THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels) Read Online Free Page A

meant.
    “PLEASE, JACK,” PANSY SAID, “would you at least hear me out here?”
    I nodded and she leaned toward me with an earnest expression on her face. I was sort of hoping she would stare deep into my eyes and place a hand on my thigh, but her eyes focused somewhere above my head and her hand stopped on my arm. I was left disappointed all around, but I nodded again anyway. It seemed to be the polite thing to do.
    “I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about Dr. Ho,” she said.
    Dr. Ho? Not ‘Dad’ or ‘my father’?
    What Pansy chose to call her old man was none of my business, of course, but it did seem curious. And what was Ho a doctor of, anyway? I tried to imagine someone referring to Steve Wynn as Dr. Wynn and almost burst out laughing.
    That was when I realized Pansy was staring at me. She appeared to be waiting for me to acknowledge that I had indeed heard the stories about her father before she went any further. I assumed she meant the stories about Stanley Ho being connected somehow with the triads, the nature of his supposed connection varying wildly from one story to the next. I had indeed heard those stories. Nearly everyone I knew had heard those stories. So I ventured a small nod, not entirely certain what Pansy might think I was agreeing to. But a simple nod seemed harmless enough, and anyway, it looked like the only way I could keep the conversation going.
    The nod seemed to satisfy Pansy, whatever she thought it meant.
    “I want to tell you that those stories are not true,” she continued. “Dr. Ho has no connections whatsoever with the triads. He runs gambling casinos in the biggest gambling market in the world, so it is inevitable that criminals come to his casinos, but that does not mean he himself is a criminal.”
    “A lot of people say your father has cooperated with the triads and that was why he wasn’t a suitable partner for a company like MGM Resorts in Macau.”
    “Yes, I understand that.”
    “They say you’re MGM’s partner here only because your father can’t be.”
    “I understand that, too. But what do you say?”
    “I don’t say anything. I have no idea.”
    “We all have fathers,” Pansy snapped. “Even you, I suspect.”
    That was true, of course, but I doubted it would be polite to point out that, as far as I knew, nobody had ever thought my father might be an organized crime boss.
    “Would you like to be held responsible for everything your father has ever done, Mr. Shepherd?”
    I noticed that Pansy hadn’t exactly addressed the question on the table. I also noticed I was no longer Jack. I wasn’t even Professor Shepherd. Now I was plain Mr. Shepherd.
    “You’ve been in Asia for a long time,” Pansy continued while I was still contemplating the significance of my abrupt demotion. “You of all people must understand that triads are a fact of life here, particularly in Macau. People who say Dr. Ho cooperates with criminals do not live in this part of the world and so they do not understand how this culture works. But that does not stop us living our lives.”
    I didn’t even want to try guessing what
that
meant.
    WE TALKED ON FOR another ten or fifteen minutes after that, or rather Pansy talked and I listened. I found that an occasional nod on my part was enough to keep things going. When Pansy was done with her pitch, she leaned toward me again and that earnest expression returned to her face.
    “So do you understand what I’m saying, Mr. Shepherd?”
    “I do.”
    “If triad money is being laundered through the MGM and it is not stopped immediately, I will be blamed for it.”
    “You probably will be.”
    “That will be seen as validating all the old stories about my father and I will become a personal liability for MGM.”
    “Yes, I think you’re right.”
    “American gambling commissions have the power to shut down casinos if they suspect they have any kind of connection at all with organized crime anywhere in the world. To save their other