by Vivien Chien
Her eyes darted up at me. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“You two were having problems … was she bullying you?”
“You think I did this?” Her expression changed to outrage. “You think I would be capable of something like this?”
I shook my head. “No, no, nothing like that. But … do you know who could have?”
Her eyes shifted away and she bit her bottom lip. “I can’t say that I do.”
“But you two knew each other. You must have known something.”
“That has nothing to do with anything. She and I knowing each other has nothing to do with whatever is happening now.”
“What about Joel?”
She snorted. “What about him?”
“Why did he come to see you that day? After Norman Pan was killed he stopped by and I ran into him by the pond.”
“Oh, that? It was nothing important…”
“Did he happen to ask you what you knew about the murder?” I asked. “Did he say anything out of the ordinary?”
“Wait a minute.” She closed her eyes and held up a hand. “Are you trying to insinuate that he had something to do with this?”
“I’m just trying to figure this out in general. I’m not blaming anyone specifically. But this has got to have something to do with the contest.”
“You have a lot of nerve, you know that?” Her eyes narrowed and she studied my face. “You come in here with all of these wild accusations, like you’re the police or something.”
“I’m only trying to help. This affects all of us.”
“It would serve you well to keep out of it. And stop accusing people you don’t know of things you know nothing about. Now, if you would please leave.” She thrust her arm out, pointing at the door.
“Penny…”
“No … please go. I don’t want you here.” She sneered as she folded her arms over her chest. “And to think, I almost gave you an apology.”
I felt partially like sulking out of the restaurant. But the other part of me felt indignant at her behavior and I wanted to storm out declaring that justice would be served.
I chose to take the high road and leave quietly. I had to pick my battles, especially if she happened to be guilty. After all, if she was, it wasn’t in my best interest to rile her.
When I got back to the restaurant, Esther, my parents, grandmother, and sister were there, congregating at a booth with Nancy. Nancy stood at the head of their table, holding an empty tray. By the looks of it, she’d just dropped off tea for the table.
Vanessa, who was on hostess duty for the day, hopped off her stool and greeted me with an exaggerated bow. Her normally out-of-control hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail at the nape of her neck. “Hey there, boss lady!”
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not good with teenagers. My mother was constantly reminding me that I needed to be patient with Vanessa. She was the daughter of a family friend and her parents were trying to teach her how to be responsible by earning her own money. I commended her for working during her free hours after school and on the weekends, but it was her mouth that usually got the best of me.
“Hi, Vanessa, how’s everything going today?”
“Slow. We thought with the contest being canceled that people would stay and eat, but this place has been a ghost town today.”
The restaurant was indeed lacking in customers and I worried that the disruption of the contest would bring bad press to the plaza.
My sister saw me standing at the hostess stand, and waved me over. This was going to be fun. “I’ll talk to you later, Vanessa.”
“Good luck with your family—your mom is supercrabby today.”
“Great,” I mumbled.
“Thanks for telling us about what happened,” my sister spat at me as I walked over. “You could have given us a heads-up.”
I slunk to the table. “Sorry, I promised Ian I would let the contestants know first.”
My mother turned around, clucking her tongue at me. “Ai-ya, we are a contestant!”
“Peter and the other chefs needed to know first, Mother. I was going to call you as soon as I was done talking with everyone else … you just beat me to it.”
She gave me a sideways glance and then shifted back around in her seat. “Well, now we know.”
My dad, who was seated next to her in the booth, smiled up at me. “Don’t mind your mother, Goober. She is just a little upset about everything going on around here.”
“Yes! I am upset,” my mother shouted. “This is too much. Too many bad things are happening. We cannot have this when your auntie comes to visit.”
My sister and I shared a glance.
“It’s going to be fine. If you think about it, this doesn’t really have anything to do with us,” I said, hoping to placate my mother.
Esther nodded in agreement. She spoke in Mandarin so I didn’t understand much of what she was saying, but it sounded by her tone as if she was trying to reason with her. My grandmother nodded along with Nancy.
After that my mother sat staring into her teacup. “Your auntie always has something to say about everything. We must show her that we are doing very good. I will not be embarrassed.”
I gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Mom. We all have sisters that are a pain.”
Anna May groaned.
“Well, I just wanted to stop by and do a quick check-in before leaving for the day. I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow for dim sum?”
Everyone nodded.
I stuck my head in the kitchen and said good-bye before heading out. Megan and I had a lot to discuss.
CHAPTER
18
Because we had yet to eat that morning, Megan and I ventured to Effie’s Diner for brunch. We sat in a booth facing the street, talking about the latest events and our current theories over bacon and eggs.
“My money’s on Penny. It has to be her,” Megan said to me after I finished telling her the entire story from that morning.
I sipped my coffee and weighed the likelihood. “Maybe.”
