‘Of course not.’ He smiled at her concern. He hugged her and kissed her head. ‘I promise you, no one else.’

‘Please just sit with me a little longer.’ They moved to sit on the stairwell. ‘I brought you some sweets.’ She handed him two, wrapped in a napkin. ‘Coconut sweets for lovers.’

He smiled, her face was so sad, trying to be brave, he couldn’t say no. She watched him eat them.

‘It’s all over for me then, Shrimp.’ She turned and smiled and in her eyes was more than sadness, it was desperation and something else that Shrimp hadn’t seen before – desire. She kissed him, her mouth hard on his. Shrimp drew back. ‘I don’t want to give myself to an old man and never know what it is to feel the pleasure of someone’s body who means something to me. I want us to lie together, Shrimp. Then we will never be apart again.’ She leaned forward and kissed him lingeringly on the lips and then she held him tightly.

‘Not like this, Nina.’

‘I know. I shouldn’t say it but I’m begging you, Shrimp. Just hold me. Come to my room, please.’

‘Now?’

‘Yes. My grandmother is asleep.’ She took him by the hand.

‘If I have to get married I’d rather get married knowing what it is to feel love.’

Shrimp followed her, feeling desire and despair at the same time.

Chapter 103

The Mansions were a flurry of activity. Hundreds of CK’s employees slipped in unnoticed amongst the thousands of Mansion dwellers. They flooded the place with pieces of brightly coloured paper that seemed to appear from nowhere. They dropped leaflets in mail boxes, stacked them in the lifts, pasted them on all the walls, the stairs, the doors, landings – everywhere. They carried a simple message:

The Mansions are being demolished. You will all lose your homes. No one will be rehoused. No restaurants will be given new premises. It has all been a lie.

The leaflets littered the floors of the Mansions. Panic spread. By five o’clock everyone knew that Victoria Chan was their enemy.

Rizal had tried to warn her. He had not made it in time. His body was at the bottom of the maintenance shaft where it had been dropped. He had crossed Ruby too many times. He had not been worth the effort of kidnapping; anyway, Ruby did not have the room. She had another in mind for her bed. He was very close to it now.

It was six o’clock in the evening when Victoria had her driver drop her around the corner from the Mansions. She had come to see PJ and the others. She wanted them to sign her deal. If they all signed then she could show Mann she had good intentions. She slipped in unnoticed, keeping her head down. She had dressed down for the occasion. But there was no hiding the fact that her jeans were designer, her sandals Gucci. There was no masking the smell of her expensive perfume. She felt watched. The Africans saw her coming. David and his friends sat on the steps whilst the world passed them by. Mahmud saw her pass. An Outcast pulled a whistle from his pocket and gave three small sharp bursts, gliding it beneath his hand as he did so. The Mansions echoed with the sound of answers.

She kept her sunglasses on as she walked towards the lift. She felt as though her heels were stuck in tar. She moved reluctantly forwards as she watched the people staring at her. She stopped at the lift on the left. She had decided to start in the Delhi Grill and pay her respects after the death of Hafiz. They would need reassurance now at this tricky time. She stood in the queue. The people turned to stare at her and the queue disappeared until there was just her in it. When the lift came she stepped in alone. Victoria’s heart was hammering. It was a bad enough experience coming to the Mansions without feeling like everyone knew who she was. She pressed the button for the third floor and waited. She looked around the walls. They were covered in the leaflets. She gasped as she tore one down and read it.

She looked frantically all around. Everything was covered in the leaflets, the floor was littered with them. She knew she had been set up. Someone wanted to see her killed. She was never going to get out alive.

She pulled out her phone and phoned Mann’s number. He didn’t pick up. She was on her own.

Chapter 104

Mann was in Miriam’s Cantina bar when he saw Victoria’s number light up as his phone rattled on the bar top. He didn’t answer it. The barman looked over at him.

‘Is Miriam around?’

The barman shook his head. ‘Do you want me to call her? She’s just upstairs. She’ll want to see you. She asked me to call her if you came in.’

Mann shook his head. ‘That’s okay.’

Mann heard the clash of a symbol from his message alert. He had voicemail. He picked it up and looked at the screen. He hated the fact that he wanted her, that when he listened to her voice his heart leapt. He had done nothing but try and not think about her and achieved the opposite. Now, he heard the frightened girl in her voice, whatever else she had lied about in her life, she wasn’t lying now. He knew she was in big trouble.

Chapter 105

Victoria dreaded the lift door opening. She pulled a small handgun from her bag and loaded it. The lift came to a stop. She stepped onto the landing and looked across at the Delhi Grill. She saw PJ staring back at her; his face sad, angry; he was shaking his head. She tried the door, it was locked. It was then she heard the whistles and the feet running up the stairwell and she knew they were coming for her.

Victoria made a run for it. She pulled open the door to the next flight of stairs and listened. The shrill whistles had reached a deafening shriek, feet were like thunder on the stairs. There was nowhere else to go but upwards. Victoria sprinted up the twelve flights of stairs; her throat rasping and sore with the exertion. Her lungs screaming. She came to the end of the landings. She stood panting staring wide-eyed at the approaching mob. Only the stairwell to the roof remained. She had nowhere else to go.

Chapter 106

Mann hadn’t even got a few paces inside the Mansions when he knew something major had kicked off. David came towards him. ‘You need a hand, brother? You’re Shrimp’s colleague, right?’

‘Have you seen a smartly dressed Chinese woman, mid-thirties come in?’

David nodded. ‘Victoria Chan? They were waiting for her.’

‘Where is she now?’

‘You come to help her?’

‘Yes. She needs a fair chance. She’s been set up.’

‘She is about to be killed. They’ve got her on the roof. Come on, I’ll take you.’ David shouted to his friends to come with them.

By the time Mann reached the lifts, the Africans were thirty strong, armed with sticks and batons. Some took the lifts, some the stairs. Mann came out onto the top landing and listened. He heard the whistles coming from the roof.

When Mann stepped onto the roof with David and the other Africans, it was dusk. In the half light he saw Lilly carrying the urumi. The eagles would soon be going back to roost, for now they cruised the evening sky and watched. Mann looked around him. He stepped cautiously out armed with only a baton. He had his weapons inside his jacket and his gun in his holster but he wasn’t planning on using them. He looked at them now: they were a wild bunch of bloodthirsty kids, but they were still kids.

Lilly was in front. She had the urumi in her hand. She looked full of panic. Victoria was talking to her.

‘We can work this out. Don’t believe them, Lilly. I would never lie to you. I always intended to take you with me.’ She looked at them: around seventy scrawny kids, frenzied with excitement. They were inching Victoria back towards the parapet.

‘Kill her. Kill her,’ they chanted.

Lilly drew the urumi up into the air but she couldn’t do it. She brought it down either side of Victoria but was careful not to touch her. Victoria screamed and scrabbled to get away but she was pushed up onto the ledge. Below her the busy Nathan Road traffic hooted up.