Maya shook her head. Her large brown eyes never wandered from his face.

‘Your mother was only here a short while but she was happy here. You know what she loved to do?’

Maya shook her head. Father Finn stopped to allow the child to rest a little.

‘She liked to walk to the top of this hill with me and talk. “One day”, she’d say, “I am going to graduate from high school and I will be a lawyer or a teacher.” She was very smart, your mother. She didn’t achieve that dream because something much more important came along that made her happier than she had ever been, happier than she could ever have thought. Do you know what that was, Maya?’

Maya gave a small puzzled shake of the head.

‘It was you! Your mother loved you more than anything in the world. She didn’t want to die, Maya. She wanted to live to see you do well in school, see you graduate, see you have children of your own, but sometimes life doesn’t let us have the things we want.

‘But the one thing that you can always hold inside is to know that your mother loved you more than the world. She loved you so much she gave her life for you. I know that you have seen awful things, Maya. In time you will remember your mummy smiling again, just like I do when I think of her. I am looking forward to seeing you smile, Maya.’

Maya wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand.

‘You can stay here, Maya, live with Mercy and Ramon. They will be your family. Mercy will have the baby soon and you will have a new brother or sister who will need you. You belong here, Maya. Come. Let me show you something.’

They reached the top of the hill. There was a small cemetery, lawned and tended. Amongst the half a dozen graves there was a new plaque.

‘Come, Maya. I know you can read and write because your mummy told me how clever you were. Come read this for me.’

They stopped at a new grave, covered in flowers. Maya read the words on the makeshift cross, written in black pen.

Wednesday, devoted mother to Maya.

Died 11 April 2004 at the age of 21.

‘You can come here whenever you like, Maya.’

Maya looked back at the grave and let go of Father Finn’s hands as she went to touch the cross. She pulled out some of the flowers from the bouquet that was left there and she knotted two stems together and draped the flowers over the cross.

Then she took the Father’s hand and they started their descent back down the mountain.

83

Rosario and Tina saw the man standing outside the foot spa. They watched as their work mates, touting for business outside, pointed in at Rosario. They saw him look through the window at her and they saw the women’s eyes fill with sympathy and their mouths give the Filipino smile as they pointed Rosario out to him. Rosario looked at Tina and Tina nodded. Rosario left her client and went outside to the man.

Tina watched them through the window. He was not a local man. He looked smartly dressed, he wasn’t on holiday. He looked like he had come down from the city to see her: he was well-dressed but solemn. She watched Rosario talk to the man and her friend covered her face with her hands and nodded her head as she listened to him talking. His head was bowed. He stood close to her. He was not allowing others to hear. Whatever he was saying it was for Rosario’s ears only. The man gave Rosario a piece of paper. Tina saw that Rosario was crying now. She was wiping away tears that fell so fast they fell onto her pregnant stomach and looked as red as blood on the pink ‘Paradise’ T-shirt. The man had finished talking. He was leaving and walking away down the lane. The piece of paper was still in Rosario’s hands. Tina came outside to her friend, who had not moved from the spot since the man left. She stood and stared at the paper.

‘What does it say, Rosario?’

Rosario wiped her tears from her face with the heel of her hand.

‘It says they were taken to the UK, in a lorry. They were held prisoners. They were badly hurt.’ She looked up at her friend and smiled. ‘But they are on their way home.’

84

‘Mum?’

Mann rang his mother whilst standing with Ng in Lantau Airport. It was mid-afternoon and Shrimp’s flight from London had already landed, they were just waiting for him to clear customs. At the other end of the phone Molly answered with the cat in her arms.

‘Are you home now, Johnny?’

‘I’m back. I’ll be over to see you tomorrow, if you’re free.’

‘Of course—I look forward to it…’

Molly hesitated. There was concern in her voice. ‘I’m sorry about last time.’

‘Don’t be. I think you’re right, it’s about time I learned about Dad, warts and all. I can’t keep hanging on to this childish memory. I’m a grown man, after all. David White sends his love, by the way.’

‘I bet he misses the cat.’

‘Ha…I told him he misses it a lot more than it misses him. See you tomorrow, Mum, love you…’

‘And you, son.’

* * *

Shrimp emerged from behind the arrivals screen.

‘Did you have a good flight?’ Mann asked, and pointed to the enormous case he was pulling behind him. ‘What have you got in there?’

Ng chuckled and shook his head.

Shrimp rolled his eyes skyward. ‘Had to pay excess—bummer.’

Mann lifted Shrimp’s case and groaned. ‘I am not surprised.’

‘I spent a fortune in the vintage clothes markets. Anyway, wassup? What are you two doing here? I was making my way in to do my report now. You didn’t have to escort me.’

‘We need to have a meeting before we face the Super,’ said Mann. ‘We thought we might as well have it here.’

They made their way over to sit on an empty row of seats in the huge open and airy terminal. Shrimp sat between Ng and Mann.

‘There are a few things we need to get straight, to clarify,’ said Mann.

‘…to make sure we all understand it the same way…’ said Ng.

‘We need to leave someone who was involved out of the equation,’ said Mann. ‘We have to forget the role that someone took in this and look past it.’

‘Ah…yes…’ said Shrimp. ‘…Gotcha. I wasn’t sure whether we would all come to the same conclusion…’

‘At the same time…Yes.’ Mann finished his sentence for him. ‘We know that this person is fundamentally good, and I think we have to overlook this one incident.’

‘A diamond with a flaw is preferable to a common stone,’ said Ng.

85

Mann waited till he got back to his apartment to make the call.

‘Why did you do it, David?’

He heard his old friend sigh deeply down the phone. He knew that he would have his eyes closed and he would be smoothing the top of his head with his free hand. For so many years Mann had watched him do that, sitting behind his big oak desk at Headquarters, surrounded by rugby trophies and family photos. Now Mann recalled one person on those photos that he should have recognised earlier.

‘I knew you’d find my connection to him in the end. I swear to you that once I realised what he was up to, I tried to put a stop to it at once. I left a message for Micky. He’s a good cop, I knew he’d manage to infiltrate them. Is Amy Tang safe?’

‘Yes, she’s safe. We never counted on the X-factor—the CK genes. She’s more than safe as she killed her jailor. How did you get into it in the first place, David?’

‘Alex Stamp is my nephew. I thought you might have recognised him. He came out to Hong Kong a couple of times when he was a lad. I had a photo of him and my sister in the office. I always had a soft spot for him. He didn’t have much of a childhood; his father was a pig to him. He asked me for help to get some new business off the ground. I agreed to introduce him to contacts I had made over the years. One of them was Fredrico. From there it just snowballed. I think there isn’t a villain that Fredrico doesn’t know. It was only when I started investigating for you that I found out the extent of Alex’s misdeeds. I am sorry. I will hand myself in.’