Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [64]
‘Does he try it on with your sister?’ asked Shrimp.
Ali looked shocked at the suggestion. ‘If he did I would kill him. And look, I’d like to help about the girl Rajini but I don’t know most of the Indians living here. We tend to stick to our own kind.’
‘The caste system?’
Ali shrugged. ‘In a small way. No one wants to admit it but there’s no way I would marry someone from a lower class than my own. It just isn’t an option.’
Mann and Shrimp left Ali in his office and waited for the lift.
‘What do you make of him, Shrimp?’
‘Fly boy. Likes his wealth on display. He’s a nice enough guy but he’s streetwise rather than clever. He thinks he’s being clever, telling us stuff he hopes will steer us away from his brothers. He’s protecting his family.’
‘Exactly.’ Mann gave Shrimp a sideways glance and a grin. ‘His sister Nina likes you, Shrimp. I think you should come back tomorrow, follow up some leads.’
‘Her family won’t like that.’ Shrimp gave an embarrassed smile. ‘Did you hear the way her brother talks? I reckon a Chinese guy would rank among the untouchables, don’t you?’
Mann slapped him on the back. ‘Yeah, but your mission is to boldly go where no man has gone before.’
Mann took out the hair ornament that Flo had given him. Her pewter and white hair was woven into a tight clasp. Helen’s image flashed into his head. It took his breath away. Mann saw her twisting at the end of a rope, a black hood over her head.
‘You all right, Boss?’ Shrimp was staring at Mann.
Her body covered in blood. He saw the hand raised to whip her.
Mann rubbed his face with his hands as if trying to erase the images in his head. ‘Yes. I’m all right, Shrimp. I just want to focus on work. Let’s go and find Rizal.’
Chapter 44
Mann and Shrimp walked back down to the ground floor where the Mansions’ arcades fanned out and ran parallel to the main hub. Around them was a dilapidated row of backpacker suppliers. They found Rizal playing dice amongst the knocked-off North Face backpacks. A young Filipina with bad skin and heavy features was sat on Rizal’s lap, her arm around his neck; she had on shorts and a top that pushed her small breasts into a cleavage. They stopped playing dice and looked up as Mann and Shrimp approached. The girl kept her eyes on Mann whilst nuzzling at Rizal’s ear.
Rizal was playing dice with two other Filipinos, one slick, expensive-looking glasses perched on his head, black trousers, shirt open to his waist, he looked like a musician from one of the many Filipino bands in Hong Kong. The other one was slobby with a badly stained, shiny red shirt, a manual worker, tough, strong.
Rizal looked them up and down. He recognized what they were straight away. ‘The food is finished, sold out. Come back tomorrow.’ Then he turned to the others and grinned as he spoke under his breath in Filipino. The other two men laughed.
Mann grinned back. ‘That’s okay. We’ll wait.’ Mann indicated that Shrimp should pull up a spare stool. There was only one. Shrimp dragged it over and sat next to Slick.
‘Wait for what?’ Rizal rolled his eyes at his friends and raised his voice an octave. ‘Huh? Wait for what? The Food Is Finished,’ he said as if they might not understand English.
Mann pulled a stool out from under Slick. Slick fell on the floor, jumped to his feet and went to retaliate. Shrimp reached out to stop him.
‘You were ready to leave, weren’t you? We mean no harm, we come in peace.’ He nodded gravely and then grinned. ‘Now fuck off.’
Mann resisted the urge to smile. He had seen Shrimp change over the years, grow to be a man. He had seen him come off the worse in some fights, and seen him pull it out of the bag. Now he was seeing him act as a hard man when inside he was still a little boy learning about life, boundaries, the universe. The older guy in the red shirt was still watching the scene unfold. Mann saw the knife in his belt. The girl