Free The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton Page A

for the whole month. I hope you’ll be there,” he said.
    “It’s a long way out, and with my work —”
    “Anyway, I’m giving you notice. I told Mummy that maybe we could have a family holiday. You know, take your sister and her kids and you and go on a cruise, or down to the Bahamas.”
    “How is everyone here?” Ava asked as if she hadn’t heard him.
    “Good, really good. Jamie and Michael are in business here. Neither of them is married yet, although Michael is now living with a girl for the first time. David is in Australia finishing up a Ph.D. and trying to find himself. Peter has just joined Barclay’s Bank.”
    It always amazed her that he could talk about the children from his first marriage with such ease in front of her. What was as surprising was that her mother spoke about them and took pride in them as well, as if they were part of her extended family. Ava wondered if it cut both ways. Did they even know she existed?
    “Yes, Mummy keeps me posted,” she said.
    The waiter put a small tureen of hot and sour soup on the table. Her father filled her bowl.
    “So, what brings you east again?”
    “Business,” she said.
    “Are you still working with Chow?”
    “Yes, of course I am.”
    “I can’t help but wish you weren’t.”
    “But I am.”
    “Be careful,” he said. It was the same thing he said every time Uncle’s name was mentioned.
    “Daddy, I’m an accountant,” she said.
    His eyes flickered in her direction. She felt a nervous flutter in her stomach, her face flushed, and she found herself confronting the fact that this man was nobody’s fool. He knew what she did for a living, and though she never discussed her work in detail, he’d been in business long enough and knew Hong Kong and China well enough to know what it could entail.
    “So what is this business?”
    “The usual. Someone took off with someone else’s money, and I’m trying to track it down and have it returned to its rightful owner.”
    “You make it sound so simple.”
    “It is.”
    “Do I know any of the principals?”
    “I don’t think so, and even if you did I couldn’t acknowledge it.”
    “So why did you call me, then?”
    The question was asked gently but the point was direct; she couldn’t lie to him. “I need to speak to a man named Frank Seto. He is Carter Chan’s son-in-law. I’m quite sure that if I approach him on my own I’ll be put off. I was hoping you could help me.”
    “I don’t know Frank very well,” he said. “Still, I can’t imagine him getting himself immersed in anything untoward.”
    “It isn’t him. He has a brother who I’m trying to locate, and so far there’s nothing but dead ends. I’m hoping that Frank can help me.”
    Their food arrived: shu mai, fried turnip cake, scallops fried with salt, and steamed duck feet with mushrooms.
    “I’m not sure my calling Frank will do any good. He might not remember me,” he said. “On the other hand, Carter and I have had a long and uneventful relationship. In his own strange way, he may even consider me a friend. I’ll call him and see what he can set up. You want to meet with Frank, correct?”
    “Yes, thank you, Daddy.”
    “Would you find it upsetting if I came along?”
    She glanced up at him.
    “It might make things easier all around,” he said.
    “What would you tell him? I mean, what would you tell him about me?”
    “That you are my daughter, of course. What did you think I would say?”
    “I don’t know. I mean, Mummy and me and Marian are in another world. This is your world here. I don’t know who knows what about what.”
    “You aren’t a secret, if that’s what you think.”
    “I don’t think I need a complete explanation,” she said.
    “Well, anytime you do, just ask,” he said. “I know it seems to Westerners that some of us Chinese have very complicated lives. Actually, the opposite is true. There are rules to this tradition of ours, and as long as everyone — and that includes the