‘Ka Lei, I think Georgina must have gone.’

‘Gone where? What do you mean?’

Lucy walked across the room to the dressing table. ‘Look – this is the place she always kept her passport, and now it’s gone – see! And her things are in such a mess, as if she left in a hurry. She took just what she needed and left the rest. Sorry, huh?’

Ka Lei stood in the middle of the room, shaking her head in disbelief as Lucy showed her the empty box that had held Georgina’s passport. She took the box from her sister and stared into it, willing the passport to reappear.

‘And her toiletries, her papers – other important things, they are all gone.’

Ka Lei’s hands shook as she held on to the box and her saucer-eyes froze with panic as she surveyed the evidence of Georgina’s departure.

‘Did you know she was leaving? Did she say anything to you, Ka Lei?’

Ka Lei shook her head and, as she did so, swollen tear drops spilt down her face. She began searching for her phone.

Mandy was setting up for the evening when the call came.

Lucy stood poised, just outside the bedroom door, listening – straining to hear the one-sided conversation.

‘Mandy? It’s Ka Lei here. Georgina cousin. Please – have you see Georgina? … Oh no … not here also … I see … no … I solly … yes please…yes… okay … I will … thank you. Bye bye.’

Then Ka Lei went into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

As soon as Mandy got off the phone to Ka Lei, she called Mann.

‘No, she doesn’t know where she is … no … no idea. It’s unthinkable that she doesn’t know where she is. The two are always together and Georgina’s just not like that, and with the murders going on … I thought I’d better call you.’

Mann put the phone down. A cold cramp spread out from the pit of his stomach. It turned his blood to ice. Had Georgina become the latest piece on the killer’s chess board?

He went straight round to the flat. Ka Lei was in such a state of shock and panic that she couldn’t speak.

Lucy explained. ‘Only Georgina would take these things. She has taken the only possessions that matter to her,’ she told Mann.

‘She didn’t take all her things?’

‘No, maybe she just didn’t want the rest. I hope she’s okay. Maybe she just went back.’

He turned to Ka Lei, who was slumped on Georgina’s bed and hadn’t moved since he’d got there.

‘Was there anything worrying her?’

Ka Lei looked at him and then at Lucy. He thought she was going to say something but then she shook her head and went back to staring at the floor.

Mann finished going through Georgina’s belongings. He didn’t find her passport, but he found something else – a small photo album. Photos from the beginning. Georgina as an infant, wrapped in white, nestled in the crook of a very proud-looking man. Underneath was written: Me and Dad. Her mother, me and Mum, a photo of a small woman standing beside Georgina, a tall teenage girl, her arm around Georgina’s waist. Then there were countless photo-booth montages of Georgina and Ka Lei.

He knew there was no way that Georgina would have left either the photo album or Ka Lei behind. No way.

68

‘It’s broad daylight, Mann. Her passport’s gone. She packed up and left. I don’t know why you think any different. In any case we wait forty-eight hours, like you’ve been doing, see if she turns up like the others have done.’ Superintendent White walked back to his desk, sat down heavily and leaned back in the chair.

‘She didn’t.’

‘Didn’t what?’

‘She didn’t just leave.’

‘Okay. Let’s look at the facts. So far as we know, Bernadette, Roxanne and Gosia were all taken at night. This girl was last seen in the day. The others dis appeared from Club Mercedes. This one wasn’t working at the club any more.’

‘That doesn’t mean there isn’t a connection,’ said Mann. ‘And she lived with Lucy.’

‘Yes, Mann, and we come back to the passport, and the fact that she packed up and took what she needed, left the rest. Her cousin seems certain …’

‘Her cousin’s lying. I asked the other occupants in the building, shopkeepers, street vendors outside, and they remembered seeing her that day. She left on foot, walking towards Causeway Bay. She wasn’t carrying anything, just her handbag. She wasn’t on any of the passenger lists of flights out yesterday. I checked.’

‘She could have left on a ferry. I can’t afford to waste man hours. She might well have just decided to leave. I still feel we ought to wait forty-eight hours to see if she turns up.’

White looked at Mann. He knew it wasn’t what Mann wanted to hear. The rest of the team looked at Mann as well. They knew he was trying his best to stay calm, but those of them who had ever seen him angry before were also aware that he didn’t give much warning when he blew.

‘She could be lying on a beach somewhere, Mann, sunning herself. She could be with a boyfriend. She could be anywhere.’

‘And she could be being tortured and be minutes from death.’

‘I am going to pull rank on you with this one, Mann. I think you are too involved – your judgement is not as sharp as it should be and I need you to see things clearly. There is a system in place – we need to follow it. We wait forty-eight hours.’

‘I see things crystal clear.’ Mann was hanging on to his temper by a thread. ‘I will find her myself. Fuck the system!’ He grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the office.

69

Georgina came to, semi-awake, on a cold stone floor. She was aware that she was naked. At the same time as she reached to cover herself, her arm gave way and she slumped to one side. She felt the rough cold stone against her skin. Her body was too heavy to move and she could do nothing about it.

She heard the sound of men’s voices in the room with her – Chinese voices. Through a nauseous semi-sleep she heard them talking. Her head thumped against the side of her skull. She tried hard to open her eyes but they were too heavy – they stayed open for a second then dropped shut.

Someone switched on the shower above her head. She flinched as the jet of cold water hit the back of her head.

‘Wakey, wakey, SHOWER!’ A man’s voice.

She struggled to sit up, managed to straighten herself a little, then stopped. Her head fell forward onto her chest. Two men watched her from the corner of their eyes as they chatted.

One of the men walked over to her.

‘UP. STAND UP!’

She tried to lift her head but the weight of her wet hair forced it back against the wall. Her hair stuck to her face. She stared up at the men for a few seconds then her eyes slid closed.

‘Fuck. She looks ill.’

‘He gave her too much. If she dies we’d better be ready to cover for each other.’

‘She’s not going to die.’ The man nearest Georgina nudged her with his foot.

‘Hey, wake up. STAND UP, I said.’ He kicked her thigh with his foot. Georgina groaned and slid further down the wall.

‘Watch. Cover for me. I’m going to wake her up,’ he said to his companion as he unzipped his flies and took hold of Georgina by her wet hair, dragging her head upwards. Her eyes were closed, her mouth hung open.

‘Let’s see if she likes Chinese dick,’ he said, turning to his friend and grinning.

At that second Georgina vomited.

‘Fucking bitch.’

He threw her back against the wall and turned the shower on himself to wash the vomit from his trousers.

The next thing Georgina heard was a loud knock at the door and a woman’s cockney accent shouting, ‘Open this fuckin’ door.’

70