The Scottish Banker of Surabaya

( 11 )

Sonny drove her to the airport. They didn’t speak until they had cleared the tunnel and were heading through Hong Kong towards the bridge. “You need to keep track of him,” Ava said. “He seemed not too bad to me — his mind is still sharp, but physically I see a bit of deterioration. What bothers me most is that he seems to be getting maudlin.”

“That’s the word I was searching for earlier, when I told you about him wanting to talk about the old days.”

“I don’t think it’s a symptom of anything. We could be overreacting to simple mood swings, so don’t press him, eh? If you are going to tail him, be discreet; remember who you’re dealing with. He has always been sensitive to his physical surroundings, and unless you’re careful he’ll spot you in a moment.”

“I was thinking of using someone else, a female friend he’s never met.”

Ava nodded. “That’s a great idea, Sonny. Really, a great idea. This woman, though, she’s professional enough to pull it off?”

“Yeah.”

He said it so aggressively that it triggered a host of questions in her head. She ate them all. “Good. Please keep me posted.”

Sonny dropped her off at the VIP departures gate. It took her less than five minutes to check in at Cathay Pacific and only ten minutes more to clear Customs and Immigration on the departures level; she was through security in another five. She had given herself two hours, so she headed for the Cathay first-class lounge. She grabbed a double espresso and copies of the South China Morning Post and the International Herald Tribune and deposited herself in one of the big easy chairs the lounge provided.

The papers headlined a huge sell-off of stocks in the United States that had evidently been triggered by a computer entry mistake. Some trader selling futures had punched in sixteen billion instead of sixteen million, and the computer had taken over from there. Ava’s money was widely distributed — Canadian government bonds, Canadian bank stocks, gold, real estate investment trusts — and she hardly gave market activity a thought, but she found it alarming that so much value could be vaporized through sheer stupidity.

Her cellphone rang. She looked at the screen and saw the name MARCUS LEE. All thoughts about the U.S. stock market disappeared. “Hi, Daddy,” she said, kicking herself for not having called him first.

“Mummy said you were going to be coming through Hong Kong,” he said.

“I’m in the Cathay lounge at the airport, in transit to Vietnam.”

“Back at work, she says.”

“Yes, and mainly because of her, in case she didn’t tell you. One of her friends lost some money in an investment fund and Mummy put her on to me. A small case, really, and one that I don’t think is going to last too long or result in too much.”

He paused, and Ava braced herself. Instead he said, “Just be careful.”

“I promise I’ll be careful.”

“Make sure you do. Ava, I know you’re entirely capable, but all of us overreach. Look what happened to Michael.”

“He survived.”

“Speaking of Michael, did you look at your emails today?”

“No, why?”

“Amanda and he have set a wedding date. Our two families had dinner together last night and went over the details.”

Ava had an immediate and almost irrational flash of jealousy. Neither Michael nor Amanda had mentioned anything about a specific wedding date to her. And when Marcus mentioned the two families, he meant the Yees and he and his first wife. Ava hadn’t paid much attention to the wedding plans, and now that she did, her only thought was whether she would be invited. The instant it came, she just as quickly dismissed it. There was no way, no way at all, she could envision Michael’s mother, her father’s first wife, agreeing to have Jennie Lee’s daughter at the wedding. It was one thing to have a husband with second and third families who were out of sight; it was another to have one of the offspring from those unions at what would be a large, public, and high-profile event. It wouldn’t matter what Michael and Amanda wanted. Neither of them would go against his mother.

Jack Yee, Amanda’s father, whom Ava knew well and had helped, would be happy enough to invite her if she asked. As soon as that idea came to her she trashed it, and her jealousy began to turn into anger. Her mother understood, accepted, and respected the position that Wife Number One had in the family, and she had passed on that respect and understanding to her two daughters. But that respect has to cut both ways, Ava thought. So if she was going to be at the wedding, the invitation would have to come from the Lee side of the family. To accept anything else would be disrespectful to her own mother and downgrade the relationship that Jennie, Ava, and Marian had with Marcus Lee.

“When is it scheduled for?” Ava asked as calmly as she could.

“January. I know it’s a bit odd, but it fits their work schedules.”

“And where?”

“The Grand Hyatt.”

“Nice.”

“Jack can afford it, and Amanda is his only child.”

“I know.”

“So do you think you can get over here for it?”

Ava was sure she had misheard. “What?”

