by Rhys Ford
“Why did they do this? Were they trying to kill us? Is she dead?”
The they she was talking about was obvious. Whoever held that gun was the enemy. Her phone bobbled in her hands, and she clenched her fingers tight around the case to stop her own trembling. The boy moaned, and in another scenario, I’d have been happy to hear that tortured sound, but it wasn’t Jae beneath me, and the harsh sounds weren’t ones of pleasure.
“I don’t know.” Admitting ignorance wasn’t a sign of weakness. It merely showed me what I needed to do to solve the tangled situation dumped in my lap. “But I’m going to find out.”
There wasn’t any going back to save Vivian Na. As I pressed down on the kid’s leg, I realized I’d never even heard her speak in person, much less found out if she knew anything about the Madame Sun murders. The shooting had come through the outer windows, the café’s interior lit up like a carnival sideshow. It’d been the perfect setup. Outside on the street, we’d all been sitting ducks.
Someone wanted to silence her. While others had been hit by stray bullets, the majority of the shots were meant for her, rending her apart.
“What the hell did you know, Vivian?” I turned to look at her body. “What was so fucking dangerous you had to die for it?”
“YOU sure you’re not a lawyer, McGinnis?” Wong shot me an exasperated look. “’Cause you seem to show up around dead bodies more than an ambulance chaser.”
“She got dead after I got here.” I’d been accused of being macabre before but never a lawyer. I wasn’t sure if I was offended or not. “Her name’s Vivian Na. She’s Madame Sun’s assistant. I was meeting her here to ask her a few questions about Choi and Lee.”
“And she happened to be the one fatality in the shooting?”
“I think she was the target of the shooting. Everyone else was just collateral damage.”
“Got any evidence of that?
“Just a feeling,” I said, shrugging.
“I can’t take a feeling to court, McGinnis. How about if you talk to me about what happened when you got here?”
Wong arrived a few seconds after the blue throng, chugging through the courtyard in a Crown Vic battered enough to be in the demolition derby. Someone on the bottom of the food chain secured us both coffee, and Wong pulled me aside to grill me once it got around I’d been there to meet the victim.
Vivian Na was no longer a name. She’d become the victim, and depending on the detective who caught her case, she’d either remain a faceless number on a homicide report or her murderer would be an unholy grail the cop couldn’t shake free.
Luckily for Vivian, she got the latter in Detective Dexter Wong.
“Not much to tell. Honestly, she never even had a chance to speak to me except for over the phone. We touched hands, and then she went down.”
“And you called her because she’s Madame Sun’s assistant? What were you thinking she could tell you?”
“I was going to see if she knew Lee was seeing Gyong-Si or if Choi’s related to him.” The splash of Vivian’s blood on me was drying. One of the crime scene people took pictures of the spray, and there was some talk of taking my shirt with them for evidence. “There’s bad blood between him and Sun. I’m looking for something to connect the chain of events. Sun believes someone’s targeting her clients.”
“What do you believe?” Wong drew me out, looking up from his notes.
“Come on, tell me you can’t see this is all stitched up into Madame Sun,” I ventured. “First Choi, then Lee, and now Vivian Na. All of them have some connection to Sun.”
“There’s definitely a connection,” he grunted at me and stabbed my aching side with a bony finger. “But you’re going to step away from it and let me do my job. If there’s something fucked-up going on, I’ll find it. You agreed, remember?”
“She died right in front of me, Dex.” Pursing my lips, I stared at the café’s shattered windows. “Fuck, she probably died because of me.”
“The entire world doesn’t revolve around you, McGinnis,” Wong retorted. “But in case it does, let’s go over what she said to you on the phone.”
It wasn’t a lot. Our conversation had been brief and to the point. Meeting me was something she was resigned to do, not something she’d sought out. I didn’t have much to give Wong other than Na’s general irritation at having to start her night later than she’d expected. I knew exactly where she’d been headed after talking to me, and Wong took down what little I had to add on his tiny brown notebook.
Clicking his pen, Wong sighed at his spare scribbles. “We still on for that dinner?”
