The pink-haired girl in the bed sat up, revealing creamy white breasts topped with dark nipples the size of silver dollars. The entire left side of her face was livid, as if she’d been slapped hard, or punched. She directed a stream of angry words at Suzy, who bowed her head and looked away. Ryker recalled passing a bathroom on the way in. Maybe Suzy had hid in there when the unexpected guests arrived, and ran out the door when they weren’t looking. Whatever, the pink-haired girl wasn’t pleased with her, and he didn’t need Chee Wei to translate.
“Cover yourself up, there’s a good girl,” Roger said. She scowled at him and pulled the sheet higher. “They thought she was Juicy Lucy, poor dear,” Roger told Ryker. “They became very upset when I told them she wasn’t here. Fortunately they believed me. It could have been much worse, I suppose.”
“Who,” Ryker said, feeling as if he’d slipped into a surreal dimension, “is Juicy Lucy?”
“Oops.” Roger covered his mouth with his hand, and giggled. “It’s just our little nickname. She’s a sweet girl really. Her real name is…and I’m not sneezing, before you say anything…Xiaohui. There, I think I’ve pronounced it correctly. Suzy darling, how did I do?”
Suzy looked anything but pleased. “What do you want with her?” Suzy asked Ryker. “Why did
“That’s a very good question,” Roger said. “Why indeed?”
“Get me a beer, Roj, will you?” Vincent said. “My hand’s killing me.”
“He says he was in the Australian S.A.S.,” Roger whispered to Ryker on his way to the adjoining kitchen. “Girl Guides, more like.”
“I heard that,” Vincent called after him. “You only had to say the word, Roj. I would have taken them out. All of them.”
“To dinner?” Roger called from the kitchen. He opened the fridge, took out a beer bottle and popped the cap with a practiced downward stroke, spilling not a single drop.
Suzy spoke softly to the pink-haired girl in Chinese and kissed her on the cheek. It took Ryker all his will power to tear his gaze away from them. “Do you know where this Xiaohui is?” he said, rolling his tongue around the unfamiliar syllables. “Did you tell them?”
“I’m afraid our Juicy Lucy has gone up in the world,” Roger said, passing the beer bottle to Vincent. “We don’t see much of her any more. Just a couple of months ago she lay on that very bed with her legs wide open. What was the name of that film, Vincent?”
“I dunno,” Vincent said. He swallowed a mouthful of beer. “But she was a right good little actress. Then she met some bloke. Must have had money. Suddenly two hundred and fifty dollars is chicken feed to her. She turned down the next job too, and it was a sequel. They always do well.”
“At least she wasn’t bitchy about it or anything,” Roger added. He delicately touched his nose and inspected his finger. “We told Arnold bloody Schwarzenegger he should ask someone at the Snake Bite if they knew where she was. She used to work there, as a dancer.”
Ryker knew the bar, a waterfront dive popular with tourists looking for a good time.
“Forget the dolly bird, what are you going to do about this?” Vincent said, using his beer bottle as a pointer to indicate the fallen camera and broken light. Almost as an afterthought he also indicated the pink-haired girl. “Can’t let the buggers get away with it. Why don’t you get on the blower and call in a SWAT team or something? Put a cap up their arses. Serve them bloody well right.”
“All right. But you can’t touch anything before forensics photographs the evidence. And the investigators will want to talk to all the witnesses.” Roger and Vincent both looked at the pink-haired girl, who rested her head on Suzy’s shoulder while Suzy stroked her hair. Friends again.
“Ah, well,” Roger said. “That could prove difficult. Our little Lotus Blossom here doesn’t speak a word of English.”
“I’ll be happy to translate,” Chee Wei said.
Suzy shook her head almost imperceptibly. The gesture was intended for Roger but Ryker picked it up and knew the matter wouldn’t be pursued with the police.
“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary. The damage really isn’t too severe. And we’ll pay our lead actress danger money to make up for her discomfort. Won’t we, Vincent?” Vincent nodded eagerly. “So, detective sergeant, now that you have the name of the person those thugs were after, what will you do?” Roger asked, smoothly changing the subject.
“I think we need to find her before they do,” Ryker said. “For her own protection.” Suzy got the message. She said something to the other girl, then got up off the bed and went out into the hallway. “We’ll see ourselves out.”
“Our pleasure to have met you, I’m sure,” Roger said.
Ryker followed Suzy into the hallway. She was waiting for them by the front door. Chee Wei was only a step behind him. “Fucking gays,” he said, his whisper every bit as loud as his normal voice. “All that pussy and they don’t know what to do with it! She’s a minor. We can close them down.”
“People gotta eat,” Ryker told him.
“Would you say that if she was white?”
Ryker stopped so suddenly that Chee Wei almost ran into him.
“Okay, hold on,” Chee Wei said. “I’m gonna be picking shoe leather out of my teeth for weeks. I shouldn’t have said that. Dumb fuck thing to say. Forget it, will you?”
But Suzy was waiting to hear his reply, so Ryker gave her one. “The question is would I rather she sold her ass out on the street? The answer’s no. She’s better off here, doing tricks for a pair of queers more likely to mother her than do her harm.”
He stepped up to Suzy. Their eyes were almost level thanks to her boot heels. She was undeniably beautiful but her friend back there in the makeshift film studio had drawn his attention to Suzy’s age. Looks were deceiving; she could be young enough to be his daughter, which was the biggest turn off he could think of on such short notice.
“What else can you tell me?” he said.
“Her name is Zhu Xiaohui,” she said. “She has an apartment. It’s not far. She could be there. But if she knows someone is looking for her? Maybe she’ll stay with her sister.”
Ryker took out his notepad, flipped it open and offered it to her along with a pen.
CHAPTER 8
Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
There were advantages to owning a multinational corporation that dealt in advanced electronics, chief among which was the near guarantee of totally secure communications. Somewhere above the world a satellite owned wholly by Lin Industries looked down upon them and beamed encoded signals from continent to continent. New compression techniques meant that delay was almost non-existent and both parties could speak in real time without any irritating pauses. Sound quality was also enhanced, so that every nuance of tone and emotion came through clearly. They might as well be sitting in the same room, Chen Gui thought, as Lin Yubo’s voice lashed him from 6,000 miles away, and rightly so, considering what might easily have gone wrong and how much they could have lost in Japan, in terms of both wealth and face.
The tirade continued for nearly two minutes. Chen Gui feared his boss would faint because of lack of oxygen to the brain, but he went on without pause and apparently without the need to draw breath.
“-And that nephew of yours,” Lin Yubo said. “How much of this unnecessary confrontation with the Fujianese was his doing?”
Chen Gui resisted the temptation to blame it all on Chen Song. That might possibly lead to unfortunate and fatal repercussions. Chen Gui didn’t particularly like Chen Song’s mother, but she had a tongue that could cut through silk and a vindictive streak that was to be feared. She would never give him a moment’s peace if anything were to happen to her beloved son. Even though, if there was anyone on the Asian continent who deserved to suddenly disappear without trace, it was the incompetent wretch Chen Song whose foolishness had almost cost
