by Vivien Chien
“So Carmen and Ryan helped you this whole time?” I asked. “Why? What did they get out of it?”
“Why, money, of course. I needed to be sure that any evidence of mine and Brandon’s dealings was completely removed from that apartment. We couldn’t have Constance finding anything to implicate me in his current life, could we? I didn’t know if he was stupid enough to keep anything there. I approached Carmen and Ryan, who were both more than happy to do the job … for a price.”
“So, the three of you killed Brandon and Isabelle. Then you lied about going back to New York … so you could move around without anyone knowing that you were here.”
She laughed again. “Okay, you’re smarter than I took you for. This whole time I was hoping that I’d had you in my pocket.” She gave me the same innocent smile that she’d given me and Peter the first time we’d met her. “But I have to take points off for the whole Carmen-and-Ryan-helping-me-with-any-of-the-truly-dirty-work angle. They’re just a couple of dumb kids who fit into my plans.”
“But I don’t understand why you did it. You loved Brandon.”
“Ha! I loved him all right. A lot of good it did me.” She began to pace the length of the living room, her agitation increasing with every step. “That man has ruined my life. Everything became about winning him back.
“He wanted to move to Cleveland … I paid for him to move to Cleveland. He wanted to open a stupid souvenir store. I paid for him to open the store. He needed a loft apartment.” She turned to look at me. “Guess who paid for that?”
“You did,” I said quietly.
“You got that right.” She continued to pace and shook her head. “I did everything for that man. Everything!” she yelled. “And do you know what I got in return?”
“What?”
“Nothing. That’s what,” she said with a sneer. “Not a damn thing. Meanwhile, he’s giving all of his affection to this little twerpy girl. You know what he told me? He told me he was going to stop gambling for her. He was going to settle down like he promised. Clear all his debts with this one big win. For her. Isabelle.” She snorted. “She wouldn’t even fight for him. That’s how this whole mess happened. It’s all her fault.
“If she’d had the guts to show me she loved him as much as I did, I might have respected her. I might not have had to provoke her. All I did was push her. I didn’t know what would happen.”
A light flicked in the window and I jumped.
Marcia stopped pacing and whirled around to face me. “Oh, don’t you judge me.”
I held up my hands in defense. “I wasn’t.”
She continued to pace and my eyes shifted back to the window, where I saw a motion of metallic blue flash past the window. Another small beam of light flicked on and off. It was code.
Marcia prattled on, oblivious to the light show outside. She was too busy justifying her actions. “Do you even know what it’s like to love someone and see them with someone else … someone less deserving? Do you have any idea what that’s like?”
“Actually, I do,” I said, with renewed composure. My hands were still shaking, but there was hope I would make it out of this, and that was enough to keep me going. “It hurts. He took advantage of you on top of it. That’s a terrible feeling. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
She whipped around to face me and tilted her head in surprise. “So you get it then? You see why I had to do it?”
“Oh, totally,” I said, standing up.
She backed away, pointing the gun at me again. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I held up my hands and stopped moving. “You don’t have to point that at me. It’s going to be okay now.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I understand everything you’ve been going through. Just between us girls, I would have done it, too,” I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. I needed her to believe me.
“All I did was push her, you know?” she said, her voice catching. “She wasn’t supposed to hit her head that way. All those damn boxes were in the way. At first, I thought she was faking it, but then she stopped breathing … and I…”
“I know.” I nodded to appease her. “Isabelle was a klutz that way.” I inched a step closer.
She took a step back, tears welling up in her eyes. “I wasn’t going to take the blame … not after everything else. But then he looked at me … oh God … I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me…” A tear rolled down her cheek. The gun shook in her hand.
I took a deep breath, mustering up every ounce of courage and strength that my body possessed. This was not the time to fall apart. Not now. Letting my emotions get in the way would cloud my thinking. “I know … it must have been awful.”
“All he had to do was love me. That’s not so much to ask, right? I did everything for him. Everything!” Full waterworks poured from her eyes, and the gun faltered in her hand. It pointed at the floor—she’d removed her finger from the trigger.
“Now!” I yelled from the top of my lungs.
Kikko howled from the bedroom.
Marcia gawked at me in shock, mascara-stained tears streaking down her cheeks.
In a matter of seconds, the door flung open in a whirl of neon blue and ashen blond. “Take that, you psycho!” Megan yelled, swinging her new Maglite at Marcia’s head.
Marcia hit the floor with a thud. The gun she’d been holding slid across the floor.
Megan let out a deep breath. “Are you okay? I could hear everything from outside the apartment! This chick is nuts!”
I held my chest, instructing myself to breathe like a normal person. “What are you doing here? I thought you were at work!”
“After I got your text, I responded and asked you to call me,” Megan explained. “But then you never answered. So I called you, and you didn’t answer then, either. I got worried and decided to come home. Thank God I did!”
I looked down at Marcia, who was out cold. “You have impeccable timing.”
Megan followed my line of sight to the ground where Marcia was sprawled out. “Oh my God, I killed her!” she yelled, covering her mouth.
