by S. J. Rozan
“Of course.”
“You are laughing!”
“Never. If I’d have been there I’d have winked at her myself.”
“And she’d have ignored you, too. ‘I wanted to go into the bar, but Kai-rong refused. Women are permitted there—but he said I wasn’t. He can be so much like Father! When we were shown to our table he ordered champagne. It was delicious, though I’m not sure I care for a drink with bubbles. As we sipped we played a game: guess-the-nationality. I picked out Britons, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Russians. Kai-rong wouldn’t give me credit for Americans because they’re too obvious.’ Hey, that was a definite snicker!”
“Only at the obvious Americans. Remember, I was a Yankee sailor in Asia myself.”
“Oh. Well, all right, but watch it. ‘There were Japanese everywhere, perfectly well behaved. When a mustached man entered, I guessed he was Italian, which made Kai-rong laugh.’ ”
“He’s laughing at her.”
“He’s her brother, he’s allowed.”
“I’ll remind you next time your brothers laugh at you.”
“You’d better not. ‘It was Sir Horace Kadoorie, a wealthy Jew from Bombay. How am I supposed to know what Jews look like? I don’t know what anyone looks like unless they call on Father. And the famous Sir Horace is small and dark. The only Indians I’ve ever seen are those gigantic Sikhs. Kai-rong kept laughing and said I’d seen other Jews and Indians on the streets, but I probably thought they were all Italians, too. I’d have thrown my champagne at him but my glass was empty. If I were allowed on the streets I could learn to tell people apart! He said the Bombay Jews are originally from Baghdad, which accounts for their coloring and size, and that not all Jews look like them, either. When I asked how he became such an expert on the subject of Jews, he blushed! And then said out of nowhere how much he was enjoying the string quartet.’ ”
I glanced up at Bill; he was grinning but silent. Well, I hadn’t said he couldn’t smile.
“ ‘I thought the quartet was boring. I wanted to hear the Filipino jazz band in the nightclub. But I didn’t say that, so he wouldn’t think I’m ungrateful. One day soon I’ll play him my jazz records, and show him the American dances the Feng sisters taught me (while Amah was gossiping with their cook!).
“ ‘So many people came over to welcome Kai-rong home! Some asked who his companion was. When he introduced me eyebrows flew up. “This is little Mei-lin?” they’d say—if they knew I even existed! One Frenchman said he suddenly regretted not calling on Father while Kai-rong was away. Each time someone complimented me, I gave them a distant smile, to show I was pleased to meet them but really, one meets so many people, doesn’t one?’ ”
“I knew it!” Bill broke in. “This girl doesn’t get out much, but she knows how to make men feel small. You’re all born with that talent, aren’t you?”
“No, but we develop it early, after we’ve met a man or two. Shall I go on?”
“Please.”
“ ‘Once each one left I made Kai-rong tell me all about them. The Frenchman, he said, is a wine importer, and I could thank him for the champagne that was making me tipsy. I told him I wasn’t tipsy—’ ”
“She was too.”
“Granted. ‘—and asked about a sad old woman. She’s a Russian countess! Here since the Bolshevik Revolution. Kairong says all the White Russians are aristocracy of some sort, which doesn’t keep them from jobs as waiters and seamstresses. He suggests I take a lesson from that. Just like Father! And I can sew, though I’d like to see him wait on tables.’ ”
I took a tea break. “I can sew, too, by the way.”
“I know you can. And I’m a lousy waiter, but a hell of a short-order cook. So when the revolution comes, we’re in business.”
“What a relief. ‘We ate roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It wasn’t the first time I’d had them, and I told Kai-rong he needn’t think it was: The Tsangs keep an English cook. I don’t like roast beef—it seems rude to serve such a big, unflavored slab of meat—but Kai-rong says it’s the most British meal of all. The evening raced by like a kaleidoscope of dinner jackets and silk gowns. I was so happy to be there! Probably because of the excitement, some parts are hazy.’ ”
“Or the tipsiness.”
