Dim Sum of All Fears

by Vivien Chien

  When I went back out, Megan and Adam were talking at the bar. Megan glanced up at me, noticing the perplexed look on my face.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yup, fine,” I replied with a firm nod. “Everything’s just fine.”

  Adam groaned as he took a sip of his beer.

  * * *

  On the way home from the Zodiac, Megan questioned me about Adam and our conversation. “What the heck is going on with you two? I could feel the tension halfway across the bar.”

  “Nothing, he tried to apologize for the other night.”

  “And?” Megan asked.

  “He told me that he needed time.” I focused on the road, avoiding the look I could feel her giving me.

  “Time for what? Nothing has even happened yet. You’ve been out a few times, what’s the big deal?”

  “I don’t know, Megan. Why don’t you ask him that?”

  “Because, Lana,” Megan said, mimicking my tone. “I’m asking you.”

  I gave her a sideways glance. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t have the answer to that question. He said that it’s hard for him to talk about his work … he needs time … blah blah.”

  Megan shook her head. “This doesn’t make any sense. I’ve been watching him come to that bar almost every night like he’s waiting for someone, and that someone is you, honey. A guy doesn’t just do that and then claim to need time. Something must have spooked him. Did you guys have a commitment conversation that he could have felt happened too soon? Because you know how men freak out about the B word. You mention the word boyfriend and they automatically think you’re fitting their apartment for curtains or something.”

  I pulled into the parking lot of our complex. “No, we haven’t had any conversations like that.” I paused, thinking about it. “Although Kimmy did call him my boyfriend that one day we found … the bodies.”

  She threw her hands up. “Well, there you go. He probably thinks you’re running around talking about him to all of your girlfriends.”

  “But that happened before we went out … so it can’t be that.”

  “Oh … hmmm…” Megan sat back in her seat.

  I parked the car and we clomped to the apartment dodging the ice patches that were beginning to form. Kikko greeted us at the door with a few spins and her floppy tongue.

  I let her out for a quick tinkle, and when I came in, Megan was sitting on my bed, waiting for me. “You know what I was thinking?”

  Holding up a hand, I said, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore tonight. It’s been a horridly long day and I want to go to sleep.” I flopped on the bed, throwing the blanket over me. I didn’t care if I was still in my work clothes, I just wanted to sleep.

  I felt Megan’s weight lift from the bed.

  “Okay, but you’d better believe I’m going to find out what’s going on with him, one way or another.”

  “You do that and I’m going to get some sleep.” I said, throwing the blanket over my head. “Do me a favor in the meantime.”

  “What?”

  “Shut off the light.”

  CHAPTER

  27

  I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. Blindly, I grabbed for it. “Hello?” I mumbled into the phone.

  “Laaaa-na,” my mother sang into the phone. “It’s Mommy.”

  “Mom.” I sat up in bed. “I’ve been meaning to call you. What’s going on? When are you coming home?”

  She laughed into the phone. “That is why I’m calling you. A-ma would like us to stay here for Chinese New Year so we can go to big parties. We will come home when the New Year is over.”

  “What?” I yelled into the phone. “But what about the restaurant? I can’t do it all alone.”

  “Yes, you will be okay. I talked to Esther yesterday and she told me you are doing very well. Maybe Mommy can retire early.” She laughed some more.

  I didn’t join her.

  “Mom…”

  “Your daddy says hello. I have to go now, everybody is waiting for me. I love you.”

  “Love you, too.” I hung up in defeat. This added potentially two more weeks’ worth of running the restaurant, and a major Asian holiday was right in the middle of it.

  As I got ready for work, I gave myself another one of my infamous pep talks. I can do this, I said to myself. I would solve Isabelle and Brandon’s murder, run the restaurant, deal with Adam and whatever his issue was, and manage to remain graceful through the entire process.

  Again, I wasn’t totally convinced.

  My car still wasn’t ready. The mechanic told me it was going to at least be another day, so Peter agreed to pick me up again. When we got to the plaza, we had a surprise waiting for us.

  “Wow,” Peter said, taking in our first look at the front of City Charm. “That looks…”

  The front of the store was covered by a tarp, a giant, glossy black mass of wrinkled plastic. I couldn’t help but be a little disgruntled by it. Not only was it ugly, but part of it obstructed the view of Ho-Lee Noodle House as you were coming in through the main entrance. “It looks trashy, is what it looks like,” I finished for him.

  “Yeah, that’s so not cool lookin’ at all.” He shook his head, and we continued on to the restaurant, glaring at the tarp as we walked by.

  “Well, I hope that everyone is happy with it, because this is a terrible background for the Chinese New Year celebration,” I said, getting the restaurant keys out of my purse. “This is going to be a major eyesore! How is it going to look when they record the Lion Dance and a big black tarp is flapping around in the backdrop?”

  “We still have another week; maybe it’ll be gone by then. Or we could tell them to take it down that day. I wouldn’t sweat it, boss.”

  “Easy for you to say.” It was entirely possible that I was just in a bad mood due to everything else going on. The tarp felt close to the last straw. A part of me felt responsible for this outcome since I had missed the meeting.