I knelt down to the floor and checked Marcia for a pulse. I let out a ragged sigh of relief. “Don’t worry, she’s still alive. Call the police. I’m going to get a sheet and tie her up.”
“Yeah, ’cause when she wakes up, she’s gonna be super pissed.”
* * *
A few hours later, Megan, Adam, Kikko, and I sat in the living room with a box of pizza on the coffee table. None of us had bothered to open it; we just stared at the floor, trying to process everything that had happened in the past few hours.
Megan was the first to speak. “I can’t eat anything. I think I’m gonna go to bed. You guys save me some in case I wake up in the middle of the night with trauma munchies.” She got up and zombie-walked to her bedroom.
I jumped up after her. “Megan … wait.”
She stood in the doorway to her room and turned. She was visibly exhausted, and the dark circles under her eyes were proof of it.
“Thank you…” I said, looking down at my toes. “You saved my life tonight.”
She laughed. “It was no sweat. I’d swing a flashlight for you any day.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. I nodded and started to go back in the living room. “I’ll let you go to sleep now. I just wanted to say that. Good night.”
“Oh my God, give me a hug, you weirdo.” She grabbed me and embraced me in a bear hug. “I love you, Lana Lee. Don’t you ever forget that.”
I held back my tears as best I could. We had gone through enough emotions tonight. “Love you, too, buddy.”
She shut her door and I went back into the living room where Adam sat relaxing with Kikko. He scratched her head as he stared into space. There was no telling what he was thinking.
“So you’re mad at me, I presume,” I said, standing over him. “I was just about to tell you—”
He held up a hand and gestured for me to sit next to him.
> I sat on the edge of the couch and he put an arm around me, pulling me close to him.
I tried to smile, but I could feel the tears forming in my eyes again. “I tried to stay out of trouble this time, I promise.”
He laughed. “No, you didn’t.”
“Okay, well, I thought about it.” I said, wiping away a stray tear.
“And for you, I’m guessing that’s a big step in itself?”
“It is.”
He sat up and turned to me, looking me straight in the eye. “I know there are some things that I need to work on as far as getting close to someone. But I hope you know that I care about you a great deal, Lana.”
I felt myself getting lost in the intensity of his stare. I tried to look away, but he grabbed my chin, holding my face in place. “I’m not going anywhere. And I don’t want you to go anywhere, either.”
“Okay, I won’t,” I said.
“So, my answer is … I want to be mad at you, yes. Because I almost lost you … again.”
“I know…”
“But … I’m just happy that I didn’t.”
We sat there for a minute gazing at each other like two smitten teenagers on their first date. I leaned in and kissed him softly, trying to savor the moment. This feeling: This is what life is about. The good things. The things that make you smile and the things that touch your heart.
When we parted, he smiled at me, and his eyes gave off that mischievous twinkle that I had come to adore. “Besides, I can always be mad at you tomorrow.”
EPILOGUE
A week later, it was New Year’s Eve, the Chinese edition, and I put on the red dress I had picked especially for the occasion. The plaza’s party was starting in a few hours, and Adam was my date for the evening. He’d never celebrated Chinese New Year before, and I was excited to show him this part of my culture.
Things were still a bit on the shaky side with us, but they’d gotten better since the case had been resolved. Megan was adamant about finding out what exactly was keeping Adam from closing the relationship gap. But for the time being, I found myself happy with the progress we’d made.
In the short time since Marcia had been arrested and officially charged with the murders of both Isabelle and Brandon, some semblance of normalcy had returned to the plaza. Well, as normal as things could be these days.
Of course, that’s not to say that the Mahjong Matrons didn’t do their part in spreading the details of the gruesome ordeal, including me being held at gunpoint, around the entire plaza. The whole story made it into the Plain Dealer, and I was even mentioned in the article. A reporter had asked to do a separate piece on my firsthand account, but I gracefully declined. The New Year was a time for fresh beginnings and everyone was eager to put events behind them, including me.
Carmen and Ryan both got what was coming to them and from what I understood, they would be in prison for quite some time. It also turned out they had the missing money all along. After Marcia murdered Brandon and Isabelle, she’d taken the cash that Brandon had on hand and given it to the crooked couple. She’d instructed them to go on about their lives as normal until attention around the case had dissipated. No one had expected yours truly to stir the pot.
The situation with Constance Yeoh and her planned takeover of the souvenir shop ended up correcting itself. After she’d read the story in the newspaper, it was decided that Asia Village was a little too crazy for her tastes. She felt it was in her best interest to return to New York and start her designer purse shop there.
And as far as surprises go, she sure gave us one before she left. She ended up handing the property and all rights over to Rina. I hadn’t thought Rina would accept, but apparently she had shown some interest in being her own businesswoman. I guess a slight respect had formed between the two women while they dealt with the deceased couple’s apartment. Who would have thought?
Rina accepted under the condition that she could liquidate the store and turn it into a cosmetics shop. The memory of her sister was too strong in the store the way it was. Ian and the rest of the board happily approved and Ian did a silent dance of joy at the news of Constance leaving his life for good. Rina was scheduled to take over the store after the New Year festivities had ended and the paperwork was finalized. She planned to move to Cleveland in the next several weeks and even asked me to help her look for an apartment.
