The Goddess of Yantai

by Ian Hamilton

  “Ava,” Fai said from the entrance to the recovery room.

  Ava turned to look and saw that Fai wasn’t alone. Except the man with her wasn’t Lam. Walking a few paces behind her was the short, round, well-dressed and coiffed figure of her agent, Chen.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Ava exclaimed.

  “I’m so sorry to see you in this condition,” said Chen.

  “It’s a bit late for being sorry, isn’t it?”

  Fai reached the bedside, leaned down, and kissed Ava gently on the lips. “He phoned me just over an hour ago from the airport. He’d just landed. I couldn’t hold back when I heard his voice, so I unloaded on him. I told him about the video and Bai Lok, and Lau Lau.”

  “I got here as quickly as I could,” he said.

  “He did,” Fai said.

  “I never wanted anything like this to happen,” Chen said. “I know you and I have had our disagreements, but I also know that we both love and want what’s best for Fai. It’s true that I’ve been maybe a little jealous that you’re taking up some of my space and influence, and you must understand how afraid I’ve been for her future.”

  “That’s no reason to act the way you did.”

  “I apologize as sincerely as I can for the way I behaved at the premiere, and for the way I spoke to you on the phone.”

  “That’s not what I mean.”

  “But that’s all I can apologize for.”

  “Chen insists he’s had absolutely nothing to do with the video, the blackmail, or the attacks,” Fai said.

  “I swear to you on my mother’s memory that I know nothing about any of it.”

  Ava looked at him and then at Fai. Her face said she believed him, and his seemed desperate to be believed. “Are you telling me that you don’t have the video of Fai?”

  “I destroyed it the same day I got it. Xia brought me the DVD and I broke it into little pieces in front of him and Ms. Yi.”

  “Are you sure it was the DVD with Fai?”

  “Ms. Yi and I watched enough of it to confirm what Xia was telling us. You can call her now if you want to ask her what we saw and what we did with it.”

  “There must be another copy,” said Fai.

  Ava nodded. “I guess that’s possible. Bai Lok could have kept one. Except if he did, I think it would have been in the boxes we got from his brother. Ding Fa may have lied to us about never having seen a tape with you on it —”

  “He wouldn’t have lied about that,” Fai said.

  “How many copies did Xia bring you?” Ava asked Chen.

  “One.”

  “He could have made another and kept it,” Ava said.

  “Why would he have done that?” Fai asked.

  Ava looked at Chen. “At the time this happened, how was the relationship between you and him?”

  “It was rocky. He was champing at the bit to start his own business. It was obvious to me that I was going to lose him, and maybe I was a bit harder on him, a bit more demanding than I should have been.”

  “But he didn’t just pick up and leave, did he? He would have had a plan.”

  “When he gave me his notice, he had more than that. He had a plan, an office, staff, and the beginning of a roster of clients.”

  “And none of those things happened overnight,” Ava said. “So when he got possession of the DVD, he was already making plans. He knew you were going to become rivals.”

  “So he made a copy of the DVD and put it away as insurance,” Chen said. “It was something he could always use for leverage against me, or to strongarm Fai into changing agents.”

  “Then why didn’t he do either of those things?” Ava said.

  Chen shrugged. “Probably because he didn’t have to. He was successful from the first day he opened his business. I wasn’t any danger to him and he didn’t need to hurt Fai.”

  “So why has the video appeared now?”

  “I have no idea,” Chen said.

  Fai sat on the edge of the bed and placed a hand on top of Ava’s. “Ava, I think we should tell Chen the truth about Mo.”

  “What do you mean?” Chen asked.

  Ava looked at him, searching his face and body language for any sign of insincerity. He seemed to be genuinely confused. “Fai didn’t actually meet with Mo. I did, with an associate.”

  “I know. That’s why I phoned and yelled at you.”

  “You yelled at me after our first meeting with him. There was a second meeting. My associate and I went to the Hotel Kempinski in place of Fai. When Mo got to the room, we were waiting.”

  “That’s when Ava convinced him to drop his objections to the distribution of Mao’s Daughter and got him to promise to continue to support me,” Fai said.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this?” Chen said to Fai, his voice sharper.

  “You weren’t being particularly supportive and you didn’t seem to care what I had to do to make amends with Mo. I simply let you believe what you thought might be true,” Fai said. “Besides, what Ava did probably wasn’t legal. Why involve you in that?”

  “What in hell did you do?” Chen said to Ava.

  “Mo’s son is gay. I have pictures of him with his black boyfriend in some compromising circumstances. I told Mo I was prepared to make those photos and information public.”

  “He’s crazy about that boy,” Chen said.

  “So I was told, and so it appeared when I put the proposition to him, because he quite readily agreed to what I wanted.”

