The Red Pole of Macau

( 10 )

The doorman let her enter the building without hesitation, and Ava made a mental note to have Amanda instruct him not to let anyone in without her or Michael’s specific approval. She checked her watch. Her brother had been resting for about an hour and a half. It would have to do.

After she rang the apartment buzzer, Ava saw Amanda’s eye through the peephole. The door opened and there was the Amanda from the evening at Sai Kung — designer jeans, cashmere sweater, and lots of makeup.

“How is my brother?” Ava asked.

“Sleeping.”

“You need to wake him.”

“He just fell asleep.”

“It doesn’t matter, I need him to do something. When it’s done, he can go back to sleep.”

Ava went into the kitchen while Amanda went to wake Michael. There was an empty instant noodles bowl and a package of rice crackers on the table. Ava guessed Amanda wasn’t much of a cook, but then neither was she.

It took five minutes to get him out of bed, into a robe, and out to the kitchen. His face was creased with sleep, his hair out of control, his eyes puffy. “Wash your face in the sink and grab a glass of water,” Ava told him. “You need to make a phone call.”

She watched and waited until he looked like he could manage some comprehension. “Michael, I want you to call Lok. Do you think you’re up to it?”

“I don’t know.”

“It isn’t complicated and you don’t have to pretend anything.”

Amanda stood behind him, her hands resting on his shoulders. “What does he have to say?”

“We need to confirm that Simon is all right.”

“Is that all?”

“For now.”

“How would Michael do that?”

“He could ask to speak to Simon, but I don’t think they would let him. The best thing is to ask them to take a photo of Simon holding up the front page of today’s South China Morning Post. Then ask them to email it to him.”

“Why would they agree?” Amanda asked.

“Michael is going to start the conversation by telling them he’s going to pay them what they’re asking for.”

He looked up at her. “Ava, how the hell are we going to do that?”

“One thing at a time,” she said to both of them. “We need to do one thing at a time, not get ahead of ourselves. And right now that one thing is to find out if Simon is okay. Can you make the call?”

“Sure,” he said.

“Good. Now I want you to talk to Lok, no one else.”

“His is the only number I have.”

“Don’t try to chit-chat. You don’t need to be anything but direct. Tell him you’re prepared to get the money together but you need to be one hundred percent sure that Simon is fine.”

“What if he refuses?”

“No confirmation, no money.”

“They’ll kill Simon,” Michael said, panic returning to his voice.

“If they refuse he’s probably dead already,” Ava said, wishing he hadn’t made her state the obvious.

Michael shivered. Ava knew he was tired and still a bit in shock. “The money — how do we manage the money?” he asked.

“One thing at a time,” Ava repeated.

“What if Lok asks me about it?”

“Tell him you’re going to get it but you’re not prepared to go into detail until you know about Simon.”

“What if he insists?”

Ava found herself losing patience. “Geez, Michael, insist right back. You’re negotiating, not capitulating.”

“If Lok is truly interested in getting the money he’ll do what you want,” Amanda interrupted.

“Okay,” he said.

“Get Michael’s cell,” Ava said to Amanda.

As she walked towards the bedroom Ava said to her brother, “She’s a good girl.” He nodded.

When Amanda returned, Ava took the phone from her. “Where’s the number?”

“It’s programmed into my phone,” Michael said.

Ava found it and hit the call button and the speaker phone button. “Remember, keep it simple. Don’t get sidetracked. We only want one thing.”

The phone rang four times before it was answered. It wasn’t Lok on the other end. “This is Michael Lee. I want to speak to Kao Lok,” he said. Nothing was said in reply, and Ava half expected the line to go dead. Instead she heard Lok’s familiar voice.

“Lee, I’m glad you called.”

“We’re prepared to pay the ransom, but —”

“It isn’t a ransom. It’s the money you owe us.”

“We’re prepared to pay you the money we owe,” Michael said, not missing a beat, “but we need to know that Simon is safe.”

Lok hesitated, and Ava knew he was surprised. He didn’t believe Michael could come up with the money, she thought, and now he’s reworking whatever plan he had. “When will you pay?”

“I’m not going to talk about the money until I know he’s safe.”

“I gave you forty-eight hours, remember?”

“Unless I know Simon is well there will be no money. None.”