My parents had heard what happened from Esther before I even had the chance to update them. Now without anything to worry about, my parents had chosen to extend their stay in Taiwan for a little bit longer. My mother was so pleased with the way I had run things in her absence—considering the circumstances—that she told me she was thinking about retiring for real and making me the new restaurant manager indefinitely. After we’d both had a good laugh, she assured me that she wasn’t kidding.
At the end of our conversation, she shocked me with the news that my grandmother would be coming back with them to the United States. She didn’t clarify if it was a permanent stay or temporary, but I figured I would find out soon enough.
My phone chimed, bringing me back to the present. It was a message from Adam letting me know that he was on his way. I dabbed my lipstick and touched up my mascara before I slipped into my heels. I stuffed some backup shoes in my purse, just in case.
I sat at my dining room table and flipped open my laptop. Since I had a little time to kill, I signed onto Facebook. My brain had been dancing around with this idea since after Marcia’s arrest. I finally felt ready.
With some apprehension, I typed in Isabelle’s name and her profile popped up. I smiled back at her picture as her profile loaded. Her page had continued to fill with people leaving fond memories, and I imagined it would for a long time. Isabelle had been such a great girl.
I must have lost track of time because my phone chimed again. Adam had arrived and was waiting out in the car.
With a deep breath, I put the cursor in the comment box of Isabelle’s page and typed the following message I’d been carrying with me for the past week. It read: Justice has been served, my friend. May you forever rest in peace. Xoxo, Lana Lee.
Read on for an exclusive excerpt of the next Number One Noodle Shop Mystery
Murder Lo Mein
Available in April 2019
from St. Martin’s Paperbacks!
CHAPTER
1
There I was, staring at my doom … surely, this was a fate worse than death. “I am in so much trouble. This is a complete and total nightmare!”
Kimmy Tran, childhood friend and fellow Asia Village employee, gawked at me as we stood side-by-side inside the enclosed plaza, staring at the cause of my nervous breakdown. The sloppy bun on her head wobbled as she lectured me. “Lana Lee, calm down. It’s not that serious. You’re a grown woman, for Pete sakes.”
“There couldn’t be a more horrible circumstance. Why is this happening to me?” I tugged on the locks of black and magenta-streaked hair that framed my face. “What did I do to deserve this?”
She puffed out her already chubby cheeks. “This is ridiculous, you need to relax.”
Peter Huang, the head chef at my family’s restaurant, walked up behind us. “What’s up, ladies? What are we lookin’ at?”
“This … this monstrosity,” I said with a shiver. “This horrible, horrible monstrosity.”
Peter adjusted his black ball cap, and tilted his head. With a chuckle, he asked, “What? The doughnut shop?”
As he said the word doughnut, I heard my stomach rumble. Standing before us was the newest tenant of Asia Village, Shanghai Donuts. They were due to open in the next few days, and sadly I knew that I would be their very first customer.
On top of my addiction to noodles and book buying, I had a weakness for doughnuts. For the most part, I was able to refrain from indulging on the delicious, round pastries of doughy goodness, but with the new shop opening up right next door, I had to wonder about the current status of my willpower.
At the age o
f twenty-seven—on the brink of twenty-eight—many warned me that my metabolism was on its way off the fast track. Those ‘many’ included members of my family who seemed to be tracking my eating habits.
I squeezed the side of my waist and felt the pounds I had put on since I’d started working at the restaurant. My pants were starting to feel tight. With my credit cards dancing on the edge of being maxed out, I found my two favorite food groups to be excellent stress relievers.
Peter laughed, giving my shoulder a nudge. “Don’t worry, Lana, I’m sure you’ll get sick of them after a while. You can’t eat doughnuts every day.”
“Says you,” I grumbled.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction of my family’s noodle house and also my current place of employment. “Come on, man, let’s get to work, we have to prep for the noodle contest.”
Kimmy looked between the two of us. “I can’t believe it’s tomorrow already. Are you guys prepared?”
They were referring to the Cleveland’s Best Noodles contest that was set to be held at Asia Village. Peter had been prepping and perfecting recipes for weeks in anticipation of winning the competition.
“Super stoked,” Peter replied. “This year we’re taking first place. No more of this third place stuff. No, it says right there on the sign.” He pointed above his head to the restaurant’s gold-lettered sign.
It read: Ho-Lee Noodle House, #1 Noodle Shop. We served all sorts of Taiwanese and Chinese cuisine, but our specialty, of course, was noodles. And, Peter’s noodles were the best in the whole city. I might be a little biased, but if you’ve tasted his cooking, I think you’d agree.
Kimmy gave Peter a flirtatious grin. “If there’s anybody that will beat out the Shen family, it’ll be you.”
He blushed. “Um, thanks.”
Peter and Kimmy were in the midst of a budding new romance. They weren’t the likeliest of couples out there, but so far it seemed to be working for them.
Kimmy was a touch on the outspoken side and didn’t mind being the center of attention—and that was putting it lightly. In recent history, to help her parents with some money problems they were having, she had taken a secret job at a strip club as a cocktail waitress. Needless to say, there were plenty of eyes on her there.