The Trophy Taker

by Lee Week

  Man Po turned to grin at Ka Lei. Lucy smacked him on the back of the head and he thought better of looking back again.

  They reached the hotel.

  ‘Do you need us to wait?’ Max asked.

  ‘No, we will manage.’

  The sisters left the taxi and walked towards the hotel entrance. The concierge held the door open for them, and Lucy discreetly handed him a tip. Ka Lei looked like a frightened rabbit. Lucy took her arm firmly and they walked to where Lucy would be sitting and where Ka Lei could find her later.

  For a second Lucy thought her sister was going to run – she could feel the tension in Ka Lei’s body – but she held on to her fast. There would be no turning back now, not now they had come this far.

  They reached the place where they would separate and Lucy steered her sister towards the lifts. She watched Ka Lei’s slim frame being swallowed up by hotel guests, in elegant evening attire, making their way to the cocktail lounge to relax over their Martinis and catch the harbour views before dinner. She looked again towards the lift and watched the doors start to close. She was half-expecting Ka Lei to come running back out. She did not. She was gone.

  Lucy sat down on one of the lobby chairs to wait. She heaved a big sigh, a monumental sigh that caught in her throat and came out as a groan. Although Lucy felt full of remorse for what her sister was about to go through, she also felt a glimmer of hope inside her. The debt was almost dealt with – three-quarters of it was gone, or as good as. It was a small thing, in the end – virginity. Lucy had sold hers to a Taiwanese when she was much younger than Ka Lei. She had sold herself to feed them both, when their mother’s money had run out. What else could she do? Hong Kong wouldn’t look after them, they had to do it for themselves or die. ‘Virginity’ was just a word. Inside was what counted. Time would heal; Ka Lei would forget.

  Lucy cut the mental process of self-recrimination short as she caught sight of a likely punter. She wondered how audacious it would be to proposition him in the lobby of such a great hotel.

  At the same time as her sister was being raped, Lucy was giving her number to an Australian businessman.

  52

  Lucy expected to see Ka Lei reappear from the lifts at any time, but instead she got a call from Chan telling her to come and collect her sister.

  The door to the suite was ajar. She walked through the lounge and into the bedroom where she discovered Ka Lei alone, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  ‘Ka Lei?’ Lucy tried to steady her sister as she rocked back and forth on the edge of the bed. ‘Ka Lei, I’ve come to take you home.’

  She was a mess: her hair hung over her face and her nose was running.

  Lucy went into the bathroom to fetch tissue and tried to wipe her face for her, but Ka Lei pushed her hand away. Instead, she wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

  Just when Lucy was beginning to wonder how she was going to manage the situation, Ka Lei stood up, her fists tight to her sides. Her head was bowed.

  ‘Are you ready to go?’ Lucy asked, as she smoothed Ka Lei’s hair and pulled the creases from her blouse. Ka Lei nodded. Lucy tried to check her face to make sure she wasn’t looking too horrendous, but Ka Lei pulled away from her and Lucy decided it was probably best just to go.

  Ka Lei followed her sister, shadow-like, out into the corridor and into the lift. She walked through the lobby, head down, taking small steps, following in her sister’s path, staring at her sister’s heels.

  Outside, they hailed a taxi and travelled home in silence. Once or twice Lucy tried to whisper some consolation into her sister’s ear, but Ka Lei wasn’t listening. As soon as they entered the flat Ka Lei walked straight into Georgina’s room and closed the door behind her. Lucy sat in the kitchen and listened to her sister sobbing.

  Lucy phoned Georgina. She didn’t know what else to do – the door was firmly shut in her face and yet she knew how deeply her sister was hurting, and how much she needed to be helped by someone. Better Georgina than no one, Lucy surmised, although she wished it could have been different. Georgina had known nothing about the deal. Lucy knew she’d never be able to do it otherwise – two against one and Lucy would have lost. But neither of them could understand the importance of paying back the debt. Their view of life was very different to Lucy’s. They lived in a more innocent world. Lucy knew that whatever it took, it had to be done.

