by Ted Wood
She looked at me expressionlessly and I waited. She was within her rights to tell me to go to hell. If she did I was in for a long, boring day outside her house, watching to see where her brother went. But if she decided she owed me, perhaps for my confidences the day before, perhaps out of shame and protectiveness for her brother, I might be lucky.
"Wait here," she said at last. "I will bring him here and tell him you wish to speak to him."
"Thank you."
She walked away briskly and I stood against the wall, trying to be invisible and scratching my head about what was going on. If Yin Chang was her brother—and they had the same surname, so it was a possibility, although I hear there are only a hundred names in the whole of China—then how come he spoke no English while she sounded like a Canadian-raised girl? I didn't have an answer for that one. I figured maybe she had been sent out from Hong Kong earlier, perhaps to go to one of the visa schools here. But her English and her Western manners were so deep that I couldn't imagine she had picked them up in a few years. No, it was a puzzle. And I thought about her brother. There was always the chance that he would cut and run if he saw me. I guessed that if she was going to keep her promise she would not tell him I was here.
And as I waited, I thought about the night before. These Chinese were too good for me. If her brother was as fast as the guy who had fought me in Tony's apartment, I had no chance of besting him if he chose to get ugly. I would need an advantage, something to buy time. It would have been better if I could have been carrying my .38 Colt but it was two hundred miles away and I was not licensed to have it in Toronto anyway. Besides, if I had to kill a man who was a foot shorter than me and fifty pounds lighter, I'd end up in the penitentiary for sure. So after a minute's thought I went back down to the cigar store at the back door and made an innocent little two-buck purchase.
I was back in my place, half sitting on one of the old hot water radiators against the wall when she returned with Yin Chang. He saw me and did a doubletake but she said something very quiet. He ripped back at her, loud enough for me to hear but too fast for my meager knowledge of Mandarin to keep up. I beamed at him and ambled towards him, losing the required amount of face by making the first move. I figured that if I sat on the radiator and waited he would never swallow enough pride to take the ten steps on his own. "Hello," I said and then "Nee jeng ying wen ma?" which means "Do you speak English?"
He and Su were both suitably startled but she answered for him. "We speak Cantonese, not Mandarin and Chang has no English."
"Perhaps your brother would permit you to interpret for me," I suggested. Butter would not have melted in my mouth but I could feel his hostility coming off him like the smell of sweat. She spoke quickly and he made a brief answer.
"Chang says he will talk to you," she said simply.
"Thank you. Tell him, please, that I bear him no ill will for coming to my house. He was doing a job of work."
That did not convince him but it sat well and he spoke a little less harshly to her. I continued, "I am a policeman and yesterday a friend of mine was killed by someone who knows kung fu. I saw the man who did it and know it was not Chang."
She rattled, he listened, then looked at me, without words.
"Tell him that the police detectives who took him away last night have set men to follow him all day. They want him to lead them to his friends. Then they will arrest his friends."
This wasn't even close to the truth but it sounded plausible and it put a whole bunch of pressure on his narrow little shoulders. He listened and said nothing but he looked at me with new interest. Su tried again to make him respond but he cut her off with a word and she said, "He understands."
"So, to spare him the shame of bringing dishonor on his friends, I will get him out of here without being seen and will take him to a place where he can hide until dark."
This time he answered her at length. "He says to ask why you would do this thing for him?"
This was the test and I took it slowly. "I do it because I once had a Chinese wife. I have great affection for the Chinese."
Su looked at me keenly as she spoke out of the corner of her mouth to her brother. As I listened I silently begged Li's pardon. We had never been even close to marriage, but she had changed my life more permanently than any piece of paper could have done.
Chang said nothing and I added the last piece of the speech, the payoff for me. "Also I do not believe that any Chinese sent a man to harm a woman and children. I believe he was sent by an evil Kwailo. If I can find that Kwailo's name I will go and punish him, man to man."
