Chapter 21: Filling Gaps

Detective Sergeant Valerie Haste of the Male Control Force was sitting in Madame Chao’s office at the rear of the Sunrise Tea Parlour. “I’m afraid I don’t have much to report on the absconder,” she said. “He has not appeared on any of our surveillance operations. There was a shot of a man answering his description on closed circuit TV crossing Shaftesbury Avenue near Dean Street but after that nothing. Some of the cameras around there have been vandalised. We think we know where he was headed but nothing yet. He’s probably still in the area but apart from that I’m afraid we haven’t succeeded in finding him.”

Madam Chao thought for a moment. “Please, it is of no concern,” she responded. “I do not think he was any great risk to anyone except his own stupid self. Although, of course, Ms Daniels will be concerned if the project is delayed at all as a result.”

The mention of the Minister for Home Affairs caused a visible stiffening in Valerie Haste’s manner. “Yes, well understandably. I understand that she is anxious for the programme here to succeed and something like this must be disruptive.”

“We are managing but it is, of course, an embarrassment for us.”

“Do you know how he came to abscond?”

“Yes, I believe so. Those issues will be remedied but I wondered, could you help ensure disruption is minimised? We do not need anything special. Perhaps you know of a way we could replace the absconder without bothering Ms Daniels further. After all it is embarrassing for us that he has gone and for you that you have not found him. Best if we solve the problem before Daniels has to worry.”

Valerie Haste was happy to help if it kept the politicians out of things; the last thing she needed was that level of complication in handling dissident affairs. “I am sure we can do something,” she said, as she got up to leave. “Let me see when I get back to West End Central.”

A short time later Madam Chao called Liu Wei in to see her. “Do you wish to explain? I assume you do not wish to dispute the fact you were responsible for slave absconding?”

Liu Wei looked sulky and shook her head. “These girls have no right learning Kòngzhì Rén. It’s a waste of time.”

“Oh. Of course. I was forgetting your long Chinese heritage. Where was it you were born? Guangzhou? Beijing? Ah, no, Shoreditch! Cha, you need different views, I think. We find somewhere else for you to work. Go supervise production line in factory. There you can bully to your heart’s content. If your Kòngzhì Rén skills so good maybe you can get production rates back on target.”

Liu Wei looked unhappy at the prospect. The Sunrise factories weren’t much more pleasant places for the supervisors than for the workers.

“Otherwise there is steamer Mighty Lotus leaving for Tianjin tonight. I could arrange for you to be on board. No place here for people in Sunrise that do not see things the right way. Back in head office maybe you learn to think better.”

When Madam Chao said “on board”, Liu Wei wasn’t sure if she meant as a passenger or cargo. Either way, she had no wish to disappear off to China.

“So I tell from your sour face that this is not a good idea. I will call factory and tell them you start there tomorrow. Please do not visit JUMIST girls. I do not wish the programme to be disrupted more than it has been already.”

Liu Wei was not the only one experiencing a change of direction. Gary, Valerie Haste’s junior clerk was sitting in his boss’s office with a concerned look on his face. “But I’m quite happy here, Ms Haste.”

“I’m sure. Sadly we can’t all be happy all the time. And since you haven’t succeeded in tracking down Madame Chao’s runaway you’re going to fill in until we find him.”

“But I don’t know anything about what Sunrise are doing down in Gerard Street.”

“Fine. You’ll have no preconceptions then. Listen, they are training some girls in the art of bossing men about. They just need some men to practice on. You should be used to being bossed around by now, given you’ve been in this department a month. You’ll find it easy.”

Gary wasn’t sure. A girl he knew had used some Sunrise products on him once, “Just to try them out,” she’d said. The heavy wooden cangue had been a humiliation and the thick plug gag painful after only a short time. He didn’t think he was in any position to argue with Valerie, though.

Gary turned up at the Sunrise Tea Parlour asking for Madam Chao. In retrospect, Valerie told herself, it would have been a good idea to warn Madam Chao about Gary’s dress preferences and to suggest to Gary that turning up to his new placement in drag might not be the way to get things off to the best start.

With Madam Chao busy elsewhere, Tsai Lin had the task of greeting the new arrival. She seemed not to be fazed by the arrival of a moustachioed man in pencil thin knee length skirt, 3 inch heels, black hose and a white high necked blouse that fastened at the back.