The Water Rat of Wanchai

by Ian Hamilton

  “Can I have your passport, please?” Thomas said.

  There were two chairs in front of the desk. Robbins lowered himself slowly into one as Ava rooted through her bag. “Here you go,” she said.

  She put her bags on the floor, took the chair next to Robbins, and watched Thomas make a show of turning the pages of her passport. It held forty pages, the largest the Canadian government issued; she’d already filled thirty-two pages and was going to need a new one before the expiry date. “A world traveller,” he said, closing it.

  “It’s the nature of my business,” Ava said.

  Thomas looked at Robbins, pursed his lips, and reached down to open a desk drawer. Ava watched him slip the passport into the drawer and close it. “You have a friend who arrived here earlier this evening, a Derek Liang,” he said.

  “Yes,” Ava said, struggling to maintain her composure. “Captain Robbins told me he had made arrangements with you for Derek to land. I had expected to see him here.”

  “There were some problems with his paperwork,” said Thomas slowly. His eyes avoided hers and Robbins’s.

  “What kind of problems?” she asked.

  Thomas rolled his head from side to side. “His papers weren’t in order. We couldn’t let him stay. We picked him up at the apartment he had rented and put him on a plane headed back to Puerto Rico.” He looked at his watch. “He left about fifteen minutes ago. And just so we’re clear, we notified the Puerto Rican authorities that he shouldn’t be allowed to stay there either. I believe they intend to put him on the first flight back to Canada, which should leave around midnight tonight. To Montreal, I think.”

  Ava glanced at Robbins. His eyes were half closed, a slight grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. “This wasn’t what was agreed upon,” she said.

  Thomas raised his right hand and motioned to Robbins, his part in the proceedings done.

  The big man checked his watch, a Patek Philippe that was lost in the folds of flesh around his wrist. Ava wondered if it was real. Then she saw the back of his hands for the first time: red splotches of skin interspersed with black and green scabs. She turned her head away quickly.

  “There’s been a change in plans, Ms. Lee. My brother is scheduled to call here any minute now, so if you will be patient I’d appreciate it.”

  “Do I have another option?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Jack, you don’t need me anymore, do you? Because if you don’t mind I’ll take myself home,” Thomas said.

  “Say hello to Betty for me.”

  “I will,” Thomas said, rising from his chair.

  “Leave one of the men, will you?”

  “I’ll leave both.”

  “Only need the one.”

  “Okay. Just close the door when you go. It locks itself.”

  When Thomas left, the room seemed suddenly empty. Ava shifted in her chair, and then to her shock Robbins’s gloved right hand shot out and grabbed her upper arm. He squeezed, his fingers digging through her flesh until they reached bone. She flinched, more from surprise than pain. “My brother warned me about you,” he said. “I’m just telling you it would be stupid to try anything with me.”

  “I had no intention—” she began, only to be cut off by the sound of a cellphone ringing to the tune of the William Tell overture.

  “It’s me,” Robbins said. He listened for a few seconds. “No, it went well. She’s sitting next to me.” He paused and then passed the phone to Ava.

  Ava wiped the mouthpiece against her shirt. “This is Ava Lee.”

  “Before anything else is said, let me immediately apologize for this untimely departure from our plans.”

  She heard the clink of ice against glass. He was at home. Drinking. “Captain, what exactly is going on?”

  He laughed, or coughed; she wasn’t sure which. “I felt it necessary to make some changes to our arrangement.”

  “So your brother told me, though he was somewhat lacking in detail.”

  “The thing is, Ms. Lee, you didn’t play fair with me.”

  She sensed at once where this was headed, but she wasn’t going to go there first. “As I remember, Captain, I paid you $100,000 for services rendered, and then another $200,000 for services that so far have been unfulfilled. So in terms of being fair, I think I’m the one who should have be complaining.”

  “You aren’t the least bit curious as to why I feel aggrieved?”

  “We have an agreement, one that I’ve completely honoured. I don’t need to know any more than that.”

  “The thing is,” he said again, slurring the s, “I’ve found out that you’ve been less than forthcoming with me.”

  Ava closed her eyes. Had this been his plan all along? Had he arranged to get her and Seto to the British Virgin Islands just so he could squeeze her? Had the note with his daughters’ names and phone numbers just been theatre? “Captain, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Ice clinked. “I stopped by Seto’s house on the way back from the airport tonight and had a chat with his woman,” he said slowly. “Don’t know why I did it, actually; it just came to me that it was the thing to do. Anyway, she was quite open with me after a little persuasion. It seems that our friend Seto had made quite a score for himself. According to her, he’s managed to turn a recent profit in the amount of about five million United States dollars.”

  She didn’t know if she believed a word of it, but her position wasn’t going to change. “There was no profit. There was just theft,” she said.

  “So you concede the amount?”

  “Captain, I never misled you about how much money I was chasing. I don’t remember ever mentioning an amount.”

  “And you know, I don’t think you did either, so that’s true enough. The fault is mine, of course. I couldn’t imagine Seto being that successful. But now, belatedly I admit, I find out that he is evidently more clever than I thought. And so here we are, Ms. Lee . . . Let me ask you, given this new information, do you really think it’s fair that I should have to settle for just $300,000?”

