The Trophy Taker (21 page)

Lucy was feeling the pressure. She worked every hour that she was able. She turned punters around so fast that she was in danger of losing her prestigious place in Mamasan Linda’s mercenary heart. Mamasan had always picked the wealthiest of men for her – those with
special needs
. Now Lucy was choosing her own clients and they were not paying Mamasan their dues. They were quantity rather than quality. But Mamasan Linda was fond of Lucy and knew that she had money problems and that her and her sister’s relationship was strained with the arrival of Georgina. She had seen the way Lucy reacted when Chan was in the club. Even though Mamasan Linda provided Chan with information on the girls, Lucy had brought her in a lot of money over the years and she had to protect her assets.

She was not pleased when three Chinese men from the mainland asked for Lucy by name. She did not know them. ‘Low-life triad types’, she called them. Lucy didn’t like them either, they looked as if they had clawed their way up the ranks and still hadn’t reached the dizzy heights of the sewers. But she needed to pull every punter at the moment.

Two of the men left five minutes after Lucy sat down. She was quite relieved; they hadn’t been the greatest conversationalists. Just a few minutes after that the third made advances to buy her out. Mamasan Linda looked at Lucy and shrugged disparagingly. Would she like to go? Yes, she would. Mamasan Linda came back to the Dressing Room to tell Lucy to be careful. She told Lucy she would see her when she returned later in the evening.

They drove to an apartment block in Causeway Bay. Lucy knew it. She had been there once before. It was a place that let apartments to tourists or travelling businessmen who did not want to stay in a hotel. She followed him in. No doorman. Just a pass code.

‘Nobody here tonight, hey? Got the night off?’ she joked. He didn’t answer.

Lucy walked behind him, staring at his shoulders. He was nervous. She could see the tension in the way he walked, bristling, hackles up, looking twitchily from side to side, starting at any creak or squeak. In the elevator he avoided her gaze.

Alighting at level thirty-two, they walked down a quiet corridor; her heels thudding on cheap carpet. He stopped at an apartment door and knocked.
Why had
he knocked and not opened it with a key?

The answer came to her just as the door was opened. It was then that her heart began racing, and her mouth dried. Her instincts told her to run but he was blocking her exit. Then she knew:
Not his apartment, someone
else there
. Too late! She was pushed inside as the door opened, and into the waiting arms of his two companions from the club.

Lucy turned to run. There was no chance – the door was already shut behind her. She bolted for the bathroom and tried to lock the door but they were on her. They pulled her around the apartment by her hair, smashing her face into the walls as they went. She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands in an attempt to minimise the damage. Finally, trapped back in the bathroom, one held her by the throat, pressing a knee onto her chest, while another removed her trousers and knickers and they took it in turns to rape her. Just when she thought she would definitely die, they gave her a last kick for good measure and left.

For a few minutes she stayed absolutely still, waiting for their return, but there was only silence. Then, blinded from her injuries, she crawled along the floor and found her bag. She fumbled inside for her phone and called Max.

He was at her side in minutes. She had managed to find her clothes and dress herself. She crawled to the door and opened it for him.

‘Max, are both my eyes still there?’ Her hands shook violently as she held them up in front of her face, not daring to touch.

Max bent down to look at her. Lucy felt his breath on her face.

‘Yes.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yes, I am sure. Lots of blood. You need stitching.’

‘Get me to a hospital, Max.’

He did as he was told.

Lucy was allowed to go home the following morning. She had come off well, considering. She had some bad cuts to her face and two cracked ribs, and she had extensive bruising. She needed stitches to the cuts around her eyes and forehead.

‘I knew this would happen to you one day.’ Ka Lei’s voice was shrill. She was shaking uncontrollably. She couldn’t look at her sister without physically crumbling. ‘Please, Lucy, don’t go back there. Find some other job. We can manage, we’ll be all right.’