Let's hear it for six thousand years of culture. I bowed like a Mandarin and waited, watching his face as Su seesawed through the syllables. Her own face was a study. She was trying to be impassive but the animation of her speech made it difficult and I could read the tension in her eyes in case he were to name her employer.
For a long moment he said nothing. She began to repeat herself and he cut her off with an impatient gesture. I've been in enough interrogations to recognize what was happening. He was ready to talk. And then, of all the damnfool crazy bad luck I heard a hearty voice shouting across the hallway. "Hey, Reid, how are you?"
I tried to ignore it. All I needed was one minute. Nothing else mattered to me except finding out who was behind this. But there was no avoiding this man. It was Willis from Bonded, with Fullwell, and they were heading straight for me like a couple of overfriendly drunks at a convention.
Yin Chang shut up like a door. Su glanced at me and at the men in distrust. I swore under my breath. "I'm sorry, Su, these men are people I used to work with." I held up one hand to the security men and they both paused, ten feet away. Digging into my windbreaker pocket I found a ballpoint and a piece of paper and scribbled Louise's phone number on it. "Please, call me later. Even if your brother is not with you. I must talk to you."
Fullwell spoke first. "Sorry to interrupt like this but I've been looking all over for you. Had to ring your sister at work to find out where you were." He paused and turned to nod and smile courteously to the two Chinese. Su smiled back and she and her brother turned and walked away.
"What was that all about?" Willis asked casually. "Got a taste for that yellow meat have you?"
"What was so important?" I asked Fullwell. He was looking embarrassed about Willis, the way a child would be embarrassed if his mother said something outrageous to a schoolmate. My question did nothing to set him at ease.
"It's Thomason, our company president," he said awkwardly. "He's pretty exercised about our going behind his back yesterday and going to see Cy Straight. He sent me to warn you off, completely."
I said nothing and he waved one hand, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, that came out kind of clumsy."
"That's not what bothers me," I said. "I was just wondering who in hell told Cy Straight where I came from."
We stood and looked at one another like the three wise men outside the stable door. Willis spoke first. "I never even thought to ask him." He laughed, a short snarl of a sound. "Not that there was any damn talkin' to the guy. He wants your ass, buddy."
"He's free and clear of me," I said. "But as of last night when a hood turned up at my house, this isn't his case any more, it's mine."
I turned and saw Su and her brother going side by side down the wide steps to the big front doors of the building. I was angry to have missed my chance to talk to Chang but it made no sense to follow them. For one thing they were probably going to take the subway, which meant I would stand out like a totem pole if I tried to tag along, and for another thing, I had built up about two cents' worth of trust between us and didn't want to lose it by acting like a flatfoot.
"So what was Thomason's message?" I forced myself to attend to the two men.
"Quite short and not sweet," Willis said. "He says you are not in any way connected with Bonded Security. If you attempt to visit any of our locations or to use us as any kind of excuse for anything at all, he's going to have you arrested for impersonating
a company employee."
I snorted. "Then I'll get three slaps with a wet noodle and we all go home. What is it with that guy? Doesn't he know any law at all?"
Fullwell ducked his head, awkwardly. "I know, Reid, the guy's a moron. The only thing is, he's put the responsibility on me. If you don't lay off, he's going to fire me."
Chapter 18
What I felt like doing was sitting somewhere and having too much beer. But the bars don't open in Toronto before eleven and I was too long off the force to know where there was a friendly bootlegger to visit. Instead I went back to Lou's house, stopping on the way home to buy a bottle of Black Velvet and a case of Labatt's Classic. I'm not normally a solitary drinker but I had some thinking to do. I invited Fullwell to come with me but he was stuck with Willis and there was no way I was pouring booze into that oaf, so an hour later I was sitting in Louise's living room moodily finishing a beer and wondering what to do next. It would be easy to pull my horns in and head out of town, but I couldn't leave without making certain that the threat to Lou and her children left with me. And I wasn't sure how I could guarantee that would happen. What's more, I was running out of places to look for answers.
