Lights Out (13 page)

Lam watched the emotions on John’s face change as the truth sank in.

“This has been a well planned robbery.” Lam said gently. “Had it not
been for the fact that they had a small hiccup during their practice run, we
may never have known about it. Now we know that they had access to camera’s and
inside help.” Lam continued, beginning to feel more hopeful.

“We need the name of the company that you hired for the camera’s. We
will find them, and then we will find who did this.” Lam stated confidently.

John glanced at his watch. “I need to prepare everything to address
the board.” He said to Lam. “Will you keep me updated? I’ll make sure that you
get the name of the company and everything that you need. I hope we can put
this to bed quickly.” He gave Lam the same half smile, but this time it looked
a little more hopeful, Lam thought.

John shook her hand. It wasn’t the same firm handshake as before.
This one was
more gentle
and felt rushed.

“No problem. I can walk myself out. You go ahead.” Lam motioned
toward the exit, and stood and watched as the security Director walked quickly
up the moving escalator taking two steps at a time with his long legs, until he
reached the top, and then he was gone.

Lam started to walk back toward the exit leaving the forensics team
behind her. Her mind was now at full speed as she started to arrange her
thoughts and plan her strategy. She really needed to speak to
Chow
. Lam pulled out her cell phone and checked the bars.
There was no signal in the vault.

When she reached the top, she had to weave between the throng of
police officers and bank officials to get to the exit.

She checked the signal strength again when she reached the main
doors, and it showed all six bars. She quickly dialed Chow’s number and held
the phone to her ear. She let it ring a few times, switching it off when it
clicked to his answer phone.

Where is he?
Lam thought, irritation starting to
creep in. Just as she was about to try it again, one of the Police Officers
came over to her.

“Detective Lam, the Chief is looking for you, says it’s urgent, can
you go back to the station immediately.”

“Great!” she said under
her breath. “That’s all I need”.

She thanked the Officer and walked out of the bank entrance and
straight into a wall of TV camera’s and journalists.

10:00am

It took Lam longer than she thought to get through the throngs of
reporters all wanting the latest on the robbery. Eventually after so many ‘
no comment’s
’ they had started to trail away
to wait for the next poor victim to exit the bank.

As Lam walked back to her desk, she heard a familiar voice from the
end of the corridor.

‘
Laaaam
” the voice roared behind her. Lam
didn’t need to turn to know that it was the voice of her boss. She immediately
turned on her heel, and gave him her best smile as he walked towards her.

“Chief” she said brightly.

“Lam, you’re a hard woman to track down. Come into my office for a
minute.” He walked ahead of her, striding at a fast pace, making it hard for Lam
to keep up without breaking into a slow jog.

Chief Inspector William Lau was a larger than life character, both
physically and famous for his booming voice. He’d been in the Police Force
since he was a young man, and worked his way through the ranks to Chief
Constable and finally Chief Inspector. He knew everyone in Hong Kong, from the
top politicians, lawyers and fellow senior officers to all of the top Doctors
and Bankers.

Lam respected him greatly, and liked him. But he was well known for
giving his Detectives a hard time. Lam sensed that she was about to get one of
his infamous lectures.

Settling himself into his large black leather office chair he leant
forwards onto the desk with his elbows and waited for Lam to sit down before
starting.

Lam pulled up a wooden chair and sat across the desk from the Chief.
She had always liked coming into his office. It was a basic room, not perhaps
what an inspector should have. She looked around at the nondescript grey
carpet, the big solid dark wooden desk with turned legs that faced the door,
and across at the window with the partial view of a tree and the car park
below. In the corner of the room on top of his grey filing cabinet sat a plant
that looked as though it needed a good watering, and a red silk wall hanging
with Chinese script. What she actually liked was the fact that he always had
the most up to date pictures of his family in frames sitting on his desk. No
matter how tough he was, she would always sneak a look at the pictures and
reconcile herself that his bark was far worse than his bite.

“Lam, I have some bad news.” The Chief said somberly.

Lam was surprised by the catch in the Chief’s voice. She shifted
uncomfortably in her chair, a dark dread starting to rise up in her stomach,
she let the feeling flow over her and then she waited for him to continue.

The Chief fought with his emotions for a moment catching Lam off
guard.

“What is it Chief?” Lam prompted gently, suddenly afraid that one of
his beloved family members had died.

When the Chief eventually spoke, his voice was grave and serious.

“It’s Chow”. The Chief lifted his eyes and looked straight at Lam.

Lam felt the shiver run down her spine. She hadn’t expected this. The
Chief continued.

