‘All the more reason to listen to what I have to tell you.’

I sighed and leaned back in my own chair, making it creak almost as much as the other one. I was never much of a chess player and he’d put a good move on me. ‘OK, O.C., what’ve you got in mind?’

‘You’re still taking the piss out of me. I want you to know that I can see that. And I can live with it.’

He was trying very hard and I’ve always had a soft spot for triers, being one myself. I relented to the extent of admitting that I didn’t have a lot of work on hand and that things had been slow of late. I was already almost regretting the trip to Hong Kong. Glen Withers and I had had a good ten days hammering the plastic and the mattress in the four-star hotel. We’d taken tea in The Peninsula Hotel and fantasised about staying in the place with the rich and famous. One night would have broken the bank. I jerked myself away from these memories to concentrate on what he was saying.

‘Come and take a look. What’s the harm?’

The implication, that my time was valueless, irritated me. ‘What would be the good?’

‘I’ll pay your hourly rate.’

I had to laugh at that. ‘I’m a private inquiry agent in a small way of business, Mr Cartwright. I’m not a lawyer or a CPA. I charge by the day- $150, if I think the client can afford it.’

He was already out of his seat. He took his wallet from off his hip and slid out three fifty-dollar notes as if he could keep producing them for half an hour. Then he was moving towards the door in his slightly built-up Italian slip-ons which might have got him up to five foot nine, just. I’m six feet and half an inch; I had that on him. ‘You’ve got a deal. A day’s pay for an hour’s tour, maybe two hours. I say again, what’ve you got to lose?’

Gambler’s talk, and I’m not a gambler. Money talk, and I’ve never been seriously interested in money. But there was an enthusiasm and eagerness and energy about him that did appeal to me. I picked up the money and stuffed it into my pants pocket, hooked my wrinkled jacket off the back of the chair and stood up, hoping he wouldn’t hear the joints creak. “Where’re we going exactly?’