EXCERPT FROM “HARD CUDDLES”
WHAT A YARRA
“a pheasant one day, a feather duster the next” Charlie Wootton
I was contacted by a couple of Chinese gentlemen heavily involved in illegal gambling and drug distribution throughout the city and the western suburbs. These particular men were not the type of people that you take lightly, they both had fearsome reputations for getting things done and were extremely low key in the way they handled their business. People that failed to meet their demands seem to just vanish. For the sake of the story, I will call them Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong, I met the two of them at a quiet empty restaurant in Chinatown and I knew right from the start that if I accepted the job on offer, there would be no allowances for mistakes on my part.
Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong were sitting with their backs against the walls of a table at the end of this particular establishment. It appeared to me that they were afforded their own personal table and the owner of the restaurant made a very special effort to please the two of them and anyone that was in their company. The thing I love about doing business with Chinese people is not only there under the radar approach, but also the level of respect they treat people with. Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong were both slight men with immaculate attire, they both wore understated designer clothing that reeked off good taste and serious money. You would easily walk past these two chaps at Prada and not think a damn thing about either of them, really nondescript types. Underneath those clothes they had some serious artwork scripted all over their bodies, not that I knew any of this. My friend that put me in contact with Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong had given me a serious de-brief on where they both sat in the food chain and how seriously I should handle the two of them.
