Free The Mystery of Yamashita's Map by James McKenzie

business with his granddaughter, it was terrible, horrible. People round here found it hard to believe.’ He looked around him again. ‘They say that Amichi was a devil.’
     
    There was silence. The professor looked at Fraser, Fraser at the professor.
     
    ‘Is that it?’ Fraser asked. ‘Is that what we have paid you a hundred and fifty dollars for? Some mumbo-jumbo about a guy called Amichi, who we knew about anyway, whose granddaughter killed herself, that we could have guessed anyway. Why did she do it?’
     
    ‘The curse,’ the boy replied.
     
    Fraser threw his hands up into the air. ‘The curse! Well, that’s money well spent.’
     
    The boy lifted a finger to his lips. ‘Don’t make light of the curse. It’s all around you. If it can affect a great soldier it can affect anyone.’
     
    ‘Even if you don’t believe in it?’ Fraser retorted,
     
    ‘Listen, my friend, curse or no curse, I think you should seriously watch your step.’
     
    ‘Hang on . . .’ Lisa interrupted. ‘What was that last bit?’
     
    The boy spoke. ‘If it can affect a great soldier it can affect anyone.’
     
    ‘A great soldier?’
     
    ‘Yes, Amichi was a famous captain, fought alongside many of the best generals in the war.’
     
    The boy looked at Fraser. ‘I thought you would have known that.’
     
    Lisa thought. ‘No, no we didn’t. But if we looked through the records we could find out how many Amichis there were and how many served under well-known generals. That would give us a start in finding out where the map came from.’
     
    Huen’s ears pricked up. ‘Map?’
     
    Fraser pushed him to one side. ‘Never mind that. Yes, you’re right. Perhaps we should be out of here – there doesn’t seem like anything else we could hope to find here.’ He got into the car and started tapping on the wheel.
     
    Lisa sighed. ‘Perhaps we should be getting back, uncle. There are things that need to be checked out.’
     
    ‘You said a map?’ the boy asked.
     
    ‘It’s nothing,’ Lisa said. ‘Really, it’s nothing.’
     
    Lisa and the professor both got into the car and Fraser started it. As Lisa waved to Huen, they sped off into the dim Hong Kong evening, leaving a trail of stone chippings to spray up into the cooling air. They moved away so fast they did not see the shadowy figure make its way from the nearest tower block. It moved quickly but silently, just visible in the bleak light, over to where Huen stood still rubbing the bulge in his sock where the money rested against his leg. The figure reached the boy and bent down to whisper in his ear whereupon the boy talked back. There were few words spoken between the two but what was said was clearly understood. A hand reached out and gave the boy more money than he had ever seen in his life and then they parted, one leaving to the right, back to the bridge, the other back to the storm drain where he spent the nights.
     
    In the car Lisa was excited and she and the professor chatted furiously in Japanese, a trait that annoyed Fraser, who only spoke a smattering of it. He concentrated on the road and the lights that constantly flashed across his face. The bridge was almost full to capacity now and the cars on it crept along with a dull regularity. As he turned off the bridge and down towards the dock he noticed something: lights in his mirror. They looked as though they were following him, every turn he made, every stop, they would turn or stop too. He resolved to test his theory and made a right turn, then another, then another, resulting in him arriving back at the same place he had started from.
     
    He looked in his mirror. They were still there. The left light of the car was slightly duller than the right – the bulb must be old, he thought to himself – so he knew it was the same car. He strained his eyes to see the colour but the rapidly closing darkness made it virtually impossible. He turned into Hong Kong Central and noticed with a sigh of