The Goddess of Yantai by Ian Hamilton

Author:Ian Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2018-11-01T20:34:24+00:00

( 28 )

The call from Mak Guang came in less than an hour. Ava and Fai were about to leave the house for a walk when Fai’s phone rang. She answered, listened for a few seconds, and then said, “You’d better speak to Ava.”

“This is far quicker than I expected,” Ava said, after putting the phone on speaker.

“I had one person I needed to talk to, and I got hold of her right away,” Mak said. “She’s the friend who loaned me the apartment.”

“What’s her name?”

“Is it really necessary that you know?”

“Guang, we need to trust each other.”

“Her name is Ren Lan. She was — and is — an actress. Fai knows her,” Mak said. “But I promised her I’d keep her out of this. She doesn’t want to create enemies.”

“Did you tell her it was you and Fai in the video?”

“No, I just said I’ve been told there’s a video of me in circulation that I’m sure was made at her place. I said the other party in it is someone important enough to have vengeful friends.”

“Well, she doesn’t have to worry if she had nothing to do with the recording.”

“But she did, indirectly.”

“Meaning she knew that whatever went on in that bedroom was being recorded?”

“There was a switch on the wall linked to the camera. She turned it off and on as she saw fit. It was always off when she was in the bed and it was on when she knew someone else would be using it.”

“Why did she do it?”

“Money.”

“Yes, of course it was money, but how did she make money by doing that?”

“She was being paid by the person who installed the camera.”

“Did she see the recordings?”

“No, she let him know whenever there had been action in the bedroom, and he’d come by and pick them up.”

“So she wasn’t selling the videos herself?”

“No.”

“What did she think was being done with them?”

“She thought they were being sold as porn films.”

“They would have been unscripted, amateurish. Who would have any interest in them?”

“There wasn’t much else available. Besides, maybe the people buying them liked the fact that they were natural rather than contrived.”

“But if that was the case, why hasn’t this one surfaced until now? Surely a video of Pang Fai with another woman would have attracted a lot of attention.”

“I can’t answer that question.”

“Then answer these: who installed the camera and who was paying her?” Ava asked, bracing herself for a reply she didn’t want to hear.

“Bai Lok.”

“Who?”

“Fai will probably remember him. He was an AD.”

“What’s an AD?”

“An assistant director. He worked on a lot of films, and I’m sure she was in some of them.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“I couldn’t.”

“You couldn’t or you didn’t try?”

“I said I couldn’t. He died of cancer three years ago.”

Ava sighed. “Great. So that means all we have is the word of this Ren Lan,” Ava said. “That’s convenient for her, isn’t it.”

“You’re very cynical.”

“My life experience has taught me that you can never be too cynical,” Ava said. “Now

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