White Tiger

we’ll get there.’ April looked over at me. ‘Aunty Kitty wants you to call her.’
    ‘Geez, that bitch really won’t drop it, will she?’ Louise said.
    ‘You should talk about her with more respect,’ April said. ‘She’s a very important person.’
    ‘I’m happy where I am, April,’ I said. ‘I enjoy working for Mr Chen.’
    April’s phone rang with a noisy canto-pop tune. She pulled it out of her bag. It had a pink furry Hello Kitty case and a special aerial with lights that flashed as it rang.
    She put the phone to her ear, still holding the spoon with the other hand. ‘ Wei ?’
    She listened for a long time, occasionally nodding and grunting. Then she said, ‘Ho ak,’ and closed the phone. She looked blankly at us.
    ‘What?’ I said.
    ‘Andy’s just back from Thailand, he’s at the airport,’ she said. ‘He’s flying straight out to Shanghai and he needs me to collect some stuff for him from the airport. I’d better go.’ She pulled out her wallet and handed me a hundred-dollar bill. ‘Pay for me?’
    ‘Sure,’ I said, taking the money.
    She nodded to us, rose and went smartly out of the restaurant, her stilettos clicking on the grey tiles.
    ‘What do you think?’ Louise said.
    ‘Probably gay, and she’s a cover for him. The guy he went to Thailand with is his real partner.’
    ‘Could be; happens all the time. Or he could be straight and that trip to Thailand was a sex trip,’ Louise said. ‘He could have married her just to get an Australian passport. He’s pushing her hard to go there.’
    ‘You think she’s aware either way?’
    ‘Look at her.’ Louise pointed her chopsticks towards the door of the restaurant. ‘No idea. Quite happy to be married to this man who treats her like shit.’
    She turned to me and grinned. ‘Now, there’s something up at the Peak that you want to give me. Hurry up and finish the noodles so you can take me up there.’
    ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ She leaned over the table and spoke quietly. ‘There’s something up there that I just have to see.’ ‘What?’ ‘ Mr Chen. ’
    ‘I have to clear it with Leo before I take you up.’ She stared at me. ‘I mean it.’
    She waved her chopsticks over the remains of her soup. ‘Whatever. Come on, I want to see.’
    I pulled out my mobile phone and called home. ‘Chen residence.’ ‘Monica, is Leo around?’ ‘Wait.’
    The phone clicked. ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Leo, I want to bring my friend Louise up. The one we had yum cha with. Is that okay?’
    ‘The loud Australian?’
    ‘Yeah. The other one besides me.’
    He chuckled. ‘Yeah, sure. We know she’s not a demon.’
    ‘Oh yes, she is, you have no idea.’ ‘I believe it.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘Mr Chen’s here—he can mind Simone. Where are you?’
    ‘Times Square.’
    ‘I’ll pick you up. I can check at the same time, be doubly sure. Be there in twenty or thirty.’ He hung up.
    ‘Leo will be here in twenty or thirty minutes,’ I said.
    ‘Let’s go across the road to look at the shops while we’re waiting.’
    ‘Oh no. No way. Last time I went shopping with you we spent two thousand dollars each and you blamed me for the next six weeks for forcing you to spend your money.’
    ‘No idea what you’re talking about,’ she said, eyes full of mischief.
    ‘At least you don’t wear those business suits all the time like April.’
    ‘These jeans cost eighteen hundred dollars,’ Louise huffed.
    ‘Finished?’ I asked. I nodded to the waiter and he started to come over, but I drew a circle in the air with my finger and he nodded and turned back to get the check. I pulled my wallet out to pay, opened it and slammed it shut again.
    Louise saw. ‘What?’
    I lowered my wallet so that she couldn’t see it.
    She snatched it out of my hand and checked inside. A huge grin spread across her freckled face. ‘I don’t think he’s really your type, darling.’
    ‘It’s a joke,’ I growled. ‘I’m going to get him.’
    ‘Let me have it, I have some ideas,’ Louise said.
    ‘No way.’
    I opened my wallet again and pulled out the money, Leo’s ugly face grinning at me from the photo pocket.
    We waited at a lay-by area under Times Square for Leo to pick us up. Louise nudged my arm.
    ‘Guys watching us,’ she said softly. ‘Shame they’re not too cute. They keep leering at you.’
    I looked around; she was right. A group of young Chinese men were watching us from across the road. They all had