The Trophy Taker (14 page)

The Albert was a lively pub in Central, established in the sixties. It was somewhat of an antique by Hong Kong terms. It was laid out in three bars of differing sizes and functions. The pub appealed to all ages of expats, but the younger ones stayed mainly in the middle bar, which was big, open and noisy, and difficult to get served in on a weekend. The staff were mainly British, as was the forty-year-old manageress, Mandy. Mann signalled to her as he walked in. She was right in the middle of the dinner trade. She put down her tray of accoutrements: Colman’s mustard, HP sauce and Lea & Perrins.

‘Hi, Mandy, how’s it going? Got time for a chat?’

‘A chat? Doesn’t sound like you, Johnny? What’s up?’

Mann smiled. He liked Mandy: she was tough, but fair. He admired her strong character. She had been dumped by a banker boyfriend ten years previously and, rather than run home, she’d made a good life for herself in the region.

‘Need to talk to you for a few minutes.’

‘Sure, follow me.’

She led him through the bar to the kitchen beyond and out to the staff smoking room, which doubled as the back alley. There were two stools and a pile of cigar ette butts.

‘Sit down, make yourself at home,’ she said, pulling her stool nearer so she could hear him over the noise of the extractors. ‘But, before you start, Johnny, I want to know why you haven’t been in here for ages, and, even now, you turn up without a woman?’

She was grinning but he saw her eyes searching his, knowing that it was a sensitive subject and wondering if she had gone too far.

He smiled reassuringly and shook his head. ‘You know me, Mandy, career comes first.’

‘Rubbish!’ she snorted. ‘Just because she hurt you, Mann, doesn’t mean they all will.’

Mann was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Any mention of his ex always made him feel like someone had just pushed him off a cliff.

‘I need to find myself someone like you, Mandy.’ He grinned.

‘Huh!’ She laughed. ‘I’m too old.’

‘You can’t be
much
more than fifty.’

‘Cheeky bastard! Anyway, I’m far too bolshy for you. We wouldn’t last five minutes – one of us would be jumping off the sixtieth floor. But thanks for the offer anyway. I’m serious, though, Johnny. It’s been more than two years now – about time you moved on. Did you ever hear from her?’

‘I watched her go, Mandy.’ He shrugged sadly. ‘She definitely wanted out. Anyway, can I please get back to the reason I came here?’

‘Okay. Go on.’

‘We found some bodies – five altogether – dumped out in the New Territories.’

‘Is that all? Christ! I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t dozens of them out there. Triads killing other triads. Hopefully that’ll get rid of a few more.’

‘This is different, Mandy. All the victims were women, women like you.’

‘What do you mean …
Gwaipohs
?’

‘Yes. All foreign women. We think they were mainly workers in the entertainment industry, nightclubs, but we are only just beginning to put names to faces here, Mandy.
And
, we have no idea how many victims there are, how many more will turn up. This man’s been around a long time, we’re sure of that. His psychological profile is all over the place. We have to assume he could be anybody … He could be a regular of yours, sitting at your bar every night. He could be Foxy, Toad … whatever their stupid names are. Have a think.’

‘All right, Johnny. I’ll be careful and I’ll be vigilant … I promise.’

‘Another thing. Have you got any jobs going here at the moment? I need to get this young Englishwoman out of a club. She’s a nice girl. You’ll like her.’

Mandy raised an inquisitive eyebrow. ‘
And
?’

‘There’s no
and
. Just wanted to help her, that’s all.’

‘Help get her horizontal and naked, you mean?’

‘Maybe, but preferably not on a mortuary slab.’

‘Tell her to ring me. I have an Aussie guy returning home next week. She can take his place. She’ll have to work various shifts, some evenings, some days, but I’ll keep her on earlies.’

Mann leaned over and kissed Mandy’s cheek. ‘I owe you, Mandy. Ring me if you suspect anything,’ he said, getting up to leave. ‘And be careful.’

‘Okay, I will. Come again soon, Johnny. You don’t visit often enough any more. But remember what I said,’ she called after him as he disappeared up the alleyway, weaving his way past the piles of dumped rubbish. ‘I want to see you with a new woman.’

‘Yeah, yeah. Maybe,’ said Mann, with a backward wave.

He called Georgina and left a message on her phone, telling her about the job in the Albert and leaving Mandy’s number. He felt a sense of relief. He’d done all he could.

Kim was waiting for him when he got round to her place. He was late. She had started getting dressed for work. He told her to take it all off again.

