Fortune Cookie (Culinary Mystery)

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Sadie scanned the paper enough to verify that it was a life insurance policy. She looked up at Ji. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d found this?”

  Ji indicated for her to turn the page, which she did, scanning the second page as he explained what she was reading. “I’m the sole beneficiary. After listening to you and Pete talk about who would have had a reason to kill Wendy, I worried you would see it as motivation.”

  Sadie felt her eyebrows go up when she read that the policy was for four hundred thousand dollars. She looked up at him. “You didn’t know about this until yesterday?”

  Lin Yang was watching, listening, but seemed as tense as ever and a little confused, leading Sadie to believe this was the first she was hearing of the insurance policy, too.

  “No,” Ji said. “And even after I found it, I didn’t believe it. Or at least I didn’t believe it was valid. I wanted to make sure it was real before I told you and Pete about it.”

  “Is it valid?” Sadie asked, but she already knew the answer. The insurance company had called the police that morning, and she didn’t imagine they would do that unless it were an active policy.

  Ji nodded but he didn’t look like a man who had just inherited nearly half a million dollars. “I called the agent listed on the form and met with him this morning. He’d helped Wendy get it just over a year ago. She paid for two years’ worth of premiums up front.”

  The kitchen doors opened, and Min stood there, her eyes red, her face wet with tears. Sadie tried to give her a compassionate look but Min hung her head in humility and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Sadie silently pled that her parents would be soft with her; the girl needed some kindness.

  “I am so sorry, Ba ba, Ma ma,” she said in a shaky voice, still looking at the floor.

  Lin Yang began snapping in Chinese until Ji silenced her. He turned to Min, and Sadie watched him consciously relax his expression. “Tell me,” he said simply.

  Min sniffled and then recounted much of the same story she’d already told Sadie about meeting Wendy and going to her apartment. “I just wanted to know her, and then I wanted to help her. She was very sad. I would clean her apartment and keep things straight and organized. I thought I could help her feel better. I wanted to make her happy.”

  “But you couldn’t, could you?” Ji said, softly enough that Sadie’s breath caught in her throat. He’d wanted to help Wendy feel happy, too, and at some point in his life had had to admit that he was equally incapable.

  Min shook her head.

  “You were wrong to go against us,” Lin Yang cut in, angry and sharp. “I am embarrassed and—”

  “She’s twenty years old,” Sadie couldn’t help but add. “Talk to her like an adult who made a choice to get to know someone she was obviously curious about. You, on the other hand, made a much more serious decision, Lin Yang. Take your own responsibility for that before you browbeat your daughter.”

  If Lin Yang thought she could, Sadie felt sure she’d have strangled Sadie with her bare hands right then.

  Min looked at her mother, and Sadie could see the tears streaking down her cheeks. Twenty or not, she looked very much like a child. “Did you really do that, Ma ma?”

  Lin Yang lifted her chin. “I was protecting my family.”

  “You burned her up?” The entire room went silent. Lin Yang stared past them at a spot on the wall, her chin still lifted in defiance and self-justification.

  Ji put an arm across Min’s shoulders, but it was obvious that neither of them was familiar with such physical affection. After a moment, Min turned into her father’s chest and began to sob. Sadie felt the emotion catch in her throat. Min had loved Wendy, and so had Ji, at least at some point. Perhaps they understood each other better than anyone else could. Lin Yang stood there watching them, isolated and alone. Ji wrapped his arms around Min’s back and patted her head somewhat awkwardly before he turned his head toward the kitchen.

  “Lok,” he called out over his shoulder.

  Min’s secret boyfriend pushed through the red doors, reminding Sadie that the surprises for Ji and Lin Yang weren’t over. Lok looked scared to death.

  “We’re closing for the day,” Ji told him, Min still buried in his shoulder.

  “We’re . . . closed?” Lok said in obvious surprise. He looked at Min, and Sadie saw his concern for her. Ji and Lin Yang didn’t seem to notice.

  “Yes,” Ji said. “You, Deming, and Fred can close up the restaurant and go home. I’ll pay you for the full day.”

