I picked up my phone and dialed Lenox's number. "Can you set up a meeting for me with Xi Jing?" I asked him when he picked up.
"I don't think that is a good idea. Unless I’m there."
"Why?"
Lenox laughed, a sensual rumble. "Because you are hot-headed and are not good at playing the game necessary for a successful encounter with a cadre leader."
"Loki suggested we just break into his house and hold him at knife point until we get the answers we are looking for."
"That would be dangerous but possibly more effective."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You surprise me, Lenox."
"You must wear masks. But I suppose you already knew that."
"You seriously think it's a good idea?"
"I've never known Loki to lead me wrong. If he thinks it's the way to go, he is probably right. But I'd suggest, as I'm sure he would, that you leave the area immediately after. Even with masks you'd not be safe. Obviously, don't take Blue."
"If we're leaving..."
"He will hunt you down. You don't want to be hunted in China. Leave Blue behind."
"I'll think about it."
"Is there no other way?"
"I don't know. Loki originally suggested we stay here for a few days and play a game where we pretend to be on vacation."
"I would listen to Loki."
"Okay, thanks."
I hung up and Loki raised his eyebrows, questioning what I wanted to do. "Let's sleep on it," I suggested.
"Certainly. Are you tired? It is still early for sleep."
"Is there anything to do around here?"
"Karaoke."
I laughed. "No way, I'm not a singer."
"Fair enough. There are other bars where tourists frequent."
"Let's just watch TV," I suggested.
We got into pajamas. I had an oversized T-shirt and a pair of boxers. Loki slept in just a pair of loose fitting pants, his inked chest exposed again. At first I tried not to look but after only a few minutes under the flickering glow of the TV I turned to him. "Okay, what's up with the tattoos?"
"They were done when I was much younger."
"Who did them?"
He looked down at his chest. "Many different artists."
"They look like the same person did them."
"I drew them all, but then it was others who put them on my body."
"You're an artist?"
"I like to draw."
"You still do it?"
"Yes," he said.
"I have not seen you sketching or anything."
"I've been working."
"Right," I looked down at his arm, a snake curled around his bicep, its scales looking almost real, shadowed in black and grey, shimmering in the glow of the TV. "Do you like working for Lenox?"
"Yes."
I reached out to touch his arm but stopped myself, putting my hand back under the cover. "You can touch me," he said.
"No, I shouldn't. It would be taking advantage." I looked up at him, smiling. "As you said, you're working."
"What if I wanted you to touch me?"
"I'd say that would be a misplaced emotion."
He raised his eyebrows. "Would you?" Loki leaned forward, the images across his chest shifted as he raised his far arm, reaching out and brushing my hair behind my ear. His fingers barely touched my skin but they raised goosebumps across my flesh.
I turned away. "Don't Loki, trust me. You don't want to know me. Not like that. Not at all."
"As you wish."
I rolled over and closed my eyes, trying to sleep but I couldn't find peace. I was surprised by my measured response to the suggestion to break into a man's house and hold him at knife point until he gave me the information I needed. It wasn't like me not to jump at that. Was it because I was unsure of the consequences? And since when had I cared about those? No, there was something in my gut telling me to just get to that tai chi center. Some part of me that didn't want to rush in the wrong direction. I almost laughed out loud thinking it was Merl's voice in my head telling me to stay calm, take it slow. Merl would never break into a man's house, possibly having to kill his guards, if there was any way to avoid it. And there were a lot of ways to avoid it.
I drifted off to sleep thinking about Merl, his voice in my mind, reminding me of my other strengths. I was not just a weapon to wield, I was also a mind to think.
#
I woke up with my arm around Loki, head on his chest. He was asleep still, his left arm wrapped around me, the right reaching across his body and resting gently on my hip. I rolled away from him slowly, not wanting to wake him. He moved with me, spooning me, his breath warm at the back of my neck, the position intimate and comforting. I stayed that way, letting his body curl around mine, feeling safe and protected while at the same time knowing it was an illusion.
