White Ginger

by Thatcher Robinson

  Kelly took a small digital voice recorder from his pocket and pushed the “start” button. He began the interview by stating the date and time and asking each of those present to identify themselves. Dan then repeated what the boys had said to her to the best of her recollection. When she’d done so, the inspector concluded the recording and turned off the device.

  “Well, it seems there’s no doubt this constitutes a hate crime.” His attitude had become reflective. “There are a couple of ways we can handle this, seeing as how the perpetrators are juveniles. If they were adults, we would simply arrest them. Because of their age, we might, instead, have their parents bring them down to the juvenile authority for booking.”

  The inspector pushed his tongue against the inside of his lower lip as he gazed at Bai. He seemed to want some assurance his restrained tactics wouldn’t meet with her opposition. She was well aware the offenders were children. At the same time, she didn’t want to make light of the crime and have it swept away to be forgotten.

  “My daughter was assaulted. I want your assurance the boys will be booked into juvenile hall and charged.”

  “Of that I can assure you,” Kelly stated emphatically. “With this video on record there isn’t a district attorney in this town who would let these boys slide.”

  She subtly nodded in acceptance. “I hope you’re right about that, Inspector.”

  Kelly turned to Ketchum without commenting. “I’ll need the contact information for the two boys as well as the video of the assault.”

  Ketchum stalled and puffed out his chest in indignation. “I’m sorry. I can’t provide that information. Our school policy is to ensure anonymity to our students as a matter of security. You’ll need a search warrant.”

  Kelly eyed the pompous administrator tiredly.

  “I’ve got a better idea. Since you’re interfering with a criminal investigation, I’ll just arrest you. A couple of hours in the drunk tank keeping company with perverts who like to puke on expensive-looking shoes like yours should bring you around.”

  Ketchum looked offended. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Just try me.”

  Kelly delivered his ultimatum wearily, as if he’d said it a thousand times before. The standoff turned into a staring contest. Ketchum looked insulted while the inspector just looked bored.

  Finally, Ketchum capitulated. “Very well,” he conceded. “I guess there’s no point in unnecessarily delaying the matter. I have the names, addresses, and numbers for the two boys in the database. I’ll have them for you in a second.”

  He walked around his desk to print the information. When the printer spooled out the paper, he handed the document to the inspector along with the DVD of the assault.

  Kelly stopped to read the names on the paper. “This isn’t by any chance John Romano’s son, is it?”

  “Would it make a difference?” Bai asked.

  The inspector looked down at the paper again and shook his head dismally. “I’ll pass this on to the DA’s office directly, Miss Jiang. And then I’m going to go out, get drunk, and try to forget I was ever here.”

  “I know you’ll do the right thing, Inspector.”

  “I don’t turn the wheels of justice. I am but a lowly servant of the law,” the cop answered stoically.

  “‘Judge not the horse by his saddle,’” Bai observed as he stepped past her.

  The big cop stopped just short of the door and turned back to look at her.

  “Come again?” he asked.

  “I suspect there’s more to you than meets the eye, Inspector. I’m putting my faith in you.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first woman I’ve disappointed,” he said with an air of regret before slipping out the door.

  Dan spoke softly. “I don’t get it, Lee. I don’t know those boys except to maybe see them in the hall during passing period. I’ve never even talked to them before today.”

  Bai sat in the front of the car with Jason while Dan and Lee occupied the back. Bai leaned back into the soft leather of her seat to eavesdrop. She knew Dan would open up to Lee. He was her sounding board, her closest friend.

  When he replied, his voice held sympathy. “Sometimes, there’s no rational explanation for the way people act. Fear, prejudice, and hate are all part of the same package. It isn’t pleasant, and it doesn’t necessarily make sense. Sometimes, it is what it is—a stupid, senseless act.”

  Dan wasn’t so easily mollified. “But those boys aren’t stupid. What makes them want to hurt other people? Why me?”

  “Maybe it’s because you’re beautiful and smart and fearless,” he offered. After a short while, he asked, “Have you heard of anyone else being bullied at school?”

