A Coffin From Hong Kong (9 page)

The other passengers in the aircraft began to collect their hand luggage. The usual polite pushing and shoving went on for a while before I could squeeze myself out into the hot sunshine.

It had been a good trip, slightly over-long, but I had enjoyed it

Ten minutes later, I was through the Customs and out into the noisy, bustling approach to the airport. I saw my fat companion being whisked away in a tiny hotel bus. He waved to me and I waved back. Half a dozen or so rickshaw boys converged on me, shouting and waving anxiously. Their old, yellow, dried up faces were imploring. As I stood hesitating, a broad, squat Chinese, neatly dressed in a city suit, came over to me and gave me a little bow. "Excuse me, please," he said. "Perhaps I can help you? You would like a taxi?"

"I want to get to the Celestial Empire Hotel at Wanchai," I said.

"That will be on the island, sir." He looked slightly surprised in a polite way. "It would be best to take a taxi to the ferry and cross to Wanchai. The hotel is close to the ferry station on the other side." "Thanks a lot," I said. "Will the driver speak English?"

"Most of them can understand a little English." He signalled to a taxi at the head of the rank. "If you will permit me ..."

He went on ahead. I picked up my bag and went after him. He spoke to the driver in what was probably Cantonese. The driver, a lean dirty-looking Chinese, grunted, glanced at me, then away.

"He will take you to the ferry, sir," the squat man said. "The fare will be one dollar: not an American dollar, you understand, but a Hong Kong dollar. As you will probably know mere are approximately six Hong Kong dollars to the American dollar." He beamed at me. Every tooth in his head seemed to be capped with gold. "You will have no trouble in finding the hotel on the other side. It is opposite the ferry station." He hesitated, then added apologetically, "You know this particular hotel is scarcely for American gentlemen? Forgive the interference, but most American gentlemen prefer to stay at the Gloucester or the Peninsula. The Celestial Empire is for Asians."

"Yeah, but that's where I'm staying," I said. "Thanks for your help."

"You are welcome, sir," he said, and taking a limp wallet from his pocket, he presented me wirli his card. "You may need a guide. It is my business to take care of American gentlemen when they visit Hong Kong. You have only to telephone. . . ."

"Thanks. I'll remember that." I tucked the card under the strap of my wrist watch, then as he stepped back, bowing, I got into the taxi.

On the flight over I had. boned up on Hong Kong, discovering the mainland where the Kai Tak airport is situated is called the Kowloon Peninsula and across the Straits is the island of Hong Kong, reached by fast ferry-boat service in four or five minutes.

Wanchai, where Jefferson had lived, was a waterfront district of Hong Kong.

The drive to the ferry took only a few minutes. The Kowloon waterfront teemed with jogtrotting humanity. There seemed to be about only one European to every hundred Chinese: the scene reminded me of a disturbed ants' nest. Coolies, carrying fantastic burdens slung on duck bamboo poles, trotted in and out of the traffic, oblivious of the risk of being run down. Big American cars, driven by fat, sleek Chinese businessmen, rickshaw boys dragging crates and odd looking merchandise in their two-wheeled chariots and heavy trucks crowded the broad street. Gay red signs in Chinese lettering decorated the shop fronts. Small, dirty Chinese children with babies strapped to their backs played in the gutters. Chinese families squatted on the sidewalk outside their shops, shovelling rice into their mouths with chop sticks.

At the ferry, I paid off the taxi, bought a ticket at the turnstile and got on the ferry-boat that was already crowded with Chinese business men, American tourists and a number of pretty Chinese girls wearing Cheongsams, slit either side to show off their shapely legs.

I got a seat by the rail and as the ferry-boat churned through the blue waters of the Straits towards the island of Hong Kong, I tried to orientate myself to my new surroundings. It seemed a long time since I had left Pasadena City. My journey had been delayed a couple of days because of my murderous visitor. I hadn't told Retnick the whole story. I had told him I had walked into my apartment, found the punk there and had started a fight. What he was doing there, I lied, I had no idea —probably a sneak-thief. Retnick didn't like it. Particularly, he didn't like the silencer on the gun, but I stuck to my story and got away with it. At least, I was able to leave for Hong Kong and that was all I was worrying about.