Blue came around to my side of the bed and sat, looking at me, his head cocked in question. I imagined he was judging me but knew that he was really just asking when I planned on getting up. Blue was thinking about his morning walk, breakfast, perhaps a jog. He wasn't worried about who I spooned. That was in my head alone.
Pushing Loki's arm off my body I dressed quietly, but Loki woke as I opened the door. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"For a run."
"Let me come with you," he said, throwing back the covers.
"I'll be fine, I've got Blue."
He stood, his hair slightly disheveled, adorable on a man usually so put together. "I insist," he said. "It will take me only a moment to dress."
"Fine, I'll meet you downstairs." I walked out the door and hurried toward the steps before he could answer. When I got to the lobby I thought about just running off but decided to wait, after all I'd said that I would. The man behind the check-in desk, wearing a suit a little too large, smiled and asked if he could help. "A bottle of water please."
He nodded and went to the restaurant to grab one for me, leaving the lobby empty. Through the glass doors I could see the dusty street. It was light out but just barely. The curtains had been pulled in our room but the clock had read 7:30 am. I didn't usually get up this early but with all the things on my mind it had been impossible to stay asleep. Loki came down right as the desk clerk returned with my water. I took a big swig as we headed out to the road and handed it to him. He took a drink and we started left.
I didn't usually run with other people. I liked to go at my own pace, which usually involved a slow warm up, sprints, followed by breathless slow jogging, and then more sprints while listening to pumping music in headphones. Loki let me pick the pace and as we left the small village, rice fields lining both sides of the road with those impressive mountains right behind them, I ran a bit faster.
As we came to a bend I picked up my speed even more, letting my legs stretch to their capacity, my arms swinging close to my body, pumping hard. Loki stayed right next to me, Blue on my other side. We ran like that, fast and then slow, for a half hour before turning back and doing the same on the way home. An hour of running always made me feel better. Cleared my mind because when I sprinted there was only room for the pain in my legs, the beat of my heart, and the wind in my hair.
We took quick showers, separately, before going down for breakfast. Ming showed up as we finished our meal. He did not have new tires yet and Loki suggested we take a river cruise. I said I wasn't feeling great. That maybe I'd eaten something that wasn't agreeing with me. "Let me lay down for a little while," I suggested.
"I will wait here," Ming promised, pointing to his Jeep parked in front of the hotel.
Loki took me to the room. "Are you really ill?" he asked.
"No, but I can't stand the thought of going river cruising when Merl is missing. It just seems too, I don't know. I can't fake having a good time. Fake being on a date with you right now."
"I understand. Let me speak to Ming about the tires and find out when we can return to the tai chi center."
He left
and I laid down on the bed, staring up at the plain white ceiling above. The round, sandblasted lamp in its center was filled with dead bugs, I could see their dark corpses against the light.
The room's phone rang and I rolled over, grabbing it off the cradle. "Sydney Rye?" A woman's voice said. Her accent was thick, turning my name into Schindy Wy?
"Yes, who is this?"
"I have information about your friend."
"Which friend is that?" I sat up, Blue came to my side, his head cocked, recognizing the tone in my voice.
"The man you are traveling with."
"Really?"
"Yes, meet me at the wifi cafe down the block from your hotel. Come alone."
"Why should I trust you? Loki is a friend of mine."
"He is nobody’s friend."
"How do you know?"
"Meet me and I will tell you everything. It is not safe to talk over the phone."
The line went dead. Minutes later the door opened and Loki came in. "Ming said we can go tomorrow morning."
"Do you believe him?"
Loki shrugged. "It could go either way. He may put us off tomorrow. He thinks we are staying for four days. He may plan to put us off for all those days."
"And there is no way to rent our own car?"
"Not without looking strange. Wealthy tourists do not drive themselves around."
"Okay, I'm going to go get another bottle of water."
"I will go for you."
