Page 109 of King’s Ransom

I’d been watching footage nonstop for about five hours.

I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes.

When I put them back on, I looked around the waiting room and saw someone standing at the rear section of the emergency department with Nurse Narelle.

Someone I hadn’t expected to see here.

Zhang Xiao.

My fellow private detective.

I wondered why he was at the hospital.

After shaking Nurse Narelle’s hand and thanking her, he ambled over to Kenneth the janitor and spoke with him in whispered Mandarin.

I observed their chat in interested silence.

When they were done, Xiao came over to me.

‘Dr Speedman,’ he said. ‘I wanted to check in on the brave Agent Mills. Her nurse tells me she is stable and expected to be brought out of her coma tomorrow.’

‘Audrey’s tough,’ I said.

‘I gather you’ll be here when she is awakened.’

‘That’s my plan.’

‘Please give her my best wishes,’ Xiao said with a kind smile. ‘She and I survived a shootout together.’

‘I will,’ I said.

He left.

I noticed that Kenneth the janitor watched Xiao closely as he departed.

There was something in his eyes.

Was it worry? Anxiety? Or fear?

About ten minutes later, as Kenneth came by my seat to mop the floor under it, I said, ‘Kenneth, do you know Zhang Xiao, that detective who came by just now?’

Kenneth’s eyes darted left and right.

It was definitely fear.

‘Yes.’

‘How do you know him?’

Kenneth hesitated.

He seemed to be weighing me up: an American, but also one who had helped him with the drunk asshole on Christmas Eve.

At last, he said, ‘Mr Xiao is—how you say—policeman.’

‘Yeah, a private detective.’

‘No, no, not detective. Policeman. Chinese policeman.’