“I wish you had checked your emails; it would have been better that way. But since you haven’t, I guess it’s up to me to tell you. Amanda wants you to be her maid of honour.”

“Daddy, that is crazy,” she said without thinking.

“Amanda doesn’t think so, and neither does Michael.”

“But Michael’s mother —”

“Is fine with it.”

“How is that possible?”

“Our lives, especially mine, are evolving in unexpected ways. This is just one more twist.”

“Don’t talk in riddles.”

“Elizabeth loves our children to death, and none more than her oldest. They have always been close — almost abnormally so — and they confide in each other. Michael told her about meeting you for the first time at the Mandarin. Michael told her about the problems he was having. Michael told her that he had asked you to help. And when it was all finished, Michael told her you had saved him and his business.”

“I see,” Ava said, feeling a touch of guilt about her ambivalence towards her half-brother.

“And then Amanda weighed in.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Elizabeth told me that you and Amanda had a conversation during the direst part of Michael’s crisis.”

“We had more than one.”

“This one was very specific. Amanda told Elizabeth that you weren’t helping Michael because of what his problems might mean for him. She said you were doing it to protect the family, that Michael had put it at risk, and that you couldn’t let him bring down his father, your mother, two aunties you have never met, and two small children in Australia whom you also haven’t met.”

“I do remember saying that,” Ava said softly.

“Elizabeth asked Amanda if she believed that, and Amanda said she believed it with all her heart.”

“That was kind.”

“No, that was the truth.”

“Still.”

“So when Michael went to see his mother two weeks ago to tell her about the wedding plans, he asked her point-blank if she could accept having you there as part of the bridal party. And Elizabeth said, ‘I can’t only not deny her, I should be welcoming her with open arms.’”

Ava experienced an uncommon sensation: she was at a loss for words. “Good grief,” she said finally.

“There you are.”

“So now what?”

“Tell them you’ll be there.”

Yes, Ava thought, and then thoughts of her mother loomed. How would Jennie Lee take it? Would she regard it as an act of disloyalty? “Daddy, someone has to talk to Mummy about this. You do understand she could be hurt if I accept.”

“Yes, I do, and I’ll be the one to talk to her.”

“Thanks . . . I love you.”

Ava ended the connection and then felt a surge of conflicting emotions. What a morning, she thought. What with Sonny and then Uncle and her father and the complications surrounding the wedding, she had gone through more turmoil that morning than she had for the past two months.

She checked the incoming emails on her iPhone. More than forty had accumulated during the past twenty-four hours. She went directly to Michael’s. It was headed WEDDING!!!!!! She read it quickly and couldn’t help noticing that he seemed to take her acceptance as maid of honour for granted. Amanda was less effusive and more guarded, simply saying she would be pleased if Ava would agree. Ava replied to Amanda first, drafting an email that started with Have you thought long and hard about this? Then she deleted it and wrote one to both Michael and Amanda, saying she would be thrilled to play any role in the wedding party.

When that was done, she turned her attention to the other messages. The first to catch her attention was from Joey Lac, asking her to let Theresa and Bobby and his uncle know that he had been helpful, then reiterating his belief that although Lam Van Dinh was capable of being stupid and could have lost the money in some ill-timed investment, he couldn’t buy into the idea that Lam had stolen the money. He asked Ava to keep that opinion to herself, because he knew it might offend everyone who had lost money in the fund. At the tail end he affixed the names, email addresses, and phone numbers of the contact at Bank Linno in Surabaya and the Toronto landlord.

The other emails were one from Maria, saying that Toronto was already a lonely place; the daily missive from May Ling; and one, dotted with capital letters, from Mimi. We spent the day looking at houses and I can’t believe how patient Derek is. All he seems to want is for me to be happy. I’ve turned into this GAS MACHINE, but he doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he doesn’t seem to mind anything connected to the pregnancy, including FOUR TRIPS TO THE BATHROOM EVERY NIGHT, BOOBS THE SIZE OF BED PILLOWS, AND SCREWING DOGGY-STYLE. Lucky me. Thanks to you.

Ava smiled. Thanks was the last thing she deserved. She had been desperate to keep them apart.

She skimmed quickly through the other messages and then put the phone back into her bag. She hadn’t replied to anyone except Michael and Amanda. Toronto seemed very far away, and Ava was beginning to feel the disconnection that took over whenever a job began.