“Shush! ‘I remember meeting a bookseller called Morgan, and a Dutch doctor. Two dashing soldiers approached us together: a German officer named Ulrich, and his friend General Zhang. They both kissed my hand!’
“I don’t know the dashing German,” I interrupted myself to tell Bill, “but the dashing General Zhang is the guy she eventually married. C. D. Zhang and Zhang Li’s father. But you need to read Rosalie’s letters. He doesn’t come off quite so well. ‘Three school friends of Kai-rong’s sat and drank champagne with us; we all found each other amusing, oh how we laughed! They excused themselves, with winks they thought I didn’t see, saying they were off to Madame Fong’s. When I asked who that was, they roared. After they left, Kai-rong’s only answer was that Madame Fong is no one I’ll ever need to know. He thought I had no idea—but of course I do! She must be a courtesan, and his friends were off to a flower house! I asked Kai-rong if he’d ever been to Madame Fong’s. He opened his mouth with no sound, like a carp. I laughed so hard I cried.’ Is that what they called them when you were a sailor?”
“Who called what?”
“Flower houses.”
“How would I know?”
“Uh-huh. ‘When we were leaving (the Sikh winked again!) Kai-rong asked if I’d enjoyed myself and whether I was happy. I said yes yes yes! I had a wonderful time!
“ ‘But if by happy, he meant satisfied—no, I’m not satisfied. Tomorrow I’ll be expected to resume my life as prisoner. Calligraphy, embroidery— no no no no no!!! Crowds, music, laughter—this is the life I want! And the life I’ll have.’ ”
Turning the page, I found a new date, which meant a new entry. I closed the book and took a breath.
“You’re stopping?” Bill protested. “I want to know if she got it.”
“Got what?”
“The life she wanted.”
“You’ll have to wait. This translation stuff is tiring, you know.”
“Even for a genius?”
“I’m immune to flattery.”
Barely audible above the swirling voices and Cantopop Muzak, my phone chirped the ringtone of an unfamiliar number. Who invented this device, I wondered, and did he really do us a favor? Well, maybe he did. The caller turned out to be Anita Horowitz.
“When Zayde was dozing I opened the box. There’s a set of letters. They’re mostly from Rosalie to her mother, but they’re in German, so I can’t read them. And there’s one from someone else to her, in German, too. That one was mailed to her in Shanghai, General Delivery, but the ones to her mother don’t have addresses or stamps. They were never mailed.”
“No?” I thought about that. “Anita, I’d love to read them.” For the case, of course. Strictly for the case. “May I?”
“If you think it would help. I can make copies when I pick up my son from Little League. Zayde won’t notice them gone for that short a time. Can you come out and get them?”
“Absolutely! Thanks!”
When I clicked off, Bill asked, “What are you so excited about?”
I told him what Anita had found. “Though I have to admit I’m not so excited about driving back out to New Jersey right now. And I think my mother wants me home for dinner.”
“Your mother always wants you home for dinner.”
“Yes, but . . .” He was right, of course. At a loss to explain what was different now, I settled for “I’ve been away.” Which, I realized, was the same nonexplanation I’d offered Joel about Bill.
“I’ll go.”
“Back to Teaneck? By yourself?”
“It’s my fate. To be alone, solitary, by myself, while you—”
“Don’t start that stuff.”
“Oh, okay. But I’m the one who reads German. I’ll go get the l
etters and settle in with my German-English dictionary.”
“Sounds cozy.”
“Not as cozy as—oh, right. Never mind. You go home and rack up karma points by having dinner with your mother.” He gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek, and left me at Tai-Pan.
19
I called my mother on the way home to ask if we needed anything. She seemed a little thrown; maybe it was the “we.” She recovered fast, though, and assigned me choy sum, peanuts, and soft tofu.
Making tofu’s a cottage industry in Chinatown. Everyone has a favorite back room, basement, or fourth-floor walk-up where someone’s granny stirs vats and scoops the silky stuff into a container you bring along. The place I like is a Baxter Street hole-in-the-wall. If the route there took me right by Bright Hopes, was that my fault? I told myself I wouldn’t go in unless I saw Mr. Chen out on the shop floor.
