Again I was about to chide him for his offensive language in front of a woman, but thought better of it. I had been so used to Daniel, who always watched his language in front of me and apologized if he uttered a curse word by mistake. Clearly this captain was not Daniel’s equal in refinement or intellect. Standing on that windswept rooftop in this alien part of the city, a feeling of longing for Daniel swept through me. I was so glad this case was over and I wouldn’t have to deceive him when I saw him again.
Captain Kear had gone ahead of me to the stairwell and began to descend. I hurried to catch up with him. As we went down into the darkness, we heard feet coming up from the floor below.
“Ah, that will be O’Byrne now,” he said. “Up here, man,” he called. “Have you got us an interpreter yet?”
Instead we heard loud commands barked in Chinese and Bobby Lee’s face appeared, coming up the stairs toward us.
Eighteen
Bobby Lee recoiled in surprise when he saw the policeman.
“Wah! What happening here? What you doing in my father’s house? You got search warrant?”
“Hello, Bobby. Haven’t seen you around for a while,” Captain Kear said pleasantly. “I take it you haven’t heard the news yet?”
“News? What news? I just came from Brooklyn. Is this a raid?”
“No raid, Bobby. I’m sorry to have to tell you that Mr. Lee is dead.”
“What? How he die? Heart attack?”
“He fell from the roof.”
I was watching his face. He seemed shocked enough, but the moment I saw him, it struck me that he, of anyone, had a good motive for killing Lee Sing Tai. He might well be able to convince an American court that he was the rightful son and heir. And if the bride was returned to Mr. Lee and had produced a real son, then he’d stand to lose everything. As Frederick had pointed out, he could even be sent back to China.
“He fell from roof?” He shook his head violently. “Not possible. He don’t like heights. He would never go near the edge of roof. Never look down.”
“His bed is up there,” Captain Kear said. “Maybe he walked in his sleep and tripped over the edge.”
Bobby Lee considered this, then shook his head again. “Walk in sleep? No! He not fall,” he said. “Someone push him. Someone kill him. Hip Sing do this. They been waiting to get even.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Bobby,” Captain Kear said. “We don’t want to start another tong war unnecessarily, do we? If there’s out-and-out fighting, then your businesses suffer as much as theirs. And you’d be high on their list to be assassinated first.”
Bobby was scowling. “You are supposed to look after us. How this man get to my father, huh? How come police no see? He have servants. He have bodyguards. And his wife—what about wife? Or new bride? What does this bride say, huh? Ah, so. I see now. Maybe she kill him.”
“What makes you think that?”
“She don’t like it here. She don’t want to be his concubine. She want to go home.”
“His new bride is missing and until a few minutes ago we couldn’t get any sense out of the old wife,” Captain Kear said with a note of superiority in his voice.
“New wife missing? When this happen?” Bobby asked.
I realized with some satisfaction that Lee Sing Tai had kept this news from his paper son. Maybe wives were supposed to keep to their own quarters, so Bobby hadn’t noticed anything was wrong—which would make his motive even stronger. He thought the new wife was still around and might conceive a son at any moment.
“A few days ago, Bobby. This young lady has been looking for her.”
He stood aside to reveal me, standing in the darkness a few steps above him.
Bobby gave me an incredulous look. “Her? That’s what she tell you she’s been doing—looking for my father’s bride? She came to see my father. Then she comes to give him special message, but she won’t give message to me. Maybe someone pay her to spy in our house, see how best to kill my father.” His voice had risen angrily as he spoke. He tried to push past Kear to get at me. “Make her tell truth.”
“Let’s go down to the living room, shall we?” Captain Kear held him up and forcibly turned him around. “There is no point in jumping to any conclusions at the moment. And if you can find the number one wife and persuade her to come down to talk with us, then maybe we can hear what she has to say on the matter.”
“Where houseboy go?” Bobby asked.
“You tell me. Ran off before we got here,” Kear said as he took my elbow to escort me down the stairs. “How well do you know the servants, Bobby? Are they trustworthy? Been with Mr. Lee a while?”
“Cook been with my father many years,” he said. “Houseboy just come last year, but he is son of On Leong man who work for my father in cigar factory. Good man, so must be good son.”
“One doesn’t always signify the other,” Captain Kear said. I felt that this was being directed personally at Bobby Lee. The captain didn’t think much of him. “And why did they run away if they are innocent of any crime?”
“Chinese always scared when police come,” Bobby said. “They scared police will say they did it and not bother to find real killer. Police think one Chinese look like one another and what does it matter which one they throw in jail? That’s what most men in Chinatown think.”