‘Madam!’ said a female voice in heavily accented English. ‘I’ve come about the job!’
I jumped. I knew that voice. It was Ping!
‘What job?’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘Go away at once.’
‘But I have come to be maid to the baby,’ said Ping. What on earth was she doing?
Mrs Svensson reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a small pearl-handled pistol. She pointed it at us. ‘Get into that wardrobe,’ she hissed. ‘Keep the baby quiet. Not a sound, if you please. I shall deal with this.’
I looked at the pistol. I remembered Wu Shing, and I knew, sickeningly, that we had found our murder weapon, and confirmed the murderer of our second victim.
The wardrobe was light, thin wood, barely large enough for both of us, but Daisy and I crawled inside. It smelled of mothballs, hot and close, and we squashed up against each other, Teddy cradled between us. He wriggled happily against my stomach and sucked my finger. And I was terrified. Daisy and I could look after ourselves – but how could we protect Teddy?
We heard the door to the room open.
‘Madam,’ said Ping again. ‘I have come about the—’
‘Yes, the job, you said,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘I don’t need another maid. Who told you I did?’
‘What is she playing at?’ whispered Daisy.
I didn’t know.
‘My friend,’ said Ping. ‘Su Li.’
There was a metallic click. I thought I knew that sound – the safety catch of a gun being removed.
‘If you say another word, I shall shoot you,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘I’ve shot someone before.’
‘You will not,’ said Ping. ‘Miss Wong and Miss Wells are here too, and you cannot kill all of us. Mr Wong will come looking for them, and he will find out that you are the person who had Su Li killed.’
I heard the door open again.
‘Kendra?’ said my mother in English. ‘Where are you? I thought I saw—’
‘Ah,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘Hello, June.’
It was horridly absolute proof, hearing my mother’s voice.
‘Kendra,’ she said, ‘I have to talk to you. Where’s that maid of yours? We’re getting close to the handover; she should be on her way—’ There was a pause. ‘Why is Ping here?’ she asked sharply.
‘She knocked,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘I thought you might have sent her.’
‘Mrs Wong!’ said Ping, shocked. ‘You are part of this too?’
‘I ought to shoot her,’ said Mrs Svensson.
‘Ping, you stupid girl,’ said my mother. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Because of Su Li,’ said Ping, a wobble in her voice. ‘Mrs Wong! How could you?’
‘I never thought Su Li would die,’ said my mother. ‘That wasn’t the plan. Her stupid ex-boyfriend went too far. We only told him to hurt her! She deserved to be punished, and so did my husband, but not like that. And I never would have made the Triads part of it. Kendra doesn’t understand, she—’
‘It may not have been part of your plan to kill the maid,’ said Mrs Svensson, ‘but it was always mine. No witnesses, you see. It was the same with Wu Shing. Better off dead.’
I couldn’t catch my breath. This was too terrible.
‘Where is Hazel?’ my mother went on. ‘Why aren’t you with her?’
‘June,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘The girls. They’re here.’
‘What do you mean?’ said my mother sharply.
‘They’ve worked it all out,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘It’s terribly annoying. I put them in the wardrobe.’
‘Dead?’ cried my mother. ‘You haven’t—Kendra!’ And in that moment I understood, for the first time in years, that my mother truly did care about me.
‘Of course they aren’t dead,’ said Mrs Svensson. ‘They’re perfectly alive at the moment. Call them out if you like.’
‘Come here, Wong Fung Ying!’ cried my mother. ‘Come here!’
I had no choice but to go to her.
8
Out of the wardrobe, the world seemed bright and very airy. I was still not breathing properly. I kept hold of Teddy, squeezing him close as though I could keep us all safe that way. He let out a small, disapproving yelp. Daisy stood by my side, our arms touching, and I was glad to have her there.
‘Ah Mah,’ I said desperately. ‘Please. Help us.’
‘You are not supposed to be here!’ said my mother. Her face was flushed and her eyes glittered. ‘Ying Ying, you are so stupid! I could have managed this, I could have kept you out of it! Didn’t I tell you?’
