by Jake Logan
Collecting two dollars a day for keeping Sir William alive, too, was not so bad either, since it meant he had to stay close to Tess Lawrence.
“Do take this poor wight and dispose of him however is most efficient,” Sir William said, looking with disdain at the dead Chinaman.
The copper whistled for his three fellow officers. Together they got the Sum Yop killer out of the museum. As they left, the one Sir William had ordered about called, “Them other two. The white men. Them’s your responsibility.”
“I shall see to their burial,” Sir William said stoutly. He struck his noble pose again. Slocum experienced a moment’s pang when he thought it might have been for the best if the hatchet man had killed Sir William.
“I need to see about calling off the killers,” Slocum said.
“Whatever do you mean, Mr. Slocum?” Tess’s plucked eyebrows arched.
“That was a Sum Yop assassin. I think it’s time for me to parley with their boss.”
“You know him? You can find him?”
“Never met Little Pete,” Slocum said, remembering the name from his talk with Ah Ming, “but I will.”
“Do be careful.” Tess took a step away from Sir William, as if she wanted to touch Slocum. Her employer stopped her in her tracks with a brusque order.
“My dear, I will need your help deciphering this sheet. Look up the ideograms in the dictionary as I give them to you. Come along now. Chop, chop, as the Celestials say.”
“Yes, of course, Sir William.” She hesitated, then flashed a shy smile at Slocum. Tess turned and hurried after the explorer, returning to the office.
Slocum wondered when the other two bodies would be taken care of. Sir William had assumed control of the entire museum by simply moving in. It was up to him to deal with such matters. Slocum hoped the explorer did not have to deal with another employee’s corpse.
Slocum’s.
It worked on the battlefield. Slocum hoped it worked with the Sum Yop tong. He waved a white handkerchief tied to a stick. Advancing slowly, he felt eyes watching him. Dozens of pairs of eyes. Any one of the men behind those eyes might have a rifle trained on him. If Little Pete decided, a trigger would be pulled and Slocum would be dead.
He stopped just outside the side entrance to the building. No hail of bullets met him.
“I want to talk to Little Pete!” His words echoed down the alleyway loud enough for anyone inside to hear. Waiting proved more difficult than summoning the courage to walk up with his white flag and six-gun holstered. By the count of heartbeats racing through his heart, Slocum reckoned he stood outside the door for better than ten minutes. After the first few, he knew there was no point in leaving. If Little Pete had wanted him dead, he would be.
That meant the tong leader only wanted him antsy. When he realized this, Slocum felt his heart slow down, and he became calmer than at any time facing the Sum Yops.
Finally his patience was rewarded. The door creaked open and a solitary figure appeared. He was of indeterminate age, though Slocum took him for at least forty. Hunched with age and shuffling his feet slightly, he might have been thirty years older, but Slocum did not think so. The man’s dark eyes were bright and shining like glass orbs, and his hands were remarkably steady as they remained hidden within the dangling folds of his sleeves. Whether he clutched a hatchet or a six-shooter, Slocum could not say, but he was certain there was a weapon in one, if not both, hands.
“What do you want?”
“To speak with Little Pete. Are you Little Pete?”
“Would the magnificent leader of a powerful tong come out to meet with a worm such as you?”
“Pleased to meet you, Little Pete,” Slocum said. He did not offer to shake hands. Little Pete had moved the barest amount and given Slocum a glimpse of the small pistol clutched in his right hand.
“You are a clever fellow, Slocum.”
Slocum played poker with the best, but naming him as he did came as a shock. He knew his mask dropped for a brief instant, much to Little Pete’s delight.
“You think I am stupid? You think that I do not know who blew up my humble building?”
“You were holding the leader of the On Leong tong prisoner.”
“He is dead.”
“Your men killed him.”
“An unfortunate accident. These streets are so deadly,” Little Pete said. “Anyone running when he should be walking is suspect.”
