Chin - 01 - China Trade

Home > Other > Chin - 01 - China Trade > Page 28
Chin - 01 - China Trade Page 28

by S. J. Rozan


  “But you don’t buy it.”

  He didn’t answer. I asked another question: “And why shouldn’t I go in straight? Why undercover?”

  Looking at the stained-glass saint, he said, “Kid, I’ll tell you something. I was twenty years on the job, private another twenty. Something about this stinks.”

  “Meaning what?”

  “I don’t know.” Not looking at me, he said, “Someone took an awful lot of trouble with Mike. You didn’t see him, how it was. I don’t know,” he repeated, talking now as though to himself. “Seems to me you come to steal, someone interrupts you, you shoot him or cut him or hit him with something. Beating the shit out of a guy so he don’t even look human when you’re done—you only do that for a reason, kid. Only for a reason.”

  Bobby fell silent, watched the flask he was holding. I waited.

  “And there’s another thing,” he finally said. “Mike.”

  “What about him?”

  “Something. Something about him.” He met my eyes, but he didn’t hold them. “I moved him to that shift six weeks ago. Before that we weren’t running the third man up there.”

  “Why’d you start?”

  “A trucker got beat up making a delivery to that place one night. They got spooked up there, so we added a man to the night shift, no fixed post, a troubleshooter. I moved Mike there, with Howe and Morales.” He paused. “Mike liked that shift. He could be home with Peg, when Sheila was at work…” He pressed his eyes shut. I looked away, gave him time.

  Bobby went on: “But Mike—something happened with Mike. I don’t know…had you seen him much lately?”

  “No. I think the last time was when he helped me with some repairs in Shorty’s basement, a few months ago.”

  “Yeah, I remember he told me. Said you blew up at him a couple times.”

  “I guess I did. He was good, but he never shut up. He wanted to know everything about everything, why we were doing it this way, why you didn’t do it the other way. He wanted to know why sheetrock screws are black when all the other screws in the world are chrome. He drove me nuts.” I added, “I should have been more patient.”

  Bobby smiled again, a soft smile that this time was echoed in his eyes. “I knew another kid like that once,” he said. “Had to know everything, couldn’t let anything go. Good kid, but Jesus, he was annoying. Finally he started to keep his mouth shut and just watched and listened. Then he started to learn.”

  My half-embarrassed smile answered Bobby’s. “Mike would have figured that out, too, Bobby. Sooner than I did.”

  “Yeah,” Bobby said. “He would have. He could learn fast, always, from when he was a kid. But the last couple weeks, there was something he stopped being able to do.”

  “What, Bobby?”

  Bobby said, “He stopped being able to look me in the eye.”

  From home, after I’d poured a drink but before I’d started to drink it, I sat down by the phone and called a number I could dial in my sleep. Sometimes, in my dreams, I did.

  “Chin Investigative Services. Lydia Chin speaking,” a woman’s voice answered, a little out of breath. Before I could say anything she said it again, in Chinese.

  “Hi, sweetheart,” I said. “What are you doing that you’re breathing so hard?”

  “Bill!” she said. “Hi! I was just coming in the building as the phone was ringing. I ran up the stairs.” I could hear her gulping water between sentences. “I have a race on Saturday. I was down at Battery Park working out.”

  “On rollerblades? Does that mean you’re in the black Spandex thing with the green stripes down the sides?”

  “Uh-huh. And I’m soaking wet and I smell like sweat socks.”

  “Eau de Locker Room. I love it. I’ll give you a quart for Christmas. Listen, do you have anything on?”

  “The Spandex.”

  “On your calendar. This is a legitimate call.”

  “Oh, whoops, didn’t recognize it.” She gulped some more. “Actually, I haven’t worked in a week. Why? You have something for me?”

  “Yeah, I do.” I told her then about Mike Downey, and Bobby.

  She was silent for a few moments, after I’d finished. “Oh, Bill, I’m sorry,” she said gently. “Is Mr. Moran all right?”

  “It’s eating him up,” I said. “He blames himself. He wants to charge in and do something, but he doesn’t know what and he doesn’t think he can. So he called me.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Investigate. That’s what I do. And I want you with me.”

  “With you how?”

  “I want you to check that place out. The Home. Helping Hands, the people who run it. I’m not sure what else, but it’s a beginning. I’m starting there in the morning, as a guard. I’m going to poke around, and when I get a better idea what I want, I’ll tell you. Can you do it?”

  “Yes, sure.”

  “Great, sweetheart. Thanks. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Just to check around, that’s what you want? Nothing more specific than that?”

  “Well, one thing.”

  “What?”

  “Would you rub the phone all over the Spandex before you hang up?”

  She said, “I don’t think so,” and hung up.

  S.J. ROZAN is the author of six other novels featuring Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. She has won both the Anthony Award for Best Novel and the Shamus Award for Best Novel (the only other woman besides Sue Grafton to win the Shamus), and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. An architect, she was born, raised, and lives in New York City. Visit her website at www.sjrozan.com.

  CHINA TRADE

  Copyright © 1994 by S. J. Rozan

  Excerpt from Concourse copyright © 1995 by S.J. Rozan.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  THIS ONE IS

  AS IT ALWAYS WAS

  FOR PRB

  To

  My sainted agent, Steve Axelrod

  My genius editor, Keith Kahla

  Sui-Ling and all the Junggwok neuiyahn, for examples

  Becca, Carl, Deb, and Steve, for support

  Betsy, Ellen, Ingrid, Jim, Lawton, and Royal, for criticism

  and especially

  Helen and Nancy, for everything

  Thanks

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

 

 

 
e(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share



‹ Prev