Colton Banyon Mysteries 1-3: Colton Banyon Mysteries (Colton Banyon Mystery Book 20)

by Gerald J Kubicki

  The problem was that Colt was immensely attracted to her. She, however, treated him like a close relative or a mentor. She was very comfortable around him and would talk with him about any subject that was on her mind, which had led to some embarrassing moments for both of them. Colt knew that she valued his advice. He just wished that she would value other parts of him, too.

  It was the jealously that really befuddled him though. Whenever another woman looked at Banyon, Loni became a protective mother lion. Banyon knew that relationships with women were hard, but Loni didn’t seem to want a personal relationship with him, but also didn’t want any other woman to have one as well. So far he had survived this dilemma but he wondered if he could continue

  ***

  While Colt was trying to find a comfortable position in coach, a man was searching his house in Illinois. He was a big man who stood six foot four and had broad shoulders and Popeye arms. He’d been staking out the house from the vantage point of a small hill in a forest preserve up the street when he saw the limousine pick up two people with bags and correctly guessed that they were headed for the airport. He then waited for darkness before entering the house.

  After looking around for thirty minutes, he booted up Colt’s computer system and began to scan for information. He’d been told that Banyon was organized and probably had everything filed neatly in a folder. He actually found what he was looking for in an e-mail from a travel agent, which informed Banyon of his itinerary for the Shanghai trip. The man discovered that Banyon would return on September 20. He would continue his surveillance then.

  The man, James Duggan, was an ex-marine who specialized in reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. He had worked behind the lines in many small skirmishes and fought in the first Iraq war. He left the service over five years ago because of questions about his interrogation methods, especially those concerning non-whites. Duggan was a white supremacist and often did investigations for Billy Bond. Bond promised him a substantial bonus if he could retrieve the copy of Mein Kampf, but Duggan was also doing this job for the cause.

  As Duggan searched through the computer files, he noted that Banyon was in a strong financial position. Duggan knew how to steal money electronically and believed that he had found a goldmine. He’d used this method on several occasions to finance his needs. He made a copy of all the computer records and began to look for a list of passwords for all the bank accounts. He knew that most people never could remember their passwords and wrote them down somewhere. He found a list of passwords on a pad in the top, right-hand drawer of the desk. He took pictures of the many passwords and put the list back. This break-in needed to be unnoticeable. If Duggan had taken the time to read the list, however, he would have found that none of the bank passwords was on it. Banyon kept those in his head.

  Duggan then installed a device that would route a copy of every e-mail that Banyon received to a laptop that Duggan kept in his car. His final task was to install a listening device in the phone. It would pick up any noise in the room and transmit it to a receiver that Duggan had duct-taped to a tree in the forest preserve. The battery in the receiver would last for a month, and Duggan could collect the information at his leisure.

  Despite wearing gloves, he wiped down the room. He then left for the offices of LCH Detective Agency to repeat the process.

  Part Two

  Shanghai

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  They arrived at Shanghai International Airport in the late afternoon. The flight had taken thirteen hours and China was thirteen hours ahead of Central time. Travelers lose an entire day when traveling to China. Jet lag was a given. But it could have been worse for Colt and Loni. Shanghai was on the East Coast of China. Mongolia, almost two thousand miles to the west was in the same time zone. While the country spans five time zones, all of China was one time zone. In addition, the single time zone was adjusted to provide for sunrise, normally at six o’clock in the morning, to occur at five o’clock in the morning in Shanghai. Westerners generally took two days to adjust.

  Loni and Colt proceeded through customs and located their luggage. The airport was clean and modern, with lots of wide-open spaces and light. They left the luggage carousal and entered an area over crammed with people. Loni had hired a car and driver through the travel agency. She originally wanted to rent a car, but Colt had dissuaded her. He told her that it was safer to travel with someone who could deal with the rule-bending Chinese. They spotted a man holding a card with “Banyon” written on it and fought their way through the throng of people. The man said that his name was Dave and that he would be their driver for the entire trip. He handed Colt a card with a cell phone number on it. “Just give one hour notice,” he said in broken English.

