Virgil picked up the pencil once more and then tossed it down. "I'll cover a bet against that," he said firmly. "It just wasn't in the atmosphere. And the deceased was an old man. I know that can be a fooler, but I still won't buy it."
"Anything I can do to help?"
Tibbs stood up. "Yes, call the morgue and make sure that the cause of death isn't presumed too readily because of the stone knife that was in the decedent's chest. locidental-ly, I suspect that it's quite valuable in addition to being important evidence."
He did some hard thinking as he drove his official car through the familiar streets to his destination. He did not propose to take up the study of jade, but he did not like to feel that his ignorance of the subject might prove to be a handicap. He decided to get hold of one good book on the subject and read it just in case. While jade collecting did not go with a policeman's salary, an understanding of that exotic subject could be rewarding in itself.
As he pulled up outside the still carefully shuttered house he expected that Yumeko would be there, but he was not
sure exactly what he was going to say to her. When he rang the bell she answered almost immediately and held the door open for him to come in. "Good morning, Mr. Tibbs," she said.
"Good morning, Miss Nagashima."
"It is Yumeko," she said very simply.
He smiled at her. "Then in that case it's Virgil."
He followed her into the house and sat down on invitation in the same room that they had occupied before. "Are you feeling any better now?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yes, I thank you. My employer, Mr. Tanaka, was very kind. He has excused me after only one day to be here."
"Are you sure that you're all right, and will be after we have finished here?"
"Yes."
He waited for more, but she had nothing to add.
"Yumeko, it is my job to find out who killed Mr. Wang. Would you like to see me succeed?"
She lifted her head a little and looked at him. "Yes, very much."
"Then I want you to answer some questions for me- even if it's hard. There are many things I have to know."
"Please ask."
He tried to make his voice sympathetic without being sticky about it. "Let's begio with Mr. Wang's relatives. Did he have any in this country that you know of?"
She shook her head. "He said once to me that he was alone here. He had a younger brother, but he is in communist China. If he is still alive. Mr. Wang did not know."
"Was he married at any time?"
"I only know that he spoke of his daughter once. In this country that would make him have a wife also. In China perhaps not."
"I understand. Do you know where she is?"
"Also in China, I think. He did not say for sure."
"All of the jade in this house, it was his?"
"Yes, aU his."
"It must be worth a fortune."
"I think yes."
"Yumeko, did he ever speak to you about a wUl?"
This time she shook her head and remained silent
"Then as far as you know, Mr. Wang had no living relatives in this country or in any other part of the free world."
"That is yes," she answered. 36
"Do you know if he had an attorney?"
"Yes, Mr. Finegold. He is also a buyer of the jade."
*'Yumeko, was jade-selling Mr. Wang's full-time occupation?"
He saw confusion on her face and tried to put it another way. "Did he do any other work? Or did he have enough money to meet his needs? Do you know?"
The girl looked at him a little strangely for a moment. "It is the jade-selling that was his work," she answered. "He also was not poor, but it was the jade that he loved."
"Did many customers come to see him?"
*'A few. Much he sold by mail. He would send pictures and the people trusted him. He would then mail the jade if they bought it. If pieces were very valuable, he would sometimes make a messenger."
"Is there a file of Mr. Wang's customers?"
"Yes, of course. I kept it for him while I was here."
Then, visibly, she seemed to think of something. She looked quickly at the ceiling for a moment, then back at Tibbs. "I made a mistake," she said. "The jade here, it was not all Mr. Wang's. One piece was not his; he had selled it to Mr. Harvey. When the TV said that Mr. Wang was dead, Mr. Harvey called me very soon: he now wants his jade."
Virgil weighed that. Harvey's action, whoever he was, had been inconsiderate, but if he had paid a substantial price, then he had a right to protect his investment and his purchase. "Where does Mr. Harvey hve?" he asked.
Yumeko raised a hand and brushed her midnight-black hair back from her deep-toned face. "It is a place called Sierra Madre."
"Would you like me to deliver the jade to him?"
For the first time since they had met he saw animation in her features. "You would do this for me?"
"Of course." He saw no need to explain that he wanted to interview some more of Mr. Wang's nearby customers and that this provided him with a very convenient opportunity.
Yumeko got up. "Come, please," she said. "I will prepare it in its box."
"I'll give you a receipt for it," Tibbs volunteered. "And I'll get one from Mr. Harvey. It may be important for you to have it."
She did not reply to that; instead she led the way toward the back of the house. Unconsciously he compared her
walk to that of the Chinese girl who had ushered him into General Lee's to see Johnny Wu. Yumeko was graceful, but in a quite different way. The Chinese girl had been an inch and a half taller and definitely more slender. Yumeko was very well proportioned, but with a slight fullness in the bosom and a trace in the hips which could be attributed to her father's genes.
At the door to the jade room she hesitated for a scant moment before she pressed the light switch and then passed inside. The body had been removed and the pieces of jade which had been standing around it on the carpeting had been picked up and placed together back in the display case from which they had been taken. But on the rich red of the velvet-pile carpeting there was a chalk outline which conjured up with too vivid imagery the still, silent figure that had lain there the day before.
Carefully avoiding that spot, Yumeko opened the bottom section of one of the cabinets and reached inside. After some groping she produced a small packet of keys. As she stood up, she explained. "Mr. Wang always he kept the keys to the jade cabinets, but there was this extra set if it became necessary."
She unlocked the glass door of one of the cabinets on the left side of the room and with cautious care removed a pale green figure of a standing Chinese beauty. The eight-inch-high statuette held a tray on which were displayed several pieces of miniature fruit. A slight discoloration in the original stone had been cunningly utilized by the sculptor to make one of the fruit pieces different from the rest, a reddish yellow contrast which accentuated the whole work. As Yumeko stood it in the middle of the center table, the tiny concealed. spotlight in the ceiling illuminated it in a way that almost made it come to life.
Tibbs did not want even to touch it, but as he bent down to examine it more closely the exquisite craftsmanship fascinated him. It had a delicate, subtle grace which seemed to deny the possibility that it had been carved out of a single hard, cold piece of a rare and costly stone. At that moment the prospect of learning a little about jade became much more appealing. He knew that the piece before him must be very expensive, but he was unable even to guess at its dollar value.
From under the display portion of the cabinet Yumeko took out a small stack of blue cloth-covered boxes and began to sort them on the floor. She quickly found the one 38
she wanted and replaced the others. Placing it on the table, she opened it to reveal its carefully padded, satin-lined interior and lovingly placed the jade figurine on the preformed cushion. It fitted precisely into the indentation that had been prepared for it. The httle carved wooden stand nested in its own prepared slot at the bottom. Against the snow-white cloth the jade beauty seemed more exquisite than ever.