She walked into the Hooters Hotel lobby and took in the plain tile floors, the dim overhead lighting, and the small sitting area facing a long wooden reception desk. A small, plump woman with a Spanish accent greeted her warmly.
Ava showed her Jennie Kwong’s credit card and driver’s licence and was given a room in the Oceanview Tower. “There’s no ocean, of course,” the woman told her, “but you do have a view of the pool.”
When Ava opened the door to her room, Wynn’s felt a world away. There was nothing sedate or neutral about Hooters. The bedspread was a print of giant green and orange palm leaves, and the lamps had matching tangerine shades. The furniture was woven rattan, and near the window was a small round table and two stools upholstered in orange vinyl fabric. Ava went to the window and pulled open the orange drapes. A sharp pain shot down her side. She stood looking out the window, waiting for the throbbing to subside. The MGM Grand dominated the view; she carefully closed the curtains to block out the green glare that emanated from the hotel and casino. Then she took two Tylenol, taped her ribs, and went down the hall to fill the ice bucket. When she got back to the room, she filled a towel with ice and lay on the bed, pressing it against her side.
David Douglas hadn’t reacted as well as she had hoped, but neither had his lack of cooperation really shocked her. She hadn’t expected the goons, though. They had been a bit of a surprise. That was no excuse for not handling them better, she told herself, but even if she had taken them out, she didn’t see how that would have helped her get closer to Douglas. So now what to do? Ava thought.
There were three obvious options, none of them particularly appealing. She could go to The River’s office and broach the subject with Ashton. But he would have to agree to see her, and she knew there wasn’t much chance of that, given how his partner had reacted. And given that there were office staff and other tenants, she’d have police or security all over her in no time if she tried to force her way in.
Ashton’s condo was the next choice, and if anything that was less appealing than the office. Not only were there twenty-four-hour guards, but it was also likely there was a security camera at the front entrance. That left Douglas’s home as her best bet — it was the most isolated of the three. She just had to find a way into the complex and then into the house.
It was time to make some phone calls.
“ Wei.”
“Uncle, it’s Ava.”
“How are things?”
“Not so bad.”
“Progress?”
She didn’t try to soft-pedal it. “I want you to send Carlo and Andy.”
Uncle fell silent. She knew she had upset him. “You said not so bad.”
“There are still challenges.”
He paused. “I am not sure that they are in Hong Kong.”
“Do you have them working on a job?”
“No.”
“Then they’re probably in Hong Kong. Could you get them on a plane today? They can land in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, it doesn’t matter — every major city connects with Las Vegas.”
“Are you sure?”
“A couple of things,” Ava said, ignoring his question. “Please make sure they wear turtleneck sweaters or shirts with long sleeves. I don’t want their tattoos to attract attention. And tell them not to try to bring any of their gadgets with them. I don’t want either of them stopped at U.S. Customs or Immigration for a baggage check. Tell them that whatever they need, I’ll get it for them here.”
“You are sure you want them?” he repeated.
“I want you to email me their schedules. Give them my cellphone number so they can call me when they’ve landed in the U.S. and have been cleared. Tell them not to call when they’re still in the arrivals hall — it’s a red flag. Book them a room at the Hooters Casino Hotel, and please make sure they have their itinerary with them in case they’re stopped. They’re coming to Las Vegas to gamble; that’s the story. Get them a return flight for a week later. If we finish sooner I’ll put them on an earlier flight out.”
“Ava, I do not like this.”
“Uncle, it’s either them or Derek, and I think this job is better suited to their talents. But if you don’t want them to come, I’ll call Derek and have him here tomorrow.”
“You are so stubborn.”
“You taught me well.”
“What about the money?”
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think I had a shot at it.”
“I will send them.”
“Thank you, Uncle. I have some calls to make here, but when I’m done I may have to impose on you again, so please keep your cellphone on.”
She closed her phone and reached over to the bedside table, trying to ignore the pain. She opened the drawer to look for a phonebook but found only a Gideon’s Bible. Las Vegas — Hooters — Gideon’s Bible; she tried to understand the connection but failed. She climbed off the bed and walked over to the bureau, holding the ice-filled towel against her hip. There were both White and Yellow Pages in the top drawer.
She took out the Yellow Pages and found listings for at least fifty private detective agencies. She looked for ones that promised twenty-four-hour service and began calling them alphabetically. On her fourth try she got a live human. After she had explained what she wanted and how quickly she wanted it, she was told it would take two hours and cost two hundred dollars. She put the charge on Jennie Kwong’s Visa card and promised a one-hundred-dollar bonus if it could be done inside an hour.
Then she waited, watching television and wondering how this was all going to play out.
