Authors: Michael J. McCann
She found a series of links to articles published by Dr. Walsh on reincarnation, childhood memories of previous lives, near-death experiences and other things that they researched in Memphis. She began to read them, one by one, and was barely aware of Sandy coming in, kissing her on the top of her head, telling her he’d call tomorrow, and letting himself out of her apartment.
She needed to read.
She needed to understand this reincarnation stuff.
The next day was busy. When Hank finally found time to run ShonDale Gregg in the system in the afternoon he turned up the usual rap sheet for a muscle man with gang connections. It featured a number of arrests and a couple of convictions, one for assault. He’d done a short stint in prison. It was a typical record for a gang member known for intimidation.
Karen sat down at her desk and shook her head. “Nothing from Liu’s ex-girl friend. According to her, they weren’t that close and he didn’t talk a lot about himself. Didn’t talk at all about Mah.”
Karen and Waverman had gone out to Springhill to interview Susan Chong, Martin’s girl friend before his murder.
“
Waverman doesn’t like the way I drive,” Karen said. “Control issue, I guess.”
Hank laughed as his cell phone rang. He took it out, looked at the call display, didn’t recognize the number, and thumbed the button.
“
Donaghue.”
“
Hello, Lieutenant Donaghue? This is Michael Chan speaking.”
“
Dr. Chan, how are you?” Hank looked at Karen, who stopped what she was doing to listen.
“
Fine, thank you,” Michael replied. “Uh, listen, I wonder if I could talk to you about this whole thing with my son, Taylor.”
“
That would be fine, Dr. Chan.”
“
Please, just call me Michael.”
“
All right, Michael. What would you like to discuss?”
“
Frankly, some of the things my son is saying have me concerned. I understand you and another detective met with my wife yesterday.”
“
That’s correct. Detective Karen Stainer.”
“
Right. You mentioned to Grace that the student, Josh Duncan, was hurt by associates of my wife’s cousin, Peter Mah. Anyway, I kept the business card you gave her, although I didn’t think there’d be any point in talking to you.”
“
But you’ve changed your mind, I take it.”
Michael sighed. “Taylor said some things this morning in the car that upset me. Things about this Martin Liu and who killed him. I called Grace about it and said we should reconsider talking to you. She seemed a little strange and then admitted her cousin Peter asked her not to involve the police any further, that it wouldn’t be in Taylor’s best interests. I’m not at all comfortable with that.”
“
I see,” Hank said.
“
I know where Grace is coming from, Lieutenant. You have to understand that Peter Mah has a very forceful personality and Grace is intimidated by him. But I’m not, and I won’t have him dictating to me what’s in the best interests of my son.”
Karen was writing something on a scrap of paper. She slid it over.
“
All right, Michael. What would you like to do?” Hank looked down at the scrap of paper.
Talk to the kid
.
“
I’m calling from my office right now,” Michael said. “Could you come out here to State and meet with me before the end of the day?”
“
We can be there in about forty minutes.”
“
Half an hour,” Karen said.
“
That would be fine,” Michael said, sounding relieved.
“
We’d like to talk to your son,” Hank said.
“
Okay. He’s in daycare right here on campus. I drop him off in the mornings and pick him up at the end of the day.” There was a pause. “I don’t think that would be a problem. If you want to meet me here in my office we could talk together before you see Taylor and then we could go over to the daycare.”
“
Sounds like a plan,” Hank said. “Detective Stainer and I will see you there.”
“
Thank you very much, Lieutenant.”
“
Our pleasure.”
They went downstairs and piled into the Crown Vic. Karen ripped out of the parking garage onto the street. On the expressway she relaxed her grip on the steering wheel and glanced over at him. “I’d really like to talk to this kid. I’ve been reading up on this stuff, Hank. It’s very weird.”
“
You’ve been reading up?” Hank repeated incredulously.
“
Stuff it, Lou. There are kids all over the world like this Chan kid. They start reading at two years old all by themselves, for cryin’ out loud, and they can describe places in other cities they couldn’t possibly have seen before. They can sometimes even speak a language nobody else around them speaks. You know, a little four-year-old kid spouting Turkish or Punjabi or some goddamn thing. It’s freaky.”
“
You
have
been doing your homework.”
“
Yeah, well, I like kids.” She frowned and tapped the bottom of the steering wheel with her thumbs. “But this is so far out in left field. I hate not understanding something right in front of me. These guys, this Dr. Walsh and the rest of them at the university who’re studying this stuff, they have a shitload of information on the internet. It’s pretty scientific. I mean, it’s not that New Age crap you see about inner enlightenment and great spirits or whatever the hell those idiots go on about all the time.”
Hank smiled.
“
They’re very scientific,” she repeated. “I admit it, it hooks you. I really wanna see those birthmarks.” She sighed. “It’s not something we can just up and ask him to show us out of the blue. The kid has a right to privacy and we can’t just tell his dad to pull down the kid’s drawers so we can take a look. I tell you, though, Hank, I really wanna see those birthmarks with my own eyes.”
“
I hear you.”
They reached the campus of State University and found their way to the building in which Michael had his office. Karen parked in the lot outside and, disdaining the meter on the sidewalk, tossed the police placard on the dashboard of the Crown Vic before following Hank inside.
They took the stairs up to the second floor and passed several classrooms before turning a corner and heading down a corridor lined with offices. Passing students flicked glances at them before looking away. They might as well have had
COP
tattooed on their foreheads.
“
What’s the office number again?” Karen asked, looking around.
“
You mean the fucking office number? Two-twenty six.”
