The Mystery of Yamashita's Map (14 page)

‘The woman at the bar said she’d send him over. I said we wanted to offer him a job and she seemed to think he would go for that, if only to pay his bar tab here.’

Suddenly there was a deafening noise. The main show had started and a deep bass was coming crashing out of the speakers. The stage began to revolve, uneasily, and lights were flicked on. The professor and Fraser stared as a tall half-Asian, half-European girl with long black hair sauntered out to the middle of the stage and started to dance erotically by the pole.

‘I think perhaps we might go easy on him when we see him,’ she said, but got no response. ‘I thought perhaps I’d better try it with him first, he might respond better to a woman, he might not feel so . . . hello, is either of you two listening to me anymore?’

The professor and Fraser stared open mouthed at the girl on the stage, who could contort her small frame in ways that they hardly thought were possible. Every now and then the professor would blot his forehead with his tie and his eyes opened wide as they tried to gain every last piece of information they could about this beautiful thing. His face was contorted into an idiotic smile that seemed to make him seem about four years old again. She sighed to herself and took a sip of her drink. Then, noticing that the man in white was still watching her, she lowered her head and studied the enormously interesting marks that had been left by a thousand cocktail glasses in the varnish of the table.

After the show, the girl glided from the stage and mingled with the audience, displaying all the sexual allure of a cat. Her eyes darted around the club for someone but no matter how far they searched they always came up blank. She lazily brushed a hand over a businessman’s shoulder and made him sit bolt upright in his chair as if electricity had passed through him; she dangled a lock of hair in the face of a foreign sailor who seemed to smell in it a thousand lusty nights in port. She wiggled her hips at a group of young Japanese youths at the bar and they nudged each other and nodded in her direction but they were all just boys to her and they were sent spinning into the distance by her lackadaisical smile.

The air was thick with cigarette smoke and sweat and the floor was sticky with spilt booze. Lisa got up out of her seat and made to go to the bar before Fraser tugged at her arm.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

‘To get a drink.’

He pushed her back in her seat. ‘I think I’d better go, don’t you?’ he said, and stood up himself.

Lisa crossed her legs in a manner that suggested she was not happy. She liked to be taken care of as much as anyone but she was up to ordering a drink, even here.

Fraser’s gallant actions were welcome at certain times, in certain situations, but when they became de rigueur she felt awkward and uncomfortable, as if she were expected to reciprocate in some way.

The professor had been watching her and as she turned to face him he smiled.

‘You could do worse,’ he said, sensing the moment. Lisa wrinkled her nose and then looked across the bar at Fraser, shoving his way through the crowd in a manly way. She could do worse, she said to herself . . . but she could also do better.

Suddenly her thoughts were broken by a commotion at the bar. A man, small but muscular, was being manhandled by three men in black suits. The small man struggled for all he was worth. He looked quite comical pitting his might against the three hulking brutes who flanked him. He flailed his arms about and kicked in the air, all to very little avail, until Lisa noticed the barman lean over and whisper into his ear. The little man stopped and shrugged off his guards. He dusted himself down, straightened his white cap and ordered a drink from the bar.

To her horror, the small man strolled over to her table. She could see now he was in his thirties. His hair was jet black and hung down beneath his white cap, which had some sort of insignia on it. It was dark so she could not see but she assumed it was a military badge, even though it did not look like a uniform cap. He wore a pair of baggy white trousers and blue deck shoes, with a striped blue and white T-shirt that even in the half light of the club looked as though it been slept in for weeks and never washed.

The man stood for a moment, saying nothing. Lisa thought she could smell fish as he stood there but put it down to the smoky air of the club and the fact that she had been drinking strong liquor. He placed his glass down on the table.

‘You the one looking for me?’ he said.

Lisa had dealt with these situations before; she knew how to handle them.

‘Perhaps, depends on who you are.’

The man was cagey. He did it as if he had something to hide, perhaps lots of things. ‘Well, that would depend on who you are.’

Lisa smiled. ‘I’m no one special.’

The man looked her over. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ he said. ‘You look pretty special from where I’m standing.’

Lisa felt herself blush and cursed herself for it. The man held out his hand. ‘Joe Hutchins. They said at the bar that you might want to see me.’

‘Lisa Okada,’ Lisa said. ‘And this is my uncle, Professor Okada.’

Joe lifted Lisa’s hand and kissed it gently. ‘Pleased to meet you, Lisa,’ he said, and looked deeply into her eyes. ‘Professor,’ he added, without looking.

There was a cough behind. Joe spun round and sent the tray of drinks that Fraser was holding flying into the air. Joe and Fraser squared up to each although it was obvious that this was a new experience for both of them. Lisa sighed, introduced Fraser and the two men warily relaxed.

‘So,’ Lisa added. ‘Sit here and I’ll tell you what my plan is. Fraser, go and get another round, would you?’

This time she relished being able to order him about. Fraser disconcertedly turned and headed towards the bar again.

‘We have a proposition,’ Lisa began. ‘It’s totally legal, it’s totally above board, there’s nothing to it. It’s just a flight, that’s all.’

Joe looked wary. He had been in these situations before and they never led to anywhere nice, although this pretty girl who looked as though she might be more at home in a classroom than a strip joint was an authentic touch. He tapped his arm absentmindedly. ‘Where to?’ he asked.