“What do you mean, maybe?” She gawked at me, incredulous. “She’s been acting strange this entire time. And the weird stuff with her and Stella? And then, Stella ends up dead after Penny tells you she’s going to take care of it herself. Take care of what exactly?”
“Agreed. Penny is definitely at the top of my list now, but we haven’t eliminated anyone else yet. Plus I don’t think she killed Norman Pan.”
Megan jabbed the egg yolk of her sunny-side up. “Do we really need to look at anyone else? This whole thing seems kind of obvious to me.”
“But we also both agreed we thought Joel was guilty.”
“They were working together then. Maybe we had the original connection wrong. Instead of Stella and Joel working together to bully Penny, maybe Penny and Joel were working together, and Stella started snooping around. She found out too much and went to Penny not realizing that she was a killer. You did say that Stella thought she knew something she shouldn’t.”
“Yeah, but pretend your theory is correct. Why would Penny agree to help kill Norman? Especially in her own restaurant. It’s ruining her business.”
“Could have been a tit-for-tat situation. Penny helps Joel cover up the murder with Norman, and then Penny goes after Stella. And there’s the whole camera thing. It’s a little too convenient, wouldn’t you say?”
“If what you’re saying is true, Stella wasn’t part of the original plan, so why would Penny agree to cover anything up for Joel?”
She sagged in the booth. “Well, that’s the unknown factor, isn’t it? There’s that weird connection between the three of them that we don’t know yet. So, if we figured that out, maybe the rest of this will make some type of sense.”
“I think we need to learn more about Stella … where she came from … a time line of her principal life events. If Penny isn’t going to tell us anything, and Joel is definitely not saying a word, we have to go around them.
”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
“But what about Ray … and Walter…?”
“What about them?” Megan asked, polishing off a piece of toast. “I think the three musketeers are the answer to this whole thing.”
“We have to at least consider the possibility that they’re involved before we completely eliminate them.”
“Okay, how about you consider them, and I’ll start digging around into Stella’s past. I’m sure that now she’s been murdered, there will be a ton of articles on her. Shouldn’t be too hard to find out something.”
I frowned. “Don’t say it like that.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“I know, that’s why it bothers me.”
When we got home from brunch, I went straight for my notebook, which I dutifully filled with everything new that had taken place. I made notes to talk with Adam about the fortunes Norman and Stella had received. If he didn’t know about it, he needed to. It was the one thing that would definitely connect the two murders.
I wanted to tell him about Penny, but I had to be a hundred percent sure I knew what I was talking about before I said anything. After all, she was a friend of sorts, and I didn’t want to throw her under the bus unnecessarily. Besides, if there was anything overtly incriminating against her, Adam would come by it with no problems.
I decided he would be my next step. I gave him a quick call and, not too surprisingly, he didn’t answer. My voice mail message told him that I wanted to have dinner that night and to call me if he was free. I attempted to sound as innocent as possible.
* * *
The rest of the afternoon passed slowly. Since Megan was working that evening, we decided to give our sleuthing a break until the following day. It had begun to rain, so we opted to stay in and watch a movie until it was time for her to leave.
Probably from waking up so early and everything that happened that morning, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that I fell asleep mid-movie. When I awoke, the TV was off, Kikko was lying in the crook of my knee and there was a Post-it note stuck to my pop can letting me know that Megan had left for work.
I checked the time on my cell phone and saw there was a missed call from Adam.
“Hey doll, got your message. Sorry, but it’s another long night of work for me. Maybe we can catch up for dinner on Monday? Let me know what you think…”
I leaned back on the couch with a sigh. It was rough dating a cop. That was for sure.
Trying not to let it bother me, I typed a quick message letting him know that Monday night for dinner would be fine.
Since it was Saturday night, I wanted to make good use of the weekend night. The rain had stopped while I’d been sleeping and I now felt restless. I sent out a few text messages to see who was available. Rina responded almost instantly.
Quickly she relayed to me that there was a cover band playing at Wok and Roll and no one would go with her. She asked if I would be willing to come.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ventured out for an evening in the Flats, so I said yes. We agreed to meet at her place and go from there.
By the time we arrived downtown, the band had already started playing. The bar and grill was packed with people, and with all the metal surrounding us, I felt like I was in a sardine can. After getting some drinks, we squeezed our way through the crowd, trying to find a suitable place to stand near the makeshift stage.
The cover band—four guys in T-shirts and jeans—mostly played songs from the eighties, but they did sprinkle in a few modern ones too. Rina bopped her head along to the music and I people-watched—one of my favorite pastimes—while I sipped my drink.
Off to the side, I watched a guy approach a displeased-looking young girl who promptly turned him down. The guy walked away sulking. It took me a minute to realize that the guy was Joel Liu … and the girl was Jackie Shen. What the heck were they doing here?
Then I realized the absurdity of my thought. It was a free country after all. Just because I thought Joel was a potential murderer didn’t mean he couldn’t go anywhere he liked. And just because I loathed Jackie—with every fiber of my being—didn’t mean she couldn’t do the same.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Rina shouted in my ear.
