‘Don’t you want to help your brother?’
‘It’s not a case of that; we don’t know any more than you. Why don’t you ask him?’
‘He’s not talking. He fears something else more than us, more than life in prison. What would that be, do you think?’
‘The gangs.’
‘How long do you think he’s been a Triad?’
Ali looked away in disgust. ‘Don’t be stupid. Mahmud is no Triad. Whatever he was doing there, it wasn’t Triad business.’
‘What’s his relationship with his father like?’
‘He is his pride and joy. You know we all do what we can. Things haven’t been easy. Our mum died five years ago. Since then we all have to help in the restaurant.’
‘Even you?’
He grinned. ‘It’s not my thing. I help in other ways. I buy the extras we can’t afford. I paid for Mahmud to get a better education. I paid for the extra lessons to learn to read and write Mandarin. I can’t do it. Mahmud is clever. He takes his studies seriously. He isn’t out chasing girls or taking ice. He has his heart set on being a doctor.’
‘So what the hell has gone wrong?’
Ali shook his head. ‘We are in crisis at the moment. The Mansions has gone fucking mad. People being chopped, killed. We are all scared of the future but now terrified of the present. We have nowhere else to go. We told you what we know.’
‘Did you? I think you left out more than you said.’
‘Where are you going with that?’ He pointed to the urumi, wrapped in plastic, in Shrimp’s hand. ‘That’s private property.’
‘You’ll get it back. Listen, Ali, no one wants to cause more trouble here. If you just let it run the Triads will take over this entire place and you’ll have gang wars every night. Is that what you want for your family?’
Ali took a deep breath and shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I heard the rumours. I had an idea that it was Rajini, I should have been more helpful. I have to keep my family safe. I have to put them first. I know Mahmud was not involved in the attack on the officer. My father is about to have a breakdown thanks to all of this. I have to go. There’s nothing more I can tell you.’
As he walked away, he stopped and looked at Shrimp earnestly. ‘But please keep trying for us. I am sorry to be strict about my sister but stay away from Nina, she’s been through enough. She marries next month.’
Shrimp tried not to look like the news had impacted but inside a small jolt of pain had shot through his heart.
As he was about to step back onto Nathan Road, Nina caught up with him.
‘I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.’ She looked behind her, breathless. She didn’t want to be seen talking to him. She stayed within the threshold of the Mansions.
‘No, you should. It’s no good hiding anything, Nina, it will just come out in the end and make even more trouble. Look, if I can help you in any way, if you need me, you call.’
She smiled gratefully as Shrimp handed her his card. It occurred to him he’d never seen anyone so lovely.
‘Can you read Mandarin?’
She nodded. ‘I am learning.’
He handed her his card. ‘My mobile number is on the back.’
He watched her go. She turned back to smile as she disappeared back into the crowds.
Chapter 57
Mann headed back to Headquarters. He went straight to find Sheng. He caught him in the locker room; he smashed him back against a locker, held him by the throat.
‘Did you order Tammy to carry on with Operation Schoolyard?? Did you countermand my order?’
Sheng breathed in his face. He waited until Mann loosened his grip and then he shook himself free.
‘No. I didn’t. You don’t need help fucking things up, you can manage it all by yourself.’
Mann let him go. He took the lift up to the top floor and the stairwell up to the roof. He needed to breathe. He felt his lungs collapsing. The only calm for him was on the roof. He pushed open the fire escape door and immediately the heat hit him. The sun was directly overhead. The sun was in his eyes. The dazzling light bounced off buildings and windows. He put on his sunglasses and stood, breathing deeply. The air was clean. The smell of the ocean. The sea was vast and beautiful on the horizon.
He walked across to the parapet. The eagle had been there and left its droppings, full of tiny bones. Mann picked up three black tail feathers, beautiful, flawless. He knelt down out of the wind, wrapped them in cloth and placed them inside his shuriken pouch.
‘I thought I’d find you up here.’ Mia walked across the roof and stood beside Mann looking at the harbour and the sea beyond. ‘What’s the latest on Tammy?’
‘Still critical.’
‘I heard you paid a visit to Victoria Chan’s office.’
‘News travels fast.’
‘Only some news – only when it’s to certain people’s advantage. You better stay away from them now, Mann. I’ve been told by the top brass to warn you off. You can’t go in there and threaten her. This was supposed to be stealth not aggression.’
‘I’m playing the game, Mia. I’m doing what they expect. Any less and they’d know it wasn’t for real.’ He shook his head and took a deep breath in. ‘It’s beginning to feel like whichever way I play it I can’t win. Victoria Chan knew about Operation Schoolyard. She knew about Tammy.’
‘How?’
‘She made it her business. She paid someone here at the department.’
Mia wasn’t having it: ‘It’s not possible. She’s lying. Only a handful of us knew the details about Operation Schoolyard. It’s gone wrong before, Mann, it doesn’t mean that someone’s corrupt in this department.’
‘It’s not the first time we’ve had corrupt police officers either though, is it? Why the hell didn’t Tammy do as I ordered?’ Mann shook his head, slow, heavy. ‘Tom Sheng denies he had anything to do with it. I don’t believe him.’ He stared hard at Mia. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me, Mia?’
‘Like what? I know as much as you do.’ She turned back to stare out at the rooftops.
Mann shook his head, exasperated. ‘Some people have waited a long time to see me in this kind of a mess. My judgement’s all to hell. I am not thinking straight.’
Mia reached out and rested her hand on Mann’s arm. ‘I know you have too much in your head right now with your father’s mess but don’t be such a hard man. You’re not always in this alone. You want to talk, I’m here.’
‘Thanks, Mia, but it’s probably best for me to work it out alone.’
‘What about your mother? Is she helping with it?’
‘No. She is doing what she does best, ignoring it and hoping it will go away. I don’t blame her. I’ve done my best to do the same but it’s not working so well for me.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘It seems like a massive task. I thought I could walk away from my father’s past. But I can’t. Now it’s up to me to finish the job. The thing is, all the years my mother chose to ignore it and leave it untouched, his wealth has been growing, the investments are now huge. I own a large part of a company that mines diamonds in Sierra Leone; I own several cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast. Each project could take me a year to unravel in order to try and do something positive with it. I wish I could give it all away and forget it existed.’
‘What about the family in Amsterdam? Do they have a say?’
‘My brother Jake is named in some of the documents. I will try and guide him through it all when I’ve negotiated my own way first. His stepdad Alfie is a nice guy. He’ll want me to do what I think best. He’s a cop. He’s not going to want Jake inheriting Triad money. I’ll talk to him. I keep meaning to call. I just don’t know what to say. I wish my dad’s business could wait until the murder investigation was over but with Victoria pushing me and causing chaos I think I have run out of time. I feel like she’s out to break me. I feel like she knows every move I