  “No,” Dan replied. Her voice sounded angry. “But that doesn’t mean anything. If someone gets bullied, they’re not going to talk about it. It’s embarrassing.” Her confession was delivered in a barely audible voice. “I just don’t understand why they acted like such jerks.”

  “You shouldn’t be embarrassed,” he counseled. “The behavior of those two boys probably has nothing to do with you. You were likely just a target of opportunity. Their victim might just as easily have been one of your classmates.”

  Bai was about to turn around and offer her opinion when Dan spoke up, her voice filled with resentment. “While I was waiting for Mom to pick me up, Mr. Ketchum acted like it was my fault. I tried to explain, but he wouldn’t listen. He’s such a turd.”

  Jason pulled up in front of Bai’s building and hit the brakes. The conversation, along with the car, jarred to a halt.

  Bai could sense Jason’s anger. She turned in her seat to face him. “Are you coming up?”

  He jerked his head once in response but didn’t speak.

  Dan made an appeal from the backseat. “Mah Mah will want to see you. Please, Daddy?”

  Mah Mah meant “grandma” and referred to Jason’s mother, Elizabeth, who lived with Bai.

  Shortly after the death of Bai’s parents, Elizabeth had been employed as her live-in governess. Being a widow, she’d brought her son, Jason, to live with her. In a sense, Bai and Jason shared the same mother.

  Jason turned in his seat to speak with his daughter. “Perhaps another time, Dan. There are some things I need to take care of first, things that can’t wait.”

  Dan turned to stare at Bai in a silent appeal. The hard set of Jason’s features informed Bai it was a lost cause. He hadn’t visited his mother in two years. Neither Elizabeth nor he would divulge the reason for their breach.

  “Let’s agree to let Jason go,” Bai suggested. “He’ll visit soon. Won’t you, Jason?”

  “I’ll try to make time,” he said as he smiled reassuringly at Dan. “I promise.”

  The promise seemed to appease Dan. She leaned forward to hug her father from behind and plant a kiss on his cheek. Bai glimpsed a brief glimmer of what might have been regret on Jason’s face when Dan unwrapped her arms.

  As Dan exited the car through the back door, Jason turned to look directly at Bai. “I’ll call you later.” He then turned his head and spoke over his shoulder to Lee, who had one foot out of the door of the car. “Take care of them.”

  “As always,” Lee replied, before stepping out of the sedan and closing the door.

  Bai glanced guardedly at Jason as she pushed open the passenger side door. His face remained passive. As soon as she closed the door, he pulled away from the curb. Her arm rose to wave good-bye before she caught herself and dropped her hand to her side. The impulsive gesture embarrassed her. She turned while shaking her head in silent rebuke to walk up the concrete steps of her home.

  She stepped through the glass door to the foyer. Lee and Dan waited for her. The entry was small with a white marble floor and walls painted a stark white. Shiny brass doors belonging to the elevator were to the right. Brass mailboxes lined the wall opposite the entry. To the left was a white steel door that led to Lee’s apartment.

  The three-story brick building had
been gutted by fire. Bai had purchased the burned-out shell and renovated it from the ground up. The top floor was now a luxury apartment shared by Bai, Dan, and Elizabeth. The second story was a private dojo. The bottom floor had a four-car garage facing the back alley and a smaller apartment up front, occupied by Lee.

  Bai placed her thumb on the elevator touchpad while shifting around to face Lee. Like all of the security in the building, the elevator lock was a biometric device that scanned her thumbprint. “Shall we meet in the dojo?” She stepped into the elevator and held down the “open” button while she spoke to him. “I could really use a chance to blow off some steam. It’s been a strange day.”

  “Why not,” he responded. “A workout might be good for both of us. Can you give me about twenty minutes?”

  “Sure, that’ll give me time to explain things to Elizabeth. She won’t like that I called Jason. And since there’s no keeping it a secret, I might as well tell her now and get it over with.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  He smiled knowingly and turned to step through the door to his apartment. Bai pushed the “close” button on the elevator door and leaned against the dark wood paneling. Dan stood next to her quietly. Bai’s stomach growled, demanding attention. She put her hand on her abdomen to quell the rebellion. Dan gave her a withering look, a reminder her child was turning into a teenager.