“His daughter wants his body back.”
“Ah Ming is a lovely woman,” Little Pete said. “Lovely women think all they need to do is snap their fingers and whatever they desire will be given to them.”
“What’s the price?”
“Why do you involve yourself in Chinese matters, Slocum? Ah Ming saved your life. You got her father out of my building. Does this not make all even between you?”
“She wants his body,” Slocum said. “Barring that, she wants his bones so they can be sent back to China for burial.” Slocum saw that Little Pete was impressed by this. He had not expected Slocum to understand the importance of the bones. Silently, Slocum thanked Sir William’s explanation. It might have turned the tide in his favor.
“Want, want, want. Always the beautiful women insist on what they cannot have.”
Little Pete’s face screwed up in a scowl. “You are her lap dog?”
“I’m doing what is honorable. Why aren’t you?”
“Honor?” Little Pete spat. “What do you know of honor?”
“Maybe nothing. I do know everyone has a price. What is yours?”
“For the body? You would offer money for the body?”
Slocum remained silent. He got into a staring match with Little Pete that neither of them could win.
“You are direct, like all Westerners,” Little Pete said. “If I say what I would normally, you will not understand.”
“Then give it to me straight. Your price. What is it?”
“Jade,” Little Pete said. “I want the jade in the museum.”
“You tried to steal it the other night?” This surprised Slocum. He had been sure that Sir William had properly identified the men who had tried to rob him before as sailors.
“Bring me the jade.”
“All of it? Or just something special?”
Little Pete smiled slightly. Slocum felt he had gone up in the tong leader’s estimation again.
“The crown of the emperor. The Jade Emperor must regain his crown.”
“You return it, you get to go home to China? Is that it?”
“You would not understand,” Little Pete said haughtily. For a moment, Slocum heard Sir William in the tong leader. “Bring me the jade crown and I will give over to you the body you seek.”
“Deal,” Slocum said. Stealing a pile of jade was not going to be too hard. All he had to worry about was the exchange. Preventing Little Pete from double-crossing him, maybe trying to kill him, would be the hardest part. It would not take more than a half hour to get the body to the On Leongs and Ah Ming would release him from his debt of honor.
A smile came to Slocum’s face, but it was not what Little Pete thought. He wondered how grateful Ah Ming might be for getting her pa’s body back. As grateful as she had been before?
“You can’t translate the paper?” Slocum did not try to hide his irritation. Sir William was his best hope of getting more information about the tong killer and his instructions. Slocum knew he could take the page to Ah Ming and let her read it, but he doubted she would give him the truth. Whatever hand she played, she held it too close for him to read.
“Whatever it is, I assure you this is not a laundry list, as you suggested earlier,” Sir William said.
Slocum started to remind the explorer that he had not made any such suggestion but held his tongue. Tess glanced at him and smiled weakly. She knew. Because of her reaction, Slocum decided Sir William often made mistakes of this kind—or simply put his own failings off onto other shoulders.
“I will take it with me
and ponder it far into the night,” Sir William said. “Ta-ta.” With that he was gone, leaving Slocum and Tess behind.
“I should be going, also,” she said. Her weak smile disappeared. “He will decipher the note. Do you think it is important?”
“Could be,” Slocum allowed. He had a good idea what the note actually said. It was likely to be a shopping list of all the jade Little Pete wanted stolen. His hatchet man had simply been too eager to please. If he had bided his time, he could have stolen everything for the tong leader without anyone getting hurt. Instead, he had bulled his way in, leaving a trail of dead bodies behind. Slocum had done Little Pete a favor by eliminating such a hotheaded killer.
“Good night, Mr. Slocum,” Tess said. She clung to her small purse as if it were a lifeline and she were drowning.
“Would you like me to escort you to your hotel?”
“Oh,” she said, brightening. Then the light faded. “Thank you for offering, but I will be all right. I should see that Sir William is situated for the night.”
