Kylie Chan - Heaven to Wudang

Leo stopped first and whistled as he looked up at the building. I looked up too and took a step back.

‘Holy shit,’ Clarissa said quietly.

The entire side of the building, all eleven storeys, was covered in a black spray painted depiction of a snake striking. A circle with a flame rising from it — the fire wheel — was painted in at the bottom right corner.

I pointed at the fire wheel. ‘Na Zha did this. I will take his head off.’

‘Who’s Na Zha?’ Clarissa said.

‘Demigod,’ I said. ‘Spirit of youth. Looks and acts like a teen. He used to be good friends with Michael, but I think Michael outgrew him and they stopped hanging out.’ I stomped to the entrance of the building. ‘And a royal pain in the ass.’

We took the lift up to the first floor.

‘Needs refurbishing,’ Clarissa said.

‘Go right ahead. Ask Jade for the list of preferred contractors,’ I said. The lift doors opened and we went out. I dropped my voice so those inside the lift behind us couldn’t hear. ‘We mostly deal with Earth-based Shen, helping them to keep their cover and make a living here.’

‘There are Shen who live on the Earthly? Why would anyone want to do that?’ Clarissa said as we went down the corridor towards the management office.

‘Some have committed crimes and are in hiding from Celestial justice — we generally don’t deal with them. Others are in hiding from other Shen who have a vendetta against them because of a romantic entanglement. Others are keeping a very low profile because they’ve pissed off a senior Celestial. There’s any number of reasons.’

‘I thought the Celestial Plane was supposed to be perfect, filled with wise and enlightened spirits living in loving harmony,’ she said.

‘That’s the Second Platform,’ I said.

‘You’re not supposed to talk about that,’ Leo said.

I pressed the button to request that the glass office door be unlocked. ‘Yes, sir, Mr Shen, sir, I won’t talk about it at all.’ I smiled at Clarissa as I opened the door. ‘The Second Platform is the higher level of Heaven where the Buddhas live. The Heaven of Perfection and Enlightenment. Our Celestial Plane, where the Immortals and Shen live, is nearly as prone to bad behaviour as the Earthly is.’

‘Is there a book or something about this?’ she said, moving out of the way so Leo could wheel himself into the cramped management office.

‘I’ll see what I can find for you,’ I said. ‘But the answer to your question is: not really.’

‘Stop it,’ Leo said.

‘Sorry,’ I said.

‘Stop what?’ Clarissa said.

‘Sounding like John,’ I said. I leaned on the reception desk to talk to Citrus. ‘Hi, Citrus. I saw the graffiti. This is Clarissa, she’ll be doing the property management and can arrange for it to be removed.’

‘Already arranging,’ Citrus said, glaring at Clarissa. ‘Police are here to talk to you, Emma.’

I straightened. ‘What?’

She gestured with her head towards the tiny meeting room. ‘Policeman in there, wants to talk to you about the snake painting.’

‘Oh, I see,’ I said. ‘They probably want to know if we have a security video of it being done. Clarissa, introduce yourself to Citrus and Feena and get them to show you the files.’ I touched Citrus’s arm. ‘Clarissa’s very good, Citrus, she’s Michael MacLaren’s girlfriend and part of the family.’

‘Michael’s girlfriend?’ Citrus said.

‘That’s right,’ Clarissa said.

Citrus moved closer to Clarissa and spoke softly. ‘You’re lucky.’ Her expression softened to a smile. ‘Let me show you the files.’

‘I’ll hang around out here,’ Leo said.

‘Okay,’ I said, and went into the meeting room. I felt a jolt of dismay when I saw who the policeman was, and tapped the stone in my ring, then held my hand out for the policeman to shake. ‘Hello, Lieutenant Cheung.’

‘Miss Donahoe.’ He gestured towards the other seat at the meeting table and sat himself. ‘Please sit and tell me what happened.’

‘I have no idea,’ I said. ‘I just saw this myself.’

He flipped open a file containing photographs of graffiti from all over town. ‘There is a suggestion that this may be a Triad territorial mark.’ He snapped the folder shut. ‘Tell me, Miss Donahoe, why would the Triads be marking your building in such a large and obvious manner? And why didn’t anyone notice it being done?’

Think quickly, Emma. ‘I don’t think it’s a Triad mark, Lieutenant. I actually have a pretty good idea who did it — his tag is on the bottom. It’s a kid called …’ I furiously tried to think of a name. ‘A kid called Neil; he used to be a friend of the family, and he’s been in trouble a few times.’

‘Neil who?’

‘Uh … Neil Zhou. He —’

He didn’t let me finish. ‘Address?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘But you say he was a friend of the family? You don’t know where he lives? How about a phone number?’

‘We stopped being friends with him about four years ago, mostly because he was so much trouble,’ I said.

‘If you give me a previous address or phone number, we can find him and you can press charges. We take defacement of property seriously, ma’am, and this is particularly bad. We’d very much like to talk to him, and I’m sure you want to help. This will be expensive to remove, and you don’t want it to happen again.’

‘I’m sure it won’t happen again,’ I said.

‘And why is that? Have you spoken to someone? How do you know for sure it won’t happen again?’

I wiped my forehead. I was sweating, even though this wasn’t something I needed to worry about. I had much more pressing business on the Celestial Plane and didn’t really have time to deal with this.

‘I know this kid and he’s a one-off prankster,’ I said.

‘Do you have a security camera?’

‘Yes, but it’s facing outwards in the lobby.’

‘It may show him walking past.’

I deliberately made myself look happier. ‘Yes, it may! What a good idea. How about I get my staff to go through the tapes and see if there’s any of him last night?’

‘ Your staff?’

made my voice deliberately mechanical. ‘Staff employed by the Chen Corporation acting in trust for Miss Simone Chen. It’s easier to just say “my”.’

He glanced down at his folder. ‘You have a really bad attitude, you know that?’

I nearly exploded but bit my tongue. ‘I’ll have the staff go through the tapes, and if we see any video of the young man who did it, I will be in touch. I’ll also go through my records and try to find anything on Neil that we have, an old address or phone number. Michael might know.’

‘Who is Michael?’

I nearly thumped the table with frustration, annoyed at myself. The last thing Michael needed was the police digging up his old Triad involvement.

‘Another friend of the family. One of Simone’s friends from when she was at school. I’ll go through her old school records.’ I rose. ‘Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?’ I didn’t wait for him to reply. ‘Leo, come show the gentleman out, please.’

Leo wheeled himself into the doorway. ‘If you’ll come with me, sir.’

Cheung hesitated for a moment, his face rigid, then followed Leo out the door.

I waited until I saw him safely in the lift through the office’s glass doors before I spoke to Citrus and Clarissa again. ‘Don’t worry about having the graffiti cleaned off. I’m getting the person who did it to clean it for us.’

‘Can you do that?’ Clarissa said.

‘Just watch me,’ I growled, and opened the office door. ‘I’m going up to the roof to see how we can arrange this. Stay down here, Clarissa, but call me if anything happens.’