by Delia Rosen
“I’m not sure what good I could possibly have done . . . ,” I said, and then my eyes drifted to Auntie May.
Detective Bean had followed the Chans over. She took me by the arm and walked me toward the door.
“May Wong is the one who abducted you,” Bean said. “She and one of her sons.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you didn’t know that Lung was impersonating the real Chan.”
“But she told me about Lung the next day.”
“It seemed she was afraid that the truth was starting to come out anyway, and she needed allies. If she let you in on the ‘secret,’ she might win your sympathy, “ said Bean. “All of this was about limiting the size of her financial exposure. If Lung could not be found before the triads were broken in Chinatown, she was off the hook for the wife and child.”
“How much could that have cost her, given the price she’s going to have to pay now?”
“She’s facing fifteen to sixty years for this. She just fessed up to more, though, which I suspect is her way of plea bargaining.”
“More—about what?”
“She was heavily invested in massage parlors in Chinatown, which got hit hard during the recession. She also lost a bundle with a broker up there,” she looked at her iPad, “fellow by the name of Sammo Biau.”
I grinned. “That little dreykop,” I said. “She had an office near his, denied having known him. I knew she was lying. He was a big macher in that hood.”
“I have no idea what you just said, but I’ll want to talk to you about it—in English.”
I shook my head sadly. “So she was in debt, and one or two kids and spousal support arrangements would have put her under.”
“Just one of them was a burden she couldn’t handle.”
I knew that feeling, not from my own finances but from people around me who got hit hard in 2008. That “common wisdom” about Wall Street having sucked dough from the wallets of Main Street was pure fabrication. Despite what the politicians said as they tossed cash at the too-big-to-fails and union businesses, everyone got hurt except for those institutions.
Bean continued. “When it became clear that the school was a target, I called the NYPD to find out what I could about calling off the New York connection. They put me in touch with Chan.”
“So it was you who called him from the NPD.”
“Correct. I urged him to get back here, since it was possible his wife and students were potential targets of the Muis, the gangsters, or the SSS—it really didn’t matter at that moment. All that mattered was that someone was gunning for them. He agreed to come back as soon as he pulled the trigger on a gang leader he was following.”
I looked away from Bean. “So are the woman and child Lung’s from New York?”
She nodded.
“I don’t get it,” I said. “He helped take down the triads—and he brought the widow and child down here?”
“Point of honor,” she said. “He is doing what Lung would have wanted. If he didn’t have to join the family business, Lung would have stayed in New York and supported her.”
“I like this honor thing,” I said.
Bean agreed. “He’s a special man. When he heard about the shooting, about the danger to his family, he stayed focused on what he needed to get done at that moment before coming back. Maggie was even cooler. She knew too that whoever the target was, she had to hold this end together.”
“That was why she was calling from pay phones,” I said. “In case the triads had someone down here, listening or watching.”
Bean nodded.
The detective went back to where Auntie May was being held. I decided it was time to go. I would come back some other time, to thank Maggie again and hopefully fill the order Lung Wong had placed for the postponed belt test.
I walked into the night and thanked Richards for waiting, but told him I’d like to walk back. He asked if I was sure. I told him I was. He said he really wouldn’t mind taking me back. I didn’t tell him to take his puppy-dog enthusiasm and Sunday school morality and shtup it. I just started walking.
I was feeling lighter and better than I had in a long time. It wasn’t just having the sniper off my back and my kidnapper heading off to prison. I felt as though the last few days had also been an emotional crucible. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, had actually been solved. I was still happily estranged from Grant, suddenly disinterested in Richards, and suffering teen-like palpitations from that shagetz love god back at the dorm.
I guess that was the point. Nothing had been solved, but I was still smiling.
For me, that was a pretty big victory.
Here is one more of my uncle’s magical recipes. Remember: It is printed here exactly as he wrote it all those years ago.
POTATO KNISH
(Usually for words that begin with a K and an N, the K is silent. Kind of like my cousin Hamish, who can never get a word in edgewise when his wife Lillian is talking, which is most of the time. Anyway, with knish, the K is not silent—like Lillian. So the right way to say it is “ka-nish,” not “nish.” What the heck, say it any way you want.)
Preparing Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: Another 30 minutes
Dough must be chilled 2 hours. Put it in the refrigerator if you have one. If you ain’t got one, don’t come crying to me.
Total Time To Make a Ka-nish: 3 hours
What You Get: About 24 Potato Knishes
Ingredients:
Knish Dough:
8 ounces softened unsalted butter
8 ounces softened cream cheese
½ cup sour cream
3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Potato Filling:
6 large potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks, boiled, cooled and shredded in a grinder. Ain’t got a grinder? Call Cousin Bernard, who weighs 400 pounds. He’ll come and sit on them.
1 pound onions, chopped and sautéed
2 large whole eggs, beaten
¼ cup instant potato buds
2 teaspoons salt
¾ teaspoon ascorbic acid or vitamin C powder (what, they shouldn’t be healthy?)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon tobasco sauce
8 ounces finely shredded Cheddar cheese (optional—use the cheese or don’t use the cheese. What’s it to me?)
Egg Wash:
1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Preparation:
Use a food processer to prepare the knish dough, then process the butter, cream cheese and sour cream until it’s nice and fine. Add flour and salt and smoosh them altogether. Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap, then flour your hands, roll it into a ball, and wrap securely. It’s best to refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
For potato filling, mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Meanwhile, flour a cutting board and knead dough into it. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes. (Hey, I didn’t say this would be easy, did I?)
Roll the dough until it reaches about a ¼-inch width. Cut the dough into 3-inch squares using a really sharp knife. Use 1 beaten egg mixed with 1 teaspoon of water and apply egg wash to the squares. Place two dollops of filling onto each square, and wrap the ends under.
Line a baking pan with parchment, brush knishes with egg wash, and place on pan. Continue with rest of dough and filling. Bake for roughly 20 minutes. Knishes work well as an appetizer, side dish, or main course. Mostly, though, they go best with a corned beef or pastrami sandwich.
Suggestion: have some Alka Seltzer ready. We have a saying:
Deli food is nice
But you will pay the price
Your belly it will roar
Your insides will be sore
So never ask the question
You’re gonna get indigestion
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2014 by Jeff Rovin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-8201-9
ISBN-10: 0-7582-8201-X
First Kensington Mass Market Edition: July 2014
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-8202-6
eISBN-10: 0-7582-8202-8
First Kensington Electronic Edition: July 2014