The agency called back in forty-five minutes. She authorized the hundred-dollar bonus and then called Hong Kong.
“Uncle, do you have a pen?”
“I will turn on my recording device.”
“Even better,” she said, and read the list of names she had got from the detective agency, along with the supporting documentation.
“They are all Chinese,” he said.
“Yes, they live in a complex called The Oasis. I need you to find out if we’re connected to any of them, either directly or through friends. If we are, then I need to know if I can count on one of them to help me. It would be a favour, of course. And it isn’t dangerous, I promise you that.”
“I will do what I can.”
She knew that finding an ally inside The Oasis was a long shot, but the long reach of Uncle’s network had never failed to surprise her.
Next Ava flipped through the Yellow Pages to the guns section. She picked a supplier with a half-page ad. The store was located on the Strip closer to downtown Vegas and was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Shopping made easy.
She called Au and got his voicemail. “This is Jennie. I’d appreciate it if you could pick me up at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. If I don’t hear from you I’ll assume you’ll be here.”
Then she sat back on the bed and closed her eyes. She wanted to sleep, but between her aches and her racing mind she knew slumber would come slowly and with some difficulty. She tried to force other thoughts into her head. Often she found visualizing bak mei moves soothing, so she began to picture herself as a leopard. Then Derek intruded.
About a month before, she had walked from her condo to the house where her bak mei instructor, Grandmaster Tang, lived and taught several disciplines of martial arts. The building had no sign, and she was quite sure he was operating without a licence, but no one doing serious martial arts in Toronto didn’t know who he was or where to find him. Tang had only two bak mei students, Ava and Derek, and their sessions were always, as was the tradition, one on one.
She remembered that the day had been overcast, with a sluggish, damp wind. She wrapped a scarf tightly around her neck, took a toque from her pocket and jammed it over her head, and walked as fast as she could through the cold air. It was almost noon. The gym was theoretically open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., but she rarely made an appointment and always went during off-hours.
There was a large window at the front of the building, and as Ava drew near, her eyes tearing from the wind, she saw that someone else was already inside. She was cursing her luck and about to head home when she recognized the student — Derek. Grandmaster Tang was strict in enforcing his one-on-one code, so Ava felt a touch of guilt at watching her friend. He stood in the low traditional stance, his hands soft and floating. She marvelled at how graceful he was. Then she saw his waist torque, and with a twist of his hips his right fist shot forward. It travelled not much farther than six inches, but it could well have been the most deadly six inches in all of the martial arts.
Bak mei was meant to be fought at close range. Its practitioners never made the first move, but with precise footwork and perfect timing they were always positioned to respond to any attack. Ava had just watched Derek perform the phoenix-eye fist, the trademark strike of bak mei. The knuckle of the index finger of his right hand was extended from a fist, and the entire force of the punch — all the power that could be generated by timing, footwork, and back, chest, and shoulder muscles — was focused in that single knuckle. It could be driven into the target’s most sensitive body parts: nose, eyes, ears, the temple and the sternum, where nerve endings gathered. It had taken years of practice for Ava to perfect her phoenix-eye fist. Derek, she saw, was at least her equal.
As she lay on her bed in the Hooters Hotel, she pictured him in her mind’s eye, his floating hands beginning to lull her to sleep. She was somewhere between consciousness and the dream world when her phone rang.
“Yes,” she said.
“Ava, we had no luck,” Uncle said. “Two of them are Taiwanese and have been in the United States for at least twenty years. The other two are American born, one of Malaysian origin, the other from Hong Kong. We tried to find out if any of them had even a cousin we could talk to, but we came up empty.”
“Thank you, Uncle. I’m sorry for putting you through all that trouble,” she said. “I knew it was not very likely.”
“Is it a problem?”
“Not yet.”
“Carlo and Andy?”
“I’d still like you to send them.”
“They leave in an hour for Los Angeles. They will be in Las Vegas tomorrow night around ten.”
“Could you have someone email me the flight schedule? I’ll meet them at the airport myself,” she said before hanging up.
She checked the time — just past midnight. I hope Martin Littlefeather’s a night owl, she thought.
He answered on the fifth ring, his voice sleepy and hesitant.
“Martin, this is Ava Lee. I’m really sorry for calling so late.”
“That’s okay,” he said, without any conviction.
“Are you still in Victoria?”
“Yes, and you’re in Las Vegas?”
“I am.”
“Did you have any luck with Douglas or Ashton?”
“No, not yet, and that’s why I’m calling. I need your help.”
“Me? How?”
“I need you to fly to Las Vegas, preferably tomorrow.”
“That’s a strange request.”
“There’s something I need you to do for me here.”