She shook her head at him. “Don’t be so juvenile.”
Hank stopped at an open door and knocked.
“
Come in.”
Michael Chan rose from his chair and came around the edge of his desk toward them. It was a small, narrow office lined with bookshelves on both sides. There were two wooden chairs waiting for them in front of the desk.
“
Lieutenant Donaghue? I’m Michael Chan. Thanks for coming.”
“
Professor Chan.” Hank held up his badge and shook his hand. “This is Detective Karen Stainer.”
“
Detective.” Michael reached past Hank to shake Karen’s hand. She was holding up her badge but Michael didn’t seem to notice it. “Please,” he said, “sit down. I really appreciate you taking the time to see me. You can understand this has been very difficult for all of us.”
Hank and Karen sat down. Hank took out his notebook and pen. “I can imagine. You mentioned on the phone your son was saying some things to you that we should hear?”
Michael sat down and clasped his hands together on the desk in front of him. “That’s correct. We were driving in this morning.” He paused. “It was just before the off-ramp for Youland Boulevard, on the expressway. A black limo passed us. Taylor saw it and thought it was Peter.”
“
He thought it was Peter Mah’s limo?”
“
That’s right. He pointed to it and said, ‘Peter.’”
“
Does Peter Mah travel in a limo like the one you saw?”
“
To be honest with you, Lieutenant, I don’t know.”
“
Would Taylor have seen him in a limo like it?”
“
Again, I don’t know. We don’t have anything to do with Peter Mah, and when he does come around to our house, which is almost never, it’s always when I’m not home because he knows I don’t like him. So I’ve never seen what car he drives. Or is driven in, however it works with
them
.”
Hank heard the distaste in Michael’s voice. “Okay. Go ahead.”
“
Well, Taylor said he used to go for rides in that limo when he was Martin. And no, I don’t know if he’s ever ridden around with Peter, but I seriously doubt it. I can’t see Grace letting things go that far. Anyway, he went on to talk about going to parties with Peter in the limo and it having a bar and food in it and so on.”
“
Maybe he went for a little ride in it,” Karen said, “and Mrs. Chan hasn’t mentioned it because she knows how you would feel about it.”
Michael looked at her, compressing his lips in a visible attempt to control a surge of frustration. “Perhaps, Detective, but I doubt it. And from there it just got farther and farther afield. He started talking about one of his friends, someone named Johnny. No, Tommy.”
“
Tommy?” Hank said, writing it down. “He mention a last name?”
“
No, just Tommy. He said something about going to school with this Tommy, who was his best friend. I asked around at the daycare and there’s one boy named Thomas and the parents insist he be called that, Thomas, and Taylor doesn’t play with him at all, anyway.” Michael looked from Hank to Karen. “He doesn’t have any friends named Tommy. He takes swimming lessons with a kid named Timmy, but there’s no Tommy.”
“
Anything else?”
“
Yes. He talked about this Tommy being scared of Peter, that Peter sometimes hurts people and that Tommy was scared of him.”
“
Really.” Karen leaned forward.
“
I started taking notice at this point,” Michael told her, “because Taylor’s never shown any signs of being afraid of Peter before. Of course he’s not an approved topic of conversation around our dinner table, but just the same in the few times he’s spoken of Peter in my hearing there was never any negative emotion at all. This was quite unexpected.”
“
And it wasn’t that
he
was afraid of Peter,” Karen said, “it was that this Tommy was afraid of him.”
“
Correct. Peter was mad at him, or was going to be mad at him, or something. Then it got really bizarre. He said he knew what this Tommy was afraid of, and that he, meaning himself, should have told Peter about it. He said, ‘I should have told Peter about it because he trusted me.’”
Hank said nothing, writing. Karen waited for the rest of it.
“
You don’t seem to understand,” Michael said. “Taylor’s only three and a half. Trust is a concept we haven’t really discussed with him yet. It’s implicit in what we’ve told him about his caregivers, you know, if someone bothers him he should tell us about it right away, and so on, but we haven’t really used that word very much with him yet, especially in this context. That Peter would trust him, as in
rely
on him or
expect
him to speak up about something that someone else was doing.”
“
Maybe it’s something they’ve talked to the kids about at daycare,” Hank suggested. “You know, if someone comes along and bothers you, go right away to someone you trust and tell them about it.”
“
Maybe. I don’t know. But then he went on to say his other daddy, his real daddy, used to say to him that Peter was a criminal who should be put in jail.
Then
he said that I shouldn’t worry, Peter would never hurt him.
Then
, on top of everything else, he said this Tommy knows who murdered him when he was Martin.”
“
Oh?” Karen raised her eyebrows.
Michael spread his hands. “You see, Detective, each one of these things can have a simple explanation. Occam’s Razor, right? The simplest explanation that fits the known facts is usually the correct one. But put them all together, back to back like that, and then cap it off by saying we should tell the police that Tommy knows some guy named Shawn killed him when he was Martin, then I start to get a little bit upset.”
“
That’s understandable,” Hank said.
“
Having said that,” Michael went on, “the last thing I want to do is expose my son to a police investigation.”
“
We understand, Dr. Chan,” Karen said, “but the things your son’s apparently saying, and the fact that Josh Duncan was assaulted by associates of Peter Mah on Monday because of his research into your son’s case, are things we can’t completely ignore.”
“
I know.” Michael looked grim. “Can you tell me something? About your investigation?”
“
That depends on what it is,” Karen replied.
“
I never really knew Martin Liu at all, to speak of. He attended our wedding and I think I spoke to him once briefly at some gathering after that. Did he have a friend named Tommy?”