Follow the Money

He opened a cabinet over the bench and took out a couple of bottles and a beaker. He unscrewed the tops from the bottles and poured a little from one and a little from the other into the beaker. The mixture fizzed and gave off a wisp of smoke with an acrid smell.

'Now, this won't kill her. It won't even cause her to faint if I know May Ling, but it'll eat away at her skin and tissue beyond repair by any plastic surgeon.'

May Ling screamed. The sound went through me like a dentist's drill hitting a nerve. I jerked up and Lester flicked the knife across inches from my face.

'Good reactions,' Freddy said, 'very satisfactory. Now, I want to know everything, down to the last detail.'

There was nothing else to do. I told Freddy absolutely everything I knew about Richard Malouf and his involvement and Houli's. My phone call from Malouf was news to May Ling but she didn't react. Her eyes were focused on the beaker of acid. I left out where Rosemary and Gretchen were but nothing else. He listened carefully, stopping me only a couple of times with questions. Freddy was a very intelligent man, and one with long experience of applying pressure and assessing the results.

When I'd finished he spoke in Chinese to Lester and the driver and then turned his attention back to me. He moved the beaker away on the bench. 'One phone call only?'

'That's right.'

'Did he say when he'd call again?'

'No.'

'It seems we'll have to keep you alive.'

'For now,' Lester said.

Freddy smiled. 'It depends on how it all works out. D'you know what Chou En-Lai said when he was asked what he thought were the results of the French Revolution?'

I shook my head. I moved on the stool to get more comfortable and winced as my shirt came away from where it had been stuck by congealed blood to the cut.

'He said it was too soon to tell. That's how things stand now. It's too soon to tell, but you have certain things in your favour.'

'You'll let May Ling go?'

He laughed. 'That's another thing it's too soon to tell about. Now, what did you plan to do next, after you'd finished your cheap little dinner?'

I hadn't told him any more than that Malouf wanted to do a deal with the police, nothing about Sabatini. 'I was thinking about it when Lester stuck his knife into me,' I said. 'I was going to get in touch with Inspector Chang and try to set something up, act as a go-between, I guess.'

'You'd be happy to see Malouf get clear in return for destroying me and Selim Houli?'

I shrugged. 'I doubt it'd work out quite like that, but it's too soon to tell.'

I heard an angry grunt from Lester and got ready for another blow but Freddy laughed and raised his hand placatingly. 'Touche. Well, we'll just have to play along with you and Malouf, but I think we'll keep the police out of it. That's not to say you won't tell Malouf that you've contacted them. You're going to have to do a bit of acting.'

'You'll have to let me tap Malouf for some information as to what it's all about. He'd expect I'd need something more to get Chang interested.'

'You're right. I almost like you, Hardy; you're not completely dumb. You still want to understand things. I respect that. I'll have to try to make sure you don't learn so much that we have to kill you.'

'Try to make sure Lester understands that.'

An angry burst of Chinese from Lester made May Ling raise her head and shoot him a look of loathing.

Freddy lit a cigarette. 'Lester and I don't quite see eye to eye on this. I try not to kill people. It's bad for business.'

For the first time, May Ling spoke. 'You're killing Sunny, you creep.'

'Business,' Freddy said.

I said, 'What about Houli?'

'What about him?'

'Whatever this is, you're in it together.'

Freddy reached out for an empty beaker on the bench and drew it towards him. He dropped ash into it. 'So far,' he said, 'so far.'

23

I'd left Freddy with the impression that Malouf was on his boat which I didn't think was necessarily the case. He barked instructions to the driver who left in a hurry. At a guess he was going to try to find the boat, and as no one had had any luck at that so far, it didn't seem likely he would. Freddy picked his butt out of the beaker and dropped it in the acid. At the smoke and smell May Ling shrank back in her chair.

'Little reminder,' Freddy said. 'Lester, get his phone.'

I know less than nothing about satellites and electronic tracking, but I could see what was in Freddy's mind. He'd have someone try to track the source of Malouf's call when it came and be able to take the initiative. May Ling and I would be expendable. I thought Malouf would have found a way to prevent a trace but Freddy didn't know that. Maybe Freddy was reluctant to kill but Lester wasn't. Just at that moment, the phone was an asset. I took it from my pocket and juggled it as Lester moved towards me with his knife.

'No phone, no trace,' I said. I tossed it up and caught it.

Lester glanced at Freddy and that was my chance. I kicked Lester as hard as I could in the crotch. He yelled, dropped the knife and both his hands went down protectively. I headbutted him; he went down and I kept moving. Freddy had the brains but not the moves. He was frozen for just a little too long. I pinned him back against the bench and grabbed the beaker of acid. Blood was streaming from Lester's forehead, but he recovered and crawled towards the knife.

'No!' I held the beaker at Freddy's shoulder.

Lester stopped. 'You wouldn't.'

I jiggled the beaker. The acid hissed. 'Try me.'

The blood was running into his eyes, blinding him. He rubbed at his face with his sleeve and swore in English and then in Chinese.

'May Ling,' I said, 'get the knife.'

She didn't move.

'Get the fucking knife!'

She pushed up from the chair and strode across the floor. She bent in one fluid motion for the knife and glided close to where I still had Freddy gasping for breath and watching the acid. She shoved the knife hard into his soft belly and had to use an upward ripping motion to pull it out. Freddy screamed and sagged towards her. She fended him off with the hand holding the knife and the blade went in again. I let him go and he fell to the floor with blood gushing over May Ling's high heel shoes. I took the knife from her hand.

It was a big knife, like the one in the movie Jagged Edge, and I knew how sharp it was. May Ling had dug it in deep, and it must have done drastic internal damage to Freddy because he was dead within a minute. Lester, still dripping blood himself, cradled his brother's head in his lap and wept.

May Ling and I left the room, took the lift to the ground floor and walked out of the building into the crowded street. As soon as the cold air hit her she began to tremble. I pulled her closer to the building line and put my arms around her.

'I murdered him.'

'He was a vicious bastard. He would have scarred you and Gretchen too if things hadn't pleased him. He had it coming.'

We stood until she stopped trembling and signalled that she was ready to move. I kept my arm around her shoulders and gasped once when her elbow nudged the cut in my side.

'What?'

'Lester cut me. Just a scratch.'

'You got more than you bargained for when you came to see Miles that day, Cliff. Didn't you?'

'So did you.'

Wrong thing to say: it set her off again and she almost stumbled and started to sob quietly. I steered her slowly up Hay Street through a thick press of people out to shop, eat, have a good time. Her shoes and feet were covered in blood. I hailed a taxi in George Street and sat beside her in the back.

'Glebe,' I said to the driver.

'Where?' she said.

'You're coming to my place.'

She nodded and slumped back in the seat. Would the driver see blood on the floor when he cleaned the cab? Maybe. Would he do anything about it? Again, maybe. I stopped the cab in Glebe Point Road. No point in leaving a clear trail to the house.