“His body was discovered early this morning in an alleyway, next to a
7eleven store over in
Tsim
Sha
Tsui
district. One of the early morning staff went to
take the rubbish bags out and found Chow’s body slumped next to the dumpster.
He didn’t have any ID on him when they brought him in, so it took a while to identify
his body.”

Lam sat back stunned. She’d been so cross that Chow hadn’t answered
his phone, and now she knew why. He couldn’t.

“How did he die?” Lam croaked the question, blinking back tears that
were threatening to tumble out onto her cheeks.

“His throat was cut. He would have died instantly.” The Chief leaned
across the table and touched Lam’s hand.

“I’m sorry.’ He said sadly. “He was a good kid.”

Lam stiffened at the Chiefs touch and hardened her face as she
suppressed the tears. She wouldn’t allow herself to cry in front of the Chief.
Taking in a few slow breaths she managed to contain the pressure in her chest
and the lump in her throat. She straightened herself in the chair.

“Why
Chow
?” she said almost in a whisper.

“We don’t know yet”, the Chief responded, now back to his normal
self.

“We’ve done a bit of digging around. All that we know so far is that
a young Chinese man came into the station yesterday asking for you, Chow met
with him instead. An hour later he left the station and didn’t tell anyone
where he was going.”

“Do we know who this Chinese man is?” Lam asked. “ Someone must have
seen him come in, his name should be on the visitors list?”

“No, he wouldn’t leave a name, and Chow didn’t write up a report. No
one at the Station knows who this man is, or what he came in to say. We can
only guess at this stage that whatever it was relating to led Chow to his
death.”

Lam sat back heavily into her chair.
Stupid, stupid boy
, she thought angrily.

Chow was so innocent, so keen to do well and be liked by her.
It’s my fault
, she chastised herself.
I should have let him get more involved, so
that he didn’t have to go sneaking off behind my back to prove
himself
.

The Chief’s voice brought Lam back to the present.

“It’s not your fault Lam”, he said simply, as though he could read
her thoughts.

“But I do need to know that you can deal with this. I can take you
off the case if you need a few days? “

“No!” Lam interrupted a little too quickly, cutting off the Chief
before he could say anything else. “That’s not necessary. I’m in the middle of
the Bank case, and I think it could be related. I need to find out who did this
to
Chow
.” Lam said with steely determination in her
voice.

“I can do this.” She said, her voice calmer now.

“Lam, it hasn’t been that long since your last partner. I would
understand if...”

“I’m fine Chief.” Lam cut him off again, but she was less aggressive
now. “I can manage this”.

Lam knew that if she wavered even slightly, gave the Chief a single
doubt then he would have her off the case in a heartbeat.

The Chief nodded silently, and hesitated for a moment.

“OK, keep me informed. I have the task of speaking with Chow’s family
this morning and I’d like to be able to tell that we are onto this, and that we
can catch the bastard that killed their son.”

The Chief nodded once at Lam indicating that their meeting was now
over.

Lam pushed back her chair and stood up. She walked out of the Chief’s
office in silence. The main office was quiet. Many of the police officers were
still down at the bank taking statements. Only a handful remained at their
desks, much to Lam’s relief. Of the few that were left, she felt their
sympathetic eyes on her as she walked past their desks and down the corridor.
It was as though a heavy blanket had fallen over everyone as she walked past.

She knew what they were thinking. No one expects to lose a partner,
but it’s inevitable in this line of work that on rare occasions it will happen.
They just couldn’t believe that in the short space of two years it had happened
to
Lam
, twice.

11:40am

Lam sat at her desk flicking through a report that had landed on her
desk ten minutes before. Her team had started to pull together the finer
details regarding the robbery. She now had interview notes, photos and layouts
of the bank and personal information about the two missing staff members
;
Ryan Harper and Robert Black. Lam scanned the first page
of the
report,
she read and re-read the same page
twice as she tried to absorb the words, but all she could think about now was
Chow. Resigned and consumed, she closed the report and pushed it away from her.

She was under pressure for answers. She had the Chief bearing down on
her from one side and the Media on the other. The media had jumped on the case,
and the Police were now taking calls from every major network. It seemed that
everyone wanted a statement.

The one thing that Lam didn’t have yet was a positive match on the
palm print and fingerprints. She had worked hard to get the lab to process the
prints ahead of anything else that they were working on, and when her charms
didn’t work, she threw in the Chief’s name to get things rolling. Finally they
promised her that they would push it through as quickly as possible and would
call her if a match came up.