  Dave led them through a doorway and into another dimension. First, they were assaulted by a cacophony of horns blaring, people shouting, and buses and trucks gunning their engines. The heat was oppressive and mixed with lung-gagging fumes. The very air seemed smelled toxic. Cars and buses were double and triple parked with engines running and drivers literally laying on their horns. Dave’s car was quadrupled parked and nearly blocked the entire roadway. He didn’t seem the least bit concerned as he slid the luggage into the tiny trunk. The car looked new but already had a few dents. Colt noticed that the windows were covered with a black film. A passenger could see out but a pedestrian could not see into the car. It was not factory installed and showed shoddy workmanship. The inside of the back seat was clean but small. Loni and Colt had to sit with their thighs touching. Dave got into the car and took off without looking. As a result, he didn’t notice the tough-looking Japanese man who jumped into a car and followed them into the city.

  The ride into the city took about an hour. Colt and Loni had little to do but be sightseers. Colt told her to pretend not to understand Mandarin and not to discuss their trip with other people around, especially the driver.

  “Colt, it is all so new. It looks just like America.” Loni seemed captivated by the Midwest feel of the highway.

  “Actually, it reminds me of the drive from the airport in Minneapolis to downtown—except, of course, they drive on the other side of the road here.”

  “The cars look American, too,” she said.

  “The cars only look that way,” Colt said. “They are all made in China and many are hybrid cars that run on methane. Pollution is far worse here than at home.” She smiled at him and curled up her tiny nose.

  “I can see why you didn’t want to rent a car. These people drive like they are crazy. None of them use the turn signal and they pass on the right, cutting other cars off, and beeping their horns at everyone.”

  “Yes, it’s controlled chaos. But you haven’t seen anything yet,” he said. “Wait until we get into the city.”

  “They drive so fast, even with so many cars on the road. There must be many accidents,” Loni pointed to the side of the road where two men were arguing animatedly and pointing to the fenders of their cars.

  “China has eight times more deaths in traffic accidents than the US, and there is only about half the number of cars. Does that tell you something?”

  “I’m Chinese, but I’m a good driver, right?”

  Knowing that a trap had been set for him, Banyon replied diplomatically. “You can out run most accidents in the Porsche.”

  Changing the subject, she inquired, “How big is Shanghai,” she asked as she spread her small arms open?

  “The population is well over seventeen million people,” he responded like a professor. “That makes it one of the largest cities in the world.”

  “It looks so modern. I always thought that it was an old city. Look at all the tall buildings,” she continued.

  “The Chinese government wants Shanghai to be a model city and attractive to tourists. Did you notice that many signs are in English and Chinese?”

  “Yeah, the signs are all in Mandarin, but did you know that only fifteen percent of the people speak Mandarin?” They continued
to banter about China until they reached the heart of the city.

  Dave took an exit and entered the city traffic. His first move was to drive halfway up on to the sidewalk to make a right turn, without using a signal. Those who were walking on the sidewalk had to scatter. The city streets teemed with people. Loni instantly noticed that there were a huge number of bicycles and small scooters everywhere. They flowed like blood cells through the streets, weaving in and out between cars. Dave never slowed down as he passed them, coming within inches of knocking the riders off the bicycles. Suddenly, he moved over into the next lane. The problem was that there already was a car in the lane. The car was right next to the back window and the driver immediately started honking his horn. Dave never even noticed, as he was busy pushing bicycles over into the next lane. Some of the bicycles veered off onto the sidewalk and into the flow of pedestrians, who closed ranks to avoid a collision. The trucks, cars, bikes, and people all flowed back and forth, in and out, like the blood stream of a living organism.

