The Scottish Banker of Surabaya

( 10 )

Ava opened her eyes to the glare of cabin lights. She looked out the window onto the South China Sea, glittering under the morning sun and dotted with ships that would increase in density every kilometre they drew closer to Hong Kong. She stood, stretched, and then went to the bathroom to pee, brush her teeth and her hair, and get her mind settled.

Chep Lap Kok was one of a series of newer Asian airports — Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing — built simply to move people and baggage as efficiently as possible. It had none of the romance of the old Kai Tak Airport in Kowloon, which was approached through a mountain pass over Victoria Harbour and was surrounded by apartment buildings so close that washing hung out to dry seemed to flutter against the sides of the planes.

Lap Kok was built on a manmade island in the middle of nowhere, about twenty kilometres from Hong Kong. Its virtue in Ava’s eyes was that she could deplane, clear Customs, and get her baggage (if it had been checked) in about fifteen minutes. Then, to get to the city, she could ride a high-speed train or take a cab along airport-dedicated six-lane highways. Kai Tak was only a ten-minute cab ride from Uncle’s apartment, but by the time she had cleared Customs — many times the lines in the arrivals hall extended into the corridors — and lined up for a cab, it took longer to get to Uncle’s than it did from Chep Lap Kok.

As usual, Ava was through Customs and into the arrivals area within minutes. She was starting towards the taxi stand when she heard her name called. She turned and saw Sonny. He was standing beneath the sign that read MEETING PLACE.

She blinked and then looked for Uncle. He wasn’t in sight. Sonny waved uncomfortably. Ava started to walk towards him, and as she did, tears welled in her eyes. The last time she had seen him, he was carrying her in his arms from the house in Macau. It had been a one-sided battle: three dead and one badly wounded on the other side, Ava the only one wounded on theirs. Sonny had probably saved her life.

“Hey, boss,” he said. He was wearing a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, none of which did much to make him look any less menacing. He was just over six feet, broad, thick, and incredibly agile. Ava couldn’t think of another man more fearsome.

“Sonny,” she said, holding out her arms.

They hugged, something new in their relationship, something that had been changed by Macau.

“Good to see you. We weren’t sure you were coming back.”

“Neither was I.”

He reached for her carry-on. She resisted, but only for a second. They walked side by side to the exit. She had always felt small beside him, and never more so than now, as memories of Macau came charging into her head. She hadn’t thought about it, she realized. Or she had chosen to forget it. Either way, being with Sonny brought it all back.

“I told Uncle not to come to the airport,” she said.

“He sent me anyway.”

They left the airport and walked almost directly into the silver Mercedes S-Class that was Uncle’s new car. It was standing in a no-parking zone with a policeman alongside. He smiled at Sonny, and for a moment Ava thought he was going to open the doors for them. Instead he gave a slight bow of his head and moved away from the car. Ava started to open the front door, but Sonny put his hand on hers and opened the back. “You know Uncle always rides in the rear,” he said.

She hesitated and saw Sonny frown. She slid into the back seat and turned on her phone as they pulled away from the terminal. There was one voicemail from Maria, who sounded a lot more downcast than she had when Ava said she was going back to work. It was early evening in Toronto and Ava could have reached her. She decided not to. When she was on a job, she tried to keep her personal life and any distractions it might bring at bay. It was a good habit to get back into.

“We aren’t going to the Mandarin,” Sonny said, his eyes looking at her in the rear-view mirror. “Uncle said the last time you were here you ate jook in Kowloon and that it brought you luck. He’ll meet you at the same restaurant.”

“That’s fine,” Ava said.

They drove the first part of the trip to Hong Kong in silence. Sonny wasn’t a talker at the best of times and Ava was entirely comfortable with silence, so it was a natural state for them both. But as they crossed the Tsing Ma Bridge and Hong Kong bore into view, Sonny said, “I can’t tell you how happy he is that you’re here and that you’re working on a job together again.”

“It will be good to see him too.”

“He needed this.”

“What do you mean?” Ava asked.

“He needed something to be interested in again,” Sonny said. “Lourdes and I have been worried about him.”

“You’re scaring me,” Ava said quickly. “Is there something going on that I need to know?”

Sonny half turned towards her. “We aren’t sure.”

“Sonny, talk to me, please.”

“There is nothing really to talk about, no real reason to be scared. It’s just that there have been days when he hasn’t left the apartment, and you know that isn’t like him. And then there are other days when he’s left by himself, without telling me. That isn’t like him either.”

“Do you know where he goes?”

“No.”

“Sonny, this is too strange.”

She saw from his eyes in the mirror that he was confused. “Lourdes thinks he’s just getting old.”

“He is old.”

“Of course he is, but he’s never acted old. His mind was always so sharp, and physically he was never a man to have aches and pains.”

“What’s changed?”

Sonny hesitated, and she knew that it was difficult for him to talk about Uncle in any way other than with complete, blind respect. Even suggesting a normal human frailty would seem to him a betrayal of sorts.

“We’re like a family, Sonny,” she said.

