to understand is that Michael’s situation threatens them. If his business tanks, Amanda, Marcus will step in and sell everything he has to bail Michael out. Who knows what might be left? I’m here because I don’t want it to come to that.
“Now, it is true that Marian, I, and the brothers can look after ourselves. But what about the two kids in Australia? What about my mother? What about the two aunties? The way I look at it, I came here to represent their interests — and, of course, my father’s.”
Amanda had listened quietly, her face blank, and Ava wondered if her criticism of Michael had gone too far. Then Amanda said, “And now we have to throw Simon, Jessie, and another child into that mix, don’t we.”
“I guess we do.”
“Let me make you a coffee,” Amanda said suddenly, getting up from the table.
Amanda’s lips moved as she poured coffee into a cup. The younger woman put the two cups on the table and leaned forward. “I want to help.”
“I’m not sure there is anything to help with.”
“I know you need to confirm that Simon is okay, but from the conversation between Lok and Michael, it sounds like he is. And if he is, then I want to help, and I don’t mean help in the sense of babysitting Michael.”
Ava didn’t know quite what to say other than “We’ll see,” and she was struggling with how to put that differently when her cellphone rang. For once she was happy to answer. It was Uncle.
“I have some, maybe most of the information you asked for,” he said. “Can you come to Andy’s?”
“I’m at my brother’s apartment in the Mid-levels. It’ll take me half an hour.”
“See you then.”
She closed her phone and looked up at Amanda. “I have to go.”
Amanda leaned forward again. “I know you’re not going to abandon Simon, and I want to help you get him back.”
“I have no plans to do anything, but if you want to help, I’ll tell you where you can start. Get into Michael’s email and watch for the photo from Lok. The moment it comes through, call me on my cell. You might also call Jessie and make sure she’s going to be home tonight. And keep it casual. One way or another we’re going to have to talk to her.”
“Thank you.”
As Ava walked to the door, Amanda called after her, “Do you remember Jack Yee?”
Ava spun back. “Of course I do.”
“He’s my father,” Amanda said.
Ava was too surprised to say anything. I am so thick sometimes, she thought. Jack Yee, Amanda Yee — why hadn’t she made the connection? Why at least hadn’t she asked Amanda if they were related?
Ava and Uncle had done two jobs for Jack, both of them successful, and one of which had turned ugly and exceptionally violent. Jack had been caught in the middle of the violence and Ava and Derek had saved him, none too gently. She wondered what he had told his daughter about that day in Yantai. There had been five men, and two had died.
“I called him last night and told him what happened at the lunch in Macau yesterday,” Amanda said. “Of course, your name entered the conversation.”
“Have you spoken to him since?”
“No.”
“Don’t,” Ava said as she walked out the door.
( 11 )
There was no Sonny in front of the Kowloon Tong MTR, and Ava wondered if something had happened to delay Uncle. But when she went inside the restaurant, Andy saw her and waved her back to the kitchen.
The table was empty except for a pot of tea and two cups. Ava kissed Uncle on the forehead and said, “Thank you.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a sheet of lined paper. “Lok owns three plots of vacant land, the ones he keeps selling over and over again. He has an interest in several massage parlours that specialize in hand jobs and a nightclub that is mainly a whorehouse. I do not think he would take your brother’s partner to either of those places. So there are two candidates.
“The first is a warehouse he has near the old town. According to my contact it is a busy place. He uses it as a distribution centre for wine he brings in from China and Portugal. It is also quite central, quite public, so though it is worth taking a look at, I think your best bet is his house. The house is on Coloane, in the most southwestern part