  Soon, they turned into an alleyway that led to an entrance to the hotel. Dave used his horn to clear the people on the sidewalk. It was like Moses parting the Red Sea. The front door, indistinguishable from a door to a private home, seemed more like a side entrance than the front door to a large hotel. Colt paid Dave—in cash, of course. Dave promised to pick them up at ten in the morning as he bowed politely and backed out the door. They checked into the hotel and were given card keys to a two-bedroom suite.

  Loni rushed into one of the bedrooms and immediately complained that there was no electricity. Colt remembered that the card key was also used to turn on the electricity in the room and inserted it into the proper slot. The Chinese were clever and frugal people. Once you left a room, the electricity turned off, saving money and energy.

  “What do you want to do first?” Loni asked, excited.

  “The first thing that we should do is go to bed,” replied Banyon. Loni just stood there as if in shock. He quickly added, “I need sleep. My body thinks that it is early morning. Call downstairs and have them wake me at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.” He then lumbered off to his bedroom.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  It was seven o’clock in the morning when Banyon finally opened his eyes. He always slept in the nude and took no time to dress. The suite had only one bathroom and it was off the main room. He slowly opened the door and saw that the main room was empty. He just cleared the doorway when two shapely legs popped straight up from behind the couch across from him. They then rose higher in the air revealing a small, well-toned, naked rear end. Colt dropped his shaving kit and bent to retrieve it when a head of hair appeared from behind the couch. Loni jumped up holding a big white towel in front of her. They stared at each other for a few seconds and then she turned and fled to her bedroom. He bolted to the bathroom.

  After he showered and shaved, he once again peeked out from the bathroom and saw that her door was still closed. He sprinted to his room and slammed the door. A few minutes later he heard the shower turn on.

  At eight-fifteen, the phone rang with the eight o’clock wake-up call. Both Loni and Colt threw open their doors and ran for the phone at the same time. She was quicker and acknowledged the call. He stood there in front of her.

  “I didn’t see anything, you know,” Colt said sheepishly.

  “Me neither,” she replied. “I was doing yoga.”

  “I needed to go to the bathroom.”

  “That was obvious,” she remarked.

  “You have great legs,” he responded in tit-for-tat style.

  “We need to set some rules,” Loni retorted.

  “Yeah, here we are in a foreign country with no rules.” They both started to giggle.

  ***

  The front desk told them that they could eat a Western-style breakfast at another hotel that was four blocks away. Colt was dressed in tan slacks and a green golf shirt. Loni had dressed in a sundress that clung to her body. Colt soon found out that it was a popular style in Shanghai. As they entered the mass of people on the street, he saw several women dressed the same as Loni. She could easily pass as a native. He, on the other hand, towered over all the people on the sidewalk.

  “Loni, stay next to me so I won’t lose you,” he said.

  “Colt, you are the tallest person on the street. I can see you easily. But with so much going on will you notice me?”

  Banyon knew that she was referring to the many beautiful women walking on the sidewalk. He grabbed her hand.

  “That’s better,” she cooed.

  On the way to the hotel, they passed a small park where about hundred people were doing Tai-Chi exercises. He felt a quick tug on his heart. His ex-girlfriend was a Tai-Chi instructor, among other things. She often had performed the exercises around his house. The exercises were both sensual and calming. She’d traveled with Banyon on his last trip to Shanghai and immediately joined a group in another park as he stood and watched. He did miss her, but she had problems that he could not help her solve or even understand. The problems stemmed from her childhood in China and prevented her from committing to a relationship. She had abruptly moved out when he was away on business.

  “Hey, where did you go?” he heard Loni say.

  “Look,” he replied. “Here’s the hotel.”

  To the Chinese, serving a Western-style breakfast meant that they added someone to cook eggs on the buffet line. Banyon ordered two over easy and the cook looked at him as if he had ordered motor oil. Loni quickly cut in and translated. The cook seemed appalled that someone would actually order eggs cooked in a pan. The Chinese ate just about anything but eggs for breakfast. They also drank tea. Banyon needed coffee. Loni found him some in a thermos near the back of the room.

