Lilly shook her head.

‘Then you got to give me something else.’

She squirmed beneath his probing hands.

‘You like it. I know you do. Why else do you come back here? You’re a little whore like your mother. I will teach you a few lessons. Now…’ He took her hand and pressed it hard against his crotch. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and turned away in disgust. ‘It needs working, no?’ He held her face in his hands as he locked the door and made her look into his eyes. He looked at her mouth. ‘It needs something to bring it to life.’

Lilly left Rizal snoring. She felt sick to her stomach. She stood in the hallway outside the flat and took out her phone and called Victoria Chan. ‘I have thought about it. I want to do it,’ she said. ‘I am ready.’

‘Take ten officers with you. Teach her a lesson.’

Chapter 49

Tammy had been staring at the text from Mann for most of the day. It was 9 p.m. She had four missed calls from him. She was following new orders. Tammy understood but it didn’t feel right. She had no choice. It was just after 9 p.m. She was on the way to meet Lilly. In preparation for her initiation, Lilly was going to introduce her to someone further up the Triad ladder, a Red Pole in the Outcasts. She hoped it would lead her to Victoria Chan. That would be the ultimate prize for Tammy. It’s what Mann had wanted. If she could find evidence against Victoria then she would be doing him a massive favour. Her loyalties lay with him. Tammy hoped he’d understand that in the end. She hoped he’d know she didn’t want to disobey his orders, she had no choice.

Lilly was waiting for her outside the MTR station.

‘Where are we going?’ Tammy stepped in beside her as they walked away from the station.

They walked along the backstreets of Yau Ma Tei for ten minutes, dodging in and out of the stallholders setting up along the way, wheeling their stalls along the street. They moved in and out of the crowds of tourists making their way through the night market: two skinny Chinese girls with attitude.

‘I told you, the boss wants to meet you,’ answered Lilly. Tammy knew something was wrong; Lilly wasn’t able to look her in the eyes. ‘You do want to meet her, right?’ Lilly was texting, looking around. She seemed nervous.

‘Yeah, sure. But…does she live around here?’ Tammy knew the area well. It was not a prestigious address. It was a sprawling low rise of old tenement blocks and a place where jade was sold, where old men bartered their bright canaries in the bird market.

‘No, but we just have to meet the others first.’

Tammy followed Lilly as they slipped past the tourists and onto Saigon Street, a side road that led to the night market. It was ten thirty and the market was in full swing. Bubbling tanks offish and crustaceans blocked the pavement as they stepped into the road and Lilly led Tammy into the side entrance of the Seafood Grill.

They passed the owner who scowled at them, looked like he was about to object but was in too much of a flap, his once-white apron covered in fish entrails, his face bright red from working in the heat of the kitchen.

‘Come on,’ said Lilly as she led Tammy through to a basement stacked high with boxes of defrosting prawns.

Tammy looked around her as they left the road behind. One way out, one way in. If Lilly planned to kill her then this was the ideal place to trap her. She looked at Lilly’s demeanour, the tension in her upper back, the way she walked purposefully as if she only had to get somewhere as fast as possible. Lilly sensed her hesitation, caught her glances over her shoulder at the diminishing exit and she moved quicker down the corridor. Lilly looked at the kitchen porter as he stood back to let them pass, his pale face pocked with volcanic acne. He glanced first at Lilly and then at Tammy. She slowed, levelled with him and looked into his eyes. They flicked towards Lilly’s back as she carried on down the corridor and then he gave a small, almost twitch-like shake of the head as he looked back to Tammy.

Tammy turned and ran. Lilly was a second behind. Tammy pulled the boxes of prawns over behind her as she bolted past. The waiting staff, their arms laden with dishes, yelled at her to stop, but she didn’t. She ran through to the street outside. She knew it would take Lilly just a minute to catch her. She heard the telltale whistles calling for back-up. She knew it wouldn’t take long before they found her. She ducked into an alleyway and phoned Mann.

‘I need you, Boss.’ She hadn’t hesitated. Mann was the one she trusted to help her now.

‘Where are you, Tammy?’ Mann was stood in Mia’s office.

‘I’m in the night market, Boss. They’re coming after me, the Outcasts. I need help. I thought I was meeting Victoria Chan. I’m sorry, Boss.’

‘Stay out of sight. I’m coming.’

Chapter 50

Tammy slipped back out of the alley and took a round-about route that led her back to the middle of the night market. It was only just getting going, stalls were still being set up. She picked up a black peak cap from a stall with Iron Maiden written on the front and threw the stallholder some money. He looked at her, looked at the note, shrugged and put it into his money pouch as he turned away without a word of thanks. Pulling the cap down over her eyes, she headed towards the busiest part of the market, between the road junctions. The plastic canopies that met above the busy street trapped the heat and the din of toys and music and shouted Cantonese.

She pulled on the cap, kept her head down and attached herself to other groups of people. Tourists were out early with their kids. The market was full of foreign voices. But, above it all, Tammy heard the whistles. She lifted her eyes enough to look either side, to the back of the stalls where they met the pavement, and sensed movement alongside her. They were looking for her. She was being closed in on. She stopped, ducked down beneath a stall and crawled on her hands and knees over the boxes of merchandise, the discarded food cartons and the scavenging rats. She only had to wait a few more minutes. It wouldn’t take Mann longer than that to get a unit here. She just needed the noise of a police siren to scare them off. She could hear her breath as she squeezed through the minute spaces. She doubled back on herself slowly, crouching low, and waited. Above her head a stallholder was arguing with an irate mother whose child had bought a duff toy an hour ago.

Above their arguing she heard sirens and her heart leapt. She shook her head in relief. It was then that the stallholder saw her and reached in and dragged her out. ‘Thief! Stealing my toys whilst I am being distracted. What are you? A team of thieves?’

Tammy tried to shut him up. ‘I’m a police officer. Do as I say. Shut up for Christ’s sake. Please…shut the fuck up.’

The stallholder lifted his voice again. ‘Thief!’ He had heard her well enough but he wanted a distraction away from the argument with the irate mother.

She had no choice but to run. She looked up to see what appeared to be the whole market closing in on her. Either side of her the tourists stared as the gang members wove between them. Tammy saw the first knife flash bright amongst the tack and plastic. She ran.

Chapter 51

‘Police officer down,’ Detective Inspector Johnny Mann shouted into the radio.

The noise all around him was deafening.

‘I said police officer down. For fuck’s sake get an ambulance here.’

The woman clutched her little girl to her as she stood staring down at Mann and Tammy who was convulsing on the pavement amidst the nodding puppies, replica toys, t-shirts and sunglasses.

‘At the junction of Saigon Street. There could be other casualties…I don’t know…Just move it.’

Mann knelt over Tammy’s unconscious body and pushed his fingers over the wound in her chest to try to stop the bleeding. ‘Give me that. Quick…’ he shouted to the woman who was still holding the white silk shawl she had been haggling over. ‘Another one…more. Quick! Quick!’