  “Will we be open tomorrow?”

  “Of course,” Ji said, causing Lok to nod and scurry back to the kitchen, where he began talking to the other workers. Ji looked at Sadie over Min’s head. “Will you please call the police detective that Pete has spoken to and tell him we’ll be in soon?”

  “No,” Lin Yang said, shaking her head. “I was doing what was right for my family. I will not go to the police. It was a private matter, and I did nothing wrong.”

  Ji turned to her, his expression tight and angry. “You lit my mother on fire!”

  The words echoed in the restaurant and everyone was quiet for the space of two beats until Ji continued in a softer but controlled voice. “You will make this right with the police, and only then will we find out if it’s even possible for you to make this right with us.”

  Chapter 33

  Lin Yang transitioned into Chinese after Ji’s ultimatum, which

  meant that Sadie could only hear his side of the argument—he spoke in English—that continued until the two of them got into a taxi. Ji carried a white plastic bag the restaurant used for take-out orders with them, but inside was Wendy’s purse, laptop, and phone, which Lin Yang had hidden in the storage closet of the restaurant, apparently unsure how best to dispose of them. Also in that bag were Wendy’s original keys to her apartment, which Lin Yang had taken during her first visit to Wendy’s apartment and then used to get into the building to actually set the fire. That Lin Yang had found Wendy dead, left her there, and then taken two days to plan the fire was mind-boggling.

  Min and Sadie stood on the curb and watched the taxi disappear into traffic while people streamed past, oblivious to what had happened inside the restaurant that was now closed in the middle of the day. After the taxi was gone, Sadie turned toward Min, who looked completely overwhelmed.

  “Are you okay?” Sadie asked.

  Min shrugged a shoulder and took a breath. Her eyes were still red and puffy. She spoke to the sidewalk in front of them. “I can’t believe my mother could do such a thing.”

  Sadie nodded. She didn’t know how Lin Yang could have done it either. Planned it. Doused Wendy’s decomposing body. Lit a match and dropped it. Sadie shuddered at the thought. She wondered if there was a way to suggest Ji insist on a psychological assessment of his wife before he decided whether or not to post bail.

  But it was another woman who had called Lin Yang about Wendy in the first place. Who? Why?

  “Do you think Ma ma killed her?” Min asked, finally looking up at Sadie, an open, scared expression on her face.

  What did it feel like to suspect your own mother of murder, Sadie wondered. “I don’t think so,” she said, hoping she was right. “For all your mother’s faults, she didn’t lie about the fire. I imagine she’d be honest if she’d done more than that.” Sadie suspected Lin Yang might have likely been just as pleased with herself if, in fact, she’d killed Wendy too; she certainly had taken some twisted pride in protecting her family by burning Wendy’s body. “I believe her when she says that she thought she was protecting your father.”

  “He would never hurt anyone,” Min said with sincerity. “I wish he had been more forgiving, but I know he wouldn’t have hurt his mom.”

  “I don’t think he’d hurt her either,” Sadie said, looking at Wendy’s granddaughter. “I hope when this is all over, you can sit down with your father and hear what it was like having Wendy as a mother. I admire your love for her and am glad you were able to help h
er, but please don’t discount the pain your father suffered because of her choices. You had two healthy and whole parents”—well, something was wrong with Lin Yang but that was beside Sadie’s point—“but your father didn’t have any. He has worked hard to give you a life you might easily take for granted, though I realize it’s not perfect.”

  Min looked sufficiently humbled. “I know that. And I thought a lot about what you said to me this morning. I need to tell them about Lok. They can’t forbid me from loving him, can they?” She gave Sadie a pleading look, as though not entirely convinced and needing Sadie’s help to believe it.

  “You’re an adult woman,” she said simply. “And being honest will help your relationship in the long run, even if the short-term is hard.”

  Min nodded and looked toward the end of the street where the cab with her parents had disappeared a few minutes earlier. “I’m going to talk to Lok,” she said, sounding assured but still nervous. “And then we’re going to the police station.”