Georgina was equally as wide-eyed and dumbstruck as Ka Lei. Looking at Lucy’s battered face made her feel sick. Lucy didn’t answer; her lungs were bruised and it was painful to talk or breathe. She shuffled around the flat, resting every few steps, and, after pausing for a few minutes at the entrance to her bedroom, she moved inside and eased herself onto the bed.

She squinted at the bright blanket of sunlight that stabbed her eyes as it blasted through the windows. Ka Lei went round to pull down the blinds, before joining Georgina and Lucy on the bed. Max stood in the doorway – waiting for her to tell him she didn’t need him any more.

‘Why did they do it, Lucy? Do you have any idea? Did you recognise them?’ Georgina asked. Lucy didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and shook her head miserably.

Georgina turned to Ka Lei. ‘We should call the police.’

Lucy groaned and shook her head.

‘I know you don’t want to, Lucy, but we can’t just sit here and do nothing, can we?’

Georgina turned to Ka Lei for support but Ka Lei shook her head.

‘I don tink we call police, no goo, dey do nudding,’ she said.

Lucy started to cry. Silently, one tear at a time squeezed out and negotiated a difficult downward path between the swellings.

It was not
just
the memory of the beating and the rape that made her wince, made the blood pound in her face and the swellings tighten around the stitches. She wasn’t crying because of the pain. Lucy was thinking about the debt and the fact that she would have no chance of paying it back looking like she did.

It would be several weeks before Lucy would be able to return to work. While Georgina and Ka Lei were out earning the money to stay afloat, Lucy took on the role of housemaid. She stayed in the flat all day and drifted in and out of shock-induced lethargy that made her sleep for several hours in the day and stay awake all night. In between resting periods she shuffled about the flat, slowly and deliberately carrying out mundane tasks. She folded blankets, smoothed sheets. She arranged clothes into neat piles. She spent an hour on a task that would normally have taken her a few minutes.

Ka Lei and Georgina tiptoed around the flat. They tried to stay out of Lucy’s way. At night-time they lay wide-eyed in the darkness and whispered to one another. They looked towards the wall where they knew Lucy would be listening: Lucy – the bringer of evil, the spoiler of everything. As much as they sympathised with her, she had thrown them into a world they had never asked to enter. The happy home that they had created was ruined. Now they had to get out of the flat to find any privacy. Lucy was always there.

Their favourite bar was Bar Paris. It was a small bar in Causeway Bay.

Georgina sat beneath the peeling Parisian posters, picking at the wax that spilled from a wine-bottle candleholder, while Edith Piaf warbled from the speaker. The bar was empty except for a delivery man and the bar manager, who were deep in animated conversation, gossiping about other patrons on the delivery man’s rounds. It was still only five o’clock and too early to expect much custom. Ka Lei arrived flustered and anxious. Georgina had left her an urgent message about meeting.

‘Waz wrong?’ She dropped into the seat opposite. ‘Is it Lucy? Something new happen?’

Georgina calmed her. ‘No, it’s all right, Ka Lei, nothing new,’ she reassured her. ‘It’s only that I wanted to talk to you about what we are going to do.’

Ka Lei screwed up her face and nodded.

Georgina continued: ‘I’ve been thinking, I think we should talk to him. I’m going to tell Mr Chan that Lucy is sick and she needs more time …’

The bar manager and the deliveryman stopped their gossiping to listen. Georgina lowered her voice. ‘We have to think of a way to help Lucy. We must do everything we can.’

‘Yes, no juz Lucy ploblem now, is
family
ploblem. Tese very bat men, you unnerstan?’ Ka Lei tried to smile. ‘Maybe better you go back to England, more safe dere. Maybe better go home now, huh?’ She looked away as she spoke, dreading the answer.

‘No way! This is my home now.
You
are my family. Where else am I going to go, hey?’ Georgina smiled and squeezed Ka Lei’s hand. ‘You know I would never leave you.’

‘I am glat. Very glat. Ten we muz pay him.’

‘But how? None of us have that kind of money. How are we going to get it?’

After a few minutes Ka Lei broke the silence. ‘Maybe I star workin at te club, just till te money is finished.’