  She waited for Georgina in the lounge, hoping to talk with her when she returned. But Georgina burst through the door and cut Lucy off mid-sentence as she strode through to the bedroom to find Ka Lei.

  They talked for hours. Lucy sat in the kitchen listening to them, straining to hear what was being said. Occasionally she heard Ka Lei start sobbing again, and as that subsided the whispering would start. Eventually there was silence, and Lucy went to bed knowing that she had a lot of reconciling to do. She would have to make it up to her sister somehow.

  53

  Chan left the hotel room with a new spring in his step. He felt like such a man. The smoothness of her skin, the way her black silky sheets of hair fell over her tiny shoulders when she slumped forward trying to hide her nakedness from him. The sound of her whimpers as he had entered her. He was on a high that gave him a hard-on several times a day. He would have to own her. He would have to have sole access to her. From this moment on she would know no other man but him. Perhaps she would even bear him a child? God knows he was sick of waiting for his wife to produce one. Not that he ever saw her much. She spent her life in the tennis club or the shopping mall with friends. Luckily for Chan, she had no idea what his life was like.

  But Victoria Chan knew more about her husband’s affairs than he realised. She knew all about his concubines – ‘the old faithful’ and ‘the young greedy’. It wasn’t that she kept tabs on him. His infidelity was never in question. It was rather that it didn’t concern her.

  Victoria was beautiful and sophisticated. Her flower arrangements were second to none and she could estimate the number of bottles of Bollinger needed for any event down to the last magnum. On the surface Victoria seemed to be perfectly happy with her marriage. She had her own life and her own room. With immense wealth, the cloak of matrimony about her and an absentee husband, she could do as she pleased. She made sure she was the first to carry the latest Fendi bag, be seen at the chicest restaurants, and the one who always beat the good-looking tennis coach, game set and match. And she made sure her husband knew nothing about her. She was saving herself. She had put her life on hold until something better came along. Chan passed over her life like an unwelcome gust of wind over a new hairdo.

  Chan would not be headed home that night. He would ring and leave a message for his wife on the house phone – she was probably down at the tennis club, working on her backhand again. He had schemes to hatch and people to see that night. He had thought of a way to get what he wanted. If he pressurised Lucy enough then she would have no choice but to comply with his demands. And Chan knew just how he would do it. Someone would have to get very hurt. Then Lucy would be really scared. Then she would agree to anything.

  54

  The next morning, Lucy was up before the others. Today was a new day. She was determined that it would be a new start for them all. Lucy’s guilty secret was out and aired and nearly dealt with. In time, Ka Lei would realise it wasn’t so bad.

  Lucy tidied the flat and then she went out and bought some cakes for their breakfast and small gifts for Ka Lei and Georgina – a peace offering – a bracelet for Georgina and a hair ornament for Ka Lei. She made tea. She sat and waited. She heard Ka Lei start sobbing again. She heard Georgina – still comforting, whispering. Lucy made tea and she waited.

  She took the gifts from their bags and placed them on top of the breakfast bar. She leaned her head against the wall behind and waited. It was a new sensation to her – loneliness. She and Ka Lei had always dealt with things together. How had she ended up sitting alone?

  Now she was waiting for a chance to say sorry
. She looked about the flat. It was true, it was a mess, but it had a dingy homeliness that she had always found comforting. The evenings they had sat together in this flat, planning futures that now seemed impossible, all those times she had taken for granted. That one day Ka Lei would stop loving her? That was something she’d never thought would happen. Now, the flat was turned into a strange place, full of unfamiliar things – Georgina’s things. It was all so changed. But she had to face the facts: they blamed her for everything and she deserved it. She stared at Georgina’s bedroom door. It was covered in photos of Ka Lei and Georgina. Lucy thought about the nights she had slept huddled with her sister and the comfort that she had taken for granted.

  She sat and cried. She let go of tears that she had been holding inside for more than a decade. She had looked after Ka Lei since she was a baby. Ever since their mother had stopped coming home every night. Sometimes Lucy was hungry. Sometimes the baby seemed to cry forever. Lucy had gone to the old man in the shop below and asked for some food for the baby, and the man in the shop had told her how to feed her sister with a bottle. The tiny baby had felt so heavy that her arms shook with the strain of holding her, but she never let go. She spoke to her all the time, and sometimes the baby stopped her suckling to listen to what Lucy was saying. Sometimes she stopped to smile and the milk spilled from her mouth, which made Lucy laugh.