  “Did you get good night’s sleep?” he inquired.

  “Didn’t sleep,” she said. “I went out and explored the neighborhood. I then did a lot of work on my laptop. I was able to hook on to the internet just fine at the hotel. Then, of course, there were my yoga exercises. But you knew about that.” She gave him a mischievous smile that unsettled the man in him.

  “Loni, you should have slept,” he admonished. “Jet lag is going to hit you like a ton of bricks.”

  “Colt, I’m glad that you worry about me, but I’m tough. I can take it,” she replied, flexing her tiny biceps.

  “We’ll see,” he muttered as he drank his coffee.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Dave picked them up at ten-thirty. Dave considered himself to be on time. Loni told him to take them to the Hongdou district of Shanghai. She’d done research and felt that this area was the logical place to find the synagogue. While it wouldn’t be a synagogue anymore, the stout building in the photo should still be recognizable. There were fewer than two hundred registered Jews living in Shanghai currently, all of them foreigners. There were only two active synagogues.

  As they rode in the car, Loni explained her reasoning. “Shanghai was an open city until 1949. Entry visas were not required and the Jews had come there in three flights. First to migrate was the Middle-Eastern group. They arrived around the time of the American Civil War. The Russian Jews came when the czar was overthrown in the twenties. Finally, between 1938 and 1940, European Jews who were fleeing from the German oppressors immigrated to Shanghai. At one time, there were almost a hundred thousand Jews in Shanghai.”

  “I knew that,” replied Banyon. “But they mostly settled in the French section of Shanghai. We are heading to a different district.”

  “Well, when the Japanese occupied the city, they moved the Jews to the Hongdou district and took over their apartments in the upscale French section. The picture that we found in the book was taken in 1942. The Jews were moved to Hongdou in 1940. At that time, there were only six synagogues in Shanghai. Two were in the Hongdou district.”

  “How big an area do we have to search?” Colt realized that the city was very densely populated, especially in the older sections.

  “The �
��Jewish ghetto’ was only about forty square blocks. I’m pretty sure that we can find it.”

  Banyon looked at Loni and said, “You are something else. That’s why you are my partner. You are unbeatable.” He reached out and stroked her hair. She looked up at him and purred like a kitten.

  Dave suddenly spoke. “No religion in China. Is forbidden. You want me take you to a sex club?”

  “Maybe later,” Banyon replied as Loni rolled her eyes. He then signaled her to zip her mouth.

  “Just take us to Shaonxi Road for now. We want to do some shopping,” Loni told him.

  “No good shopping there. I take you to my cousin place,” Dave quickly responded.

  “Take us where the lady said,” Banyon interjected with a little force in his voice. “Otherwise, you don’t get paid.”

  “You will like Shaonxi Road. I pick you up there later,” he cheerfully replied.

  Banyon paid Dave in cash, of course, and told him to pick them up at four o’clock. As soon as they hit the pavement, Loni produced a street map of the area. Banyon wondered where she had gotten it. The day was already hot. A layer of smog covered the city, making all the buildings look older and darker. People hustled by in every direction. Loni locked her eyes on a clothing and jewelry store and set off on a mission.

  “Hey, where’re you going?” Banyon asked.

  “We told the driver that we were going shopping,” she said with a broad smile across her face.

  While Loni shopped, Banyon stood in the street and reflected on the China that he knew. China had many problems that were almost unsolvable. The population of 1.3 billion people was mostly rural. The education system was bankrupt. Their success as a world class trader was supplemented by the government giving China an unfair edge. That would not last long, Banyon knew. The birthrate had been alarmingly high so China had instituted a one child policy that lasted for decades. The impact on the society had yet to be faced. And finally, the people themselves were sometimes baffling. They spoke of honor, but often ignored rules, contracts and even safety whenever they thought that they could get away with it. But they did one thing very well, they could negotiate.