Mann turned to Ng. ‘What do you think of this, Sergeant Ng?’ Mann and Ng were doing the ‘hard cop, soft cop’ routine. Mann rested his hands on the table and leaned over Mahmud. ‘Sergeant Ng is an expert in weapons and in martial arts,’ Mann lied. ‘He says this is a hard weapon to use, difficult. Don’t you, Sergeant?’

‘It takes some skill: double-bladed, serrated edges; it needs a strong arm to wield it. It needs a vicious mind. He doesn’t look the kind to me. He looks like a peaceful type.’

Mahmud didn’t speak. He stared at the table. Mann slammed the knife down in front of Mahmud. He jumped. It rocked on the table. Mann leaned across and punched his fist, his fingers extended, into Mahmud’s lower abdomen and held it there and pressed into him. Mahmud doubled as the wind was knocked out of him. He tried to stand but Mann held him down.

‘Two entry points right here. Her stomach was punctured and her liver is perforated.’ Mann pushed Mahmud’s shoulders back into the chair and lifted his head by his hair. He held him there and looked into his eyes. ‘If she survives, she’ll be on a machine; she’ll need a liver transplant. That’s no life for a twenty-year-old, is it?’

Mahmud didn’t answer. Mann let him go. ‘But neither is belonging to a Triad organization. They use people like you. Use them to do their dirty work and then they throw them away and get another one – as easy as that.’

Mahmud sat staring at the knife in front of him as if it terrified him. Mann sat back down opposite him again.

‘Why didn’t you run with the rest of them?’ Mahmud didn’t answer. ‘You don’t have to worry, you know.’ Mahmud looked up. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t understand what Mann was getting at. ‘About your gang, the Outcasts. You don’t have to worry about the other members of your gang or the Wo Shing Shing. You don’t have to worry about them or the Sun Yee On either. Shall I tell you why?’ Mahmud’s eyes flicked up towards Mann’s. ‘Because you are never going to see any of them again. You’re not going to see your family either. That wasn’t just a Triad you knifed. That was one of my officers.’

Mann got up and paced about the room, then came to stand behind Mahmud, just out of his range of vision. ‘Your dad is really proud of you. He says you can read and write Mandarin. He says you will be a doctor someday. What do think of that, Sergeant?’ Mann addressed Ng.

‘I think he’s going to break his old man’s heart,’ Ng answered.

‘Yes, that’s true. You know why?’ Mahmud didn’t answer but his eyes darted around the room. ‘Because the only medical career you’ll be pursuing is stitching up your own arse when it gets split from having too many hard cocks up it. But don’t worry, you’ll get used to taking it – you’re going to be in there for the rest of your life.’

Mahmud shifted uneasily in his chair.

‘So what made you take the oath? Why become a Triad? Or is your brother Hafiz the one I should be talking to? He was with you that night, wasn’t he?’

Mahmud shook his head but he looked down at the table.

‘What about your girlfriend, Lilly Mendoza? Did she tell you to target the girl? Are you protecting Lilly?’

Mahmud looked up at Mann, hopelessness in his eyes. ‘I don’t know anything. Lilly’s a friend, that’s all. She’s not my girlfriend. Hafiz wasn’t there. I don’t know how I came to have the knife in my hand. Someone handed it to me, that’s all.’ Mahmud looked close to tears. ‘I hope she’s okay, the young woman, the officer. I’m sorry.’

Mann turned as Mia stood in the doorway. Her face said it all. Tammy was dead.

Chapter 60

Shrimp sat on the mosque steps. Amongst the neon and brashness of Nathan Road whose buildings bulged and leant like collapsing card houses, it was white and beautifully uniform: an oasis on the eye. It was a perfect square, a white dome in the centre, towers at each corner, it had arched windows running along each face.

Shrimp had got a text from Nina asking him to meet her at lunchtime. He had arranged to meet with David first. David came down the steps from prayer and sat beside Shrimp. He shook Shrimp’s hand.

‘Have you brought me any news of my brother?’

Shrimp shook his head. ‘Not yet, I’m sorry. How are things at the Mansions?’

David didn’t answer for a few minutes. They sat on the steps and watched the people hurry by. He shook his head. ‘Things are bad. Very bad. My friends and I will have to take action soon. We have no choice now. They are children but they are killers. They meet on the rooftop at night. They wear their weapons openly in the day. No one stops them. They rule the Mansions now. But, they forget, where we come from, we are used to fighting, street battles. We are used to death. We will arm ourselves and fight to live.’

‘When they have the meetings on the roof, do you go there?’

David shook his head. ‘To go there would mean death, my friend. They would eat you like hungry piranhas. But, since we talked I have watched the people very closely. I see a woman come and go, beautiful, in disguise. She keeps her head down so that I cannot look into her eyes but I know she belongs with them, even though she is older. I think that is the woman you talk about. She is the leader.’

‘Is she Chinese?’

‘I don’t know. She hides her face but her skin is paler than most. She wears nice shoes. I notice things like shoes, it’s what I trade in.’

Shrimp looked at his watch. ‘I have to go now. Keep watching for me, David, and I will keep looking for your brother.’

Shrimp left David, crossed the road and made his way up the stairs in block B, fifth floor.

He stood as he saw her approach. He almost didn’t recognize her. She was wearing jeans. ‘Nina?’ She came down the stairs as he was coming up.

She smiled nervously. ‘Hello. Thank you for coming. I’m sorry if it’s been inconvenient.’ Her long hair was loose. It fell around her shoulders.

‘Of course not; it’s no trouble.’ Shrimp felt his heart hammer inside his checked shirt. He had chosen to wear his vintage American cowboy boots beneath his Levi’s. ‘I didn’t recognize you, sorry. I was really glad to get your text.’ Shrimp felt his face turning red. ‘You look lovely.’

‘I can wear jeans sometimes.’

‘You look lovely whatever you wear.’

‘I can’t go outside the Mansions like this. But I can wear it for you, here,’ she smiled.

In the ill-lit stairwell Shrimp couldn’t get over her beauty.

‘We can sit here, if that’s okay.’ She led him to the stairs. They sat on the concrete stairwell in the shadows.

‘Anywhere will be fine. Is everything all right? Your text sounded urgent.’

‘My brother, Mahmud? I worry about him constantly. The whole family is distraught. My grandmother cries all the time. My father cannot work without stopping every few minutes to say prayers. We are still hoping that Mahmud will come home any day. How is he? Have you seen him?’

‘He’s been moved. I wasn’t there when he was interviewed but he didn’t say a lot. He needs to help himself. But…’ he looked at her face, ‘…I will go and see him for you.’

‘We are all stuck in our own way here, but Mahmud – he has everything. He will be someone. He is innocent. He doesn’t need help from Victoria Chan or anyone.’

‘Has she promised you things?’

‘Yes. She has…she promised us a lot.’

‘What?’

‘My father dreams of a beautiful new restaurant. Ali thinks he will be a billionaire before he is thirty.’

‘And Hafiz?’

She shook her head. ‘I know what you’re thinking about Hafiz. But he doesn’t listen to me. Now he talks about these people as his new family. He has a new phone. He has money in his pocket. I can’t blame him wanting more.’

‘What about you, Nina, what do you want?’

They heard doors banging on another floor, music drifting up from below. They heard muted conversations in other languages. Her eyes glued onto his. In the dark stairwell he wanted to reach for her but he didn’t dare.