The Red Pole of Macau

( 28 )

Lok watched the big man leave and then spat in Ava’s direction.

“I want the money,” Ava said.

“I don’t have it.”

“Bull.”

“I spent it.”

“Not all of it, you didn’t.”

“I don’t have it.”

“I don’t know why you guys always insist on doing things the hard way. I mean, I’m not stealing it from you or anything. It’s our money, and all I’m asking you to do is return it. If you think about it that way, it might be easier, you know. You need to get into the right frame of mind.”

“F*ck off.”

“That’s fifteen minutes now, and still no police,” Ava said, showing him her watch.

The house was so quiet now, she could hear the shower running in the bathroom next door.

“There’s no computer in here. Do you have one somewhere else?”

He shook his head.

“How do you do banking, then?”

He ignored her, and Ava began to contemplate just how she was going to get her hands on the money. If there wasn’t a computer, an online transfer was out of the question, and so were electronic instructions from Lok to the bank. She shifted in her chair again, the pain centred in her upper thigh now radiating downwards. Even resting the back of her knee against the chair was uncomfortable. How the hell am I going to get back to Hong Kong? she thought, and then caught herself. She had to get the money first, and then get out of the house. She’d worry about Hong Kong later.

Sonny entered the room with Andy at his heels. He carried two utensils: a meat cleaver and a stainless steel mallet. He laid them out on the table. “How do you want to start?” he asked Ava.

Ava pulled herself up from the chair, balancing on her good leg. “Hold my arm. I want to hop over to that desk,” she told him.

The pain was excruciating, and if the distance had been more than three hops she would have succumbed to being carried again. She sat down, her leg extended, and began opening desk drawers. She found the banking information in the bottom one. There was a stack of thick files, one for each of Lok’s businesses. She pulled out the Ma Shing Realty Corporation file and extracted the bank statements. They were from the Macau branch of the same bank Michael and Simon used. As of two weeks ago there had been more than HK$100 million in it. She opened other company files, looking for another $50 million. She found thirty of it in the Kwan Lok Entertainment Company and just over ten each in the Beautiful Lady Spa and Deluxe Spa. “I didn’t know whorehouses and massage parlours were so profitable,” she said.

“F*ck off,” Lok said.

The chequebooks for the companies were under the files. She put them on the desk.

“Andy, Lok says there isn’t a computer in the house. Have a quick look around and confirm that, will you?”

She twisted in the chair. “He might have to write some cheques, so whatever you do, don’t hurt his writing hand,” she said to Sonny.

“When do you want me to start?”

“We’ll wait until Andy comes back.”

She saw Lok glance at Sonny, and for the first time there was recognition in his eyes that she was serious. “Twenty minutes, and no police. I told you, we arranged to have the alarm disconnected,” she said.

Carlo stuck his head in the door, Simon standing behind him. “We’re heading downstairs.”

“Simon,” Ava called.

He took a couple of steps into the room. His face had already recovered some colour, and his eyes weren’t full of panic and confusion anymore. Wu’s clothes fit him badly; the jeans were so long he had rolled up the bottoms, and the blue San Miguel T-shirt was too tight. “You put a hundred and fifty million into this development, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought so. Okay, head downstairs and get a drink and make yourself something to eat.”

She began to think about Lok writing cheques. On the surface it wasn’t the best idea — one phone call and he could cancel them. Except if he was tied up, like everyone else in the house, he wouldn’t be in a position to make the call. How long could she count on that being the case? Maybe the whole day, maybe two days, maybe only an hour and a half? It was a complete gamble.

One thing she did know was the bank that everyone dealt with. That bank was on the hook for the 150 million, and if she could deposit the money today and instruct their branch manager to retire the loan, it would be very hard for Lok to undo that deed. One of the things Ava admired about Hong Kong banks was the way they looked after their own interests. If it came down to a choice between paying off a troubled loan and returning all the money to Lok, Ava had no trouble believing that the bank would stiff him.

Andy strolled into the room. “No computer anywhere.”

She leaned forward, the effort causing her to grimace. “I want you to write four cheques: one on the Ma Shing account for a hundred million, another from Kwan Lok for thirty million, and the other two for ten million each. Make all the cheques payable to the Millennium Food Group. And on the note line at the bottom I want you to write ‘repayment of monies advanced for Macau property investment.’”

He didn’t react immediately, and for Ava that was a positive sign. She could almost see his mind whirring as he thought about how fast he could cancel the cheques.

“I’m going to give you another minute and then I’m handing you over to Sonny,” she said.

