Kiss & Die (31 page)

Shrimp floated in and out of the dark world of pain. He heard someone singing, a haunting wailing song like he had heard on the stairs in the Mansions. He heard the soft giggles of a child and felt something cold and plastic brush his face. He heard the cries of a baby and a mother soothing it. His pain came in searing stabs, in long excruciating waves that felt as if someone was twisting his gut inside out. Sometimes it was accompanied by crying, sometimes laughter. He felt his tongue swelling. He tried to keep his pulse slow and stem the loss of blood. He tried to talk but as if in a dream the words went unheard.
Help me. Help me.
The woman muttered to him, he couldn’t make it out. She sat beside him in the dark. She held his hand and sometimes she stroked him tenderly. Shrimp felt her body on his. He felt the sting of a knife. The deep pain that was working its way into his heart.

‘Fuck. Am I dead?’ Mann awoke to find himself being sewn up by Kin Tak. In the background he could hear an angel singing. He tried to sit up but he couldn’t; he was restrained.

‘We couldn’t stop you moving. Very hard to sew neatly when you keep moving. I am not used to that.’ Kin Tak was sewing him up and Lilly was hovering over him.

Mann grabbed at her wrist as she hovered over his face with a wad of cotton wool. She shrieked in fright. ‘Where am I?’

‘In my bedroom.’

‘Oh God…’ Mann moaned as he pulled against the strap.

‘No, it’s all right. The Africans brought you up here.’

Mann stared at Kin Tak not understanding. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Lilly asked me to sew you up.’

‘Yeah…that reassures me.’

‘I had no idea men bleed so much. No one usually bleeds when I stitch them up.’

‘You didn’t want to go back to hospital,’ said Lilly.

The singing stopped. Michelle came to stand and watch. ‘You were really beaten up. Blood everywhere,’ she said.

‘Yeah, I wonder why that was.’ Mann touched the swellings on his face. The stitches were back.

‘Very clean. The wound was very clean. Made by the same instrument that took that young girl’s hands off. I recognized it.’ Kin Tak beamed proudly as he carried on sewing up the gash across Mann’s stomach.

‘Yeah. Sorry about that. I got scared. I didn’t know what to do,’ said Lilly.

‘Save it, Lilly. I could see it was just a lucky hit.’

‘Thanks. You never touched me, you know.’

‘Yeah. I know.’

‘I put Rohypnol in your drink. Victoria Chan gave it to me.’

‘And, you know one another?’ Mann asked Kin Tak.

Kin Tak nodded, and looked away guiltily.

‘He’s been teaching me to read and write Mandarin,’ said Lilly whilst dabbing at Mann’s wounds.

‘She’s an excellent student.’ Kin Tak covered his mouth and giggled into his hand. ‘There you are – finished.’ Kin Tak stood back to admire his handiwork.

There was a knock at the door. Michelle went to answer it.

‘I need to speak to Mann. Is he here?’ Daniel Lu stood in the doorway.

‘I haven’t seen him,’ Michelle lied.

‘He was seen being helped in here.’

‘He doesn’t want to talk to you.’

‘I’ll speak to him. Come in, Daniel,’ Mann shouted from
the bedroom. Daniel walked in and stood next to the bed. They were left alone to talk.

‘Mia is mad with you. She says there’s a warrant out for your arrest for the murder of CK Leung. I went there to clean up. I’m sorry about Ng. Now, I have to tell you something, I know you’d want to know but looking at you, I’m not sure how much help you can be Shrimp’s missing.’

Roses are red. Rubies are too. My heart was broken. Now yours is too.

Shrimp heard how far the echo of the woman’s voice went to the wall and then stopped. He realized it was a voice he knew. ‘Nina?’

‘You betrayed me, Shrimp. I gave you my heart and you betrayed me.’

‘Nina…please, where am I? What’s happened? Put a light on; let me see you.’

‘You were going to be different. I gave you the chance to be the one. I saw you at that bar. I saw you playing with your wedding ring. You didn’t notice me. I was tucked behind you, out of sight. I had a long caramel-coloured wig. For a second I thought you had recognized me but you didn’t. That evening I watched you taking girls to your room, one after the other. You make me sick. You’re no better than all the rest. I thought you were the love of my life. But you lied, cheated on me. You are just like he was…how could you, Shrimp? I loved you.’

‘I was working undercover. If you saw me pick up girls it was because I’ve been working on a case, that’s all. I
never touched them, Nina, I wouldn’t, I promise. Please, Nina, let me go. I love you.’

‘You’re just like him. He used to come to Hong Kong once a month. He came for five days. He came to eat in our restaurant every night. He made me feel special. He took me out and he bought me things, clothes, shoes. We had to sneak in and out of here. He bought me wigs to wear, so no one would know it was me. He took me to bed. He promised we’d elope. He promised to take me away. I didn’t know I was pregnant until it was too late. Then he told me he was married. He never came back for me. He left me to face it alone.

