‘I know all I need to know. I will search till I find the man who physically killed her and I will bring him to justice, one way or another. But I know that you are the person who is ultimately responsible for her death. I will have to live with my part in it. I will regret letting her get into that taxi till the day I die.’ Mann took out a knife and reached over to cut Chan’s bonds. ‘But I can undo something I have done. I saved your life years ago, Chan, saved you from drowning when we were boys.’ A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it commits another mistake. ‘Sink or swim, it’s your choice.’

115

‘How long have I been asleep?’

Mann stood at the entrance to his bedroom, watching her.

‘A few hours. You fell asleep in the car on the way here. I carried you in and put you to bed. How are you feeling?’

‘Better.’ Georgina smiled sleepily. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s nearly ten.’

‘What about you – did you get any sleep?’

‘I dozed a bit.’

Mann came to sit next to her on the bed. She found his hand and held it.

‘Thank you for rescuing me, Johnny,’ she said but her eyes were sad.

‘Please don’t thank me. I am sorry that it took me so long to find you. How are you feeling?’

She didn’t answer; she just shook her head. Her eyes filled with tears. She gripped his hand tighter.

‘Is Ka Lei dead, Johnny?’

‘Yes she is, I’m sorry.’

She gasped. A sob cracked from her throat. She sat up and Mann rocked her in his arms. Gradually the sobbing abated.

‘How did she die?’ she asked, her head still buried in his shoulder. His T-shirt was wet from her tears.

‘She jumped from the balcony.’

She pulled back and looked at him. Her eyes were filled with anguish and pain. It hurt him to see it. ‘I knew she was dead. I felt it, Johnny. I saw it. I was lying on this bed. I couldn’t move. A man had his hands around my throat. I couldn’t breathe. Then I saw her. It was raining. I held on to her hands. We were laughing and spinning around and around in the rain.’ Georgina smiled at the memory. ‘Was it raining the night she died, Johnny?’

‘Yes it was.’

‘Where is she now?’

‘She’s gone. She’s been cremated.’

Georgina rested back against him.

‘I so wanted to see her – one last time. What will happen to me now, Johnny?’

‘The fallout from Sixty-Eight is going to be around for a long time, and in a lot of places in the world. Lots of men will be very nervous for a while. CK says that you will be safe in Hong Kong, as long as you do not talk of what happened in Sixty-Eight. With Chan out of the way, that’s probably true.’

‘Why does CK care so much about me?’

‘You are a witness to things that happened at Club Sixty-Eight – the people who were there. You may not know who they were, but they know. And CK will feel responsible to them because of Chan’s involvement.’

She hugged his neck. ‘Do you want me to stay, Johnny?’

‘I can’t tell you what you should do. If you stay I will help you to start again. The first thing we are going to do is find an island.’

She smiled. ‘Become castaways?’

‘Yes. Just you and me – hide from the world. Get the colour back in your cheeks. Work on those freckles.’

‘We can’t hide forever, can we, Johnny?’

‘No. And I have to go and show my face at work now.’

‘Don’t go yet!’ She held on to him as he sat up.

‘I will come back. Then we’ll plan, okay?’

She smiled a watery smile and nodded.

‘I will be gone a few hours. If you need something to eat – take the keys with you. I’ll leave you some money on the table, there’s a supermarket a couple of blocks down. Otherwise I’ll get us something when I get back.’

Mann didn’t want to leave her but he had some things that just wouldn’t wait. Two of them were about to face a bullet.

116

He arrived at Headquarters and went straight in to see Superintendent White, to find him packing his belongings into boxes. The photos, the rugby trophies, memorabilia of forty years of service were all coming down and being neatly wrapped in newspaper and packed away.

Mann stood at the doorway and watched him for a minute. ‘Bit premature, isn’t it, David? You’ve got a few more months yet.’

‘They decided to let me go early.’ White looked up and smiled ruefully.

‘When are you off?’

‘I’ll be here for another week or so. They added up all the holiday I might not have had and decided it was time to go now. I have the house to pack up and the cat to find a home for. Do you want it?’

‘I’d love to, David, but I’d forget to feed it. Give it to my mother, give her something to fuss over.’

‘Okay. I’ll do that.’

Mann glanced around the empty room. ‘I’m sorry, David.’

‘Don’t be, Mann. I’ve had enough. I’m ready to go, believe me.’

‘What did they say?’

‘Oh, you know. The usual. Didn’t seem to be able to keep command of the troops any more. Best to hand it over to someone else.’ He paused in his packing, shook his head and sniffed. ‘And maybe they’re right. But I don’t want to follow some of these new orders and I don’t want my men to have to.’ He put down his box and turned to face Mann. ‘I am bloody proud of you, Johnny. Of course, it’s highly unlikely you’re ever going to make more than Inspector now. I think you can kiss promotion goodbye, but you will make a difference to the force and to Hong Kong, and that’s more important. And Mann…your father…he would have been very proud of you. Very proud indeed. He would have expected no less from his son, mind you. He was a good, honourable man, a real gentleman. But you could not have saved him from his fate, Mann, no one could. Live your life now. Don’t try to change the past any more. Draw a line under it and walk your own road. Keep on doing what you think is right, Mann, but try to work within the perimeters of the law. If you step outside too often, even to do good, you become like the men you hunt. There’s a thin line, Mann. Be careful not to cross it. And now, take some leave – you deserve it, plus it would be better to lie low for a bit.’

‘I will, David. Just want to tie up some loose ends first. What’s happening about the brothers?’

‘They’ll be gone in the next day or two, to Beijing and a bullet. We are still getting results back from the lab – we know who the skin and the scalp belong to.’ He handed Mann the sheet of paper with the lab results.

‘Jesus. They must have hated her.’

‘Yes. A bullet is no more than they deserve.’

‘But there are others who deserve it just as much, David.’

‘They will get it in the end, Mann. Karma and all that.’

‘Does karma come with laser sights?’

David White laughed. ‘Just watch it, Mann, and try to stay alive for Christ’s sake. Come and visit me. Maybe you’ll end up back in England one day.’

‘Visit, yes. But Hong Kong is my home. I couldn’t live anywhere else.’

‘Okay. Well, take good care of your Hong Kong. She’s a heartless whore at the best of times.’

‘Yes, and a beguiling mistress at others. But I can handle her.’

‘I have no doubt of it…her and her daughters. By the way, where’s my bloody boat? It better be in one piece?’

‘Back safe and sound at the yacht club.’ Mann fished in his pocket and pulled out the keys. He threw them across to White who threw them straight back.

‘You keep it. Leaving present.’

Mann walked down the corridor to his office to see Li.

‘Did you get your copy of the report into last night’s disturbance on Cheung Chau, boss?’

‘I did. The report was good, Shrimp. The drug-smuggling theme was brilliant. Exaggerating the heroin stash from two grams to twenty kilos was maybe a touch too much, though.’