TEFFINGER HAD TO ADMIT, the woman who joined them—a 21-year-old Bangkok girl named Dan Dan—would have been enticing to a man who was looking for nothing other than youth and beauty. She was too young for Teffinger’s taste, though, and he wished she was in a dorm room studying for a test instead of sitting here with her hand on his knee.
They ordered drinks.
Sun Ah set an entire bottle on the table, plus three glasses.
Teffinger must have had a look on his face because Fan Rae whispered in his ear, “I got the tab, so relax.”
“You sure?”
She nodded.
“I’ll be reimbursed,” she said. “This is work.”
Okay.
Good.
Dan Dan had big brown eyes, a fashionably distressed hairdo, a floral silk blouse hugging a buxom chest, and a white miniskirt. She started off perky, in character, but got serious when they told her they were detectives and wanted to know about Syling Wu.
“She just up and vanished,” Dan Dan said.
She no longer answered her phone.
She wasn’t at her apartment.
None of her friends had seen her.
No one had heard from her.
She didn’t show up for work tonight.
“And here’s something else weird,” Dan Dan said. “A man was in here earlier tonight looking for her and wanting to know if anyone knew where she was. The guy gave me the creeps.”
“What was his name?”
“He never told me,” Dan Dan said. “Something happened to Syling. I don’t know if this creepy guy was part of it or what. But something definitely happened to her. She’s g-punk—not here of course, on her own time—but she’s stable and dependable.”
Teffinger raked his fingers through his hair.
“Describe this guy,” he said. “The creep.”
She did.
He was about fifty, Chinese, five-three and slight of build. “There was something wrong with his eyes.”
“You mean physically wrong?”
“No, more like the brain behind those eyes was—what?—I don’t know, twisted or something.”
“Would you recognize the guy, if you saw him again?”
Dan Dan nodded.
Definitely.
In a heartbeat.
Teffinger was about questioned out when one more popped into his head. “Was Syling into pagan practices or anything like that?”
Dan Dan shook her head.
“No,” she said.
“Is that the kind of thing you would know about, if it was happening?”
“I think so.”
“Did Syling ever go to a bar called Hei Yewan?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
Dan Dan nodded.
“Yes, probably once a month or thereabouts. It’s a g-punk hangout.”
“Did she ever go to the back room of that place?”
The woman looked confused.
“I didn’t know there was a back room.”
“Syling never said anything about a back room that has a K’ung chia symbol painted on the floor?”
No.
She didn’t.
“Is that why she’s gone?” Dan Dan asked. “Because of that room?”
Teffinger shrugged.
“We don’t know,” he said. “Do you know Nuwa Moon?”
“I know she’s Syling’s friend but I never met her.”
FAN RAE PAID THE BILL, a big bill. She gave Dan Dan a sizeable tip, plus her business card in case she thought of anything else. Then they headed for Hei Yewan, mingled with the crowd and showed pictures of Nuwa Moon and Syling Wu. What they found out was pretty much what Teffinger expected.
Both of the women had been there Wednesday night, the night Nuwa Moon got a symbol carved in her stomach. Unfortunately, however, no one knew or at least wouldn’t talk about what was going on in the back room that night.
They left.
Fan Rae drove.
The neon city rolled by.
“Here’s the way I see it,” Teffinger said. “They were both there Wednesday night. They were in the main bar area the whole night, based on all the sightings. Whatever was going on in the back room, I don’t think they knew about it or participated in it. Somehow, though, they got targeted. They left together and then got taken, probably by whoever was in that back room. Nuwa Moon ended up getting murdered. That happened on the beach, not in the back room.” A beat then, “What happened to Syling, I don’t know. Maybe she was killed the same way someplace else.”
BACK AT FAN RAE’S APARTMENT, Teffinger realized he had gone the whole night without lifting up her dress, so he did it now.
True to her word, she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
“See, I proved it,” she said. “You’re special.”
Teffinger walked her to the wall, pulled her arms up high and held them in place with one hand. With the other one, he reached down between her legs.
She spread her feet, trembled, and surrendered to his touch.
“I hate that you can do this to me,” she said.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Day Six—August 8
Saturday Morning
______________
PRARIE TWISTED AND TURNED all night, a captive in that eerie netherworld where she wasn’t quite asleep and wasn’t quite awake. She woke Saturday morning in a seedy room—definitely not the InterContinental. She rolled over and stretched, hoping that the nasty thoughts about killing a man last night would evaporate like bad dreams do.
But they didn’t.
Next to her, Emmanuelle breathed deep and heavy, soundly asleep.
She rolled out of bed, stepped into the shower and replayed the events of last night.
After she shot the man with the knife, things got real dicey real fast and, in hindsight, could have gone either way. But she had the gun and somehow kept her wits. She made one of the men tie the other one to one of the chairs. She gathered up their wallets, cell phones and knives, which went into her purse.
She made the man carry Emmanuelle outside.
A white BMW sat next to the junker they came in.
The keys were in the ignition.
She made the man put Emmanuelle in the back seat.