I didn’t. In fact, the shop was already closed. I turned up Baxter, but I was hit by a nagging sense I’d seen and ignored a familiar face. I don’t like to be rude unless I mean to be, so I looked over my shoulder, scanning the choreography of the street. No, I was wrong.
No, I was right. Not someone I knew. But a familiar round face, with what must be a seriously guilty conscience: As soon as our eyes met, he was off.
“Wong Pan!” I surged past three teenage girls whose linked elbows dammed the sidewalk. “Wait!”
For a fat man, he could move. He cut through traffic and I charged after, jay-running across Canal. “Wong Pan!” Had he found Mr. Chen? Had they spoken, made a deal? Knowing Wong Pan was likely a killer, would Mr. Chen do that?
For his mother’s jewelry? Damn right he would.
“Stop!” I yelled, but of course Wong Pan didn’t stop. No one stopped him for me, either; by the time my shouts registered, people had already sidestepped out of his way. I was gaining on him, though. He slipped down Walker and turned on Lafayette. Just before the courthouse I went into overdrive, did a broad jump, and got hold of his shirt. I spun him around and threw us both off balance. He grabbed me, we did a jig, neither of us fell, and then one of us felt a gun in her ribs.
I stopped moving. “You won’t shoot me here.”
“I shoot you where I have to.” He put an arm around me. His gun lurked under my jacket. “Smile like you glad see me.”
“I am glad to see you. I’ve been looking for you. You killed my friend.” I showed my teeth in imitation of Mulgrew.
“I kill you, too. Stay away. Don’t wanting more trouble.”
“No, you have enough already. This would be the time to turn yourself in.”
He laughed like ice cracking. I was never so lonely for my gun in my life. “Sorry, your friend.” He shoved his moon face close to my ear. “All I want is get my money, go away. You leave me alone, no one else get hurt, too. You don’t, remember this: For me, nothing to lose.”
A sudden hard push and I was face-to-face with a brick wall. By the time I spun around, Wong Pan was gone.
* * *
I don’t know if it was true about the karma points for eating dinner with my mother, but I hoped so, because I needed them. Mary, hearing what had happened, hit the roof.
“You let him get away?”
“He pulled a gun and mashed me into a wall!”
“So? You were okay with chasing him down the street without calling us, why not try for the collar, too?”
“I didn’t have time to call you!” Stop, Lydia. Breathe. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But Mary, anyway, now we know for sure he’s here. And that he killed Joel.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better, a known killer on the loose?”
“And we know he knows about Mr. Chen.”
“No, we don’t.”
“What else was he doing down here?”
“What you thought originally he’d be doing. Trying to sell his jewelry.”
“Rosalie’s jewelry.”
“What?”
“Nothing. But what if he does know about Mr. Chen? Or finds out? They could have a secret deal.”
“You’re asking me to put a surveillance on Chen?”
“I wouldn’t ask you for the time of day.”
“You wouldn’t get it, either. But it’s not a bad idea. Even if it was yours. You think you can stay out of trouble until morning?”
She hung up without my answer. I think she was afraid of what I’d say.
On the way to actually pick up the tofu, I called Bill and filled him in. Unlike Mary, he was neither surprised nor annoyed that I’d chased an armed suspect down the street.
“It’s unlike you to lose him, though.”
“It’s the jet lag. Do you think I should warn Mr. Chen? Tell him not to do business with him and call if he turns up?”
“Of course.”
“Do you think it’ll do any good?”
“No.”
It especially wouldn’t do any good if Mr. Chen didn’t pick up his voice mail, because that was as close to him as I got.
Dinner, though delayed, was delicious. I didn’t tell my mother about Wong Pan. We talked about some cousins in the Philippines she’d just heard from, and others in Sidney who never write. I mentioned seeing Clifford Kwan, at which my mother heaved a major sigh about the grief Clifford caused his mother by being willful and selfish. Sensing landmines, I steered the conversation elsewhere: the progress of the melons in Ted’s backyard. After dinner she cleared the table while I did the dishes, with minimal instruction from her on which was the dish sponge as opposed to the counter sponge, and how hot the water had to be.
