I am a fox … Boom Boom … caught in a snare… Boom Boom … and the hunt is coming … Boom Boom …The hunt is coming …

83

Man Po was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his big stomach spread out in front of him. He was crying, convulsing, not with remorse but with anger and fear.

‘Just deliver meat,’ he said as Mann approached. ‘Just feed pigs. Did nothing wrong.’ Then Man Po crawled forward on his hands and knees and shouted obscenities at Mann.

‘You want to see your father again?’

Man Po stopped shouting and nodded, his face covered in tears and snot. Saliva drenched his shirt front.

‘You just have to tell me what happened to the women in the photos.’ Mann showed him the pictures, one by one.

Man Po shook his head. ‘Poor, pretty women – just died.’

‘How did they die?’

‘Don’t know. Just dead.’

‘You killed them, Man Po, didn’t you?’

‘No. No. NO.’

‘What about this one?’ Mann showed him the photo of Beverly Mathews taken at her cousin’s wedding. Man Po stared at it, and his face crumbled. He started to cry.

‘Didn’t mean to kill her.’ He shook his head miserably.

‘But you did, didn’t you? You killed her. What about the others? Your brother kidnapped them for you, didn’t he? You and your brother held them captive in the old surgery. Did you kill them there?’

Man Po sat down on the floor and covered his face with his hands.

‘You took their bodies to your workplace and cut them up. You kept some of the bodies there a long time, didn’t you? You kept them in the freezers at work. But then you had to get rid of them because you were going to lose your job, weren’t you, Man Po? It is all going to change.’

Man Po looked at Mann, wide-eyed, and nodded. His shoulders started heaving again as the crying resumed. His nose was running. He sniffed loudly and forgot to suck the saliva back up through the lazy side of his mouth.

‘What about your last victim?’ Mann dreaded the answer. ‘What about Georgina? What have you done with her? Where is she now?’

Man Po looked at Mann with a blank expression.

‘Miss Geor-gi-na?’

‘Yes. Georgina, staying at Lucy’s flat. The Eurasian girl. Where is she?’

Man Po shook his head and cried louder, then he started to bang his head against the cell wall. ‘Just delivery man – that’s all.’

Li appeared beside Mann. ‘There are photos of twenty-two different women up on the walls,’ he whispered.

‘What about the jars? What’s in them?’

‘Human organs: ovaries, breasts, that kinda thing. Oh yeah … and there’s a jar full of fingers and toes.’

‘Did they search the rest of the place?’

‘They’re doing it right now. So far they’ve found nothing.’

‘What about the Ho Young Dim Sum Manufacturers?’

‘Yeah, they’re out there – the SOCOs. I’ve heard nothing back from them yet.’

‘I want a list of pig farms that supply them with meat. I want all of them searched and all their meat production halted till we get a look at them.’

‘Okay. What about him?’ Li pointed at Man Po.

‘He’s starting to talk. How is Max doing upstairs?’

‘Smoking one cigarette after another and pacing about the room.’

‘Has he said anything?’

‘No, but he looks like he wants to.’

‘Okay. I’ll be back up in a minute.’

Mann went back to talk to Man Po, who was still banging his head rhythmically against the wall. ‘You can see your brother, Man Po. But you have to tell me how you killed the women first.’

Man Po stopped crying and wiped his face with his hand. He looked up at Mann.

‘She was so pretty. She liked me. I didn’t mean to hurt her. Never hurt them – just like them when they are dead. Never hurt them. I’m just a delivery man.’ He repeated the last sentence over and over and sank back to his corner of the cell, sobbing.

84

Lucy was packing. It was a slow job. She just hadn’t the energy to do it fast. The funeral had drained away her last gram of strength. She had not been able to take Ka Lei’s ashes. She’d never realised that there was so much left after cremation. She had opted to have the ashes made into diamonds, and Frank had bought her a necklace with a locket attached. When the stone arrived she’d have it set into a golden heart.

It shouldn’t be taking so long. She only had a few items that she really valued, and anyway, Frank had offered to buy her anything she needed when they reached the States. It should have been an easy job, then, but whole lives had to be condensed and crammed into one suitcase. Sorting Ka Lei’s belongings was the most difficult. It was so hard to know what to leave behind, what to shut the door on and say goodbye to, and what to take with her to her new life.

The weather didn’t help, it was sticky and hot. It didn’t occur to Lucy to put the air-conditioning on – years of frugal living had taught her to live without it. So, a job she knew that she must hurry had taken her all day so far.

She pushed aside the half-sorted piles of belongings and slumped into misery, sighing more and more until that became her mode of breathing – big, deep, regretful sighs. Occasionally she stopped and wept. It was not often Lucy wept. The noise wrenched from her – an alien sound. It filled the flat, the noise of her sorrow. Then, gradually, it subsided.

She stared out of the window. The glass was dirty from all the mucky rain that seemed to have fallen non-stop that summer and was hanging on longer than it should. The room had taken on a foggy quality, as if she were sitting in a dream, or in a cloudy memory. Just for a few seconds Lucy allowed her eyes to fill with tears again, let her breath fall on a sob before she caught it midair and snatched it back. Snap out of it, she scolded herself. She had gone through it all a million times and nothing would bring Ka Lei back. She must pack her bags, pack up her life and move on. But her eyes were magnetically drawn towards the flat door and to the balcony on the landing beyond, daring her to retrace her sister’s steps on that evening.

She got up and started towards the apartment door, but didn’t dare open it or stand on the balcony, gripping the railing, and look over. She didn’t want to see the last image her sister had seen that night. She didn’t want to know what her sister had thought of last as she prepared to tip herself over the edge. What was it? Georgina came into her mind like a lightning strike. Like a migraine flash. It distorted her vision and tugged as a tic at the corner of her eye – Georgina. Then Chan came into her thoughts. He was to blame for all of it. She could not fool herself. And Lucy had played a major part in it, and she would carry her guilt forever.

She stood abruptly and brushed the creases out of her skirt. Enough! She had had enough of guilt and pain. She was so tired of recriminations. She was full of life. She wanted to live. She wanted to start again with Frank. She wanted this chance to be happy. She deserved it as much as anyone.

She smiled when she thought of Frank. He was waiting for her at the Hilton. He would be so excited right now. He was doing some last-minute shopping – ‘secrets’, he told her – things she would find out about in time! Lucy was to spend just two more nights in Hong Kong, then they would leave for the airport and catch the evening flight to Miami, and she would be gone, starting their life together in Florida. Frank said they would pick up a car and drive to the Captiva house on the beach. They would make that stilt-house shake! He would take her out on his Harley (once he’d learned to ride it) and she could have as many leather outfits as she wanted.