He looked at Sonny and then at the hardware on the table. He had to know who Sonny was. And he had to know what Sonny was capable of.

“If I write those cheques, will that make us square?”

“Yeah, square, but I’m still going to leave you tied up like everyone else downstairs, and I need you to agree not to cancel those cheques.”

“I just want you and those idiots with the noodle shops out of my life.”

“Write the cheques, honour the cheques, and you’ll never hear from any of us again. Try to screw us over and we’ll be back. And next time Sonny won’t be just a threat — Sonny will be your reality.”

“Okay, I’ll write them,” he said.

“Undo the cuffs on his wrist and bring him here,” Ava said, pushing back from the desk to make room for Lok.

He shuffled over, dragging the chair with his ankle. He was close enough that she could smell a hint of baby powder, and when he lifted his arm to reach for a pen, she saw traces of it in his armpit. How peculiar, she thought.

“Make them out to the Millennium Food Group.”

“I know.”

She stood on her good leg, watching over his shoulder. He took his time, following her directions precisely. When he was done, she said, “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it.”

Sonny stood to one side, his arms folded across his chest. “Andy, take Lok into the hallway for a minute. I need to talk to Ava,” he said.

Lok’s head jerked up. Sonny ignored him. “Take him out now. I’ll tell you when to come back.”

Andy took hold of the back of the chair and dragged it to the door while Lok struggled to keep up with it.

Sonny closed the door behind him. “We can’t leave Lok,” he said to Ava.

“I know.”

“We need to kill him.”

“I have been thinking about that.”

“And?”

“I don’t know what other choice we have.”

She was standing at the desk, her hand pressing down on it to support herself. She saw the determination in Sonny’s eyes. “I was thinking the same thing,” she said softly.

Sonny nodded. “I was hoping you’d see it that way. And this has nothing to do with those cheques. However this turned out today, he and Wu had to die. The other men downstairs don’t matter; they’ll forget about this as soon as they get out of here. But not those two. They’d come after us, and they have the money and the guts to succeed. I’m too old to have to worry about things like that.”

“I know.”

He walked over to the desk. “Do you want to sit?”

“No, I’m okay.”

He gave her a rare smile. “I’m relieved. I thought I was going to have to argue with you,” he said. “And I have to tell you that even if you’d disagreed with me, I was going to kill them anyway.”

Ava knew he was saying that for her benefit, trying to make her feel she really had no part in the decision. “How do we do it?” she asked.

“A bullet in the head is the quickest and surest way.”

“You’ll need to get my gun. I left it downstairs on the couch,” Ava said.

“No, no, I’ll do it,” Sonny said, reaching for her arm.

“There’s no way that’s going to happen,” she said, pulling back. “This is my job, my decision, and my responsibility. I know it has to be done, and I’ve decided I’m the one who’s going to do it. So, Sonny, please, go downstairs and get my gun.”

“Uncle always said you were tougher than any of us.”

“I don’t think of myself as being tough. I think of myself as being responsible.”

He backed away from her. “I’ll go downstairs and get it. Andy needs to handcuff both of Lok’s wrists. You don’t want him flailing about.”

Sonny left, and a moment later Andy was back in the room, pulling Lok with him. “Handcuff his wrists, both of them,” Ava said, and then turned to Lok. “We’ll leave you here for someone to find you. Hopefully it will take a day or two.”

He looked uncertain, and Ava wondered if he suspected what the real plan was. He had to, she decided. It was exactly what he would have done if their positions had been reversed. He struggled a bit as Andy cuffed him.

“Thanks, Andy. Now you can go downstairs and start getting our group ready to leave. We should be out of here in a few minutes.”

As soon as Andy walked out, Lok said to Ava, “Even if I get freed in the next few hours I’m not going to cancel those cheques, you know.”

“I believe you.”

“I mean it.”

They looked at one another, each trying to decide who was telling the bigger lie.

Sonny walked into the room, his Cobray in one hand, Ava’s Kahr in the other. He went to her and handed over the gun. “You’ll have to support me,” she said.

He slipped his arm around her waist and she put a hand on his shoulder. It was two hops to Lok, the pain getting worse now that the shock had begun to wear off.

Lok looked up at them, his eyes filled with fear. “We made a deal,” he said, his voice cracking.

“Sorry, it has to be this way,” Ava said, raising the gun and placing it against his temple.

“We made —”

She squeezed the trigger and then staggered back, shocked by the noise and by the explosion of blood. She fell against Sonny, her head against his chest. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, bending down to pick her up in his arms.

