Singapore Sling Shot - Andrew Grant [86]
Later, spent in the extreme, we lay sprawled on the wrecked bed. I phoned reception and extended my booking indefinitely. All thoughts of returning to Hong Kong were banished, for the time being at least.
We ate an early room-service dinner and divided our evening between the bath with its spa jets and the bed. Her children were both staying with school friends—a treat for them, she said. Now that she had a guaranteed income and no need to work, Simone was relishing her new-found freedom. It was a tremendous evening, right up until my cellphone went.
A voice on the other end told me Thomas Lu had escaped.
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He somehow got the handcuff off the pipe. When his guard came to check on him, he was waiting. He’d found a length of metal bar. The guard’s brains are spread over the walls.”
“Shit!”
“Yes, Daniel. Shit indeed! I’ve moved the money again and cleaned up the warehouse. I’m making arrangements to shift Carlos’s balance to Shanghai. We have people looking for Lu, but I don’t know if we’ll find him in Singapore. I suspect he’ll have gone to KL or Bangkok for surgery. I have people checking. However, I doubt he’ll have travelled under his own name or passport.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I’m not sure there is anything you can do,” Sami replied, sounding almost dejected. “We’ll just have to wait for him to resurface.”
“Bugger!”
“Indeed, Daniel. I’ll call if I have anything new.”
“Okay!” I muttered almost absently as I flipped my phone shut. Should I head home as planned or stay and try and do what I could to help in the search for Thomas Lu? Sami had reasons for keeping Lu alive in the first place, I could understand that, but it ran against the grain with me.
It always had.
As a former sandbagger for Betty Windsor’s mob, I always made it a point of doing the business at the first opportunity, no shagging about. To delay could, as it had done in this instant, backfire big time.
“Everything okay?” Simone was asking. I shook my head, then I remembered that she wasn’t in the loop—she had no idea Thomas Lu had been held prisoner.
“Thomas Lu has apparently vanished,” I replied.
“Oh!” was all she said as she reached for me. Hong Kong could wait a day at least.
Thomas Lu was indeed in KL. The damage to his shoulder was severe. The surgeon needed to first treat him for infection and then do major reconstruction work. He told his patient that once the stitches were removed there would be the need for extensive physiotherapy. Lu was prepared for that. He was also prepared to wait in KL as long as it took for Carlos Mendez to depart for South America. Once Mendez was gone, Lu would then plan his return to Singapore and his revenge on Sami Somsak. In the meantime, wallowing in his post-operative drug high, he wanted company. He wanted his beautiful boy to come and sit by his bedside and comfort him. Thomas Lu made the call.
“He is in a private hospital in KL,” Sami said. It was morning. Simone and I were breakfasting in bed. My omelette was getting cold because Sami had my full attention.
“How the hell did you find that out so fast?”
“My insider,” Sami replied. I could feel the smile in his voice. “Several months ago I paid a young gay man, a male escort, a fortune to get close to Lu. He has done so. He is Lu’s lover.”
“Holy shit!” I muttered. My devious friend had done it again.
Sami laughed. “You know how I work, Daniel. Virtually every member of the Intella Island consortium has a mistress, or a male lover, or a confidant who is on my payroll. I’ve been planning Intella Island for more than three years and I selected my partners, even though they think otherwise. Lu is the only one I hadn’t invited to join. Unfortunately, the others did invite him. However, fortunately for us his sexual predilection, not to mention his excessive appetite, has made him the easiest to get someone close to.”
“Fortunately,” I replied dryly. I didn’t mention that lover boy hadn’t picked up a hint on what was about to happen to Stanley and his family.
“Daniel, it’s insurance. I want to know what those I deal with are thinking