“Do you remember anything at all about the trip, anything out of the ordinary?”
“When we got to where we were going, the van stopped and I heard the driver yell at someone to open the gate. That’s it.”
“And then they took you inside a building?”
“Yes, we climbed five or six steps. I heard a door open and then I heard Lok ask Wu if anyone at the station had paid any undue attention to us.”
“So Lok was there.”
“Oh yes, he was there,” Michael said, his voice cracking.
“Have some coffee,” Ava said.
She finished her own. Amanda pointed to her cup, asking if she wanted another. “Sure,” Ava said.
Michael barely touched his. She saw that his hand was beginning to shake. “Do you mind if we take a break?” he said.
Ava shook her head. “No, we need to get this out of the way. Drink some coffee.” She waited for him to take a couple of careful sips. “Now you’re in a building with Lok and Wu and they start to beat on you, right?”
“They put me on my knees and left me there for maybe ten minutes. I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t hear anything. Then out of nowhere someone punched me on the ear. I fell over, then they picked me up and left me again.”
“Where was Simon?”
“I don’t know. They separated us when we went inside.”
“Did you ever see him?”
“No.”
“Okay, no Simon, just you on your knees getting punched. Did they say anything?”
“Not while that was going on.”
“How many times did they hit you?”
“Maybe ten times, I don’t know,” Michael said.
“I’m sorry to have to ask these questions,” Ava said, patting the back of the hand that wasn’t burned. “I’m almost done.”
“Maybe ten times — three or four times on my ear, less on my nose, my mouth, my chin.”
“And nothing was ever said?”
“No. I sensed that someone was always near me though. I tried to stand once and they hit me immediately. After that I just stayed on my knees. That was the worst thing — not knowing when I was going to get hit, not knowing what else they might do to me.”
“How did they end it?”
“Someone just grabbed me by the arm and hauled me to my feet. They walked me into what I think was another room and made me sit on a wooden chair. I could hear mumbling, whispering, but I couldn’t make out the words. That’s when someone grabbed my hand and put the cigarette out on it. I screamed, and I pissed a bit in my pants, and there was a lot of laughter.”
Ava saw tears well in his eyes and she felt them in hers too. Amanda sniffled and then began to cry.
“Is that when they finally spoke to you?”
“How did you know?”
“Who spoke?” she said.
“Lok.”
“What did he say?”
“He said they were going to hold Simon until we paid the money we owed them. He said they were giving me forty-eight hours to come up with the money, and if I didn’t they would kill him. He said that if I went to the police, they’d find out and kill Simon anyway.”
“Did you ask to see Simon?”
“No, I wasn’t thinking.”
“What did you say?”
“I said I would do what I could, and then someone punched me. It went quiet and I thought I was going to get hit or burned again, but Lok just said they were going to take me back to Hong Kong, and that I was to call him on his cell when I had the money.”
“How did they get you back? Not on the jetfoil.”
“No, they drove me. They put me in the trunk of a car and then we drove for close to three hours.”
“They brought you in through Guangzhou.”
“I have no idea.”
“Where did they drop you off?”
“Here, about a hundred metres from the building. They pulled me out of the trunk, untied my hands, and told me to count to thirty before taking off the blindfold. And then someone — I think it was Wu but I was so out of it I can’t be sure — said that they knew where I lived and that if I didn’t come up with the money, Simon was dead and they knew where to find me.”
The kitchen went silent. Amanda put her arms around Michael. Ava got up and walked to the living-room window. It was early afternoon on a beautiful Hong Kong day. She looked down and watched people going about their normal routines, and