“He was going to work on the translation.”
“He said that, but he will be in the bar downstairs at the hotel drinking that vile scotch whiskey of his.”
Slocum started to make another suggestion, then held back. He had another chore to finish before he could think of asking Tess to accompany him to his quarters. But then, after he finished stealing the jade crown, she was not likely to give him the time of day, much less roll in the hay with him.
“Are you staying?” She looked at him with her innocent blue eyes. “There’s no need.”
“I want to be sure everything is locked up. With the two museum staff dead, there’s no one left to look after such things.”
“Yes, of course.” With that, Tess left. Her steps were slow and reluctant. Slocum wished he could hurry her along. The sooner he got to the robbery, the sooner he could get back the body of Ah Ming’s father from the rival tong and get the hell out of San Francisco.
He walked to the large room where the display cases stretched like so many glass-topped coffins. Tess moved more quickly now and left the museum. Slocum told himself he should have gone with her.
He went to the case holding the emperor’s crown. There was no doubt this was what Little Pete wanted. Slocum was a little surprised that the tong leader had not asked for all the jade. Carrying so much would have been difficult, but if you’re asking for the moon, why not throw in the stars, too?
Slocum drew his knife, fiddled a bit and pried open the case. He wrapped the Jade Emperor’s dull green stone crown in the black velvet it had rested on and tucked it under his arm.
Whistling tunelessly, he closed the case and made a final circuit of the deserted museum. No reason to let a second sneak thief in. When he was done, Slocum went to the front door and opened it a crack. He wanted to make sure Tess had not changed her mind and waited for him. All he heard were sounds from the distant harbor and a horse neighing some distance away. The museum was situated in the middle of a grassy area with trees around it. Slocum had learned patience as a sniper during the war. Sitting in the fork of a tree for long hours waiting for one shot had become second nature to him, but now he wanted the trade of a dead body for the jade crown completed.
Slipping out, he closed the door behind him. With long strides, he went out to the street and looked around again. A carriage loaded with three boisterous women rolled by on a cross street and then turned toward town. Otherwise, he was alone.
Slocum had barely started for Little Pete’s headquarters when he heard a whistling sound. The impact on the back of his skull caused him to see stars as he pitched forward onto his face.
8
“You could have been killed!” Tess Lawrence was beside herself with anguish. All Slocum felt was the goose egg–sized lump on the back of his head.
“The crown is all that is missing,” Sir William said glumly. “Of course they steal the most renowned piece of the collection. Without the jade crown, what is left? Nothing. Trifles. Bits and pieces of colored rock, nothing more.”
“Oh, Sir William, that’s not so,” protested Tess, torn between Slocum and her employer. “The rest of the jade artifacts are superb! Everyone will want to see them. They’ll flock to Boston from hundreds of miles.”
“Doubtful,” the explorer said, his mood even darker. He turned to Slocum. “What do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Slocum?”
“My head hurts like hell,” Slocum said. “I should never have let anyone creep up on me like that.”
“You are lucky you did not meet a fate similar to that of the museum employees,” Sir William said. “These fiends will stop at nothing. To a tong killer, a human life means nothing. They are brutal and cruel.” He wandered off, declaiming about the hatchet men.
Tess laid a gentle hand on Slocum’s shoulder and looked deeply into his eyes.
“What? You see my guilt?” Slocum said. He felt both guilty and stupid. That was a terrible combination for him. Such carelessness usually got a man killed.
“I’m looking to see if you have a concussion. Your pupils seem to be of the same size and reactive to light.”
“I’m fine,” Slocum said. He shrugged her hand away. “I’ll be even better when I recover the crown. It was my responsibility and it got stolen.” He said nothing about his own intention to swipe it. In a way, having it taken from him while he was in the act of stealing it made his own guilt a little lighter. He had not actually stolen the Jade Emperor’s crown. It would not have been legally stolen until he turned it over to Little Pete in exchange for the On Leong leader’s body.
