Cullen immediately reached for her, and she landed against his chest. But she was given no time to take even small pleasure in his comforting touch. It all seemed to happen at once. An officer Mei recognized bent to snap cuffs on the still-writhing Way Shen, who’d had the wind knocked out of him by her blow.
Cullen swore succinctly and attempted to pull Mei Lu aside. Not soon enough. She saw her mother straighten, and for a heartbeat their eyes met. Aun sent Mei Lu a withering glare. Helpless, pinioned as she was in Cullen’s grasp, Mei Lu watched in horror and disbelief as her mother removed a wicked-looking stiletto knife with a flowered cloisonné handle from the voluminous sleeve of her blood-red robe.
“Mei Lu, don’t…look,” Cullen shouted, his voice coming at her from afar. “Knife,” he choked out to an officer, as Mei Lu struggled to get free.
A chubby sergeant blocking the exit reacted. He pulled his Smith & Wesson and aimed it at the woman holding the knife.
“No, no, no!” Mei Lu screamed, lashing out with a foot to knock his weapon aside.
“Mother, don’t,” she begged. “It’s over. Put down the knife. Let me phone Father. We’ll get you help. And Stephen. Stephen will be here soon. You won’t want him to see you like this.” Mei all but dangled lifelessly from Cullen’s strong hands. She tried to spread her own in supplication.
“Bah! You’re both too much your father’s weak offspring,” Aun snorted. “My brothers understand the difference between wisdom and foolishness,” she added haughtily. Then, lightning fast, before anyone in the room could read her real intent, she turned the stiletto with both hands and jammed it hard through the snarling mouth of the white tiger that flowed along her robe.
“Nooo!” Mei heard her own cries.
Cullen’s fingers went limp and he released her, allowing her to spring forward.
Mei caught Aun as she crumpled slowly to the floor, the red of her blood blossoming flower-like at first, then quickly seeping outward to soak the snowy silk tapestry of the tiger’s head.
“Call the medics,” Cullen yelled. “Get an ambulance! Mei, don’t do this to yourself.”
She cradled her mother’s head on her knees. Aun’s last words were all Mei Lu heard. “Remind Michael of his last promise to my father. I won’t be buried in this land, but in China where my soul belongs.”
The woman—the mother—Mei Lu didn’t know at all slumped to the side, and Mei, who’d seen death in her early days as a street cop, knew it was too late for medics.
Inside she cried. Outside, she let nothing show. In that way she was her mother’s daughter. She teetered on the verge of cracking, but she refused to break down before her peers. She saw the horror on their faces. Saw how everyone in the room stepped back—waiting for what? For her to follow her mother into madness?
Only Cullen acted. He came up behind her and tried to loosen her hold on her mother’s body. Poor Cullen, he must not be aware of how his name could be dragged through the mud with hers in tomorrow’s paper.
Shaking off his soothing hands, Mei Lu pulled together the tattered edges of her pride. She could do this, separate herself from the scene—and from Cullen. It was for his own good, and for his children with whom she’d also fallen in love.
She rose and gave a toneless statement to the ranking lieutenant. A homicide team materialized out of nowhere. For their records, Mei Lu repeated everything that had occurred from the time she boarded the first bus. “This man is Way Shen,” she said. “He and my mother were working together in an international smuggling ring, along with at least one of her brothers in Kowloon. She has three. Their goal seemed to be to restore the lost Wong fortunes.”
Mei Lu paced the room, touching her mother’s false treasures. Behind a silk trifold screen, she found the Heavenly King and various other museum pieces. “Interpol has a list of these.” She waved a hand that shook. Clasping both hands in front of her again, she blurted everything she knew, keeping the Wu and Hsiao names out of her report.
Cullen watched from the other side of the room. Mei Lu seemed all right. Too all right. Any minute he expected her to collapse in tears. It wasn’t a good thing to be so self-possessed. He ought to get her out of there, and certainly intended to keep an eye on her. But then a squad car brought Michael Ling. He didn’t fare half so well as his daughter and broke down crying.
Over the next hour, as Homicide signed the scene off to another unit, who listed Aun’s death as suicide, Brett Davis’s envoy arrived with Stephen Ling in tow.
In the ensuing chaos, Cullen lost track of Mei Lu. After another hour had passed, during which he brought Brett’s partner up-to-date, Cullen discovered that one of the officers had authorized Mei Lu to leave the house. No one could tell him where she’d gone. Not the cops. Not her father nor her brother. She wasn’t answering her phone at home or her cell.
She’d simply vanished.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FRANTIC, CULLEN plied Mei’s father with questions about where she might be.
“She expressed a need to be busy,” Michael said, sounding disconnected. “Perhaps she’s gone to make funeral arrangements.”