‘No, Ka Lei, you mustn’t. You would hate it. And what about your nursing?’

‘Tese men will kill Lucy, or me, maybe you. Everyting is different now.’

‘Is there no one who could help us?’

‘Tere is no one. We muz get money. Tat’s te way it is here in Hong Kong: nobody care – nobody help you – only money.’

They trudged their way home from the bar and talked it through endlessly. It took them nearly an hour, but by the end they had raised each other’s hopes slightly and steeled themselves for whatever lay ahead.

They stood outside their mansion block, pausing to gather their resolve and comfort one another. They hugged.

‘We will face it together, right … anything … Yes?’ said Georgina. Ka Lei nodded and smiled bravely. ‘Then I will talk to Mr Chan.’

The next day Lucy was the only one home when the call came.

‘Hello, Ka Mei. I was sorry to hear about your accident. I understand from your mamasan that you were hit by a car. You must be more careful next time. Meet me at the paper stand in Admiralty MTR station in fifteen minutes.’

Lucy found a large pair of sunglasses to hide her face, and set off immediately. It would take her a few minutes to reach the Wanchai MTR station, then about three minutes to walk to the platform. The next stop was Admiralty. She was there on time. He sent his chauffeur down to find her.

‘Poor Lucy.’ They sat in the back of his car while the chauffeur drove them around. Chan reached out to touch her face. ‘Still, you’re used to pain, aren’t you?’ He smiled smugly. ‘You won’t be able to work for a while, though, will you?’

She gave a small shake of the head.

‘Pity.’ He stared out of the window. ‘How is your sister?’ Lucy saw the corner of his mouth tug. ‘You know, Lucy, I have been thinking and I would like to see her again.’ Chan turned back to look at her and waited.

‘I don’t think so, Mr Chan.’

He leaned over to pat her leg. ‘Your mamasan tells me that yours is not a happy home at the moment.’

Lucy searched his face incredulously.

‘You see I know all about your life.’ He grinned. ‘I know that things have not been easy for you, Lucy. I know that you have been a very good sister to Ka Lei, like a mother. You have had to bring her up and you have done a good job – she is a lovely girl.’ He leaned closer. ‘This English cousin of yours, I hope she isn’t coming between you. That would be a terrible shame. Ka Lei needs you and I am sure you wouldn’t want to lose her.’ He paused to see what effect his rhetoric was having on Lucy. She wasn’t looking at him; she was staring at her lap. ‘Maybe I haven’t helped the situation. I have been a little hard on you.’ He sat back to observe her. ‘Never mind, maybe I can make it up to you. I have an offer for you, Lucy. Come on, a smile, things are not so bad, are they?’

She looked at him and smiled with a nervous sweetness.

‘Lucy, how would it be if we were to start again? If we forget all about the debt?’ He swiped the air. ‘No debt, gone! Would you like that?’

Lucy nodded warily.

‘This is my offer: I have been thinking a lot about you and Ka Lei recently. I have plans for you both. I want you to take good care of your sister. Look after her – she is special to me. You should stop working at the club. I will help you financially.’ He took out a wad of notes from his pocket and pushed them across the seat to Lucy, where they stayed untouched. ‘I would also like you to move. I have a vacant apartment.’

Lucy was lost for words. She stared at him, expecting some awful twist to this strange new turn of events.

‘From this day on, Ka Lei is mine. I own her. I will keep her. She will become my concubine. Your job will be to see that she stays safe – stays … contained. She is not to leave the house without supervision. Do you understand, Lucy?’

Lucy was afraid that she did.

‘But there is one more thing, Lucy. One more thing I demand from you before the debt is finished.’

Not even Lucy was prepared for what came next.

Georgina emerged wet from the shower. Her phone was ringing.

She was hoping it would be Mann. Despite what had happened, she still held out hope it would be the start of something between them. But it was Lucy. She wanted Georgina to do her a favour. Georgina was doing her best to be kind to Lucy – even after what she had done to Ka Lei, she felt sorry for her. She and Ka Lei were just waiting till Lucy felt better, then they would think about moving out.