  “Both of you?”

  Min nodded. “You’re right that if I want to be treated like an adult I need to act like one. Lok and I have been seeing each other in secret for three years. I love him so much.” Tears rose in her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. “My parents did not marry for love. They don’t know what it’s like to feel the way I do, but maybe I can help them understand.”

  Sadie smiled even though she knew that Min could not anticipate how difficult the path ahead could be. Then again, Sadie couldn’t predict it either. Maybe Min’s parents were as ready for her to be an adult as she was. Though Lin Yang was likely going to be charged with desecrating a human body, arson, and perhaps interfering with a police investigation. Maybe with all of that going on, Min’s announcement of her secret boyfriend would roll right off them.

  Sadie put her arm around Min’s shoulders and gave her a side hug that seemed to embarrass the girl a little bit. “I wish you the very best.”

  The two of them parted ways: Min inside the restaurant to help close down the kitchen, and Sadie toward her hotel room. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d do there, but she could try to verify the relationship between Rodger and Steve Pilings, or maybe learn more about Leann Penrose. When Sadie stopped at an intersection, she realized that Ji and Lin Yang were going to show up at the police station and no one would be expecting them. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Pete. Her phone rang within seconds.

  “Lin Yang confessed?” Pete asked. Even though he was only calling because of the case, she loved hearing his voice on the other end of the phone. Sadie explained what had happened with Min, Lin Yang, and Leann Penrose.

  “A woman called the restaurant,” Pete repeated. “But she didn’t say who she was?”

  “Which makes sense if she is the reason Wendy was dead in the first place.”

  “True,” Pete said. “You’re thinking it was Leann?”

  Sadie reviewed the conversation she’d had with Rodger’s wife. “It doesn’t fit that well,” she admitted. “Whoever made the call knew Min had been visiting Wendy, but how would Leann know that? Yet she’s the only woman linked to . . . Wait—”

  She let the thought move all the way through her brain before she expressed it out loud. “Shasta’s on our list of suspects, and I realized this morning that with Wendy dead in the bathtub, Shasta wouldn’t have heard any footsteps above her for a whole month.” Sadie explained how the tenant in apartment four complained about how terrible the floors were. “Why would Shasta not have noticed that there were no more footsteps?”

  “And she could very well have seen Min. Did you get a chance to talk to her when you were at the apartments earlier?”

  “She wasn’t there so I couldn’t show her Min or Ji’s pictures, and she was pretty evasive about things yesterday.”

  They both went quiet as they pondered this realization.

  “And we know she pays more attention to her neighbors than she admitted to,” Pete said.

  “Right,” Sadie said, feeling the probability growing in her mind. “And she and Wendy were friends at some point, so she would know about Ji and maybe even know the name of the restaurant. If she wanted to tip someone off, she would know where to start.” She paused for a moment as her thoughts moved further ahead, or perhaps backward since now she was thinking about the potential scenario she’d laid out last night. “Maybe she did kill Wendy but wanted someone else to discover the body.”

  “And risk damaging the apartment by leaving Wendy there?”

  “But there wasn’t much damage,” Sadie said.

  “I’ll tell Lopez,” Pete said. “But, honestly, it might be a while before they can get to Shasta—things are happening fast over here. Between Lin Yang and Mr. Pilings—they’ll have their hands full.”

  “What’s happening with Mr. Pilings?”

  “Pilings and Rodger both belong to the Presidio country club,” Pete said, eager to share what he’d learned. “Wendy had lousy credit, and it’s not a stretch to think she had lousy credit twelve years ago too—lousy enough to keep her from being able to get an apartment on her own. So, if Rodger knows Stephen Pilings, who owns several buildings, maybe they worked out a deal so Wendy could live in one of his units.”

  Sadie had thought the exact same thing. “And then she turned out to be the tenant from hell.”

  “Exactly,” Pete said. “Lopez got right on the phone to set up interviews with both Pilings and Penrose once we figured out the connection, but we got a call from Pilings’s lawyer a little bit ago—he’s not talking.”

