“Supposing it wasn’t this young woman,” Captain Kear insisted. “Can you think of anyone else who might want your husband dead?”
“Hip Sing,” the interpreter translated for her with vehemence. “They have already made several attempts on his life. They will stop at nothing until they have killed him and destroyed On Leong. This is their sworn duty.”
“Anyone else?” the captain insisted. “Has anyone been to visit your husband at the apartment recently? Anyone you didn’t know?”
The interpreter looked at her expectantly. She shook her head. “I am not invited to be present when my husband does business. I know my place and stay away.”
But you listen behind the drapes, I wanted to say.
Without warning she stood up. A great flood of Chinese preceded the translation. “Why do we sit here, discussing who might have killed my husband? Maybe it was an accident. Maybe nobody killed him. What does it matter? He is dead, isn’t he? Nothing will bring him back. And I am left alone. What is to become of me, huh? Who will look after me? He promised he would make money in America and then take me back home to our village. Now I am stuck here and alone.”
“You have young Bobby here,” the captain said. “He’s already volunteered to take care of you.”
The interpreter dutifully translated.
“Him?” She looked at him, her lip curled like a dog’s. “He is good for nothing. He bleeds us dry. It would not surprise me if he hadn’t pushed my husband off the roof.”
“How can you say that!” Bobby Lee demanded. “I treat him with the same respect I give to my real father. I obey him. I make his businesses prosper for him. I even do his dirty work for him. And I tell you that you do not need to worry. I will prove to you that I will take care of you as if you were my mother.”
“Pipe down, everyone,” Captain Kear said. “All this noise is giving me a headache. I’m not concerned with what’s going to happen now. I want to know what happened on that rooftop, and believe me, I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“You will see that Frederick Lee came back here for revenge,” Bobby said. “Perhaps he and the girl have planned this together. Perhaps this woman here is also part of the plot.” And he pointed at me.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “I am a well-respected private investigator. Mr. Lee hired me to find this runaway girl. It’s as simple as that.”
“Then why you not find her yet?” Bobby Lee demanded.
“I had only just begun to look,” I said. “Why did your father not find her for five days before he hired me? I’m sure he had plenty of men at his disposal.”
I shifted uneasily on the hard seat of the sofa. I was feeling increasingly uncomfortable about being here, not just physically but mentally too. I longed to be back in the security of Patchin Place. And I still wanted to meet Frederick Lee before Captain Kear’s men caught up with him.
“Do you need me any longer?” I asked. “I’ve told you all I can about the missing girl and I’d like to go home.”
“So I can’t persuade you to go on looking for the girl?”
“The man who hired me is dead,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, she is free to go wherever she wants to.”
“I’ll need to know where to find you,” the captain said.
I opened my purse. “I have a card in here somewhere,” I said, reluctant to hand my card to a policeman, who would take it back to a precinct where Daniel had been observed only two days ago. I could just picture his sharp eyes picking out my name. “But at the moment I am not living at home. My house is being redecorated, so let me write down the address of my neighbors for you.”
Loud noises from down below announced that someone was coming up the stairs. The houseboy and an older Chinese man in cotton blouse and baggy pants were muscled into the room by a couple of unsavory-looking characters, all of them complaining and yelling loudly.
“These men have brought you houseboy and cook,” the interpreter said.
“Tell them ‘Thank you,’” Captain Kear said.
He did so. They waited and muttered something to the interpreter.
“They expect their reward for finding these men,” the interpreter said cautiously.
“Tell them they should consider themselves lucky I’m not questioning them as suspects in this,” the captain replied. “And then tell them to beat it before I change my mind.”
The interpreter translated, most unwillingly by the look of it, and the two men renewed their protestations while the houseboy started wailing.
“Quiet!” Captain Kear shouted. “Or I’ll arrest the lot of you.”
“What the devil’s going on up there?” a voice boomed. “Are you up there, Kear?”
I recognized the voice instantly.
Twenty