‘I was looking for Teddy,’ I whispered. ‘I’m sorry.’ I suddenly remembered our conversations. I had thought that my mother was afraid I was guilty – but of course she had known that I was innocent.
‘I was so close!’ cried my mother. ‘Another hour, Hazel, and the child would have been given back, and everything would have been over. You silly girl! I’ve been trying to protect you, but you can never do the right thing.’
‘This is your fault!’ said Daisy indignantly. I jabbed my elbow into her side in horror. Mrs Svensson still had the pistol raised, and my mother looked as though she might slap us. For once, Daisy had to stay quiet.
‘How can you be part of this?’ I said, staring at my mother. ‘Why?’
‘I didn’t want anyone to die,’ she said, and I heard a catch in her voice. Her eyes were glittering still, but not with rage – with tears. Suddenly she looked small and weak and afraid. I realized that she had no more idea what to do than I did. ‘I only wanted your father to suffer a little. He took my child away from me, so I took his. But only for a while!’
‘I wasn’t taken away!’ I said. ‘I asked to go to England!’
‘You asked because he made you want it,’ said my mother. ‘He took you away from me. You think you are his child, not mine. And that is his fault.’
I felt my face go red. It was so close to what I had thought that I could not bear it.
‘But I have you home now, and I was always going to give Teddy back to him. Kendra would get her ransom money, and I was going to have some too, so that when you are grown, whatever happens you will not be poor. You will not have to marry a man you hate, do you see?’
I suddenly remembered my mother saying, Hazel will not marry. I had thought that she meant that I was too awkward and bookish to be interesting, but it hadn’t been that at all. It wasn’t fair. I hadn’t asked for this. I didn’t want it.
‘Father wouldn’t leave me with nothing,’ I said. ‘And he wouldn’t make me marry someone I didn’t like.’
‘You don’t know anything,’ said my mother. ‘You are a child.’
‘No!’ I cried. ‘It’s you who don’t understand. You’ve ruined everything!’
‘I think I might have,’ whispered my mother.
There was another knock on the door.
‘Good grief, who is it this time?’ cried Mrs Svensson.
And then the door was kicked in, in a crack and a burst of splinters, and Detective Leung rushed into Room 213.
Mrs Svensson dropped the gun and threw her hands in the air. ‘You’re just in time!’ she cried. ‘Hazel and June Wong have cooked up this kidnap between them. They were just about to kill me. It was Hazel’s pin at the murder scene. She is to blame!’
‘She’s lying! She is the one who killed Su Li and Wu Shing!’ cried Ping, pointing to Mrs Svensson.
It was a wealthy white woman’s word against a Chinese maid’s. I had to speak up – but would I be believed? And even if I did, how could I keep my mother safe? She was mixed up in everything. Daisy and I had faced this choice once before, and I had thought I understood the pain of it, but until it is your family you can only feel half the horror. But then—
‘My employer had a telephone call half an hour ago saying that we would find Edward Wong in this room,’ said Detective Leung. ‘And I see that he is here. Someone in this room must be responsible. Although the caller said that Mrs Svensson was the kid
napper, I am not yet sure of that. I have spoken to Mr Svensson, who admits that he couldn’t find his wife for much of Monday afternoon – he went to look for her at the doctor’s office, but couldn’t find her – and that he has been concerned about her behaviour. Mrs Svensson, I am taking you in for questioning. But, Mrs Wong and Miss Wong, because of what I have heard about you, I’m afraid that you must come too.’
Mrs Svensson went pink. My mother went white. I went limp, clutching Teddy.
‘Hazel,’ said Daisy quietly. ‘It will be all right, Hazel.’ For the second time that day she pulled me into a hug – and, just as I had all those weeks before at Deepdean, I cried as though I would never stop.
9
We all walked downstairs together. At the first-floor landing Mrs Svensson made a sudden dart to the left, but Detective Leung seized her wrist, and she yelped and desisted. ‘Downstairs,’ he said firmly. I caught his eye – and, if I had thought about trying to escape, the idea vanished.