“I doubt that very much,” Cullen responded. “Her mother’s last words were that you’d promised your father-in-law you’d see Aun buried next to her family.”
Michael flushed and wiped his eyes for about the thousandth time, then said haltingly, “I knew Aun had never fully adjusted to living here. I was blind as to how deep her hatred ran…of America…and of me. I loved her from the moment I set eyes on her photograph. She was so beautiful. Unspoiled.” A tremor shook his body. His son, taller by a head, slung a bracing arm around his father. “All I ever wanted was to make life perfect for her.”
“Let me take care of getting her back to China, Father. I’ve met two of her sisters, and I like them. Her brothers could well be involved in this evil triad. I’ve never trusted them. In their bitterness, I feared they’d turn Mother against me. And my sister, as well…”
Cullen stiffened. “That’s not true. Mei Lu loves you. She’s worried sick that you had a hand in this smuggling, Stephen.”
“Me?” Stephen wore a shocked expression. “I’ve been working undercover with Hong Kong law enforcement, to try to trace the path of the stolen goods. The woman my family thinks is my fiancée is really a member of the Beijing police. They cleared me and our gallery weeks ago.” He turned sheepish eyes on his father. “Father’s name headed everyone’s original lists as the number-one link. But I knew he couldn’t be involved. The Hong Kong police cooked up the idea of my phony engagement, hoping to entice him to come and meet his prospective daughter-in-law. They wanted to judge, by Asian standards, his guilt or innocence.” Stephen’s laugh was off-key. “Who would ever have suspected Mother? While all of us were suspecting each other, Aun and her brothers were busy ruining us. One of them holds guanxi for many immigrant families—that’s how the couriers operated. And it’s how they must have been killed.” He took a deep breath. “Father, we’ll have to liquidate Ling Limited.”
Cullen frowned. “The shame falls on only one.”
“That’s not how it works in the Asian community. Ask Mei Lu. She’ll tell you the shame brought by one in the family taints us all. I don’t envy you, Archer, trying to convince her differently. You love my sister, don’t you? I can see you do. It’s written all over your face.”
“I do love her. Michael. Stephen.” Cullen bowed. “I plan to marry her. I hope we have your blessing, even though I know this is a terrible time to ask for it.”
Michael nodded dully.
Stephen clasped Cullen’s hand. “You’ll have your work cut out for you. If I know Mei Lu, she’ll quit her job and fade from the life of everyone this might hurt. She hates disharmony. That’s why she opted out of Ling Limited. Life is black and white for Mei Lu. Gray areas don’t exist.”
“I can’t believe she’d quit the police force. She loves it. And she’s good.”
Stephen Ling merely arched a
brow. “I’m a betting man, Archer. And I’m betting that’s what Little Sister is doing right now. Saving everyone she knows from guilt by association.”
Cullen didn’t believe the arrogant man who thought he knew Mei Lu so well. But he wasn’t willing to take the chance that Stephen might be right. “Like I said before, I love her with all my heart. Maybe Chinese marriage vows don’t contain the words ‘for better or for worse.’ Ours do. I intend to make Mei Lu understand what those words mean.”
Excusing himself, Cullen ran straight to his car and headed downtown to police headquarters.
It hurt him to learn that Mei Lu’s brother did know her best. Cullen ran her to ground in Catherine Tanner’s office. He burst in and saw Mei Lu’s badge and her Taser already lying between her and the chief in the middle of Catherine’s desk.
Both women glanced up with startled looks when Cullen barged in. Though Mei Lu appeared pale and drawn, Cullen saw only her substance. Her grit. Rushing forward, he knelt beside her chair and held her eyes with a look of love as he reached for her hands.
“Thank goodness the cavalry’s arrived,” Catherine exclaimed. “I hope you can help me talk some sense into her.”
“That’s my aim. Sweetheart,” he said softly. “None of you—not your father, not your brother—need to take on the sins of your mother. She was sick. Even your dad admitted she’s been unhappy for a very long time.”
“Why did you come, Cullen? This doesn’t concern you. You have the children. Think of them. Think how knowing what my mother is, what she did, will affect them.”
“I love you. They love you. Well,” he said, screwing up his face, “Belinda loves you. Bobby’s coming around. I told him about your promise to teach him Chinese paper art. He’s interested. Please tell me you aren’t planning to disappoint him.”
Her lips turned down. “How horrified will he be when he finds out my mother’s a thief and a…murderer? That’s the legacy I’d bring to your family.”
“Bobby’s never met her. And at the moment he feels let down by his own mother.”
“The two aren’t comparable, Cullen. To make matters worse, rather than stand up and face her deeds, Mother committed the most cowardly act of all—suicide.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Chinese history say the way to wipe clean the family slate is to fall on one’s sword, so to speak?”
