by Vivien Chien
I opened the door wider, assuming that this must be one of Donna’s neighbors. “I’m Lana Lee, a friend of the family. Donna is in the hospital and she asked me to come check on things while she’s away.”
Skeptically, she looked me up and down. “I see, and why exactly is Donna in the hospital?”
“I’m afraid she got very ill at the memorial for her husband last night. She collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.”
She put a well-manicured hand on her chest and shook her head. “That poor woman, she has been through the wringer if ever I’ve seen it.”
I nodded in agreement. “I was just about to get going, she should be home tomorrow or the next day.”
“Well, you tell her to rest up and I’ll be sure to keep an eye on things around here. The last thing she needs is a break-in.”
“Exactly.” I walked back into the house and made a show of arming the alarm. Shutting the door behind me, I gave her a confident smile. “I’ve got it all locked up now.”
She looked at the house with approval and followed me down the drive. “You make sure to let Donna know I have her in my prayers.”
“I’ll do that,” I said, scrambling to get into my car.
She stood in the driveway and waved me off as I pulled out with my heart thumping in my chest.
CHAPTER
22
The Zodiac was empty, except for a couple of guys playing pool. Megan was able to give me her full attention for a change.
“So, Donna was taking this stuff regularly?” Megan asked in disbelief. “This stuff is pretty wild. All these Web sites mention taking it as a homeopathic drug,” she informed me, pointing at her phone. “But there’s warning after warning on it. I even found a few stories where people were murdered with it.”
We had just finished Googling information about yellow jasmine and found that it came with a long list of warnings and contraindications because of its toxicity level. It made me wonder why Mr. Zhang would suggest such a poisonous herb.
I nodded, sipping the latest concoction that Megan had brought me, a Pisces Punch. I needed it, after the day I’d had. “I’m not sure why anyone on earth would take it willingly. I’m going to talk to Mr. Zhang tomorrow when I take my lunch break and find out more about it and why he would even let her take it to begin with. He had to have known.”
Megan tapped her phone screen. “Wow, did you know that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle experimented on himself with this stuff? He wanted to see how the toxins would react in different doses!”
I gawked at her. “Would you pay attention?”
She put her phone down. “Sorry…” Megan traced a line of split wood along the bar top with her finger. “So, it’s possible that what happened last night has nothing to do with anything involving Mr. Feng’s murder?”
“Adam still wants to check it out, just to be sure,” I informed her.
She raised an eyebrow. “You’re calling him Adam now?”
“Trudeau … I meant Detective Trudeau.”
“Uh-huh.”
I changed the subject. “What did you have to tell me?”
She threw up her hands. “Oh! Right!” She dug under the bar and pulled out her purse. From it she removed a wad of folded-up papers. “I found this.”
Taking the papers from her, I unfolded them and smoothed them out on the bar. “What are these?”
“Random information that I dug up on Peter.”
I skimmed over the papers she had printed out from her computer search. The first two pages were screen shots from different social media sites.
She pointed to the page I had stopped on. “This is a screen shot from the day that Mr. Feng died.” She tapped the page. “You guys left the plaza that day and went home early, remember?”
Staring back at me was a picture of Peter drinking with a few of his friends and it was marked 4:00 P.M. That was only an hour or two after my mother had sent us home for the day. In the photo, he was eyeing the camera with a beer bottle held up to his mouth while a few of his friends laughed in the background. Didn’t look like the Peter I knew, and it certainly didn’t match up with the recluse that Peter had become recently either. I nodded. “We left shortly before three.”
“Yup, that’s what I thought,” she said. “And look at this.” She flipped to the third page. “I copied this from a police blotter.”
“‘Asian-American male, thirty, is arrested at local strip club for disorderly conduct,’” I read aloud.
“There are a couple more of these and they’re all dated within the past couple of weeks.” She looked at me pointedly.
I ignored her and skimmed the pages of screenshots she’d taken.
Megan watched my expression. “Lana, how well do you actually know Peter?”
I avoided the question. “What about the information on Kimmy?” I handed her back the papers.
“Oh, that was a huge bust.” She folded the papers back up and stuck them in her purse. “I found zero interesting things on her. Even her Facebook is private, so I couldn’t look at anything. But I’m telling you, it’s looking more and more like it was Peter.”
Again, I found myself at a loss for words. I took a deep breath. “There’s no actual proof that the police blotter is talking about Peter; it could be anybody.”
“That is true.” Megan nodded thoughtfully. “But with everything going on…”
“We don’t know for sure,” I insisted.
She planted her hands on her hips. “Well, you know what that means then, right?”
“What?” I asked, knowing I would regret it later.
“We have to find out for ourselves.”
CHAPTER
23
We couldn’t agree on what we should do next so we flipped a coin to decide which route to investigate first: the property office or Megan’s idea of tailing Peter. The property office won.
In order for us to pull off getting into the property office without being seen, we had to adjust our work schedules so we could both be at the plaza after closing. My mother had argued with me a little bit because it meant she had to open the restaurant, but she caved at the mention of my doctor’s appointment. Fake, of course, but she didn’t have to know that.
