by Vivien Chien
“Do either of you possess any medical knowledge or training?”
My eyebrows furrowed. “Well, I can’t speak for Mr. Larkin, but I definitely do not have any medical training.”
“Yet you were able to assess that she was in fact dead from the doorway?”
“I think it was pretty obvious from the state she was in that she was … deceased.”
“I see.” He sounded skeptical.
“I think that it was. It’s not the first dead body that I’ve seen.” The moment it came out of my mouth, I knew I shouldn’t have said it.
“So, you’ve been in this particular type of situation before?” he asked.
Now I understood the purpose of his visit. It was to get on record that this wasn’t my first rodeo.
“Yes, unfortunately, I have.”
“I see.”
“I’m sure you know about the murder of Thomas Feng, our former property owner here at Asia Village.”
“Yes, Miss Lee, I am aware.”
“And I’m sure you also know that someone else was found guilty of that murder,” I replied firmly. Echoing my mother’s previous sentiment, I’m not stupid. I knew perfectly well when my integrity was in jeopardy.
“Yes, Miss Lee. And for the record, you were the person to apprehend the guilty party, correct?”
“I was.”
“And interestingly enough, you were also involved in the Yeoh, Pan, Chow, and Kam investigations as well, correct?”
My face was heating up fast. “Yes, I was.”
“So, it’s fair to say that you’re familiar with a crime scene and how things operate?”
“I suppose I am.”
“And you also mentioned that your boyfriend is Detective Adam Trudeau of the Fairview Park Police Department. Is that also true?”
I glared at him. “Yes.”
“Then is it also fair to say that dating an officer of the law may further any personal knowledge when it comes to the act of committing a crime?”
I was losing my patience. My blood was boiling, and I wanted to punch this guy straight in the mouth. But before I could say something that could possibly get me arrested, the door to my office flung open, and my sister stormed in wearing a scowl that would rival my mother’s facial expressions any day.
Behind her was the infamous secret boyfriend—and high-powered attorney, Henry Andrews. He was no doubt dressed to impress in a charcoal Armani suit, crisp dress shirt, and baby blue tie that matched his eyes perfectly. His sandy blond hair appeared freshly cut and was kept short and professional, along with a clean-shaven face that allowed him to display a rather remarkably defined jaw line. I had to give my sister points for taste in men, that was evident.
Detective Bishop uncrossed his legs and shifted in his seat to face the door, clearly annoyed at our interruption. “Excuse me, I’m conducting some questioning here.”
“And you’ll excuse me, Detective Bishop, is it?” Henry said it with the elegance of a peacock fanning its feathers. “I’m Henry Andrews, Miss Lee’s attorney. I was just informed that you were conducting a private interview with my client without my presence.”
Detective Bishop hit STOP on the recorder and rubbed his temple. “There hasn’t been a charge against Miss Lee, I’m just asking her a couple of standard questions.”
“And what are the nature of these questions?” Henry asked. He crossed his arms holding onto his left wrist with his right hand, showcasing the expensive Cartier watch he wore. “Sounded to me as if you were trying to make my client incriminate herself.”
Bishop narrowed his eyes. “Were you eavesdropping on our conversation, Mr. Andrews?”
Henry scoffed, his crooked smile producing deep-set dimples that just made him look all the more charming. “Hardly, Detective. I think it’s perfectly obvious that these walls are paper thin. I merely heard the tail end of your conversation with Miss Lee, and I’ll be frank with you, I didn’t like it.”
“I can assure you, Mr. Andrews, there isn’t anything to not like. I’m just gathering some information to help with a murder investigation that I’m working on.”
Henry grinned with amusement, as if to let the detective know that he’d accepted the challenge. He extended his hand, waving the detective on. “Please then, by all means, continue. I’m sure that you understand I’ll need to be present for this so that Miss Lee does not unintentionally incriminate herself.”
“You know,” Detective Bishop began with a sneer, “usually people only need a lawyer in the event that they’re guilty.”
Henry wagged a finger at him. “Not always the case, Detective. I’m sure you’ve heard of several recorded instances where innocent people are found guilty by unwittingly incriminating themselves or have been coerced into saying something they didn’t mean.” He let that hang in the air for a moment before he added, “Of course, I’m not accusing you of such behavior. But as I’ve learned over the duration of my criminal law career, one can never be too safe.”
“Fine,” Bishop replied curtly. He turned the tape recorder on and made note that two more people were present in the room as legal representation and then asked Henry and my sister to state their names for the record.
Once that was complete, he turned back to me and said, “Miss Lee, do you have any involvement with, or have you ever met, Robert Larkin prior to the day of Margo Han’s murder?”
I shook my head. “No sir, I have never met Robert Larkin before that day.”
“Thank you,” he replied. “That will be all for today.”
He turned the recorder back off and stood up. I notice he tried to puff up his chest and make himself larger as he stood next to Henry, who was roughly six foot two.
Henry gave the detective another sly smile. “Now see, was that so bad?”