  “Lay off Fai and release Mao’s Daughter?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I wish I could have been there for that,” Chen said with a slight smile, which quickly disappeared. “But it’s odd. When I spoke with Mo later that day, after Fai told me she had met with him, he was calm, even friendly. This is a man who loses control of his anger over the tiniest of slights. He yells, he screams, he insults, he threatens, and then he carries the grudge forever. I’ve never known anyone more vengeful.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I have trouble believing that he could have kept control over his emotions when he was talking to me so soon after meeting with you and your friend,” Chen said. “Even if he didn’t want me to know what had transpired, I would have expected him to be, at best, terse, tight-lipped, and in a foul mood. Instead I got Mr. Friendly.”

  “Knowing him, and knowing now what we did to him, why do you think he was so friendly?” Ava asked. “Could it have been an act?”

  “How so?”

  “He could have wanted you to think that he and Fai were back on good terms and that there were no lingering hard feelings. He knew that was an impression you’d pass on to Fai, which you did, and he’d assume that Fai would tell me the same thing.”

  “Why would he do that?” Fai asked.

  “He could have decided to come after us but wanted to make it difficult for us to connect him to it, because of the threat I posed with his son’s photos. The blackmail attempt could have been a diversion, a smokescreen.”

  “The man in the balaclava?” Fai said.

  “He could have been hired to do the job.”

  “And what about the demands for money and the deadlines he set?”

  “Part of the diversion. I’m sure if we’d been stupid enough to pay, they’d have taken the money, but I’m convinced that the video was going to be released whether we paid or not. It was always about the video.”

  “And the attacks?” Fai asked.

  “They were directed squarely at me and could have been intended as payback. If he’s as vengeful and as angry a man as Chen says, he might not have been able to resist the temptation to hurt me.”

  “And he does all this without worrying about repercussions, about his son?” Fai said.

  “He has deniability, or so he believes
. He’s told Chen that he adores you again and that all the issues with Mao’s Daughter have been resolved. He believes there’s nothing to connect him to the video and we have nothing to connect him with the blackmail or the attacks — those were simply random events.”

  “But how did he get the video?” Fai asked.

  “Xia,” Ava and Chen said, virtually as one.

  ( 49 )

  They left the hospital at twelve-thirty. Ava wore what was left of her blue shirt and took with her a couple of painkillers and a prescription for more. They drove back to the hutong in Chen’s car. He sat in front with the driver but spent the entire trip facing the back seat as he talked with Ava and Fai.

  Ava’s antipathy towards him had begun to recede in the hospital. As he continued to analyze the situation and talk about the people involved, she found herself starting to respect his intelligence and his perception. That respect really started to kick in when he said, “I know we’ve both voiced the opinion that Xia gave the video to Mo, but I’m thinking it’s possible Mo doesn’t know the video exists. He may not know anything about the blackmail or the attacks. So, in terms of deniability, it could be real.”

  “Are you suggesting he’s not involved?” Ava said.

  “No, but I am suggesting that he may not be aware of the details, or at least all of them.”

  “Explain that to me.”

  “Mo doesn’t always operate in a straightforward manner. His language can have double meanings; he spins stories that you’re supposed to interpret and he has code words he likes to use. I eventually caught on, and I’m sure Xia did as well,” Chen said. “It’s possible that Mo could have reached out to Xia and insinuated that Fai had insulted him or degraded him in some way. He might have hinted that it was time she was taught a lesson, maybe even brought down, and there would have been the unspoken suggestion that it was a job he wanted Xia to take on.”

  “Without mentioning his real motivation?” Ava asked.

  “He wouldn’t have mentioned his son at all, let alone that you have photos that could embarrass him. Anyway, Xia is cold-blooded enough not to need real justification. The fact that Mo was angling for a favour would have been enough for him. He wouldn’t have cared that Mo wanted to hurt Fai. And my business being part of the collateral damage would have appealed to him.”

  “So you’re saying Mo didn’t know about the video when he reached out to Xia?”

  “It is at least possible. And I’m not even sure, if he did, that it would have come up in his conversation with Xia,” Chen said. “It is conceivable that Xia simply said he knew how the lesson could be taught and Mo trusted him enough to give him free rein.”

  “Conceivable or likely?”

  “More likely conceivable, because Mo is a stickler for detail,” Chen said, pleased with his play on words. “I presume that Xia would have given him some idea of what he had, and the impact it would have on Fai.”

  “So who came up with the idea for a phony blackmail scheme?”

  “After thinking about it a bit more, my guess is that it was Xia.”

  “And what about attacking me? Whose idea was that?”

  “That would have been an afterthought, a sort of ‘by the way.’ Mo is known for finishing meetings like that. Anyone who has dealt with him up close understands the importance of those afterthoughts. He would have said, ‘By the way, there’s this woman named Ava Lee who is a friend of Pang Fai. I never want to see her or talk to her again, and I’d like someone to make sure that isn’t possible, and I don’t care how it’s done.’”

  “Lovely.”

