Blood Passage (9 page)

Billy, on the other hand, had been with Peter for a very long time. Peter had recruited him into his street gang, the Biu Ji Boys, when Billy was still in grade school and Peter was a teenager making a name for himself. He brought him along slowly. When Peter accepted responsibilities from the society, leaving the Biu Ji gang behind for others to run, he brought Billy with him and gave him more important things to do than housebreaking and smashing store windows. He’d hoped that the young man was capable of living up to his expectations, but now Peter had serious doubts.

“
I’ve seen him before,” Billy said. “He’s an older guy, brown fuzzy hair. Big guy. Can’t remember his name. I’m pretty sure he’s in homicide now but used to be in juvie. Been around a long time.”

“
Homicide,” Peter repeated. He wasn’t sure which cop it might be, so he made a mental note to ask his police insider. It didn’t follow that a homicide detective would show up at the hotel room of the student just because of the beating. There must be a connection to Martin’s murder. Perhaps Martin’s case had been re-activated.

Beating up the student had been a mistake, and Peter had already chastised Billy for it. He understood that Billy had acted with Peter’s welfare in mind, thinking the student belonged to the R Boyz gang and was looking to cause Peter trouble, but it was a mistake in judgment and Billy knew that now. Yesterday’s errand had been an opportunity to recover face, to bring the student back to Peter for a conversation. The student needed to explain why Peter’s name was written in the notebook taken from the knapsack, in addition to other things about his cousin Martin. The student also needed to explain his interest in Martin’s murder. Instead of recovering face, however, Billy had made things worse. He’d evidently been seen by a police detective and had fired a shot, then didn’t show up to explain to Peter what had happened. It was a fuck-up, and Peter was very unhappy about it.

Peter made a small gesture with his hand. The two men bowed and withdrew to the bar, where Yi shook out his newspaper and stared at them. They sat on stools and began to badger Wu for something to drink. Wu looked flustered and hung up the phone.

Peter looked at his iPhone. The race was over and an announcer was talking about something else. He touched the earbud in his pocket but did not take it out. He needed to think things through. His search for the killer of Martin Liu had been fruitless until last November, when his cousin’s little boy had started talking about things he could not possibly know. The boy said two men had hurt him, and Peter had asked his police contact to follow up on the names for him. There had been nothing. Now, however, it appeared the police might have re-activated the investigation.

Peter had wasted time thinking that Martin had been killed during a power struggle between Lam Chun Sang, the current leader of the local Triad society, whose title was
Shan Chu
, or Dragon Head, and Philip Ling, a prominent member of the society who had opposed Lam. At the time, Peter was in the process of consolidating his position as
Hung Kwan
, or Red Pole, the enforcer of the society, and had assembled a very tough group around him. The brotherhood was in turmoil. The previous Dragon Head, Bernard Ho, was an ambitious but not especially bright man in his middle thirties who had become very rich smuggling counterfeit designer clothing and jewelry. Ho had spent a great deal of money getting himself elected Dragon Head. Unfortunately Ho had proven to be very weak and susceptible to influence, and his term had been marred by violence and infighting as several factions struggled for control.

The council that governed the business of the local society elected a new Dragon Head every two years. The Dragon Head functioned like a chairman of the council, overseeing the flow of business within the society, ensuring that the families of society brothers were taken care of, resolving disputes in a fair and appropriate way, even smoothing things over with law enforcement when necessary to minimize trouble for the brotherhood. The Dragon Head must not only be successful in his own right but also be someone who understood the traditional values of the society, values that included loyalty, integrity, trust and respect. Unfortunately Ho was more interested in money and popularity. His policies and decisions depended on whom he spoke to last, and often rival factions battled among themselves without realizing until it was too late that their conflict had been exacerbated by Ho’s duplicity. The uncles, the elders of the society, struggled to maintain their temper until Ho’s term stumbled to an end.

