She looked at it and frowned. “Terrible characters. Very badly formed. Where is this from?”
“Someone left it in my office. Can you read them?”
“Uh-huh. This is liang. It means a roof beam. This is ji, which means rank, but it’s pronounced kap in Cantonese.”
“What does it mean in Cantonese?”
“The same thing, but around Chinatown it’s also us. I mean, it’s the way our family name comes out. It sounds the same and it’s an auspicious character. This one I don’t know, this one, yu, I know from restaurants, it’s ‘clam,’ these two mean ‘each other,’ I don’t know this one, don’t know, don’t know, this is ‘gain’ and this is li, ‘profits.’ ” She frowned at the line of characters, then her face brightened. “Oh, I get it! It’s a saying: yu bung xiang zheng yu weng de li. Okay, down lower, this here is yu, which means fool or foolish. .”
“Wait a second, I thought it meant clam.”
“No, Daddy, yu means clam; yu means fool. Can’t you hear the difference?”
“Nope. What does the saying mean?”
“Oh, something like, when the snipe and the clam wrestle, the fisherman benefits.”
“Ah, so,” said Karp.
She gave him an interested look, then returned to the page. “All this scraggly stuff I can’t make out. This at the bottom is. . oh!”
“What?”
She was blushing. “It’s sort of, like, nasty.”
“I’ll forgive you. What does it say?”
“Literally? Prick hairs sauteed with Chinese chives.”
“Good God!” said Karp, laughing. “What’s that all about?”
“It’s Hong Kong slang,” Lucy explained, laughing, too. “It means, like, a total mess you can’t get out of.”
“Do you know what Stendahl said was the worst thing about being jailed?” Tran asked.
From her bed Marlene replied grumpily, “No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”
“You are correct. He said that it was that one could not avoid unwelcome visitors. Do you feel so?”
“No. I welcome all visitors, except those that wish to probe and manipulate my body. Those I detest. The others are useful for ridding myself of accumulated frustration through a display of ill temper. If I am here long enough, I will have no friends left.”
“On the contrary, my dear: any friend who was liable to be put off by rudeness and ill temper has long since abandoned you.”
Marlene threw a pillow at him, which he caught, and returned tenderly to its place behind her turbaned head. She said, “This is driving me crazy. I have all these people depending on me, the clients. . God knows what’s happening to them.”
“So far, nothing, I can assure you. I, rather than God, have been keeping track of them all while you lie at your ease like a duchess. Nothing has been let slip in the past three days.”
“What? How have you done that?”
“Operatives have been hired and assigned, schedules have been made, checks have been issued. The world goes on quite well without you, Marie-Helene. You are perfectly dispensable.”
“I am astounded. I had no idea you were such a genius at organization.”
The man who had planned the 1968 Tet offensive in Tay Ninh province accepted the compliment with a sweet smile, saying nothing. Marlene glanced at the room’s door, for the third time in as many minutes, a concerned look blooming on her face.
“And what about Lucy?” she asked.
“I would say she seems well, despite the burden she carries,” said Tran after a moment’s consideration. “She is pinched by always having me with her when she is not at home. She spends much of her time at the laboratory, and at home Mary Ma visits her often. Today, I am happy to say, she is off with her father. I would like to see her light again, as she was, but that will not happen until this business is resolved, or until she tells what she knows.”
“They still haven’t caught those bastards?”
“No, only the one I interviewed. The Vo are elusive. I have my own inquiries out. But even if the Vo are taken off the board, Leung will still have an interest.”
“Leung set up the kidnap?”
“Without question. I was able to overhear a conversation between Leung and Mr. Yee, the leader of the Hap Tai business association. He told Yee that the Italians had killed the Sings.”
“Do you believe that, Tran?”
“Perhaps. But even if true, Leung was involved as an emissary or master of ceremonies, even if he did not pull the trigger. Then they spoke of Lucy and how she might compromise the silence of the Chen family in this matter. Leung is clearly very concerned to remain free of any taint of this assassination. Afterward, he made a phone call which, as I surmise now, could only have been to the Vo. But there are many other bastards for hire besides the Vo. Leung seems to have disappeared, by the way.”
“And this means. .?”
“Who can tell? Perhaps he went back to Hong Kong, where he belongs. Perhaps. .”
This thought was lost as a rapid knock sounded on the door, and it opened to reveal Sophie Leontoff in a wheelchair, with Abe Lapidus behind her, pushing.
Cries of amazement, commiserations, imprecations (Marlene, dolling, what are you, nuts?), introductions. When the old lady learned that Tran not only spoke French but had been a resident in Paris, she began to rattle away in that language with Tran, leaving Marlene to listen with one ear, while explaining choice bits to the bemused Abe.
“Sophie told me about that kid of yours with the languages-amazing, just unbelievable,” he said, shaking his head.
Marlene acknowledged this and added, “It’s funny, we were here last time talking about Jerry Fein, and now I’m in the hospital myself because of his daughter.” She explained what had happened the other day at the shelter. “Small world, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s some story. But I got news for you, honey: it’s smaller than you think. Jerry Fein was also Morris Leontoff’s attorney, may he rest in peace. You didn’t know this? Of course, how could you? Sophie, you remember Jerry Fein?”
Sophie interrupted a description of what used to go on at a certain joint in Montparnasse, served up for comparison with Tran’s description of same (not too different) and said, “Of course I remember Jerry Fein. He jumped off the Empire State, I should forget that?”
“I mean before, when he worked for Morris.”
“Of course. Him and Ceil. We were at the beach together, also-years. What a nice man, so good-looking. And such a dresser! A tragedy he should go kill himself like that! How come you’re asking?”
“Marlene has his daughter for a client,” said Abe. “That momser she married attacked her, and Marlene got in the way.”
“That girl,” said Sophie darkly, and a look passed from her to Abe, which Marlene saw, and which popped her curiosity up a gear.
“What about her?” Marlene asked.
“Nothing,” replied Sophie, falsely bright. “A beautiful girl. All the boys were after her, at the beach, at school. She went to Erasmus. She was the queen of the, what is this, the dance. .?”
“The prom,” supplied Marlene.
“Right, the prom queen. Gorgeous. Jerry was so proud of her. .” Another of those looks. What was going on here? Marlene took a plunge.
“Aunt Sophie, why do you think Jerry Fein killed himself?”