Joe fagan 04 the jade mo.., p.19
Joe Fagan 04 The Jade Mountain Queen, page 19
part #4 of Joe Fagan Series
Tommy sat on a chair in the corner. “I wasn’t going to sit about while Nancy was out there.”
Fagan gave Walter a hard stare.
“Don’t blame me. He was coming anyway, so I came with him.”
“Tommy?” Cathy stepped out from behind Fagan.
Tommy stood up. “Cathy, what are you doing here? I’ve been trying to call you.”
Cathy rushed up and threw her arms around him. The two hugged like long-lost lovers. Tommy pulled his head back to look at her, seeing the bruise on her face.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
“It is a crazy nightmare.” She blurted out her version of what had happened.
“My God.” Tommy held on to her and looked across at Fagan. “Thank you.”
Fagan nodded but said nothing.
“Are you two?” Walter asked the question while waving his chopsticks like a magic wand, as if the spell would command them to answer.
Tommy kept a hold on to Cathy and gave an embarrassed smile. “I suppose you could say that. I was in Manila most weeks when Nancy was in Med-School. Cathy was her roommate. The three of us would go out to dinner together. Sometimes when Nancy had too much work.” He shrugged.
“And you didn’t?” Walter said, looking at Cathy.
“Nancy was always a workaholic,” Cathy said. “I became a doctor because my entire family are doctors. So for me, it was inevitable. For Nancy, it was an obsession. She lived and breathed it. All day, all night.”
“So,” Tommy said. “When Nancy was working nights, Cathy and I would go out together. Things just happened, we — ”
“Hey.” Walter cut in. “Too much information. Save it for confession.”
“Where is Nancy?” Tommy looked across at Chen, who had ventured back into the room. “Can’t you track her down?”
Chen shrugged. “She’s off the grid at the moment. I have to wait for her to connect again.”
“Walter is always telling me you eat difficult problems for breakfast?”
Chen glanced across at Walter.
“Do you want me to contact my friend, Aldo,” Walter said, referring to his cyber-genius friend back in Italy. “See what he can find.”
“No,” Chen said, a little too quickly. “I’ll find her. But we have more pressing issues.” He glanced across at Fagan. “We’re still in big trouble. Two of the biggest, baddest gangs in China will be out there looking for us.”
“Two?” Walter said.
“The Bamboo Tiger and the Snakehead, and on top of that, we have the PSB.”
“We’ve been gone little more than a day,” Walter said. “And you have the scariest bits of the People’s Republic of China chewing at your ass. I think maybe you need to catch us up on what’s going on.”
Fagan shrugged and gave them a quick rundown.
“It still doesn’t explain what the PSB were doing there,” Walter said. “How come they are involved. I thought this was about some Hong Kong lowlife called Eddie Tang.”
“It’s gone way beyond that,” Fagan said. “The PSB were there at Cathy’s place because they were looking for Nancy. The big surprise was, they didn’t arrest Cathy. They took her to the Bamboo Tiger. Not what I would have expected.” Fagan looked across at Chen.
“Business,” Chen said. “Colonel Zei is the local head of the PSB. Rumor is, he is part owner of the club you visited.”
“Part owner?”
“Even the PSB can’t flaunt the rules openly. He has a partner.”
“And who is that?”
“Well, he has someone in place running it for him, but everyone in Shanghai knows his partner is in Hong Kong.”
“Which means what?”
“The Colonel is doing someone a favor,” Tommy said. “On the surface, it’s Jimmy Kwok, the face behind the Bamboo Tiger, and the guy who runs the Golden Dragon casino in Macao, along with a bunch of clubs and bars in Hong Kong. Rumor is —”
“More rumors?” Fagan said.
“It’s what Hong Kong runs on. Jimmy Kwok runs the Bamboo Tiger, but he has a silent partner.”
“Who is?”
“Nobody’s telling.”
