Page 1 of Don't Point at the Moon

Prologue

He discovered the hidden path one Sunday morning during a solo hike to Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak. Shaded by lush acacia trees and cooled by sea breezes, the well-trodden peak trail provided a welcome respite from the intense heat and humidity of subtropical summer days. The main route encircled the island’s summit, with a cast-iron railing on one side offering occasional breathtaking views of the island. Discovered only by those bold or foolish enough to clamber over the barrier, a secret path led to a precarious ledge housing a massive boulder. Over the years, daring hikers had etched their thoughts and words onto its surface. Among them, a small, framed inscription made with a penknife read—

JASMIN

HONG KONG

I PROMISE.

For some, the inscription

Only Mitchell Baxter knew the truth.

Six

On a stroll alone early that misty Sunday morning, he discovered the secret trail and the boulder before the sun had risen along with most of the population. Making a deal with himself that only he would understand, and entirely out of character for somebody who typically considered graffiti and hacking words into stone offensive, if not a crime, he carved his own pledge to the universe.

Just Another Six Months In

Hong Kong

I Promise

At the end of six more months, his working visa would expire and he would use the opportunity to return home to the poorly disguised smirks from family and friends. And once he was back in England, he would never ask for anything ever again.

But something happened that morning on Victoria Peak, something he couldn’t explain that told him he was exactly where he was meant to be. After all, wasn’t that how he ended up in Hong Kong in the first place? Something happening to change his life? All he needed to do was pay attention and make a bold choice when the time came. One thing he knew intimately was that low points didn’t last forever, and as a local cab driver once told him, typhoons eventually blow themselves out.

Which is how Mitchell’s six months in Hong Kong drifted into two years. Two years grew to five, five to seven with the approval of his permanent residency status, and the promise he had made himself faded. And slowly, over time, he rebuilt his world, forgot all about that life-changing moment at the top of the island and settled into a comfortable, if unremarkable, existence.

Until thirteen years later Tommy Chow came along.

Chapter One

In the nick of time, Mitchell caught hold of the taxi’s backseat grab handle. The cabbie had floored the accelerator after nudging his car from the long queues of cross-harbour congestion into the empty lane heading towards the Aberdeen Tunnel. In the wing mirror, Mitchell watched the towering office blocks of Victoria Harbour shrink into the distance. For Hong Kong, as for many cities worldwide, the last day of April preceded the Labour Day public holiday, which inevitably led to after-work snarl-ups and long delays with commuters hurrying to be with family and friends.

On the approach to the tunnel entrance, his phone rang. As he pulled the device from his inside jacket pocket, he had a pretty good idea who the caller would be. Mitchell seldom left work before eight on weekdays, even though his contractual hours were nine to six. Such was the way of the working world in The City That Never Slept. That Tuesday night he had been invited to a kind of coming-out party and had managed to clear most of his work before slipping out of the door. He had not been able to find his boss and fully expected her to be on the line. But his phone had another name on the screen.

“Ellie? Everything okay?”

“Is this a good time, Mitch?” she asked. They called each other every Sunday. Or rather, she phoned, and he listened. He had come to view the conversations as her weekly therapy session. Mitchell usually browsed online newspapers while she grumbled about family or work.

“Well, I’m about fifteen minutes away from my drop-off,” said Mitchell. “Being thrown around the backseat of a taxi by a wannabe Lewis Hamilton. So I’d say now is as good a time as any.”

“Tell him to slow down then. Don’t they have speed limits over there?” came his sister’s stern but anxious voice. Mitchell bit his tongue. He hadn’t been thinking. The last thing he wanted was to worry his sister by dredging up memories of Joel.

“I’m kidding, Ellie. He’s perfectly competent,” said Mitchell calmly. “He was just negotiating a curve in the expressway. The road system here is far less complicated than over there, barely any speed bumps or mini roundabouts, or those ridiculous ever-changing speed zones designed to catch drivers on cameras. Why are you calling?”

He could hear her taking a moment to breathe.

“Zane’s been accepted into Leeds. For the mechanical engineering degree programme he wanted.”

“That’s great news.”

And expensive, he mused, which was probably why she was calling. Their grandparents had set up education trust funds for her three children years ago, but fees had soared since then.

“I know, but he’s now got time on his hands. He’ll be living in the halls for the first year, but we don’t move him in until August.”

“What about a part-time job?”

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