“So tell me what’s happening, Eleanor,” he said. “I’ve been in the air for almost fourteen hours. What’s new on this end?”
She nodded.
“I spent four hours at the mall yesterday. When you called and left a message from the airport, I must’ve been in security. I either didn’t have a signal or just didn’t hear the call.”
“Don’t worry about it. What did you find out?”
“They have surveillance video that shows her with the brother and sister. Quick and He. It’s all from a distance. They’re not identifiable on it-except for Mad. I’d be able to pick her out anywhere.”
“Does it show the grab?”
“There was no grab. They were hanging out together, mostly in the food court. Then Quick lit up a cigarette and somebody complained. Security moved in and kicked him out. Madeline walked out with them. Voluntarily. And they never came back in.”
Bosch nodded. He could see it. It could all have been a plan to lure her out. Quick lit up, knowing all along that he would be ejected from the mall and that Madeline would go out with him.
“What else?”
“That’s it from the mall. Quick is familiar to security there but they had no ID or file on him.”
“What time was it when they walked out?”
“Six-fifteen.”
Bosch did the math. That was Friday. His daughter had walked off the mall videotape almost thirty-six hours ago.
“When’s it get dark here? What time?”
“Usually by eight. Why?”
“The video that was sent to me was shot in daylight. So less than two hours after she walked out of the mall with them she was in Kowloon and they made the video.”
“I want to see the video, Harry.”
“I’ll show you in the car. You said you got my message. Did you find out about helicopter pads in Kowloon?”
Nodding, Eleanor said, “I called the head of client transportation at the casino. He told me that in Kowloon there are seven rooftop helicopter pads available. I have a list.”
“Good. Did you tell him why you wanted the list?”
“No, Harry. Give me some credit.”
Bosch looked at her and then moved his eyes to Sun, who had now opened up a several-pace lead on them. Eleanor got the message.
“Sun Yee’s different. He knows what’s going on. I brought him in because I can trust him. He’s been my security at the casino for three years.”
Bosch nodded. His ex-wife was a valuable commodity to the Cleopatra Resort and Casino in Macau. They paid for her apartment and the helicopter that brought her to and from work at the private tables where she played against the casino’s wealthiest clients. Security-in the form of Sun Yee-was part of that package.
“Yeah, well, too bad he wasn’t watching over Maddie, too.”
Eleanor abruptly stopped and turned toward Bosch. Unaware, Sun kept going. Eleanor got in Harry’s face.
“Look, you want to get into this right now? Because I can if you want. We can talk about Sun Yee and we can also talk about you and how your work put my daughter in this…this…”
She never finished. Instead, she roughly grabbed Bosch by the jacket and started shaking him angrily until she was hugging him and starting to cry. Bosch put his hand on her back.
“Our daughter, Eleanor,” he said. “Our daughter, and we’re going to get her back.”
Sun noticed they were not with him and stopped. He looked back at Bosch, his eyes hidden behind the dark glasses. Still in Eleanor’s grasp, Harry raised a hand to signal him to hold for a moment and keep his distance.
Eleanor finally stepped back and wiped her eyes and nose with the back of her hand.
“You need to keep it together, Eleanor. I’m going to need you.”
“Stop saying that, okay? I will keep it together. Where do we start”
“Did you get the MTR map I asked for?”
“Yes, I’ve got it. It’s in the car.”
“What about the card from Causeway Taxi? Did you check it out”
“We didn’t have to. Sun Yee already knew about it. Most of the taxi companies are known to hire triad people. Triad people need legitimate jobs to avoid suspicion and keep the police away. Most of them get taxi licenses and work a few shifts here and there as a front. If your suspect was carrying the fleet manager’s card, it was probably because he was going to see him about a job when he got over here.”
“Did you go to the address?”
“We went by last night but it’s just a taxi station. It’s where the cars get refueled and serviced and the drivers are dispatched at the start of shift.”
“Did you talk to the fleet manager?”
“No. I didn’t want to make a move like that without asking you. But you were in the air and I couldn’t ask. Besides, it looked to me like a dead end. This was a guy who was probably going to give Chang a job. That’s all. That’s what he does for the triads. He wouldn’t be involved in an abduction. And if he was involved, he wasn’t going to talk about it.”
Bosch thought Eleanor was probably right but that the fleet manager would be someone to come back to if other efforts to locate his daughter didn’t pan out.
“Okay,” he said. “When’s it going to be light out?”
She turned to look out the huge glass wall that fronted the main hall, as if to judge her answer by the sky. Bosch checked his watch. It was 5:45 a.m. and he had already been in Hong Kong nearly an hour. It seemed like the time was going by too quickly.
“Maybe half an hour,” Eleanor said.
Bosch nodded.
“What about the gun, Eleanor?”
She nodded hesitantly.
“If you’re sure, Sun Yee knows where you can get one. In Wan Chai?.”
Bosch nodded. Of course that would be the place to get a gun. Wan Chai was where the underside of Hong Kong came to the surface. He had not been there since going there from Vietnam on leave forty years before. But he knew that some things and places never changed.
“Okay, let’s get to the car. We’re losing time.”
They stepped through the automatic doors and Bosch was greeted by the warm, wet air. He felt the humidity start to cling to him.
“Where are we going first” Eleanor asked. “Wan Chai”
“No, the Peak. We’ll start there.”
24
It was known as Victoria Peak during colonial times. Now it was just the Peak, a mountaintop that rose behind the Hong Kong skyline and offered stunning vistas across the central district and the harbor to Kowloon. It was accessible by car and funicular tram and was a popular destination with tourists year-round and with locals in the summer months, when the city below seemed to hold humidity like a sponge holds water. Bosch had been there several times with his daughter, often eating lunch in the observatory’s restaurant or the shopping galleria built behind it.
Bosch and his ex-wife and her security man made it to the top before dawn broke over the city. The galleria and tourist kiosks were still closed and the lookout points were abandoned. They left Sun’s Mercedes in the lot by the galleria and walked down the path that edged the side of the mountain. Bosch had his backpack over his shoulder. The air was heavy with humidity. The pathway was wet and he could tell there had been an overnight shower. Already his shirt was sticking to his back.