"No, I want to."
"But if Ming sees you he will know you are not really sick."
"You're right, you go."
I waited for Loki to close the door behind him and then grabbed my leather jacket out of my suitcase and threw it on, feeling the weight of the pipe. Blue and I took the steps down, pausing at the bottom, just out of sight of the front desk. I peered around the corner and saw Loki talking to the same man who had been on duty this morning. Looking through the glass front doors I saw Ming sitting in the driver's seat of his Jeep talking on his cell phone.
Moving quickly, but not so fast that I'd seem strange, I walked into the restaurant. It was deserted at this hour, just one waitress setting tables, getting ready for the lunch rush. She looked up when Blue and I walked in. I passed her quickly and stepped out onto the deck, which was in part cantilevered over the canal.
The fence was not high and I stepped over it, alighting onto the grassy bank before the woman followed me out. She let out a little cry when she saw Blue jumping over after me. I smiled at her and shrugged. "Didn't realize there wasn't an exit this way."
She didn't appear to understand English but smiled back at me. I moved around the building, following the canal until there was an opening between the buildings to the street. It was narrow and smelled like trash, rotting fish, and old fry oil. It was shadowed and cool. Blue touched his nose to my hip as we reached the end, and I took a final check up and down the block. Ming was still in his Jeep, Loki was nowhere to be seen, and the doors to the hotel remained closed.
The street was busy with tourists, shopping in the stores, driving by in rickshaws, generally have a grand old time on their great Chinese adventure. I slipped out of the narrow alley and hurried down the block until I came to a wifi cafe. The doors were glass but plastered with posters so that I couldn't see inside. I glanced back toward the hotel one more time before pushing open the door.
The cafe consisted of two rows of computers with big monitors, aged and stained yellow. The keyboards had large keys and wires snaked out of them into the computers under the desks. The air was filled with a hum from all the fans keeping the old machines cool.
Three computers were occupied. A tourist couple, young and deeply tanned with almost white blond hair and large dirty backpacks, spoke to each other in a Nordic language as they stared at the screen. A young Chinese woman wearing shorts and a tank top copied a hand-written letter into her email. And a young man, his glasses thick and hair in need of a cut, clicked on his mouse without any expression.
Behind a high counter an older woman sat on a stool. She waved. "No dogs!" she yelled at me. I approached the desk, pulling out my wallet. She frowned, her lips growing thinner with disapproval until I pulled out a big bill.
"You need internet?" she asked. "Or just wifi password?"
"I actually wanted a cup of coffee."
She frowned. "No internet?"
"Just the coffee."
She turned around and poured steaming black coffee into a Styrofoam cup and handed it to me. I paid her with the bill and she did not give me any change. I smiled and then sat down at the one table without a computer on it wondering what I was doing here.
It had been a woman on the phone but I didn't think it was the one behind the counter. The Chinese girl copying the note didn't even glance at me though. I drank my coffee. The young Nordic-looking couple left, hauling their giant packs onto their thin backs. I envied them, they were on an adventure together, an exploration. I'd never done that. Travelled just for the experience. When Dan and I spent time in India it was to run away. To be somewhere no one knew us and we could just enjoy each other's company without worrying about our pasts. Not that it lasted, but that kind of thing never did. Your past came for you, because it was in you.
The young Chinese woman stood up and, folding the piece of paper she'd been typing from, moved toward the point of sale. She paid the woman behind the counter and as she passed me dropped the paper, letting it slip between her fingers. Blue laid down on it, covering the sheet with his body before anyone else noticed. I finished my coffee and reached down, giving Blue a pet on the head before reaching under him and picking up the note. I put it in my pocket as I stood.
Blue and I left the cafe and looking down the block, saw that Ming's Jeep was gone. I started back toward the hotel. I saw a drugstore and figured out a good cover for my absence. I walked in thinking I'd buy some tampons, men always shied away from that kind of talk, but discovered they didn't sell them in China. Only pads. Wow, I thought, as I paid for the sanitary napkins. The poor women of this nation.
