They overtook a young woman on the stairs; she had stopped to check her phone for messages.
It was Ruby.
Chapter 23
Ruby knew they weren’t Africans as soon as she heard their footsteps on the stairs; they weren’t wearing trainers. She turned and looked at their feet as they approached. Expensive shoes. Ruby knew then that they didn’t belong in the Mansions. They were strangers. She kept her eyes down until they had passed. She was wearing a curly brunette wig and the same simple big-belted black mac that could be bought in any shop in Hong Kong: fashionable, chic but nondescript. In her oversized handbag she carried another wig and a change of shoes. They were the two things that would transform her. Also in the bag was the tool kit hidden inside the rolled cloth bundle.
As the two men turned to go down the next flight of stairs she glanced over the railings. She recognized Mann but not the other officer. She smiled to herself when she looked at Shrimp in his suit – there was something about a man in a suit. Ruby hung back until she could no longer hear their leather soles on the concrete stairwell. She knew once they got to the first floor they would be swallowed by the sari sellers, the samosa stalls and thousands of people and they would never notice her following them.
She walked past the lift and took the stairs. She didn’t go in the lift on her own. Even though now they had cameras; cameras could be hidden, covered, cameras could have their recordings wiped if you paid the right person. It was all about knowing what someone wanted in exchange. Some people wanted sex. Some people wanted money but they all wanted something.
She kept her head down as she slipped quickly past the Africans who hung about the stairwells and doorways. They sat on the steps and watched the world. They sat in groups and talked of home. They walked up to the mosque and talked of Allah. But they were warm-blooded men. They watched the women walk by. They watched Ruby.
Ruby came out onto the first floor. The place was chaotic. She looked around for Mann and the other officer. She eased her way through the crowds of people noisily negotiating the prices of a new shipment of clothes just arrived from the mainland. She headed towards the end where the tailors had their shops. There the touts took over. Fluorescent lights flickered above the heads as they assaulted unwary people with fake Louis Vuitton bags or copy Rolexes, promises of made to measure everything. They didn’t bother Ruby. She had her eyes on Mann and the one in a suit. She watched them making their way down the corridor asking about anyone who knew a young Indian girl who hadn’t been seen for forty-eight hours. In Mann’s hand he held a piece of the sari he had picked up next to the box with the girl’s body in it.
‘Getting warmer,’ Ruby said to herself as she watched them working their way. ‘Getting very warm…Boiling!’ she said after half an hour when they had stopped outside a tailors shop. Ruby stopped opposite, out of view, she was tucked behind the shelves in a small Indian supermarket. She smiled to herself, her heart beating fast. Her hands sweating as she pretended to browse through the DVDs. They were all porn. The old Indian who owned the supermarket stared at her, his eyes feasting. Ruby let him. She didn’t know him and he didn’t know her but they might one day have something each other wanted.
Ruby watched the Indian man sitting on the floor and sewing leather belts. It was Rajini’s father. Mann would be coming to him any minute. Rajini’s father looked up at Ruby and his eyes momentarily questioned. He wondered what she wanted and then Mann blocked her view of him. Ruby was watching Mann’s back. She wanted to hear the words being spoken but she couldn’t. She wanted to hear Mann ask him if he had a daughter, if she was missing. All Ruby heard were the gasps of panic in the belt maker’s voice. Ruby was content. She had done her job and a little more. She had been promoted to a Red Pole in the Triad ranks; the rank of an officer. She had shown her strength and proved she was worthy. It would be some time before any of the girls would show disrespect to her again. Rajini had been nothing to her, she meant nothing. Only the chosen could make it up the ladder. Ruby was one of the chosen. Rajini wasn’t, it was simple.
Ruby moved on further down the corridor and waited there, out of sight. She watched Mann call on his radio. A female officer came, they left. Ruby followed them as they made their way down the stairs to the ground floor and back out through the crowds. She stopped short of the entrance and engaged a money changer in some conversation. She watched them talking on the steps and then saw them go their separate ways. The sun had set outside. But Ruby’s day was just beginning. She walked past Shrimp as he stood on the steps and she followed Mann.
Chapter 24
As soon as he was sure the policemen had gone, PJ pulled Hafiz into a quiet corner of the restaurant.
‘You bring nothing but trouble on our heads. What is it the detective knows that you’re not telling me? Why was he here talking about a young woman’s death? Who was it?’
‘I don’t know, Dad.’ He pulled his arm back from PJ’s grip. ‘It has nothing to do with me.’
‘I’ve seen you hanging out with those kids. They’re a bad bunch. You’re just like them. You don’t care about working hard and making it, you only care about designer shoes and phones and you aren’t prepared to work for them. Nothing comes for free, my lad. If you have signed up to some Triad society the price will be big. These Mansions will be running with blood soon: Indian against Indian, child against child. You have no idea about what you’re involved in. If you had something to do with that poor girl getting killed I’ll have nothing more to do with you.’
Hafiz looked at his father, stony faced. ‘You’re always blaming me. It’s not always my fault, you know.’ He took off the serving napkin from over his arm and threw it down. ‘You know what? I’m not interested any more. I’m sick of working here for nothing. I don’t want this to be my life. I want more. I hope the Triads do take over. I hope this place does burn down.’
PJ went to strike him. His eldest son Ali appeared beside them and stepped between his father and Hafiz. ‘Don’t, Dad. I’ll see to it.’
PJ shook his head sadly. ‘I am glad your mother cannot listen to you talk. She would have put a stop to it better than me. She would have seen it coming the way she saw everything coming.’ PJ wiped his face with his serving cloth and looked close to tears. ‘If she were alive, she’d have put a stop to it all.’
From the kitchen a bell sounded for the third time. A meal was waiting to be taken out. Mahmud hurried past the door, laden with plates. ‘Thank goodness for the fact I have one son who believes in working hard.’
‘I’m going out,’ Hafiz said and he threw down his serving cloth as he left.
Ali looked at his father accusingly. ‘You should go easy on him. These days are difficult for Hafiz. He’s always chasing Mahmud’s tail.’
‘Yes and he’s never going to catch it or add up to him.’
‘We are all different, Dad, you should remember that. Nobody’s perfect, not even Mahmud.’
‘I know. I’m sorry but I’m worried for our future. You find out who that young girl who died was and if Hafiz had anything to do with it. You do the right thing, Ali. I want her family compensated.’
‘No, she’s not our caste.’
PJ looked at him, shocked. ‘You know the girl?’
‘Only the rumours. The kids talk, I listen. Her father is a leather worker, her mother cleans toilets. She sews in a tailors on the first floor. We must keep our heads down. That’s why it is important to get the right friends, Dad. We have to protect ourselves. Don’t talk to Inspector Mann. Let me do it. Don’t let Hafiz or Mahmud or anyone talk unless I am there. Victoria Chan warned us when she came to see us. She said things would start to go wrong here. Things would get so bad that they would push for the Mansions to be demolished. She told us to keep our heads down and we would be guaranteed a new restaurant after the refurb.’
‘But how do we know she’s telling the truth?’
‘We don’t. But we have no choice. She’s been good to us this last year. She’s proved herself to be a friend