“Ava, I just can’t up and leave Chief Francis at such short notice. We have meetings scheduled here tomorrow.”
“What I want you to do is probably more important than any meeting you have planned.”
“And if the Chief doesn’t agree?”
“Don’t tell him.”
“Ava, you’re crazy. You don’t know him — he’ll kill me.”
“He made you responsible for communicating with me.”
“But he didn’t authorize me to make that kind of decision.”
“Then I’ll talk to him.”
“I think you’ll have to.”
“Where is he?”
“In his room.”
“Do me a favour: go to his room and call me from there. We can talk on speaker phone so there’s no misunderstanding.”
“It’s past midnight.”
“Martin, believe me, he won’t care about the time after we’ve finished.”
“Okay, I’ll do what I can.”
Five minutes came and went. Ava was beginning to worry when her phone rang.
“Ms. Lee,” Chief Francis said, “I can’t say I’m happy to hear from you. I thought we had agreed we’d seen the last of each other.”
“And I’m not happy I had to call, but unfortunately things have gone a bit off track.”
“What do you want that is so urgent?”
“I want Martin — or you, if you think that’s better — to call David Douglas and arrange a meeting for the day after tomorrow. Tell him you don’t want to be seen at their offices or anywhere in public. Ask if you can meet at his house.”
“Under what pretence?”
“Chief, this company has potentially used the band to commit major fraud. They’ve put everything you’ve been working to accomplish at risk. That’s why you or Martin wants to talk with them. A phone call from some techie won’t cut it — or any phone call, for that matter. You want a face-to-face meeting with Douglas and Ashton. Tell them some nosy Chinese girl has been poking around, asking questions, stirring up trouble. You need their assurance that there’s nothing to it.”
Francis muttered something to Martin. She was sure it wasn’t complimentary. “And if they agree to a meeting?”
“Then I want you to send Martin to Las Vegas to represent you.”
“This is a very long way from never hearing from you again.” She heard him sigh. “Okay, now we have Martin in Las Vegas for a meeting. How does this help you?”
“I’ll go to the meeting with him.”
“How will he explain your presence?”
“He won’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“They won’t see me until it’s too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“To cancel the meeting.”
“Why would they cancel a meeting with Martin?”
“He won’t be at it. I’ll handle the meeting myself.”
“This is ridiculous,” Francis said.
“No, I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous,” she said. “Two weeks ago, one of The River’s clients — one of your clients, by proxy — went to them with the documentation I gave you. Two days later they blew up his car and told him to stay away from your people. Another client made a phone call to them. They broke into his apartment, trashed it, and left a threatening note. A third client — the one whose interests I represent — is lying in a Vancouver hospital close to death after jumping off the roof of his house out of sheer desperation.
“About ten hours ago I had a very polite one-minute chat with David Douglas. Six hours ago I was attacked by two men who threw me to the ground and kicked me hard in the ribs. Thirty minutes after that I was handed a note from David Douglas saying that they were his men and there was more of the same in store for me if I kept asking questions. Now, all of that is really ridiculous.”
The line went quiet.
“Ava, is all this really true?” Martin asked finally.
“No, Martin, I’m making it up,” she said, more harshly than she intended.
“Who else have you told about this?” Francis asked.
“No one. If I told my people in Hong Kong, all hell would break loose. I’m trying to keep the situation contained because I honestly believe that if I can get face to face with Douglas and Ashton I can resolve this matter in a discreet way.”
“You’ve tried that. What would make it different this time?” Francis said.
“They’ll listen to me.”
“What if those two men are there?” Martin interrupted.
“I’m going to bring two of my own as a precaution.”
“Jesus Christ, I think this is getting out of control,” Francis said. “You’re talking about some potential for violence here.”
Ava shifted on the bed, trying to relieve the pain in her ribs. “You know, Chief, when I read about you in the early days, it seemed that things didn’t always go smoothly or peacefully. One newspaper even wrote that the Thousand Islands should be renamed the Wild East. And I read a quote from you that said the occasional run-in with the law was regrettable but the Mohneida were more concerned about the greater good. So please don’t talk to me about potential for violence. I’m sitting here on a bed with taped ribs and an icepack on my hip, and the only reason I’m not in the hospital is because a kick that was aimed at my head didn’t hit square on. And just to be clear, my objective here isn’t revenge. All I want is to get back the money that was stolen from my clients. That is my greater good, Chief Francis.”
She could hear Martin speaking in the background but couldn’t make out his words.
“Ms. Lee, just who the hell are you?” Chief Francis said.
“I’m an accountant.”
“And where would you get two thugs? Accounting school?”