  “Yes, I do,” Ava said.

  “You disappoint me, Ms. Lee. I mean, really, without our very active and unique support, where would you be? I’ll tell you: you’d be sitting at the Phoenix Hotel with no hope of getting at Seto or his money. Yes, I think that’s exactly where you would be.”

  “Possibly,” she said.

  “And even if you had contrived to get your hands on him, where were you going to go with him? Nowhere, I tell you, although you might have ended up in Camp Street Prison for kidnapping, or worse.”

  Robbins’s voice had risen an octave, his words coming faster. Ava waited for a few seconds, not jumping to respond. When she did, she said as softly and deliberately as she could, “I assume you want to make a proposition.”

  “Of course I do. I think that we have to revisit our agreement, that we need to make it less one-sided.”

  “You’re looking for more money?”

  “It’s only fair.”

  “It isn’t my money to give. It belongs to my client,” she said.

  “That’s a quibble. All I know for certain is that the money is in a bank account belonging to Seto. How it got there is your word against his. In fact, the case could be made that you tried to bribe a Guyanese government official to help you fraudulently deprive a Guyanese resident of his hard-earned assets.”

  Ava bit back the anger that was swelling up from her stomach. Seto had been an idiot to tell the woman. She had probably confessed everything the moment the Captain asked his first question. As for him, well, he was turning out to be exactly what she had feared he was. She just wished he could have been contained for another day or two. But there was nothing positive to be gained in getting angry about any of it. She tried to shift the conversation. “You know, Captain, all this talk about money is still completely hypothetical. There is no guarantee that the bank will release any funds at all to me.”

  He laughed, phlegm c
atching in his throat and causing him to cough. “I have absolute confidence in the approach you described to me,” he said, catching his breath. “I found it entirely sensible, and when I factor in your persuasiveness and your appeal, well, I think the approach goes well past sensible all the way to irresistible. So humour me, please, and let’s talk about money, hypothetical or otherwise.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Half,” he said bluntly.

  The figure took her aback. He was even greedier, even more aggressive than she’d imagined. “Captain —”

  “I want $2,500,000.”

  Ava held the phone against her neck as she did two quick calculations. The first was how much negotiating leverage she had. The answer was short and brutal: absolutely none that she could think of at the moment, and the moment was all that mattered now. They had her passport and, more important, she was in a place where she had no connections, no support, no backup. All it would take was one quick phone call to the bank from some BVI crony of Robbins and the entire deal would be blown apart.

  The second calculation was how much money she would have left if she drained Seto’s bank account and paid Robbins what he wanted. Not enough to make Tam whole, but he would get bandaged up. “Captain, that amount is way too high,” she said.

  “Don’t be stupid. I think half is fair for all the trouble I’ve gone to. In fact, when I really think about it, half is generous on my part.”

  He’d been under control until then, not pleasant but not harsh either, just confident and insistent. Now she detected the first real threat in his tone. He was drinking, and dollar signs were dancing in his head. This isn’t the time to aggravate him, Ava thought. It’s time to pull back. “I’ve already given you $300,000.”

  “What?”

  “I’ve paid you $300,000, and I think that needs to be factored into any agreement.”

  He laughed again, and when he spoke he was back in control. “Always negotiating, aren’t you? But you are correct, of course. So where does that leave us?”

  Both of them went quiet. Ava had no idea what he was thinking. All she knew was that she had to negotiate some kind of deal or she wasn’t going to leave the airport. And there was only one deal on the table. She needed to get into Road Town; she needed to get to the bank; she needed to buy time. “Discounting the $300,000 would mean we pay you $2,200,000,” said Ava.

  “Are you saying you will pay or you might pay that amount?”

  “Will.”

  “Ah, I knew you were too clever to do anything else.”

  “I still need to call Hong Kong —”

  “No,” he said. “No Hong Kong. No calls. You and I have made the deal and we’ll leave it that.”

  “I’m not sure —”

  “I’m sure,” he snapped. “No Hong Kong. No calls. You go to the bank tomorrow and work your charm. Have them send the $2,200,000 to my account and then you can send whatever you want overseas and explain everything later to your people there. I’m sure they’ll understand why it was necessary to do things this way. I mean, a bird in the hand —”

  “You know, it isn’t going to be as simple as you think,” she said as calmly and softly as she could, and then waited for another eruption.

  She heard him breathing, and then another clink of ice. “I think you need to explain exactly what you mean by that,” he said, the edge creeping back into his voice.

  “Transferring the money directly from Seto’s account to your account could cause a problem,” Ava said.

  “Why?”

  “Well, I’ve already established the parameters for my meeting. The banker has been told — by Seto, he believes — that the money is being placed in an investment in China. He thinks Seto and I are going to show up at his office tomorrow morning to execute the paperwork. Instead, I’m the only one who’s going to be there. I think I can talk my way around Seto’s absence, but even if he thinks I’m credible, he still needs to see Seto’s identification and he still needs Seto’s signature on a whole bunch of documents. Will he accept the signatures without actually seeing Seto? That’s my hope, Captain, but it is by no means certain. He’s going to be suspicious enough when I show up without Seto, and even more suspicious when I deliver him signed documents but still without Seto. Now, by sending money to the Cayman Islands, what you want me to do is compound all that uncertainty by changing the terms of the arrangement Seto emailed to him.” Ava stopped to let the Captain absorb the information.

