hadnât found Ordonez and Chang more offensive than some of their other rich Chinese clients. Thereâs something else at play here , she thought. âIs there a problem with our fee?â
He smiled. âYou are so practical.â
âIs there?â
âNo, just the opposite. After the way they behaved, I insisted on our usual rate. They agreed.â
âSo whatâs the issue?â
âTheir behaviour,â he said. âChang Wang is waiting downstairs to have dinner with us. I told him that if we are not there by eight oâclock it means we are going back to Hong Kong tomorrow.â
âYou and Chang Wang â how far back do you go?â she asked, realizing that this had nothing to do with her.
âWe are both from Wuhan, and we grew up together as boys in the same village.â
âAnd youâve kept in touch all these years?â
Uncle stalled by taking a sip of beer. âWe have done favours for each other,â he said slowly. âChang helped me get to Hong Kong. After I was established, I helped him get to the Philippines, where he had a brother. From time to time our businesses â my old one â needed help, and we were there for each other. In China today, Tommy Ordonez would be nothing but an ink blot if it were not for my connections. And Chang helped me make a lot of money in these islands.â
âSuch old friends, and close friends. There canât be too many men from that village who made it out, let alone became so successful.â
âOnly a few of us, and that makes it worse.â
Now she understood. By being rude to her, Uncle thought they had been disrespectful to him. He was at times overly sensitive to slights, and as he got older she noticed he was more easily irked. She also knew he didnât care about Ordonezâs behaviour; it was Changâs attitude that bothered him. âUncle, Chang Wang was in a difficult position today. Tommy Ordonez is obviously in a rage over this Canadian business. His own brother, whom he obviously trusted, has failed him. You wouldnât expect Chang to openly chastise or oppose Ordonez. Maybe by being a little rude to me himself, he managed to moderate Ordonez. Iâm sure that his actions towards me meant no disrespect to you.â
Uncle leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. âAva, if you want to go back to Hong Kong we will leave Ordonez to sort out his own mess,â he said quietly.
âUncle, that would be the wrong reason to go back to Hong Kong.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âFrom what Iâve read and heard, Philip Chew is up to his neck in this thing. Thatâs obvious to me, to you, and Iâm sure to them. So why do they want to use us at all?â
He took another sip of beer. âYou are probably right, of course. They do suspect Philip, Chang more than Ordonez. Ordonez is still willing to give his younger brother the benefit of the doubt. They want us to eradicate that doubt.â
âAnd then what, push us aside?â
âNo, I was firm about that and they agree. Even if we discover that Philip was responsible for the loss, there is the matter of determining what he did and why he did it. And then there is still fifty million dollars â or part of fifty million dollars â that we need to find and recover.â
âWhy hasnât Ordonez confronted his brother?â
âHe wants to be one hundred percent sure of the facts.â
âIâm not sure I believe that,â she said.
âNeither do I, but Chang did say that when they sent their CFO in Manila to Vancouver, Philip Chew would not meet with him or talk to him on the phone. The CFO even went to his house but was not allowed through the front door. Chew seems to have barricaded himself inside. So maybe Ordonez has not talked to him because he cannot,â Uncle said. He paused and looked down at his beer. âAva, Ordonez is a very