“He’s been talking to me about the old days,” he said slowly. “We’ve been together for more than twenty years. He pulled me out of trouble, you know. I had a temper back then, and I never thought twice about anything; I’d just react to whatever got in my face. Well, I went too far when I was running a small gang in the New Territories. Uncle was the boss — the big boss — and it was up to him to decide what would happen to me. He could have just given the order, but instead he sent for me and we talked. I’d never met him before. It turned out we shared a common kind of childhood; there was a connection — rough, of course. He told me he thought I could be useful to him if I could control myself. I said, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ And Uncle said, ‘Just do exactly what I tell you to do. Do not try to think for yourself anymore. Life will be easier for you that way.’ And it has been.”

Ava felt her cheeks flush. The relationship between Sonny and Uncle had been one she had observed but had never tried to analyze or question. It had a life of its own, closed to outsiders. She had never expected Sonny to be the one to talk about it. She was also taken aback by how long he had gone on for. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard him utter more than two or three consecutive sentences. “You say he’s been talking about the old days?”

“Yeah, and he never did that before. Oh, when he was with Uncle Fong or some of his old colleagues, they’d reminisce about it, but he never did it with me. Now he does.”

They exited the bridge and began the slow crawl through Hong Kong towards the Cross-Harbour Tunnel to Kowloon. “What does he say to you?” she asked.

“It bothers him what’s happened to the societies. It all came to a head when he couldn’t help you with that a*shole in Macau. He told me that when he was chairman, he thought he had brought some structure to them and that the oaths meant something again. But as soon as he left, everything reverted to shit. He feels his time was wasted, that part of his life was wasted.”

“He still has so much to be proud of.”

“He doesn’t seem to want to listen to that.”

“Well, I’ll talk to him,” she said.

Sonny fell silent again and Ava wondered if he’d dismissed her offer. Then he said, “Yes, I think you need to. You may be the only person he actually listens to. Me and Lourdes, we’re like old furniture.”

There was a lineup of cars leading into the tunnel, and Ava silently wished they had stayed with her plan to meet on the Hong Kong side. “This won’t take so long,” Sonny said, as if reading her mind.

“Those aches and pains you talked about — anything specific?” she asked.

“He seems to be having stomach problems more often than he should, and he isn’t eating as much as he used to. Lourdes says he’s lost weight.”

“He told me he’d been eating too much cheap sashimi.”

“That’s bull. He hasn’t eaten Japanese in months, unless he’s doing it behind my back. He used to have a healthy appetite but now he’s picking at his food, and he’s cut out a lot of stuff from his diet. That’s why I think he wants to meet you in Kowloon. He eats congee every morning now, and sometimes Lourdes says he has it for dinner.”

Ava felt a twinge of guilt for even thinking about the inconvenience of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. “Has he been to see a doctor?”

“We don’t know.”

“Is it possible that on the days he leaves the apartment without you, maybe he’s going to see one?”

Sonny shook his head and sighed. “I never thought of that . . . Why the f*ck didn’t I think of that?”

“If he gave you no reason to think it, why would you?”

“But you did.”

“I’m as sneaky as he is.”

Sonny slapped the steering wheel. “I’m going to park my ass outside the apartment on the days he says he doesn’t need me. I’ll tail him.”

“That’s a good idea,” Ava said, though she could hardly imagine Uncle not picking up on Sonny’s presence. “Another thing you can do is talk to Lourdes and find out who his doctor is. I’d like to know myself.”

“I’ll do that,” Sonny said as they finally made their way into the tunnel and began the last leg to Kowloon.

The restaurant was in Tsim Sha Tsui, near the Star Ferry terminal. The area was jammed with buses and taxis, and even Sonny couldn’t find a place to park, legally or otherwise. He dropped her off at the entrance and told her to call his cell when they were done.

Uncle was already there. She couldn’t remember the last time she had gone to meet him and had to wait. The front entrance was crowded, but she spotted him between the bodies of the people in front of her. He sat in a booth with a pot of tea in front of him, his legs dangling off the floor. Like Sonny, he was wearing a black suit and a white shirt, closed at the collar. His hair was still mainly black, though there were more streaks of grey than she could remember. His face was almost completely unlined. He was short, no taller than her, and now he looked as if he had shrunk a little and, as Sonny said, lost some weight. Ava stared hard at him. His dark brown eyes seemed as lively as ever, and if he was worried, there was no sign in them.

She pushed through the throng and walked towards him.

He saw her and a grin lit up his face. He stood and reached for her. “As beautiful as ever, my girl, as beautiful as ever.”

She kissed him on the forehead. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“You do not mind us eating here?”

“Of course not. You know I love congee.”

“Truthfully I did not feel like driving to Hong Kong or putting up with the Star Ferry in rush hour.”

“And I’m sure the walk did you good.”

The waitress hovered, anxious to get their order, get their food, get the table turned.

“Do you know what you want?” Uncle asked Ava.

“Congee with chopped spring onions in it.”