In the meantime, I gave up on drinking and made myself a sandwich. I was about to eat when the phone rang. I picked it up not knowing what to expect. This was still a surprise.
Her voice was soft as wind chimes. "Hello Reid. This is Yin Su. I was wondering if you could spare the time to come and see me."
Spare the time? Would eleven days be long enough? I wondered. "I'd like that very much. Would you like to meet for lunch somewhere?" I was glad I'd only had a couple of those beers. And her call had killed any interest I had in solving the case. Bonded could take care of it themselves. I would sooner spend time with Su.
"I have told Mr. Straight I will be at home," she said. "If it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could come over here."
"Fine, where do you live?"
She told me, and added "Please hurry. I will be waiting." I hung up the phone and shook my head in wonder. She didn't sound like the same girl I'd spoken to an hour earlier. Maybe it was having sprung her brother but the tension had gone right out of her voice. She sounded appealing. And girls as beautiful as she don't have to go out of their way to appeal.
I felt like running out and jumping into the car. Maybe her brother would be there, maybe not. I didn't care. This was becoming personal. But, pleased as I was, I have been a copper and under fire enough times to be careful. I spent a few minutes making sure that nobody would surprise me while I was away. I opened all the doors downstairs and gave Sam the run of the place, telling him to guard it. Then I cleaned my teeth and checked my shave and went out to the car.
I was full of different emotions. This was not Soon Li I was going to meet. There was no logical reason to be pushing the speed limit, anxious for a sight of that exotic face of hers. She was a witness to an aspect of a criminal investigation, and I was a copper looking for guidance. I knew that, but all the same I had to convince myself not to stop the car at the corner of Eglinton and Yonge, where the hippie girl with the long skirt sells the rosebuds. I decided against it. She was smart enough to recognize the impact she had made on me. And I wasn't really sure that her brother wouldn't be waiting behind the door. I'd need something more substantial than a posy if he was.
She lived in one of those classy older apartments on a side street, the kind they would have used as a setting for the car in a Pierce Arrow advertisement. It had art deco numerals and a driveway barely big enough to wheel a bicycle through. I parked on the street, noting that the green hornet had made his rounds earlier, tagging the entire block. If I was lucky I'd make it without owing the city five dollars.
When I found her number on the directory and rang the buzzer she answered "Who is it?" in an attractive upward lilt that reassured me this wasn't an ambush. I went in and rode up to the fourth floor. She had opened the door and was waiting for me, cradling a bluepoint Siamese cat in her arms.
She might have chosen the cat as a contrast to the pale blue silk cheongsam she wore. It flattered her and made all the compensation she needed for being small in the breast. She looked good enough to nibble.
I said, "Hello, thank you for asking me over."
She ushered me in, backing a pace to make room. I took a microsecond to glance through the crack of the door. There was nobody behind it. "My brother would not stay," she said.
I digested that while I looked around the apartment. It was sparely furnished with lean-looking chairs and a table that had not come from any of the city's bargain stores. The wall paper was Orienetal grasscloth and the few pictures were delicately Chinese flowers and mountain scenes.
"You have a lovely home," I told her, and wondered where the hell her lowlife brother had gone.
She nodded graciously and poured the cat down into a chair.
"Thank you. Some of my friends think it a bit too ethnic."
She played the word like a trump card and we both laughed.
I glanced around. "You brother doesn't live with you?"
"No." She shook her head vigorously. "I don't think we are, what's the word? compatible. Not since he grew up. Would you like some tea?"
"That would be great." I stood up as she moved to the kitchen and went with her. I have been in too many booby-trapped places to relax until I've scouted the ground. And I knew what kind of person her brother was.
She sensed what I was doing. "I assure you, Chang has gone," she said and smiled awkwardly.