I strolled into the restaurant around noon, and found my mother sitting behind the hostess booth flipping through one of her Chinese newspapers. She barely looked up at me. “I missed my soap opera,” she said bitterly.
“Sorry, Mom,” I replied as I shuffled behind the counter to store my purse.
She grunted and turned the page of her newspaper. “How was your doctor’s appointment today? Are you sick? What is wrong with you?”
“No, I’m okay.”
She looked up at me over the top of her newspaper. “Why did you go to the doctor?”
“Oh.” I busied myself with stuffing my purse in the drawer while I thought up something … why hadn’t I thought of this before? “I was having stomachaches … thought maybe I had an ulcer, but I’m okay.”
My mother shook her head in disapproval. “It is because you eat too many doughnuts.” She folded her paper shut. “I am leaving to go see Donna at the hospital. Maybe she will go home today.”
“That’s great news, Mom.” I looked around the dining room and saw Nancy standing at a table chatting with a customer. But other than that, the restaurant was empty, which was unusual for this time of day. “Business is slow today, huh?”
“So-so.” She looked down at her watch. “You want noodles before I go?”
I nodded. “If you’re cookin’.”
My mom gave a firm nod and scooted off the stool, tucking the paper under her arm. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
While I waited, I took a quick lap around the dining area and did some spot cleaning. I couldn’t sit still or I would worry about the office adventures that were taking place later that night.
The plan was to close out the restaurant like normal. Megan would come roughly fifteen minutes before the m
ain doors closed and then we’d stay until we were sure everyone was gone. Most everyone left within a half hour of closing. The only cameras were outside in the parking lot so we would have total privacy.
When I circled near Nancy, I realized that she was chatting with Mr. An. She seemed worried, and he appeared agitated. As I got closer to them, they both stopped talking and looked at me.
“Hi.” I waved awkwardly at them, feeling as if I’d just intruded on a secret meeting.
Mr. An bowed his head. “Good afternoon, Lana. You are here late today.”
Nancy replied for me. “She had an early appointment.”
Something passed over Mr. An’s face, but I couldn’t quite describe it. As quickly as I’d seen it, it was gone, and he replaced the look with a smile. “I hope that everything is okay. We have had too much excitement around here in the past few weeks. Do you agree?”
I nodded. “It definitely hasn’t been dull, that’s for sure.”
My mother appeared from the back. “Lana, come eat!” She was standing at a table right outside the kitchen clanking a pair of chopsticks on a soup bowl.
I smiled to Mr. An and Nancy before I turned to leave. I could feel him watching me as I walked away. I didn’t turn around until I got to the table where my mother had placed my noodles. I sat in the seat facing Mr. An’s table, but when I looked at him, he was occupied with something on his table. Nancy had gone up front to greet some customers that just walked in. Maybe I was being paranoid.
I kept an eye on Mr. An while I slurped my noodles. Fifteen minutes later, he got up and went to pay. Nancy was at the counter waiting for him, and she still seemed worried. After he left, she sat down on the hostess stool and stared out into the plaza.
When I finished my noodles, I abandoned my bowl, and went up front to talk to Nancy. “Is everything okay?” I asked her.
She jumped at the sound of my voice. “Oh, Lana! You are so quiet, like a cat.”
I chuckled. “Sorry, I’ll make more noise next time.”
She put a hand on my shoulder. “I am okay. You should not worry so much.”
“Has Peter said anything about coming back to work?” I asked. I hadn’t talked to him since the night of the memorial, and I didn’t know if anything had changed. I was hoping our talk would have encouraged him to stop hiding out in his apartment.
She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m afraid that Peter is still not talking to me. He only talked to me at the memorial. He doesn’t answer when I call him.”
“Lana!” my mother yelled from across the restaurant.
I whipped around. She was standing at the table where I’d had my lunch, pointing at the bowl I’d left behind.
“Clean up!” she yelled.
I groaned and excused myself to hurry back to the table to collect my bowl.
My mother had her coat on and was digging around in her oversized purse. “Okay, I am going now,” my mother said, pulling her keys out. “Vanessa is coming later to help, you be nice to her.”
My jaw dropped at the implied accusation. “I am nice to her.”
My mother made a face and went on her way.
“Oh, Mom!” I yelled, running toward the front to catch up with her. “Can you take Donna her keys for me? I went to check her mail yesterday.”
“Hurry up,” my mother lectured. “Esther is waiting for me, she is coming too.”
I pulled out my purse from under the hostess stand and dug around for Donna’s keys.
My mother snatched them from my hand and left without another word.
Before I forgot again, I took my noodle bowl into the kitchen and rinsed it out in the sink. Lou was preparing pork dumplings for that night’s dinner special.
He looked up as I passed him. “That detective guy has a thing for you,” he commented, his hands working on the dumplings as he talked.
“What?” I turned from the sink to look at him. “Why would you say that?”
“I could tell by the look on his face at the memorial.”
“You’re probably reading it wrong,” I said, dismissing his theory. “He’s just doing his job.”