Two hours later he was back at Headquarters, sorting through Roxanne Berger’s belongings. The place was heaving. Police officers were arriving from everywhere to help with the case. Ng was on the phone when Mann walked into the office. Li was out chasing the path lab results. Mann began emptying out Roxanne’s possessions onto his desk. There wasn’t a lot worth looking at. A few items of clothing, cheap jewellery, lots of make-up. Inside a handbag he found her passport, but there was little else of any significance. He had the impression that someone else, probably Lucy, had been cherry-picking through her things.

Ng got off the phone as Mann was putting everything back in the bag.

‘They’ve traced Roxanne Berger’s only relative, her husband, Darren. Guess what?’ Mann waited. ‘He had already remarried. He’s facing a bigamy charge now. And that, coupled with the assault charge his new bride is bringing against him, should see him locked away in a small room without a window for some time.’

Mann finally made it back to his apartment. David White had said he looked like shit, and that he needed a shave and a shower and a few hours in a proper bed. Mann had argued, then given in. He didn’t much like going home. It wasn’t a home. Since Helen left he’d felt more and more uncomfortable there. It was where he kept his stuff, crashed, showered and watched too many DVDs. It would be better to sell it, but he couldn’t be bothered. It was a good investment, after all, even if he didn’t like living there.

He switched on the air-con, washed his face, tore off his shirt and fell onto his bed. Within seconds he was asleep.

He woke up feeling worse. He sat on the edge of his bed, reeling from tiredness, unable to focus for a few seconds. Then he checked his watch. He’d been asleep for three hours. That would have to do. He rang in to work, and Li answered.

‘I’ve been waiting for you to ring in, boss,’ he said, unable to curb the high-pitched excitement that had crept into his voice.

He’d never make a poker player
.

‘What is it?’

‘We’ve got some results back from the lab. It’s been confirmed that there were traces of heroin in Roxanne Berger’s blood. She’d had sexual intercourse several times in the last few hours before she died, and after. The traces of animal on her turned out to be calf skin. So, this is what I think …’ Li paused to draw breath. ‘I think someone dressed her up as a cave girl, raped her, branded her and then hanged her. Then they came back later, dragged her off somewhere and had sex with her again after she was dead.’

‘Yeah, well, hang on to that theory, but keep working on it, Li. Get on to the pathologist. I want to know if Roxanne Berger’s tongue had been bitten.’

‘Why? Do you think the Butcher did it?’

‘No, I think she did it herself.’

‘Why? How?’

‘Just do it, Shrimp. If I’m right I’ll tell you why, and if I’m wrong I’ll tell you anyway. Also, I want a biopsy done of the tissue around the nipples on victims three and five. Run more tests on all victims. I want to know if any of the others had heroin in them. He must be giving it to them for a reason. Research it, Li. Any fingerprints from the bag itself? And find out for me how many stages of fly larvae we have on each of the victims. If there’s more than one, can the pathologist identify if one set was laid before they were frozen and if it had developed past the first stage? We want to be clear about how long the bodies are being held somewhere before being frozen. And Shrimp …’

‘Yes, boss?’

‘You’re doing a good job.’

‘Awesome.’

Lucy was slumped on a stool in front of the Dressing Room mirrors. She had no idea what she was going to do, the problem just kept getting worse. She had been pulling in every punter she could – too many. Mamasan said the clients were beginning to notice Lucy looking over their shoulders and had told her off for being greedy. And now Georgina had left Club Mercedes and was about to start work in the English pub! Chan would not be happy about that.

Lucy had no more money to give him. She had already parted with her entire savings. But none of that would matter to Chan, Lucy knew that much. He would want his money in some form or another. It remained now to find out what ‘another’ would turn out to be. Georgina had given her a few hundred Hong Kong out of her wages towards her keep, but that wasn’t going to go far. It was as much as Lucy could expect to get now that Georgina was working at the pub and earning a lot less than she was at the club. And Ka Lei was still a student. What was Lucy going to do?

She held her head in her hands and groaned.

A hand on her shoulder made her jump.

‘Come, Lucy! Big American look for you!’ Mamasan Linda interrupted her thoughts.

There!
thought Lucy.
Just when things seem darkest,
Big Frank comes in! There’s always hope
.

He could be her chance to solve all her problems. She tried a smile into the mirror, turning her head to view it from all angles. She stood and smoothed the creases from her dress …

Perfect
.

