by Chan Ho-Kei

  ‘Right,’ Lawson nodded happily. He turned to pick up a cardboard box about the same size as Szeto’s, but evidently much heavier.

  ‘These were the pistols the gang had on them,’ he said, pulling out four Black Stars and laying them out on the table. ‘This one’s Jaguar’s, this was on Mad Dog Biu, and the other two were in the bag Shek Boon-sing had beside him.’ Lawson pronounced the few syllables of those names awkwardly.

  ‘These four show no sign of having been fired,’ interrupted Szeto. Kwan remembered the reports – how Jaguar was hit before he’d pulled the trigger, while Mad Dog was armed with an AK-47, so the pistol must have been a spare.

  ‘I remember TT’s... I mean, Inspector Tang Ting’s report said Shek Boon-sing shot the cleaning lady with a handgun before he died. Wasn’t it one of these two?’ asked Kwan.

  ‘He was using this little number,’ said Lawson, pulling a fifth gun from the box.

  ‘A Type 67?’ exclaimed Kwan.

  ‘You hardly ever see one of these, right?’ Lawson smiled. ‘That’s why we thought it might be connected to Shek Boon-tim.’

  The Type 67 pistol was, like the Type 54 Black Star, a military-grade weapon made in China. Type 67 was unique because of its design – it was silenced, suitable for use on reconnaissance or night-time assaults. During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong had used Type 67s to give the American troops a headache. In all of Kwan’s years in the force, this was his first time seeing one in real life.

  Lawson flipped open the chamber and handed the gun over to Kwan. ‘We’ve already checked the bullets and compared them with previous cases, and found one match,’ he said. ‘Superintendent Kwan, do you remember that lawyer, Ngai Yiu-chung, who worked for all those Triad guys?’

  ‘The one who got shot last February in Mong Kok – in the alleyway behind the Blue Devil Bar?’

  ‘Yes, that one. He was killed by this gun.’ Bullets acquire distinctive markings from the barrel they pass through, so looking at them under a microscope can verify if two bullets were fired from the same weapon.

  ‘Wasn’t that the work of a hired killer? How are the Shek brothers involved?’ said Kwan curiously.

  ‘That’s the strange thing.’ Lawson shrugged. ‘The Shek brothers have never held back from armed robbery and kidnapping, but they’re not hit men. Still, the evidence doesn’t lie. Maybe we just got their business model wrong.’

  Ngai Yiu-chung was still an open case, though many people – including rival gang bosses as well as the police – were pleased that he was no longer around to defend underworld figures in court. The Crime Unit was still investigating his murder, but there were countless murders in Mong Kok, and with so few leads to go on, no one was particularly pushing this one.

  ‘I don’t think Shek Boon-sing killed that lawyer,’ said Inspector Szeto. ‘Guns circulate on the black market all the time. This one might just have fallen into their hands.’

  Kwan studied the pistol. ‘In all of their bags, how much unused ammo was there?’

  Lawson grabbed a folder off the shelf and glanced at it. ‘More than three hundred rounds.’

  ‘What kind?’

  ‘Kind?’ Lawson seemed surprised by the question, and had to go back to the folder. ‘Two hundred and two of the 7.62 x 39 mm assault rifle bullets, and 156 of the 7.62 x 25 mm handgun ones...’

  ‘That’s strange,’ said Kwan. ‘No 7.62 x 17 mm?’

  ‘Mm? That’s right...’ Lawson knew what Kwan was getting at. The Black Star used a 25 mm bullet, but the Type 67 required the shorter 17 mm ones.

  ‘Actually, if you look at it another way, that makes perfect sense,’ said Szeto. ‘They probably acquired the Type 67 serendipitously, and rather than get more ammo for it, figured they’d just use what there was, then get rid of it. Though if he’d lost the Black Star, he’d have been left with the Type 67 and a hundred useless bullets – that would be dumb.’

  Lawson shook his head. ‘I still think the Shek brothers had something to do with Mr Ngai’s murder. Now that this gun’s shown up by Shek Boon-sing’s side, I don’t think that can be a coincidence.’

  ‘If he had a particular target, Shek Boon-sing would have used the Black Star in his bag, not this Type 67,’ argued Szeto. ‘Besides, he fired so many shots – wouldn’t he have saved his ammo?’