‘Will I be able to find the shoe repairers, Lucy? I don’t want to be late for Ka Lei. I’m meeting her at Bar Paris at two, after she finishes her shift at the hospital. We’re going to spend the rest of the day together. She needs me at the moment. She’s still so upset about … everything …’

‘No problem. I tell you how to get there. It’s on the way. Got a pen? It’s no problem, right?’

‘Of course it’s no problem, Lucy. If you need it done, I will do it for you.’

* * *

It was one thirty. The sun was high in the sky. It blasted down onto the busy street and began burning the top of Georgina’s head. She scratched her head as the sweat tickled her scalp. She longed to be out of the heat.

As she stepped onto a narrow cobbled street she paused to listen to a strange noise coming from a dilapidated building above her. It was the click-clack of a mahjong game that had been going all night. By now, the players’ irritability had reached its peak. Their eyes were scratching with tiredness and their manners were raw. They shouted above the clacking pieces, slamming them onto the table.

Georgina stood in the road and listened for a while. Her eyes were searching all the time for the exact source of the noise. She had never heard the sound of a mahjong game before. She was lost in thought when an open-backed truck passed within inches of her.

The driver was Man Po. He had just taken delivery of a consignment of pig carcasses and was delivering them to a restaurant across town. Georgina smelt the truck in the same second as she saw it: salted meat and animal faeces drenched the air around it. In the back of the truck were piles of split-throated pigs. She watched them pass – their stubbly blond hairs shone in the sunshine and their sad opaque eyes stared up at the sky. Man Po turned his head back to look at her, not smiling, just staring in his lolling fashion. The pigs’ black throats gaped and their trotters bounced as the truck jolted over the cobbles. Then he turned the corner and was gone.

Georgina stumbled, reeling slightly from the near miss with Man Po’s pig lorry, and slipped on the uneven road. Looking down at the ground she saw that water filled the cracks between the cobbles under her feet. It was coming from market stalls just across the street. She crossed the road, entered the market area, and was immediately swallowed by stalls and livestock. It was a typical Chinese market, a place where all creatures alive and dead were being offered for sale (anything that lived beneath the sky certainly
could
and definitely
would
be eaten, according to Chinese belief). The smell in the air was flesh and fish, perfumed with incense.

Georgina felt lost and disorientated in the market, but she had no inclination to leave. Tiredness had stolen her ability to reason, and, anyway, there was shade from the stalls to bring relief from the hot sun, and the water from the fruit stalls was cool underfoot. She felt it through the soles of her sandals.

She stopped by a small group of people gathered in front of a fat stallholder who had a flat face and an enormous head. He stood behind a chopping board, a long knife in one hand, while the other rested on a bag on the table in front of him. The bag held his merchandise, bulging, spreading, heavy with a weight and too dark to define its contents. It twitched with an irregular pulse like some massive heart dumped there – collapsing over the wooden slab, but still beating.

The fat stallholder addressed the crowd excitedly. He beckoned to the people to come and watch this imminent spectacle. Then, after a few minutes, when sufficient people had gathered including Georgina, he held the knife aloft with the one hand and reached into the net bag with the other, pulled out a tiny pair of dark green legs, stretched them, then sliced them clean through at the thigh. He pushed the torso to the back of the board and offered the legs forward for sale.

The small group of people turned as one unit to stare at Georgina as she gasped, and the fat stallholder stopped his work. Looking up, he smiled.

‘Don lok so sat, Missy, fill no pain.’

She smiled, embarrassed, as the stallholder and onlookers stared at her. She wanted so much to walk away but she was unable to move, riveted by repulsion as more frogs were taken out, sliced at the thighs, their torsos pushed to one side of the chopping board creating a grizzly mound of wasted life, and their legs scraped shivering into a bag. Then she turned and, with great relief, saw a familiar face. Max was standing behind her.