Bishop didn’t respond, but turned to me instead. “Miss Lee, I’m sure we’ll be in touch in the near future. Please make sure to have your lawyer on standby.” He gave a final glare to my sister and Henry before saying, “I’ll see myself out.”
When he left the office, I took a deep breath and flopped backward in my chair. I had developed a headache and it was more than warm in my tiny office with four people having occupied the space.
After a minute had passed, Anna May stuck her head out my office door, peeked around the corner, and then returned, folding her arms over her chest. She looked down at me, and in a no-nonsense voice, she said, “Lana Lee, you have a lot of explaining to do, so I suggest you get started.”
CHAPTER 12
It wasn’t long before my mother and grandmother joined us to find out what was going on. Now with five people in that cramped space, I couldn’t take it anymore and asked to move into the employee lounge area directly outside of my office.
My grandmother, who had been in the United States for less than six months, still had no idea what was going on half the time. She was slowly picking up words commonly used by my mother, like “bingo,” “shopping,” “dinner,” and “casino.”
My dad was trying to help her learn, but from what I gathered, he wasn’t having the best of luck.
With a red face, I began explaining the story to my family and Henry. I think him being there made it a little worse, because I knew almost next to nothing about the man. I’m sure my reasoning behind taking the cooking class to begin with sounded petty to him, because as I said it out loud, it sure sounded like that to me. Plus, I still wasn’t sure what I thought about him secretly dating my sister. Though Anna May had informed our small family about the true nature of her relationship with Henry—unbeknownst to him—I knew it wasn’t “out there.” She had sworn all of us to secrecy. Anna May had not told any of her friends, and from the limited information she’d given me after I’d begged to know, none of Henry’s colleagues were aware of it either. Their outward appearance was an innocent friendship, perhaps a slightly older established attorney helping a young woman interested in law. And something about that gave me a yucky feeling.
> Her internship had recently ended, but someone like Henry had enough pull to keep her hanging around the law firm to help on a case that had begun during the middle of the summer. Anna May’s involvement in the actual trial was minimal, but it was enough distraction to keep her away from helping me at the restaurant as much as she normally did. This annoyed me thoroughly because I was feeling burnt-out to the max. Of course, my parents—mostly my mother—were happy about it because it kept her front and center with who they hoped would be their future son-in-law.
When I finished the whole story, my sister let out a loud, infuriated groan. “I can’t believe you, Lana. Is it so important to show me up that you would stoop to this level? Now look what you’ve gotten yourself into. And, of course, you’d have to be the one to find the body.”
“Hey!” I said, raising my voice. “If you hadn’t started picking on me so much in the past couple of weeks, I wouldn’t have even taken the stupid class to begin with. You can’t let up on me ever. Here we are, me in my late twenties and you in your early thirties and you still have to tease me about my entire life.”
“Cry me a river, Lana. It’s what big sisters do. Get over it.” She pointed at the swinging door that led out to the kitchen. “Also, may I remind you that Peter is right out there! He would have gladly helped you out-cook me any day. You guys are supposed to be the best of friends, aren’t you?”
My mother tsked at both of us. “Why can’t you two girls be nice to each other, you are sisters. We are all family, and you should not be this way.”
My nostrils flared, and right before I could go into a tirade, my grandmother asked my mother what was going on.
We all paused while my mother translated for her in Hokkien, the Taiwanese dialect my family spoke. I understood most of what they were saying, though I couldn’t speak the language myself. My sister knew exactly what they were saying too. So, when my grandmother stuck up for me and reminded my mother of her own difficult relationship with my aunt Grace, Anna May pouted.
Henry, who had been observing but hadn’t commented, held up his hands. “Okay, ladies, let’s all take a breather. I think we’re getting a little sidetracked with the emotions behind this. If we’re going to help Lana, we have to talk this through with logical minds and leave the rest of the backstory out of it.”
As cordial as I could possibly be at the moment, I turned to him and said, “I appreciate your kindness and for saving me from Detective Bishop, but I don’t have the money to pay for an attorney right now, especially someone of your status.”
He seemed to take pride in that statement, and suddenly his shoulders appeared a little broader. “Think nothing of it, consider it a gift for a friend.”
I snuck a glance at my sister, who I knew was melting with adoration on the inside, but outwardly she appeared unfazed by his generosity. Ten bucks said that she would have planted a big ole kiss on his smacker if none of us had been around.
“I appreciate that, Henry,” I replied. “How did you guys end up here anyways?”
“Mom called me,” Anna May explained. “She told me that a detective was here, and she thought something was fishy about it. She figured you might be in trouble and asked us to come by. Lucky for you, we were available.”
I ignored my sister’s comment, and asked Henry, “So, now what do we do?”
“Well for now, keep a low profile,” Henry answered. “I have a few friends in the Parma police department who might let me pick their brains. Let me find out what they’re thinking in regard to this situation. It seems that whoever this Robert Larkin is, he’s a person of interest for them. I thought it was curious the detective wanted to know if the two of you had any associations.”
“I did too,” I admitted. “Before you guys showed up, he asked me if either one of us had any medical training. And I was thinking to myself, how the hell would I know if Robert Larkin had any type of medical background whatsoever?”