  “So embarrassing,” sniped Dan.

  Bai curled her lip at her daughter and raised her fist in mock anger. Dan rolled her eyes and pretended her mother was invisible. As the doors to the elevator opened, Dan ran past her in the direction of the kitchen. She followed at a more sedate pace, letting her nose lead her. The scent of five-spice pork acted as an irresistible lure.

  When she entered the kitchen, she found Dan with her arms wrapped around Elizabeth’s tiny waist. The woman was only slightly taller than her granddaughter but exuded a natural elegance that made her seem larger in stature. In her early fifties, she had shoulder-length hair, still black and lustrous, that framed strong features. Her lips were full and shaped like a cupid’s bow, her eyes large and brown.

  Bai walked over to sit on a stool at the breakfast bar while Dan regaled her grandmother with her adventures at school. Elizabeth listened attentively, providing exclamations of surprise and sounds of approval at the appropriate times. Watching them, Bai recalled her grandfather’s house and how Elizabeth had listened to Bai’s exploits with the same gentle enthusiasm. It seemed like only yesterday.

  When her daughter grew quiet, Bai intervened. “Perhaps you could do your homework before dinner. I need to speak with Mah Mah alone.”

  Dan nodded her head in reluctant acceptance and gave her grandmother a final hug before departing.

  Elizabeth waited until Dan was out of earshot before speaking. “So, I hear Jason is involved.”

  Her implied rebuke came without preamble.

  Bai braced herself. “What have you heard?”

  “The aunties have been calling all day. Is it true that you got into a fight at the Far East Café? Everybody’s saying you assaulted a bunch of young hoodlums and had to call on Sun Yee On to bail you out. What’s gotten into you?”

  “I’m looking for a missing girl, one of Mrs. Yan’s children. Her brother sold her to the Wah Ching, who took her to Canada to sell overseas. It’s possible I’ll be leaving tonight for Vancouver.”

  “And the fight at the café?”

  “They started it!”

  Even to her, her voice sounded defensive, a juvenile response. It was the same excuse she’d used as a child. Caught off-guard by Bai’s spontaneous reaction, Elizabeth laughed. Bai could feel the heat of embarrassment on her face as she tried to shrug off the feeble justification.

  “Some things never change,” Elizabeth chided.

  Elizabeth turned away to tend something on the stove.

  Bai addressed her back. “Jason’s helping me.”

  Elizabeth didn’t turn around. “Is he well?”

  “He appears to be well,” Bai said, “but I have no way of really knowing. He only lets me see what he wants me to see.”

  The back of Elizabeth’s head nodded to let Bai know she’d heard.

  “I asked him to help me get the girl back.”

  Elizabeth ignored Bai’s remark, moving on to another topic. “Was he with you at the school today?”

  Bai hesitated. “Yes.”

  “Reason with him. Don’t let him take matters into his own hands.”

  “I’m handling it. I promise.”

  Elizabeth turned around. She looked skeptical, one side of her mouth drawing up as she gazed at Bai. “The way you ‘handle’ him is to bribe him with sex. ‘You don’t punish a dog by hitting him with a meat bun.’”

  Elizabeth huffed out a breath of frustration before turning back to busy herself with dinner, shoving pans around the stovetop as if they’d somehow offended her. Bai waited patiently, aware that Elizabeth wasn’t finished with her. When Elizabeth spoke again, her words were more tempered. “He’s changed. He’s become like his father.”

  “In what way?” Bai asked.

  Elizabeth stopped punishing kitchen utensils long enough to turn and face her. “His father was handsome and dangerous. He didn’t know when to be afraid. Or perhaps it was fear that drove him.” Her voice sounded distracted as she continued. “Sometimes I think that man rushed toward death as if he were impatient with life and in a hurry to get it over with. It makes me angry. He gave no thought to his wife or son. And now, I see the same man in Jason.”

  Bai mulled over Elizabeth’s words. “He does seem to live for the thrill.”

  “Yes, just like his father. That’s why I don’t want you around him, Bai. It isn’t safe.”