“Let the police tend to it, John,” the blonde said softly. “These are dangerous men.”
“I’m dangerous, too,” he said in a level tone that frightened her. Tess’s eyes widened, and she took a step away when she saw the promise of death that had come to his expression.
“I know that was why I hired you, but I never expected anything like this to happen. Tong killers and stolen artifacts. All I wanted was for you to protect Sir William.”
“He has the look of a man who can take care of himself. Better than I can take care of myself,” Slocum added bitterly. He recognized his tone for what it was. Self-pity. The world had dealt him terrible hands for more than a month. If he wanted to get out from under such a burden of bad luck, he had to stack the deck himself.
It might not come up with a royal flush but he could at least count on a full house.
“You rest, John. I think it would be all right for you to sleep, though you might want a physician to look at that lump first.”
“Giving me the rest of the day off?”
Tess straightened and looked at him hard. “You rest,” she insisted. “Don’t go trying to find the thief.”
Slocum only nodded. Even this small movement of his head sent a new jab of pain into his skull and neck. If he had gotten even a glimpse of his attacker, he might know where to start. He doubted the thief worked for Little Pete or the Sum Yop tong. Why steal something that was going to be handed over in a few minutes? Even if Little Pete was determined to keep the body of his foe, it made no sense to steal the jade crown the way it had been. Let Slocum show up with the crown, then kill him. Any Westerner was nothing more than a pimple on his yellow butt to Little Pete. What did honor matter?
Slocum left the museum and went back to the spot where he had been waylaid. He scoured the area for some clue. He was a damned good tracker, but the cobblestone street left no spoor for him to follow. Stride long and fury mounting, he headed for the Sum Yop headquarters. When he got there, he stood outside the door. He did not bother knocking. Little Pete knew he was here. Little Pete knew everything that went on around his little patch of Chinatown.
In only a few minutes, Little Pete shuffled out. Slocum noted that the Chinese limped on his other leg and had other inconsistencies in his supposed infirmities. It was all an act so Slocum would underestimate him.
“It was stolen,” Slocum s
aid without preamble.
“You stole it. Of course it was taken,” Little Pete said.
“It was stolen from me. I was on my way here to turn it over when I was slugged.”
“Ah,” Little Pete said. His eyes darted about as he worked on this tidbit of information. “You do not think I am responsible for this attack on your person?”
“Who has it?” Slocum was blunt. He saw no reason to waste time bandying words. “There is no reason for you or your men to rob me. Ah Ming has no reason, either. I never told her or any of the On Leong about the swap. Even if she knew—”
“She does,” Little Pete said softly.
“There’s no reason for her to stop the exchange. You both get what you want, unless she desires the jade crown more than she does the return of her pa’s body.”
“Nothing matters more than the bones,” Little Pete said solemnly. Slocum had already figured that to be true.
“Who stole it, then?”
Little Pete shuffled about. His hands remained hidden in the voluminous sleeves of his silk jacket. The soft sounds of silk moving reminded Slocum of wind in the tall pines. It was almost hypnotic, but the tong leader’s quick movements were nothing like the invisible wind.
“An attempt was made before,” Little Pete said.
“Nothing gets by you,” Slocum said. “Who? Give me a name and I’ll get the crown back. I want this matter to be ended. Now.”
“There are rumors of a Chinese pirate who might be responsible,” Little Pete said softly. Slocum perked up. The only reason the tong leader would speak in such a manner was to lure Slocum into deeper trouble.
“Does he have a name?”
“She is Lai Choi San, the most famous of the South China Sea pirates,” Little Pete said.
“She?”
“Beautiful and treacherous. The only reason she would come to San Francisco from her usual haunts is to…” Little Pete let his words trail off so Slocum could supply the answer.
“The crown.”
Little Pete bowed slightly.
“Where do I find her?”