  ‘So many shots?’ asked Kwan.

  ‘According to the crime scene report, Shek Boon-sing was alternating between the AK-47 and the Type 67,’ explained Lawson.

  ‘More accurately, he was using them simultaneously.’ Szeto struck a pose, as if he had a gun in each hand. ‘We found his left-hand fingerprints on the Type 67 and his right on the AK-47.’

  Shek Boon-sing had a history of carrying out robberies with two rifles. He had strong forearms, and by resting the rifle butts against his waist, could easily shoot from the hip.

  ‘Has the Bureau reconstructed the killings from evidence at the scene?’ asked Kwan.

  ‘Yes, but what’s the point?’ asked Szeto. ‘Only the coroner would be interested in that. We know who the killer was – what’s it matter how exactly he did it?’

  ‘Superintendent Kwan, I presume you intend to deduce from the sequence of events whether there was a particular reason for using this weapon, or if it’s as you said and Shek Boon-sing just happened to have it by chance’ said Lawson.

  ‘More or less,’ Kwan replied.

  Lawson flipped open the folder again, and pulled out a stack of photographs showing the corpses at the scene from various angles.

  ‘First of all,’ said Szeto, ‘after Jaguar and Shum Biu were shot dead by the Mong Kok team at the ninth-floor stairwell entrance, Shek Boon-sing returned fire with the AK-47, but with both his henchmen dead, he gave up this confrontation and headed for the Ocean Hotel, which was open for business. He headed for the farthest room, number 4, and burst in, we think hoping to escape from there. Because Unit 30 is the northernmost unit in the north wing, and the staircase was blocked, he was trapped.’

  ‘He kicked open the door and killed Mandy Lam with the handgun as she sat on the bed,’ said Lawson, showing a picture of the corpse. ‘Because her wounds show more clotting than the other bodies, the forensic pathologist is certain she must have been the first victim.’

  ‘Besides, we found Shek’s footprint on the door. He was a strong fellow – those doors were pretty thick, and he kicked them open just like that,’ added Szeto.

  ‘After discovering there was no exit from Room 4, he quickly turned back. At this moment, Wang Jingdong came out of Room 2 to see what was going on, and when he saw an armed man, quickly ran for the exit. Shek opened fire with the AK-47 and blew off his head.’ Lawson placed the gruesome photo next to Mandy Lam’s.

  ‘Shek Boon-sing walked over to Wang’s body and did another sweep with the AK-47. At this point, Inspector Tang Ting must have been outside the lobby. These shots killed the hotel owner, Chiu Ping.’

  As Szeto spoke, Lawson set down a picture of Chiu, his chin and jaw disintegrated. This was even more grisly than the last one, with bright red blood spattered across the walls and counter like a scene from a horror film.

  ‘At this moment, Yau Choi-hung foolishly opened his room door. Shek Boon-sing happened to be standing nearby, so he quickly used the Type 67 to kill both the room’s occupants.’

  Lawson laid out pictures of Well-hung and Bunny Chin, the former hit twice, the latter with a bullet to the chest.

  ‘Then he grabbed hold of the cleaning lady, Lee Wan, who must have been too scared to move, preparing to use her as a human shield.’

  ‘And TT pretended to surrender and flung down his gun, and when Shek Boon-sing was drawing on him, pulled out his colleague’s gun and fired on Shek,’ finished Kwan.

  ‘Yes, that’s right, but Shek Boon-sing didn’t die at once, he returned fire with the Type 67 and hit Lee Wan.’ Lawson put down a picture of the final hostage.

  ‘Wasn’t there anyone in Room 3?’ asked Kwan.

  ‘No,
I remember the investigators said it was vacant, and the register said so too.’ Inspector Szeto seemed to remember something, and looked down at the pictures. ‘Yes, look, behind Chiu Ping’s body, you can see the counter. There’s only one key there, the other three hooks are empty.’

  Szeto indicated a corner of the photo. The sole key had a blue tag about half the size of a business card, on which was the hotel’s name and a tattered sticker that said ‘3’.

  ‘If it had been occupied, we might have had another corpse on our hands,’ said Lawson.

