The Trophy Taker. Lee Weeks

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       27

      Johnny Mann was heading east from Lan Kwai Fong, the nightclub end of Central District, and working his way along towards Causeway Bay, when he decided to pay another visit to Club Mercedes. He didn’t intend to stay long. He’d come back to the club in the hope of talking to Lucy and taking some more details from her about the foreign women who had stayed in her flat. When he got there he found out from Mamasan Linda that Lucy was out with a customer and that there was a new foreign girl working there – Lucy’s cousin. So he asked to interview her.

      It wasn’t busy. He was given a table at the front of the club. It was an area far enough from the band that you could talk easily and be heard, but it didn’t afford the privacy of one of the VIP booths around the dance floor.

      He was deep in thought when pink toes and gold strappy sandals appeared in his line of vision. Then there were long legs, smooth rounded thighs, a tiny waist and small full breasts to get past. But it didn’t even end there … Shit! That was a face to die for … It was heart-shaped with high cheekbones and large amber-coloured eyes. She had pale skin, a splatter of freckles across her nose, a long, slender neck and espresso-coloured hair that cascaded around her shoulders in pre-Raphaelite curls. She was not just pretty. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

      ‘Miss Johnson … is that right?’ he almost stuttered.

      She nodded and a small anxious smile flitted across her beautiful face. As it did so, Mann saw that her mouth formed an almost perfect circle, topped with a cupid’s bow complete with a small turn up at either end – perfect.

      ‘Please sit down.’

      She did so in a slightly uneasy fashion, as if she were neither used to the dress nor the heels. She seemed very young, thought Mann, and very out of place.

      ‘Mamasan says you’ve just started at this club. Is that right?’

      ‘Yes, tonight is my first night.’ She perched on the edge of the seat.

      ‘Did you work anywhere else before here?’ He tried a smile to relax her.

      ‘No.’

      ‘When did you arrive in Hong Kong?’

      ‘Two days ago.’

      ‘And what reason did you have for coming to Hong Kong?’

      She paused, reluctant to answer, then blurted: ‘I came to find my cousins.’

      ‘Cousins? Ah, yes, Lucy! Have you any other relatives here?’

      ‘No. Just Lucy and her sister Ka Lei.’

      ‘You came all the way here to find them? It’s a long way.’

      Mann felt a pang of pity. He wondered why someone so obviously inexperienced in life had come to the other side of the world, and at the worst time possible?