  She felt Jack Robbins looking at her. He was obviously listening. “Given those circumstances, I can guarantee, Captain, that the moment I tell him we now want only half of the money to go to Asia, and the other half to be sent to a bank account in the Cayman Islands, alarm bells are going to ring in his head. And, Captain, we don’t want any alarm bells, because no capable banker can ignore them, and a bank as good as Barrett’s will have someone very capable running a branch as sensitive as this one. It’s all in the optics, Captain. Change the optics and you change the reaction. Change the reaction and you put the outcome at risk. The optics now are okay — not great, just okay. If we alter the plan now, it would only hurt us both.”

  She knew none of that would have occurred to him. Now she hoped he wasn’t too drunk to think things through.

  “If what you say is true . . .” he finally said.

  “It is true.”

  “Okay, assuming it is, and assuming you follow your plan, how do I get my money?”

  “We’ll wire it to you from Hong Kong,” Ava said. “If tomorrow I can get the bank to send us the money, we’ll have it the day after. We’ll send you your share right away. So we’re talking, what with the time change, three days?”

  “Three days,” he repeated.

  “And I’ll be here, of course. I’m not going anywhere. My passport is in Morris Thomas’s drawer.”

  “I know where your passport is.”

  Now is the time, she thought. “So, Captain, as much as I hate to ask, do we have a deal?”

  The Captain fell silent. He was making her wait. She knew he was going to say yes, but he had to remind her who was dominant. “I’d like you to give your cellphone to my brother,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  She opened her bag, took out her phone, and handed it to Jack Robbins. “Done,” she said.

  “What do you think of my brother?”

  “You can certainly tell you had the same mother.”

  “Actually, his personality is closer to hers than mine,” the Captain said. “In any event, you’ll get to know him better, because he’s going to be staying with you for the next three days, or for however long it takes us to conclude our business.”

  “That’s completely unnecessary,” she said.

  “It’s what I want.”

  “Captain, you have my passport and you have my cellphone. Where exactly do you think I’ll go? What do you think I’ll do?”

  “I don’t know what you could get up to. All I know is that you’re resourceful, and I don’t want to have to worry about you.”

  “If it has to be —” she began.

  He cut her off. “Good. Now put the phone on speaker mode.”

  She pressed the speaker button and then held the phone out to his brother. It seemed to get swallowed up by the gloved hand. “Go ahead,” he said.

  “Jack, Ms. Lee and I have reached an agreement that I think is fair. In fact, you could consider us business partners. Now, she has to run to the bank at least once tomorrow. You’re the chauffeur and the bodyguard. Make sure no harm comes to her. Make sure that she is well looked after otherwise.”

  “She’ll be fine.”

  “As we talked about earlier, you’ll stay at the apartment they rented. No phone calls. No computer. Nothing. She doesn’t communicate with anyone but you, me, and the bank . . . Now, Ms. Lee, please put the phone back on regular mode.”

  “Okay, it’s just me,” she said, holding the phone awa
y from her face and wondering what skin ailment forced Jack Robbins to wear latex gloves.

  “It’s very simple: we have your passport and you’re not leaving the islands without it. And to be completely honest, you’re not leaving the islands even if you do have it, because Thomas has put your name on a watch list. If you try to leave you will be stopped and detained. I didn’t need to say that, but I thought you should know that we’re being careful.”

  “I understand,” she said, not pleased to hear how thorough he had been. “What you said to your brother about the computer, though — that could be a problem. How do you expect me to send instructions about a wire transfer to your account?”

  “Did you send instructions by computer for my $300,000?”

  “I did.”

  “Are they still in your system?”

  “They are.”

  “Well, when you’re ready to send new instructions, show the old ones to Jack and then follow the exact same routine. He’ll be watching, of course.”

  “Of course. One other thing, Captain — something I do have to ask. What happens if, even with my best efforts, I can’t convince the bank manager to release Seto’s money?”

  “That’s not the outcome I expect.”

  “You have too much faith in me.”

  “You’ll get it done.”

  “But if I can’t?” she persisted.

  “That’s a conversation for another day,” he said. Then he went quiet.

  Has he gone? Ava wondered. “Captain?”

  “I want you to behave for my brother,” he said, as if he were talking to a child.

  “Of course.”

  “And Ms. Lee — Ava, I want you to know that I have the greatest respect for you. This isn’t personal; this is just business. We — me and you — are professionals, so I know you’ll see the fairness in it.”

  “I understand,” she said.

  “As for my daughters,” he went on, “I meant what I said when you were leaving Guyana. When this is over and we each have our money and you’re back safely in Toronto, I’d like you to call them, I really would.”

  “Captain, don’t worry about your daughters,” Ava said.