Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [119]
“Perhaps Kaylin was involved with Lu?”
“No. Lu is one hundred percent gay. But maybe a bi-lover, who knows? Even here, or maybe particularly here, these things flourish and it is a very closed, underground society. The male escorts are flouting the law. Getting caught is not a good option. They all know each other. Someone like Kaylin who, judging from what you said, swings both ways and is as hungry as she appears to be, would no doubt be very well known in those circles.”
So much was clearer. It didn’t matter now; what had happened had happened. All we had to do was bring things to a close. We concentrated back on our food, for the moment at least. Sitting there in his makeup and garb, Sami looking as though he was in his eighties. He concentrated on working on a fish head. I’ve eaten them often, but they have never been quite the same delicacy for me that they are for many Asians. I had settled for a simple pork curry washed down with a Tiger beer. I had a bigger thing for pork now than I ever had. I stabbed at a piece of the tender meat and Sami and I sat chewing our respective meals in thoughtful silence for several minutes. Sami finally spoke.
“Sex worked both ways,” he suddenly said around a mouthful of food. “When I knew Lu had his damned foot in the Intella door, I decided to use his homosexuality to get an advantage. I found Michael through a gay friend. Michael joined the same agency that Lu obtains his treats from at my instigation, and through the agent, I manipulated things. Michael soon became Lu’s favourite and eventually his live-in lover. However, Lu has a prodigious libido, according to Michael, and often he would invite another boy or two from the agency to join them in a romp. So perhaps Kaylin was a member of the same agency or a client of the agency. Not that it matters damn now.”
“I guess.” I took a swig of my beer. “I imagine, and I’m not joking here, that the playmates get to know each other pretty well, and not in the obvious sense. They talk and gossip and connections other than the carnal ones are made.”
“Just like in real life,” Sami agreed. “Anyway, traitor identified; we have solved one problem and I have the solution to the other.”
“When do we go?”
“Saturday night.”
I did a mental check. It was Thursday. One full day to kill and then we could pay Mr Thomas Lu a visit. I decided to play devil’s advocate, a role that comes naturally to me.
“He has a not-so-small army covering his place. How do we— and I presume we’re talking you, me and probably K—get through them to Lu?”
“We don’t go through them,” Sami replied, chuckling. Given that it was in his old man voice, it sounded more like a cackle. He stood, leaving me sitting alone at a table covered in fish bones. “Thank you for inviting an old man to share a meal with you,” he said in Mandarin.
“My pleasure, Uncle,” I replied in the same tongue. Several of the old people sitting at a table next to ours looked at me with something approaching respect or puzzlement that I, an Anglo, spoke their old language so fluently.
I finished my beer as I watched Sami slowly wander off. He really was a most accomplished actor. As for my acting abilities? I guess as some director said of Clint Eastwood in his cowboy days: “He has two expressions, hat on and hat off.” That’s me. I’ve either got my scare face on or I haven’t. There’s not a lot in between, apart from my amnesiac episode, I guess.
I stood and made my way back out onto Smith Street and turned down New Bridge Road. I needed a walk. It had been a crazy day and it wasn’t over yet.
Thomas Lu was confused and more than a little concerned. He had well-paid people in a great many places. The name David Crewe pointed to an expatriate Australian living in Hong Kong. He was a businessman, import-export, involved with security systems. The company existed. Something, however, didn’t sit right for Lu. From what the housekeeper had said, this man did not appear to be a harmless businessman.