Chapter 5
Beyond the CloudsApparently, while Roger had interviewed most the employees that work there that day, the old man was not working that day. Raymond believed that Joe Ma must have some kind of relationship with the old man. After reporting this to Roger, he agreed to have Raymond go to the restaurant and ask him a few questions.
Raymond entered the rundown Chinese restaurant with Shirley and Jack following right behind him. A teenage waitress approached them.
“Hello, table for three?”
They nodded. “Come sit here.” The waitress gestured.
They sat down and searched around for the old man, Cheng Siu Mu.
“Excuse me miss – may we speak to Cheng Siu Mu?” Jack asked.
“Oh…he’s in the back. I’ll get him for you.”
A few minutes later Cheng Siu Mu appears before them.
“Hello Cheng Siu Mu, we are the Hong Kong Police.” Raymond says, taking out his badge and showing him. The others flashed their badges as well.
“Ah Sir, Madam, what do you want from me?” Cheng Siu Mu asked, frightened.
“We just have some questions regarding Joe Ma.” Shirley says.
They studied Cheng’s expression. “My nephew? What do you want to know about him? He has done nothing wrong!”
“Joe Ma is your nephew?” Shirley asked, her eyebrows raised.
Cheng nodded.
“Cheng, please help us by answering our questions truthfully. Whether Joe Ma has convicted the crime is up to you. We believe he is involved in a murder case.” Raymond stated calmly.
“Joe would never murder anyone! He is a smart, good boy, he always looks after me!” Cheng cried.
“How so? By checking up on you while he takes his lunch break? How does that make him a good nephew?” Jack asked.
“Joe visits me in my flat! He cleans my flat and takes very well care of me!”
“How often? Where is your flat?” Shirley asked.
“Everyday. Right next to Joes.” Cheng simply stated.
Raymond, Jack, and Shirley glanced at one another.
“Cheng, where were you on July 18, 2010 from 7:30pm until the next morning?” Raymond asked.
“I had work that day, and I got off work at 7:00. I went home and ate dinner.” Cheng says.
“Any witnesses?” Jack asked.
Cheng shook his head. “Not after 7.”
“Did you hear anything that night?” Raymond asked.
Cheng hesitated, his eyes shifted towards the ground.
“Yes.” He finally says, looking at Raymond straight in the eye.
“That night there was a raucous. Joe brought Sheena into his flat and they were arguing very loudly. They woke the entire flat up.”
“Did you hear what they were yelling about?” Shirley asked, learing in towards Cheng. He shook his head.
“Who exactly is Sheena in relation to Joe?” Raymond asked.
Cheng sighed. “Sheena is a e. She was involved with Joe’s father, 5 years ago.”
Suddenly, Cheng looked up, alerted. “Did something happen to Sheena? Was she the one who was murdered?”
All three of them nodded.
“Oh no no. Joe wouldn’t, would he? Oh that boy – ever since what happened, he was always so reserved. He seemed like he was always in another world, he would shut everyone out.
“Cheng…What happened?” Shirley asked.
“Five years ago, Sheena seduced Joe’s father. This tore their family apart, as his wife eventually found out about them. They argued day and night, and his wife could no longer take it anymore, so she committed suicide. Shortly after, his father became paranoid and was sent to the mental hospital. Joe was so young, he was devastated, angry – it was so hard on him. So I took care of him after that, but he was always so distant, so angry all the time… I thought he would have let this go…”
Cheng started to cry.
“Last week, I saw them together, but when I questioned Joe he threatened me to stay out of his life. So I never asked again when he brought her into his flat. I should’ve known he was out for revenge.”
Raymond, Jack, and Shirley exchanged glances. It all made sense now.
- - -
[ Day 6 - since the time Tavia had awaken ]
It was noon and Roger, Raymond, Shirley, and Jack along with a few others all gathered at the table in the meeting room.
“Alright guys, Joe has a valid reason for murdering Sheena. And because we have found his business card, he must’ve been there in the crime scene. I say we have enough evidence to search his house.” Roger announces.
Just then, Roger’s phone started to ring. He picked up his cellphone, and his expression was dark. He got off the phone and looked at his teammates.