“Um, yeah, about that.” I scratched at the back of my neck. “Jae and I are taking a break. Well, Jae’s taking a break. I’m learning how to deal with it.”
“A good break or a bad break?” He shifted closer, keeping his voice down. It seemed like an odd place to have a bonding session with a newly minted friend, but sometimes, I had to take my special moments where I could get them. “Is he just busy or did shit happen?”
“Kind of shit happening.” Swallowing, I found a chunk of my pain lodged in my throat. “His sister showed up out of the blue. I kind of outed him.”
“Fuck, that’s a bad one.” Wong whistled under his breath. “Asian families are weird, you know? When I was in high school, my mom kept throwing Chinese girls at me. Then she was happy if the girl was Asian. Now, she’s just thrilled if the girl’s got a pulse and I don’t pay her by the hour. Pretty sure by the time I hit forty, she’ll take anything with a womb, even if she’s got three boobs and shaves twice a day.”
“Somehow, I don’t think I’m ever going to fit into that timeline there, Wong.” I smirked ruefully. “Jae’s family’s never going to be happy he’s with a guy.”
“Probably not, but hang in there.” He shrugged. “Don’t you think they just want him to be happy?”
“They should, but I don’t know if that’s high on anyone’s priority list but mine.” Nodding my chin over toward my Rover, I frowned at the strips of yellow tape blocking off the courtyard’s driveways. “Am I going to be able to get out of here?”
“Yeah, about that.” Wong glanced apologetically at my trapped car. “You got enough money on you for a cab?”
I ENDED up calling that cab. The driver was a former Long Island native who regaled me with what was wrong with Los Angeles and why New York was better. When I asked him how long he’d been in LA, he told me fifteen years. Since he looked to be in his midtwenties, I wasn’t going to put much stock into his opinion of the Big Apple versus Tinseltown. He wasn’t old enough to have seen anything other than his grandmother’s backyard and possibly a few playgrounds. During the slow drive out of Koreatown, I learned he was a vegan and was studying to be an actor.
He was about to get into the reasons method acting was the true form of his craft when we pulled up in front of my place.
I tossed him what I had in my wallet and listened to his grumbling of a small tip before he drove away. Rolling my eyes in the plumes of exhaust he’d left behind, I dug my house keys out and headed up the walk. The scent of pizza from the Italian restaurant down the street made my mouth water, and I checked the time. I could maybe be lazy enough to get them to deliver a Chicago-style pie.
As soon as I spotted the woman waiting for me on my front stoop, I debated turning around and ordering a pizza in person. Maybe even eating it on a train to New York, because the cabbie sounded pretty convincing, and I should at least check things out before making up my mind.
I would have if I wasn’t damned certain she’d run me down like she was a cheetah and I was a tasty gazelle.
“Nice legs,” I said, eyeing Maddy’s blades. “Did you run here on those, or did you stash your car someplace because you knew I would book it as soon as I saw it?”
“I parked in the back. Since you were out, I took a run. I’ve got my norms with me so I can change them out.” My sister-in-law studied my face. There couldn’t have been much to see und
er the hundred-watt bulb in my porch light, but whatever she saw there made her frown. “Is that blood?”
“It’s not mine.” Ultimately, they’d taken my shirt, but my hands were still marbled with blood. No wonder the cab driver thought I was sketchy. Even wearing the old gym shirt I’d had in my Rover, I looked like an extra from Sweeney Todd. He’d definitely deserved a larger tip.
“Let me in so I can yell at you.”
“Do you have to?” I unlocked the door and grabbed the soft case she used for her prosthetics. “Shit, these are heavy. How do you walk in them?”
“Good leg muscles. I can crack a walnut with my thighs. That’s why I usually wait until I’m having sex with your brother before I start talking about things I want for the house. One wrong word and I can pop his weenie like a grape.”
“I really didn’t need that in my head.” Putting the case in the living room, I said a quick hello to Neko, who peeked down from the landing to see who came in. Dissatisfied with the present humans, she ducked back into whatever black hole she’d come from. “Want something to drink? Dunno what I have.”
