The Interior (24 page)

“You’re right. They also happen in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Haiti, but I’m Chinese American, and what happens here matters to me.”

Seeing Hulan’s dubious look, Pearl said, “When Guy first contacted me, I didn’t know what to believe. Then he started e-mailing information about the factory’s conditions. They sounded really awful.” She turned to David. “Like lawyers, reporters also need proof. I tried to set up several appointments with Henry Knight, but he always canceled. Then, when I heard that Tartan was going to buy Knight, I tried Randall Craig, then Miles Stout. They were pleasant enough, but of course they told me nothing. About three months ago, I called Keith Baxter. He denied any wrongdoing by Knight or his client, Tartan. But I kept calling and giving him pieces of information that only someone on the inside, someone like Guy, could know. The more I pressed Keith with those tidbits, for lack of a better word, the more I could sense his softening. Did you know that Keith used to come out here a lot?”

David nodded. Miles had told him that Keith had been over here at least once a month for the last year, sometimes staying for a week or two at a time.

“He knew that what I was saying was true,” she continued, “because he’d seen it himself. I think at the end he was ready to give me proof, tangible evidence of Knight’s activities here.”

“Of what?” David asked. “Here’s what I’m hearing: Knight has a factory in China that has bad working conditions. But Tartan is about to buy Knight. Once that happens, any irregularities that exist—and I’m not saying they do—will be immediately remedied.”

“Unless Henry Knight’s hiding the truth from Tartan to keep his stock prices high. That should be of great concern to you and your client.”

David had had enough of Pearl’s insinuations. The papers he’d seen at Suchee’s house already troubled him. He needed to get up to his room and see how they related to Sun’s. Gnawing at him was the thought that he was representing a client who might be up to his eyeballs in illegal acts. If this was so, he was trapped by an ethical code that said he would have to continue to represent Sun. At the same time, he had a responsibility to Tartan to make sure the sale went through smoothly and without illicit shenanigans attached. What Pearl had just suggested about Knight International was fraud, pure and simple. He couldn’t let Tartan get pulled into that muck. He had to know if she had any real information.

“Are you saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the sale?”

“No,” Pearl answered.

“Did Keith give you proof that there was a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?”

“Of course not.”

“Did Keith give you
any
reason at all to believe that there was a federal investigation of any sort?”

“No,” she responded.

“And yet you wrote—”

“I had to pressure him somehow.”

“You made that stuff up!” David jabbed out the words.

“I always said it was alleged,” she answered defensively.

“
Alleged
? Alleged by whom? You made it sound like he was the target of a criminal investigation. Do you have any idea what that did to him?”

“Well, I had to keep the pressure on,” she repeated lamely. “I had to make him believe that an investigation already existed so that he’d bring me the papers. You know, take his case to the press—”

“Do you have any concept of how your lies made his family feel after his death?”

“That’s why I wrote that the case was no longer an issue. That’s why I manufactured the quote from Henry Knight. It was unethical, but I’m not the first reporter to do it.”

“But there never was a case!” David’s hands bunched into fists. He’d never felt so strongly the desire to hit someone—a woman—before.

Pearl regarded him coolly, then asked, “Have you considered that Keith might have appreciated what I wrote? That maybe it provided a safe cover for him, especially if he was going to be a whistle blower?”

“We’ll never know that, will we?” David said through clenched teeth.

David’s fury grew as he realized Pearl’s indifference to the pain she’d caused. Guy continued to sit there, pathetic in his misery. Around them business travelers swilled down a last beer or scotch before retiring.

“What are you doing in my country?” Hulan asked, her voice frigid in anger.

David looked over and saw on Hulan’s face what he felt—utter loathing for this woman. But Pearl seemed indifferent.

“As you already know,” Pearl said, “I knew about Miaoshan. A week before her death, Guy said that she’d smuggled papers out of the factory and that he’d send them to me once he got a copy. The day after she gave them to him, she killed herself.” Pearl looked around. “But none of us believes that, do we? That’s why I thought it would be good to get them in person.”