“So what’s going on here? Why are these people looking for Nancy? She has nothing to do with this.”
“It depends what this is,” Fagan said. “It’s time we stood back and looked at the bigger picture.”
“And just what picture is that?” Tommy said. “Maybe you should tell us about your cozy chat with my Uncle Wei.” He stood up and looked directly at Fagan. “When we were in the police station Walter and I were together, but they kept you separate. For a couple of hours, I seem to recall. Tell me that Uncle Wei didn’t drop in for a little chat.”
“Your uncle worries about you. He’s trying to keep you safe.”
“Well, he’s doing a great job of that.”
“All of this is hardly your uncle’s fault,” Walter said.
“Maybe not, but he knows more than he’s telling. I’m sure of that.” He looked at Fagan. “Tell me I’m wrong, Joe.”
“I think maybe we should all get some rest.”
“No, we’re all in this now. Nancy is out there, God knows where, and these people are looking for her. We have a right to know what’s going on.”
Fagan sat down in a wooden chair at the end of the table. “Is there anything to drink around here?”
Chen disappeared then arrived back with his arms full of green beer bottles. “One of the benefits of your relatives owning a restaurant.” He gave Fagan a nervous smile and handed out the beers. “I thought it best if we avoided the hard stuff.”
Tommy took a generous pull from his bottle, then looked at Fagan. “So Joe, I think we’re all sitting comfortably.”
“As I said, your Uncle Wei was only trying to protect you.”
“I think we’re past that now.”
Fagan shrugged and took a long drink of his beer. He put the bottle on the table and settled his eyes on Tommy. “When we were at the police station, your Uncle Wei showed me the autopsy report on your dad.”
“Why did he show it to you and not me?”
“You should ask him that.”
“It’s the crime scene thing, isn’t it? Dad didn’t have a heart attack. I knew it.”
“He did, but there was more to it than that.”
“What are you saying?”
“Someone tortured him.”
“What?”
“Maybe we should ask why? If we put all these pieces together, you, your father, and now Nancy, we come up with something more than a simple fallout over drugs.”
“Which we never had, ” Tommy blurted out.
“There’s a bigger picture here, and we need to work out what it is.”
“And you’re saying Nancy is part of this bigger picture?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. Why was Eddie Tang interested in Nancy?” Fagan continued pushing, hoping something would fall out of this. “Why would she be involved with Eddie’s drug smuggling?”
“She wasn’t. She isn’t,” Tommy said.
“She is a medical doctor?” Walter chipped in.
“No way. If you knew anything about Nancy, you would know how ridiculous that is. She would sooner cut off her right arm than get involved with illegal drugs.”
“Okay,” Fagan said. “I agree. From what I know about Nancy, she would never do that. But could Eddie have been putting the squeeze on her, threatening her, or you, or your Dad. Just like he did with you?”
“She never said anything.”
“Did you tell her about your problems?”
“I only told Dad. I didn’t want to bother her.”
“Do you think he did?”
“I doubt it, for the same reason.”
“Which brings us back to Nancy?” Fagan asked, looking at Tommy. “But why?”
“I have no idea.” Tommy looked him directly in the eye. “Don’t look at me. I don’t know.”
“She’s your sister. . .” Fagan started to say.
Tommy gave a shrug.
“Okay, so she’s not.”
Cathy looked at Tommy.
Tommy held up a hand. “I’ll explain later.”
“Well, while you consider that,” Chen said. “May I remind you we are still in deep shit, and we can’t stay here.”
“Chen’s right,” Walter said. “The longer we stay here, the more that his aunt and uncle are at risk.”
“What do you suggest?” Fagan said.
“Tommy could fly us out of here,” Walter said, looking across at Tommy. “As far away as possible.”
“And what about Nancy?” Tommy asked.
“I’m trying to track her down,” Chen said. “You should find somewhere to lie low until I can find her.” He gave Fagan a nervous look.