As if reading her thoughts, Lam’s phone suddenly rang, making her
jump, she quickly regained her composure and grabbed at the receiver.

“Lam. Yes” Lam listened intently, a frown forming on her face. “Are
you one hundred percent sure? OK, can you send it through to
me.
Thanks for rushing it through.” Lam replaced the receiver then immediately
picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“It’s Detective Lam, I need you to send someone round to Ryan Harpers
apartment now, you’ll need a warrant. We need to have a good look inside his
apartment. He may actually be there if we’re very lucky. If he is at home,
bring him in for questioning. Call me if you find him.” Lam finished the call.
Her mind was racing ahead of her now.

Lam pressed the dial button and punched in another number.

“
Mr
McIntyre, it’s Detective Lam. Yes, I’m
well thank you. We’ve just had the results back from the lab and we have a
name. I’m sure that you won’t be surprised to hear that the prints belong to
Ryan Harper. I’m afraid it seems that he is a lot more involved in this than we
had hoped. We are still trying to locate Ryan Harper and
Mr
Black.” Lam said, then paused as she listened to John’s reply.

“I’ll keep you up to date and please just call if you have anything
that you would like to discuss.” Lam finished the call and sat back heavily in
her chair. She was hardly going to have time to worry about Chow right now. She
would put this case to bed first and then hunt down Chow’s killer.

11:50am

Ryan had had a lucky escape. He had slumped into the back of the
taxi, and kept his head down until they reached the city. He’d asked the taxi
driver to take him to
Tsim
Sha
Tsui
, via the Cross
Harbour
Tunnel and into one of the busiest places in Hong Kong; Nathan Road. He stepped
out of the taxi and scanned the area. It would be a perfect place to hide in
plain sight. Here tourists and locals filled the streets from the early hours
of the morning until midnight. There was a constant chatter in the air, people
were talking on their mobile phones, every few paces Ryan was accosted by an
Indian tailor offering him a made to measure suit for under four hundred
dollars. He weaved between people as he walked, avoiding elbows, women with
small children in pushchairs, old men with walking canes and tourists with huge
camera’s strapped across their bodies. There was hardly enough space to walk on
the pavement without bumping shoulders with someone, or treading on toes.
People here walked with a purpose. They had places to go and things to see. No
one would take notice of a blonde-haired westerner in this part of the city. To
anyone looking, he was just another tourist. He would be able to blend in
easily whilst he decided what he should do next. Ryan stood back from the
moving sea of people and stepped into a shops doorway for a moment. He still
needed to find out about Rob, and the only way that he knew how, was to call
Lily. He had put it off for long enough, and now he had no choice.

Ryan pulled out his phone and dialed Lily’s number, letting it ring
until it reached her voice mail.

“This is Lily”, her familiar sultry voice purred into Ryan’s ear,
making him feel sick. ”I’m not able to take your call, please leave a message
after the tone.” There was a pause and then a click.

“It’s Ryan, the Police came and I had to leave the apartment. I need
to know that Rob is OK. Call me.” Ryan pressed the red off button and pushed
the mobile deep into his trouser pocket.

He reached into his wallet and went through the back note section to
see how much money he still had. He counted out one thousand dollar note and
four one hundred dollar notes. It wasn’t much.
I’ll have to draw more
, he thought, then dismissed the idea.
What if they trace me using an ATM
?

Ryan was about to close his wallet when he caught sight of a name
card. He pulled the card out of the wallet and folded out the dog-eared
corners.

Detective Inspector Sarah Lam, Direct
line: 2305 3886
. Ryan
rubbed his thumb across the name card trying to decide what to do.
Not yet
, he thought,
not yet
. And pushed it deep back into wallet
for safekeeping.

Ryan’s mobile started to ring. His heart immediately started to pound
as he clumsily fumbled for his phone. Looking down at the small screen, he
could see that it was an unknown number.

Ryan took a deep breath and pressed the green call button. “Hello”.
He said almost breathlessly, he tried to calm himself, pacing up and down on
the pavement.

“Ryan.” Lily spoke calmly and gently, immediately putting Ryan on
guard. “I’ve just listened to your message. Where are you now?” She asked with
a little concern.

“It doesn’t matter where I am.” Ryan replied bluntly. “I just need to
know that Rob’s OK. I have done everything that you have asked of me. The deal
was that once it was all over, that you would release Rob and I can go back to
normal.” Ryan paused and waited for Lily’s response.

“Ryan, just tell me where you are and then we can meet and talk.”
Lily tone was gentle soothed him momentarily. Then he remembered.

