‘What do you want? Where is Nina?’ Flo asked as her door opened and she felt the presence of someone standing in her doorway. ‘What do you want?’ she asked again, trying to put force behind her voice. ‘I am tired, get out. Go away.’ No one answered her. Flo’s head turned as she followed the sound of the person entering her room and walking around to the side of her. ‘Nina. Nina…’ Strong arms held her tight. She clawed at the hands but she could not reach them. She was being strangled.
Chapter 93
‘Tom?’ Mia stood in her office calling Sheng’s mobile. It went straight to answer phone again.
There was a knock at her door. Ng walked in with Shrimp behind.
‘Has Michelle been released?’ asked Mia. Ng nodded. She sighed and sat back down, exasperated. ‘With Mahmud cleared as well, we’re back to square one. I had them as our team. I thought they would turn out to be working it together. I keep coming back to Victoria Chan and
‘Mann’s going to try and take them on alone. He can’t do it at the moment. It takes someone with all his wits about him to take on one member of the family, let alone two. I know CK too.’ Ng was aware of Shrimp staring at him with a new respect. Ng glanced his way.‘Yes, you aren’t the only person to have gone undercover, Shrimp. I was a rookie then. I spent a time in the Triad ranks as a 49 and then a Red Pole. It was the most difficult thing I ever did. You have to be able to separate your mind from what is going on around you. You have to immerse yourself completely and still be aware it’s not really you. It’s a very hard thing to do.’
Shrimp patted Ng on the back. ‘Big respect, old man.’
‘It was a long time ago but that kind of experience stays in the mind and CK hasn’t changed at all. Mann is no match for him at the moment. Mann’s father’s estate is a curse. It is attracting trouble to him like an open wound in a shark-infested ocean.’
‘I know, and the trouble is that conflict of interests is going to be a permanent problem unless Mann can resolve it,’ said Mia.
‘Given time, he will make the right decisions,’ said Ng. ‘He needs the pressure taken off him to do that. They are forcing him out of the job he was born to do and back into a world he was born into. It will break him. He will snap if he is forced to bend against his will.’
‘So, we carry on without him and hope that we can clear his name,’ said Mia, sounding as upbeat as she could but feeling anything but.
Shrimp and Ng agreed. It was the only thing they could do. They walked back to their office. Ng reached over to turn on his PC and hung his jacket over the back of his chair. He turned to look at Shrimp whose face was frozen in a puzzled expression. He was staring across at Mann’s desk: papers, files, messages in his in-tray, memos stacking up on his desk.
‘What do you think he’s doing right now?’
‘He’s probably drinking himself into a stupor.’
‘What’s he going to do, Ng?’
‘I don’t know, Shrimp.’
Shrimp looked lost. Mann had been his mentor and his friend. He couldn’t imagine him leaving the force. Mann lived for it more than any of them.
‘I’ve seen him go through some bleak times. I’ve seen him be self-destructive but I’ve never seen him as bad as this. He’s always had his work but it’s not enough at the moment. I think it’s almost like he feels he doesn’t belong here any more.’
‘What can we do?’
‘We have to leave him alone, wait until he comes out of it one way or another and then we have to clear his name.’
‘I’m on it.’ Shrimp picked up his jacket.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I need to get them to leave Mann alone. I’m going to go and see CK. I’m going to face him and tell him we’ll have him in for questioning about the murder charges. We’ll bring his daughter in for inciting racial hatred, for being an accessory to the murder of a police officer.’ Shrimp stood and picked up his vintage denim Gaultier jacket.
‘No. You’ll blow your cover. Anyway, we mustn’t be hasty. We must think it through. He is not a man to be easily outsmarted.’
Shrimp wasn’t happy about it but he shrugged and left, throwing his jacket over his shoulders.
Ng waited until Shrimp was out of the office and then he dialled CK’s number.
‘I need to see you.’
Chapter 94
Ruby stood over Sheng’s naked body. The ball gag was in his mouth. His arms were tied together and chained to the wall behind his head. His legs were open and chained to the wall either side of the mattress. The lamp shone down onto him. Ruby was very pleased with herself. She might be young but she understood that sex was every woman’s ultimate killing tool. A woman’s body was her weapon. She had fooled three policemen in one night. Sheng was still recovering from the Rophypnol.
She went over to him and knelt beside him and whispered in his ear:
‘You fell for the oldest trick in the book. Never judge by appearances.’ She ran her hand down his body until it settled on his cock. She stroked it. ‘You were ruled by this weren’t you?’ He didn’t move. ‘Tut tut tut. You should have kept your eyes open. You looked away once too often. I have very quick hands. I have very nimble fingers. I can put something in your drink faster than you can look down my cleavage.’ He was still dopey, coming round slowly. ‘You’re still not listening to me. I know just how to wake you up.’ Ruby picked up the autopsy pliers and she rested Sheng’s little finger between their open pincers and then she shut them- snap – tight.
Sheng’s eyes opened wide. He stared straight at Ruby and then at the finger she held in her hand and he screamed into the gag.
‘One finger, two fingers, three and four.’ Snap snap snap…she cut his fingers off and placed a finger on each of the dolls’ laps and when she had run out she began cutting off Sheng’s toes.
Chapter 95
Mann didn’t answer the door straight away. He sat in his armchair in the lounge; Daniel Lu had let Mann keep the lounge furniture. The bedroom was empty; every item removed and now being scrutinized in the lab. The telly blaring. He thought it was Ng. He shouted, ‘Fuck off,’ and turned the volume on the telly up. The knock came again. Then Mann realized the knock was different; it wasn’t Ng’s. He paused the film and slipped out of the chair. He walked to the side of the door and called out.
‘Who is it?’
A woman’s voice answered. ‘Victoria Chan. I need to speak with you. It’s urgent.’
Mann looked through the spy hole. Victoria Chan looked back.
‘What do you want?’
‘To talk, as I said.’
She raised her hand, knuckles at the ready to knock again. She wasn’t going to go away. He unlocked the door and walked back into the room, his back to her. She walked straight in and seemed oblivious to the mess. She
