"I saw the blood," Cole said.
Annabel shook her head. "I haven't had a chance to clean that up."
"Never mind," Cole told her. "Go on."
"Well, he was unconscious and bleeding, and I could see that he was badly hurt. So I took him into the kitchen to see if I could help him."
"Wait a minute. You said he was unconscious. How did you get him into the kitchen?"
"Picked him up and carried him, of course," Annabel said matter-of-factly.
Cole looked again at the Chinese man. Loo had to weigh seventy-five or eighty pounds more than Annabel did.
"Anyway," she went on, "like I said, I stopped the bleeding-and cleaned up the wound in his side."
"What happened to him?" Cole asked. "Was he shot?"
At the same time, Annabel and Loo said, "Hatchet"
Cole looked at the man. "You speak English?"
Loo nodded and said, "Some."
"What are you doing here?"
"I come to warn you," Loo said.
"Warn me about what?"
"Wing Ko."
Annabel said, "That's what I was going to tell you. Mr. Loo works for this man Wing Ko. At least, he did—before Wing Ko tried to have him killed."
And here he'd been looking forward to a peaceful evening at home with Annabel, Cole thought. He rubbed his jaw and said, "I think I need a drink. And then I want to hear all about this."
Over the next half hour, Cole listened as Loo explained in broken English how he had worked for Wing Ko since arriving in the United States a few years earlier.
"Not hatchet man," Loo insisted. "Not boo how doy. This one carry messages, watch man Wing Ko says to watch."
"You were a spy, in other words," Cole said.
Loo nodded. "This one happy work for Wing Ko, be part of tong, until white man come."
"White man?" Cole repeated in surprise. "What white man?"
"Not know name," Loo said with a shrug. "Him partner with Wing Ko."
Cole frowned. Wing Ko was certainly ambitious; otherwise he never would have taken on a white man as a partner in the tong. Such a thing was unheard of. Wing Ko seemed to have a fondness for breaking rules.
"What does this white man look like?"
Loo shook his head. "Skinny, pale, ugly."
That could have been almost anyone, Cole thought. He said, "What made you decide to betray Wing Ko?" Again, for a member of the tong to turn against its leader was almost beyond comprehension. The fanaticism of the Chinese was legendary.
"White man," Loo said bitterly. "Him tell Wing Ko this one cannot be trusted. Tell Wing Ko he should have this one whipped."
"So that's what those marks were on your back," Annabel put in. She glanced at Cole. "He looked like he'd been beaten within an inch of his life."
"So you have a good reason not to like Wing Ko's new partner," Cole said to Loo. "Or Wing Ko himself for going along with the white man's suggestion. But why did Wing Ko's hatchet men try to kill you?"
"Because this one comes here. boo how doy follows this one, strikes with hatchet when he see where this one is going. This one lucky man. Get hold of hatchet and kill him. Then come here."
Cole saw Annabel shudder slightly. She wasn't used to the casual violence that pervaded the tongs.
"I still don't understand why," Cole said. "What does your problem with Wing Ko have to do with me? Why come to my house in the first place?"
"Because of fires," Loo said, his attitude now the patient one of an adult trying to explain something to a child.
Cole stiffened. "What fires?"
"On waterfront. Warehouses burn down. Wing Ko and white man have fires set, then more men who work for tong tell firemen and policemen they see somebody starting fires."
"Good Lord," Cole breathed, thinking back to what he had seen for himself and heard from Lieutenant Driscoll. Many of the: witnesses who had come forward to testify that the warehouse fires were the result of arson had indeed been Chinese.
"Cole," Annabel said intently, "didn't you tell me that Wing Ko tried to come in with you as a silent partner?"
"Yes, but I turned him down flat."
"So he found another partner, someone who's just as unscrupulous and ruthless as he is."
Cole nodded slowly. "That's right. And since Brady Enterprises owns more property along the waterfront than anyone else, and since I turned him down, now he's trying to destroy me by having those fires set and making it look like I had something to do with them."
Cole turned toward the telephone. "I've got to talk to Chief Sullivan and Inspector Fernack."
"Fire tonight," Loo said. "That why this one comes here."
Cole stopped short and swung around to face the man again. "Do you mean there's going to be another warehouse fire set tonight?"
Loa's head bobbed up and down. "This one hears Wing Ko giving orders to hatchet men. They start fire."
"Where?" Cole asked urgently.