The Borrowed

by Chan Ho-Kei

  ‘So they want that list of names...’

  ‘To find out what company they’re keeping. If some corrupt officers think they’re going to be arrested, they’ll want to launch a pre-emptive strike: find others under suspicion, band together with them and start planning, or threaten them into co-operating. Even better if the list includes inspectors or superintendents – higher-ranking officers might be able to work together and pressure the top brass into shutting down the ICAC. Even more scarily, the records also list all the intermediaries who helped facilitate the bribes, and if the corrupt cops think any of them might turn informant like the pushers, those people will have to be dealt with.’

  ‘You mean... killed?’

  ‘Possibly. There are many methods – they could say the guy got aggressive during a routine traffic stop, leaving them no choice but to shoot; or that he was trying to flee and accidentally fell from the roof of a building. From time to time I wonder if there’s more to certain suspects’ deaths than meets the eye. But if a case is closed, I can’t investigate.’

  Graham took a deep breath. ‘So in order to get their hands on this, they faked Alfred’s kidnapping? These two things were unconnected!’

  ‘They’re connected,’ said Kwan with certainty. ‘But before I say how, I have a question for you – how were they able to fool you and your wife?’

  ‘I still don’t understand! How could so many coincidences have stacked up in the conman’s favour, to make me believe Alfred really had been snatched? They didn’t get the wrong kid at all, did they?’

  ‘That was just some nonsense I made up – you don’t really believe it?’ smiled Kwan. ‘They didn’t get the wrong kid, because they didn’t get any kid. You mentioned “so many coincidences” – what were they?’

  ‘Loads of them.’ Graham stroked his chin, trying to remember. ‘Even if the criminal knew Alfred was with Liz in the countryside, he couldn’t have known Stella would forget about that outing. If Stella had remembered, that first phone call would have gone nowhere. And if Liz’s note hadn’t fallen on the floor, Stella and I would have seen it. Or if Alfred had mentioned to one of us that morning that he was going on a sketching trip... Yet these all happened by chance.’

  ‘Chance my ass,’ Kwan chuckled. ‘The three things you mentioned all involved one person – your nanny, Leung Lai-ping. Liz. These coincidences were all manufactured by her.’

  ‘Liz?’ Graham gasped. ‘She’s been bought?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘But I don’t believe she’d ever do a thing to hurt Alfred!’

  ‘And indeed she didn’t. Her affection for Alfred, though, doesn’t necessarily mean she has affection for his parents.’

  Graham stared at Kwan.

  ‘Your first preconception was that Alfred was the victim. And because you knew Liz wouldn’t hurt Alfred, you ruled her out as a suspect,’ said Kwan. ‘But you were wrong from the start. The real victims were you and your wife – though the harm you’d suffer was only half a day’s worry and the loss of some property. For the right reason – or the right price – quite a few people would say yes to that. Or perhaps Liz felt she was making the right choice for Alfred. Look, isn’t he now suddenly getting a lot more attention from his parents?’

  ‘But how could she manufacture all those coincidences? Liz didn’t make Stella forget about the outing.’

  ‘Your wife didn’t forget anything. She was never told about it.’

  ‘But she signed the consent form—’

  ‘Signatures can be faked.’ Kwan waved dismissively. ‘If I had constant access to someone’s signature, I could probably copy it easily. Liz noticed your weak point as a couple – you were both so distracted by work that, in the shock of the moment, it would be easy for her to push the blame onto your wife, and you’d believe it.’

  ‘And the note?’

  ‘That only came to light when she returned home. She had it hidden in her hand and pretended to discover it under the shelf. I took note of every item in the room when I first came in. There was nothing on the floor there.’

  ‘What if Alfred had mentioned the outing to one of us that morning?’

  ‘Then they’d have changed the plan. Liz was there, so she’d have known if Alfred had mentioned it – but even if not, your wife would just have dismissed the first phone call as a prank, and the criminals wouldn’t have lost anything. The main thing was that Liz didn’t give herself away. To be honest, Liz knew Alfred probably wouldn’t say anything, because you’d grown apart – she saw all that very clearly.’

  Graham thought back to that Friday morning. Although Alfred hadn’t mentioned the outing, there’d still been a clue – he normally disliked going to school, but he’d actually been quite cheerful, probably looking forward to being out in the country.

  ‘Hang on.’ He thought of something. ‘That means – the school shirt and the hair, and when I heard Alfred’s voice on the phone...’

  ‘It wouldn’t be hard to get hold of a uniform shirt – Liz could just have bought an extra one. And the hair probably was Alfred’s – she just had to grab a few strands when she took him to get it cut. As for the voice, any tape recorder would do. All he said was “Liz? Are you there?” She just had to wait till she was alone in the house with him, which was most of the time, set the tape running and hide till he called for her.’

  Graham was speechless. As the details mounted, he saw that Liz was indeed the only person who could have made all this happen.

  ‘All right. Now I can make clear what this fake kidnapping had to do with stealing the documents.’ Kwan pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to Graham with a metallic clink. ‘One of their motivations was this.’

  Graham recognized it at once as a copy of his safe key.