“I just got a call from Cheng. Joe just found out that Cheng talked to you three yesterday and revealed his past. They had an argument, and Cheng absentmindedly burst out that his employee, the teenage waitress was walking past the alleyway the night Joe murdered Sheena. The day you three interrogated Cheng, she had eavesdropped on your conversation but was too afraid to confess to anyone other than Cheng of what she had witnessed. Apparently, she saw everything. The bad news is, Joe now knows of this – and Cheng believes he is headed towards the hospital to kill the waitress – because she is headed there today to visit her mom. This calls for immediate action.”
Roger assigns the teams and once again, Raymond, Shirley and Jack are in one team and they are assigned to head up in the hospital and search for Joe. The rest of the teammates are to stay downstairs and are on the watch, in case Joe escapes and leaves the hospital.
Raymond, Shirley, and Jack rushed into the hospital. Jack pressed the elevator up button. They waited for a few seconds.
“It’s too slow – I’m going to take the stairs.” Raymond says. He rushed up through the flight of stairs and finally arrived on the main floor, where the receptionist and Dr. Au-Yeung’s office is.
Raymond straightened his shirt and casually walked out. He glanced around for anything suspicious. He took a good quick look at everybody that he passed by. The elevator door clicked open out walked a good six people. Shirley and Jack were among the six. They saw Raymond and nodded, indicating that everything seems to be normal as of now.
Suddenly, Raymond noticed that among one of the six people walking out, one of them wore a cap that hung over his face. The person was tall, dark, and somewhat built; he was dressed in black leather jacket and dark jeans, and was wearing a big brown side bag. The person walked by Raymond, his head down, his hands close to his side, but they were clenched into fists.
Raymond never took his eyes off the guy; he tried to take a good look at his face. He suddenly had a feeling that the guy was suspicious by the way he dressed and walked, and something tells him he’s dangerous – he could be Joe Ma.
Just then, the guy turned around and took a peek at the people around him. His eyes met with Raymond’s. Raymond’s eyes widened, he recognized those eyes. The pairs of eyes widened also, and Joe Ma broke into a run.
Raymond ran after him. “Get him!” He yelled over his shoulder to Shirley and Jack. They ran after Raymond, just as they turned the corner, they found that it was a dead end. There was no way Joe Ma could get out.
“Joe Ma. Stop what you’re doing. You’re under arrest.” Raymond said, approaching Joe Ma slowly. Shirley and Jack blocked the empty space between them, so Joe could not escape when all three of them are in the way.
Joe Ma suddenly grabbed a knife from his inside jacket and held his arm straight out. “Don’t you dare come close to me!” He shouted.
As he did so, Raymond, Shirley, and Jack all got their guns out, all three of them pointing straight at Joe.
Just then, one of the doors of the rooms from either side of the end of the hallway, the one right next to Joe Ma opened. Out came a young woman. She looked up and gasped as she witnessed the sight in front of her. Without even thinking, Joe Ma grabbed her and held onto her tightly with his free arm, and then he held the knife close to with his other arm.
“Let go of her Joe! You cannot escape!” Raymond said.
Joe smiled, moving his knife closer to the girl’s throat. It was now touching her skin, and the girl gasped her eyes wide, her face an expression of horror. Raymond glanced at her briefly, and then back at Joe, and then back at her again.
Do I know her from somewhere? Raymond thought to himself. He couldn’t shake the fact that the girl looked so familiar, he was sure he has seen her somewhere before. Where could it be? He thought.
“I suggest all of you put down your guns, or this poor innocent girl will die before your eyes.” Joe said, breaking Raymond out of his thoughts.
Both Shirley and Jack glanced over to Raymond, revealing a troublesome look on their faces. Joe grinned wider as he witnesses this. Keeping his calm, Raymond said,
“Calm down Joe. Don’t you see what you’re doing? What has this girl ever done to you? You can always start your life over – it’s not too late now.” Raymond says.
Joe laughed. “It’s too late, I killed Sheena. She deserved to die. There. I admit that I killed her, but I don’t regret it at all.”
Joe felt the girl trembling. Tavia was extremely horrified. Her mind was blank. Here she was, about to die, under the arms of a murderer. She didn’t know what was going on, what he was talking about, whether or not the police in front of her could save her life. She pleaded to the police with her eyes. Save me, she mouthed. Tears started to fall onto her cheeks. She looked at the police in the middle, right into his eyes. He glanced at her, and his eyes told her ‘trust me’. She didn’t know why, but she felt his comfort. She felt that she could trust him, even though she didn’t know him.
Suddenly, her head started to hurt.