I shrugged. "No matter. I'm glad of the chance to talk to you. Your brother isn't important." Nor would he be, unless he came whirling out of one of the back rooms, swinging a cleaver.
Then I relaxed and watched her as she prepared tea, moving with the same grace that had delighted me in Li. She filled the kettle and brought out a tiny pale blue porcelain tea pot with a handle held on with raffia. She put a few pinches of green tea into it and turned to face me.
"The reason I called you was to talk about him," she said. She was standing foursquare and it seemed to me there was an unusual toughness in her face. I wasn't sure if she had hardened herself to discuss her brother, or just to keep me at arm's length.
"What did you want to discuss?" I tried to keep my voice conversational. We weren't talking about the angry little punk she had sprung that morning. We were talking brothers, period. No harm in that.
"He wouldn't tell me what he had done," she said. The kettle began to steam and she turned the gas off with a faint pop. "I wondered why he would do anything so bad as breaking and entering. Nobody in my family has ever been arrested before. But he wouldn't tell me. He said that I was a woman and he was a man and I had no right to ask him any questions."
"A whole lot of men feel that way, not just your brother," I assured her. "I guess it's worse in the Orient than it is here but it's a common enough answer."
She poured the water into the pot. "That is not an answer, Reid." Her accent whispered on the edge of the R sound, almost transmuting it into an L.
"You didn't ask a question," I said, just as softly.
She put the tea pot and two little handleless cups on a tray and picked it up. "Now you are being evasive," she told me, firmly. "I wanted to know what he had done at your house."
I told her. She stood there with the tray in her hands, looking into my eyes. Then she nodded and ushered me through to the sitting room, pointing the way with her chin.
"Do you know where he works? Who his friends are? Where he lives, anything about him except that he's your brother?" They were hard questions but I had no way to make them soft for her.
She set the tray down on a low bamboo table. "I do not know much about him. He works for an importer."
"What's the company name?" I asked.
She paused, her hand halfway to the teapot. "Is this an interrogation?" she asked politely.
"Forgive me. It's a long time since I had tea with a girl. I've forgotten my m
anners." I sat back and said nothing and after a pause she poured tea for both of us. I took it and said "Daw jeh," and she laughed with delight.
"I thought you spoke Mandarin," she said.
"I'm a man of many surprises." I didn't bother to explain that I had learned the Cantonese for "Thank you" while eating a fried egg sandwich in the back of the Jade Pagoda in Murphy's Harbour. I could also say "Please" and had made Chong's wife collapse in helpless laughter by asking for a translation of "You are very beautiful." Aside from that I knew nothing that wasn't on the menu.
Su didn't follow it up anyway. Her mind was too much on her brother. She sipped her tea and said, "I do not know the importer's name. He has never told me. He doesn't tell me anything unless he has to."
I started to probe, more gently. "Is there any way I could help?"
She looked up, then down at her tea cup, demure as one of the painted figures on the wall behind her. "You would help me?"
"I would try." I knew enough about Oriental etiquette to leave it at that. I must give her no reasons, pay her no compliments. The whole business had to be dispassionate, no trouble to me, no value to her, otherwise she would be indebted and that would make the situation untenable.
She was more Western than Li might have been. She looked me straight in the face and said, "That would be very kind of you."
"Pleasure." I waved a hand. If I was going to be doing any favors for her, it was good that they would bring me closer to this case. I might find out who was behind it all and celebrate its end back here when all the shouting and chasing and locking up were over.
"I only know that he has a friend who works in a restaurant on Dundas Street," she said.
"Didn't he tell you anything more? The friend's name? The name of the restaurant?" Interest in the case was taking over again. I guess I'm a better cop than I am ladies' man.
She spoke quietly, not looking at me. "His friend is called Wing Lok. He works at the Palace Gates." Her voice sank to a whisper. "I don't think this friend is good for him. He loves to gamble."