Aparo asked, “Isn’t mahjong played with four players?”
Jonny smiled. “As I said, you people think us Asians are all the same. We play Korean three-player mahjong. It’s played by the old rules but with one less player. The Chinese don’t like it, but we Koreans, we’re pragmatists. Why wait for a fourth player if you can play with three?”
Mrs. Yaung and her nephew shared a smile while Jonny took a bite of his sticky bun.
Jonny didn’t rush his mouthful, clearly attempting to show that he had nothing to fear from me or the FBI. Aparo had his face buried in his phone.
Finally Jonny swallowed.
I also couldn’t fault their alibi wrangling. Jonny not only had his aunt lying on his behalf, but their neighbor, too. The benefits of being equally feared and loved.
I set my plate down. “Jonny, I have no interest in stress-testing your alibi. As far as I can tell, you were looking out for a friend and his wife. Daphne is alive, most probably thanks to you.” I took a bite of the bun. It tasted like cotton candy. “Can we talk hypothetically?”
Jonny gave the slightest nod of his head and his aunt immediately got up from her chair and left the apartment, quietly closing the door after her.
Jonny pointed at the lacquered table in the center of the room.
“Take out your phones and put them on the table, and we can talk as hypothetically as you like.”
Aparo immediately acquiesced, his other hand already busy with a second bun. Jonny picked up Aparo’s phone and pulled out its battery.
Choking down my natural dislike of being told what to do, I also complied, taking out my cell, sliding off the cover and pulling the battery out. For good measure, I stood, took off my jacket and showed him that I wasn’t wearing a wire either. Reseated, I tried to catch Jonny’s eyes, but he had a frustrating habit of looking away the second eye contact was established-a trick he probably learned after a few successive police interviews.
“So, if you hadn’t been here watching unrealistic lab montages, if you had wanted to help someone who you obviously care about, what might have happened?”
“Sokolov might have told me he had gambling debts, but that would have been bullshit. No way has Sokolov gambled one time in his life. Not with money, anyway.”
Aparo swallowed a mouthful. “Any idea what it was really about?”
“Theoretically?” he asked, smiling.
“Come on, Jonny,” I pressed. “We’re trying to save his life here.”
Eye contact or not, Jonny’s face suddenly took on the unmistakable expression of someone trying to decide whether something was important. “No idea. But he did say he would die for his wife.”
I leaned in. “Sokolov told you that?”
“He told me that he’d swap himself for Daphne. He just wanted her to be safe.”
“When did he say that?”
“When he came over last night.”
“Did he say where he was staying?”
“Some hotel downtown. But he stayed here last night. He looked like he’d been through hell. He was here until he went to get his stupid van.”
I wondered about that. “Tell me about this van.”
“It was weird, man. He insisted we take it to the docks. I didn’t get it. Lousy getaway car if we got into trouble. But he insisted. Said he had some kind of siren in it that would help us. So loud you had to wear earphones. Like for construction workers. He had a couple of them in there and some chunky earplugs for himself so the Russian wouldn’t spot them.”
“A siren?”
“That’s my guess. I never heard it.”
I asked, “Do you know where he went to get it?”
“No idea.”
Aparo asked, “Where’s the van now?”
“After I dropped Mrs. Sokolov outside the precinct, I drove off and dumped the van on Shore, somewhere across from Randall’s Island. I think. It was late and my mind wasn’t on geography.” He shrugged. “It’s probably up on some bricks by now.”
Aparo placed his cup and plate back down on the table and turned to Jonny.
“You haven’t asked us about Jachin Kim.”
Jonny’s expression hardened a touch. I could see he was struggling with what words to use.
Aparo put him out of his misery. “Your friend’s dead.” He gestured at his phone. “They just got a match on his prints.” He paused, studying Jonny. “That’s gotta hurt. Seeing as how you got him killed.”
Aparo really was the master of misdirection. From greedy cop to no-nonsense interrogator in a heartbeat. And he got a reaction.
Jonny sprung up and flipped over the table, sending the pieces of our handhelds scattering to the floor. Then he froze in place, taking control of himself. In a low grumble, he said, “I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Sokolov may seem like a sweet old man, but he’s also a liar. He knows exactly what this is about. He just isn’t talking. Maybe he’s talking now, though. You should find him before that motherfucker cuts him into pieces.”
I stood and calmly collected the pieces of my cell. Aparo did the same.
“Tell us about him. The Russian.”
Jonny described the scene. There wasn’t much he could tell us about what the Russian looked like, but his take on the man’s moves sent a chill down my spine. Jonny wasn’t exactly a wallflower, and yet, despite everything he’d been through, it was pretty clear that even thinking about the Russian gave him the creeps.
We were done here. We got up, but before we headed out, I turned to Jonny. He preempted me.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “And why would I? I wasn’t there, right?”
“Right,” I told him as we walked out.
I SAT IN THE car while Aparo collected his takeout, and one image kept monopolizing my thoughts: the Russian, charging forward, using Sokolov as a shield, firing away relentlessly.
If we ever got to that point again, the guy wouldn’t hesitate to go down fighting, even if the outcome was clear.
Aparo appeared holding a brown paper bag packed with Korean delicacies and climbed in.
“Any sign of the guys?” he asked.
We were waiting for an unmarked with a couple of SSG’s-meaning members of the Bureau’s Special Surveillance Group team-to show up. Front and back of the restaurant, one SSG for each. I wanted to keep an eye on Jonny from here on out. Besides being the only live lead in this mess, he was angry and was probably thinking about some kind of retribution right about then. Which I preferred to avoid. The city didn’t need any more body bags.
I said, “They’re five minutes out.”
Aparo nodded and offered me a Korean dumpling, which I took, the maxim holding true as it always did: never pass up an opportunity to eat while on the job.
As I bit into it, an unremarkable panel van drove by, and it reminded me of Sokolov’s odd move. I wondered why a brainiac like him needed a van. We needed to figure out what his movements had been during the day, and I made a mental note to check with the DMV for a listing of the van in the hopes of finding out where he kept it.
36
Jonny waited a few minutes to make sure the agents were gone, then he hurried back into the bedroom and changed.
As he emerged into the living room, his aunt came back in. She looked at him sternly.
“You stay here,” she said. “Police is one thing, but FBI? We don’t need that kind of trouble.”
Jonny placed a consoling hand on his aunt’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, ee-mo. I’m only going out to get some air. I need to clear my head. Besides, if I stay here, I’ll just have Ae-Cha pestering me about Jachin. Again.”