“Can you get it all?”

“We’re prepared to pay the money we owe.”

“On time?”

“Lok, I’m not saying anything else until I know about Simon.”

There was a long pause. Ava thought, Simon is dead and Lok is trying to figure what he can get away with. Then Lok said, “Okay, I understand your position. What is it you want?”

“A photo of Simon with the front page of today’s South China Morning Post. I want you to use a digital camera and email it to me.”

There was another pause and Ava waited for Lok to say no. Instead he said, “And then?”

“Then we’ll talk some more,” Michael said.

“You’ll have the photo within the next two or three hours,” Lok said.

“Fine,” Michael said, and before he could add another word, Ava reached over and turned off the phone.

“Why did you do that?” he asked.

“We had what we wanted; there was nothing more to be said. We had to show him that we have some level of control, that this isn’t all one-sided. Now he’ll send the photo or he won’t,” she said. “And by the way, you were great.”

Amanda put her arms around his neck, pulled him against her chest, and kissed the top of his head.

“Take him back to bed,” Ava said.

Michael struggled to his feet, his eyes half closed. Given his emotional state, Ava was surprised he had done as well as he had. Amanda seemed composed as she walked her boyfriend to the bedroom with her left arm around his waist and her right hand clutching his right elbow. She talked as she walked, Michael nodding his head at whatever she was saying.

Women are running his life now, Ava thought, or as much of his life as there is left to run. But would Amanda stick with him if the business went under? The thought came to her out of nowhere, and she felt guilty for thinking it.

She closed her eyes. Michael and Simon had dug a hole so deep that she couldn’t find the bottom. She began to mentally list the things that had to be done. Then she heard Amanda say, “Are you all right?”

“Just thinking,” Ava said.

Amanda sat at the kitchen table across from Ava. It was the first time they’d actually been alone together. Amanda toyed with the package of rice crackers. Ava asked, “How are you managing with this?”

Amanda gave her an awkward little smile, and Ava figured she was looking at a hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars’ worth of dental work. “Not so well.”

“I understand.”

“I’m scared. I’m scared for Michael, for Simon, for Jessie and their child.”

“Me too.”

“You don’t seem to have any fear at all.”

“It’s an act.”

“Michael told me what happened at the restaurant yesterday. That was no act.”

“It was a reaction to a threat, that’s all. I didn’t have time to think about being scared.”

“Well, I’m scared, and truthfully, Ava, I’m also a little angry.”

“It isn’t a good situation.”

“No, it isn’t, but more specifically I’m kind of angry with Michael.”

“He and Simon made some mistakes. It happens,” Ava said.

“Not the kind that result in a partner being held for ransom and death threats being thrown around like confetti,” she said, her anger edging into her voice.

“I can’t argue with you.”

“But it has to do with more than that, actually. I’m upset that he never told me what kind of trouble the business was in. He treated me as if I couldn’t understand and couldn’t help, and he didn’t turn to me until we were all blindsided and he didn’t have any choice.”

This is a different Amanda, Ava thought as she sifted through several clichés about his not wanting to worry her, then discarded them. “Would you have been able to help him?”

Amanda reacted as if she had been challenged. “I have a master’s degree in international business from Brandeis.”

“I didn’t know.”

She shrugged. “You act like you’re not scared, I act like a Hong Kong princess. And although I moan about my father’s business, I can hardly wait for him to retire so I can take over and really do something with it.”

“I didn’t mean to be derogatory.”

“I’m not blaming you — I know the impression I create. It’s just easier sometimes to get your own way when people don’t take you seriously.”

“That could be me talking,” Ava said.

“I don’t believe that.”

“You’ll have to trust me.”

Amanda returned to the rice crackers, opening and closing the plastic wrap.

“Is there anything else you want to talk about?” Ava asked.

Amanda glanced at her and then just as quickly turned away.

“What is it?” Ava said.

“I’m also upset about you.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you — but not just you. I mean, I’ve been living with Michael for five months and we’ve been talking about marriage for two months, and I didn’t know he had a sister in Canada until two weeks ago.”

“Two sisters in Canada, actually. The other one’s name is Marian and she has two girls of her own.”

“Yes, I know. He told me about Marian as well.”

“And then there are two much younger siblings, a boy and a girl, in Australia.”

