“You are all disgusting,” Dao Ming hisses.
Chapter Thirteen
★
“What the fuck, John? What the fuck was that? And don’t tell me it’s… it’s killing the monkey to frighten the snake or something.”
“Something like that.”
“Are you fucking crazy? Oh, wait. You totally are.”
I’m sitting in John’s car, and I’m shaking. With anger, with fear, with whatever’s left after an adrenaline rush. My leg has started to throb.
I don’t like being blown up.
“I cannot fucking believe you did that. Do you know who’s going to get shit for this? Me. Not you. They don’t even know who you really are!”
“They have my card,” John says. He’s keeping his eyes on the road as we head back to Gulou. Doing that overly calm thing that pisses me off.
“Oh, yeah, your fake card with your fake name and fake business on it!”
Now he does look over at me.
“You want to catch them, right? Get justice for this girl?”
I have a flash again, of the picture Inspector Zou showed me, of that bruised, swollen face. And the thing is, I do. I want someone to answer for what was done.
“Yeah. Yeah, I want some justice. But… these people-do you understand who we’re dealing with here?”
“Yes. The Caos, one of richest families in China. And Yang Junmin. He was governor of Hubei, then party chief. Next he was party chief in Zhejiang. Now he is also member of Central Politburo. He is a powerful man. But if he is corrupt, then he needs to be exposed.”
John’s on a mission, all right. Straight into the kill box.
Jesus, this is a fucking nightmare.
“How is this gonna expose them? The only people it exposed are you and me. That we know about the dead girl.”
“You saw their faces. They know about her, too.”
I think about that scene. How everything stopped. Try to picture their expressions. Uncle Yang, eyes narrowed, and Tiantian, stunned, both staring at John. Gugu, eyes closed, like he was in pain, or maybe just really loaded. Marsh, patting Gugu on the back, eyes flicking up at me. And Meimei?
“Very sad,” she’d said lightly. “So many bad things can happen to poor girls in the city.”
“It is a problem with modern society,” Tiantian pronounced.
And everyone went back to eating.
Yeah, it seemed like they knew something. But how could anyone be sure? I mean, murdered girls dumped in a pile of garbage isn’t exactly polite dinner conversation.
“I will protect you. You must know that,” John says, and he sounds like a freaking Boy Scout, he’s so earnest.
“I wouldn’t need protecting in the first place if you didn’t keep fucking with my life!” I just want to punch him, but he’s driving, so I slam my fist into the seat next to me. “I swear to God, I am so done with men. And women. And people! Fuck it, I’m going to live out in the country with my dog.”
“You know the only way to help you is to find out who kill this girl.”
“You could’ve told me what you were planning, instead of sandbagging me like that! Thanks for making it real clear to me what you really care about.”
I mean, at least I know.
There’s a long silence as we turn down the alley to my apartment.
“I am sorry,” he says. “But I did not plan. I just was… I just was angry.”
“Why? Why does it make you so angry?”
We pull in to the parking lot of my building. John shoves the transmission into park, and the tires squeal.
“People like that… they take everything. They give back nothing. They use people like… like toys. If they break the toy, they just throw it away. They ruin this country. They ruin everything.”
“But it’s personal for you. Isn’t it?”
That muscle in his jaw works. I think he isn’t going to say anything, or say that I’m just imagining it.
He nods. “Yes. Maybe, a little.”
“You gonna tell me about it?”
“Maybe some other time.”
We sit in the car in silence.
He sighs. “Still… you are right, I should not have said what I said.”
“What do we do now?”
“Wait and see.”
“Wait and see if Uncle Yang sends out a hit man?”
“Someone will stay outside your apartment. You don’t have to worry.”
“Oh, because there’s nothing that makes me feel safer than some underpaid nark from bumfuck Shanxi or wherever watching over me.”
“Yili…” He does that thing where he scrunches up his face, like he’s getting a headache, and I think, Good. Because I want him to lose it. I want to make him mad.
Instead he just shakes his head and says, “I’m sorry.”
I let out a long sigh, my anger emptying out like a deflating balloon. I just don’t have the energy to be mad anymore.
But I have to do more than just “wait and see.”
“Betty,” I say.
“Who?”
“One of Gugu’s friends. She was at the party. I called her after it, just to make sure she wasn’t… you know, dead. I swear she was scared. Maybe she knows something.”
Or maybe it was a total coincidence and she’d just had a fight with her boyfriend.
“Okay. We can talk to her, then. I’ll call you.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
I shrug and open the car door. “Okay.”
John stops me with a hand on my shoulder. “Yili, please… do not do anything without me.”
“Right. Because it went so well when we did something together.”
When I get upstairs to my apartment, it’s dark, even though it’s only ten fifteen. There’s a note on the fridge from my mom: “Mimi and I are at Andy’s. Come over! The tortillas came out great!”
No way, I think. After that dinner I don’t have any appetite left, and though I’d kind of like to be hanging out with the dog, I don’t have the energy to make up some story for my mom about how great the evening was.
I crack open a beer and collapse on the couch.
I should change out of these fancy clothes, I think. Instead I just sit there on the couch, my thoughts in a whirl, and I can feel myself spiraling down.
Let’s see. DSD on my ass. Check. Lao Zhang coming back to town. Check. PSB looking at me for a murder. Yep. And now I’m in the sights of some Party bigwig, plus Sidney’s three kids.
And oh, shit, what about Sidney? Would he know about what happened tonight?
Okay, I tell myself, okay, calm down. If you murdered a girl, would you want your dad to know?
You would if you thought he could fix the problem for you.
Oh, shit.
From inside my fancy little leather bag, my phone makes that bamboo text tone. I don’t even want to look.
But I do. It’s my landlady. She lives someplace near Wenzhou, so almost all our communication is by text. I try to communicate with her as little as possible. Last thing I want to be is the pain-in-the-ass laowai.
yili, ni hao. sorry but i must raise rent starting in 1 month. new amount is 10,500 ¥.
Which is, oh, almost double what I’m paying now. More than I can afford, even if I could sell Lao Zhang’s art again.
On my craptastic disability pension? I could maybe afford the bathroom.
But hey, at least my landlady isn’t trying to kill me or have me arrested, right?
At least not so far as I know.
I have to wonder about the timing here. Uncle Yang or Tiantian couldn’t have moved this fast to fuck with my life, could they?
It’s probably just a coincidence. Rents have been going up like crazy in Beijing.
Still, how much more jacked up could things get?
The Suits could make an appearance, I guess. That would be one awesome FUBAR party.
I take a slug of beer, wishing I had something stronger in the house. Well, I have Percocet. This just might be the time for one.