  ‘Superintendent Kwan, look at the way he used this gun – you can’t think he was holding back ammo in reserve for any reason?’ Szeto went back to the earlier topic. ‘Even if we don’t count the final return of fire, he’d already wasted four rounds.’

  ‘No, no,’ Lawson objected. ‘They might not have had any seventeen-millimetre bullets on them, but that doesn’t mean Shek Boon-sing wasn’t holding some elsewhere.’

  ‘That gun came to them by coincidence, but it did indeed have a special function.’

  The other two would never have expected such ambiguity from Kwan. They stared at him doubtfully.

  ‘Even if...’ started Szeto, scratching his head, but he didn’t continue.

  ‘I’m not too certain either. I’ll tell my team to look into this.’ Kwan smiled and nodded, though the smile had some bitterness to it.

  ‘I also wanted to ask,’ Kwan turned to Lawson, ‘have all the bullets in the victims’ bodies been accounted for?’

  ‘All the basics have been done, of course, and there’s no issue there, every one of those bullets came from either the AK-47 or the Type 67 in Shek Boon-sing’s hands. As to whether there are any open cases using these weapons...’

  ‘And in the criminal’s body?’ Kwan interrupted.

  Lawson found this question odd. ‘Naturally those came from Inspector Tang Ting’s gun, as well as his subordinate Sonny Lok’s. Superintendent, you can’t imagine a third party burst onto the scene and finished him off, and Inspector Tang is just taking the credit?’

  ‘I just wanted to make sure.’

  Kwan said goodbye to Lawson. In the elevator with Inspector Szeto, he said, ‘Could I borrow that note with the code on it?’

  Szeto frowned. ‘I’m sorry, Superintendent Kwan, that’s one favour I can’t grant. It’s a key piece of evidence.’

  ‘Then could I make a copy?’

  ‘Of course. That’d be no problem.’

  Back downstairs, Inspector Szeto got the note out again and placed it on the Xerox machine. Just as he was about to press start, Kwan halted him.

  ‘Put this on top of it.’ Kwan handed over a notebook that was lying by the photocopier, the kind that had been used in every department for many years now, with black covers and a red border. Szeto found this odd, but did as Kwan directed.

  Photocopy in hand, Kwan thanked Inspector Szeto and returned to Intelligence. As soon as he stepped through the office door, he gave an order to a subordinate.

  ‘Get in touch with the phone company. I want the outgoing call records for 4 May from Ocean Hotel.’

  ‘Is this an important lead?’ said the officer, jotting down the instruction.

  ‘Maybe, maybe not, I just want to make sure there aren’t any irregularities.’

  ‘Yes, Commander. Oh, I almost forgot, there was a call for you earlier.’

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘Senior Inspector Benedict Lau from Division A. He said to call him back when you’re free.’

  Kwan did just that, back in his office.

  ‘Benny, what’s up?’ said Kwan, staring at his copy of the note.

  ‘Sir, has anyone from Internal Investigations been in touch with you?’

  ‘Not yet. They’re probably still completing their preliminary investigations. They’ll want to check out everyone at West Kowloon Crime Unit before they get to me.’

  ‘Then you haven’t heard – it seems they’ve found the culprit. Someone’s just been suspended.’

  ‘Who? Karl Fung?’

  ‘No. Edgar Ko.’

  5

  CHIEF INSPECTOR EDGAR Ko’s suspension sent shockwaves across the force. In less than a day, the news had reached every regional department. With the Ka Fai Mansions incident getting so much attention, even those who didn’t know him would say, ‘Ah, the director of the Shek Boon-sing op.’ Still, because this was an internal investigation, there was no official statement, which meant the suspension was just a rumour, one that brewed and fermented in the various precincts and departments, no one certain how accurate it was.

  Word of mouth was that Edgar Ko had given the criminals a warning, torpedoing the operation. He wasn’t in the pay of the Shek brothers – had nothing to do with them – and didn’t mind taking on the heavy burden of ‘mission failed’, wrecking his own career, all for one motive: to cause harm to the head of Mong Kok Crime Unit Team 3, Inspector Tang Ting.

  ‘Operation director plots to kill frontline officer.’ An unthinkable horror. During operations, officers entrusted their lives to their colleagues. The mindset of ‘Anyone in uniform is family’ came from this reliance. Once trust was lost, if everyone suspected everyone else, the organization would fracture.

