Lee Weeks - Kiss and Die

He felt the pressure around his ears as he dropped down into the cold darkness. His weight belt took him slowly down. He reached out his hand and touched the stone wall of the defence. He shone his torch towards the wall, to the lines leading down from the buoys, and he shone his torch downwards. The wall had been constructed more than thirty years ago. It looked neat from above the waterline but below it descended into jutting crevices. An eel stared at him, its massive head amplified by the water. Mann hated snakes. This was enough like one to make him jump as it came out towards him and then made a dart into one of the cracks.

He held on to the wall as he worked his way downwards. His hands touched the top of a lobster pot. A creature disturbed the bottom and a flurry of silt clouded up into Mann’s face. Mann recoiled instinctively; he dropped his torch, fumbled and reached out to find for it in the dark waters. He shone it into the pot and a green face stared back at him, an eel had made its home in the mouth. Mann shone his torch to either side. It was not alone.

Ruby lay on the beach, shielding her eyes as she looked out to sea. The sand was warm beneath her and she ran her feet through it, feeling the sensation of the grit between her toes. She was watching the police boat bob in the water. She watched the divers like black seals as they plopped into the water and she played a game with them. ‘Getting warmer, getting warmer, no cold again, hot very hot.’ She watched Mann turn backwards and flip off the boat’s side and into the still water and she knew he would find what he had searched for all day.

Ruby lay back and closed her eyes in the warm sunshine. The night had been a long one for her. Peter Thorne had pleaded and cried like a baby in the end. He had cried for his wife. He had cried for his children. The more he cried, the longer she took to kill him.

She spread her hands out and clutched the sand in handfuls. She had a strange feeling inside her. She knew now it was all coming to an end. She knew that she must plan for it. She would not let them simply track her down. She would choose her moment. With her babies, in her room. With a man worthy of them, that would be her moment. A strange sound escaped from her throat: anguish, despair. Ruby gripped the sand hard, her arms outstretched she stared up at the sky and watched the Earth turn. She knew it was time for her to leave this life. She must go home and plan. She had Peter Thorne’s body waiting for her. She had work to do. She picked up her bag and walked back along the beach to catch the bus home.

As Mann walked into the incident room that evening Mia’s expression told him she had something she wanted to say. He’d missed two calls from her but he’d had a rush to get back from the morgue after the autopsies. Mann raised his eyebrows and nodded towards the door. She shook her head. Whatever it was would have to wait.

‘We have identified four so far. All of the heads are less than a year in the water. The two newest, less than a week. We haven’t identified those two. It’s likely that they haven’t been reported missing yet.’ Ng turned to the white board and the photos of the dead men. ‘The four we know about are: Max Kosmos, a man named Louis le Poul, went missing five months ago on a stopover from Singapore, worked for an oil refinery, selling parts to rigs. A man from the UK, a Welshman called Colin Humphreys, bit of a playboy, worked for a luxury cruise company out here to take on staff. He’d been in the water about eight months. The other is a Korean engineer called Sam Lee, doing a tour of Asia, overseeing projects for Hyundai, his wife reported him missing three weeks ago.’

‘Do these men have any connection to each other?’ Mann asked.

‘No. All frequent visitors to Hong Kong, all travelling married businessmen.’

‘Where were they staying?’

‘All in hotels around the Mansions. All off Nathan Road, big hotels with twenty-four-hour cocktail bars. They were all married, all well known for playing away. Their disappearance was never traced directly to Hong Kong because they moved all over Asia. Some airline records were accurate about who bought tickets but some weren’t.’

‘This is her serial killer ID: she kills foreign businessmen who play away,’ Sheng said, fiddling with his watch strap, a sports Rolex. He looked as rough as ever. His face was blotchy, sweaty. His shirt button strained across his stomach.

‘They have to be married,’ added Mia, ‘but they don’t have to be Caucasian. We have a Korean amongst the dead. Saheed estimated the other heads had been in the water anything from two days to a year. The head that the fisher – men found seems to be the longest in the water of the seven. Saheed said it was in the water about a year. It’s hard to tell because the lobsters do a pretty good job of stripping the flesh and eating the bone as it breaks down. We only have a partial skull left. But Saheed said he is pretty sure it’s not Caucasian. He thinks it’s African.’

‘Have them check the rubbish dumps, building sites, alert all fishermen. She must be disposing of the bodies somehow,’ said Sheng. ‘Post surveillance in Stanley.’

‘Perp won’t use that site again,’ said Mann, sipping his coffee. ‘They’ll have seen us, I’m sure.’

Sheng flashed him an irritated look. He looked like he was about to add a comment but decided not to. Mann was beginning to feel like he’d been the subject of some conversation and it wasn’t friendly.

‘We have thirty million visitors a year; most of them come here for business,’ said Ng. ‘The average stay is three days. We are a major stop-off point for other countries. Every few seconds men pass through on business trips and every few weeks some men go missing in Asia.’

‘It’s easy to see why: burnout. They’ve had enough of being mortgage slaves and opt out,’ said Sheng. ‘They get so used to being on the road. Their wives don’t even care whether they come home or not in the end as long as the bills get paid. You go and set up home in the Philippines or Thailand, it costs pence to live there. Find a few girls to double as bed mates and cleaners, no one need ever be found again.’

‘Seems like you’ve thought this through…’ smiled Mann.

‘I’ve been working, if that’s what you mean. Doing my job. We can’t all be lying on a fucking beach getting a sun tan.’ Sheng was tapping his foot, fiddling with his coffee cup.

Mann was beginning to get the gist of what must have been said between Sheng and Mia. He knew he would be hearing all of it by the end of the meeting. Sheng had a lot of pent-up aggression that wouldn’t stay behind bars.

‘Okay, we get two hundred plain clothes officers out there sitting in bars, listening to talk,’ said Sheng. ‘I want every sex worker who is seen working the plush hotels pulled over and discreetly interviewed. At the risk of pissing the guests off we have to step up security. Anyone not seen by hotel staff when they are expected? Anyone not answering their door for cleaning for more than twelve hours, security in that hotel go in. Shrimp, we have your ID ready. Your team is ready to go. You are the Manhattan VD in a book distribution company. You will be staying at Vacation Villas. We need to move this along now. You ready?’

Shrimp nodded but he thought of Nina. He would not be able to see her. For the first time he felt a conflict in his heart. He had never believed in love at first sight until now. Now he couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.

‘I don’t see that working. She’s smart and cocky. She’s not going to get caught in a bar by us. I think we should wait to go in heavy.’ Mia stood, arms crossed. ‘She’s on a roll now. She’s speeding up. The first head was a year ago, the rest have all been in the last six months. Three of the heads are within the last month. She’s bound to trip up sooner or later. If she gets freaked now and goes underground she might just emerge worse in six months’ time.’