Amanda’s face fell. “I didn’t know about them.”

“It’s a complicated family.”

“I don’t care about that, or how your father chooses to live his life. All I care about is that Michael hasn’t been honest with me, first about you and Marian and now, evidently, about two children in Australia.”

“I’m not going to make excuses for him. He had his reasons, and you should ask him what they were.”

“And I’m going to. If we survive this drama.”

“Is that it?”

“What?”

“No more worries?”

“No, but I have a question. Tell me, is it really true you hadn’t met each other until two weeks ago?”

“It is.”

“And then it was like for five minutes in a restaurant?”

“Yep.”

“So tell me, because I don’t really understand, why would you fly all the way to Hong Kong to help a man you don’t really know? I asked Michael the same question when he told me you were coming, and he sort of mumbled something about your having some business expertise he needed, and that your father had suggested you to him.”

“The truth is, I didn’t come here for Michael,” Ava said, deciding that at least one of the Lees should be straight with this woman. “At some time in the future I might have, because I think our father has decided it’s time to try to bring the families — or at least the children — together, and he was encouraging Michael and me to start the process. But that’s going to be a long, slow grind, and I wasn’t really ready to jump right in.

“I actually came here to protect the rest of the family from Michael. I know that sounds harsh, and I don’t mean it that way, but the fact is that he has put us at risk. You know about the whole family now: three wives, his brothers here, my sister and me in Canada, and the two little kids in Australia. None of the children chose their father and none of us chose the circumstances in which we were raised. Now, what you need to understand is that Michael’s situation threatens them. If his business tanks, Amanda, Marcus will step in and sell everything he has to bail Michael out. Who knows what might be left? I’m here because I don’t want it to come to that.

“Now, it is true that Marian, I, and the brothers can look after ourselves. But what about the two kids in Australia? What about my mother? What about the two aunties? The way I look at it, I came here to represent their interests — and, of course, my father’s.”

Amanda had listened quietly, her face blank, and Ava wondered if her criticism of Michael had gone too far. Then Amanda said, “And now we have to throw Simon, Jessie, and another child into that mix, don’t we.”

“I guess we do.”

“Let me make you a coffee,” Amanda said suddenly, getting up from the table.

Amanda’s lips moved as she poured coffee into a cup. The younger woman put the two cups on the table and leaned forward. “I want to help.”

“I’m not sure there is anything to help with.”

“I know you need to confirm that Simon is okay, but from the conversation between Lok and Michael, it sounds like he is. And if he is, then I want to help, and I don’t mean help in the sense of babysitting Michael.”

Ava didn’t know quite what to say other than “We’ll see,” and she was struggling with how to put that differently when her cellphone rang. For once she was happy to answer. It was Uncle.

“I have some, maybe most of the information you asked for,” he said. “Can you come to Andy’s?”

“I’m at my brother’s apartment in the Mid-levels. It’ll take me half an hour.”

“See you then.”

She closed her phone and looked up at Amanda. “I have to go.”

Amanda leaned forward again. “I know you’re not going to abandon Simon, and I want to help you get him back.”

“I have no plans to do anything, but if you want to help, I’ll tell you where you can start. Get into Michael’s email and watch for the photo from Lok. The moment it comes through, call me on my cell. You might also call Jessie and make sure she’s going to be home tonight. And keep it casual. One way or another we’re going to have to talk to her.”

“Thank you.”

As Ava walked to the door, Amanda called after her, “Do you remember Jack Yee?”

Ava spun back. “Of course I do.”

“He’s my father,” Amanda said.

Ava was too surprised to say anything. I am so thick sometimes, she thought. Jack Yee, Amanda Yee — why hadn’t she made the connection? Why at least hadn’t she asked Amanda if they were related?

Ava and Uncle had done two jobs for Jack, both of them successful, and one of which had turned ugly and exceptionally violent. Jack had been caught in the middle of the violence and Ava and Derek had saved him, none too gently. She wondered what he had told his daughter about that day in Yantai. There had been five men, and two had died.

“I called him last night and told him what happened at the lunch in Macau yesterday,” Amanda said. “Of course, your name entered the conversation.”

“Have you spoken to him since?”

“No.”

“Don’t,” Ava said as she walked out the door.