That evening Georgina started her new job. Ka Lei wrote ‘The Albert’ in Chinese on a piece of paper for her before she left for her shift at the hospital. Georgina couldn’t risk being late, or getting into a cab with a driver who wasn’t about to risk ‘loss of face’ and admit that he couldn’t understand where she wanted to go, so would take her somewhere completely different. That happened a lot in Hong Kong.

She arrived with thirty minutes to spare. Mandy looked up from cleaning tables as Georgina walked in.

‘Ah, you must be Georgina. Welcome to the Albert. Have you ever worked in a pub before?’

‘No, I worked in a bookshop back in England.’

‘Don’t worry. Just keep smiling and you’ll be perfect for this job. But there are a few rules: don’t drink too much, be polite at all times, don’t rip the customers off, and don’t charge for sex. Give it away by all means – the place’ll be packed – but don’t charge. Okay?’

Mandy laughed as Georgina blushed crimson and shook her head vigorously. ‘Don’t worry, I don’t mean it. I know you’re a decent girl. Mann says so and Mann should know, he’s had enough of them. Okay, sorry. What I mean is that Mann’s a good judge of character. Still, it’s good to see him taking an interest in someone again. You’re a lucky woman. Johnny’s one of the good ones.’

‘He seems nice, but I don’t really know him very well. And we’re not
together
.’ Georgina looked uncomfortable.

‘Not yet, anyway.’ Mandy laughed. ‘Believe me, he never used to be so slow off the mark. It’s a case of “once bitten” with Johnny. He let the last one slip away. Dumb bastard should have put a ring on her finger – commitment-phobe like the rest of them.’

‘What happened?’

‘She was great, Helen – funny, bright. Everyone liked her. She was a hostess when he met her, gave it up when she got serious with Johnny. Then she worked as a PA for a local firm. They seemed very happy. They were together for five years, but they didn’t progress on to the next step. Helen got tired of waiting for him to commit. He carries a lot of baggage, does Johnny. Anyway, she was going to try leaving him to see if he came after her to beg her to come back. See if he would finally realise that she was
the one
. So, she left, and by the time he realised that
the one
was exactly what she was, she’d gone for good. He’s been moping ever since. Come on, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the inmates.’

Georgina followed Mandy and met the other workers. They were a mixed bunch: a Scottish chef, an Irish barman, a barmaid from New Zealand and two big surfer types from Oz who worked as a double act behind the main bar, and several more kitchen staff. They were an interesting mix, very energetic and friendly.

The first night flew by and Georgina found herself enjoying it immensely. Mandy told her what she would be doing. She would be working shifts, six days a week. She would start by bringing the food orders out and progress to serving behind the bar when she was ready. The pay was pretty appalling but the job was fun. She had forgotten how nice it was to be with people whose sole aim in life was to have a good time. It reminded her of her late teens, a time of boyfriends and parties and no worries, before her mother got ill. She hadn’t realised how wonderful that time had been until now. Two weeks went by so fast. The Albert opened up a whole new world, not just for Georgina but also for Ka Lei. Whenever her shifts allowed, Ka Lei came to meet Georgina from work and joined in with the socialising that went on after hours. They were invited to parties and picnics and endless barbecues. Life was beginning to feel like fun. But not for Lucy.

Lucy was glad to see that Frank was waiting for her one evening. She was working long hours every night and coming back to an empty house. She slid in beside him.

‘Good evening, Flank,’ she simpered. ‘Why you no come see me long time? What matter, Flank? You no love your little Hong Kong girl no more?’ She looked at him curiously. He was a mess. ‘You okay, big man?’ He didn’t smell so good either and his left eye was twitching uncontrollably. ‘Wha matter, Flank? You sick?’

‘Just lovesick, honey.’ He patted a bag next to him on the seat. ‘Got some toys for us to play with.’

‘Oh learly? Got sometin nice for your goo little Hong Kong girl?’

‘Got something
really
nice for my
naughty
one.’ The twitching moved to the other eye.

They wasted no time in finding themselves a love motel, where Big Frank unzipped his bag and pulled out an assortment of whips, leather apparatus and ponytail attachments. Lucy laughed out loud at the peephole leather, but Big Frank was too excited to be in the mood for laughing. He had some
serious
fun in mind.

‘Was these, Flank?’ Lucy pulled out some leather chaps.

‘Those are what I wear when I’m out herdin’ up steer.’

‘Steer?’

‘Cattle. Cows. Moo Moos.’ He pulled her to him, crushing her with a bear hug. ‘I’m gonna herd you. But first …’ he reached into the bag ‘… I’ve gotta catch you …’

And he brought out his lasso.