Hearing of the papers, David stifled the desire to catch Hulan’s eye.

“You say you have papers,” Hulan said to Guy in a tone that revealed nothing but a kind of general interest. “What are they?”

“She never explained to me what they were,” Guy said, “but she said they were the proof of many things.”

“What did she mean by that?”

“Miaoshan always talked on many levels,” he said. “She was very smart. I went to university, but she was much smarter than me.” Guy reached down and pulled a sheaf of papers out of his satchel. “These plans show how the factory was designed. There aren’t many doors and very few windows. If there were a fire, many people would die.” David had thought the same thing when he’d seen them at Suchee’s, but he didn’t say so now. “But also, if they use chemicals, then there isn’t proper ventilation.”

David’s thoughts turned instantly to the baby. His hand covered Hulan’s as she said, “I haven’t smelled anything when I’ve been there.”

“I don’t know if they use them,” Guy admitted. “I’m just saying that if they did, it would be very dangerous.”

“Was there anything else?” David asked, momentarily relieved.

Guy rummaged through his satchel again and pulled out a Xeroxed set of spreadsheets, but before David or Hulan could get a real look at them to verify that these were the same ones they’d seen at Suchee’s, Pearl Jenner reached out and scooped them up.

“I don’t think you need to see these,” Pearl said with a grin. “But when you’re ready to cooperate with me, I’ll be happy to show them to you.”

“At least tell us what they are,” David said.

“I don’t think so,” Pearl responded.

Hulan interrupted this exchange by switching to Mandarin and addressing Guy directly. “How did Miaoshan get the papers?”

“I told you. There was a man at the factory, an American,” Guy answered, also in Mandarin. “He helped her.”

“Hey! Speak in English!” Pearl ordered.

“Aaron Rodgers? Sandy Newheart?”

“A man, that’s all I know.” Guy’s sorrow was palpable. “She would go to him at night. He liked to talk and she listened. I told her to stop, because I was afraid. What if this man decided to stop talking? What if he wanted sex? She was alone with him. I worried about her and the baby.”

Hulan squeezed David’s hand. She switched back to Mandarin again. “Miaoshan was pregnant with your child.”

Guy’s eyes brimmed with tears, and he nodded. “I loved her,” he said in Mandarin. “I saw a future for us. But I pushed her and pushed her. I wanted success for myself. And I have lost my family and my future in one moment.”

“What are you saying?” Pearl demanded. When neither Hulan nor Guy translated, she looked at David. When she saw he wasn’t going to help her, that characteristic hard smile came back to her lips. She stood and motioned for Guy to join her. They took a few steps, then Pearl stopped and came back to the table.

“You can’t hide the truth from me,” she said to David. “As you say, what Knight’s doing may not be against the law, but it is against human law.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “Tartan can get its side out or not. Frankly, I don’t care, because I’ll do the story with or without you.”

“Tartan Incorporated has no comment at this time,” David said with all the lawyerly command he could muster.

Pearl Jenner flipped her ponytail behind her. She looked inordinately amused. “You have a reputation in Los Angeles. You’re respected. People speak of you as one of the good guys. I’m going to have a lot of fun proving they’re wrong.”

14

S
ILENTLY DAVID AND HULAN WATCHED AS PEARL AND GUY
stepped into the elevator and the doors closed. David didn’t know what to say. What he’d thought of as a bad situation out at Suchee’s house had just gotten much worse.

“If Pearl really has a copy of Miaoshan’s papers,” Hulan said at last, “then she knows no more than we do.”

“But she’s not going to stop until—”

“We have a lot to talk about. Let’s not do it here.”

In their room, David asked what Guy had said in Mandarin. Hulan told him, then added, “I knew I couldn’t ask him in English. It was too private, and I didn’t think he’d tell me in front of you or that woman.”

David sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m in trouble.”

“Maybe, maybe not. In the last few hours we’ve been deluged with facts and innuendoes. We have to sort through them.”

“Why? It’s clear that Pearl Jenner has an agenda and I’m part of it. As she said, it doesn’t matter whether I participate in her story or not. She’s still going to write it.”

“And destroy your reputation?”

“It’s not just my reputation,” he said. “It’s who I am.”

Hulan knelt before him, put her hands on his knees, and looked up into his face. “You know that what I have always loved most about you is your integrity, but ethics and honor are easy to live by as long as they aren’t tested. This is your test.”

“But I did nothing wrong. I’m just a lawyer who’s bound by client confidentiality. That’s not my fault.”

“David, you know I love you, but maybe it’s your fault in the sense that you chose not to know.” Before he could say anything, she put a finger on his lips to keep him from speaking. “You took the job at Phillips, MacKenzie without asking enough questions. You took on the Tartan matter without knowing all the details. You agreed to represent Governor Sun without finding out what his problems were. Now that you represent him, you still don’t know what it is exactly that he wants from you. I understand
why
you didn’t ask. You wanted to be here with me. And I know this isn’t the right time to say this, but you came here without even asking me if this was what I wanted.”

Everything she said was true. He had put his wanting to be with Hulan before anything else. His love for her had always blinded him, but knowing this didn’t change the way he operated. If anything, he’d always had to act for both of them. That’s why he hadn’t asked her if she wanted him to come. (What if she’d said no?) That’s why when Hulan had run away from him during dinner, he’d gone straight back to the hotel, rousted Lo out of bed, and made the investigator drive him out into the pitch black of the countryside to Suchee’s hovel. He could have said something about the poverty of that place, about the filth, about Hulan’s sanity in risking her health and that of their child’s by being there. He could have also demanded an explanation from Hulan about why she’d run away from him. But he did none of those things, because he really didn’t want to know the answers. His desire not to know had gotten him into deep trouble both professionally and personally.

He looked down at Hulan and felt a deep despair. What if his actions and inactions had cost him everything?

“We’re going to sort this out,” Hulan soothed. “Too many things are happening here. What’s going on in the factory. What Henry Knight may or may not know about all that. What Miaoshan’s papers are and what they have to do with the ones that Governor Sun gave you. You’re the smartest man I know…” He felt the warmth of her hand as she put it on his chest over his heart. “But you’re dumb here. So now all we can do is try to work our way out of it.”

“Where do we start?”

“There’s only one place to start. With Miaoshan.” Hulan rose and sat next to him.

“She got around,” he noted dryly. “Tsai Bing, Guy Lin, the American in the factory.”

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Hulan said. “Our culture is repressed in many ways. Sex out of marriage…well, it’s against the law in a lot of instances. But Miaoshan didn’t seem to care. She was almost predatory about it. I want to believe it’s because she was young or that she had a hard life, but that could apply to millions of women here.”

“Maybe her promiscuity goes back to that earthiness you were talking about earlier,” David offered. “If you grow up in the countryside everyone—even children—knows about animals mating. They see it with their own eyes; they participate in the breeding.”

“Yes, and they joke about sex and go to the herbalist to increase their sexual prowess or fertility, but chastity is considered the highest female virtue. It’s a weird double standard, but that’s how it is. So at first when Captain Woo and Siang said Miaoshan had a bad reputation, I didn’t believe it, because there are always village gossips willing to spread lies. But now how can I not? She was having sex with Tsai Bing recently enough that he thinks he was the father. Poor Guy Lin believes he was the father and maybe he was, but it could also have been Aaron Rodgers.”

“That kid? Why him?”

“You should see ‘that kid’ with the young women in the factory.”

“That doesn’t mean he was fucking her.”