When they appeared at the top of the stairs, she saw Carlo and Andy and the other men below looking up at her. They had all heard the shot; they all knew what had happened. Simon stood in the kitchen entrance, his mouth wide open.

Sonny carried Ava down to the ground floor. The three men and the servants were sitting against the wall on the far left side, their hands cuffed behind them, ankles and mouths taped. Carlo had pulled the dead body behind a couch in the den. The guy who was wounded lay on the same couch. It looked like he had a bullet in his leg and another in his side. Carlo had cuffed him and taped his mouth but left his ankles free.

On the other side of the room was what was left of Wu. Ava saw that the body had stopped bleeding.

Ava was about to tell the men to gather their things when her phone rang. She pulled it from her pocket and saw May’s name on the call display. “We’re leaving the house now. We’ll see you in a couple of minutes,” Ava said.

“A police car’s just turned onto the road that leads to the house,” May said.

Ava felt sick, her stomach burning. “How many cars?”

“One.”

Ava looked at her watch. They had been in the house for almost half an hour, so this couldn’t be in response to the alarm. And they would have sent more than one car if they knew what was going down. This had to be a patrol vehicle doing a regular check, she reasoned. Not that it lessened the problem if they decided to come into the house. And why wouldn’t they, with the gate smashed in and the front door demolished?

“You have to reach General Feng, May. You have to get in touch with him and tell him to arrange to get that car the hell away from here.”

“Right away.”

“And then call me back.”

“How did things go?”

“May, call the General,” Ava shouted.

Sonny looked at her.

“A police car is coming,” she said.

“Shit.”

“Yeah, exactly. I’m sorry, Sonny, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

He shrugged.

Andy was at the front door looking out onto the courtyard. “There’s a police car with two cops in it outside the gate, Ava.”

“I know,” she said.

“What are we going to do?”

“What are they doing?”

“Looking and talking. I don’t think they know what to make of it.”

“Have you seen them reach for their radio yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Put me on the couch, please,” she said to Sonny. When she was settled, she said, “We need to buy some time.”

“What do you want to do?” Sonny asked.

“I think you should go outside and talk to them, Sonny. Tell them Mr. Lok had an incident during the night, but it’s over now and things are back to normal. Thank them for dropping by.”

“Will they believe that?”

“What else do you suggest?”

She could feel the tension in the room, every man’s imagination starting to run wild. She felt her own panic, and struggled to contain it. She had to stay calm, she told herself; at the very least she had to look calm. “Go, do the best you can,” she said.

He dropped his gun on the couch next to her and headed for the front door. Andy moved aside and then slid back to follow Sonny’s progress. “Tell me what’s going on,” Ava shouted to him.

“Sonny’s waving at them and he’s walking across the courtyard slowly. God, he’s got balls,” Andy said. “He’s reached the cops and is pointing back at the house. They’re listening . . . One of the cops is talking now and Sonny is doing the listening . . . They’re shaking hands, and Sonny is heading back.”

“Have the police left?”

“No, they’re still outside, and it looks like they’re arguing. One of them is pointing inside the vehicle.”

He wants to call for backup, she thought.

Sonny took his time coming back. When he came into the house, he walked directly over to Ava. She could tell by his face that it hadn’t gone very well. “Carlo and Andy, get over here,” she yelled. And then softly to Sonny, “Wait for them.”

They gathered around her. “What happened?” she asked.

“You were right, it’s a regular patrol. They’re really shook up by the gate and the door, but they know who Lok is, so they’re not surprised that this kind of shit went down. I told them that we were fine and there was no need for them to get involved. The problem is, they don’t know me and they asked to talk to Lok. One of them wanted to come into the house, and I said Lok didn’t want any visitors. So he asked me to send Lok out. I said he was sleeping. At that point he told me to wake him. When I said I didn’t want to, he said he was going to phone the precinct office and request backup. I told him I’d wake Lok, and they backed off.”

“F*ck,” Carlo said.

“How much more time do you think we have?” Ava asked.

“Five, ten minutes, no more than that,” said Sonny.

“What do we do if the cops come into the house?” Andy asked, looking at Ava.

“I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to spend two or three months in a Chinese prison waiting for them to put a bullet in my head,” Ava said. “If the cops come, we resist.”

“What if they wait for backup?” asked Carlo.

“We resist harder.”

“It’s the only way,” Sonny said.

“How will your men feel about this?” she said to Carlo and Andy.

“If you had said anything different we would have had a problem.”

