Live Bait
Page 22
"Could be. I think that was why he sent me the Triad payment. He was trying to involve the Chinese everywhere."
Now Elmer Svensen laughed. "Right on, that's what we saw.
And because we were already working on the Chinese angle, we naturally got interested when you appeared, Reid. That's how come we started chasing you around."
At that moment, Louise came out, carrying a tray of juice and some cans of soda water. "I figured your juice might be more interesting with a splash of soda," she said, and Elmer agreed it might and they spent a friendly minute mixing him a new drink. I looked at him and hoped, seriously, that orange juice would stay satisfying enough to keep him off the booze. I didn't want my sister in any more emotional jackpots.
Fullwell took over the musing. "It all makes sense to me. Willis was acting just like you say, from the beginning. Wanting to investigate that first beating internally. Then when he heard your reputation, he figured he could find a way to fix Tony's murder on you, because Tony was for the high jump as soon as he started getting big ideas."
"Right." Elmer lifted his glass to Louise, they exchanged smiles and he sipped and went on. "I figured you were set up that night at Tony's apartment. If he'd wanted to, that kung fu kid could have taken your head right off the hook."
"Tell me about it." I rolled my head loosely on my neck and we all laughed. "So I guess they were covering their tracks when they iced Cy Straight and went after me. We were the only witnesses who had any information that could harm them in the investigation of Tony's murder. Sure there was lots of suspicion, but nothing solid except for Straight and me who could testify we had seen Lee with Willis in that kerfuffle at the Eaton Centre.
"Exactly." Elmer said. "That's why your welfare is very important to us for the next little while, until the case comes to court." He glanced up, over my shoulder and then called out, "Hey, come on in, Beryl." He waved and we all turned to see his partner coming in, carrying a bunch of carnations. She handed them to Louise and then came and took a beer from Fullwell and I took the steaks off the fire and we all settled down to eat, with Sam under my feet trying to look as if he was too well trained to lust for a scrap of meat.
By some magic it worked out that Elmer and his partner were at one table with Louise and me, while the others were in the other group. We talked about the case some more. Beryl had the details from Yin Su about how she had tried to get me killed, once I was released without being suspected in Tony's killing. She had set me up with finding Wing Lok. He would have taken me but I got lucky. Then she had arranged for me to find Kennie at the truck hiding place. She figured I was so angry about the alleged rape that I would rush right in and get myself killed.
Beryl was careful how she told me about the rape but the truth was, the story was all phony. Beryl had followed through at the hospital. The nurse there said Su had taken, a cab straight home. The bruises on her arms were self-inflicted. The blood came from a piece of meat in the fridge. She had thought it wouldn't matter, by the time she came back from the hospital, I would be dead, up there in the body shop where Kennie was waiting. But I had kept on surviving and at last she had decided to kill me herself, to please Lee Hop who was angry at me both for getting close to his organization and getting next to his woman.
The upshot was, I felt mildly foolish and said very little, but after a while the talk about the case dwindled and Beryl asked me what I was going to do next.
"I'm going home on Monday. Then I'll take the canoe and head into Algonquin Park. By the time you've portaged in about two lakes from the road you won't see another person for days at a time."
"That sounds so nice," she said wistfully.
"It will be." I was too empty inside to follow up the implicit invitation in her tone. Maybe one weekend in winter when I came into Toronto with a prisoner or just to see Louise and buy books, I could call Policewoman Harris. But for the next week I had some healing to do and it would happen faster in the open air with the mist on the lakes at first light and the sky blazing with sympathetic stars all night. A week alone would enable me to bury the memories of Yin Su in the same graveyard that covered Soon Li. It had to be done before I could look another woman in the face. But when I did, I would like it to be this one.
"I'll be back in Toronto to give evidence at the trial," I said. "Maybe we could meet then."
She looked at me, nodded slowly, and said, "I don't see why not."
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1985 by Ted Wood
ISBN 978-1-4804-9511-1
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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