Read The Water Rat of Wanchai for Free Online

product on very short notice. I don’t have the staff to handle logistics.”
    Ava walked over to her window. It was late afternoon and winter’s darkness was settling in. Below her the traffic crawled bumper to bumper up Avenue Road. It would be that way till past six o’clock. “Do you have any idea where the inventory is?”
    “No. I talked to the warehouse and they gave me the name of the trucking firm that did most of the pickups. They wouldn’t give me any information. They said their customer was Seafood Partners, and unless Partners authorized it they weren’t in a position to release any information to me.”
    “Are their names in the file Alice gave me?”
    “Not all of them.”
    “Can you email them to me?” she said.
    “I’ll do it when I get to the office.”
    “What else have you done to recover your money and your shrimp?”
    “I hired collection agencies.”
    “Agencies?”
    “One in Bangkok, one in Seattle, and one in Hong Kong.”
    “Regular firms?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean they don’t use machetes.”
    “Ms. Lee, we are a reputable financing firm.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.”
    “I used collection agencies that were recommended to me by various friends. They are — were — very professional. They just weren’t effective.”
    “So you went to your uncle.”
    “I had to talk to someone, and he has been through a hell of a lot.”
    “Including swimming from China.”
    “Yes, that’s true. With your uncle.”
    “That is the story,” she said.
    “And now they’ve brought us together,” he replied.
    She picked up the sheaf of documents he had provided and leafed through them, looking for personal information on Seto and Antonelli. When she couldn’t find any, she asked Tam what he had.
    “I have phone numbers and some addresses.”
    “No passport copies, Hong Kong ID card, driver’s licences, photos?”
    “No.”
    “Email me what you do have. Also, send me the name and phone number of the guy who hooked you up with Seto.”
    He paused again. In her mind’s eye she could see him sitting in the dark in some apartment in Hong Kong, the mid-levels probably, a nice middle-class 110-square-metre apartment that would have cost more than a million dollars and still didn’t offer a view of the waterfront beyond the wall of skyscrapers that lined Victoria Harbour. You had to be higher — in the upper levels, on the Peak — and have a net worth of a lot more than five million dollars to be able to afford that view. The Peak was the top of Victoria Mountain, the highest elevation in Hong Kong. The mountain ran straight up from the harbour, through the financial district, and past a host of five-star hotels, shops, and restaurants, the land costs rising with every yard.
    “Ms. Lee,” he asked quietly, “does this mean you’re taking the job?”
    “Yes, we’re taking the case,” she said.
    “How long do you think it’s going to take?”
    “I have no idea, and please call me Ava.”
    “Ava —”
    “Really, I have no idea, and not just about the time. I also have no idea if I’m going to be successful or not. And I mean that — we make no promises. We do the best we can and sometimes it’s good enough. I’m sure my uncle explained that to your uncle.”
    “He said you’re remarkably good at what you do.”
    “That doesn’t mean it always works.”
    “Do we need to talk about your fee?” he asked.
    “Did your uncle explain how it operates?”
    “He said you keep one-third of everything you collect.”
    “We do. It seems like a lot, but we don’t ask for anything upfront, we pay all our own expenses, and if we don’t collect, then not only do we not get paid, we are also out of pocket for the money we’ve spent.”
    “Yes, he said that too.”
    “Good.”
    “Andrew, send me the information I requested, and be available if I need to talk to you. If you don’t hear from me for a while, don’t sweat it. I’m not going to call you