“Believe me, David, he was. I see that now. Today Peanut said something about Tang Siang going off to rendezvous with Aaron in the context of talking about Miaoshan. When she said it was strange, she must have meant that Miaoshan and Tang Siang not only shared Tsai Bing but Aaron Rodgers as well.”

“Three men, one woman. There are plenty of motives for murder in that setup.”

“Yes, but there’s more to Miaoshan than her promiscuity,” Hulan said. “I think that in each case she used sex as a means to an end. With Tsai Bing she had to keep up appearances. More than that, she knew that Siang loved him and probably used sex in the most petty way to get back at her rival. I think she saw Guy Lin as a ticket out, but to keep that relationship she had to give him information. That meant seducing Aaron Rodgers, although having watched him in action, I don’t think she had to work too hard to do it. But she didn’t stop with Aaron. The way that she went about getting other information from the women in the factory fascinates me. Guy said she repeatedly asked the women questions. Even Peanut complained about it, but I didn’t know what she was talking about at the time.”

“Why does it matter?”

“Because it shows such bad manners in our culture,” Hulan responded. “If you ask a question and don’t get an answer or you get an evasive one, you’re supposed to drop the subject. When Miaoshan didn’t, she was going beyond rude. I myself haven’t asked many questions about Miaoshan in the factory, but you might expect stories about her to circulate. Apart from ridiculous ghost stories, I don’t think there was any grief when she died. Neither Tang Siang nor Peanut liked her. So I’ve wondered, was it just jealousy or was it something else? I’m beginning to think that she was too foreign to them.”

“Because of the way she looked.”

“Yes, she was beautiful but in a foreign way. I think she played that up, buying Western-style clothes—”

“Or they were given to her by whomever it was in the factory who was helping her.”

“Oh, absolutely. Even now, more than three weeks after her death, I can smell White Shoulders perfume on her bunk.” When David frowned, she said, “Oh, you’ve smelled it before. It’s strong and very sweet. I remember it from the States. I always hated that smell.”

As David looked at her incredulously, Hulan went on. “And it’s not something you can just pick up in the company store, in a dry-goods shop in Da Shui Village, or even here in Taiyuan. Which brings us to the papers Sun gave you.”

“I can’t show them to you.”

“I understand.”

David got up, sorted through some piles on the desk, then spread out Sun’s papers while shielding them from Hulan’s view. Although they looked superficially the same as Miaoshan’s, these weren’t copies. Where the names of the action figures had been, now were the names of various companies—Toy World, Plush Supply, Mega Soft, and the like. To their right were account numbers and deposit dates. How did this material fit into the big picture? Had Sun sent these over knowing this moment was imminent, that as David’s client he’d be protected, because instead of evidence these documents would fall under the rubric of privileged information?

What was very clear was that David and Hulan were now on different sides. She loved him and knew how to read him, so as much as he tried to cover his emotions, the look on his face as he read through the papers said much about Sun’s guilt. So now her job was to garner information from David; his was to protect his client. Her job was to pin down the crime; his was to point suspicion elsewhere. He was fully aware that cooperation was a cornerstone of the legal system in any country. (Smart criminals hired attorneys with good relationships with investigators and prosecutors. Was this part of Sun’s plan for David with Hulan?) David could speak to Hulan, of course, but only in hypotheticals, while she would try to pry as much information out of him as possible without him shutting her out completely.

“What are Miaoshan’s papers actually proof of?” David asked. “What’s the crime? I see so many levels, but which is the right one?” He paused, then said, “You didn’t tell me before about the child labor.”

“I didn’t think it mattered. It’s not really a prosecutable offense.” She shook her head, then clarified, “What I mean is, child labor is against the law. The official labor age is eighteen for government factory work, but private companies can hire younger people.”

“How young are we talking, Hulan?”

“At Knight I’d say the youngest I’ve seen is about twelve, but, David, you have to understand that if this was reported, Knight might be fined and those girls let go. I think the only way an owner might go to jail was if there was an international scandal, a story in the press…” Her breath came out in a disgusted rush. “Pearl Jenner.”

