Authors: Rhys Bowen
“No, thank you, Father. I was wondering if a young Chinese woman had come here, seeking sanctuary.”
“She did indeed.” His lip curled with distaste. “Wanted my help in getting her away from some man. Probably her pimp, since the only women here are prostitutes. I told her there was nothing I could do for her.” He folded his arms expressively over his cassock. “This used to be a good Italian and Irish neighborhood, you know, before those Chinese came and took over. And the last thing we want is Chinese women here—then the men won’t ever want to go home again if their womenfolk are allowed to come here, and there will be no getting rid of them.”
“So a young Chinese woman did come to you—about five or six days ago?”
“My housekeeper found her hiding in the church after the last mass of the day, when she went in to tidy up the hymnbooks. Brought her to me. I told her I was sorry but I wasn’t going to get involved in Chinese business. They’re a violent people, you know. You should see the killings that went on when the tongs were at war. Men shot and stabbed in broad daylight as they walked down the street or sat in the restaurants. I have to make sure I stay out of it.”
“So you sent her away—where did you send her?”
“I’ve no idea. I told my housekeeper to feed her and then get rid of her.”
“May I speak to your housekeeper then?” I asked
“I suppose so. What is your reason for seeking out this girl?”
I was about to say that I had been hired by her husband to find her, but instead I heard myself saying, “I want to help her.”
“Come along then,” he said. “Herself should have some tea on the table about this time. No doubt she can tell you in great detail what she told the girl—she loves the sound of her own voice.” As he talked he made his way through the church, through a back room, and opened a door that led into the rectory.
“Mrs. McNamara,” he called. “We’ve got company for tea.”
A woman came scurrying down the hall toward us, wiping her hands on her apron as she came. For a moment I thought I was seeing a ghost, as she looked just like the woman who ran the shop at home in Ballykillin.
“Tea’s all ready, Father,” she said and gave me a broad smile. “And there’s plenty for visitors too.”
We went together into a rather shabby dining room where a table was laid with teacups, scones, and fruitcake.
“Sit yourself down, my dear,” the priest said. “What was your name?”
“Molly Murphy, Father.”
“That’s as good an Irish name as you can get, isn’t it?” He nodded to Mrs. McNamara. “We don’t get too many Irish at the church anymore. It’s all Italians these days. And Polish. Not like the old days, is it, Mrs. McNamara?”
“Indeed it’s not, Father. Most of them don’t even speak English and I hardly ever get a good chat, except with the father here.”
“Never stops,” he muttered to me.
Tea was poured and I ate heartily of the scones and cake.
“Miss Murphy’s here asking about that Chinese girl you found. Any idea where she went?”
“No, Father,” Mrs. McNamara said. “You told me to get rid of her, didn’t you? So I had to send her on her way.”
Then she did a strange thing. I looked up and caught her eye, and she winked at me.
“I’d best be going then,” I said. “I really don’t know where to look now. Maybe she’s hiding out in one of the local parks, but that would be dangerous for a young woman alone.”
“I’ll see her out, Father,” Mrs. McNamara said. “You put your feet up for a while.”
She led me through the rectory to a door at the other end. As soon as we were out of earshot she whispered to me, “She’s upstairs now, the poor thing. And I’m that glad you’ve come for her because I hadn’t a clue what I was going to do with her.”
“She’s here? In the rectory?” I asked, my voice echoing louder than I intended through that high hallway.
She put her fingers to her lips. “Shh. We don’t want himself to hear. Well, I couldn’t just turn her out with nowhere to go, could I? So I put her in one of the rooms on the top floor. His reverence never goes up there—can’t climb all those stairs any longer. So I’ve been feeding her and trying to find what to do with her next. I’ve always been too impulsive, you know. Let my heart rule my head. I’d never have married that drunken lout McNamara if I’d stopped to think about it. But, my, he was handsome when he was a lad. How I suffered for it afterward. Knocked me around something terrible, he did.”
“Is he still alive?”
“He is not, God rest his poor soul. Killed in a street brawl, five years after we came to America. I came to the good Father here as housekeeper twenty years ago.”
I was trying not to show my impatience.