  The day’s events had shown that to be true. But, in Bai’s mind, Jason was still the boy she’d fallen in love with. She didn’t want to believe he was lost to her forever. Besides, she rationalized, she still needed his help to find Jia Yan.

  “If I leave Lee here with you, can you manage for a day or two?”

  Elizabeth stared sadly at her before shrugging. “Don’t worry about us. Dan and I will be fine. Do what you need to do.” A resigned smile settled onto her face. “I hope you get the girl back safely. I really do.”

  “I hope so, too. It won’t be easy finding her in Vancouver. Jason’s working on locating her now.”

  Elizabeth’s voice held a note of reluctant pride. “If anyone can find her, Jason will.”

  Bai changed the subject. “It might be a good idea to keep Dan home tomorrow.”

  “Why?”

  “I want her safe until I have time to sort out the matter at school. I no longer trust the security at Darryl Hopkins to protect her.”

  Elizabeth nodded in agreement. “I’m sure she’ll enjoy a holiday. And since Lee will be here, she’ll be well entertained.”

  Bai flinched at the thought. “Not too well entertained, I hope. The last time those two went out together they ended up with matching outfits. I think Lee is living out his second childhood with Dan.”

  Elizabeth chuckled. “Well, we both know there’s no controlling Lee.”

  “I’m going down to the gym to work off some of my frustration. Is Lee invited to dinner?”

  “Yes. Tell him I’ve steamed fresh shumai.”

  The mention of shumai got Bai’s attention. “Any chance I might get a small sample? I haven’t eaten today.”

  Elizabeth smiled knowingly and turned to open a steamer on the counter. She placed two of the fatty, noodle-wrapped pork dumplings on a napkin and handed them to Bai. “Don’t be too long. Dinner will be ready in less than an hour. And be careful. Those are hot.”

  Bai bit into the first dumpling. The hot pork burned her tongue and the roof of her mouth as the seasoned meat inundated her senses. She sucked cool air into her mouth and chortled in painful pleasure as she turned to leave.

  Elizabeth scolded at her back, “You never take my warnings seriously
.”

  It wasn’t true. Bai did take Elizabeth’s warnings seriously. But in the case of Jason, a little girl’s life was at stake. She needed his help. If getting burned again was the price of finding Jia Yan, she’d willingly pay it.

  A red neoprene foot flew at Bai’s face. With no time to get out of the way, she tucked her arms against the side of her head like a boxer and relaxed the muscles in her legs. When the kick landed against the side of her head, she reeled to the ground and rolled with the force of the blow, letting the momentum carry her out of Lee’s reach.

  “Shit!” she said, as she rolled back to her feet.

  The blow had stung in spite of the neoprene pad on Lee’s foot.

  “Hurts, I’ll bet,” he observed wryly.

  She could see him smiling inside his sparring helmet. His smugness served as a goad.

  He backed off a few paces to give her room as he scolded her. “You committed too soon. Just remember, ‘When testing the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet.’”

  It was her “kamikaze” style of fighting Lee derided. She didn’t have the size or upper-body strength to trade punches with a man his size. She relied, instead, on speed and stealth. But, as usual, her impatience had turned out to be her downfall—literally. She’d telegraphed her intentions and given him time to counter her move.

  “Keep smiling, Dorothy,” she said as she slapped her red sparring gloves together. “I’m about to smack you so hard you’ll fly back to Kansas without your ruby shoes.”

  He opened his mouth to offer a reply. She rushed forward to feint by dropping her left and then her right shoulder before pivoting into a spin kick. He moved to the right in an attempt to block what he expected to be a left hook. Her spin kick landed on his left ear.

  The impact didn’t fell him, but it knocked him off balance long enough for her to follow the impetus of her kick. She whipped around to duck inside his drooping guard and land a flurry of rabbit punches to his chest. Her foot swept his ankle as she elbowed his ribs to knock him off balance.

  In a last-ditch effort, Lee hooked an arm around Bai’s neck. He took her down to the mat with him in an uncontrolled fall. She dropped down on top of him with her full weight. He grunted in pain.