Ed McBain (11 page)

"Joey. I think he was killed for some reason."

"That's brilliant, Chink. That's real..."

"I mean, I don't think this was just an ordinary mug-and-slug, you follow? This was a setup kill."

"How do you figure?"

"I think Joey saw too much."

"Go smoke your pipe, Chink," I said. I started to shove past him. "Joey was usually too drunk to see his own hand in front of..."

"Harry Tse," Chink said.

It sounded like Harry Shoe. "Who's Harry Shoe?"

"He was killed the other night, Matt. You heard about it, didn't you?"

"No."

"They thought it was a tong job. Harry was big in his own tong."

"What is this, Fu Manchu?"

"Don't joke, Matt."

"Okay, Chink, no jokes. What makes you think they tie?"

"Something Joey said when I told him about Harry."

"When was this?"

"Yesterday. He said, 'So
that's
who it was.'"

"That doesn't mean a damned thing, Chink."

"Or it could mean a lot."

"Stop being inscrutable. So it means a lot, or it means nothing. Who gives a rat's backside?"

"I thought Joey was your friend."

"He was. He's dead now. What do you want me to do? The cops are already on it."

"You used to be a shamus."

"Used to be, is right. No more. Joey's dead. The cops'll get his killer."

"You think so? They're already spreading talk he fell and cracked his head that way even though there's a bullet hole in him. They say he was drunk. You think they're gonna give a damn about one bum more or less?"

"But you do, huh, Chink? You give a damn?"

"I do."

"Why? What difference does it make to you?"

"Joey was good to me." His voice trailed off. "He was good to me, Matt." There was a catch in his voice, as if he were awed by the idea of
anybody
being good to him.

"The good die young," I said. "Let me by, Chink. I need some sleep."

"You're ... you're not going to do anything about it?"

"I guess not. Maybe. I don't know. I'll think about it. Good night, Chink."

I started up the stairs and Chink yelled, "He was your friend, too, Matt. Just remember that. Just remember it."

"Sure," I said.

It took me a long time to forget it.

I still hadn't forgotten by the time I fell asleep.

The morning was hot and sticky. My shirt stuck to my back and my skin was feverish and gummy, and I wanted to crawl out of it like a snake. I dug up a bottle of wine, taking four drinks before one would stay down. I faced the morning then, blinking at the fiery sun, wishing for a beach, or a mountain lake, or even a breeze. There was none. There was only the El, rusted and gaunt, and the baking pavements. I started walking, heading for Chinatown because things can look different in the blaze of a new day.

I found Chink. He was lying on a pad, and there was opium in his eyes and the slack tilt of his mouth.

He looked up at me sleepily, and then grinned blandly.

"Hello, Matt."

"This Harry Shoe," I said.

"Harry Tse."

"Yeah. Any survivors?"

"His wife. Lotus Tse. Why, Matt? You going to do something? You going to get Joey's killer?"

"Where is she? Tse's wife."

"On Mott Street. Here, Matt, I'll give you the address." He reached behind him for a brush, dipped it into a pot of ink, and scrawled an address on a brown piece of paper. "Tell her I sent you, Matt. Tell her Charlie Loo sent you."

"Is that your name?"

He nodded.

"All right, Charlie. I'll see you."

"Good luck, Matt."

"Thanks."

I knocked on the door and waited, and then I knocked again.

"Who is it?"

The voice had a singsong lilt, like a mild breeze rustling through a willow tree. It brought pictures of an ancient China, a land of delicate birds and eggshell skies, colorful kimonos and speckled white stallions.

"I'm a friend of Charlie Loo," I said to the closed door.

"Moment."

I waited a few more minutes, and when the door opened, I was glad I had. She was small, with shiny black hair that tumbled to her shoulders, framing an oval face. Her eyes tilted sadly, brown as strong coffee, fringed with soot-black lashes. She had a wide mouth, and she wore a silk blouse and a skirt that hugged her small, curving hips. "Yes, please?"

"May I come in?"

"All right." The singsong made it sound like a question. She stepped aside, and I walked into the apartment, through a pair of beaded drapes, into a living room that was cool with the shade of the building that crowded close to the open window.

