Chapter 25

‘Son of bitch.’ Horns blew away the blackbirds.

Kreeger’s head nodded forward and he awoke to see a blue pickup truck swerve into the narrow space in front of them just before a large van hurtled past on the opposite side of the road. He was dripping with sweat.

‘Sorry Docta, I didn’t know you were asleep. Son of bitch he overtook on a blind corner,’ Lee fired his horn again at the blue pickup in front. ‘Almost kill us.’

Kreeger tried to say something but got nothing more than gravel from a cement mixer. He coughed up stones.

‘Let’s stop,’ Lee said and abruptly swerved across the road to pull up in a big lay-by.

Kreeger was relieved and not only because of the phlegm he was holding in his mouth—it felt as if the blood had stopped flowing through his crunched-up legs. Officer Mao’s Japanese car was small and, owing to the faulty air-conditioning unit, was very hot. He opened his door, even before the driver had pulled up the handbrake, and coughed. He tried to cover the phlegm as it dripped to the ground in a long string, but he couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

Lee jumped out, hooked up something of his own from deep in his throat, and fired it out over the edge of the mountain, obviously feeling none of the shame of the doctor. He pushed down the shades that had been sitting snugly on top of his slicked-back hair then popped a cigarette into his mouth. Marlborough: Kreeger noticed the red box. Out came the silver Zippo, obviously a fake.

‘Gave up betel nut last week, Docta. Now I need more of these.’ He flashed the red box before dropping it back into his pocket. ‘Hungry?’ he said with his first exhalation of smoke; and without waiting for a reply he started to walk over to what looked like a vendor, set up at the far end of the lay-by.

Kreeger did not follow; he dragged himself no further than the side of the road, where a row of gleaming white pilasters sat guarding the vertical drop beyond. He brushed off the surface of one and sat down, surveying the road that snaked away below him, back into the smog-covered city. At least the air is cleaner up here, he thought to himself.

He was following a hawk that floated away from the mountainside in a thermal of air when Lee reappeared, smacking his lips on a slab of something yellow.

‘Sweet potato. Fried. You want some. Very delicious.’

Kreeger declined and returned his eyes to the view out in front of him.

‘Don’t worry, we wouldn’t have gone over,’ Lee laughed, kicking at one of the sturdy pilasters. He sat down and bit off more of the sweet potato. ‘Nice view?’

Kreeger swung around to face him, as if he was going to speak, but said nothing. Lee had found something disagreeable in the snack and spat whatever it was onto the floor. It landed on a wad of something that he immediately kicked away, breaking it apart into small pieces of yellow paper that fluttered away in the breeze.

‘Ghost money,’ he said, spitting again.

Kreeger waited for some kind of explanation, but Lee had already bitten off another mouthful and was busy chewing. ‘What’s ghost money?’ he asked.

‘Ghost money?’ Lee said. The last piece of fried sweet potato disappeared into his mouth before he could answer; the paper bag fluttered away over the edge. He jumped up and motioned to the car. ‘Let’s go,’ he managed to say with his mouth full.

Kreeger followed Lee to the car, noticing for the first time the bundles and notes that were strewn all around them. Just before he bent to get in, he caught Lee’s eye over the hot metal roof of the car.

‘This a dangerous place, you know. Many ghosts.’ Lee said with a grin before disappearing from view.

Kreeger followed, ducking inside. The car had heated up while they were on the wall and Kreeger immediately started to sweat; he struggled out of his jacket, writhing like a madman in a straightjacket.

Lee wound down his window and threw something out, then pointed at the road ahead. ‘Look at the bend, coming off this steep section. Many vehicles go over here.’ He made a noise like an explosion. ‘Before, many more—before they built the barrier.’ He pulled away without looking and drove across the road, dropped a gear or two, and attacked the incline he had just pointed at. ‘Drivers are very afraid of the ghosts, think they will haunt them, give them bad luck, maybe even take them over the edge. So they throw out ghost money—to make the ghost happy.’

‘You don’t believe that, surely?’ Kreeger was incredulous.

‘I’m almost a local now, after all these years.’ Lee grinned across at Kreeger as he turned the car out of the steep incline and into another long loop of the road that snaked back and forwards on itself up the hillside.

‘Yes, you said that you were not born here.’

‘Yes. I wasn’t born here. I am from the province capital. Nice place; modern. Not like Pei Lin, so backward and superstitious.’

‘So what made you come here,’ Kreeger said. ‘You certainly look as if you belong in a different place.’ His sarcasm had become habitual and was not really intended on this occasion.

Lee smiled, as if to agree that he was far too sophisticated for a place like Pei Lin. ‘It’s a long story, Docta. Problems with the job. Problems with the wife. So many problems, But now it’s ok—I can survive in Pei Lin.’