Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [61]
Mann felt his breathing slow. He held his breath deep inside his lungs, took it right inside his diaphragm. ‘Do it, Sheng. I’ve got nothing to hide. Mia wanted me to interview Michelle. Your interview techniques have been known to start with a hand up the suspect’s skirt. You’re a dirty bastard.’
‘If you don’t like the colleagues you work with then why don’t you fucking leave? You have your father’s money. You have your Triad family – fuck off. From now on you work on solving Rajini’s murder and following up on the Outcasts and only that, leave the rest to me. And, of course,’ he smiled smugly, ‘carry on doing what you seem to do best: ingratiate yourself with the top Triad brass. It’s a home from home for you.’ Sheng was inches from Mann’s face. He was frothing at the mouth.
Ng came up beside Mann and steered him away down the corridor towards Mia’s office.
‘Leave him. He will never change. Rotten wood cannot be carved. We have work to be done.’
Mia looked at him as they walked into her office. He could see by her face she was expecting him to go ballistic. He’d already decided he wasn’t going to. It didn’t stop him imploding though. He began to feel like his feet were in quicksand. He had the feeling Sheng wasn’t alone in his thoughts, he just didn’t hesitate to voice them.
Shrimp was the last one in, he closed the door behind him. Mia looked at him.
‘You okay with going undercover?’
Shrimp beamed. ‘Yes Boss. I need to choose my outfits carefully, grey suit, striped shirts, fancy glasses, jazzy tie. No, forget the tie, keep it young conservative.’
‘Don’t get carried away,’ said Ng. ‘The only reason you’re doing it and not me is that you sound like a Yank. Otherwise it would have been my operation. You know Mann can’t do it because he’s known in all the bars.’
‘I want you and Mann to head back to the Mansions now,’ Mia said. ‘Get as much information as you can before Sheng goes marching in there and all hope of solving this case marches out. Don’t let the rules stop you from asking questions about Max Kosmos. Ng will feed it back to the other team. Find that weapon.’
Chapter 42
Tom Sheng got back to his office and made a call to Mia. She was alone in her office.
‘I’m overruling Mann on Operation Schoolyard. I’m taking it away from him. We can’t trust his judgement any more. We can’t be sure his motives are what they should be. I’ve seen the new car in the car park. That’s a hell of a pay-off. He has obviously thrown himself into the task of infiltration wholeheartedly.’
Mia was fuming. ‘That’s utter bullshit and you know it. You don’t like Mann, you never have. You asked him to do his best to get inside CK’s head and that’s what he’s doing. You of all people should know you have to live it when you go undercover. You can’t tell me there weren’t moments in those two years you spent undercover when you didn’t know which way you felt any more.’
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end. ‘I earned my promotion, Mia. I did two years for the Wo Shing Shing. But I always knew why I was in there. I always knew what my objective was. I never got a brand new fucking Maserati.’
‘Then you lucked out, didn’t you, Tom? What do you want me to say? Poor fucking you? You’re jealous of Mann. You need to seriously take a look at yourself, Tom. I am beginning to wonder what I see in you.’ Mia heard the stony silence but he didn’t hang up.
‘All right, all right. I’m a bit jealous of Mann, I admit it. I know you had a thing with him once. I know you will always have a special friendship with him. It pisses me off, that’s all. Plus, you know, if I had his dough, you wouldn’t see me for fucking dust. Of course, that’s after I’d picked you up in my new Porsche and we’d driven off into the sunset.’
Mia couldn’t stay cross. ‘Just get a divorce – that will be better than a Porsche for me.’
Chapter 43
‘Thanks