“I’ll have a lemon tart, then. With a cup of tea. Not black tea, real tea. Also, I need the answer to a question.”
“From me?”
“Yes, of course, from you, that’s why I’m asking you.”
I took my plastic tray to a small table near the server’s counter. Fay Di spoke to the young girl who was working at the cash register, then came around the counter. “Luckily, we’re not busy right now. I’ll sit with you a moment.”
This was not a matter of luck. It was why I had delayed coming out until the lunch rush was over. But we had no time to go into that. “Excellent. Now tell me who would want to do harm to Lim Xiao.” Her eyes went wide. “No one.”
“You mean, everyone. But I’m referring to a particular person.”
“Who?”
“If I knew, why would I ask?” Really, Fay Di is kind-hearted but sometimes she is slow. “Lim Xiao is in a difficulty. I’m looking into it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know my daughter is in the investigating business. I sometimes work with her on her cases.”
“You do?”
I narrowed my eyes over the steam from my tea. “We have no time for so many questions, Fay Di. Because of the nature of Lim Xiao’s trouble, I believe the wrongdoer may be an employee of Sweet Tasty Sweet. Now, please. This is urgent. Can you think of someone who has reason to dislike Lim Xiao more than most?”
Fay Di’s gaze went to the tabletop. In detecting, it is important sometimes to let the suspect think in silence. I do not mean I suspected Fay Di of this kidnapping, but the principle is the same. I bit into the lemon tart. It was lemony but too sweet, unlike my own, which have the perfect amount of sugar.
Fay Di rose without answering. I was surprised at such rudeness but did not speak, for my mouth was full of lemon tart. I watched as she went behind the counter to speak low words to the girl at the cash register. The girl shook her head. Fay Di spoke again. She put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, propelling her—the girl’s nametag read “Sarah”—to my table, where she sat her down.
“This is my friend,” Fay Di said. “Tell her what you told me.”
The girl turned to say something, but Fay Di went back behind the counter. A young man came from the kitchen with a tray of pastries. Fay Di busied herself with putting them in the proper cases, refusing to look at the girl.
“Sarah?” I said. “Is that your name?”
The girl whipped her head back to me. She didn’t answer, as though I had asked a dangerous question. She was very pretty, with smooth skin. Unlike my daughter, she wore a touch of lipstick, a modest pink, very becoming. Her white bakery cap sat fetchingly on her shining black hair.
“My name for America,” she said, eyes downcast.
“Sarah, this is very important. Do you know something about someone who would perhaps enjoy causing trouble for Lim Xiao?”
Again, she didn’t answer. She seemed very nervous. I have lived in Chinatown many years, so I thought I might know why. Leaning forward, I whispered, “You are in America illegally, am I correct?”
She started to jump up, but I put my hand over hers. “Don’t worry. I haven’t come to cause you problems. In fact, if you help me, perhaps I can help you.”
She looked around again to find Fay Di staring calmly at her from behind the counter. She turned back to me, then looked down at the hands in her lap. “Li Qiu,” she whispered, so quietly I almost didn’t hear her.
“Li Qiu? Who is that?”
“He comes from village close mine, in Fukien.” Her Cantonese was poor, but I thought it enterprising of her to attempt to learn to speak it, just as it was for her to take an American name. All dialects of Chinese are written with the same characters, but they are spoken differently. Most of the new immigrants now are from Fukien province, not Guangdong, as my generation was. Their language is Fukienese. Many of them also speak Mandarin, but that’s not much use in Chinatown, either. These people can get only the worst jobs until they learn either English or Cantonese. Most decide on English because it’s a simpler language, Cantonese being very subtle, very complex. This Sarah, I decided, must be hardworking, hoping to better herself, plus she must be intelligent.
She spoke up again. “Li Qiu, not a nice man.” She squirmed a little in her seat. “Thinks, because I Fukiense also, I friends of him. Tells things I do not want to hear.”
“What sorts of things?”
“Tries impress me, make me think he’s big. Not big, just nasty. Takes job at Sweet Tasty Sweet only so to learn things about rich owner. Says, rich owner going make him rich also. Says, I go with him, we be rich both.”
“Do you know what he meant?”
“No. But since yesterday, Li Qiu doesn’t come to work.”