“Whatever’s cold,” Maddy called out from the couch. “Did you eat yet?”
“I was going to get a pizza,” I admitted, handing her a chilled bottle of home-style root beer. “Want to stay for a slice, or is this screaming at my head going to be quick?”
“Pizza would be nice.” She’d gotten her blades off and was packing them up into sleeves. “And no, I probably won’t be quick.”
Mike’d always had a fondness for tall, pretty blondes. He’d scored when Maddy gave him the time of day. Even barefaced and slightly dewy from a light run, she was a beauty. One that could kick my ass five ways from Sunday but still gorgeous, with her strong Norwegian features and powerfully lithe body. If I’d been straight, I’d have been terrified to ask her out. She was that far out of my league. I could only admire my brother’s brass ones for thinking he even had a chance with her much less begging her to marry his sorry, uptight ass.
The Italian place had a deep-dish sausage, mushroom, and garlic someone ordered but didn’t pick up. Five dollars plus tip and it was mine. They’d even warm it up for me. I’d barely come back down from cleaning up when the skinny kid doing the deliveries was at my door with a slightly steaming pizza dripping with cheese and a cocky smile that earned him a ten buck tip. I’d given the cab driver less, but he didn’t wiggle his ass in glee when I handed him the money Maddy fronted me.
I served Maddy on a paper plate and dug a slice out of the box to chew on. She studied the pizza, then shrugged, leaning forward to pick it up for a bite. Cheese gushed out of her mouth, and she laughed, shoving strings of it in with the back of her hand.
“This is like battle pizza,” Maddy said around another bite. Nestling back into my couch, she wiggled her upper legs, stretching out her muscles. She’s stripped off her legs and left her truncated knees bare, enjoying the cool air. “I don’t think I can open my mouth wide enough.”
“Hazards of being married to my limp-dicked brother.” Her arms were too fast and long to dodge, so I resigned myself to the stinging slap she gave my arm. “Hey, I can’t help it if you chose the shorter end of the stick. If you’d been a guy, I’d have been all over you.”
“Well, then I dodged that bullet, didn’t I?” I playfully hissed at her as if her retort stung. “You done eating? I’ve got head-yelling planned, remember?”
“How about if you just start the screaming, and I’ll jump in to defend myself when I’ve got my mouth free?”
“Start with the blood. What happened?”
I gave her a quick rundown, both of the case and what happened at the café. By the time I was done, we’d polished off half of the pizza and nearly a six pack of the root beer. I didn’t have enough to build a connective picture, but it was worrisome enough, especially since I couldn’t figure out why people were dying or how it was all connected to Madame Sun.
“Maybe it’s not through her.” I mulled.
Maddy stopped putting her legs together and looked at me. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe it’s not Sun they’re targeting. Maybe it’s Gyong-Si.”
“What about the girl tonight? The one who died? How is she connected to Gyong-Si?”
“Yeah, that’s a flaw, but there’s something there. I think he’s as tangled up in this as much as anyone else.” I mulled the problem over. “Need some lotion?”
“Nah, I’m good. Got some here, thanks.” She held up a yellow bottle. Slathering some on the ends of her legs, Maddy finally got to yelling at my head. “Talk to me about Jae.”
“Oh, here it comes.” I rolled my eyes. “What has Mike told you?”
“He said you have your head up your ass and that you can’t see anything but your own hemorrhoids.” She dug out a pair of white limb socks, shook them out, and smoothed out their green-woven openings. Maddy laid them on the couch and stared me down. “So why don’t you tell me what’s going on in that stupid head of yours and why you thought you should be out standing in the middle of a gunfight instead of asking Jae to take you back?”
“It wasn’t a gunfight. It was more like a game of fish in a barrel. Whoever shot up the place knew Vivian Na was going to be there,” I pointed out. “So they shot her.”
“I noticed you avoided talking about Jae-Min.”
