by S. J. Rozan
“But you don’t buy it.”
He didn’t answer. I asked another question: “And why shouldn’t I go in straight? Why undercover?”
Looking at the stained-glass saint, he said, “Kid, I’ll tell you something. I was twenty years on the job, private another twenty. Something about this stinks.”
“Meaning what?”
“I don’t know.” Not looking at me, he said, “Someone took an awful lot of trouble with Mike. You didn’t see him, how it was. I don’t know,” he repeated, talking now as though to himself. “Seems to me you come to steal, someone interrupts you, you shoot him or cut him or hit him with something. Beating the shit out of a guy so he don’t even look human when you’re done—you only do that for a reason, kid. Only for a reason.”
Bobby fell silent, watched the flask he was holding. I waited.
“And there’s another thing,” he finally said. “Mike.”
“What about him?”
“Something. Something about him.” He met my eyes, but he didn’t hold them. “I moved him to that shift six weeks ago. Before that we weren’t running the third man up there.”
“Why’d you start?”
“A trucker got beat up making a delivery to that place one night. They got spooked up there, so we added a man to the night shift, no fixed post, a troubleshooter. I moved Mike there, with Howe and Morales.” He paused. “Mike liked that shift. He could be home with Peg, when Sheila was at work…” He pressed his eyes shut. I looked away, gave him time.
Bobby went on: “But Mike—something happened with Mike. I don’t know…had you seen him much lately?”
“No. I think the last time was when he helped me with some repairs in Shorty’s basement, a few months ago.”
“Yeah, I remember he told me. Said you blew up at him a couple times.”
“I guess I did. He was good, but he never shut up. He wanted to know everything about everything, why we were doing it this way, why you didn’t do it the other way. He wanted to know why sheetrock screws are black when all the other screws in the world are chrome. He drove me nuts.” I added, “I should have been more patient.”
Bobby smiled again, a soft smile that this time was echoed in his eyes. “I knew another kid like that once,” he said. “Had to know everything, couldn’t let anything go. Good kid, but Jesus, he was annoying. Finally he started to keep his mouth shut and just watched and listened. Then he started to learn.”
My half-embarrassed smile answered Bobby’s. “Mike would have figured that out, too, Bobby. Sooner than I did.”
“Yeah,” Bobby said. “He would have. He could learn fast, always, from when he was a kid. But the last couple weeks, there was something he stopped being able to do.”
“What, Bobby?”
Bobby said, “He stopped being able to look me in the eye.”
From home, after I’d poured a drink but before I’d started to drink it, I sat down by the phone and called a number I could dial in my sleep. Sometimes, in my dreams, I did.
“Chin Investigative Services. Lydia Chin speaking,” a woman’s voice answered, a little out of breath. Before I could say anything she said it again, in Chinese.
“Hi, sweetheart,” I said. “What are you doing that you’re breathing so hard?”
“Bill!” she said. “Hi! I was just coming in the building as the phone was ringing. I ran up the stairs.” I could hear her gulping water between sentences. “I have a race on Saturday. I was down at Battery Park working out.”
“On rollerblades? Does that mean you’re in the black Spandex thing with the green stripes down the sides?”
“Uh-huh. And I’m soaking wet and I smell like sweat socks.”
“Eau de Locker Room. I love it. I’ll give you a quart for Christmas. Listen, do you have anything on?”
“The Spandex.”
“On your calendar. This is a legitimate call.”
“Oh, whoops, didn’t recognize it.” She gulped some more. “Actually, I haven’t worked in a week. Why? You have something for me?”
“Yeah, I do.” I told her then about Mike Downey, and Bobby.
She was silent for a few moments, after I’d finished. “Oh, Bill, I’m sorry,” she said gently. “Is Mr. Moran all right?”
“It’s eating him up,” I said. “He blames himself. He wants to charge in and do something, but he doesn’t know what and he doesn’t think he can. So he called me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Investigate. That’s what I do. And I want you with me.”
“With you how?”
“I want you to check that place out. The Home. Helping Hands, the people who run it. I’m not sure what else, but it’s a beginning. I’m starting there in the morning, as a guard. I’m going to poke around, and when I get a better idea what I want, I’ll tell you. Can you do it?”
“Yes, sure.”
“Great, sweetheart. Thanks. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Just to check around, that’s what you want? Nothing more specific than that?”
“Well, one thing.”
“What?”
“Would you rub the phone all over the Spandex before you hang up?”
She said, “I don’t think so,” and hung up.
S.J. ROZAN is the author of six other novels featuring Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. She has won both the Anthony Award for Best Novel and the Shamus Award for Best Novel (the only other woman besides Sue Grafton to win the Shamus), and has been nominated for the Edgar Award. An architect, she was born, raised, and lives in New York City. Visit her website at www.sjrozan.com.
CHINA TRADE
Copyright © 1994 by S. J. Rozan
Excerpt from Concourse copyright © 1995 by S.J. Rozan.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
THIS ONE IS
AS IT ALWAYS WAS
FOR PRB
To
My sainted agent, Steve Axelrod
My genius editor, Keith Kahla
Sui-Ling and all the Junggwok neuiyahn, for examples
Becca, Carl, Deb, and Steve, for support
Betsy, Ellen, Ingrid, Jim, Lawton, and Royal, for criticism
and especially
Helen and Nancy, for everything
Thanks
Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
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