‘Shhhhh,’ she whispered into the nylon doll’s hair, ‘Daddy’s sleeping.’

He stirred as she came close. He let out a gasp of fright. It sounded strange. He had no nose, no lips, no side to his face.

Ruby put the light on, it bounced off the white tile still visible beneath the blood splatters. It threw deep shadows around the room. Steve’s wounds were still oozing.

‘Oh, Daddy’s very naughty. He’s just pretending to sleep. Shall we wake him with this?’ She picked up the electric saw.

Steve thrashed around. He tried to speak. Ruby tiptoed around him, placing each doll around the room.

‘What’s that you say? See if he’s ticklish under his arm? So sweet baby, so clever…’ She switched the saw on and knelt beside him. His arms were stretched above his head.

She brought the saw down into his armpit. He screamed. Blood and bone sprayed around the room. Ruby carried on until she had sawn through the shoulder joint. ‘There…’ She stood with the dripping saw in her hand. Ruby picked up another doll and held its mouth to her ear again. ‘What? See if Daddy is ticklish there? Ruby giggled. ‘You’re a very naughty baby. But okay…’ Ruby fired up the saw again and ran it up the length of his leg towards his groin.

Chapter 41

Tom Sheng caught up with Mann on his way back to his office.

‘Who gave you permission to interview the suspect?’

‘My boss.’ Mann walked away.

Sheng held Mann back by the arm.‘Let’s get this straight. You run everything by me from now on. Something doesn’t smell so good about you at the moment, Mann. I am getting the whiff of corruption. You’re in the wrong place at the right time these days. I’ll be watching your every move. I am going to sit in the monitoring room and run that tape back. If I find anything, I mean anything, I don’t like, you’re suspended.’

Mann felt his breathing slow. He held his breath deep inside his lungs, took it right inside his diaphragm. ‘Do it, Sheng. I’ve got nothing to hide. Mia wanted me to interview Michelle. Your interview techniques have been known to start with a hand up the suspect’s skirt. You’re a dirty bastard.’

‘If you don’t like the colleagues you work with then why don’t you fucking leave? You have your father’s money. You have your Triad family – fuck off. From now on you work on solving Rajini’s murder and following up on the Outcasts and only that, leave the rest to me. And, of course,’ he smiled smugly, ‘carry on doing what you seem to do best: ingratiate yourself with the top Triad brass. It’s a home from home for you.’ Sheng was inches from Mann’s face. He was frothing at the mouth.

Ng came up beside Mann and steered him away down the corridor towards Mia’s office.

‘Leave him. He will never change. Rotten wood cannot be carved. We have work to be done.’

Mia looked at him as they walked into her office. He could see by her face she was expecting him to go ballistic. He’d already decided he wasn’t going to. It didn’t stop him imploding though. He began to feel like his feet were in quicksand. He had the feeling Sheng wasn’t alone in his thoughts, he just didn’t hesitate to voice them.

Shrimp was the last one in, he closed the door behind him. Mia looked at him.

‘You okay with going undercover?’

Shrimp beamed. ‘Yes Boss. I need to choose my outfits carefully, grey suit, striped shirts, fancy glasses, jazzy tie. No, forget the tie, keep it young conservative.’

‘Don’t get carried away,’ said Ng. ‘The only reason you’re doing it and not me is that you sound like a Yank. Otherwise it would have been my operation. You know Mann can’t do it because he’s known in all the bars.’

‘I want you and Mann to head back to the Mansions now,’ Mia said. ‘Get as much information as you can before Sheng goes marching in there and all hope of solving this case marches out. Don’t let the rules stop you from asking questions about Max Kosmos. Ng will feed it back to the other team. Find that weapon.’

Chapter 42

Tom Sheng got back to his office and made a call to Mia. She was alone in her office.

‘I’m overruling Mann on Operation Schoolyard. I’m taking it away from him. We can’t trust his judgement any more. We can’t be sure his motives are what they should be. I’ve seen the new car in the car park. That’s a hell of a pay-off. He has obviously thrown himself into the task of infiltration wholeheartedly.’

Mia was fuming. ‘That’s utter bullshit and you know it. You don’t like Mann, you never have. You asked him to do his best to get inside CK’s head and that’s what he’s doing. You of all people should know you have to live it when you go undercover. You can’t tell me there weren’t moments in those two years you spent undercover when you didn’t know which way you felt any more.’

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end. ‘I earned my promotion, Mia. I did two years for the Wo Shing Shing. But I always knew why I was in there. I always knew what my objective was. I never got a brand new fucking Maserati.’

‘Then you lucked out, didn’t you, Tom? What do you want me to say? Poor fucking you? You’re jealous of Mann. You need to seriously take a look at yourself, Tom. I am beginning to wonder what I see in you.’ Mia heard the stony silence but he didn’t hang up.

‘All right, all right. I’m a bit jealous of Mann, I admit it. I know you had a thing with him once. I know you will always have a special friendship with him. It pisses me off, that’s all. Plus, you know, if I had his dough, you wouldn’t see me for fucking dust. Of course, that’s after I’d picked you up in my new Porsche and we’d driven off into the sunset.’

Mia couldn’t stay cross. ‘Just get a divorce – that will be better than a Porsche for me.’

Chapter 43

‘Thanks for your time.’ Mann and Shrimp were back in the Mansions. ‘I just want to ask some more questions about the death of the young girl. We know her identity now. She lived here in the Mansions. Her name was Rajini Singh. Her father works on the first floor.’

‘Sure. Let’s go somewhere to talk.’ PJ’s eldest son, Ali, led them up two floors. They came out onto the landing and turned sharp left, past the open maintenance shaft. At the bottom of it the African’s body was just beginning to smell. Ali called out to an old blind Indian woman sat just behind a metal grid and beneath a sign that read Delhi Guesthouse. She was turning beads in her hand and sanding them with fine emery board.

‘Hello, Grandma. I’ve got two men with me. Nothing to worry about.’

The old woman rested her work in her lap and held up her hand in greeting. Her hand was covered in white dust. She cocked her head to one side to listen to the strangers pass.

Mann stopped by her. ‘How are you, Flo?’ He squeezed her hand.

She searched her memory to find the voice. Slowly a smile cracked across her face. Her eyes were milky with cataracts. She had no teeth, just wizened gums. ‘Well, I never. Inspector Mann?’

Mann knelt down and kissed her cheek. ‘Clever as ever and still as beautiful, Flo. Are you well?’

She laughed and held on to his hand. ‘I can’t complain. I sleep nearly all the time. My granddaughter Nina looks after me. Who is that with you?’ She tilted her face towards Shrimp. ‘He smells very nice. I like a man who looks after himself.’

‘My name is Li. Nice to meet you, Flo.’ Shrimp stepped forward and took her hand. She held on to his as she seemed to savour his voice for a minute and then she turned her head back towards Mann. ‘Where is Helen?’

Shrimp glanced Mann’s way. He hadn’t meant to. He had been there when they found her body in a bin bag. He had been there at the autopsy. He had been there all through the investigation but he hadn’t seen what Mann had seen. He hadn’t seen the tape of Helen being raped and murdered.

‘She’s not here right now, Flo.’ Mann had no intention of telling her the truth. She was dead and so was the man who killed her. There were lots of secrets that Mann carried alone.