The sky’s vibrant blue had softened to lilac and I’d just dropped the sheaf of diary Xeroxes on my desk when the Bonanza song rang out. “I’m going to have to give you a new ringtone,” I told Bill. “That one’s getting on my nerves.”
“If I apologize, will you meet me uptown?”
“I won’t accept that apology because you had nothing to do with the ringtone. Does that mean I can stay home?”
Apparently it didn’t. “Half an hour. At Columbia. To see a friend of a friend.”
Once, you had to pass a gate to get onto the Columbia campus, a placid academic island amid Manhattan’s surf and riptides. Now university buildings line Broadway and the side streets, too. But the gate still stands, opening ornamentally, if unnecessarily, to the old quad. I met Bill there.
“It took a lot of blind faith to get me out again tonight,” I informed him.
“I appreciate that. Dr. Edwards called me right before I called you. He’s a busy guy, but he has time tonight after his evening class. You okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Something about your face meeting a brick wall.”
“I’m fine. Just a little furious. This Dr. Edwards is who?”
“Remember I said I was calling a friend? One of the handball regulars is a Columbia prof.”
“This is him?”
“A friend of his. The go-to guy on modern Chinese history.”
A lamplit brick walk, a security guard, and an elevator later, Bill and I poked our heads into a book-lined office. Book-paved, and pretty much book-furnished, too, except for the computer on the desk and the Manchu ancestor painting on the wall. Though if the rangy sixtyish man whose cowboy boots rested on the desk was Bill’s friend’s friend, they weren’t his ancestors. Unless black Africans had come farther along the Silk Road than I knew. Admittedly, they weren’t my ancestors either: The eyes and hair were the same, but the pale skins and formal silks marked these people as aristocrats, from a time when my ocher-faced forebears would have been lucky to find burlap to tuck around themselves while they worked the fields.
At the rap of Bill’s knuckles the man lifted his eyes from a lapfull of papers. “Hey! You Smith? This your partner?” He swung his boots off the desk and shook hands with us both. “William Edwards.” He bustled around, shifting books to the floor. “Go on, sit. They’ll behave.”
“The books?” Bill asked.
“Handball.”
“Is he as cutthroat there as here?”
“He kills me.”
“And then stands over your corpse and cackles, right? So. Larry the molecular biologist tells me you’re interested in a minor CCP official from the early years of the People’s Republic. Like he knows what that means. He doesn’t know what any sentence means that doesn’t include the words ‘electron microscope.’ ”
“He says you’re the expert.”
“Wonder what that’s gonna cost me? But hey, a call for book-larnin’! Let’s get it done before Google digitizes everything and I’m obsolete.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “A minor CCP official?”
Professor Edwards tapped the pile of books at his elbow. Some had English titles, some Chinese. From what I could see they were summaries of reports on this, minutes of meetings of that, and proceedings of plenary sessions about the other. “When Larry speaks, I jump. Reason I didn’t call until tonight, I was busy looking your boy up.”
“Our boy?”
“Chen Kai-rong.”
“He’s in there?” I was surprised.
“References to him. Sketchy, but better than a poke in the eye. You guys are really detectives? How come you’re interested in stuff I can’t even get my students to care about, and if they don’t care they don’t pass?”
Bill looked to me to take the lead, so I said, “We have a case. Everything about it seems to point to what went on back then, but we don’t know much about then. I didn’t even know Chen Kai-rong was a Communist Party member, much less an official.”
Dr. Edwards nodded. “Intelligence Services. Though even with that, his background would’ve made him a shooting gallery duck during the Cultural Revolution. Reading between the lines, he was in for some serious reeducation in the countryside, and he’d have been wiped from the historical record. But he was lucky, he died.”
I wasn’t sure that meant Chen Kai-rong was lucky, but if it meant there was information on him, maybe we were.
“When did he die?”