  Quite a few people had encountered Ko in the course of their duties, and most thought the rumours were baseless, or else that Internal Investigations was wronging a good man. Ko had always been loyal and dutiful, so mild-mannered it was hard to imagine him hating a fellow officer to the point of wanting to cause his death. But when they heard the purported motive, they had to admit, ‘That’s possible, I guess.’

  When heroes reach the end of the road, there’s only ever one reason: a woman.

  Edgar Ko was pushing forty and still single. People generally reckoned he was too much of a workaholic to settle down, or else that he might be gay and staying closeted for fear of hurting his prospects. But the truth, which few people knew, was that he’d been in a relationship for some time; one that came to an end when the woman met someone else.

  This woman was also in the police force, in Public Relations Branch. And she happened to be the Deputy Commissioner’s daughter.

  She was TT’s fiancée, Ellen.

  Ellen was a famed beauty within the force, and being very well-spoken, was often called upon to be the face of police press campaigns. Given her father’s status, quite a few people secretly called her ‘princess’, and speculated which policeman would be lucky enough to become the ‘imperial son-in-law’. Officially, of course, being married to the Deputy Commissioner’s daughter didn’t confer any actual privileges, and promotion would still be based on merit, but once your father-in-law was higher- ranking than the chair of any interview panel you’d face, as long as you didn’t make any serious mistakes, your future would surely be bright.

  Edgar Ko’s secret relationship with Ellen had lasted three years. At the start, he’d just been promoted to probationary inspector, and didn’t want to receive special treatment because of his girlfriend. By the time he’d made it to senior inspector, though, Ellen’s affections had shifted.

  TT’s personality was the polar opposite of Ko’s. He was brash and forthright, rebellious and unorthodox. To Ellen, who’d grown up under glass, this ‘bad boy’ was irresistible. TT knew Ellen had a boyfriend but still pursued her relentlessly, and even though Edgar’s future was much more assured, she’d still chosen TT in the end.

  After Ellen and TT had sent out their wedding invitations, Edgar Ko asked a close friend in the Traffic Branch out for a drink. After several beverages, he revealed that his ‘mystery lover’ from several years ago was the Deputy Commissioner’s daughter. That night, Ko got extremely drunk and proclaimed he would disrupt the ceremony, then cursed Ellen for being too blind to choose the right man, insisting she was destined for an unhappy life. The friend didn’t take these words seriously – until the Ka Fai Mansions incident.

  When Internal Investigations began looking into the back
ground of every officer involved in the operation that day, paying particular attention to anyone who’d had the opportunity to approach the south wing mailbox, Karl Fung was naturally their prime suspect, but they considered everyone else too, including Edgar Ko, the director of the operation, who’d personally inspected the south entrance. Once they called in the friend who’d spoken to Ko in the bar that night, he couldn’t help thinking Edgar’s words might have something to do with this case, and after repeated questioning, finally broke down and gave a full account of that conversation.

  Edgar Ko was now the focus of the investigation. Ellen and the recuperating TT confirmed to investigators that four years earlier, the three of them had been involved in a love triangle. Ellen said that she’d met Edgar for a drink some time after the break-up, but they’d ended up fighting, and since then he’d been harassing her by phone.

  Ko knew very well that if it looked like Shek Boon-sing was getting away, he’d only have to give TT an order to stay put for him to decide to charge in alone, leading to a face-off with vicious armed criminals – that was Internal Investigations’ hypothesis. The motive had been verified, the method was plausible, and as director of the operation he could easily have destroyed any incriminating evidence, apart from that coded note, which Organized Crime had intervened too soon for him to retrieve.

  Edgar Ko was temporarily relieved of his duties, to undergo a long period of interrogation and psychological torment. They wanted him to confess. On Friday 12 May, after a gruelling day of questioning, Edgar Ko was at home.

  He’d taken his phone off the hook and turned off his pager, and was sitting alone in his room, unable to work out how he’d fallen this low. He didn’t want to see or speak to anyone. He needed solitude.

  He hadn’t shaved for two days, his hair was a mess and his eyes were bloodshot. No one seeing him like this would have taken him for a man of heavy responsibilities, the senior inspector of a Crime Unit.