  The entire morning was spent talking to people about the tarp. I couldn’t have been more annoyed. The Mahjong Matrons talked about it during their entire breakfast. Other customers who weren’t regulars asked what type of construction was going on, and if we had something special planned for the coming celebration. I did my best to keep my face under control as I answered questions with the most vague of answers. It was a struggle, and by noon, I was exhausted just from keeping up appearances.

  At least I wasn’t alone in my agitation. Kimmy stopped by during her lunch to share her frustrations.

  “And the damn thing flaps around,” she said, waving her arms. “Every time someone walks by, I can hear it crinkling from the motion. At least you have closed doors. I turned up the music in the store just so I didn’t have to hear it anymore.”

  “No offense to whoever came up with it, but this was a stupid idea,” I complained. “If anything, it’s raised more questions than there were before. Everyone that’s been in has asked me about it and what’s going on.”

  “It was Penny Cho. And those ridiculous Yi sisters … you know they had a mouthful of complaints … like always. I hope they enjoy the view from their tea shop. It’s not exactly a calming backdrop for their customers to enjoy while they drink their snobby tea and eat their stuck-up egg tarts.”

  After Kimmy let off a little more steam, she left to return to her post and relieve her mother from cashier duty.

  Anna May and Nancy showed up for the day and I was relieved to see both of them. Even Anna May.

  “Where’s your car?” Anna May asked. “I didn’t see it in the parking lot. I thought you’d left for the day.”

  “My car’s in the shop.” I left it at that. If I gave her too much information, she might end up telling my mother about that, too.

  “Figures,” she replied, flipping her hair. “I told you that thing is a piece of junk. You can’t keep that stupid thing forever. What is it from, 1999?”

  I folded my arms over my ches
t. “Well, Ms. Lawyer, when you start making my car payments for me, you can have a say in anything you like.”

  Nancy looked between the two of us as she joined us at the hostess booth. “Are you girls arguing again?”

  Anna May and I scowled at each other.

  “No,” I lied. “I’ll be in the office going over the books if you need me.” I turned without another word and headed straight for the office, slamming the door shut. And here I thought I couldn’t get any more annoyed.

  The stack of receipts on my mother’s desk needed to be handled. But the motivation to do something so mundane was lacking. I couldn’t help but think about the case and all the missing pieces. The progress I had made so far only amounted to baby steps. What I needed was a bigger picture.

  I needed proof on one of the following things: There had to be something to connect Constance to Brandon and the casino, which might be the information that Ryan gave me. Or I needed to place Marcia in Cleveland at the time of the murders. I didn’t know how to do that without the footage from the tollbooths that Adam was working on obtaining. My lead on this mysterious Captain Kirk look-alike was going nowhere at a steady pace, and I still didn’t know who Bobby was.

  I thought about all this until Vanessa showed up and the shift change was complete.

  Anna May was waiting for me at the hostess station. She’d agreed to take me home. “Come on, little sister, let’s go,” she said, ushering me out the door.

  As we walked past City Charm, I gave the tarp another dirty look. “This thing is so stupid,” I said to Anna May. “This is going to be in the background for the festival next week.”

  “Oh, would you stop worrying about it?” She dug around in her purse. “When do you get your car back?”

  We stepped outside and were blasted with a strong, bitter wind. Nothing like a Cleveland January to give you that second wind. Literally.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shuffling to her car. “Hopefully tomorrow. I haven’t heard back from the mechanic yet today.”

  We drove to my place hardly speaking to each other. I was too busy obsessing over the thoughts from earlier, and Anna May … well, I don’t know what she was thinking about. Probably law things.

  She dropped me off, and I hurried inside, fighting against the wind. Kikko was going to love this.

  As I suspected, not one for having her ears flap outside of a car ride, Kikko kept our walk short and tugged me back home where we were both relieved to be out of the cold.

  Megan had brought home some chili from the bar, and I stuck it in the microwave. When it was ready, I joined her on the couch as she carefully added stitches to her blanket. Kikko watched silently from the end of the couch, her focus on my chili bowl.

  “You know, I can’t stop thinking about what Ryan told me…”

  “Man, I wish I could have been there,” Megan said, shaking her head.

  I blew on my spoonful of chili, wishing it would cool down faster. “Yeah, maybe you would have thought of something to ask that I didn’t.”

  “Do you think they were telling the truth?”

  “It’s hard to say. They were really anxious to get rid of me.”

  “What if they were just feeding you lines?” she asked. “You know, trying to steer you away from them.”

  “Completely possible. They did get kind of weird when I mentioned Marcia.”

  Megan’s hands froze, mid-stitch. “See? It’s just like I said before. What if everyone was in on this?”

  “You really think this whole crew of people is out to get Brandon?”

  “Yeah, they’re all working together to eliminate their threat … and they all have different reasons for wanting to get rid of them, but they work together anyway … common goal and all.”

  “I think we’ve watched too many conspiracy movies.”

  “Yeah, but it sounded good, right?”