He tilted his head. “I don’t know, he seemed more worried about you than anyone else.”
“Why is everyone so concerned about my love life?” I asked, feeling annoyed.
Lou chuckled. “One has to wonder why you aren’t.”
I wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. Instead, I headed back out into the dining area without saying anything. Nancy was still sitting at the front of the restaurant, staring out into the plaza.
I headed up to stand with her, but got stopped on the way. A middle-aged woman with curly brown hair signaled me to her table. “Excuse me, miss?” she said in a singsong voice. She was sitting with another woman who turned around to look at me.
“Yes?” I smiled, scanning their table. “Did you need something?”
She looked at her friend with a sparkle in her eye. “We’re from out of town and have never been here before…” she started to explain.
“Oh! That’s wonderful! I hope that you’re enjoying yourselves.”
She grinned. “Oh, absolutely…” She looked back at her friend and then they both looked up at me. “But we just wanted to know something.”
“Sure. What would you like to know?”
“Is it true that someone was murdered here?” she whispered, looking around the restaurant.
My eyes bugged out. I had been waiting for this reaction, but since it hadn’t happened already, I assumed the coast was clear. Guess not.
The two women looked at me, holding their breath, no doubt wanting a juicy story to share with their friends when they returned from their trip.
I got a hold of my infamous smile and grabbed their teapot. “Would you like some tea?” I asked instead. “Why don’t I bring you some more tea?” I scurried back into the kitchen. I couldn’t wait for this nightmare to be over.
* * *
“I brought you a doughnut,” Megan said, handing over a small paper bag. “I figured you’d need it to calm your nerves.”
“Shhhhh.” I put my finger to my lips. “Vanessa and Anna May are both still here!”
Megan rolled her eyes. “Oh great, both of them?”
“Unfortunately,” I replied, opening up the doughnut bag and taking a peek. Boston cream, my favorite. “Thanks for this. You’re the best.”
She smiled. “I know.” She glanced around the restaurant. “When are they leaving? I must have done like a thousand laps around the bar today. I can’t wait anymore.”
I closed the bag and stuck it under the hostess station. “Vanessa leaves right at nine. Then Anna May will probably be here an extra half hour cleaning the kitchen and prepping a few things for tomorrow.”
“Do you think she’s going to wonder why we’re still here?” Megan looked anxiously at the kitchen door.
I shook my head. “I’ve already thought of that. It’s been a while since I’ve closed the restaurant so I’ll just blame doing the books for why I’m taking so long. And you’re here to keep me company and make sure I don’t get kidnapped in the parking lot. She has no reason to stay.”
Megan gave me a wide smile. “I’m impressed, Miss Lee, you’re turning into quite the little fibber.”
“Oh, stop it.”
Vanessa came stomping out of the kitchen, smacking her gum and humming to herself. She was usually singing some new pop song she’d heard on the radio that I’d never heard of. One time she accused me of being old because I’d rather listen to the Rolling Stones than Lady Gaga. “Okay, I’m going now. Are you going to be able to manage without me?” She giggled as she walked up to us. “Oh hey, Megan, I didn’t know you were here.”
“Hey, Vanessa,” Megan said with zero enthusiasm.
“Yes, I’ll manage to live without you, Vanessa,” I said, shooing her toward the door.
“Okay, well, don’t get accused of any more murders, otherwise I’ll h
ave to look for a new job,” she joked.
No one laughed.
She shrugged and flung her purse over her shoulder and pranced out the door.
One down, one to go.
* * *
Megan and I sat holed up in the office while I counted the day’s money and organized the receipts for my mother to look at in the morning. We could hear Anna May out in the kitchen cleaning up and washing dishes.
Megan tapped her foot while she scrolled through her phone. “This is the longest half hour in the universe,” she groaned.
I looked at the clock on the wall and watched the seconds tick by. She wasn’t kidding. I had never been so anxious in my life. I’d thought sneaking into the Feng house was bad, but this was even worse.
There was a light tap on the door and we both jumped.
“Yeah?”
The door opened a crack and Anna May stuck her head in. “I’m all done, what is taking you so long?”
“I’m almost done. It’s been a while, okay?”
Anna May shifted her weight against the door. “Well, do you guys want me to wait for you? I really have to get home; I have an ethics test to study for.”
“No, we’re fine. You go ahead.”
She shrugged. “All right, see you tomorrow then.” She waved and shut the door behind her.
Megan let out a big breath and sank into her chair. “Well, that wasn’t so bad. I thought she was going to insist on staying.”
We waited another fifteen minutes to make sure that she was gone and had no plans of coming back. I ate my doughnut while we waited and that helped calm my nerves.
Once enough time had passed, we went out to stand by the entrance and take a peek around the plaza. All the lights were switched off in the stores, and there wasn’t a shop owner in sight, not even Cindy. Megan and I looked at each other without speaking.
It was go time.
CHAPTER
24
We stood outside the office, side by side, staring at the door. I was trying to figure out what the big deal was. Maybe this wasn’t so bad.
I pulled the keys out of my back pocket and stepped up to the door. “Here goes nothing.”