I was pretty sure the man who had hired the punk to kill me had been the mysterious John Hardwick. I had bought another .38 Police special. I told myself I mustn't move without it in the future: something I promised myself, but quickly forgot.

The ferry-boat bumped against the landing-stage and everyone, including me, crowded off. Wanchai was nearly one hundred per cent Chinese. Apart from two burly American sailors who were chewing gum and Staring emptily into space, the waterfront was given up to jogtrotting Chinese, coolies staggering under impossible burdens, vegetable vendors squatting on the kerb, Chinese children minding Chinese babies, a dozen or so young Chinese girls who stared at me with inviting, shrewd black eyes and the inevitable rickshaw boys who sprang into life at the sight of me.

Sandwiched between a shop selling watches and a shop selling cheap toys was the entrance to the Celestial Empire Hotel.

Lugging my bag, I managed to cross the road without getting run down and toiled up the steep, narrow stairs leading to the tiny hotel lobby.

Behind the counter at the head of the stairs sat an elderly Chinese wearing a black skull cap
and a black tunic coat. Long straggly white hairs came from his chin. His almond-shaped
eyes were as dull and as impersonal as black crepe.
"I want a room," I said, setting down my bag.

He eyed me over, taking his time. I wasn't wearing my best suit and my shirt had suffered during the flight. I didn't look like a bum, but I didn't look a great deal better.

He produced a dog-eared paper bound book which he offered me together with a ball-point pen. The book contained nothing but Chinese characters. I wrote my name and nationality in the required spaces and gave him back the book and the pen. He then lifted a key from a rack and handed it to me. "Ten dollars," he said. "Room Twenty-seven."

I gave him ten Hong Kong dollars, took the key and as he waved his hand to the right-hand side of the narrow passage, I set off, lugging my bag. Half-way down the passage, a door opened and a thin, white American sailor, his cap set at a jaunty angle, stepped out in front of me. There was no room to pass so I turned sideways and waited. Behind him came a stocky Chinese girl wearing a pink Cheongsam, a bored expression on her flat face. She reminded me of a well-fed Pekinese dog. The sailor brushed past me, winking. The girl went after him. I walked on down the passage until I came to room twenty-seven. I sank the key into the lock, opened up and walked into a ten foot by ten foot room with a double bed, an upright chair, a cupboard, a wash-bowl standing on a set piece of white painted furniture, a strip of worn carpet and a window giving onto a view of another building that was possibly a laundry, judging by the towels, sheets and odd underwear drying on bamboo poles projecting from the windows.

I put down my bag and sat on the hard bed. I was sweating and feeling grimy. I would have liked to have been at the Gloucester or the Peninsular where I could have had a deluxe shower and an ice cold beer, but this was business. I hadn't come this far to indulge in luxury. This was where Herman Jefferson and his Chinese wife had lived. If it had been good enough for them, it would have to be good enough for me.

After a while, I began to sweat less. I poured water into the cracked bowl and had a wash. Then I unpacked and put my stuff away in the cupboard. The hotel was very quiet. I could just hear the murmur of distant traffic, but nothing else. I looked at my strap watch. The time was twenty minutes to six. I saw the card the squat Chinese had given me tucked under the strap and I pulled it out and read the inscription. It said: Wong Hop Bo. English speaking guide. There was a telephone number. I put the card in my wallet, then opening the door, I stepped into the passage.

A Chinese girl was leaning against the door-post of the room opposite. She was small, compactly and sturdily built: her glistening black hair was done up in a thick bun at the back of her neck. She was wearing a white blouse and a close-fitting bottle green skirt. She was nice to look at without being sensational. She was looking directly at me as if she had been waiting patiently for some time for me to appear.

"Hello, mister," she said with a wide, nice smile. "I'm Leila. What is your name?" I liked her smile and I liked her dazzling strong white teeth.

"Nelson Ryan," I said, closing my door and turning the key. "Just call me Nelson. Do you live here?"

"Yes." Her friendly black eyes ran over me. "Few American gentlemen ever stay here. Are you staying here?"