‘The Philippines.’

‘OK, so what’s the deal?’

‘Well, we’ll tell you that when you agree.’

‘Who says I will?’

‘Well, when you know what you will be paid.’

‘OK, what’s the money?’

Lisa stopped for a minute and looked around her. ‘A tenth of what we find,’ she said.

Joe laughed. ‘Right! A tenth of what?’

‘A tenth of everything we’re going to get.’

‘And what’s that?’

Lisa realised the paradox she had landed herself in. ‘Er . . . I can’t tell you unless you agree.’

Joe sat back in his seat and sipped his drink. ‘So, you want me to agree to something before I know what it is, for a tenth share of whatever it is I’m agreeing to.’

Lisa thought. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Well, have a good night,’ Joe said and stood up. ‘Wait . . .’ Lisa implored. ‘You can trust us.’

Joe smiled. ‘Look . . . Lisa? It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I have things here, things keeping me around. Women, deals, commitments, that sort of thing. I can’t just up sticks and leave when I want. Otherwise, believe me, I would have gone by now.’

Joe looked up and winked at an attractive blonde by the bar. Lisa noticed and felt a tinge of jealousy.

‘You see,’ Joe said, ‘There are things keeping me here, things I can’t let go of. Good luck though, finding a pilot. You’ll need it around here.’

He pushed the peak of his cap up high on his head with a finger and sauntered off, leaving Lisa feeling dejected and rejected. The professor patted her arm.

‘There’ll be others,’ he said. ‘There are others.’

At the bar, Joe walked up to the blonde. He ordered another drink and started small talk. ‘You didn’t think I’d be back, did you?’

The blonde looked at him. ‘You been here before then?’

‘Nice, it’s always good to be flattered.’

‘Sorry but there’s a lot of faces in this business.’

‘Yeah, I guess. Say, you haven’t seen a girl called Gem around?’

‘Gem? No, can’t say I remember. Like I said, I’m no good with faces.’

‘You sure you haven’t seen her? She worked in here.’

‘What do you want her for?’

‘Oh, you know, just want to talk.’

‘How much she steal?’

‘Five hundred.’

‘That’s small fry, you got off lightly.’

‘Well, I’d still like to talk.’

The blonde girl sucked air in through her teeth. ‘There’s a few like you about.’

As if the world had stopped moving for a second, as if it had spun off of its axis and fallen into space, as if the moon had crashed into the earth, as if the oceans had suddenly decided to rise up and challenge the land, Joe felt his head being knocked from his shoulders. The first thing he knew was the sound – it was the sound of someone very near to him being punched, then the pain in the side of his face told him that it was him. Suddenly his teeth moved independently of each other – each one desperately trying to cling on to his gums like thirty-two white and shiny sailors hanging onto a raft. The second thing he felt was his brain hit the side of his skull. It knocked all thoughts out of his ears; minor reminiscences, childhood memories, worries, bits of conversation half remembered and half-forgotten squirmed about on the carpet eager to get back to where they belonged.

When his eyes had stopped spinning like a roulette wheel Joe turned and saw the faces of the two thugs who had been following him for the past week.

‘Don’t you guys ever give up?’ he said rubbing his jaw and feeling about for his nose.

‘We need a talk,’ the smaller man said.

Joe thought quickly. ‘Well, I’d love to but, I am really busy with this lovely lady for a moment, perhaps we could . . .’

There was a bang and Joe saw that the girl had fallen from the stool and lay on the floor in agony, a bullet in her arm. Her tears were low and visceral like the dying voice of a beast as it waits to be put out of its misery.

‘You seem to be free now,’ the man said, holding the still smoking pistol.

Joe swallowed hard, then threw his whiskey squarely into the eyes of the man with the gun, who recoiled in pain, letting fly a volley of bullets into the club. There was a commotion as girls and punters ran and ducked for cover. Joe grabbed one of the bar stools and lifted it above his head before bringing it down smartly on the back of the other thug who merely stood stock still. Joe jumped up on the bar and ran its entire length being shot at all the time. As he ducked the bullets missed him and hit bottles and glasses and customers about him.

He jumped down to where Lisa sat and screamed, ‘You know that flight to the Philippines? Well, perhaps I would be interested after all. Do you wanna meet by the docks at twelve tomorrow night? You mind if I go now, I’m er, rather busy.’

Lisa nodded and jumped as a bullet flew near to her face and entered the wall behind her. Joe jumped over the table and ran along the outskirts of the dance floor. He spun around the pole in the middle of the stage and exited out of the back, making his way through the crowds of half-naked girls getting ready to dance.

By the time the hoods had followed him he was out of the door and away into the Hong Kong night.
 

Chapter Eight

The street vendors and food sellers had packed up now and the only sound that could be heard was the lapping of the waves on the sides of the boats that gently bobbed up and down in the water. Lisa wandered along the dock. She had persuaded Fraser and her uncle not to come – not because she had something to hide or that she didn’t want their company but because she wanted to do this on her own. She wanted to contribute to this whole plan without having to answer to either of the two men. She casually picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it into the harbour. It made no sound.

Around her, occasionally, people chatted and walked. The docks were a strange place for a girl to be on her own at night but she knew them well and was not afraid, even when drunkards would push their way up to her and breathe nasty boozy propositions in her face. She just leaned back, waved them on and did not look back.