Ian Hamilton - The disciple of Las Vegas

“I’m afraid I had no luck with that. When I called the house, Philip wouldn’t even come to the phone. I spoke to his wife. She said he was quite ill and not up to handling any business, legal or otherwise. I must say she sounded distressed herself.”

Ava remembered what Chang had said about Philip in Manila. It sounded like it hadn’t been an exaggeration. “That’s unfortunate. I guess we’ll just have to proceed as best as we can without him for now.”

“My letter?”

“If I’m satisfied with it I’ll send the envelope back with your courier.”

“You will be.”

Ava slipped the phone back into her pocket and resumed her run around the seawall, but now her mind was less on the scenery and more on Philip Chew. She considered her options. Call the Chew residence? Go directly to their home and try to worm her way in? Contact Louis Marx to see if he could broker a meeting? She knew that unless she was willing to get on a plane to Costa Rica and traipse from bank to bank, trying to locate those fifteen different recipients, her only real chance of finding out what had happened to the money was to talk to Philip Chew.

It was ten thirty when she walked, wet but energized, into the hotel lobby. When she got to her room, she saw a white envelope on the floor. There was a note and a phone number on the front: I’m waiting in the lobby. Call me when you want me to pick up the paperwork for Mr. Ling.

Ava ripped open the envelope. Ling’s letter was short and to the point, confirming that KVD had been incorporated by Philip Chew and that McDougal, Fraser, and Ling held the shares in trust for him, and only him. It was what she wanted. She called the courier’s cellphone number and told the woman who answered that the envelope for Edward Ling would be waiting outside her door.

Ava stripped and stepped into the shower. As she was standing under the hot spray, trying to relax her aching muscles, her mother came to mind.

Jennie, Ava, and Marian had relocated to Canada from Hong Kong when their father had taken on his third wife. For two years before moving to Toronto they had lived in Vancouver, where Ava knew her mother had had an active social life and a wide circle of friends. Mah-jong players, other second wives, Vegas junketeers — women with money, looking to fill their days with fun. Ava also knew that, true to her mother’s social nature, Jennie had kept in touch with many of them.

It was close to eleven when she left the bathroom, two o’clock in Toronto.

“Yes,” Jennie Lee said. Ava could hear mah-jong tiles clicking in the background.

“Mummy, it’s Ava.”

“Where are you?”

“Vancouver,” Ava said. “I think I need your help.”

“Give me a minute.” Ava heard her mother talking to her friends, and then the phone went silent. When Jennie came back on the line, there was no background noise. “I went outside so we could talk properly. What is going on?”

“You still have a lot of friends here, don’t you?”

“Of course. Auntie Grace, Auntie Lily, Auntie Kimmy — lots of them.”

“Could you make some calls for me?”

“Why?”

“There’s a very wealthy man here named Philip Chew. Could you find out if any of the aunties know him or his wife?”

“Why?”

“Because I need to talk to him, and I think if I try to do it directly I won’t have any luck. It might actually be best if I could talk to his wife first, and I was hoping maybe one of the aunties knows her and could help make that happen.”

“Her name is Kitty.”

“Who?”

“Philip Chew’s wife.”

“You know her?”

“I met her once. She is a good friend of Auntie Lily. They play mah-jong together. She’s a bit of a snob, though. Lives in West Vancouver, in the British Properties, with all the rich gweilos. She thinks she’s too good to live with the other Chinese in Richmond.”

“Could you call Auntie Lily?”

“What’s the time there?”

“It’s just past eleven.”

“I doubt she’s up yet. She’s a night owl.”

“Could you at least try?”

“What is it you want me to say to her?”

“Auntie Lily needs to convince Kitty Chew that I’m a friend and that she should convince her husband to talk to me. She should start by telling her who I am. The fact that I’m female, Chinese, and connected to her group should help the cause. Now, Mummy, listen. Philip Chew is in deep trouble. The only chance he has to work his way out of it is to talk to me. Auntie Lily needs to understand how important this is for the Chews.”

“He’s in that much trouble?”

“He is.”

“All right,” her mother said slowly. “It isn’t that often that you ask for my help.”

I’ve never asked you to help, Ava thought, but she stopped herself from saying it out loud. “Thanks. Call me on my cell. I’ll be waiting, so please don’t let this drag on.”

“And don’t you nag. I’ll try to reach her right now.”

With a towel wrapped around her damp hair, dressed only in a black Giordano T-shirt and panties, Ava went to her computer. Mimi had emailed with two pieces of news that evidently warranted three exclamation marks each.

The first message said she was having dinner with Derek that evening. Ava felt an unease that she knew was irrational.

Derek wants to meet some women who aren’t Chinese and who aren’t named Mimi, Ava wrote back. Please introduce him to some women who have at least a modicum of intelligence. You are my best girl friend and he is my best guy friend and there are times I need to involve him in my business. There is no way I want to jeopardize either of those relationships, and the quickest way to do that is to have the two of you screwing each other.

Ava sent the reply and then opened the second message Mimi had sent. She reported that she had spoken to Maria Gonzalez that morning and urged her to contact Ava. And say what? Ava wondered. She deleted the email.

Ava pushed Derek, Mimi, and Maria out of her thoughts and opened a message from Marian. On Ava’s last trip to Hong Kong she had met up with their father. He had told Ava he wanted the family to go on vacation together. Although he and his wife had been living apart for thirty years, Marcus still spent two weeks a year with them in Toronto.

I’m really happy about the idea of a holiday together, Marian wrote, especially with my girls, but I’m afraid of what Mummy will choose. She always wants to go to Las Vegas or the Bahamas or anywhere with a casino that she can spend all of her time in.

Why don’t you communicate with Daddy directly? Ava wrote. Work it out with him yourself. She wasn’t sure if Marian would. Her elder sister was more easily intimidated by their mother than Ava, and had a more distant relationship with their father.

She wandered into the bathroom to dry her hair. She had inherited her five-foot-three, 115-pound frame from her mother. But Edward Ling was right; when she examined her features, she found signs of her father in her eyes, her nose, the shape of her face.

She turned off the hair dryer, walked back into the room, and put on the second pair of training pants she’d brought with her. She was pulling on a pair of white socks when her cellphone rang. She leapt at it. Her mother’s number lit up the screen.

“Well?” Ava said.

“Write down this phone number,” Jennie Lee said.

“Kitty’s?”

“No, her daughter, Maggie. Kitty doesn’t want to talk to you and says her husband is in no condition to either, but Lily convinced her that someone from the family should. Maggie is their only child and is very close to them. So, Ava, don’t be aggressive with her; it sounds like the family is going through a difficult time. Lily said Kitty was upset and kept asking Lily what she had heard. Lily told her that she had heard nothing, that she was just calling for you. She said you were her niece.”