  Megan and I wasted the night talking about the different possibilities that could have played out the evening of the murder. If there was anything we agreed on, it was that the casino and one of the ex-wives absolutely had to be involved. We also agreed on the fact that Carmen and Ryan were lying about something … we just didn’t know what.

  I woke up the next day feeling groggy and a little hoarse. The stress of work and solving the murder was starting to take its toll on me. As I inspected the dark circles that had formed under my eyes, I knew one thing I definitely needed. A vacation.

  CHAPTER

  28

  Peter picked me up at the same time as he had for the past two days. We drove together with nothing but the radio on low. The one thing I have always appreciated about him is his ability to let people be themselves. He never forces conversations or situations, he is always respectful of people’s space, and he will never ask too many questions.

  I hugged my coffee cup, wondering what the day might bring.

  An hour after my shift began, I got a call from the auto repair shop. They promised that my car would be ready by the end of the day. And as promised, they were able to get me a deal on the tires. It was minor, but at this point, I’d take anything.

  Then around ten a.m., I got a text message from Carmen, who said that she’d found out the name of the guy who had been giving Brandon a hard time. She added she knew that he’d be at the casino that night and agreed to point him out if I could make it there during her shift. She refused to tell me his name via text and I found that to be a little suspicious, but I wasn’t in a position to argue.

  I guess I knew what my plans were going to be that evening.

  I replied and told her to meet me by the food court at our usual spot. I didn’t have a plan for what I would say when I approached this man, but I had all day to think about it. Maybe something would come to me.

  This would be my final trip to the casino. Once I learned the identity of the older man from the blackjack table, I would come clean with Adam, telling him everything I’d found out thus far.

  However, I didn’t get much time to think about the case, what might happen next, or anything else for that matter. Asia Village was filled with activity and the day flew by just as the others had. People were in last-minute prep mode, and it showed as the crowd flowed in and out of stores, bags in tow. Their empty stomachs brought them to the restaurant, and we had another packed house by lunch. A small crowd formed in the lobby as people waited for tables to be cleared.

  Nancy and Anna May joined me shortly before noon, and I was thankful for the help. Right after they’d arrived, a group of twelve came in and requested the banquet area.

  We kept the dining room fed and moving, hardly taking time to feed ourselves. I think the whole day I had a bite of dumpling and half a spring roll.

  The auto repair shop called again around four o’clock and told me that I could pick up my car anytime before six.

  Neither Anna May or Nancy could get away to take me, so I poked my head into China Cinema and asked Kimmy. “I would, but my parents just left to get something to eat before I head home for the day. They should be back by five thirty if you want to wait around for them.”

  “That’s okay,” I said. “It’s not that far to the auto shop, but knowing my luck we won’t make it before they close, and I really need my car tonight.”

  How the heck was I going to get my car?

  I stepped back out into the plaza and watched the mass of people crisscross among one another going from one store to the next. I scanned all the stores and the people I considered friends. Everyone was busy.

  My eyes landed on the management office. Ian.

  I hated the thought of asking him for another favor. Especially since the last one I’d asked for hadn’t produced any results that would make him happy. But if I wanted to get to the casino, I needed my car, and that meant I would have to suck it up and ask.

  He was sitting at his desk when I walked in.

  “Hey, Ian.” I stood in the doorway trying not to act uncomfortable.

  He loo
ked up from his paperwork. “Lana … what brings you by?”

  I glanced down at my shoes. “I was wondering if you could do me another favor?”

  “Depends on if you have any information for me,” he said with a crooked smile.

  I sighed. “On Constance, no. But, I might have something else after tonight.” I still wasn’t ready to tell him anything about what I’d learned. I didn’t know if it would go anywhere and didn’t want to get his hopes up. I was still lacking the hard evidence that I needed.

  “Does the something later tonight have anything to do with our good friend Constance?”

  “I’m not entirely sure.”

  “I see,” Ian said with remorse. “Oh well, the meeting with Donna is all set for Thursday and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything else I can do about it. Looks like you’ll be getting a new neighbor. And I’ll be getting a new…” He stopped, searching for the right word. “Well, in the presence of a lady, I’ll keep that comment to myself. What was the favor you needed?”

  “Oh.” I shook my head, bringing myself back around to the original reason I’d come by. “I was wondering if you could take me up to an auto shop to pick up my car. They said I could pick it up before six, but there isn’t anybody to take me.”

  “What about your boyfriend?” Ian asked. He tried to keep his voice level, but I definitely noticed a hint of jealousy. “He’s not available?”

  “I didn’t ask him,” I said, lifting my chin. “It’s okay; I can come up with something else. Thanks anyway.”

  He stood up. “No, no, I don’t mind taking you; I just didn’t want to step on any toes.” He came around from behind his desk. “Give me a minute to lock up and we can be on our way.”

  I said a final round of goodbyes to everyone at Ho-Lee Noodle House, letting them know where I’d be if they needed anything. Let’s hope no one needed anything. I had other plans.

  Ian drove a brand-new Jaguar and I tried to remember a time I’d been in a car this luxurious. When I got into the passenger’s seat, I felt like I melted right into the leather. It was cold through my clothes, but the material was so soft, it didn’t matter.