[ - FLASHBACK - ]
[ 2 years ago march break – when Tavia was back in HK for a visit ]
It was early in the morning and Tavia was jogging around her neighborhood. She heard a loud scream from an elder woman far in the distance. Curious, she ran towards the sound.
“Help! Someone help me!”
As Tavia turned to the corner, she saw a elder woman on the floor, in a crawling position. She quickly ran up to the elder woman who continued to scream for help.
“What happened?” Tavia asked.
“Someone stole my wallet!” The woman cried. Tavia helped the woman get up, and she searched around for the criminal. She saw someone running full speed through an alleyway.
The elder woman saw Raymond walk by in his uniform, a few blocks down. He was writing tickets for a parked car.
“Ah sir, please help me!” The woman cried, running towards Raymond.
Alerted, Raymond looked up and saw the elder woman. He ran up to her and asked her what had happened. The woman told him that a man stole her wallet and she pointed to the direction he ran. As Raymond ran as quickly as he could in that direction, the elder woman turned around, but found that Tavia had disappeared.
Raymond finally reached the alleyway, to have bumped right into Tavia. “Ouch!” They both cried at the same time.
“Excuse me miss – what are you doing here?” Raymond asked.
“The man that stole the woman’s purse ran in here – I swear I saw him!” Tavia whispered.
“Alright. Allow me to do my job.” Raymond said, stepping up in front of Tavia. Slowly and cautiously, he walked further down. He reached the end of the alleyway, to find that it leads to two directions, but he wasn’t sure whether or not he should turn left…or right.
“You go left, I’ll go right.” Tavia ordered.
Raymond looked up at her, surprised. She was sure brave, He thought. He shook his head.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to cause you any harm.” He says softly.
“I’ll be fine.” Tavia grinned. Raymond finally nodded. They walked their separate ways.
As Raymond turned to the right and walked forward, he saw another opening to his left. He took a quick glance, and saw something move. To his left, the criminal’s back was facing him. The man was struggling to climb over a fence.
“Stop right there!” Raymond shouted, taking out his gun and pointing it at the man.
The man held both of his hands up and turned around.
“Give her wallet back!” Raymond said, walking towards the man.
The man slowly took the wallet out of his pants pocket and threw it on the ground towards Raymond. Raymond broke his eye contact on the man for one second, and the man grabbed the gun right out of Raymond’s hands and held onto Raymond, holding the gun close to his head.
“Gotcha.” The man said.
“Let him go!” Tavia appeared before them.
The old man laughed. “I’m so scared!”
Tavia walked up to the man. “Let. Him. Go. Or. ELSE.” Tavia said.
“Or else?”
Tavia slowly walked up to them, until she was a meter away. The man grinned, waiting. He suddenly pointed the gun at Tavia.
In a blink of an eye, Tavia kicked the gun right out of the man’s hand and kicked him right in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards and hit the fence. The man’s head hit the fence, and he fell unconscious.
Completely shocked, Raymond stood in place. Finally, he breathed and asked, “Wow. Thank you for saving me!”
Tavia smiled. “No problem!”
“How did you learn to do that?” Raymond asked.
“Oh, someone taught me some moves.” Tavia said. “He taught me what to do in certain situations…I never thought I would have to apply what I learned.”
Raymond nodded. “You should join the police force.”
Tavia laughed. “No thank you. I’m actually really weak!”
Tavia glanced at her watch. “Oh no! I’m late! See you later!” Tavia said before running off.
[ - END OF FLASHBACK - ]
Just as Tavia was having her flashback, Raymond had also remembered the encounter with Tavia. They looked at each other simultaneously. Tavia blinked her eyes several times. Raymond watched her, unsure what she meant. Suddenly, he understood.
“I’ll slide my gun towards you...And you let her go.” Raymond said.
Joe looked at Raymond as if he was crazy. Shirley and Jack were about to say something, but Raymond held both of his hands up.
“You two, do the same.” Raymond ordered.
Slowly, all three of them bent down and slid the guns towards Joe at the same time.
Just as Joe watched the guns slide towards him, Raymond charged forward and Tavia pushed Joe’s arm out so that the knife sticks out towards Raymond. Raymond kicked the knife up in the air and it fell on the ground. Just then, Tavia elbowed Joe causing him to stumble backwards, and Raymond punched him in the face. Shortly after, Joe was handcuffed.
- - -
fungyi :)
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