‘The girls started to make fun of me in school. I couldn’t hide it any more. I didn’t know what to do. I was so frightened. The girls shouted names at me. The girls just like Rajini, just like that officer, Tammy. Just like her. They thought they were better than me then. I couldn’t hide it any more. I had to tell my parents. They were so ashamed. I was six and a half months pregnant when my grandmother held me down and my mother gave me an abortion with a skewer, on this bed. The same skewer we use on the tandoori. The same one I use to pierce a man’s heart. I was not allowed to see the baby, a baby girl. They threw her in the rubbish. I found her in there. Someone had thrown some old flowers in on top of her. She was covered in rose petals. I dried her body on the roof where its spirit could be free. I called her Rose.

‘I killed my mother in the kitchen. I held her head in the deep fryer. I have killed my grandmother. She deserved to die for her part and she has no one to look after her now. She hasn’t got me any more.

‘“Nina do this. Nina do that. Nina fetch the lobsters to marinate for the tandoori grill, speciality of the house.” I loved watching them eat those lobsters: crack open the claw and know that they were fed with human flesh, handpicked by me. All those men deserved to die.’ She stopped. She gave a sob in the darkness. ‘I think about him sometimes and wonder if he ever thinks about me.

‘He called me Ruby. “Hey Ruby,” he would joke. He talked like Michael Caine. “My Ruby Murray.”’

‘How long since he’s been seen?’ asked Mann.

‘He never made it to the bar yesterday evening. He didn’t wear his wire and he hasn’t made contact. He was seen by one of the Africans, David, coming in here at four yesterday. I just talked to him. He hasn’t seen Shrimp since. He didn’t see him leave.’

‘That’s an hour before Victoria came here. What’s been done about it?’

‘You know the hair ornament you had in your pocket? I sent off the hair for analysis.’

Mann had to think what Daniel meant. His mind flipped back to that day in the corridor with Ali and the plaited hair ornament. ‘I was given that by Flo, Nina’s grandmother.’

‘Well, someone’s keeping the old woman sedated. She’s got Haloperidol in the hair. And that’s not all. The pin that secures that hair ornament is part of what was left of Ishmael.’

Shrimp saw the light from the door when Ruby went into the other room. He turned and saw Sheng staring back at him, slumped, disembowelled, his intestines splayed out around him.

Shrimp pulled frantically on his arms to try and free them. He twisted his head to look up. He was chained to the wall behind. He pulled on the chains but couldn’t budge them. He looked down at his injuries. His body was being sliced open bit by bit. He heard the Indian music playing from the other room; haunting, a woman wailing. It was the same music he had heard on the stairs. He saw his clothes in the corner of the room. His gun was there, his microphone. He couldn’t reach any of it.

Nina returned. He could see her properly now. She was naked. Her long glossy black hair fell all around her shoulders to her waist. Even now he loved her. Even though it made no sense. ‘Please Nina, let me go…’ She came towards him with her hands holding a small object.

‘Kiss Rose, Shrimp.’ She held the dried parchment face of the mummified baby next to his mouth. ‘This was going to be your baby. You were going to be special. You were
going to want to live with us forever, me and Rose. But, maybe this was the only way for us.’

‘No, Nina, we can still make it work. We can still get away from here. Please, Nina, let me go. I will help you. I love you. I will do anything it takes to help you. Don’t kill me, Nina.’

‘It’s too late for both of us, Shrimp. Don’t worry, I won’t let you die alone. I will come with you.’

Beside the bed she laid the scalpel and the skewer.

Ruby went quiet for a few moments and Shrimp watched her moving around the room. She lit a candle in the corner. She placed her dolls around the bed.

‘Which flat does she live in?’

‘She lives with her grandmother on the fourth floor, flat B. No one is invited in there. She says she’s ashamed of the place. She always comes here when Kin Tak teaches us Mandarin,’ Lilly said.

‘He was teaching her too?’

Lilly nodded. Mahmud stood in the doorway. ‘I’m sorry.’ He had a key in his hand. ‘She does anything Victoria Chan wants her to. And more, much more. I didn’t realize she was killing men until now. Can I come with you?’ Mahmud handed a key to Mann. ‘Here is the key to the apartment. I can help. She will listen to me.’ Mann eased on his clothes over his bandages.

‘No Mahmud. You stay here. I promise we will do all we can to help her. Lilly, you and Michelle stay here too.’

Mann and Daniel left Michelle’s apartment and walked down the flights of stairs to the fifth floor. David was waiting for them. Mann looked at him and nodded. ‘You know who it is?’ David nodded. ‘I saw them in the shadows of the stairs, kissing when they thought no one saw. If she
is the woman who murdered my brother I have to come with you.’

‘No, David, you stay here and guard this entrance with Daniel. I need to go in alone. I don’t want any mistakes in there. This is my one chance to get my friend out alive. If we make a noise, if we frighten her, it could be the end. I will call you if I need help. Just be here and be ready.’

‘Here, Mann, have my gun?’ Daniel took it out of his holster to give to Mann. Mann shook his head.

