Bill for the Use of a Body (14 page)

Then, just as he was going to bed on Sunday night, the telephone rang. As he put the receiver to his ear a woman's voice said urgently, ‘Is that you, Julian?'

He felt almost certain that the voice was that of Mrs. Sang, but doubted for a moment if it could be hers because of the use of his Christian name. ‘Yes,' he replied. ‘Is that … is that Tilly?'

‘Yes. I've news. News of Merri. Not very good news; but news. And I can't tell it you over the phone. Can you come over here at once?'

‘I'll be with you in under a quarter of an hour,' he replied briskly. Replacing the receiver, he scrambled into his coat, hurriedly left his room and ran down the corridor.

Tilly Sang was waiting for him at the front door of her house. Shutting it quickly behind her, she led him into the drawing room and said, ‘She is in Japan. I knew it.'

‘What!' Julian exclaimed. ‘It was Urata after all, then?'

‘I imagine so. But about that I'm uncertain. It may be that he was not in love with her at all but was an agent, just angling for an opportunity to kidnap her. Anyhow, I'm convinced now that he's not at the bottom of it, because they want me to go to Japan.'

‘What happened?'

‘I was about to go to bed. My room overlooks the bay. Soon after I had put on the light I heard something click against the window. The noise came again. Someone was throwing small stones up at it. I opened it and went out on to the balcony. There was a man below on the upper terrace. When he saw me he called to me to come down and talk to him. The moonlight was sufficient for me to see that beyond the swimming pool, where the rocks shelve sharply to the sea, there was a motor boat with several men in it, and that out in the bay there was what looked like a small tramp steamer. I guessed at once that he had come off from her, and immediately feared that this was an attempt to kidnap me too. So I refused.

‘He said then that he had seen a report in the papers about my daughter being abducted. By pure chance he had recognised her from the photograph printed with the article. He knew who had got her and could lead me to her if I'd come to Japan with him. Such a story was much too thin. I told him so, and said that if he were an honest man he would wait there until I could get the police and he could tell them what he knew.

‘At first he tried to bluff me by saying that the police must be kept out of it, because they believed him to be a smuggler and might try to pin something on him; but that he had risked coming to me because he wanted to earn the reward. I said he could if he would give me the information which would lead to my getting Merri back. But he wouldn't. Then, seeing that I didn't mean to play, he came clean.

‘He admitted that he had been sent by the people who have got her, and said that before they would let her go they wanted to talk to me personally. When I asked him why, he replied, “Because you know many things that could be useful to them. Tell and you can have your daughter back.” I tumbled to it then. It's the Japanese dope ring that have got Merri.'

‘I thought most of it was smuggled in from China,' Julian interrupted.

‘So it is; but a lot of it comes from Japan, and I am the head of the department that is a thorn in the side of the Japanese smugglers. They have their spies and must know that. If they could get hold of me they could make me reveal our methods of getting information in advance about their shipments. But they wouldn't stop at that. They'd kill me.'

‘Do you really think so?'

‘I'm certain of it. I hold so many strings to the illicit traffic from Japan, and in the past few years must have cost them many thousands of pounds by causing their parcels of dope to be seised. They would never let me return to Hong Kong and resume the fight against them.'

‘What did you say to the Japanese, then? I take it he was a Jap?'

‘Yes. I again refused to go with him. Then he gave me an ultimatum. He said, “If you won't come to Japan with me now you must come on your own. Either you will be sitting in the lounge of the Miyako Hotel in Kyoto at ten o'clock in the evening a week from today, or we will cut your daughter up into little pieces.”'

For a moment Julian stared at Tilly Sang in horror. Then he burst out, ‘But you must go! You must! You can't just remain here and let Merri be murdered.'

Staring back at him, she wrung her hands and cried, ‘God knows I'd give all I possess to prevent that! I offered to ransom her, but he only laughed at me. And if I do go they'll kill me. I'm certain of it.'

