James Chase - A Coffin from Hong Kong

Watching him come, I had a creepy sensation. It had been Stella’s idea for me to come to this lonely island. I had been invited to the Enright villa, and this squat Chinese, walking so confidently towards me, had been there to take a look at me. It seemed to me as I lay in the long grass that I had walked into a prepared trap from which I wasn’t supposed to escape.

At the rate he was moving, he would be with me in less than ten minutes. I crawled through the grass to collect the long-bladed knife. It didn’t give me a lot of confidence. A knife against a rifle isn’t fair odds. I looked around and found a flat, heavy stone larger than my hand. I collected that too.

By now the squat Chinese was walking along the path. He had slowed his pace and was moving more cautiously, but he still seemed to have plenty of confidence because he carried the rifle under his arm.

By now I had squirmed farther from the body… twenty yards of high grass separated us. The squat Chinese would come on the body before he came on me.

He was now too close for me to watch him. I lay flat, gripping the stone in my right hand and the knife in my left.

I could hear him. I heard him give a little grunt. Cautiously I lifted my head. He had found his pal and was standing over him, staring. He jerked his head up and we looked at each other. The rifle slid from under his arm into his hands. As I threw the stone, he squeezed the trigger. The flying stone spoilt his aim but it wasn’t all that bad a shot. The bullet scraped the top of my shoulder. My stone was luckier. The edge of the stone caught his right hand, splitting the skin. He dropped the rifle, and as he bent to pick it up, I was on him.

It was like charging against the side of a house. He had twisted i sideways, his legs spread to take the shock of my charge. His hand flashed up and grabbed my wrist. He had fingers like steel. I went flying over his head to land on the ground with a jar that shook the breath out of my body. I was dimly aware I had lost the knife. I was also aware that my fall had brought me to the side of the hill. Letting myself go limp, I started to roll. I heard him coming after me. After I had rolled fifty yards or so, I dug my heels into the soft ground and stopped. I was dizzy and breathless. I saw him coming, a vicious grin on his fat, yellow face, but without the gun.

I was on my feet as he reached me, below him and at a disadvantage, but he was coming too fast to stop. I swerved aside at the moment of impact. He tried to grab me, but his hooked fingers slid off my arm as he went careering past. I swung around and planted my shoe in his fat behind. He pitched forward and slid down the hill on his face.

I found another flat, heavy stone which I snatched up and threw after him. The stone caught him on the back of his head and blood flew. He went on down the hill, kicking up the dust,

but limp. Maybe I had smashed his skull. I didn’t care. All I knew he wouldn’t worry me for some time… if ever.

Breathing heavily, feeling a burning in my shoulder, I set off down the path, walking unsteadily, towards the Silver Mine Pier.

I walked into the bar on the Wanchai waterfront at exactly eight o’clock. I had showered and changed and had put an adhesive plaster on the bullet graze on my shoulder. It felt sore and hot, but I was lucky it was no worse.

The bar was full. There were about twenty American sailors drinking and dancing and some thirty Chinese girls, all wearing Cheongsams, crowding around the bar or dancing. There were a few Chinese businessmen in the booths, drinking whisky and talking earnestly.

The juke-box was blaring jazz loud enough to break a sensitive eardrum. I stood just inside the door, looking around. The Chinese Madame came out of the noise and the cigarette smoke, smiling. She led me to one of the few vacant booths and sat me down.

“What will you drink?” she asked, standing over me, her hard glittering eyes avoiding my stare.

“A Scotch… and you?”

“I’ll get you a Scotch.”

She went away and I lost sight of her behind the screen o/ dancers. After a five-minute wait, a waiter come to my table and put down a Scotch and soda. I waited. It was another ten minutes before the Chinese woman came back to my table and sat down. She looked a little worried.

“Mu Hai Ton will see you,” she said, “but not here. She wants you to go to her apartment.”

Another trap? I wondered. I was still a little shaky after my experience of the afternoon. I was now wearing a suit and had my.38 police special in its holster out of sight but ready for business.

“Where is she?”

“It is not far. I can arrange a taxi for you.”

I hesitated, then nodded.

“Okay… but how do I know she is the right girl?”

“She has her papers. She will show them to you. She is the right girl.”

“Do I go now?”

“She is waiting.”

I finished my drink and got to my feet.

“After I’ve talked to her and after I am satisfied she is the right girl I will pay you fifty Hong Kong dollars.”

She smiled stiffly.

“That’s all right. I will get you a taxi.”

I waited. After a few minutes she returned.

“He knows where to take you. The apartment is on the top floor. You will have no difficulty in finding it.”

I said I would be seeing her and I went out into the hot night. The taxi-driver grinned cheerfully at me as I opened the cab door. I got in and he drove off. It was a six-minute drive through the crowded back streets of the Chinese quarter. The taxi pulled up outside a jeweller’s shop. The driver pointed to a side door, grinning happily. I paid and over tipped him and watched him drive away before I pushed open the door and began to mount steep, stairs that brought me to a landing. Facing me was an elevator. I took it to the top floor. As it came to rest, I slid my hand inside my jacket and eased the gun a little in its holster. Then I stepped across the landing to a red-painted door. I rang the bell.

There was a slight delay, then the door swung open. A Chinese girl looked inquiringly at me.

She was tall and slim and very pretty. She wore a cream silk, heavily embroidered Cheongsam and scarlet sandals. Her black hair was adorned with two lotus blossoms.

“I’m Ryan,” I said. “I think you’re expecting me.”

She smiled, showing brilliantly white teeth.

“Yes… come in.”

I moved into a large room full of flowers and furnished with modern light oak furniture.

The big windows had a view of the sea.

“You’re Mu Hai Ton?” I asked as she closed the door and walked with easy grace to an armchair.

“That is my name.”

She sat down, resting her slim hands in her lap, her eyebrows slightly raised, the smile in place.

“How do I know that?”

The question seemed to amuse her. She waved a hand to the table.

“My papers are there.”

I checked her identity card. She had arrived in Hong Kong five years ago. Her age was twenty-three. Her profession was that of a dancer.

I relaxed a little and sat opposite her.

“You knew Herman Jefferson?” I asked.

She nodded, continuing to smile.

“Yes, I knew him. He died two weeks ago.”

“You knew his wife?”

“Yes, of course. I was a witness when they married.”

“Do you know what Jefferson did for a living?”

“Perhaps now I have answered some of your questions, you will tell me who you are and why you have come here,” she said, still not losing the friendly smile.

“I’m making inquiries for Jefferson’s father,” I told her. “He wants to know more about how his son lived out here.”

She lifted her eyebrows inquiringly.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He’s paying me to get the information so I’m trying to get it. I’m willing to 113