I was still holding Teddy, even though his weight made my arms wobble. I found I did not want to let go of him. I held him until we came out into the foyer and found it full of people – not just Jie Jie and May and Rose, but my father and two police officers – along with Mrs Svensson’s maid. When she saw Teddy, Jie Jie screamed and ran to me. She pulled Teddy out of my arms into her own, so roughly that he squealed and I gasped. My father bent over Teddy’s dark head. Then he looked up at me.
‘Hazel!’ he shouted, and I saw what this must look like. I opened my mouth to deny it, to explain that I had only found Teddy, not stolen him. But my mother spoke first.
‘Stop that at once, Vincent! Ying Ying has nothing to do with this,’ she snapped, drawing herself up to her full height. ‘It was Mrs Svensson, and me.’
My father stopped still. His forehead wrinkled. ‘Don’t lie, June,’ he said. ‘Not now.’
‘I am not lying,’ said my mother, sounding exasperated. ‘You never listen to me! You never believe me! I planned to have Teddy kidnapped, to punish you. I chose Wu Shing to do it, and I helped pay him. I planned it perfectly. And then you put our daughter in harm’s way. You sent her to the bank with that stupid baby. You ruined my plan – you and Kendra.’
She turned on Mrs Svensson, who was scarlet with panic. ‘I certainly had nothing to do with it!’ she blustered. ‘It was all June. I only heard about it later. I came here to get the baby back, I swear. It was all June and Hazel. The pin! Look at that pin! It was Hazel’s, I can prove it—’
‘Be quiet!’ cried my mother. ‘You are a liar. You didn’t tell me that you had paid Wu Shing extra to kill Su Li. You gave him Hazel’s pin – to frame her and frighten me. You don’t understand what it means to get the Triads involved, even though I tried to explain. And you told me … you told me you’d killed him, and you would kill her if I didn’t stay silent.’
‘They are guilty!’ screeched Mrs Svensson. ‘I am innocent! Don’t believe a word they say—’
‘SILENCE!’ bellowed my father. ‘June. How could you? I never … I never thought.’
‘You never do think, Vincent,’ said my mother.
‘We need to clear this up,’ said Detective Leung. ‘I will question Mrs Svensson, Mrs Wong and Miss Wong. You’ – he nodded to the police – ‘may question the maids.’
‘You can do what you like with Mrs Svensson,’ said my father, folding his arms. ‘But you will not take my wife or my daughter away from me.’
And that is how I ended up sitting next to my mother in another Peninsula Hotel room, with my father and Detective Leung opposite me, asking questions.
I talked and talked, explaining about the pin, and how I had lost it, and how afraid I had been. I said nothing about Sai Yat, or our night-time adventure (I was glad that my mother had already mentioned Wu Shing’s death, so I didn’t need to lead the detective to it), and I made it sound as though lucky chance, instead of detection, had led Daisy and me to the correct hotel room. I told them everything that had happened there, though, how Mrs Svensson had threatened us with a gun, and admitted to her part in the crime.
My mother was cold and to the point. Yes, she had plotted with Mrs Svensson to have Teddy kidnapped. Kendra needed the money, and my mother wanted to punish my father after Teddy’s birth. ‘I didn’t want to kill the maid,’ she said, again and again. ‘She was a silly, proud little thing, but I knew Hazel was fond of her. She was only meant to be hurt. I swear it. And Teddy was always supposed to come home again. No one should have been killed. I only wanted to frighten you. You were all so smug about that baby!’
My heart broke as I listened to her, and then broke again as I watched my father watching her. My mother had changed – or perhaps we had just never really seen her before today.
At last, Detective Leung leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. I stared at the dark fleck in his eye and tried to breathe calmly.
‘Miss Wong, you are free to go,’ he said. ‘Although you are clearly not telling me certain things, I am at last confident that you had nothing to do with the crime. And, Mrs Wong – you may go home with your husband this evening, as long as you do not leave your compound.’
‘Where would I go?’ asked my mother bitterly. ‘And what do I care any more?’
‘Ah Mah!’ I said.
My mother turned to look at me, and then she put out her hand very carefully and touched my wrist. ‘At least you’re safe, Ying Ying,’ she said. ‘I did one thing right, I suppose.’
And, for a moment, she did not look bitter at all.
10
Suddenly I was reeling with tiredness. I barely remember the journey home. I simply leaned against Daisy, utterly empty.