“And I’ve noticed it’s none of your business.” I tried to look superior, but Maddy had the market cornered on that one. Years of prep school and a genetically provided aquiline nose definitely gave her an edge. I crumbled when her piercing gaze shot lasers down her razor-sharp bridge. “He said he needs time. Well, he said that right after he said get the fuck out because you’ve screwed up my life, but like Bobby said, I should cling to whatever piece of wood floats by or I’ll drown.”
“So that’s why you went out looking for murderers?”
“I went out looking for murderers because that’s what I’m getting paid for.” I left off the part about not charging Madame Sun. The less Maddy knew about the profit margin of the job, the better. “What did you expect me to do? Sit around and knit slouchy hats for alpacas while I wait for Jae to decide to throw me away? I’ve got to do something, Maddy. Work seems better than drinking. Bobby’ll only pour me into bed so many times. I’ve already used up one get-out-of-ass-kicking card over this.”
“The cops got this, right? That detective’s a good guy. He’ll do the job.” Maddy left off tightening bolts and feet to touch my hand.
“She died on me, Maddy. Literally. I can’t forget that. I won’t forget that. I was the last person she saw in this damned life. What do you want me to do with that?”
“I want you to put it aside and think about other things,” she said gently. “Like your brother, Ichiro, coming to visit. Mike invited him. He’s coming in a couple of days. Mike wants you to sit down with him and talk.”
“Fucking great. That’s all I need right now.” If I didn’t already have pressure built up in my chest, I sure as fuck did now. Eyeing Maddy, I asked, “Is that why you came over? To do Mike’s dirty work and tell me he’s gotten me a baby brother?”
“Nope, he doesn’t know I’m here.” She picked up her foot piece and slid it into its slot on her leg. “He wanted to tell you after Ichiro got here. I thought you didn’t need to be ambushed by your brother. The one I’m married to.”
I was too tired to be angry. News of my mother’s precious son descending into Los Angeles was the last straw. My life was a fucking wreck. The woman who’d taken me under her wing was lying at home nursing wounds from a madman I’d brought to my front door, and the lover I struggled to understand was playing J.D. Salinger with his sister in a cinder block hole barely big enough for one person to live in, much less two. I had a string of murders I couldn’t seem to connect even though I knew they were, and my hands held miniscule echoes of a woman I’d never really met.
On top of that, I had an unwanted and unknown brother encroaching on
my already stressed life and a furry black diva upstairs who cried in the middle of the night while she searched for the man who’d brought her here.
Yep, too fucking tired to fight anymore. It was time to just bend over and let life fuck me like it wanted to—hard and raw.
“He’s going to be ticked off you told me,” I sighed. It wasn’t Maddy’s fault I was being unreasonable. Actually, I didn’t think I was being unreasonable. Mike wanted to spoon-feed me an entire ready-made brotherhood when I was still choking on my teeth after my father kicked them in.
“I can handle him.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thighs that can crack a walnut, remember? Seriously, think about meeting Ichiro. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“I can hate his guts because my mom dumped me with a fucking asshole father and didn’t look back?” I offered. “You know, the man who said he’d rather see me dead than happy with a guy? That asshole. Remember him?”
“Don’t make this about your mother or even your dad, Cole,” Maddy replied. “We don’t know why she did what she did or what kind of life Ichiro had with her. Find that out for yourself. Give him that chance. Yeah, you might not like him, but hate him because of who he is, not because of who he’s become in your mind.”
I walked Maddy to the door, making Six Million Dollar Man noises behind her. I earned myself another playful slap and a friendlier sister-in-law kiss good-bye. Shutting the world out, I tossed out the pizza box and turned off all the downstairs lights. Neko was waiting on the landing, meeping softly while trying to assassinate me by tangling her puffball body between my ankles.
I placed her on the bed and did all the nightly things, minting up my mouth with paste so she could sniff at my face and rub her bony cheek over mine before I fell asleep. My sheets were cold against my skin when I slid between them, and I shuffled around the pillows, trying to find a comfortable position. I was losing the scent of Jae on one of them, and I briefly pondered spritzing a bit of his cologne on it.