“So do you think you could take me up to see the girl now? I’ve come to take her off your hands.”
“Thank the Blessed Virgin for that,” she said. “I mean, what could I do with the poor thing? She couldn’t stay up in our attic forever.” She glanced back down the hall. “Come on then. Tread quietly or you’ll have himself snooping after us. He’ll have nodded off in a minute and then we’ll be all right.”
She started up the stairs. I followed. My heart had been beating fast ever since I had found out that Bo Kei was hidden here, but as we climbed flight after flight of stairs, it was positively pounding in my chest. Mrs. McNamara was breathing heavily in front of me and paused on the landing to say, “My old legs are not cut out for this sort of thing any longer. Five flights. It’s too much for a body.”
As she put her hand on the door handle there was the sound of scurrying beyond. The door opened to reveal a white figure, trying to duck down behind the bed.
“It’s all right, my dear,” Mrs. McNamara said. “You can come out. This young lady has come to help you.”
The white figure stood up and I saw that she was wearing a white nightgown. Her black hair hung in a heavy braid over one shoulder and she was looking at me with terrified eyes. I recognized her from her portrait.
“Bo Kei?” I asked gently.
She nodded.
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” I said.
“Who are you?” She said the words carefully. “Why you want me?”
“My name is Molly.” I paused. What did I say next?
I’ve come to deliver you back to your husband?
I wished I knew how the law stood in New York. Could she legally be forced back to her husband? Was she officially his possession? Was I going against the law by hiding her? I didn’t think Daniel would take kindly to finding his own bride fined or in jail for aiding and abetting a fugitive. But neither did I want to send her back to a man like Lee Sing Tai. I needed time to think. If I could get her to Sarah’s settlement house, then she’d be safe for the moment and I could buy myself some time. “I’ve come to help you get away from here,” I said.
“Where go?” she asked.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“You can’t take her out onto the street around here. She’d be seen,” Mrs. McNamara said. “That man’s spies are everywhere and you can’t let her go back to him, the monster.”
“Did he treat you badly?” I asked.
She nodded. “He make me do bad things. He say I belong to him now. He pay my father plenty money. He want I give him son pretty damned quick.”
“So you definitely don’t want to go back to him?”
“I no go back. I kill myself first.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We must think how to get you away from here, and then we can plan your future.”
“She’ll need some clothes first,” Mrs. McNamara said. “She came here in her nightgown.”
“How did you escape?” I asked.
She gave me a shy smile. “I hear church bell and look down on street. I see there is church, so close. So I wait see which day is Sunday. When it’s hot night, master sleep on roof. He have boy bring me to him, and when he don’t want me no more, he send me away again. So this night he think boy take me downstairs. But I come back up again. I hide on roof. When master sleeps I go on roof as far as I can, and when I can’t go no more, I jump to next roof.”
“Goodness,” I said. “How far was it?”
“Far,” she said.
“Weren’t you scared?”
“I think if I die, is better than to stay with him.”
“How did you get down from the next roof?”
“Down iron stair outside,” she said.
“Fire escape,” Mrs. McNamara corrected. “She came down the fire escape—can you believe the nerve of it?”
“Fire escape,” she agreed. “And then down pipe to ground.”
“Wearing your nightdress? Didn’t people see you?”
“Middle of night. Nobody in street. I wait in alleyway and hide in garbage. When people go church, I go too.”
“In your nightdress? Or did you have clothes with you?”
A sly smile crossed her face. “I steal sheet from laundry hanging on next roof. Throw down to street. I put it over head like this.” She demonstrated. “Make me look like nun. People not look at nun. I go in church and I wait. I think where there is church, there will be nuns. They will help me. They will not want me to live in sin.”
“Live in sin?”
“The brute never intended to marry her. He brought her over here as his concubine,” Mrs. McNamara said, hands on hips.
“I go to hell if I am with a man and not married to him. That is what nuns say.”
I put my hand on her arm. “That’s not true. If you were forced to do things you didn’t want to, then it’s not your fault. You won’t go to hell, I promise you.”