  ‘Where... where did you get this?’

  ‘While you were enjoying your swim, I copied it through the crudest methods,’ smiled Kwan. ‘You shouldn’t be concerned about this one, but about the one the criminals have.’

  Graham looked between the key and Kwan, unable to understand what he was talking about.

  ‘I said that on the face of it, the kidnapping – or the con – failed, but in fact the criminals got what they were really after. They brought about all the conditions they needed to steal the documents.’

  Graham looked at Kwan, waiting for an explanation.

  ‘Going to Lok Heung Yuen and waiting for instructions, buying the gold bars, getting to a particular place by a certain time – all of those tasks were designed to blind you to what was really going on. At the pool you were set searching for the coin, apparently to keep you from tampering with the ransom – it kept you from planting the transmitter – but in truth, it was so you’d be away from something you’d never otherwise let out of your sight.’

  ‘My keys.’

  ‘Right. If the kidnapper really just wanted to make sure you hadn’t booby-trapped the ransom, he didn’t need to make you waste half an hour in the pool. Look, every step before this had been perfectly planned and flawlessly executed. Even the phone calls were right on time. Why would something go wrong with the coin? If it really had been moved by a third party, you wouldn’t have found it after half an hour. When I saw from the poolside you were having trouble, I sensed at once that the criminal had some other plan. Add that to my earlier hunch, and I knew they were after your keys.’

  ‘Wait!’ Graham interrupted. ‘“Earlier hunch”? You already knew the kidnapping was fake?’

  ‘I realized when we were sitting in Lok Heung Yuen.’

  ‘That early? What tipped you off?’

  ‘Remember that waiter who didn’t speak much English? What he said to you?’

  ‘He... he said there was a call for me.’

  ‘He said your name, but not your real name.’

  Graham recalled. ‘But so what? Plenty of my colleagues in other departments just look at the transliteration of my name and call me Mr Ha.’

  ‘The kidnapper said
at one point he’d thought you were loaded, which means he didn’t know much about your background. All the documents at Alfred’s school are in English, so your surname would only appear there as Hill, not Ha. So why would the kidnapper have said “Ha” to the waiter, a name he should have no knowledge of? Of course, the waiter could have misheard or changed it into Cantonese himself, but what are the odds he would land on the same unusual transliteration of your name? I reckon the kidnapper must have been speaking in Cantonese and said to call a foreigner to the phone, and when the waiter asked for a name, he said “Mr Ha” automatically. That was when I started thinking the whole thing was a sham. Actually I had my doubts from the start. Abductions normally take place after a lot of preparation. What kind of kidnapper would make a basic mistake like snatching the son of a penniless public servant? But anything is possible in this world, so I had to take the investigation seriously – after all, Alfred’s life could have been at risk.’

  ‘But that one sentence made you think the criminal was lying?’

  ‘That was the start of it. The second piece of evidence came with that money belt, and the plan for you to find the instructions in the pool. There was just enough room in the canvas bag for the gold bars, right?’

  ‘Yes, so?’

  ‘Don’t you remember how much the kidnapper initially asked for? Half a million dollars – that would have bought a hundred and thirteen five-tael gold bars, which you certainly couldn’t have fitted into that bag. More importantly, it would have weighed more than twenty kilos. How would you have carried all that weight on you while diving for a coin? With everything so meticulously planned, this couldn’t have been thrown together at the last minute. That means the criminals knew from the start you’d only have three kilos of gold on you, which means they knew exactly what your financial situation was. All the rest was play-acting.’

  Graham smacked his forehead. If he’d only managed to stay a little calmer, he wouldn’t have fallen into this trap.

  ‘Although I knew this was a bluff, I couldn’t tell you; if you’d shown any sign of knowing, it would have scared them off. So in order to find out their true intentions, I decided to keep playing along,’ Kwan continued. ‘At the pool, by the time you’d spent nearly twenty minutes searching for the coin, the thought popped into my mind that they were after your keys. In order to prove it, I went to back to the changing room and got dressed, went back to the car and got my copying kit, then snuck in through the employees’ entrance to wait for my chance.’

  Kwan kept a tool chest in the boot of his car that was filled with all kinds of odd items, including fingerprint powder, photographic developer fluid and luminol. Mac, guarding the car, had watched curiously as Kwan hurried over, grabbed something, then headed back to the pool.

  ‘I slipped past while the attendant was on a bathroom break – lucky for me. Otherwise I’d have had to frighten him a bit by flashing my badge. I entered the basket storeroom and found yours. When I looked at the safe key, as I expected, there was metal dust on it. So I took an impression with my pieces of clay, and left before I was caught.’

  ‘Metal dust?’

  ‘Meaning, while you were busy treading water, the criminals had already got their hands on your key and copied it.’

  ‘Oh!’

  ‘I’m guessing at least one of the people in the changing room was an accomplice, probably one step ahead of you in line, so he could remember the number of the next empty basket on the counter – you’d take that one, and he’d know your tag number. He had one ready without a number, so when you’d finished changing, he just had to write your number on his blank tag, wait a while, then go up to the counter and say he needed to grab something. When he’d got your basket, he’d pass your keys to another accomplice, who’d head out and find a locksmith who could make a copy. Then he’d return your keys to the basket and go back to the pool. They didn’t have much time, so didn’t bother brushing off the metal filings from the copying. They probably reckoned you’d be too upset to notice, anyway.’