I pointed in the direction of Joel and Jackie. “Surprised to see them here.”
“Joel seems to be popping up a lot lately. I saw him leaving the plaza with Penny last night. Are they a thing now or something? He’s always hanging out at the plaza. He better not get caught talking to Jackie if he’s got something going on with Penny. You know that will fly all over Asia Village in no time.”
I whipped around to face her. “What do you mean? You saw him at the Bamboo Lounge last night?”
She looked taken aback at my intensity. “Yeah … Penny was closing up and he was there with her. They walked out together.”
“They walked out together? Where did they go?”
She paused. “Out to the parking lot … I don’t know.”
I scanned the bar to see where Joel had gone, but I couldn’t spot him anywhere.
Rina tugged on my arm. “Lana … what is this about? You’re not … you know … looking into things again, are you?”
“What?” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Lana … I haven’t known you long, but I know that face.”
“Something is going on with them, and I just wanted to know what it is.”
“May I remind you that you almost got yourself killed last time? I’m sure that the cops can handle it … and if it’s Joel, they’ll get him eventually.”
Ignoring her concern, I surveyed the crowd again, hoping that Joel would pop up somewhere, but to my disappointment he was nowhere to be seen. “I’ll be right back,” I told Rina.
I made my way over to where Jackie was standing, dreading every step. This was going to go one of two ways, and neither way was going to be pleasant. I could be sure of that.
“Hey, I need to ask you something,” I yelled, trying to be heard over the speaker that was only inches away.
She acknowledged me without speaking.
“What did Joel want from you?”
“What business is it of yours?” She pushed off from her position against the wall. “Are things not going well with that cop boyfriend of yours? I told him he could come find me any time.” Her smile was laced with challenge.
In my head, while I scrutinized the nasty sneer on her face, I counted to three. At times like these I always tried to remind myself that prison orange didn’t flatter my complexion. “I wanted to let you know … even though you don’t deserve it, that Joel is already seeing someone else. Penny to be exact,” I told her. “You might want to try finding a guy that isn’t already taken.”
“Ha!” She slapped my shoulder. “First of all, Lee, he came up to me. And, second of all, I would never go out with the biggest loser in the Cleveland restaurant industry. I come from a family of prestige, don’t forget. I wouldn’t embarrass myself that way.”
“Well, you did say he came up to you.”
“So, the faith in Joel not cheating on that Penny woman isn’t very strong, is it?”
“I didn’t say that—”
“Let me ease your worried mind, Twinkie.” She leaned in, her face dripping with satisfaction. “He came to ask me why my father won’t return his calls.”
I took a step back and assessed her face to see if she was telling the truth. “Why isn’t your father returning his calls?”
“Do I look like my father to you?” she asked.
“What kind of business do they have together?”
“Again … do I look like the right party for these questions?” she asked, placing a hand on her hip. The other hand held a drink that she shook in front of my face. “I’m here trying to have a good time. You’re ruining that.”
We stared at each other for a few minutes until I realized I wouldn’t get anything else out of her. If she d
id know anything more, she wasn’t going to tell me. “Thanks anyway,” I mumbled before walking off.
When I returned to Rina, she was talking to a tall man with jet-black hair and a decent build. She peeked around him when she noticed me coming and waved energetically. “Look who I ran into.”
Freddie Yuan turned around, a crooked smile playing on his lips. “Lana … nice bumping into you here.”
A little butterfly fluttered in my stomach. No, Lana, no butterflies. You are with Adam whom you are crazy about. And he’s crazy about you … right?
I excused myself from the two, and spent some time hiding at the bar pretending to get a drink. Twenty or so minutes later, Rina popped up behind me. “Hey, what are you doing over here? Freddie was keeping me company while you’ve been gone, but he had to take off.”
“Oh, sorry, I’ve been trying to get someone’s attention for a drink. It’s so packed…”
“Right … get me something too, will you.” She rattled her empty glass at me. “I’m out.”
I turned back toward the bar to get the bartender’s attention … for real this time.
“You know,” Rina said into my ear. “Freddie is a pretty interesting guy … and gorgeous. You have to wonder why he’s single.”
“He’s okay,” I said, shrugging off the statement.
“The funny thing is … he seems interested in you even though I keep trying to flirt with him.”
“Me?” I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. “That’s ridiculous.”
“You have to have noticed by now.”
“Nope … I haven’t noticed anything.”
“I’m guessing you’re also going to tell me that you have no interest in him,” Rina teased.
“Nope … no interest. I forgot he even existed.”
She smirked. “Like I said before, Lana … I haven’t known you long…”
On the way home, I thought about what Rina had told me. Not about Freddie—whom I refused to think about. But what she’d said about Penny and Joel. She had either just given the two a solid alibi, or further incriminated them. And, how did Walter Shen fit in … if he did at all?