  By the time Lucy was ten she had taken full charge of Ka Lei. Their mother came and went, sometimes disappearing for a week at a time. When she returned she was always very tired, and so Lucy had two babies to look after. Her mother would sleep for days, but she could not stay once she was rested.

  At first Lucy pleaded with her to stay, but it was of no use. In the end, Lucy only welcomed her back for the money she left on the table. Sometimes it was a lot of money. Lucy hid it, saving it away so that the baby would never be hungry again.

  When Lucy was eleven and Ka Lei was four, their mother was found drifting facedown among the boats at Aberdeen. By then Lucy had saved enough money to last the sisters a year.

  Lucy’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the click of a door handle, and she wiped her face hurriedly. Georgina came out to make some tea for her and Ka Lei. She didn’t look at Lucy.

  ‘I boug you tese.’ Lucy pushed the gifts towards Georgina. Georgina glanced at them then went back to making tea.

  ‘I am sorry, Georgina. I had no choice. I owe too much money. I lose it gambling. So stupid. I am sorry. Had to pay it back. There was no other way. Had no choice.’

  Georgina stopped and turned towards Lucy. Her eyes were swollen with crying and her hands were shaking with anger.

  ‘You had no choice?’

  ‘Believe me. I feel so bad but …’

  ‘You had no choice?’ Her voice was breaking with rage. ‘You sold your sister to pay off your gambling debt.’ She shook her head and lifted her palms towards the ceiling at the horror of it all. ‘How could you do that?’

  Lucy attempted her explanation again. Georgina wasn’t listening. She shook her head in disbelief. ‘What is the going price for virginity these days? How much did you get for your sister?’ She turned to glare at Lucy. Her eyes burned as they filled with tears. Lucy looked away. She didn’t like the hatred that she saw.

  ‘Mr Chan say the debt is nearly finish now. I can work off the rest.’ She lied as much to herself as anyone else. No final settlement figure had been reached. She could only hope that this would be an end to it.

  ‘Yeah, right.’ Georgina picked up the tea and turned back to Lucy. ‘You can never repair the damage you’ve done to Ka Lei, Lucy – never.’ Then she went back into her room.

  Lucy was stunned. She realised that, for the first time in her life, she was in danger of losing her sister. That thought hit Lucy like a punch in the stomach.

  Ka Lei was curled into a ball. She lay on the bed and stared at the closed bedroom door, knowing that her sister was sitting on the other side. Her world was crumbling. She didn’t know how to maintain her balance. She only knew she must hang on to Georgina. Georgina was both her trapeze and her safety net. Lucy was the missed catch. Georgina was the person Ka Lei wanted to be with – she was her future. Somehow Lucy had blurred in Ka Lei’s mind to become someone else – a deceiver and a stranger. Now she was mourning the loss of her sister.

  ‘You all right, Ka Lei?’ Georgina sat down beside her.

  ‘I don’t understand why she did those things – bad things – hurt everybody. I don’t understand any more. But she is my sister. It is Lucy. It’s very hard for me. I love Lucy – but it’s so difficult now.’ She shook her head, confused, and stared at the door. Then, turning to Georgina, her eyes full of panic, she said: ‘Please don’t leave me, Georgina. I will die if you leave me.’

  Georgina took her hands. ‘Look into my eyes, Ka Lei. What do you see?’

  Ka Lei peered into them and smiled.

  ‘I see me.’

  ‘That’s because we are in each other’s souls – you and me. I am in you and you are in me. That will never change. Never. I belong here in Hong Kong. I belong here with you. I never realised how lonely I was until I came here. You are my best friend and my sister all in one.’

  ‘For me also. When I tink sometin – you say it! It very funny.’

  ‘I know! It is strange and wonderful. It makes me so happy to know that I have you and that we will always belong to one another. Everything will be all right – you’ll see.’

