His father was a schoolteacher.
“It was a sheltered life,” he admitted.
“But very pleasant. To this day, I have a definite nostalgia for its simplicity.
“Unfortunately my father died,” Tristan said.
“He’d never been the picture of health. All the sudden he wilted and died.
Wasn’t even sick that long. After that, we moved from Melbourne to Brisbane where my mother’s family was involved in the restaurant business on the Gold Coast. That’s how I happened to go to the University of Queensland.”
Marissa was exhausted. The traveling was taking its toll. She enjoyed listening to Tristan, but was eager to turn in. She was also thinking about phoning Robert.
“Maybe we should call it a day,” she said when there was a lull in the conversation.
“I think I’d better give my husband a ring to let him know I’m here.”
Marissa had told Tristan about her childhood in Virginia and about her surgeon father and how she’d ended up in medical school. She’d also been careful to tell him about Robert, purposefully avoiding mention of their current marital problems.
“Yes, of course, call him!” Tristan said, standing up for Marissa.
“Why don’t you go on up? I’ll be along soon. I thought perhaps I might quiz some of the taxi drivers about the Wing Sin.”
Marissa took the elevator to the sixth floor. She had her key in hand, but the moment the elevator door parted, the hall porter appeared from nowhere and opened her door for her. She tried to thank the man but he bowed and wouldn’t even look her in the eye.
She called Robert as soon as she got in. She decided to make it a collect call, not sure how her finances would hold out.
“You just caught me on the way to the office,” he told her after accepting the charges.
“Have you sold the stock?” Marissa asked. She thought of it as the call was going through.
“No, I haven’t sold the stock,” Robert admitted.
“When are you coming home? And where are you? I tried calling your hotel.
I was told you’d checked out.”
“I’m not in Australia anymore,” Marissa said.
“I’m calling to let you know I’m in Hong Kong.”
“Hong Kong!” Robert yelled.
“What the hell are you doing in Hong Kong?”
“Just a little investigative work.”
“Marissa, this is too much!” Robert fumed.
“I want you home.
Do you understand?”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Marissa said, echoing Robert’s reply to her request to sell his stock. Marissa hung up. There was no point trying to talk to him. He didn’t even inquire about how she was feeling.
Marissa went to the window and gazed out at the scene. Even in the dark of night, Hong Kong boiled with activity. It could just as well have been the middle of the day. The lights of multitudinous vessels moved like fireflies over the surface of the water.
Across the harbor in Central on Hong Kong Island, the windows in the office high-rises were all ablaze, as if the businessmen could not dare to take an hour off. In Hong Kong the seductive ness of capitalism was complemented by the sheer power of human endeavor on a twenty-four-hour basis.
Just then Marissa heard a door close. She assumed it was Tristan. Within seconds there was a knock on the connecting door. Marissa told him to come in.
“Good news, luv,” Tristan said excitedly.
“One of the Caucasian doormen gave me a tip. He said there is a place not far from here where the triads reign supreme.”
“Where?” Marissa asked.
“In an area called the Walled City,” Tristan said.
“It isn’t really walled, but it was way back when. It was built as a fort in the twelfth century by the Sung dynasty. The Japanese occupying forces in World War II had the walls torn down to extend the runway at Kai Tac Airport. But the salient feature is that the British and the Chinese could never decide who had jurisdiction.
So this little area has existed over the years in a kind of political limbo. Yet it’s right here on the outskirts of Kowloon.”
“You sound like a tour operator,” Marissa commented.