She debated briefly about shooting the two men who were left. Then she said, “Consider yourself lucky,” and got the hell out of there.
Emmanuelle didn’t wake up for a full hour.
When she did, and got the story, she said, “You’re nicer than me. I would have killed them.” She pointed to her forehead. “Right there. Bam bam, bye bye.”
“I thought about it,” Prarie said.
“You should have done it. Now we got to worry about them.”
“Who are they?”
“My guess? They’re after the paintings. Somehow they figured out we are too, probably from that gallery guy. He must have figured out that we were hunting for someone talented enough to make the fakes that got put into Musee d'Orsay. Then he tipped these guys off, or who knows, maybe he’s even part of them. Either way, they lured us to that warehouse to find out what we know and we fell for it. I’ll tell you one thing, I won’t be that stupid again. Not even close.”
TO AVOID PROBLEMS, at least for the night, they used cash to check into a seedy place called the Sea View Hotel on the far eastern edge of Hong Kong, not far from the Wholesale Fish Market. Then they drove to North Point, abandoned the BMW behind a bar, and hoofed it back to the hotel.
That was last night.
Now it was morning.
EMMANUELLE WAS AWAKE when Prarie got out of the shower. She rubbed sleep from her eyes, hugged Prarie briefly, and said, “I want to work their cell phones this morning before they get smart and cut the service off. Chances are they know things we don’t. We need to make a record of who they’ve been in touch with.”
Prarie agreed.
“Do me a favor while I’m in the shower and figure out which one belongs to the
dead guy,” she added.
“Why?”
“Once the police found his body, they’ll be tracking his phone,” she said. “I don’t want them zeroing in on us by GPS or something.”
Prarie shook her head.
“How do you come up with this stuff?”
“I don’t know. It’s just there.”
Emmanuelle headed to the shower.
Prarie headed outside for coffee and food. There would probably be something down by the fish market.
What she saw outside she could hardly believe.
A NUMBER OF POLICE CARS were congregated not more than fifty meters down the road. Her natural instinct was to run, but she didn’t, and on further examination saw that their interest was in something on the ground. Against her better judgment, she walked over.
On the ground was a body, not just any body, the body of the man she shot last night.
A small, meaty cop raised his eyes and looked at her briefly.
Then went back to work.
WHEN PRARIE GOT BACK to the hotel, Emmanuelle was still in the shower. Prarie pulled the curtain open and shook the woman by the arm. Emmanuelle jumped, then studied Prarie’s face and said, “What’s wrong?”
“The man I shot is on the ground, right down the street.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
No.
She wasn’t.
“I don’t get it,” Prarie said.
Emmanuelle didn’t either and wrinkled her forehead to prove it. Then the confusion disappeared.
“They dumped him there as a warning to us.”
“Warning? What kind of warning?”
“A warning that they’re not backing off and that we’d better cooperate.”
“But how did they even find us?”
“My guess is the BMW, it probably has a GPS tracking system that showed them everywhere we went.” She rinsed off what soap was left and said, “Hand me that towel. We need to get out of here.”
“What do we do with the gun? It’s still in my purse—”
“Bring it,” Emmanuelle said. “We can’t leave it here.” Prarie must have had a deer-in-headlights look because Emmanuelle said, “Put it in my purse. I’ll carry it.”
FIVE MINUTES LATER they walked out of the hotel and nonchalantly headed in the direction away from the body.
They didn’t turn around.
A hundred steps later, just when they were starting to feel safe, something bad happened. A cop car pulled up next to them and the cop said something in Cantonese.
“English,” Prarie said.
He brought the car to a stop and stepped out.
He was small, meaty and mean looking.
Prarie recognized him as the one who looked up at her back by the body.
This time he addressed them in English.
“I want to talk to you two for a minute.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Day Six—August 8
Saturday Morning
______________
FAN RAE FAN WAS A DRUG and Teffinger was addicted. He realized that now as he got out of bed Saturday morning and saw the sensuous curves of her body once again. She was no good for him. She was implicated in the plan to kill d’Asia but he couldn’t stay away, physically or emotionally. Each time he was with her, her pull became more powerful.
An explosive ending was inevitable.
He didn’t want to think about it.
He dressed, gave her an imperceptible kiss as she slept, then headed for the door. He was in the hallway and about to close the door when he remembered her words.
Next time wake me.
He debated for a second, then went back in, laid down next to her and ran his fingers through her hair until she woke up. She kissed him as soon as she realized she was awake.
“I’m going to head back to the hotel for a jog and fresh clothes,” he said. “I’ll be back in an hour or two.”
She put a finger on his lips.
He kissed it.
“You woke me,” she said. “Thanks.”
“I said I would.”
“I know, but I didn’t know if you would,” she said. “When you get back to the hotel, check out and bring your stuff over here. Stay with me. I don’t like being away from you.”
Teffinger stood up.
“If I do, you’ll need to devote a whole cabinet to coffee,” he said. “You realize that, I hope.”
FAN RAE INSISTED that he use her car, so he did, punching the radio buttons and actually getting a Beatles song.