“The firm I work for in Hong Kong has a diverse portfolio.”
“Ava,” Martin interjected, “if I can arrange a meeting with Douglas and Ashton, how do you expect me to bring you and the two other whatever-you-might-call-them?”
“Martin, I promise you, if you can get a meeting booked I’ll find a way to get me and my associates into that house without causing any fuss.”
“And assuming you get in, then what?” Francis asked. “Civil war?”
“No, sir. I will persuade them that it is in their best interest to return the money and to keep the Mohneida’s and my client’s names out of any scandal.”
“And if you don’t?” Francis said.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The way I see it, the status quo isn’t tenable. If I can’t get to Douglas, my clients will lose all patience with him and The River and I’ll probably be fired… And I won’t be responsible for whatever happens after I leave.”
“You’re threatening me again,” Francis said.
“No, sir, I’m not, and I’m sorry if it sounded like that. I’m just being completely practical.”
“Are you certain you can persuade Douglas and Ashton?” Martin interjected.
“That’s my job. And I don’t fail very often.”
“Chief, I think it’s worth a try,” Martin said.
A heavy silence set in; Ava guessed they had put the phone on mute. Let them talk, she thought. The more they talk, the better my chances.
“When do you want Martin in Las Vegas?” Francis asked as the line came alive again.
“Tomorrow — I mean today. It’s already past midnight.”
“We’ll call Douglas now; I’m sure he’s still up. There isn’t any point in delaying, and besides, a late-night call might emphasize just how important I think it is that he schedule an immediate meeting with us.”
“I’d like both Ashton and Douglas at the meeting if possible.”
“I understand that.”
“You said us. Are you coming as well?” she asked.
“No, I’m an elder statesman now — my Wild East days are over. Martin can handle whatever you want done.”
She realized he hadn’t liked her reference to his smuggling days. “Chief Francis, I’m sorry if I caused offence earlier,” she said. “I just wanted you to understand how passionate I feel about my clients.”
“Ms. Lee, I think you’ve said enough. I’m going to make that phone call. If we get a meeting, Martin will be in Las Vegas tomorrow… Just make sure he gets back to me in one piece.”
(24)
After she hung up, Ava hobbled to the bathroom. The towel she had been using as an icepack was saturated and dripping all over the place. She got a fresh towel, filled it with ice from the bucket, and checked her watch. It was a bit too soon for more Tylenol, but she took two anyway.
Ava turned on her computer and logged in to her email account. Uncle’s travel agent had sent her Carlo and Andy’s complete itinerary. She scrolled through the balance of the messages, prioritizing as she did. There wasn’t much related to business; it was mainly personal missives.
Maria Gonzalez had written again and this time had attached a photo. Ava saw a beautiful young woman standing against a brick wall and staring directly into the camera, a tiny smile playing on her full lips. Her brown eyes looked happy, even teasing, and were framed by long, curly black hair. She was wearing shorts and a tank top that showed off her toned arms and full breasts. Mimi showed me some pictures of you, she wrote. I thought I would send you one of me. When do you think you’ll be returning to Toronto?
Ava knew she was going to call this girl when she got back. I don’t know when I’m coming back. Soon, I hope. I’ll be in touch, she wrote.
She sent the email and clicked back to her inbox, where she found a message from Marian. She hesitated before opening it, since complaints about their mother, her husband, or her kids were her sister’s usual content. For once, though, Ava was pleasantly surprised. Marian had written to say that she had phoned their father in Hong Kong to discuss his spring trip to Canada. It was a pre-emptive strike, she wrote. Marian had convinced him to book a two-week cruise in the eastern Caribbean — there would be no Las Vegas trip for their mother. She was very pleased with herself, and Ava was pleased for her.
Both Mimi and Derek had written several times, which wasn’t unusual. She was about to delve into their messages when her cellphone rang.
“We’re on,” Martin said. “One o’clock at Douglas’s house. He said Ashton should be there as well.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank Chief Francis. He was the one who made the call. Douglas gave him a rough time about meeting at the house. He wanted to meet at the office, but the Chief said that with all the rumours flying around, he didn’t want to be seen on their premises.”
“I’m very grateful. Please tell him that.”
“I will… Now, I can get into Vegas today around five o’clock. Does that work?”
“Which airline?”
“Air Canada from Vancouver.”
“I’ll meet you at the airport.”
“Okay.”
“You need to rent a car.”
“Okay.”
“A big car, a fancy car. Try to get something like a Mercedes S-Class.”
“I’ll do the best I can. How about a hotel?”
“I’m staying at Hooters, but you don’t have to.”
“Hooters?”
“It’s a long story.”
“What the hell, book me a room there as well.”