‘No!' he said sharply. ‘It will need all your courage; but you've got plenty of that. We'll get on to the police. They'll get in touch with the Japanese police, who will protect you and enable us to trap these people.'

She shook her head. ‘That's no good. You don't know them. They have spies everywhere; even in the Japanese police force. They would find out that the police were shadowing me; then, like all kidnappers, they would never risk being caught with their victim. They would kill Merri at once and dispose of her body; so that there would be no evidence against them.'

‘That's a ghastly thought. But we'll have to risk it. For you to go there under police protection is our only chance. At least we know now that Merri has not been sold into a brothel and is still alive, but she'll be dead within ten days if we make no effort to save her.'

‘We can't even be certain that she is still alive. Anyhow, if I did go we've no guarantee that they would release her. They would be afraid that she would tell her story and give the police the evidence to arrest them. Oh God,
I don't know what to do! I feel sure that it's not only information this man wants. If he does get hold of me I'm certain that he'll kill me.'

‘This man,' Julian repeated quickly. ‘You know who is the head of the ring, then?'

‘Yes. At least I … I think so. I couldn't swear to it, but I'm as near certain as can be.'

‘In that case, why shouldn't we put the police on to him right away? Even if you have only suspicion to go on they would start enquiries and, perhaps, find some excuse to search his premises.'

‘I daren't; and I've already told you the reason. He would be tipped off that the police were after him and protect himself by doing away with Merri.'

‘If you are not absolutely certain that this particular man is the head of the ring what leads you to believe that he is?'

She made an angry gesture. ‘Oh, there are a dozen lines in my files that seem to lead to him. Added together it could hardly be anyone else; but not one of them is strong enough to hang a case on. If we had had any concrete evidence against him we would have asked the Japanese police to pull him in long ago. The trouble is he never leaves Japan, and he's too rich and powerful ever to need to run any risk himself. If I'd had any doubts the man who came up from the sea would have settled them for me when he demanded that I should go to Kyoto. There are a dozen other big cities in Japan, but it is in Kyoto that this human spider lives.'

Julian nodded. ‘I see. That certainly adds greatly to the probability that you are right. In addition to being rich and cautious, what sort of a man is he?'

‘He must be well over sixty, comes of a good family and has a finger in all sorts of pies. He owns a controlling interest in a radio factory, a coastal shipping line, a silk works, a famous doll shop and …'

‘A doll shop?' asked Julian with a puzzled frown.

‘Yes; not the sort where you'd buy a doll for a child, but one of those that are peculiar to Japan. The dolls are real works of art. They represent mikados, empresses, shoguns, court officials and famous geishas, in gala attire. Everything is correct to the minutest detail and the embroidery on the silk and satin clothes so fine that it has to be examined with a magnifying glass. Some of them cost as much as a hundred pounds sterling, and the rich Japanese collect them as Europeans do Dresden or snuffboxes. Incidentally, he is a great collector of antiques. When the Japanese overran China they looted it of an immense amount of treasure and a great part of the stuff is still in private houses in Japan. He is said to have paid very high prices for many beautiful things.'

For a moment she paused, then hurried on: ‘Of course, all these activities are good cover for dope smuggling. They conceal packets of heroin even in miniature radios and in rolls of silk. We have found it, too, buried in the stuffing of quite ordinary dolls. He is not above using antiques for that, either. It comes through in the secret drawers of lacquer cabinets and in the hollow bodies of cheap modern Buddhas faked up for the tourist trade. And, of course, these things are smuggled through as part of the genuine cargoes of his coastal ships.'

‘What else do you know about him?' Julian enquired.

She hesitated. ‘Not much. He travelled extensively when he was a younger man and, of course, was an officer during the war. He was married but lost his wife some years ago. Like most of these Japanese he was a great lecher, and he used to throw big geisha parties at his house for himself and his friends. Our informants report that he still sends for one of the more expensive ones now and then. But the Japanese tycoons don't mix business with that sort of pleasure so much in these days.'