“I Call Your Name.”
At the Fleming, he searched the car to see if there were any leads as to who the mystery woman was, the one who was going to kill d’Asia.
If the clues were there, they didn’t jump out.
Nada.
Nothing.
Once he moved in with Fan Rae, he’d be able to search her apartment. Maybe his luck would be better there.
HE BYPASSED THE ELEVATOR, took the stairwell to his room, and then set out for a good jog through the Hong Kong cityscape, keeping up the pace and fighting the humidity. He needed more of this, a lot more. There was a time when he worked out five days a week without missing and had a six-pack to prove it. That changed when he got promoted to the head of the homicide unit three years ago. Most people considered him to be in phenomenal shape, but if you asked him, he was soft.
Back at the hotel room, he did five sets of fifty pushups alternated with five sets of a hundred stomach crunches and then took a long cool shower.
When he got out, someone knocked on the door, timidly, barely perceptible.
He wrapped a towel around his waist and opened the door.
Standing in front of him was the last person he expected.
D’Asia.
Chapter Forty
Day Six—August 8
Saturday Morning
______________
KONG WOKE SATURDAY MORNING when a throaty go-fast motored up to the port side of Dangerous Lady and someone jumped aboard. Kong looked out the portal, saw the Predator, and was informed that he had been summoned to Poon’s penthouse. When he got there, Poon introduced him to a man with a stressed face, about 45, rough, with an iron handshake.
Vance Wu.
“Vance is a friend of mine,” Poon explained. “He came to me this morning with some very bad news. He has a daughter named Syling Wu, she’s 21. On Wednesday night, she went to a club called Hei Yewan, which is a g-punk hangout. She went with a friend named Nuwa Moon. Did you hear about the woman who was found floating down by the piers?”
Kong nodded.
He had, but hadn’t paid much attention.
“That was Nuwa Moon,” Poon said. “Someone killed her. Mr. Wu’s daughter, Syling, has not been seen or heard from since Wednesday night.”
“That’s rough,” Kong said.
Poon nodded.
“Yes, rough,” Poon said. “Mr. Wu came to me, asking for help. Now I’m coming to you. What I need you to do is help find Syling Wu.”
Kong shifted his weight.
“That’s a job for a P.I., or even more to the point—the police,” he said. “Not to mention, I don’t have the skills.”
POON LOOKED OUT THE WINDOW, then back at Kong. “Mr. Wu already has an investigator on it,” Poon said. “Unfortunately, he’s not the best. In fact, he comes across sort of creepy. Later this morning he’s going to be fired and replaced with someone infinitely better, a woman I know by the name of Brittany So Kwok. She’ll take the lead. What I want you to do is be at her disposal. If she calls you and asks to get something done, it needs to get done.”
“You mean dirty stuff,” Kong said.
Poon shrugged.
“Whatever,” he said. “We’re not going to have time to obey all the laws, or play nicey-nice with everybody, or leave it to unmotivated and underpaid civil servants. We need speed. We need someone who can cut through the crap and get the job done. A facilitator, if you will.”
> “Why the rush? Do you think she’s still alive?”
Wu grabbed Kong’s arm.
“She’s alive,” he said. He pounded his heart. “I can feel her, in here.”
Kong nodded.
Okay.
Fine.
Who was he to argue?
“Once we find out who took her, there’s going to be some sanitation work to do.”
Kong studied the man.
“What makes you think I would do something like that?”
Poon smiled.
“Why? Am I wrong?”
“I didn’t say you were wrong.”
“Okay then,” Poon said. “We appreciate your help. To show our appreciation, you’re going to be paid well.”
Kong smiled.
“Sounds reasonable,” he said.
Poon handed him an envelope.
“Good faith money,” he said. “Discretion is of the utmost importance. I’m sure you appreciate that.”
Kong did.
“Be sure Brittany So Kwak doesn’t get hurt.”
Kong nodded.
“I would be most unpleased if she got hurt,” Poon added. Then he slapped Kong on the back. “You like the Predator? It’s a nice boat, huh? Slices right through the chop.”
“Yes it does.”
KONG WAS ALMOST OUT THE DOOR when Poon grabbed his arm and said, “One more thing. You’ll find Brittany to be a very attractive lady. She’s here to do a job, not to be screwed, so be sure you keep it that way.”
“Is she a girlfriend of yours?”
Poon laughed.
“All the women in Hong Kong are my girlfriends of mine, even the ones who don’t know it yet,” he said. “Maybe someday you’ll have real money and understand what I’m talking about.”
“I already have real money.”
Poon shook his head.
“What you have is Saturday night fun money,” he said. “But maybe things will get better for you. Who knows?”
Chapter Forty-One
Day Six—August 8
Saturday Morning
______________
THE MEATY, MEAN-LOOKING COP asked Prarie and Emmanuelle if they stayed at the Sea View Hotel last night and, when they said “Yes,” wanted to know if they saw or heard anything.
Dead in Hong Kong (Nick Teffinger Thriller) Page 10