A skinny old man wearing wide pajama trousers and a white chef’s buttoned up top appeared at the door. Fagan recognized Chen’s uncle from when they arrived. Chen went over to him. His uncle spoke in urgent whispers, then Chen turned back and looked at Fagan. His face was pale.
“You just made the TV news.”
“Me?”
“That’s what I said. A picture of you was plastered across the TV. The good news is there was no mention of Cathy.”
“How the hell do they know about me?” Fagan gave Chen a hard stare. “Are you sure you disabled all the cameras out at that warehouse?”
“I thought I had.”
“That’s comforting.” Fagan immediately dismissed it. Things change. You adapt. “We need to get Cathy safe. That means on a train to Guangzhou.”
“But — ” Cathy began to say.
“No buts. Our first priority is to get you safe, and that means away from everyone here.” He looked across at Tommy, who he could see was about to protest. “Bad people are looking for you. Being close to you puts Cathy at risk. Am I right?”
Tommy nodded reluctantly.
“The good news for you, Cathy, is they only wanted you to get to Nancy. Once that is no longer the case, they will lose interest in you. The PSB’s interest in you is not official. If it was, they would have had your face up there on the news as well as mine. All you have to do is keep your head down until this blows over. So you’re going to your Aunt’s place.”
“And what about us?” Tommy stood defiantly with his hands on his hips.
“The PSB are looking for me. Chen and I put Cathy on a train to Guangzhou, then we disappear, meanwhile, you and Walter are flying out of here. I don’t want to know where. But somewhere far from here.”
“What about Nancy?”
“Leave her to Chen and me.”
Chen gave him a nervous smile. “This is mainland China, not Hong Kong. You’re a white face, a gweilo. You will not last five minutes out on the streets if the PSB are looking for you.”
“He’s right, Joseph,” Walter said. “Chen can put Cathy on the train, you need to come with us. Let Chen track down Nancy. When we know where she is, you can go after her.”
Chen looked nervous but he gave a reluctant nod. “I checked earlier, there’s a train to Guangzhou at seven, this evening. I’ll take Cathy a little later. Besides, no one should be leaving here until it gets dark.”
Walter, had that you-know-I’m-right look on his face.
Fagan shrugged.
Evaluate, adapt, overcome.
“We should all get some rest.”
Chen led them up a flight of stairs into a neat traditional Chinese living room. He showed Tommy and Cathy to a door on the far side, then disappeared back down the stairs.
“Young love,” Walter nodded towards the closed door as he lowered his generous frame onto a two-seater sofa.
“They should make the most of it while they can.”
Walter began to snore.
Fagan sat in a lumpy armchair. He tried sleeping, but thoughts and images tumbled through his head. Suddenly a vision of Charlie appeared, sitting across from him, sipping his whiskey, that smile on his craggy face. He could hear his words. We all have secrets.
What was your secret Charlie?
His mind slipped back and forth on the edge of sleep as he pondered the bigger question.
Nancy — Who are you? And why do some of the most dangerous people in the world want to find you?
46
Macao, Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China.
Nancy walked out of the arrivals hall. She had got past immigration. She could swear her heart had stopped as she waited for the official to examine her passport, but finally, he stamped it and handed it back.
But maybe they didn’t want to do this the official way.
She switched on her phone and checked her WhatsApp messages. There was nothing from Cathy, but there were half a dozen text messages from Joe, asking her to call him. But she knew what he would say. She also knew she had to do this on her own, in her own way.
She was scared. Not just of what or who could be waiting for her as she stepped out into the arrivals hall. But if she made it past that, what was waiting beyond? What would she find out? What risk would she expose to Tommy and to Cathy? She knew whatever was in front of her could bring them trouble.
She also knew if they were going to take her, it would be now as she stepped out into the main terminal. People crowded the exit, holding up signs with people’s names on them. She didn’t see one for her. She tried to steady her breath and kept on walking, expecting the hand on her shoulder at any moment.