She gave me a sad smile. “When man come to mission and say that rich Chinaman in America want me for bride I am happy. Nuns say Western life very civilized, say it’s good I live in Christian country where women are respected. And I be bride of rich man. Never go hungry. But I come here and I find he already has one wife. He call me wife number two, but that is not true. Jesus say only one wife.”
“So he already has one wife?”
She nodded. “She old woman. Very mean. Not want me there. She call me concubine. Tell me terrible things.”
So those had been the fingers I had seen of the person behind the drapes. The old woman who did not welcome a new young bride.
“She tell me I no better than slave. I have to do what master want. Do what she want. And if I no give master a son pretty quick, he put me away, send me to house of fallen women.”
That was no idle threat, as I had witnessed.
“I’ll do what I can to help you,” I said. “Where would you like to go?”
She gave a helpless shrug. “I know no one in America. I can’t go home. No money and family not want to feed me. That’s why they sent me to nuns when I was small. Too many daughters. Not want to feed me. But then when man come to village, my father happy to get money for daughter he didn’t want.”
It sounded as if she’d had a rotten life all around so far.
“Were the nuns kind to you?”
“Nuns okay. Very strict,” she said. “Punish with stick. But I learn reading, writing. I like learning. I good student, so not punish much.”
At the very least she could be a nursemaid or companion, I was thinking.
“So what I do now?” she asked.
I was trying to think. What on earth could she do? “I tell you what,” I said. “You stay here until it’s dark. Then I’ll come back with clothes for you and we’ll find a way to get you out of Chinatown without anyone seeing you.”
“Okay!” Her face lit up. “You kind lady, come save Bo Kei.”
I’m a lady who is about to get herself in a lot of trouble,
I thought to myself.
Twelve
I left Bo Kei and followed Mrs. McNamara down the stairs and out of a side entrance onto Park Street. This was still part of Chinatown, but at least I wasn’t directly opposite Mr. Lee’s Golden Dragon Emporium and his front balcony. It might be possible to spirit away Bo Kei from here, as halfway down Park Street the flavor turned from Chinese to Italian. Since I couldn’t do anything until it was dark, I decided to go home. I had been on my feet since early morning. One big advantage a male detective has over a female one (and there are many) is that they wear much more comfortable shoes. Female shoes are not designed for walking miles, and my toes were throbbing in the heat.
I boarded the Third Avenue El at Chatham Square and endured being packed like a sardine until I was finally back in home territory. Sid and Gus’s front door was rarely locked, so I let myself in, not wanting to disturb them if they were involved in their creative pursuits. Instead I heard the sound of laughter from the back garden. I went through and found my hosts sitting in the shade with a third woman. I went to back away, but I was too late. Sid looked up.
“Molly! The wanderer returneth. Or is it the conquering hero?”
I laughed uneasily. “I don’t know about that.”
“Have you located your missing piece of jade?” The third person turned to face me. It was Sarah.
I pulled up a wicker chair beside them and nodded my greeting to Sarah. “The answer is yes, in a way.” I paused, looking from one expectant face to the next.
“And you’ve recovered it and your employer is overjoyed?” Gus added.
I took a deep breath. “I’m really not sure I should be telling you any of this. In fact my employer would probably be furious, but I do need to discuss this with someone, and you’re the wisest women I know.”
“We shall remain silent as the grave.” Sid gave Gus a grin.
“Well, this is how things stand,” I said. “It turns out that the missing prized possession was not jewelry after all. It was a woman whom he had imported from China to be his concubine.” Then I related the whole story, ending with her daring escape across the rooftops. They were suitably horrified and angry.
“We must rescue her instantly,” Gus said as she handed me a glass of lemonade.
“But what are you going to do with her?” Sarah asked. “If this man is powerful among the Chinese community, is it wise to incur his wrath? They are ruthless people, you know, and he may well seek vengeance.”
“What, come as far as Greenwich Village to gun us down?” Sid didn’t seem overly concerned.
“Probably send an emissary to do so,” Sarah said. “We’ve had dealings with the Chinese at the settlement house and we’ve received awful threats when a prostitute manages to flee from one of their brothels and comes to us. In fact we’ve a young woman with us now. She escaped from a Chinese brothel.”