‘I trust Delilah now more than ever. I can’t afford to make mistakes.’ Mann had taken the feathers out of her hilt; she was clean, sharp. She was in his hand as he placed the key in the apartment door. ‘Which is Flo’s room?’ he asked Mahmud.

‘First one on the right.’

Mann turned the key and pushed the door. The place was dark. Inside was the fuse box, he tripped the main switch. He took out his phone, he found the light setting. A tiny bright beam shone out from the back of the phone. He shone it straight ahead into a small kitchen at the end of the hall. The smell of ham cooking hit him. His light glanced over a patella as it shone glossy from the top of the pot, the place was still steaming, the walls wet. He walked inside. The door closed behind him; he let it go.

He opened Flo’s door and flicked the light around the room. The room smelt of old, it smelt of neglect. He scanned it, it was full of human bones, bleached white, stacked in the corners, laid across the floor at the edges of the room. The bone dust covered everything. Flo was
slumped in her chair. Mann inched closer to her. He shone his torch into her face. Her eyes stared back, bulging from her head. Her mouth gaped open. Around her neck was a ligature.

He heard the sound of wailing music coming from the next room. This was one of his nightmares: a corridor with no doors, no beginning and no end. Somewhere along it he could hear the sound of crying. He felt his way along in the total blackness. He could not see his feet. He did not know how high the ceiling was above him. The heat bounced off the walls. It ran down his face; it stuck his shirt to his back. He ran his finger along the wall and touched something wet and sticky. He smelt blood. He smelt panic. Mann stopped. His heart raced, the blood pumped in his ears as he strained to listen.

Nina was crying.

‘Nina…’ Shrimp could barely speak. ‘I can help you, Nina. I will do anything for you. Please, don’t do this to us.’

Mann moved along the corridor in the dark. He didn’t want to alert anyone to his presence. He felt his way in the darkness. His shirt stuck to his wounds, stinging now from the sweat in them. But he didn’t notice. He had one purpose left for his body, one more thing he asked it to do. His fingers tingled with adrenalin as he gripped Delilah tightly in his hand and called out.

The candle flickered a ghostly sheen up the white tiles and over the faces of the dolls.

Nina sat on top of Shrimp and felt along his ribcage.

She picked up the scalpel and cut along the bottom of his rib.

‘All right, Nina.’ Shrimp struggled to talk through the pain. ‘You kill me now but understand one thing, Nina…’ Nina cut him again twice more. She lifted the section of skin and exposed his ribs ‘…I will love you forever.’

He couldn’t talk any more. Nina picked up the skewer. The pain shook his body and he gave one deep cry; all the pain and all the love found a harmony in the last few seconds of his life. Nina slashed through the artery in her left wrist. There was a pause and then blood shot out and covered the wall behind and extinguished the candle and, in pitch darkness, Nina pressed the point of the skewer into Shrimp’s heart.

‘Shrimp?’ Mann’s heart pounded in his ears as he waited for an answer. There was none. He felt along in the pitch darkness. He came to the second door and he turned the handle, pushed, and stepped into the room. In the darkness he called out again. From the far end of the room he thought he heard what sounded like Shrimp’s voice. Mann inched forwards. At the far end of the room he felt a curtain beneath his fingers and behind it the solid feel of a door. He felt for a handle and turned it.

The door opened and the heat from the room stuck in Mann’s lungs along with the smell of atomized blood as thick as a cloud. He heard the sound of dripping. His fingers tingled with adrenalin as he gripped Delilah tightly in his hand. He took another step and his foot touched something on the floor. He shone his light into the room.
Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared back at him. In the middle of the room were bodies. Nina slumped forward, naked, her long hair hiding whoever was underneath. Mann knelt down beside them. Mann saw Sheng, what was left of him. He pushed Nina over. She rolled to one side on top of Sheng.

Mann’s heart broke when he saw Shrimp. His chest was opened. His ribs showing. He was covered in blood. He wasn’t moving and a skewer was deeply imbedded in his heart. Nina’s weight had driven it in. Mann looked closely; there was the faintest sign of movement; the heart was still beating. Shrimp was hanging on.

‘I’m here, Shrimp. Stay with me. Hold on. You’re going to be all right.’

Mann turned and shouted out for Daniel Lu. He looked back at Shrimp. The heart was barely beating now, growing fainter every beat. He knew he shouldn’t remove the skewer but it’s all he wanted to do. It was killing Shrimp and he couldn’t stop it.

‘Shrimp, stay with me. For fuck sake listen to me and stay alive.’

He looked around for something to pack inside the chest cavity to try and stem the bleeding that was filling the cavity with blood. The nearest thing he could find was Shrimp’s shirt. He grabbed it, pulled it to him and gently folded it around the knife. He cursed his useless hand. He needed more. He reached for Shrimp’s jacket, to tear out the silk lining. He turned back. The heart had stopped beating. Mann tried to tear more of the lining free. Something hard in the pocket stopped him. In the inside pocket he found a syringe pouch. He tore the pouch open with
his teeth and bit off the top of the packet. He pulled off the cap and then he plunged the epinephrine syringe straight into Shrimp’s heart.