  “He lawyered up?” Sadie said. “Doesn’t that make him look more guilty?”

  “It certainly comes off as suspect. And, Lopez and I went down to the building inspection office and learned that Pilings was fined last year for having too many substantiated claims against him from tenants. Wendy wasn’t the only tenant within the buildings he owned who had been giving him trouble, but she was the only one with multiple claims and likely the person who put him over the top of what the department considered reasonable.”

  “So, he had even more motive to get rid of her,” Sadie summed up. “He already wasn’t able to raise her rent very much, and now she was costing him both money and reputation.”

  “He also had opportunity—entry into the building is a moot point for the man who owns it.” Pete paused. “Except he was out of town—New York to visit his son’s family, I think. It was mentioned in the notes of the original conversation he had with the police after the fire.”

  “Rodger was out of town, too,” Sadie said. “Maybe they hired someone.”

  “Possibly, but there’s still the matter of why the body would be left in the apartment if Pilings had anything to do with it. He’d run a heck of a risk leaving it there for so long.”

  “Lin Yang said that Wendy’s apartment door was unlocked. Maybe the door was left unsecured in hopes that someone else might find the body.”

  “And you think that person was Shasta?”

  “Maybe.”

  Sadie heard a voice in the background of Pete’s side of the conversation.

  “Hold on a minute.” The phone went quiet, other than some muffled noises, and then Pete came back on the line. “Ji and Lin Yang just showed up. I gotta go.”

  “What about Shasta?” Sadie asked. When she put Ji, Lin Yang, Rodger, and Stephen on one side of a teeter-totter and Shasta with her pink dog on the other, she could see why Pete’s attention, as well as that of the San Francisco PD, wouldn’t be captured by the Pink Lady of 22nd Street.

  “Uh,” Pete said. “Do you want to go talk to her?”

  Sadie felt a rush of adrenaline at the implied approval in Pete’s comment. “Yeah, I do.”

  “I’ll let Lopez know. I’m sure he’ll be fine with it. Will you text me the name of the guy who saw Lin Yang in the building before the fire?” Pete asked.

  “Yeah,” Sadie said. “I’ll do that as soon as we get off the phone.”

 
; “And then come down here when you finish up with Shasta, okay? Lopez will want to talk to you too.”

  “Okay.”

  “Love you,” Pete said quickly. “See you soon.”

  “Love you too,” Sadie said, but Pete was already off the line by then. Sadie clicked the phone off, then found Damon’s number—from when she’d sent him Ji’s picture to identify—and forwarded the contact information to Pete. When she finished, she put her phone back in her purse and thought of the fortunes she’d had during this trip: It is time to get moving, a hunch is creativity trying to tell you something, and new people will bring you new realizations. She would put all three to work right now and see where they took her.

  She lifted her chin with resolution and quick-stepped through the crowds of people zipping back and forth on the sidewalk. She put her hand up in the air, spotted a yellow cab, and waved her hand back and forth. “Taxi!”

  Chapter 34

  Saints be blessed, Shasta was home! She pulled open the door

  and gave Sadie the same bland look she’d bestowed on her yesterday. She then made an exaggerated look behind Sadie, as though hoping to see someone else. Annie peeked around Shasta’s legs. It looked like the small dog was wearing pink plastic tips on her claws. Seriously, when was enough, enough?

  “I’m afraid Pete didn’t come with me today,” Sadie said, smiling as though she didn’t see the disappointed expression on the older woman’s face. “It’s just me.”

  “Well, it’s a pleasure,” Shasta said, though she obviously didn’t mean it. She was wearing pink slacks, a multicolored flowing blouse, and pink pearls. Her hair was a shade darker than it had been yesterday and recently styled, leading Sadie to guess that the reason she hadn’t been home that morning was because of an early appointment with her hairdresser. Maybe to impress Pete, who had ended up in the center of her pink bull’s-eye. A glance past her showed a pink rug, patterned pink curtains, and a pale pink sofa at the end of the long common room. That much pink would make Sadie downright sick to her stomach if she had to look at it all day.