"My name is Matt Cordell," I said.

"You are a friend of Charlie's?"

"Yes."

"I see. Sit down, Mr. Cordell."

"Thank you." I slumped into an easy chair, clasped my hands over my knees. "Your husband, Mrs. Tse. What do you know about his death?"

Her eyes widened a little, but her face remained expressionless otherwise. "Is that why you are here?"

"Yes."

She shrugged her narrow shoulders. "He ... was killed. Is there more to say?"

"How?"

"A knife."

"When?"

"Tuesday night."

"Today is Friday," I said, thinking aloud.

"Is it?" she asked. There was such a desperate note in her voice that I looked up suddenly. She was not watching me. She was staring through the open window at the brick wall of the opposite building.

"Do you have any idea who did it?"

"The tong, they say. I don't know."

"You don't think it was a tong?"

"No. No, I don't think so. I ... I don't know what to think."

"What did your husband do?"

"Export-import. His business was good. He was a good man, my husband. A good man."

"Any enemies?"

"No. No, I don't know of any."

"Did he seem worried about anything?"

"No. He was happy."

I took a deep breath. "Well, is there anything you can tell me? Anything that might help in..."

She shook her head, dangerously close to tears. "You ... you do not understand, Mr. Cordell. Harry was a happy man. There was nothing. No reason. No ... reason to kill him. No reason."

I waited a moment before asking the next question. "Was he ever away from home? I mean, any outside friends? A club? Bowling team? Band? Anything like that?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"A club. He went on Mondays. He was well liked."

"What's the name of the club?"

"Chinese Neighborhood Club, Incorporated, I think. Yes. It's on Mulberry Street. I don't know the address."

"I'll find it," I said, rising. "Thank you, Mrs. Tse. I appreciate your help."

"Are you looking for Harry's murderer, Mr. Cordell?"

"I think so."

"Find him," she said simply.

The Chinese Neighborhood Club, Inc., announced itself to the sidewalk by means of a red and black lettered sign swinging on the moist summer breeze. A narrow entranceway huddled beneath the sign, and two Chinese stood alongside the open doorway, talking softly, their panamas tilted back on their heads. They glanced at me as I started up the long narrow stairway.

The stairwell was dark. I followed the creaking steps, stopping at a landing halfway up. There were more steps leading to another landing, but I decided I'd try the door on this landing first. I didn't bother to knock. I took the knob, twisted it, and the door opened.

The room was almost unfurnished. There was a long curtained closet on one wall, and an easy chair just inside the doorway. A long table ran down the center of the room. A man was seated at the table. A stringed instrument rested on the table before him, looking very much like a small harp. The man had the withered parchment face of a Chinese mandarin. He held two sticks with felted tips in his hands. A small boy with jet-black hair stood alongside the table. They both looked up as I came into the room.

"Yes?" the old man asked.

"I'm looking for friends of Harry Tse."

"Okay," the old man said. He whispered something to the boy, and the kid tossed me a darting glance, and then went out the door through which I'd entered. The door closed behind him and I sat in the easy chair while the old man began hitting the strings of his instrument with the two felted sticks. The music was Old China. It twanged on the air in discordant cacophony, strangely fascinating, harsh on the ears, but somehow, soothing. It droned on monotonously, small staccato bursts that vibrated the strings, set the air humming.

The sticks stopped, and the old man looked up.

"You
who
?" he asked.

"Matt Cordell."

"Yes. Mmm, yes."

He went back to his instrument. The room was silent except for the twanging of the strings. I closed my eyes and listened, remembering a time when Trina and I first discovered the wonder of Chinatown, found it for our very own. That had been a happy time, our marriage as bright and as new as the day outside. That was before I found her in Garth's arms, before I smashed in his face with the butt of my .45. The police went easy on me. Trina and Garth dropped charges, but it was still assault with a deadly weapon, and the police yanked my license, and Matt Cordell drifted to the Bowery along with the other derelicts. Trina and Garth? Mexico, the stories said, for a quick divorce. Leaving behind them a guy who didn't give a damn anymore.