“But Guy Lin said Miaoshan’s papers were ‘proof.’ They may be proof of something, but it isn’t child-labor violations. And despite the SUN GAN code, I see nothing that would tie my client to child labor. Neither are the papers proof of the factory’s conditions. You and I and Guy Lin may think they’re deplorable, but they’re still within Knight’s rights, which means, I hate to say it, they’re also within Tartan’s rights. Then there’s the dangerous machinery and the possibility of improper chemical use. But again, I didn’t see anything in Miaoshan’s papers that pointed to that or to my client.”

Very aware that Sun’s papers were just a few feet away from her, Hulan ventured, “Maybe the products themselves are somehow dangerous and the papers have to do with shipments or something.”

“I don’t think so. If there was a defect in Sam & His Friends, it would have been all over the American press. That’s something they really can’t cover up.”

“The next level of crime would have to be the bribery,” Hulan said. “Except we know that Pearl made that up.”

David didn’t respond.

“I’m going to lay out a scenario for you,” she said. “Let’s suppose Pearl was right but didn’t know it. Could Sun have taken a bribe?” She held up a hand. “You needn’t answer, but consider this: Would your client not take one? This is China and Sun’s a smooth operator. If that’s the case, then how did Knight hide it in their financials?”

David thought he knew the answer: Knight disguised the bribes as payments to dummy corporations. Hulan was close to the truth. Where would she go next?

“I’m guessing they did it with the skim,” Hulan said suddenly. “We were told we’d be paid five hundred
yuan
. We actually get two hundred, which leaves three hundred
yuan
a month extra.” She reached over and grabbed a notepad off the nightstand. “Let’s figure some people do get paid more, because Knight has to promote sometimes, don’t you think?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “So let’s take an average of two hundred
yuan
off the salaries. With a thousand workers…” She scribbled furiously, then announced, “That would be a little over twenty-four thousand U.S. dollars a month, or almost three hundred thousand dollars a year.”

She put the notepad down. “Would your client have killed Miaoshan if he thought she had papers that implicated him in a scheme that netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year?” Hulan asked, then answered the question herself. “Yes.”

“You’re jumping to huge conclusions,” David countered. “Let’s remember that we still don’t know what Miaoshan’s papers actually mean. They don’t give a complete picture.”

“Well, I’m guessing you’re holding a list of dummy corporations—”

“You’ve got deposits and dates and toys that spell out a code name, but where is the money actually going?” David interrupted, trying to keep Hulan focused on Miaoshan’s documents. “All this”—his motion included the papers before him—“proves nothing unless you know where the money is. It could be down at the corner bank, in Beijing, or in Switzerland for all you know. And it could be going into
anyone’s
account. What if Sun’s been set up? You have to admit that was a pretty stupid code.”

What he said next took Hulan completely by surprise. “We have to find a way to link the deaths of Miaoshan, Xiao Yang, and Keith.” He amazed her again by focusing first on Xiao Yang. Then, as he spoke, she realized that he was laying out a defense—one in which he pointed blame everywhere but at his client—as clearly as if he’d been in a courtroom before a jury.

“Let’s assume that the woman in the factory was killed as you suggested earlier tonight.” David thought back to just three hours ago when that idea had seemed inconceivable. Now her death had become one more piece of the puzzle. “Was it to cover up the fact that Knight doesn’t use safety precautions with its machinery? Was it because she saw something? Was it because she made financial demands on Aaron Rodgers or someone else in the company? Was she one of Aaron Rodgers’s girls and now that he’d seen…what’s the new girl’s name?”

“Tang Siang.”

“Now that he’d seen Tang Siang, he wanted to get rid of Xiao Yang. Maybe he’s a serial killer who makes love to girls, then murders them when he’s ready to move on.” His questioning tone belied the implausibility of this scenario.