"That's the idea. Have you been here long?"

"Eighteen months." She had a peculiar accent. I had to concentrate to understand what she said. She stared at me with that stare that meant what she meant. "When you want to make love, will you come and see me?"

I was fazzed for a moment, then I managed a smile.

"I'll remember, but don't depend on it."

A door farther up the passage opened and a fat little man who could be either Italian or French came out. He hurried by me, not looking at me. He was followed by a very young Chinese girl. I didn't think she could have been more than sixteen, but it is hard to judge with these people. She gave me a hard, interested stare as she passed me. I was now under no illusion about the kind of hotel I had landed myself in.

Leila put her beautifully shaped hands under her tiny breasts and lifted them. "Would you like to come to me now?" she asked politely.

"Not right now," I said. "I'm busy. Some other time perhaps."

"American gentlemen are always busy," she said. "Tonight perhaps?"

"I'll let you know."

She pouted.

"That really doesn't mean anything. You will either come or you won't."

"That's the idea," I said. "Right now I have things to do," and I went off down the passage to the lobby where the old Chinese reception clerk sat as stolid and as inevitable as Buddha. I went down the stairs and out into the crowded, heat-ridden street. A rickshaw boy came running over to me. "Police headquarters," I told him as I climbed into the chair.

He set off at a jog-trot. After we had travelled two or three hundred yards, I realised the mistake of taking such a vehicle. The big, glossy cars and the trucks had no respect for rickshaws. Any second I felt I was going to be squashed either by a truck or by an over-large American car. I was relieved when we finally pulled up outside the Hong Kong Central Police Station, surprised to find I was still in one piece.

After stating my business to the desk sergeant, I finally got shown into a small, neat office where a Chief Inspector with grey hair and a military moustache regarded me with impersonal eyes as he waved me to a chair.

I told him who I was and he then told me who he was. His name was MacCarthy and he spoke with a strong Scottish accent.

"Jefferson?" He tilted back his chair and picked up a much-used, much-battered Dunhill pipe. As he began to fill it, he went on, "What's all the excitement about? I've already dealt with an inquiry from Pasadena City about this man. What's he to you?" I told him I was acting for J. Wilbur Jefferson.

"I want to get as much information about his son and his Chinese wife as I can," I said. "Anything you can tell me could be helpful."

"The American Consul could be more helpful," he said, lighting his pipe. He blew a cloud of expensive-smelling tobacco smoke towards me. "I don't know much about him He was killed in a car crash. You've heard about that?"

"How did it happen?"

He shrugged. "Driving too fast on a wet road. There wasn't much to pick up when we found him. He was wedged in the car which had gone up in smoke."

"No one with him?"

"No."

"Where was he going?"

MacCarthy looked quizzingly at me.

"I don't know. The accident took place about five miles outside Kowloon in the New Territories. He could be going anywhere."

"Who identified him?"

He moved slightly, showing a degree of controlled patience. "His wife."

"Can you fill me in on his background? How did he earn his living?"

"I don't think I can." He took the pipe out of his mouth and stared at the smoking bowl. "He wasn't my headache fortunately. He kept clear of us. Out here we don't interfere with people unless they make a nuisance of themselves and Jefferson was careful not to do that. Every so often we got word about him. He wasn't a desirable citizen. There isn't much doubt that he lived on the immoral earnings of his wife, but here again, we don't interfere with an American citizen if we can help it." "Any angles on the girl?" He puffed smoke and looked bored.

"She was a prostitute, of course. That is a problem we're trying to cope with, but it isn't easy. These refugee girls have great difficulty in earning a living: prostitution is the easiest way out for them. We are gradually cleaning up the city, but it is uphill work." "I'm trying to find out why she was murdered." He shrugged his shoulders.

"I can't help you there." He looked hopefully at a pile of papers on his desk. "I've given all the information I have about these two to Lieutenant Retnick. There's nothing more I can add."

I can take a hint as well as the next man. I stood up.

"Well, thanks. I'll nose around. Maybe I'll turn up something."

"I doubt it." He pulled the papers towards him. "If there's anything I can do. . . ."