  55

  The next morning was one of the rare occasions that Mann, Ng and Li were in the office at the same time. The Superintendent joined them. Mann placed the autopsy photo of Beverly Mathews’ decapitated head next to the old one taken at her cousin’s wedding three weeks before her death.

  ‘He seems to have a thing for good-looking women,’ said the Superintendent, who was looking over Mann’s shoulder as he added the pictures of Gosia and Roxanne. ‘He has a clear type that he likes.’

  ‘Not precise …’ said Ng.

  ‘No, you’re right. Some serial killers narrow it down to the colour, length and centre parting of the victim’s hair. Not our man. He just likes a good-looking woman of a certain age and ethnicity,’ said the Super.

  ‘Which fits a lot of women in the entertainment industry here in Hong Kong,’ added Mann, ‘and since we asked for information we’ve had lots of new leads to follow. We have missing women being reported at the rate of one a day at the moment. Most of them turn up within forty-eight hours.’

  ‘I wish we knew more about him,’ said the Super.

  ‘All we are certain of is that he lives here in Hong Kong and has for the last eighteen years. He knows the terrain well. He has some medical or butchery skills. Because of his treatment of women – he bites – it would indicate an infancy problem. The profilers say that he has missed out on a whole section of maternal, feminine nurturing. All that shit. So, they’re saying he has no mother, either she left or she died, and that unhinged him,’ said Mann.

  ‘Do they think he lives alone or with someone who knows what he is doing?’ asked the Superintendent.

  ‘They suspect someone within his family knows about the bodies. The way he holds on to them – he has to keep them somewhere. Someone else has to know. He might have an accomplice.’

  ‘He must be wealthy enough to have his own transport, unless it comes with his work. Wealthy enough to be able to get close to the girls – they’re not likely to follow some tramp back home. These girls cost big money,’ said the Superintendent. ‘And, these women stick out like sore thumbs. It wouldn’t be easy to kidnap them off the streets – possible, but not easy in these crowds.’

  ‘Yes. You’d have a hard job persuading one to go quietly without attracting too much attention. He must have a clever way of gaining their trust, or he must have mega bucks,’ said Mann.

  ‘Where is he storing them? It must take up a lot of room, keeping these bodies on ice? He has to have a lot of freezer space,’ said the Superintend
ent.

  ‘He doesn’t have to own the freezers – maybe he has them at work,’ answered Mann.

  ‘But why get rid of them now?’

  ‘He is being disturbed in some way,’ said Ng.

  ‘We are not ruling out triad involvement,’ Mann added.

  The Superintendent looked at him curiously. ‘Can’t see what the angle would be. They make their money from drugs, prostitution, gambling and people trafficking. I don’t think it is a triad – too messy, too careless. Not their kind of thing. They invest in mainstream entertainment, restaurants, clubs, taxi firms, legit businesses. Anyway, keep me informed.’

  The Superintendent left. Two minutes later Li got a phone call. He listened intently and scribbled notes onto a pad on his desk. He turned to Mann as the call ended.

  ‘That was forensics, boss. You asked whether Roxanne Berger had bitten her tongue. She had.’

  ‘Did you work out why?’

  He looked at his scribbled notes. ‘Electrocuted during the torture?’

  ‘Correct. Anything else?’

  ‘Gosia too. A biopsy of her nipple showed that she had tissue damage from an electrode. No nipple damage for Roxanne, though.’

  ‘He probably used a cattle prod. What about the fly larvae?’

  ‘Two sets – unhatched – one set before they were frozen, second set got in the bag.’

  ‘Means they were frozen within twenty-four hours.’

  ‘Except Beverly, she had pupae, not far from hatching, the pathologist said.’

  ‘So, she was different. It was at least a week before she got frozen, or disposed of.’

  ‘Why’s she different?’

  ‘Because she was the first.’

  56

  Mann was headed to the bars in Tsim Sha Tsui east. On the way he passed the Albert. It wouldn’t hurt to call in – see if Mandy had any information for him. He might even catch a glimpse of Georgina.