Lee Weeks - Kiss & Die

Another hand went up from a young Indian girl. ‘Are you mixed race, sir?’

‘Yes. My mother is English, my dad was Chinese.’

‘Is it easy to get into the police force when you’re mixed race?’

‘It isn’t easy to get into the police force whatever race you are. You need a good level of English. You need to be able to read and write Mandarin.’

There was a muttering all around the hall. Lilly spoke up again. You need to be able to read and write Mandarin to clean toilets now.’

The children laughed. The headmaster coughed loudly.

Mann waited until the laughter subsided before he spoke again. ‘Yeah, it sucks. It sucks that there isn’t a level playing field any more. It really sucks that a lot of what made Hong Kong great is being wasted. Talents that you all have to give are being handed over to the Triads because we are turning into a two-tier society. But…’ There was a general whispering. The headmaster looked nervous. ‘…but all I can tell you is that you have to be smarter than everyone else. You have to work harder than everyone else. You have to prove them wrong. You join a Triad organization and, in the short term, sure, you will get new trainers, you will get told how great you are. In the long term you will be pushed down alleyways, asked to repay favours, asked to fight, kill, you will be ordered to become part of a drug run, part of a human trafficking chain. You might be sold into prostitution yourself or sell other kids. And there will be no escape for you. You will be a number to be called whenever they choose. In the short term you may think it offers you hope. In the long term you will never be free to make it.’

‘Sir?’

‘Yes, Lilly?’

‘If your father is a Triad do you have to be one?’

‘No. Everyone has a choice.’

Lilly had a smug look on her face. She made sure she was heard. ‘And sir, is it true your father was a Triad?’

Mann felt the headmaster’s stare as his head swung round to look at Mann. Mann’s focus on the room slipped. His hands went cold. His pulse slowed. He looked to the back of the room. Right at the back the exit door was open to allow the breeze through. He could see the rectangle of blue. He refocused on Lilly.

‘Yes.’

‘What happened to him, sir?’

‘He was chopped to death because he disobeyed the society.’

‘Did he make a lot of money, sir?’

‘Yes, but…’

‘Did you inherit it, sir?’

Mann nodded. He was losing control. The hall burst out in chat. The headmaster stepped forward. ‘Thank you very much for coming, Inspector. We have taken up a lot of your time. We are very grateful—’

Mann stopped him mid-sentence. He took over the microphone and looked around the room, waited the two minutes it took to obtain absolute silence. ‘My father was executed when I was just a bit older than you. I was made to watch. That day has stayed with me forever. I didn’t know he was a Triad then. I do now. I have to deal with the legacy of my father’s Triad involvement. I have to deal with his mess. I used to be proud of my father when I was young. He was someone I looked up to. He didn’t have a lot of time for me, he was always working, but I loved him and respected him. Until I found out that he made his money by manufacturing and supplying heroin. My father was a drug baron. When I look back now my memories of him all seem like a lie. I question everything I ever had from him and ask myself did it come from drug money? Did someone have to die with a needle in their arm to buy me that?’

The room fell silent. All eyes were on Mann.

‘But, when you become an adult you are judged on who you are, not who your parents were or are. You stand alone. You have a choice. Yes, you may have it hard but that will make you harder. Yes, you may have it tough and that will make you tougher. And you need to be. Hong Kong can fulfil all of your dreams or it can be the cruellest place on earth. You can be anyone you want in Hong Kong. It doesn’t matter who your father was. It only matters what you achieve in your life and what you do with it. Don’t throw it away on being just a number. The girl who died yesterday evening was left to die alone in a cardboard box. She was left like a piece of rubbish. That’s all you are to the Triad bosses. I saw her body. I found her. No one should die like that. That’s what happens when you join the Triads. They make you feel like you matter but you don’t. In the end they use you and control you and you are not free to make your own decisions. When I look around this hall I see a lot of familiar faces looking at me. I know some of you were involved in what happened last night. I have come here today to offer you help. I will leave my card on the notice board in the corridor. Anyone want to talk to me? I will listen. I will be able to help. As Lilly pointed out, I know first hand about the dangers of belonging to a Triad society. I know what it can do. You ring me. We’ll fight it together.’

Lilly stood up and slow clapped Mann’s speech. She pushed the girl in front; the whole row collapsed amidst lots of giggling. Lilly looked across at Tammy and grinned. Tammy had felt the tension grow in the hall. Now Lilly’s eyes lingered on Tammy as if she knew. Tammy grinned back. Mann got down from the stage and called Lilly over. They were left alone in the hall.

‘Sit down.’

Lilly sat and looked around the room as if she were bored.

‘Tell me, Lilly, what’s a bright girl like you doing coming out of a Triad initiation ceremony?’

She turned and stared hard at him, tried to read his expression. Her eyes were the colour of caramel. She had freckles across her nose. Her skin was light. She was taller than most girls her age.

‘I saw you coming out of the building where the girl got murdered last night.’ Mann could see from the way her eyes had stopped seeing him that her thoughts were backtracking. For a second she looked worried and then she rolled her eyes and looked at her nails, chewed off a bit of loose skin, made her finger bleed, and smiled as she looked at him as she sucked the blood from her finger.

‘Not me, Officer. I was at home last night doing my homework. Now, if you don’t mind I have a lesson to go to. You know what it’s like for us mixed-race kids – we have to work hard. We don’t all have our dad’s money to fall back on.’ She went to stand.

‘Sit. You’ll go when I say.’

She sat back down with a groan and looked at her watch.

‘Let me explain something to you. You’re in shit up to your neck. The girl who died last night was mutilated, her hands cut off before she had her throat severed.’

Lilly snapped her head as she looked at him. ‘I wasn’t there.’

‘But you were in the area. What do you think happens when people play with Triads, Lilly?’ Mann watched her. ‘What do you think you are going to get from all this? They’re playing with you, Lilly. It could be you next week lying in your own blood. They’re just sitting back and waiting and watching and enjoying the spectacle of kids like you killing one another. You’re disposable.’

A crack appeared in Lilly’s bravado. She looked towards the hall entrance, agitated, fidgety. She went to stand again.

Mann pushed her back in her seat. ‘We can continue this at the police station if you like or we can do it here. What’s the big global message they’re selling you, Lilly? Somehow I don’t think a designer handbag is what you’re in this for. Tell me, Lilly. You want to belong, don’t you? You want to leave your mark on the world but this is not the way.’

She blew an ‘I don’t give a fuck’ out of the corner of her mouth. But he could see her bravado starting to dissolve. She was just a scared little girl. From the corner of his eye, Mann saw the headmaster standing at the edge of the stage. He knew he’d gone far enough without taking her in. He knew there would be no point in doing that. She would say nothing; she’d be a lot more frightened of her Triad masters than she would be of the police.