She made it as far as the taxi rank without incident.
“Where you want to go?” The taxi driver strung the words together in a single blurb.
“Take me to the harbor,” she said with no other destination in mind.
She settled back in the seat but she still couldn’t relax. She tried looking out the window but a mist seemed to obscure everything out there. The taxi took her over the bridge, across the outer harbor, and turned in towards the port.
“This will do,” she said as they passed the ferry terminal.
The cab dropped her off. She watched it drive away, then she stood looking at the busy terminal, a part of her she knew, was holding her back. She took a long look at the ferry boat tied up against the dock, then crossed the road and walked into a small restaurant. She hadn’t eaten that day, and she realized she was starving.
The waiter brought her noodles and roast pork and poured her a cup of jasmine tea from a white teapot painted with blue flowers. She ate without noticing it, her mind rolling through what she would do next. Still trying to overcome that barrier that sat inside her. Across the road, the high speed ferry to Hong Kong was preparing to depart. In less than an hour, she could be there. She could call Uncle Wei, and he would meet her at the terminal. He would take care of her. She would be safe. It was the sensible thing to do. The safe thing to do.
She finished her noodles and sipped her tea. She thought about her research about the lady she had discovered. Deep inside she knew there was a link to her. Something that could tell her who she really was.
She had had a dream since she was a little girl. It was always the same. She was walking through a dark forest, just like in all the fairytales that her father had read to her and Tommy when they were young, before they went to sleep. Except this was her own private fairytale, and she had never grown out of it.
There was the house, like in all the stories. Except this one was not in the forest, it was on the top of a hill. It had elegant gardens and a path that led to the door. But when she knocked, the lady who answered was not the wicked witch, but a woman who was smiling. Somehow she knew she was kind. She also knew with a certainty that came from somewhere deep inside her, that the lady was her mother.
Behind her, inside the house, someone was playing the piano. It was a piece she often heard in her head, a piece she recognized - The Yellow River Piano Concerto. She still loved Xian Xinghai’s beautiful, heart wrenching melody. And whenever she heard it, wherever she was, she had to stop and listen, as if the kind lady, her mother, would appear. But she knew that would never happen. Sometimes it could even make her smile, as if in some way her mother was still with her.
She checked the ferry departure on her phone. A high speed turbo ferry was leaving in ten minutes, and she would be in Hong Kong in fifty minutes. She sipped her tea. She could see the ferry from where she was sitting. People were getting on board. Water bubbled at its stern, then it moved away from the dock and headed out into the outer harbor.
But there was no rush. There would be another in fifteen minutes, and at the same interval for the rest of the day. She watched the ferry as it grew smaller and finally disappeared from view. She continued looking out across the water. A vision of the house from her dream sprang into her mind. The front door opened, and the woman was there, with a smile on her face.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the pendant she had found in the envelope her father had left for her. There had been a postscript on the letter, a brief explanation.
I am sure you are wondering about the pendant. It belonged to your mother and her mother before her. Your grandmother always said it was blessed and would keep whoever wore it, safe. Your mother passed it on to you for that same reason. But in the end, it became a liability. It could identify you, and I couldn’t take that risk. So I kept it hidden. But now I think that maybe it’s time for it to protect you again.
She looked at it, dangling from the silver chain. The stone was elegantly carved. A figure of a woman, perhaps a goddess, seated in a cross-legged pose, with the green rock of the jade behind her, shaped like a lotus leaf. The pendant nudged a memory, deep somewhere in her subconscious. But it remained elusive. She felt she should know about it, but she couldn’t recall where or when. Almost without thinking, she undid the clasp then fastened it around her neck. She rested her hand on the stone. It felt as if she was somehow touching her heart.
47
The Golden Lotus, Restaurant, Shanghai.
“Mister Fagan.”
Fagan opened his eyes. The Glock was in his hand, pointing at the figure standing over him. Chen took a step back as the gun came up, his mouth open.