#
When I got to the lobby the man behind the desk sighed with relief. "You are here, miss."
"Yes," I said.
"Your friend, he was looking for you. Very worried."
"No, I'm fine, just needed to run to the store."
When the man saw the plastic bag in my hand he blushed, recognizing the packaging through the thin white plastic. I went up to our room and found Loki on the phone. "She's just walked in," he said. "Yes, I'll tell her." He hung up. "You scared me," he said.
"I needed to go to the store." I held up the bag.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It's personal, Loki." I moved toward the bathroom. "Was that Lenox you were on the phone with?"
"Yes."
"What did he want you to tell me?"
"To call him."
"Okay, I'm going to use the bathroom first."
I locked the door behind me and turned on the tap before unfolding the letter. It was written in pencil, the lettering precise and strained. Like the person wasn't comfortable with English.
"The man you are with is a dangerous man. He is tied to the local gangs. He will rob you and leave you for dead. You must be very careful. It is best if you leave this place."
I turned off the tap and sat on the closed lid of the toilet for a moment, thinking. I didn't believe it, obviously. Why would this girl tell me to leave? Who did she think Sydney Rye was? A tourist on vacation with Loki, one of his regular customers who would be scared off by something like this?
I stood up and unlocked the bathroom door. "I've got a clue but I have no idea what it means," I said, handing the note to Loki. He took the paper from me and read the few lines.
"Where did you get this?"
"I lied earlier, I didn't just go out to the store. I got a call in the room from a woman telling me to come to the cafe because the person had information about the man I was traveling with, you."
"And you went without speaking to me?"
"I wanted to see what she had to say."
"Do you believe this note?"
"I believe that you are in some way tied to organized crime. You've admitted as much yourself, and the tattoos covering your body seem to hint at that. I think you're on my side, though." I laughed. "I doubt your plan is to drug and rob me."
"Who gave you the note?"
"A girl, she was in her early twenties, pretty, thin, wearing shorts and a tank top. Long dark hair with bangs."
"I think I know who this is."
"Really? Who?"
"The cadre's daughter."
"Really, that's interesting. Why would she give me this note?"
"She is obviously trying to get you to leave the area."
"A message from her father?"
"In a way, perhaps yes."
"It could also be a test. Any normal tourist would leave, right? But someone here for another reason would stay."
I sat down on the bed and looked at the note in Loki's hands. "We've got to get out to that tai chi center. Obviously, something is going on. Where did Ming go?" I asked. "His Jeep was gone."
"He was driving around looking for you."
"Did you tell him I was back?"
"Yes, Sydney, we must wait until tomorrow to insist on going to the tai chi center. Then you may put on a show of anger if Ming says he cannot drive us. You can demand to rent a car. Make a scene."
I smiled. "I like making scenes."
Making Scenes
I woke up in Loki's arms again, our legs intertwined. That's what happens when people sleep in a queen bed together. Loki's eyes were open when I glanced up at his face. Dawn was breaking, gray light creeping through the curtains, making the furniture in the room look translucent. Loki's mouth was turned down in a small frown, his fingers tight on my shoulder, not so hard that they hurt, just an extension of the tension on his face.
"What's wrong?"
He looked over at me. "You're awake."
"Just, you look upset."
"Thinking," he said, returning his gaze to the room. "I'm wondering why someone would send that note to you."
We'd talked about it a lot the night before. Broken down the possibilities: 1. They thought I was like the other women who traveled with Loki and they were trying to mess with his business. 2. They knew I was not like the other women who traveled with Loki and were trying to scare me off or test me. After all, a regular tourist would probably leave after a note like that. She would not continue to insist on going to the tai chi center. She would pack her bags, climb back on her private jet, and boogie on out of there, possibly out of China all together.
Shadow Harvest (A Sydney Rye Mystery, #7) Page 12