  ‘So the coin in the pool – they only planted it when they knew they’d succeeded?’

  ‘Yes, probably.’

  ‘And the gold bars falling out – that was part of the plan.’

  ‘No, I think that really was an accident,’ Kwan grinned. ‘They’d got this far, they might as well take the ransom too. Someone was probably watching over you, to make sure they didn’t manage to take all your savings.’

  ‘Yes, that motorcyclist was unlucky, then.’ Graham couldn’t help chuckling. ‘And he was almost caught!’

  ‘No, I don’t think he would have been caught – they’d chosen where the exchange would take place, and thoroughly prepared every detail. My guess is the off-duty policeman who said the kidnapper got in a cab – he was the man on the motorcycle.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Like I’ve been saying, the criminals were cops. What kind of person is least likely to be suspected, do you think? Someone from your own tribe, of course. The motorcyclist just had to throw off his helmet and jacket, then tell the officers running up to him that he’d seen the criminal heading off, and they’d believe him. The reason you had to put the gold in a money belt was so he could wear it under his clothes. No one would subject a fellow officer to a pat-down.’

  Graham leaned back, both hands on the steering wheel. So he’d almost been cheated of more than a year of savings. A few years ago, what he’d thought was a stable investment had landed him deep in debt; this time, he could have lost everything he owned, but by a miracle had clung to it. He couldn’t help thinking God must be fond of practical jokes.

  ‘Well, even if the criminals copied my key, the safe still has a combination lock. The key alone won’t open it.’

  ‘I opened it.’ Kwan gestured at the documents in the other man’s lap.

  ‘You... ah, dammit, you remembered the combination!’ Graham laughed.

  ‘Yes, I saw it and memorized it.’ Kwan’s expression turned stern. ‘But, you know, I wasn’t the only one.’

  Graham looked worriedly at Kwan. He remembered the moment he got the jewels out of the study safe.

  He thought of the person who’d been next to him.

  ‘Old Tsui must definitely be one of the bribe-takers.’ Kwan frowned. ‘I’ve always suspected someone in my team was involved, but had no way to find out who. Now, with this case, the fox has shown its tail.’

  ‘But... isn’t it a bit of a leap to assume he’s guilty, just from this?’

  ‘Remember when I offered to personally lend you money? Old Tsui put a stop to that at once. He doesn’t really care about police regulations, but he knew that if I made the loan, you wouldn’t need to open the safe to get the jewels, and he’d miss an opportunity to see the combination. Also, right from the start, he brought up the possibility of Liz being an accomplice, so when we realized the kidnapping had never taken place, we ruled out the idea of Liz the kidnapper’s assistant, and no one thought of the other possibility: Liz, the conman’s moll.’

  ‘That’s...’ Graham couldn’t find the right words. He understood how unhappy Kwan must be that one of his own team had turned out to be a criminal.

  ‘Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.’ Kwan’s expression relaxed.

  ‘How would the criminals have known about the jewellery?’

  ‘Liz told them, of course. She must have seen your wife wearing it. The details about your household probably all came from Liz. When I told her someone had tried to extort a hundred thousand dollars, the first thing she said was that you didn’t have that much money in your bank account. She’s tucked away a fair bit of information.’

  Graham felt ill. He’d never imagined someone so close to him and his family would be despicable enough to spy on them.

  ‘As for Liz, she may not have thought she was doing anything wrong,’ said Kwan. ‘“It’s just information – if I don’t tell them, someone else will.” “It’s just a little favour.” “It’s
just a bit of money in exchange for a small job.” Her part wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal. That’s the general attitude of society now – that’s why the governor had to set up your commission.’

  ‘How did Liz know I was bringing documents about the corruption case home?’

  ‘She probably didn’t, but from what she said, and what the criminals already knew, it can’t have been hard to work out. It’s no secret that you’re at the ICAC, nor what cases each team is dealing with. With your temperament, you’d be very likely to bring work home to deal with, and if Liz told the criminals, “When my boss gets home, he locks himself in the study to work,” they’d probably guess you had important documents at home.’

  ‘But there’s something I don’t understand. If all they wanted was the key, why all that effort? With Liz on the inside, couldn’t she just have stolen it?’

  ‘She tried, but failed.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘You told me.’

  ‘I did?’

  ‘You said about two weeks ago, Liz slipped into your bedroom while you were having a shower. She must have done so at the criminals’ urging, to take the key. I don’t know whether her instruction was to make off with it, or if she had a piece of clay to take an impression, like I did, but even if she’d succeeded, there’d still have been the combination to deal with. Speaking of which, do you still have the habit of changing that regularly?’

  ‘Yes, twice a month.’

  ‘Right, that’d be a headache for the criminals. So they’d have to come up with a method that killed two birds with one stone. And if they could get your savings as well, that’d be three birds.’