“I suppose,” she mumbled. “But that’s ancient history, and the men written about were warriors. Anyway, this isn’t China. I guarantee the news media won’t paint her act as honorable. You have no idea what people will say behind my back. Other cops, even. Who’ll trust me?” She sucked in her lower lip and turned to Catherine. “Tell him. We know how everyone avoided Risa. Me included, I’m ashamed to say.”
The chief brought the tips of her fingers together. “Totally different circumstances. I’m not saying rumors won’t fly. They will. For a while. Until the next disaster befalls our community. Mei Lu, I know who you are. I know the kind of officer you are. And with the mayor and city manager ready to fire me over false charges of missing evidence, witness tampering and the like, I need every good officer I can hang on to. You’ve done nothing wrong, Mei Lu. Nothing.”
“But in spite of everything, I loved her.” Tears flowed down Mei Lu’s face.
“Of course you did. And Bobby and Belinda love Jana despite all her faults. That’s okay.” Cullen rose, bringing her with him. He rubbed her shoulders and her neck, feeling relief when her tears subsided and he felt her tension slowly began to dissipate. “How much time is she allowed for bereavement?” he asked Catherine, although he never took his eyes off the woman he held.
“Two weeks. I can swing more. I understand the funeral will be in China. That’ll take some arranging.” Catherine tapped the eraser end of a pencil on her desk calendar. “Take thirty days if you need it, Mei Lu. I’ll justify it by digging up another reason.”
“Is getting married a good reason?” This from Cullen. “A respectable two weeks after your mother’s funeral,” he rushed to assure Mei Lu.
“What about my brother’s investigation?” Surfacing, Mei Lu wiped her eyes.
“Oh, that…” He quickly filled her in on how Stephen was helping the Hong Kong police. “Maybe he’ll attend our wedding.” Cullen let the statement hang in the air.
“Was that a proposal?” Catherine asked excitedly, snapping forward in her chair.
Mei Lu turned slightly. “Shouldn’t that be my question, Catherine?”
Cullen smiled, feeling he was making progress. “I have your father’s and brother’s blessings. I spoke to the twins at length this morning. And it appears that your boss thinks marrying me is a good idea. You’re the only holdout, Mei Lu.”
“Oh, but to have a wedding on the heels of this…” She waved a hand vacantly. “I’d be too mortified to invite anyone. And what if I did and they were too embarrassed to show up?”
Cullen thought he saw a glimmer of hope edge out the misery swimming in her eyes. “We could slip off somewhere. Just the two of us.”
“Go away where? Elope, you mean?”
“Why not? Marriage mainly concerns two people. Hawaii’s a nice stopover on the way home from China.” Cullen rubbed the ends of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “I love you, Mei Lu. You said you loved me. Who else do we need at our wedding?”
“The twins. I’d want them involved, Cullen. I grew up in a divided home. I’d want us to start out right, as a family.”
“I think that can be arranged. I have a friend I’m sure will watch Foo. And Freda’s due a vacation. I doubt she’d object to chaperoning the twins to Hawaii and herding them around a beach resort for a few days while I honeymoon with my bride.”
Ever so slowly, hope erased the dramatic lines that had bracketed Mei Lu’s mouth. “If you’re sure…”
Cullen bent his head and unerringly found her lips.
Mei saw the sheen in his eyes, a sure indication of what he felt in his heart.
It wouldn’t have been a short kiss, either, except that the chief leaped to her feet. Grabbing each by an arm, she ushered the couple to the door. “These matters are better finalized privately—away from the eyes of onlookers. Consider the paperwork for your leave under way, Lieutenant Ling. When I see you again, I’ll expect you to be refreshed and ready to do justice to your next assignment. As a personal aside, I’m so very sorry for your tragic loss. But death is a part of life. You and I both know it. So is change. You’re starting a new chapter in your life. Embrace it and enjoy every minute, Mei Lu.”
Mei finally shared a secret smile with Cullen as she clasped Catherine’s hands. “I can’t thank you enough for your understanding. Will you do me a favor? Tell Risa, Lucy, Abby and Crista about this. Say that when I return to duty, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure things get back to normal between us. I’ll write them each a note, as well.”
Catherine nodded.
“Chief, you’ve been there for me from the day I first broke with Ling tradition. You have my word that I’ll do my best always to be worthy of your faith in me.
“And Cullen…” Mei Lu turned and lightly traced two fingers over his lips, then followed the outline of his solid jaw. “The same goes for you. Now and for always. I give you my love. And my word.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2901-3
SHE WALKS THE LINE
Copyright © 2005 by Rosaline Fox.
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