  “I know I’m presenting Xia and Mo in their worst possible light, but I’m not exaggerating.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  The question came from Fai as the car approached the entrance to the hutong.

  “I need to sleep on this,” Ava said.

  “Me too. It’s one thing to spin a conspiracy theory, but it’s something else to prove it and figure out how to deal with it,” Chen said.

  “We don’t have a lot of time. Whatever we do, we have to do it tomorrow,” Ava said.

  “Will you need me?” Chen asked.

  “Possibly, so be available.”

  Chen turned to Fai. “Is she always so bossy?”

  “She can be, but I don’t mind it, and neither should you.”

  “I wasn’t complaining.”

  The car stopped at the hutong. Fai climbed out with the Callaway umbrella and went around to Ava’s door. Chen joined them on the sidewalk.

  “There’s one thing I need to ask,” he said to Ava. “Were you prepared to release the photos of Mo’s son if he hadn’t agreed to co-operate with you?”

  “It would have been a really difficult decision for any number of reasons, and it’s something I would have hated to do.”

  “But you would have done it?”

  “At that point it would have been a choice between preserving Fai’s future or his son’s,” Ava said. “So yes, absolutely, I would have done it.”

  “And if he tries to fuck us over tomorrow or the day after?”

  “The photos will be released.”

  “Regardless of what happens to Fai?”

  “If I release the photos, it will mean that Fai’s video is already out there.”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  “Me neither. But if it does, I won’t hesitate,” Ava said. “Meanwhile, there are more important things for you to think about.”

  “Like what?”

  “Who should we meet with tomorrow? How will it be arranged? And what will we say when we have the opportunity?”

  “I’ll sleep on those questions,” Chen said. “When should we talk?”

  “Call Fai at nine,” Ava said, and began to walk down the hutong.

  Fai caught up with her after a few strides. The rain had started again. “It’s either rain or smog,” Fai said. “If I didn’t love my house so much, I’d move back to Yantai, where you can breathe and stay dry.”

  “Tell me,” Ava said, “did you believe everything Chen told us?”

  “You didn’t?”

  “I don’t know him as well as you.”

  Fai didn’t say anything at first. She kept walking, holding the umbrella over their heads. When they reached the door to the compound, she hesitated before opening it. “Chen is an agent, and like any agent, including Xia, he tells you what he thinks you want to hear and then convinces himself he’s being truthful. The difference is that Xia always sounds sincere, while Chen’s bullshit is so blatant it’s laughable. Tonight there was no bullshit.”

  “Thank you.”

  They entered the courtyard, Ava glancing left and right to make sure no one was lurking. As they started to walk to the house, Mr. Lam’s door opened and he came out to meet them.

  “How’s the arm?” he asked.

  “No bone damage,” Ava said.

  “That’s good.”

  “Thank you for everything you did for me.”

  “As I said, we’re family here.”

  He walked them to the door and waited until they got inside.

  “I need to take one of these painkillers and get to bed,” Ava said.

  “Do you need help undressing?” Fai asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Ava said, and then paused. “I should check my messages. I left my phone here when I went to the hospital.”

  Fai reached for Ava’s bag and handed it to her. Ava turned on the phone. She’d missed three calls. May Ling had called to congratulate her on closing the Sun deal and asked her to call back anytime. The other two were from Xu’s Shanghai number, and one was a message. She accessed it and heard Auntie Grace say simply, “Call me, please.” She hit the number.

  “Ava, thank goodness you called,” Auntie said.


  “What’s going on? You sound upset.”

  “Suen took Xu to the hospital a few hours ago.” Suen was Xu’s Red Pole, his enforcer, and his de facto second in command in Shanghai.

  “Why?”

  “The pills and rest didn’t help. I went to see him in his room around eight o’clock and he was still feverish, aching all over — especially in the neck. He had a headache and said he felt nauseous. What really scared me was that he was confused about where he was. I tried to call you, and when I couldn’t reach you, I called Suen. He drove him to the hospital.”

  “Have you heard from Suen since?”

  “No.”

  “Give me his phone number. I’ll call him.”

  “Then you’ll call me back?”

  “Of course.”

  Ava ended that call and immediately made the next. Suen’s phone rang five times. She was prepared for the voicemail prompt when he finally answered. “Suen,” he said quietly.

  “It’s Ava.”

  “I know. I’m not supposed to be using my phone in here. I’ve got the ringtone silenced, but I saw your number.”

  “I just spoke to Auntie Grace. She told me you took Xu to a hospital.”

  “We’re still here, and by the sounds of things he’s not getting out tonight or tomorrow.”

  “She said she thought he might have a bad flu.”

  “It isn’t flu,” Suen said. “They think its meningitis. They’re still running tests, and the big fear is that he has the bacterial strain rather than the viral one.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “The viral is curable and the bacterial can kill you. But if he has that, they’ve probably caught it early enough.”