‘How do you mean?'

‘In the old days all big business was transacted at geisha parties. Each man had his favourite girl and the
host used to be expected to invite her. Over the meal, while the girls waited on them, they talked stocks and shares, contracts and mergers. Afterwards they relaxed, the girls danced and sang for them, and the party ended as one might expect. But now all big business is done on the golf courses. The Japanese have gone mad on golf. It may surprise you to know that the entrance fee to the crack golf club in Tokyo is six hundred pounds sterling.'

‘It certainly does.'

Walking over to a trolley in a corner of the room, Tilly Sang mixed herself a stiff whisky-and-soda, then told Julian to help himself if he would like one. When he had done so they sat down and proceeded to hash matters over for the best part of an hour. He continued to insist that she could not possibly just let matters slide; while she, although obviously desperately concerned about Merri, maintained that if she herself went to Kyoto her life would not be worth an hour's purchase.

By one o'clock in the morning they had got no further; so, telling her that he would come to discuss the matter with her again in the morning, he prepared to take his departure. As she accompanied him through the hall to let him out, his glance happened to fall on the magnificent life-sized gilded bronze figure of the goddess Kuan-yin. Pausing in front of it, he said:

‘One moment. I have an idea. You say this man is so rich that he wouldn't listen to the offer of a money ransom. But if collecting Chinese antiques is his passion this might tempt him.'

Tilly Sang shook her head and said despondently, ‘I don't think it would. I've certainly never seen a finer. But it's me he wants to … to eliminate.'

‘Yes, I appreciate that.' Julian turned and looked at her. ‘But why? Because over the years you have become the leading expert on the methods used to smuggle dope from Japan into Hong Kong. Because your activities
have cost him a lot of money. Perhaps even because he thinks that you have now become a menace to him personally. But from what you've told me I judge him too old a hand at the game to fear seriously that you'll catch him out; so I doubt the last. If so it boils down to this being a plot he has hatched to save himself from further loss of revenue. But when men become very rich many of them place other desires before that of simply making more money. They begin to crave for honours, estates and big houses in which they can entertain, political influence or possessions of which they can be proud. It is at least possible that to own your Kuan-yin this dope king would be willing to go on losing a certain amount of money and return Merri to you.'

Again Tilly Sang shook her head. ‘I doubt it. Really, I think it's most unlikely.'

‘Anyway, it's worth trying,' Julian urged her. ‘Do you happen to have a photograph of it?'

‘Yes. A few years ago I had photographs taken of all the best pieces in the house, and a book made up of them.'

‘Good. We could have had a photograph taken tomorrow, but this will save us a day; and we've got seven days to work in. There is at least one air service to Japan every day, if not two. If it's posted tonight it should be in Kyoto within twenty-four hours. With luck we'd get a reply by Wednesday. And if he turns down the offer that will still leave you three clear days in which to make up your mind to go there yourself under police protection.'

Obviously she had little faith in his idea, but he had judged rightly that she would clutch at any straw to avoid, for the time being, agreeing to go to Japan. Returning to the drawing room, she produced an album from the drawer of a bureau and tore out the page with the photograph of the Kuan-yin, below which was typed a description of the figure. As she did so, Julian said:

‘Now write him a covering letter making the offer, then we'll pack the photograph up and I'll take it with
me. The airport at Kai Tak is certain to be open all night. When I get back to the hotel I'll make the night porter rouse out a driver and a car for me and take it over to Kowloon myself. Then we'll be sure of getting it on the first plane leaving for Japan in the morning.'

‘No,' she replied. ‘The letter is going to be a very tricky one to write. I may have to make several drafts before I'm satisfied that I've put things in the most likely way to excite his cupidity. I may even offer, if he'll do a deal, to resign from my job with the Narcotics Advisory Committee as an extra inducement. But I'll have to think about that. You go back to your hotel now. When I've written the letter I'll get my car out and take it to the airport myself.'