Shrimp returned. ‘Will we be able to trace him from this film, boss?’

‘Perhaps … It won’t be easy.’

‘What about the girl?’

‘She is German. She said she has a child. She had a family somewhere – find them. And get me a list of the Russian mafia bosses who have been spending time here in the last few years, ones that were injured from a landmine.’

89

Chan stood before CK. He bowed his head before his Mountain Master, his Dragon Head.

CK indicated to Chan to sit. He was in no hurry to say what he had to. But Chan was tired and wanted to get home. He had just arrived back from Russia, had come straight from the airport, but not from choice. He had been summoned. He was tired and he was angry. He had been sent on yet another menial task that any one of a hundred people could have done, but he had to suffer his father-in-law’s humiliation yet again. He wondered how much longer he was going to be able to take it.

‘I will be able to brief you more thoroughly on the results of my trip in the morning, CK. I need to check some figures …’

CK interrupted him with a wave of the hand.

‘I do not wish to talk about the Russians.’ He pressed his fingers together, sat back in his chair and stared hard at Chan. Something was definitely amiss. Chan had seen that look before, though never directed at him. Suddenly there was dryness in Chan’s mouth and his heartbeat quickened. He tried to think of which one of a number of misdemeanours had been discovered.

‘I always hoped that we were of the same understanding, Chan, that we saw eye to eye, as it were. But it appears that I have been blind, while you …’ CK smiled sarcastically, ‘you have been seeing all sorts of things.’

‘I am not following you on this one,’ Chan said, sounding a little too contrived.

CK banged his fist on the desk. ‘I should have your eyes taken out, that you can insult me in this manner. You went behind my back to senior members of other societies. You have been courting allies for your own gain.’

Chan could not control his indignation. He retorted: ‘I have made a lot of money for Wo Shing Shing.’

‘Yes, but your methods … underhand – snake in the grass …’

‘I was not aware that the Wo Shing Shing was a society with ethics. The porn industry would be a much poorer place without Wo Shing Shing money.’

Chan’s bravado had overstretched itself. CK was furious. He sprang out of his chair and marched over to the window to regain his self-control. Chan stared at his back, watching his shoulders rising and falling and seeing the tension in his slight frame – how his head dipped and lifted as he ran through his thoughts. At last, he turned around, and Chan could see that he was still at bursting point.

‘I am the Dragon Head, the Master of the Mountain, not you. It is me who decides what this organisation stands for, and what it puts money into, not you. You have betrayed me, gone behind my back and humiliated me. People will know.’ CK leaned across the desk and glared into Chan’s face as he sat unflinching. ‘I don’t think you fully understand what you have done, my worthless son-in-law. You have caused me to lose face, and that is unforgivable. When you first came to me – a strong, brave young man – a newly trained lawyer, educated in England, people told me you had betrayed your own family, killed your own family members to advance yourself. I did not listen. They told me you had betrayed a friend. I didn’t believe them. They told me that you were a snake. A snake who could change his skin but whose blood would always run cold. They were right.’

Chan stood to attention and bowed slowly. His fists were clenched to his sides and his face was ashen. He glared at CK.

‘Forgive me, my Dragon Master. I am your humble servant.’ He stood and walked backwards out of the room, his eyes fixed on CK all the way.

Once outside, he unclenched his fists and looked at the imprint of his fingernails in his palms.

‘You have looked into the eyes of your successor, old man,’ he said under his breath. ‘Never again will you talk to me like that.’

90

‘Two snuff movies. Made at the same location – different covers on the bed, different camera angles, but definitely the same place. In the first film the woman was killed by an old Russian soldier. In the second it was an oriental – possibly Japanese, maybe Korean.’

‘So we have our second location?’ David White did not look pleased.

‘Yep! We certainly have that! A film set that cost a lot of money – professional and slick. That would explain why they are manicured, prettied up, David. They are used for big-budget snuff movies. Four different cameras for a start, and professional lighting. That was an expensive set we were looking at. That takes massive money. And, most importantly, all for the enjoyment of one man. I’d say, if I wanted to buy myself into a movie like that, I’d be looking to pay two to three million US. There’s the girl to find: pretty, foreign, alone, disposable. It takes time and work to handpick girls like that. Then they must be held somewhere for a long period – we know that by the state of the bodies, tortured and filmed, until the final scene in their sad, wasted lives – to ultimately be the vehicle of some rich, twisted bastard’s fantasy.’ Mann shook his head and gulped his drink.

‘Did you find a match for her among the photos taken from the old surgery?’

‘Shrimp is looking for that right now.’

Li knocked and came into the office.

‘We have it, boss. The girl in the first film? We found a photo that matches her on the wall in the brothers’ place. Interpol have an open file on her. Her name is Claudia Weiss. She was a German girl working as a topless waitress in Kowloon. Been missing since April 2000.’

‘She had a child?’

‘Yes. A little girl. She lives with the grandmother in Bavaria.’

‘Okay, so I accept the killings don’t end with the brothers, but they wouldn’t have a photo of Claudia Weiss up in their house if they weren’t involved in it all somehow.’ David sighed heavily and seemed to sink into his chair. ‘This is all we bloody need …’

‘Bernadette and Georgina – their photos weren’t on the wall. It could mean they’re still alive at this second location.’

‘We have a whole new investigation going on,’ said White, head in hands.

‘… And we have a whole set of new players in it,’ Mann added.

91

‘Was there a clue as to the production company?’ David asked.

‘No chance. But I’m having Ng analyse the film to see if it resembles any legit work we know of.’

‘There must be more films.’

‘Yes, Shrimp’s going back out to see the contact again – see if he can find out more. I think there’s going to be a lot more of these films, David. You know Hong Kong. We’ll copy anything. But this is going to involve some of our big guys. You know – the guys we can’t touch?’

‘We can only hope to bring justice for her and the others in the end.’

Mann looked at him – he knew that tone.

‘Save your bullshit for someone else. I can hear it in your voice – you’re already thinking, if Mann’s right and these are some big guns having themselves some fun with women with no family, no connections – in other words, no value – then we have no hope of getting justice for these women. The men who did this are untouchable. They will have enough power and enough money to buy their way out. I can’t live with that, David. I failed Helen. I failed that young woman in that film, and all the others like her. I owed them my protection and I failed them. We all failed them.’