Nine Dragons - A Beatrix Rose Thriller: Hong Kong Stories Volume 1 (Beatrix Rose's Hong Kong Stories Book 2) by Mark Dawson

Grace will be safe there?”
    Chau bit his lip, then shook his head. “No.”
    “I can’t take the chance of sending Grace away until I know, for sure, that she will be safe. He’ll think that she has this footage. He’ll find her, bring her back, find out what happened. And if he finds her, maybe she tells him about the Chinese man who looks a little like Jackie Chan who worked with the blonde Western woman to clean up the dead body in her apartment. Maybe he comes and asks what you know about what happened.”
    “But she didn’t see me.”
    Beatrix knew that she was close to persuading him. Self-preservation was his pressure point. A lie would be the final gentle nudge he needed. “She was watching through the peephole when you came to clean her apartment. She saw you, Chau. She can describe you.”
    The trembling got worse. “You said I was safe. You said—”
    “You are safe, as long as the girl is safe.”
    He started to get to his feet. “I… I… have to leave.”
    She took his wrist again and held it. “No. Where would you go?”
    “I… I…”
    “You don’t need to run. We can control this situation.” She took the stick from the USB port and tapped her finger against it. “We have this.”
    “What do we do?”
    “I think it’s time I met our employer.”

CHAPTER TEN
    BEATRIX WATCHED as the funicular climbed the side of the Peak. Grace was sitting at the table next to her, turning a straw this way and that in the glass of lemonade that Beatrix had bought for her. The girl had become a little surly, staying in the hotel for the last few days. That wasn’t surprising. It was a small room and there was very little to do save watch the television and the counterfeit DVDs that Beatrix had bought from a kerbside tout.
    Beatrix had persuaded Chau to meet with Ying. The rendezvous had been this morning, on the deck of the Star Ferry as had become their usual modus operandi . She would typically have observed the meeting, but she had stayed with Grace instead. She had instructed Chau to be fastidious in ensuring that he was not surveilled, and then, and only then, if he was satisfied that he was alone, meet her here. She would have to trust that he had exercised the necessary caution. She had the Glock in her bag in the event that he had not.
    She watched as he climbed the ascent to the top of the Peak. He stopped halfway, as she had instructed, and she observed the people that were following behind him to see whether any of them stopped, too. No one did. If he was being followed, it was by a team. And she saw nothing to suggest that was the case.
    She relaxed, but only a little.
    He approached the table.
    He looked down at Grace. “Is this her?”
    “This is Grace,” Beatrix said.
    The girl looked up at him and smiled. Chau, who looked as if he was about to say something gruff and abrupt, held his tongue.
    “Hello, Mr. Chau. Thank you for helping me.”
    Chau melted and managed to smile back down at her.
    “Grace,” Beatrix said. “Mr. Chau and I need to speak. We’ll just be over there. Do you want anything to eat?”
    “No, thank you,” she said. “I am fine.”
    Beatrix stood and led Chau to a table where they could talk without the girl overhearing them.
    “Well?”
    “He will see you.”
    “What did you tell him?”
    “What you told me to say. That you have the video he is looking for.”
    “And what did he say?”
    “He was unhappy.”
    “But?”
    “He did not say no. He said you should come to the Nine Dragons. Do you know where it is?”
    She knew his club and said that she did. “When?”
    “Tomorrow. Noon.”
    That made sense. The place would be empty at that time of day.
    “Will you go?” he asked.
    “Of course.”
    Chau nodded. She noticed that he was fretting with a hangnail on his right thumb.
    “Chau,” she said. “This will soon be finished. I’ll sort it all out. But, while I’m gone, I need you to look after Grace.”
    “And then?”
    “If the meeting