“Okay, so we know where we stand. Andy, go back to the door and keep your eyes on them.”

“We could try to rush the two guys out there now,” Carlo said.

Sonny looked down at Ava, disapproval on his face.

“We couldn’t get across the courtyard fast enough,” she said. “Let’s be patient, huh? May Ling is trying to work her brand of magic. Give her a chance.”

Simon had ventured out of the kitchen again. Ava didn’t know how anyone could look more out of place. “Simon, I want to talk to you,” she said.

The cocky man she’d seen in the Millennium videos was gone. The angry man who had accompanied her on the first trip to Macau was gone. “They told me you were shot,” he said when he drew near. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about all this.”

Ava reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the four cheques. “These cheques cover the money you advanced to Lok. Get them into a bank as fast as you can . . . Now, it could get hairy around here in the next fifteen minutes or so, and I don’t want you anywhere near it. So stay close and pay attention to me. The moment I yell your name, I want you to get upstairs as fast as you can and get into one of those bedrooms. Don’t concern yourself with anything going on down here. If your door opens and the police come charging in, tell them exactly what happened between you and Lok, and leave us out of it. You don’t know who we are or why Lok and us were having a go at each other. You’re just an innocent bystander. Got that?”

“I think so.”

“Simon, I’ve gone to a lot of trouble for you. I don’t want you to do anything but agree with me and do exactly what I say.”

“Okay.”

“Now this may all come to nothing, but I’ve never believed in ignoring the worst-case scenario.”

“Do you want me to go upstairs now?”

“No, not yet. I’ll tell you when.”

“They’re talking again,” Andy yelled from the door. “One of them sure as hell wants to call this in.”

May, where are you? Ava thought, reaching for her phone. She got a busy signal. A busy signal was good — or bad. She didn’t know anymore.

Sonny hovered. “How’s your leg?”

“I haven’t thought about it in the past five minutes.”

“That’s good.”

“I guess.”

He looked towards the door. “If the two of them decide to come into the house, we can probably take them out without having to hurt them.”

“I don’t think there’s a chance in hell they’re going to come in here alone. They’ll call this in and wait for backup.”

“That’s different.”

Andy jumped back from the door. “One of them is reaching for the car radio.”

“Here we go,” said Sonny.

Ava struggled to her feet. As she did, the makeshift bandage around her thigh slid down to her ankle. She pulled up her pant leg, exposing the dishcloths, which were completely soaked in blood.

“We need to get you out of here,” Sonny said, kneeling down and removing the cloths.

“It isn’t as if I’m not willing to go,” she said.

“The guy on the radio is getting in the car. The other one is staring at the house,” Andy reported.

Ava’s phone rang. She leapt at it. “Yes.”

May was almost breathless. “Those policemen should be leaving soon. Feng spoke with his contact at the Security Force. He told him that the PLA has an interest in the house. I had to call Chao to get to Feng, and Feng had to make several calls himself before getting to the right man. Ava, I’m sorry it took so long.”

“The other cop’s getting into the car . . . he’s closed the door . . . The car is leaving!” Andy yelled, doing a little dance at the door.

“Bless you, May,” said Ava.

“Did everything else go okay?”

“We’ll see you in a few minutes, but yes, it went well enough.”

“You have Simon?”

“Yeah. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Sonny had gone to the other side of the main floor with Carlo. Ava saw him talking to the people they had cuffed and taped. She felt faint for the first time, and with the bandage removed her thigh felt colder, less sticky, the blood almost tickling as it trickled down her leg.

“Simon,” she said.

He ran from the kitchen.

“We’re out of here.”

Sonny carried Ava to the SUV and laid her in the back seat. “I’m going to drive this one, you handle the other one,” he said to Carlo.

Carlo, Andy, and their three men bundled into the second car. Simon sat up front with Sonny in the other. “She’s bleeding badly,” he said.

They sped up the road to the highway. When they reached it, Sonny paused as if expecting the police to be waiting in ambush. Instead all he could see was May, Song, and Geng standing beside their vehicles, their backs resting against the seawall. Sonny drove the SUV parallel to them and rolled down his window. “Let’s go,” he said.

May stared into the two vehicles. “Where’s Ava? I don’t see her,” she said.

“In the back.”

May opened the door and gasped.

Ava tilted her head back. “Listen to Sonny.”

May turned and shouted to Geng, “Drive my car.” Then she climbed into the SUV, lifting Ava’s head clear before placing it on her lap. “There’s blood seeping through your pants,” she said.

Those were the last words Ava remembered hearing.