Henry nodded. “I heard him ask you that. We actually were eavesdropping outside the door. I wanted to see how far he would take his questioning before we came barging in.”
“Well, I’m glad you stepped in when you did. I almost lost it on him toward the end.”
“My best guess is that he was trying to get you to slip up somehow,” he suggested. “And you really don’t know this Robert Larkin character, right?”
“No, I really don’t. Tuesday night was the first time I’d ever seen the man in my life.”
“Okay, good.” He pulled a hand out of his pocket and produced a business card. “This is my card, and it has my cell phone number on it. Use it if the detective shows his face again. Don’t hesitate to call.”
I took the card and thanked him again.
“Don’t thank me yet, Lana. Detective Bishop isn’t someone to take lightly. I assume the next time he shows up, the questions are going to be even more difficult. But like I said, just keep a low profile, and we’ll get this whole thing squared away. After all, you are innocent.”
* * *
After Henry and Anna May left, I endured a twenty-minute lecture from my mother about adjusting my viewpoints on the relationship with my sister. She also suggested that I have Peter teach me how to cook instead of entertaining any type of direction from an outsider. Though I wasn’t surprised she felt that way, I was a little thrown off that she hadn’t offered to teach me herself. Perhaps it was my impatience and short attention span as a teen that discouraged her from attempting to teach me anything now.
The whole ordeal from aggressive detective to uninvited parental guidance had taken up the remainder of the afternoon, and it was nearly five o’clock when everyone was done berating me. I couldn’t have been more relieved at the realization that I would be going home soon.
I shuffled out into the kitchen to see what Peter was up to and if he had any extra spring rolls laying around. Being interrogated always made me hungry.
When he saw me coming, he shook his head in disappointment. “Mama Lee told me about your little secret.”
“I figured she would,” I replied, leaning against the stainless-steel counter next to the grill where Peter was browning some teriyaki strips. “Are you mad at me?”
He responded with a noncommittal shrug. “Eh, you know me, I get over things quick. I just don’t know why you wouldn’t ask me in the first place. This whole thing could have been avoided.”
I sighed. “I know, but I didn’t want you to laugh at me.”
“Dude, I wouldn’t have laughed at you.” He paused. “Okay, maybe a little,” he added with a smirk. “But still, after that short laugh, then I would have shown you how to run this kitchen like a champ.”
“Well … I don’t know what you want me to say. Hindsight and all that. I’m sorry if it offended you at all. That really wasn’t my intention.”
“Don’t sweat it. Do you still want to learn?” he asked.
“Kinda, but not right now, I guess. I don’t know. It would feel sort of frivolous right now with everything going on.”
“We can do it whenever. You think on it and let me know.”
“Okay, thanks. But can I ask you to do me a different favor in the meantime?”
“What?”
“Can you make me something to eat?”
* * *
That evening when I got home, I felt the weight of the day wearing on the muscles in my neck. I wanted to take a nice, long bath—something I never did—until my toes and fingers started to prune.
I noticed Megan’s car in the parking lot, which was a pleasant surprise because on most days she had already started her shift at the bar by the time I got off of work. Now that she was the lead manager, it was easier for her to customize her schedule a little more than she’d been able to previously.
I found her and Kikko sprawled out on the couch, relaxing. Shutting the door, I said, “Okay, where is Megan Riley and what have you done with her?”
Upon hearing my voice, Kikko’s head popped up and she yawne
d, just waking from a nap. Her pink tongue curled out and she sighed as her mouth closed, as if in protest of being disturbed from sleep. Hoisting herself up, she flopped off the couch and scuttled over to give my shoes a good sniff.
Megan stretched her arms over her head. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re not doing anything. There are no projects on the table, you’re not knitting anything or designing some kind of jewelry. That’s not like you.” I hung my keys on the hook near the door, and bent down to pet Kikko before she started yipping.
“I can relax,” Megan replied defensively. “I do it all the time.”
“No, no you don’t.” I moved toward the couch, and batted at her knees. “I don’t think I’ve seen you relax since 2005.”
Megan adjusted herself, giving me room to sit next to her. “Oh, stop being so dramatic, Lana. I already have a headache.”
“You feeling okay?”
“I guess.” She leaned her head in her hand. “I think I’m just agitated with this whole situation.”
“Well, wait until I tell you what happened to me today.”
“Oh brother, what now?”
Before I fully unloaded the entire story of the whirlwind that was my day, I went to the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer to help take the edge off. When I was settled back down, I went through all the details of what happened, trying not to leave anything out. The more I talked, the more rushed my speech became and I had to keep backtracking to add in details that I’d forgotten to mention.
Megan drummed her fingernails on the side of her beer bottle. “This is ridiculous. If this Detective Bishop gets in our way, he could ruin our chances of figuring anything out. Couldn’t this have happened in Fairview Park instead so it would be Adam we’re dealing with?”
“Well, ideally this wouldn’t have happened at all,” I said.
“Yeah, obviously. But you know what I mean.”
“I agree, this guy might make things complicated for us. But hopefully there won’t be much in the way of run-ins with him.”
