Chen opened the door and got in. “Sorry I was so long, the crowd was . . .”
“Just get in, will you!” Fong ordered angrily.
Chen didn’t know what to say, so he apologized again.
“Don’t apologize, fire plug. Your absence provoked a fascinating conversation,” said the coroner with a big smile on his craggy face. “What kind of cop are you, Fong, to take snoring for sleeping? Hey, how about one of those buns back here.”
Fong looked in the rear-view mirror. The coroner was laughing. Lily was not.
Then the coroner coughed – and coughed and coughed. Rattles deep inside him began to sound. A knell that everyone in the Jeep heard.
Twenty minutes later, Chen pulled the car out of traffic, headed down a side street and stopped in front of a modern building.
“Her mother lives in a government office block?”
“No, sir, this is where the autopsy was done on the island girl who was disinterred. I thought Grandpa wanted . . .”
“Grandpa wants to see Sun Li Cha, that’s what . . .” but the old man didn’t get another word out as he saw the scowl on Fong’s face. “Actually, a lively bit of scientific bibble babble beats meeting a mistress of the ancient arts any old day,” he said, stepping out of the car.
As Fong walked with him toward the building he noted the greyness that seemed to be growing around the man’s eyes. “Do you want me to stay with you, Grandpa?”
“No.” The older man unhooked his arm from Fong’s and climbed the steps to the building slowly but with a fierce determination. He stumbled and righted himself. He swore loudly – that gave Fong hope.
When Fong got back into the car he was smiling. “What did that old coot say?” asked Lily.
“Nothing much.”
“So why are you smiling?”
“He’s angry. As long as he’s angry he’ll be fine. Once he gets sentimental I’ll begin to worry.”
“Does his family know he’s here?”
Fong almost responded, “He has a family?” then realized that saying it aloud would admit how little he knew about the old man. So he said nothing.
At first Sun Li Cha’s mother wasn’t particularly happy to see them, but she warmed up quickly. There was something of the old coquette about her. Fong had seen it many times before. Older people were ignored in the New China. A burden. Now, all of a sudden, she was wanted. People cared about what she thought. Were willing to listen to her stories.
Both Fong and Chen sat patiently as she claimed ownership of a very exciting, although totally implausible, personal history. It was Lily who finally brought matters to a head.
“Do you think we’re idiots, old lady?”
“No, I don’t, dearie. I think you’re cops.” She laughed so hard at her own cleverness that she snorted like a pig.
“Just tell us where your daughter is!” Lily demanded.
Fong could have killed Lily. All this patient waiting and smiling was meant to build up credit with the old lady so she’d do just that.
“How should I know? Young people have no respect anymore. Like you,” she barked at Lily. “Sun Li doesn’t tell me anything. Do you tell your mother where you’re going, girl?” Before Lily could defend herself the crone continued, “Or that you sleep with these two men. Oh, I see the way they look at you. I’m not new to the Earth you know.”
“Does your daughter have a boyfriend?” asked Fong gently, before Lily could tear a strip off the lady’s old carcass.
“No.”
“Come, Grandma, a girl as beautiful as Sun Li must have men around her all the time,” said Chen gently.
The old woman softened. Fong looked to Chen who just smiled.
“Only beautiful mothers give birth to beautiful daughters,” Chen added. Lily almost puked down the front of her dress.
The old charlatan reached over and touched Chen’s arm. “True. Beauty begets beauty. Very true.” She patted his arm twice more and then said, “Your mother must have been a real dog. Bow-wow wow-wow. Know what I mean?”
Fong was about to leap to Chen’s defence when the younger man held up a hand. “What you say may be true, but I haven’t seen my mother for many, many years. Perhaps she has become, like you, beautiful in her old age.” He smiled.
She smiled back.
Then she said, “You could try the Humming Way bar in the Sheraton. Sometimes she’s there.” Then sadness crossed her face and she said, “She’s an entertainer, you know.”
The Humming Way bar at the Sheraton was dark and stank of cigars and expensive perfume. When Fong’s eyes adjusted to the murk he saw many foreigners with Chinese women. The women were all overly made up and wore tight-fitting clothing.
“Westerners didn’t understand us at all,” Fong thought. These girls were openly disdainful of the men. Yes, their hands rested with seeming ease on the Westerners, but their body language spoke openly of their aversion. Why couldn’t Westerners see that?
It was Lily who picked Sun Li out from the others. “There,” she said pointing at a back booth where a tall Han Chinese woman laughed loudly at something the Western man at her side had said. She touched his hand with her elegant fingers, but her body canted away. A second Westerner returned to the table, balancing three martinis. A small cheroot dangled from the side of his mouth.
“Chen, guard the entrance.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Lily, you take the door to the woman’s toilet.”
“Why?”
“This isn’t a forensic lab, Lily,” he snapped. “Just do as I tell you.” Lily, surprised by his tone, didn’t question him further.
Fong turned from Lily and surveyed the bar closely. He would be more careful with this interrogation than he’d been with Hesheng’s. The image of the terrified islander’s face came to him. He breathed it away.
Once Lily and Chen were in position, Fong strolled over to the booth. Sun Li Cha’s right hand was beneath the table on the thigh of the young Westerner on her right. Her other hand held a half-emptied martini glass. The older man on her left had an arm around her shoulder, his stubby fingers dangling close to the top of her low-cut silk blouse.
Her laughter stopped when she saw Fong.
“What’s wrong, honey? Who’s this?” the older of the two men said in English.
In furiously quick Shanghanese, Fong spat out, “Tell them to go away.”
“Is that accent real?” She smiled but a tiny crack appeared in her bon vivant mask.
“I won’t ask a second time. Tell them to go.” He almost added, “Tell them to fuck their own daughters, not ours,” but didn’t.
“Bug off, fella,” said the younger one but before he could say more, Sun Li whispered something in his ear that made him glow with expectation. “It’s a deal.” She smiled as he got to his feet and signalled for the other man to follow him.
Fong slid into the booth. The buttery leather gave to accept his weight. Sun Li touched the lip of the martini glass, lit a cigarette. She had the most beautiful hands he’d ever seen. And she knew it.
She blew out a line of smoke and turned to Fong. “So?” Her voice was consciously low and smoky.
“I’m a police officer . . . ”
“No!” she laughed. “Even before you came into the room I knew that. I could smell you. Hey, I got to pee first, then we can chat, okay?” Fong shrugged. She put a hand on his thigh and leaned in close to his face. “Won’t be a second.” She slid out of the booth adjusting her skirt just enough to cover the crease between her long legs and her nether portions.
As Sun Li moved toward the washroom, Lily caught Fong’s eyes with a what-am-I-supposed-to-do look. He mouthed back, “Stop her.”
The woman’s toilet was brightly lit and spanking new. Three stalls. Beautiful swan head faucets. And to one side a partly opened window. Sun Li Cha kicked off her high heels and made a beeline for the window. She already had one of her long legs on the counter beneath the window when Lily, catching her off-balance, yanked her back to the floor.