I listened to the music, and I thought of the liquor I'd consumed since then, the bottles of sour wine, the smoke, the canned heat. I thought of the flophouses, and the hallways, and the park benches and the gutters and the stink and filth of the Bowery. A pretty picture, Matt Cordell. A real pretty picture.

Like Joey.

Only Joey was dead, really dead. I was only close to it.

The music stopped. There was the bare room again, and the old man, and the broken memories.

"Is someone coming to talk to me?" I asked.

"You go up," the old man said. "Upstairs. You go. Someone talk to you."

"Thanks," I said, and went into the hallway, wondering why the old man had sent the kid up ahead of me. Probably a natural distrust of Westerners. Whoever was up there had been warned that an outsider was in the house. I climbed the steps, and found another doorway at the landing.

I opened the door.

The room was filled with smoke. There were at least a dozen round tables in the room, and each table was crowded with seated Chinese. There was a small wooden railing that separated the large room from a small office with a desk. A picture of Chiang Kai-shek hung on one wall. A fat man sat at the desk with his back to me. The kid who'd been downstairs was standing alongside him. I turned my back to the railing and the desk, and looked into the room. A few of the men looked up, but most went on with what I supposed were their games.

The place was a bedlam of noise. Each man sitting at the tables held a stack of tiles before him. As far as I could gather, the play went in a clockwise motion, with each player lifting a tile and banging it down on the table as he shouted something in Chinese. I tried to get the gist of the game, but it was too complicated. Every now and then, one man would raise a pointed stick and push markers across wires hanging over the tables, like the markers in a poolroom. A window stretched across the far end of the room, and one group of men at a table near the window were the quietest in the room. They were playing cards, and from a distance, it looked like good old-fashioned poker.

I turned away from them and stared at the back of the man seated at the desk. I cleared my throat.

He swung his chair around, grinning broadly, exposing a yellow gold tooth in the front of his mouth.

"Hello, hello," he said.

I gestured over my shoulder with my head. "What's that? Mah-jongg?"

He peered around as if he hadn't seen the wholesale gaming. "Chinese game," he said.

"Thanks," I said. "Did Harry Tse play it?"

"Harry? No, Harry play poker. Far table. You know Harry?"

"Not exactly."

The Chinese shook his head, and the wattles under his chin flapped. "Harry dead."

"I know."

"Yes. Dead." He shook his head again.

"Was he here last Monday night?"

"Oh sure. He here every Monday."

"Did he play poker?"

"Oh sure. He always play. Harry good guy."

"Who played with him?"

"Hmm?"

"Last Monday? Who was he playing with?"

"Why?"

"He was killed. Maybe one of his friends did it. Who did he play with?"

The fat Chinese stood up abruptly and looked at the far table. He nodded his head then. "Same ones. Always play poker. Only ones." He pointed at the far table. "They play with Harry."

"Thanks. Mind if I ask them a few questions?"

The fat Chinese shrugged. I went across the room past the mah-jongg tables and over to the poker game. Four men were seated at the table. None of them looked up when I stopped alongside it.

I cleared my throat.

A thin man with short black hair and a clean-shaven face looked up curiously. His eyes were slanted, his skin pulled tight at the corners. He held his cards before him in a wide fan.

"My name's Cordell," I said to him. "I understand Harry Tse was playing cards here the night before he was killed."

"Yes?" the thin man asked.

"Are you the spokesman for the group?"

"I'll do. What's on your mind?"

"Who won Monday night?" The thin man thought this over. He shrugged and turned to another player. "Who won, Tommy?"

Tommy was a husky boy with wide jowls. He shrugged, too. "I don't remember, Lun."

"That your name?" I asked the first guy.

"That's right. Lun Ching."

"Who won, Lun Ching?"

"I don't remember."

"Did Harry win?"

"I don't think so."

"Yes or no?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Lun Ching stared at me. "Are you from the police?"

"No."

He nodded, his head imperceptibly. "Harry didn't win. That's enough for you." He turned back to his cards, fished two from the fan, and said to a player across the table, "Two cards."