“Do you really think that I would tell you anything? You’ve sent the
police after me once. You could do it again. I’m not prepared to stand here and
wait to be arrested.” Ryan tried to keep his voice calm, but his anger was
starting to work its way through.

“Look Ryan, I need to know where you are so that I can come and meet
you. Rob’s fine, he’s alive, you kept him alive. But things have changed and we
need to talk. I need to see you.”

Ryan sounded skeptical. “Why Lily, so that you can kill me, get rid
of any remaining witnesses. I don’t think so. I want to speak to Rob.” Ryan
asked, this time his voice was stronger.

“You have to trust me that he’s OK.” Lily said.

“Trust? That ship has sailed Lily. There is clearly no trust left
between you and I. I don’t know what you’re involved in and I don’t care, but
you need to keep to your side of the deal and let Rob go.” Ryan said, feeling
his confidence grow with each word.

“Look I think I can arrange for you to speak to Rob, but I can’t get
him released yet. Ghost Face wants to keep him for a bit longer, he’s not happy
that you have disappeared. Now he sees you as a potential risk. I can try and
arrange for you to see Rob tomorrow. You’ll have to wait for my call.” Lily
clicked off her mobile leaving Ryan standing with the receiver in his hand.

Lily punched in another number on her phone and waited patiently
whilst it rang.

Eventually the call was picked up and a male voice answered.

“Yes.” Was the abrupt greeting that she always received from Ghost
Face.

“We need to discuss Harper. I’ve just spoken to him. He sounds
frightened and I don’t expect him to go to the Police. He won’t come to me. He
just wants Rob to be released as he was promised.”

“No.
Mr
Black stays where he is.” Ghost
Face replied firmly.

“I don’t understand why
you need him still. The job is done. He has played his part.” Lily said.

“Let me explain something to you. We may have been successful in
taking the money from the Bank, but your friend Ryan slipping away from the
Police has changed our plan and puts us at risk. So keeping your dear friend
Robert will just help us to ensure that Harper doesn’t do or say anything
stupid. I’m sure you can appreciate the delicate position that we are in at the
moment?” Ghost Face said.

Lily remained thoughtful before she replied carefully. “I understand
the situation, it won’t take long to launder the money, I’ve set everything in
place. But it’s better for us if he gets taken into Police custody. It buys us
the time we need and that way we know exactly where he is. Once he’s been
arrested, you said yourself that your friend can make arrangements and tie up
the investigation for a long time. It puts us in the clear. Having him out in
the open and keeping Rob locked up for longer than we agreed changes things
significantly. It’s not part of the plan.” Lily finished.

“Your plan doesn’t work. I was a fool to listen to you. Now we have a
loose end, which I will have to tie up myself. Keeping Ryan alive was a
mistake. I should have disposed of him as soon as we finished the job.”

“You’re wrong.” Lily responded. “I know him better than you. I think
he’ll go straight to the police after he’s seen Rob, after he’s sure that his
friend is still alive, but until then, we don’t know what he’ll do. That’s
what’s worrying me.”

“And Rob, is he likely to become a loose end too?” Ghost Faced said,
criticism lacing his words.

“Rob will be interviewed by the police. He’ll think that Ryan and I
have betrayed him, and had planned it all along. Eventually, Ryan will be
cleared and the two of them will become friends again. Other than myself, no
one else needs to be implicated. I knew that my relationship with Rob would be
lost once we decided to do this. I just don’t want to see him hurt or be held
longer than necessary.” Lily said, a trace of sadness in her voice.

Ghost Face remained silent and allowed Lily to finish her speech. A
small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

“Interesting. I’m not sure that I really believed that you would be
willing to forfeit your friendship for something far more important. It pleases
me to hear that you will first protect The Family.” He said darkly.

Immediately Lily could feel the
colour
coming to her cheeks. She had let her guard down, and shown a softer side to
Ghost Face. She was angry with herself for allowing her emotions to come in the
way of business.

“Until Harper is in Police custody, or dead, whichever happens first,
Rob will not be released. Do what you need to do to get him into custody, but I
warn you. The first sniff of deceit and he will be disposed of. Until then,
there is no need for you to call me again.” Lily was left with a dead ring tone
in her ear. She switched off her phone and thought about what she was doing.

It was inevitable that at some point she would have to remove herself
from normal life. She thought back to the night before and realized that things
changed the second that she stepped across the Bank’s threshold. Up until then,
she still had a choice.
And now?
She
thought.
Now The Family comes first.