Nury Vittachi - The Feng Shui Detective

‘No.’

She shook her head. ‘Too weird. So I guess I am a gangster’s moll in his eyes. Cool. Why did they stop and talk to you, anyway?’

‘They said there are twenty more flats left in block two, eight of which are on the fourth floor-fourth is always the last to sell in Hong Kong. If you calculate the number of people ahead of us, we look like being the last people to be able to buy a block-two flat which isn’t on the fourth floor. Apparently both the flats Wong picked out are still available: E and D on the fifth. Fifth floor isn’t very popular. It’s too low, and too close to the unlucky fourth. We’re in luck. Thank goodness we took the earliest bus.’

The shaven-headed man behind them groaned with disappointment after talking to the same young men.

‘He’s upset,’ Au-yeung translated, needlessly. ‘He’ll probably have to have something on the fourth, or go for the next block.’

‘I don’t feel sorry for him,’ said Joyce. ‘He’s been trying to push in and get in front of us ever since we got here. He’s got wandering eyes too. Wonder where C F is?’

They had to wait another ten minutes before Wong returned, arguing his way back to his companions with some difficulty. ‘Hard to get back,’ the geomancer said. ‘Thought I was trying to get in front. Went back to building site. Borrowed hard hat. Then I can walk anywhere.’

‘Pushing in is a capital offence in this sort of situation,’ said the businessman. ‘The British left an awful lot of good things, and a few bad ones, but the habit of orderly queuing is one of the best. Did you find out anything interesting?’

‘Yes,’ said Wong. ‘Very many things. Important things.’

He took out the brochure and opened it to the floor plan. ‘One. This plan is a bit wrong. A lot wrong. South should be here, not here.’

‘Oh dear. Does this change your recommendation?’

‘Yes. Very much change.’

Au-yeung, suddenly worried, leaned over to look at the map. ‘You better tell me fast, Wong. We’re nearly at the front of the queue. We’ve only got a few minutes before we have to decide.’

‘But listen first. There are some other strange things I found out too,’ said the old man. ‘The main gate, the entrance, when it is finished, will be here. Will face northeast. Big ornamental gate very nice. Back gate will be southeast.’

‘We knew that, though, didn’t we?’ said the businessman.

‘We knew the gate was here. But we did not know the direction. This means the name is wrong. But So told me that the feng shui master for this development was Pang Si-jek.’

‘Wait a minute. Who’s So?’ asked Joyce.

‘The workman. His brother lives in my village. But listen. Pang Si-jek was the feng shui master for this development, he says. I know him very well, before. He usually does not make mistakes with names.’

‘What’s wrong with the name?’

‘Northeast, the name should be Tiger. Tiger’s Gate Court, if it is an animal. If it is not a star animal, then any name is okay. But cannot use astrology animal and use wrong one. Dragon’s Gate Court is a southeast name. Where back gate is.’

‘Probably just carelessness,’ said Au-yeung. ‘I’m sure there’s nothing to be worried about.’

‘But Pang never makes such mistakes. Listen please. New foreman and new bosses and new workers arrived yesterday, he told me. To make place ready for sale today. So said there is something wrong. Usual foreman did not come to work. The workers, they call it Ma On Shan lot 2761. But they thought it was going to be named Blossom Garden. Until yesterday. The new foreman ordered the new name, Dragon’s Gate Court, to be put up last night. These signs, all new.’

‘That does sound a bit odd.’ The cheek muscle under Au-yeung’s left eye gave a worried twitch.

‘There’s something like weird going on here, right?’ said Joyce.

‘Have more news,’ said the geomancer. ‘The people you said were triads. Those men who came early, had argument. I found them. They were locked up in a how-you-say? Metal room? Portable room? Portaloo?’

‘Portacabin,’ said Joyce.

‘Yes. Portacabin on west side. I pretend to be worker. Got close. Speak to them through the window. I think they are not triads. They are too old, some of them. I think they are real owners. Bad men took their mobile phones.’

‘Real owners? What? What do you mean? What’s going on here? This is all too strange for me.’ Au-yeung got out his mobile phone, although there was no one obvious for him to call. It just seemed to be a nervous reaction. He started to put his phone away, and then got it out again. ‘ Mutyeh si? What’s happening? You’ve got me really confused, Wong.’

Joyce was trying to work it out. ‘You mean, like, these bad guys turn up last night and take over the site and give it a new name and try and sell it and stuff? But you can’t sell someone else’s building. I mean, didn’t the real owners object? They must have seen the ad.’

‘Usually they do not put addresses on the ad. Also the what-you-call-it? Artist impression? All artist impression look the same, I think.’

Au-yeung gasped: ‘What’s the idea here?’

‘They just want the deposit I think,’ said Wong. ‘How many people here? Much cash deposit.’

Au-yeung tried to speak but his voice was just a croak. His throat suddenly felt constricted. He coughed. ‘Erm. Ngoh mm ji. I don’t know. About 500, I reckon.’

‘The deposit is how much?’

‘One-point-five million Hong Kong dollars,’ said the businessman. ‘Five hundred times 1.5 million is, about, 750 million Hong Kong dollars.’

‘Wow,’ said Joyce. ‘That’s probably like a lot of money even in real money.’

‘One hundred million US dollar almost,’ said the geomancer.

‘Pretty good for one night’s work.’

‘Very good for one night’s work.’ Au-yeung was breathing deeply and quickly, like an asthmatic. He checked the handcuff holding his briefcase to his hand, and then hugged the bag to his chest. He was sweating. ‘We have to escape.’

By this time, the queue had moved on again and they were standing at the door of the main office. They saw a desk, surrounded by guards and men in dark suits.

‘Heavies,’ mumured Joyce. ‘Like in the movies.’

A man at a desk was greeting a buyer, taking a cheque from him, and ushering him to the next desk, where he was shown a map, a list of apartments, and handed some papers to sign.

Au-yeung, looking over the heads of the women in front, kept his terrified eyes firmly on the progress of the man’s cheque. It was slipped into an envelope and then taken to a third desk, where a man put it into a metal security box-a container that held a large stack of similar cheques, plus some thick wads of cash.

Wong was talking to the large shaven-headed man in the queue behind them.

‘I can see what’s happening,’ Au-yeung said to Joyce. ‘Look, they’re collecting all the cash and cashiers’ cheques in that box, and they’ll make a break for it before someone realises that they are selling someone else’s unfinished property development. What a scam. We have to get away.’

‘Will they let us leave? Do you think they’ll have guns?’ whispered Joyce, suddenly noticing the large number of unsmiling guards and staff representatives around the showroom.

‘Wong,’ said Au-yeung, grabbing the old man’s arm. ‘What do we do?’

‘We just go,’ said the geomancer, starting to move away. ‘I told man behind us the apartment we want already sold. We don’t want other ones because of feng shui not good for your birth chart.’

The man behind was gleeful to see Wong, McQuinnie and Au-yeung step out of the queue, and he hurriedly closed up the gap, standing unsociably close to the young women who had been ahead of them.