Jie Jie put Teddy back in his room, and then she and May and Rose and I sat around his cot and watched him. I think none of us wanted to let him out of our sight. Of course, Teddy behaved as though nothing particularly dramatic had happened at all. He lay there, sucking his toes and burbling at us. I couldn’t help smiling at him.
‘I do like him now,’ whispered Rose.
‘I do too,’ I admitted, putting my arm round her.
Father came in then, looking somehow thinner and older than he had that morning.
‘All of you except Jie Jie, leave,’ he said. From the look on his face, I knew there was no arguing with him. I wanted to know whether he really believed that I was innocent – but I couldn’t ask yet. I went back to our room and closed the door.
Daisy was there with Ping. Daisy was looking indignant, and Ping was blushing furiously.
‘Hazel,’ said Daisy, ‘Ping has been telling me … well, I feel rather a fool. Do you realize that she knew what we were doing, all the way along?’
Ping ducked her head and flushed even harder. ‘Of course I did,’ she said. ‘I knew it was important, so I listened in when you were having your detective meetings. I wanted to help you, because you cared about Su Li, as well as Teddy.’
‘You were awfully good at the Peninsula,’ I said, turning to her, because Daisy is rather bad at praising anyone other than herself.
‘I had to do it, miss,’ said Ping.
‘You didn’t!’ I cried. ‘You didn’t have to do anything. You saved us, honestly you did. We are so lucky.’
‘You did really,’ agreed Daisy, grudgingly admiring. ‘It was quite impressive.’
‘Thank you, miss,’ said Ping, and she stood up a little straighter.
‘You ought to be a proper Detective Society member!’ I said to her.
‘Hmm!’ said Daisy. ‘Really, Hazel, that’s a bit much.’
‘It isn’t!’ I said. I found I did not care any more about Daisy and her rules for the Detective Society. ‘We let Beanie and Kitty and Lavinia in when they helped us, didn’t we? This is just the same. Daisy, don’t make that face. It’s true!’
Daisy hemmed and hawed – and finally sighed and threw up her hands.
‘Oh, all right, then,’ she said. ‘Assistant member only, though, please.’
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Ping beamed.
‘All right,’ I said. ‘Ping, recite after me.’
‘I say the pledge, Hazel!’ cried Daisy.
‘Not in Hong Kong you don’t,’ I said, smiling despite myself, because I knew that it was up to me now, not Daisy. ‘I can say it in Cantonese.’
The next morning Ping, Daisy and I went out to the fish pond to meet Ah Lan.
‘Mrs Svensson is in prison,’ he told us. ‘She’s going to be tried and convicted – and if she isn’t for some reason, we have men watching her. She won’t escape justice for Su Li and Wu Shing’s deaths. But Sai Yat has decided that your mother will be allowed to escape prison. He accepts her statement that she was tricked, and he will allow her to remain in the Big House with your family under watch, mostly because she is the mother of the girl who helped us to clear Sai Yat’s name.’
‘Thank you,’ I said weakly. I knew that my mother had done wrong, but she was my mother. She mattered to me more than justice, no matter how shameful that was to realize.
‘And one more thing: Sai Yat has sent you a present, to thank you for your hard work.’
He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out something wrapped in red fabric. I unfolded it and saw that it was a jade pin. It was not my rooster pin, but a new one, a beautifully carved lotus flower.
‘It is from all of us,’ said Ah Lan, nodding at me. ‘It’s not a threat, I promise.’
I breathed out.
‘And a reminder,’ said Ah Lan, his lips quirking up in a smile. ‘Sai Yat is grateful, and Sai Yat will be watching what you do next with interest.’
I closed my fist around the jade pin. It was cool and slightly slippery in my hand. It felt, somehow, like a last gift from Su Li, a reminder that family is sometimes about more than blood relationships. We were to bury her that afternoon, and I knew what I would wear in my hair.
‘We wouldn’t have been able to solve the case without you!’ I said, coming back to myself.
‘Why is there only one pin?’ asked Daisy indignantly. ‘What about me? We did solve the case together!’
A Spoonful of Murder Page 19