“I will have the same, with salted eggs and pickled vegetables on the side,” he told the waitress.

“Oh, I also want you tiao,” Ava said.

“Of course,” said Uncle.

It was at their table in a matter of minutes. Congee and jook were the same thing, a simple rice porridge. Ava added soy sauce and white pepper to hers and then dipped you tiao — a deep-fried breadstick — into it. Uncle left his plain but took bites of egg and vegetable between slurps. “I come here many mornings,” he said. “Lourdes would be upset if she knew. She thinks she makes the best jook in Kowloon, and I do not have the heart to tell her otherwise.”

“I won’t say a word.”

“I was sitting here waiting for you and thinking about the last time we were here.”

“Seems like years ago.”

“I was so worried about you.”

She glanced up at him from her bowl. There was that sentimentality again, but his face showed none of it. “It wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle, was it. At the end of the day we prevailed,” she said.

“Somehow.”

“I’m sorry if I dawdled all summer,” she said, trying to get them closer to the present. “It took weeks before my leg began to function anything close to normal, and by then I was at the cottage and feeling lazy. I’m back at work now, so let’s put worries aside.”

He ate slowly, carefully skimming congee from the top as if it were a hundred-dollar bowl of shark’s-fin soup, then emptying his spoon with tiny slurps. He had never been a careful eater, but now he was being deliberate. She found herself resting between spoonfuls so as not to get too far ahead of him.

“I have to tell you, I’m not sure that my going to Ho Chi Minh City will result in anything positive,” she said. “This could be a short assignment.”

“Why do you say that?”

She detailed her meeting with Joey Lac, emphasizing his belief that Lam was incapable of a theft of that magnitude.

“It is always the ones we never suspect until it is too late,” Uncle said, discounting the opinion with a little wave of his hand.

“Still, Lac did know him well.”

“You will find out for yourself soon enough.”

“What arrangements have you made in Vietnam?” she asked.

“You will be met at the airport by a friend. He will be wearing civilian clothes but he is an officer in the police force, District One. He will do whatever you want him to do . . . within reason, of course.”

“I’m not anticipating that Lam will give me serious trouble. He’s an accountant, not a thug.”

“Just be cautious. Remember, his brother is a man of substance, and in Vietnam he is also going to have friends. In that country that invariably leads to the police or the army.”

“I’m not going to do anything rash,” Ava said as she took her notebook from her bag. She tore off a blank page and copied the information on Bank Linno that Lac had emailed her. “Do we have contacts in Indonesia?” she asked.

“Some. Mainly in Jakarta, of course.”

She slid the paper across the table to him. “This bank is headquartered in Surabaya. I have only one name attached to it, plus a phone number and an email address. Could you find out what you can about the bank?”

“This is connected to Lam?”

“Very much so.”

“Never heard of the bank.”

“It was big enough to have a branch in Toronto, and that is where Lam deposited the cash he was collecting. The strange thing is, it shut down its office shortly after Lam ran into trouble.”

“Do you think there is a connection?”

It wasn’t his nature to leap to conclusions, no more than it was hers. Slow and steady had always been their style: A to B to C until they got to the end, not taking shortcuts, because shortcuts more often than not led to wild goose chases and a waste of time and money. “I don’t know what to think,” she said. “I need to get to Lam first.”

“I will find out what I can from Indonesia,” Uncle said.

“Thank you.”

He set his spoon aside, the jook only half finished. “I have to tell you that I was surprised when you called me to talk about this job.”

His face was impassive, but Ava heard the slight tremor in his voice. “Why should you have been?” she asked.

“I thought that after Macau you might have decided the risks were not worth the rewards anymore. I mean, you have enough money never to have to do this kind of thing again, and you are so damn bright you could do anything else you wanted.”

Ava reached over and rested her fingers on the back of his hand. “This is about May Ling again, isn’t it.”

He smiled. “She is not as subtle as you, although she likes to think she is. She called me yesterday, not for the first time, and actually asked me if I had ever thought about returning home to Wuhan. And when I said I had — which was true ten or fifteen years ago — she said that Changxing and she would be honoured if I would take a position in their corporation, some elder-statesman kind of role. This from a woman who resisted hiring us for that job because she did not want their family name associated with mine. She must want you to join her very badly if she is willing to put up with me.”

Ava saw no point in being anything other than direct. “Uncle, you helped bring May and I together. Now we’re friends. And yes, she has been trying to get me to become part of their firm. Truthfully, I have thought about it, and I have decided that I’m not ready yet. Maybe one day I will be, but not yet. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course. You owe me nothing.”

“I owe you everything,” she said, more sharply and loudly than she had intended.

His eyes turned away from the table, looking towards the front window. “I see Sonny has been circling. We need to get you to the airport and I need to make some calls to Indonesia, and maybe even the Philippines. My contacts are not so good in Indonesia, but I know Uncle Chang is strong there.”

“If you talk to him, send him my regards,” Ava said.

“We speak every week,” Uncle said. “He is still at Tommy Ordonez’s right hand, and I expect he will die there.”