‘How?’

‘Through Lucy – the girls who stayed in her flat. They rode in my taxi to work. I got to know if they had family. Chan always asked me. “Any new ones?” I had to keep looking for them for him, more and more. He always wanted more.’

‘Why didn’t you tell him you’d had enough?’

‘Huh? I tried. He threatened to put all the blame on me and Man Po – for all of them. He threatened to kill my father. He said that Man Po had been hiding the bodies, not doing as he was told, and it would be easy for it all to be pinned on us.’

‘He was right about that, wasn’t he? The trophies?’

‘Yes – the trophies. Chan told Man Po to cut the bodies up and feed them to the pigs on the farms, but Man Po didn’t do it, not every time. He cut them up and hid them in freezers at his work. It wasn’t always easy to get to the farms every time. He had to wait sometimes, so he had to store them in the freezer. Then they had to defrost somewhere so that he could give them to the pigs easily, cut up small, no trace. It’s not always easy, huh?’

‘He liked the dead girls.’

‘Yes. He liked them a lot.’ Max shrank away from Mann. He edged back towards his bunk. ‘Sometimes he just kept a part. Small parts that he put into jars. Big parts in freezers. Until there were too many in the freezers. Then we heard that the company was changing hands, selling up, and soon Man Po would have no job. So he started emptying the freezers at work. He panicked.’

‘Got careless.’

‘Yes! He left the bags all over the place! So stupid.’ Max sat on the bunk, shoulders hunched, swinging his head monkey fashion. ‘So stupid.’ He turned sharply towards Mann. His eyes were burning in the gloom of the cell. ‘See! We’re not so bad. We didn’t kill them, except that girl. And that was an accident. Man Po is just a delivery man. He cuts up the carcasses and disposes of the meat. That’s his job. Nothing more. Just a delivery man.’

‘But it isn’t meat, is it, Max? It’s people. And you don’t always get them through Lucy, do you, Max?’

Max looked up and waited. He knew that Mann would come to it. Mann had saved the question until last. He had steeled himself for it. But Mann knew, whatever Helen had suffered he must suffer it now too.

‘That day you picked up my girlfriend from my flat.’

Max started writhing. He didn’t want to look at Mann. He didn’t want to answer this question.

‘That day, Max. Was she a random choice? Or were you ordered to pick her up?’

Mann’s heart was breaking. He felt near to collapse. He was tired, sick. He was trembling with grief and anger.

‘I am sorry. I did not want to … I did not know her.’ Max stood up again and came back to stand at the bars, but not too close – not close enough so that Mann could reach him.

‘Answer me, Max! Were you ordered or was it something that just happened?’

Mann’s anger made Max flustered. He was squirming. ‘He showed me a photo of her. He told me where you lived. I was ordered to watch her. I was told to wait for my chance.’ Max wrung his hands, looked everywhere but at Mann. ‘I was ordered to pick her up. I didn’t know her. He did.’ Max glanced at Mann. ‘For six months I watched and waited. That day – she called a cab. My controller told me the address. I knew it was my chance. She came out with her suitcase. I saw you come. You drove up. I thought you had come to stop me. I wanted you to stop me. But you let us go.’

Mann fought an overwhelming urge to reach between the bars and drag Max through them like they were a cheese-grater. At the same time he thought he would throw up.

‘I will regret that day forever, Max – till the day I die. But my death is some way off. Yours is almost here. You deserve to die, Max. And, when they kill you, please let the last image you see be of Helen. A life for a life, Max – you are truly damned. But, if it’s any consolation, I’m damned if you’re the only one.’

101

‘I’ve never seen the like of it, sir – kids as young as five.’

Li was speaking to the Superintendent as Mann walked in. Mann needed to get the meeting over with as fast as possible if he had any chance of catching up with Chan. Time was slipping out of his hands.

He stood next to Li, waiting impatiently for him to finish his account of Sixty-Eight. He could see he wasn’t the only one agitated. Mann looked at David White. The Superintendent had been listening to the account of Club Sixty-Eight without interrupting, but Mann could see that he was distracted. The late-morning sun was irritating his eyes. He looked ashen-faced and exhausted. His restless hands continually smoothed back the ghost of his hair.

‘Mann – summary, please?’

‘These men will have paid big money. They are going to be some of the richest men, not just in Hong Kong but across Asia. Maybe even worldwide. They will have paid millions to fulfil these warped fantasies of theirs, and Chan is the man who made it all possible. This is what we’ve been waiting for, David – now we finally have him!’

White sat back in his chair and looked towards the window. His eyes lingered there and he sighed heavily. The room went silent except for the whoosh of the ancient ceiling fan and the sound of voices in the corridor outside. The atmosphere in the room bristled with tired irritation and raw emotion. Shrimp looked at the Superintendent and then at Mann, and he waited. He had no idea what for – he just knew something was about to kick off.

‘Thank you for your help, Officer Li. It’s the Inspector I need to talk to.’

The two were left alone.

‘Sit, Mann.’

‘I’d rather stand.’

‘Mann, please sit down before you fall down. We’re all exhausted – none of us has slept for days. I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but sit down and let’s get this thing done.’

‘I’m standing, David, until I hear what I want to hear, then I’m walking out of this office and getting on with my job.’

‘We’ve been told to leave Chan to his own – let the Wo Shing Shing deal with him “inhouse”.’

Mann took one of his deep breaths, which sometimes helped to calm him. This time the fuse was already lit and the breath merely gave fuel to the explosion.

‘I don’t want to fucking hear it!’ Mann’s voice leapt up several decibels. ‘Don’t even come close to fucking saying it!’ He stood rigid with anger. ‘No … fucking … way.’

Superintendent White held up his hands to silence him – he wanted his turn.

‘You’re right about these men. I am sure some of them will turn out to be among the wealthiest in Asia. They are all triad-connected – if not actually belonging to a society they will be affiliated somehow along the back-scratching, favour for favour route. They will certainly be under the protection of the Wo Shing Shing. CK will know most of them personally and his reputation will be at stake here. He won’t want to lose face. Chan got these men into this mess. CK will have to get them out of it.’

Mann leaned in over the big oak desk, past the grand-children’s photos, past the rugby trophy and cigar-box.

‘We can’t allow it to happen, David. Just to save CK from loss of face we have to let Chan escape? No fucking way! Loss of face is the least of his problems. Chan is involved in the deaths of all these women – he must come to justice. What about Helen? Is no one to stand trial for her murder? No one?’ Mann took a step backwards, stood tall. He looked David White straight in the eyes. ‘Let’s not waste any more time here. He’s already got a head start. He’ll make his way to the Philippines. There’s a big triad network out there on Negros. He will be protected there. If we don’t get him before he reaches Manila we’ve lost him for good.’

‘Mann, you are not listening to me – CK will have every expensive lawyer on the planet working on this case. I’ve already had one of them on the phone. He says he can prove that these girls went willingly to Sixty-Eight. That their deaths were accidents as a result of sexual games that they entered into willingly. Their histories as hostesses, prostitutes, will come into it. The films will be discredited in court. The identity of the men is unproven.’