Once Ho was gotten rid of, the uncles insisted that one of them must step in to restore order to the brotherhood. Infighting was too bitter and deep-rooted to allow someone from one side to take control of the society to the detriment of their opponents. Lam Chun Sang agreed to come forward from among the uncles as a candidate. Known as Uncle Sang, he exerted a great deal of pressure on the brotherhood to fall into line behind him and ultimately won the election. Philip Ling was one of the most vocal of the dissenters among the brotherhood and refused to withdraw his own candidacy, but his supporters soon saw the wisdom in quietly acknowledging their loyalty to Uncle Sang. After Uncle Sang won the election, Peter’s job as Red Pole was to bring the rest of the troublemakers into step. Philip posed the greatest challenge, as he continued to cause a great deal of trouble for Uncle Sang after his defeat, especially among the elders in Hong Kong. He refused to listen to reason, insisting that the election of an uncle as Dragon Head violated the traditions of the society. Ultimately it was judged necessary to eliminate him from the equation altogether.

First Peter had one of Philip’s lieutenants killed as a warning that Philip should leave. The idea was that he should sell his business interests and his home, pack up his wife and children and whatever possessions he wanted to keep, and move away. It was a drastic step, as the brotherhood hated violence among themselves, but there seemed to be no alternative.

Unfortunately, Philip did not take the hint. Instead, he killed one of Uncle Sang’s nephews in retaliation. Peter did not hesitate. He picked up Philip’s security detail, a group of five men, and shot them all. Himself, personally, in a riverfront warehouse leased by one of Philip’s businesses. He could have delegated it to his men, but his strong loyalty to Uncle Sang made him very angry at Philip’s defiance, and the killing of the nephew was the last straw. Philip’s home was burned and his wife and children were taken and bundled off to Hong Kong. Isolated, Philip lashed out, wounding one of Peter’s men in a gun battle along the river. The next day Martin was found dead in the alley, and the dressing of the scene with heroin and syringes made Peter immediately think of Philip, since one of Philip’s business interests was a distribution network for heroin.

Peter spread the word that Philip Ling’s life was forfeit. Philip went into hiding and eventually surfaced in Hong Kong. Peter traveled there to find him. Philip disappeared again, perhaps to the Philippines, and Peter returned to the United States. Shortly thereafter Philip returned to America and made an attempt on Peter’s life by hiring one of Peter’s own men, Foo Yee, to kill him. Foo told Peter about it. Peter caught Philip by pretending to be Foo coming around to pick up his payment for the dirty deed. Peter worked very hard to force a confession from Philip that he was responsible for Martin’s death. Philip denied it to the very end. His last words, forced through bloody lips, were:
I don’t know who that is
.

Wasted time. While the real killers of Martin went free.

Now his cousin Grace’s little boy was saying crazy things about having been Martin in his previous life. He knew things about Peter that he should not know. He was only three years old; how would he know these things? Grace swore she never talked to the child about Peter. Or about Martin, for that matter. What to think?

Peter was ready to believe what the child was saying. He had begun a search for Shawn and Gary, the two men the boy said had hurt him. He asked his police contact to run the names in the system, but there was nothing useful. Then the university student showed up. Peter wanted to know everything the student was finding out. However, now that the police were apparently involved again in the investigation of Martin’s murder he was thinking it might be best if Grace and Taylor no longer dealt with them. He needed to find out the name of the cop. He also needed to talk to Grace, to tell her that little Taylor should be kept quiet. Grace should not talk to the police or the student, and Taylor should definitely not talk to them. He must go and see her right away.

He must make sure that she would stay quiet.

Peter chewed on his lower lip irritably. The renewal of the search for Martin’s killers was taking time from his primary responsibilities. Uncle Sang had ordered him to investigate rumors that someone was doing business with outsiders in a way that was detrimental to the society. The fact that these rumors had come to the attention of the council via Hong Kong only made it worse. Dealing with outsiders was not forbidden
per se
, but if it was against the interests of the brotherhood it was a violation of the thirtieth oath and punishable by death. Diverting revenue that should benefit the families of the brotherhood was construed by the Dragon Head as just such a violation, and it was Peter’s job as the Red Pole to enforce the oaths and punish violators. It was not up to him to make value judgments, merely to find the wrongdoers and deliver their punishment.

Peter had talked to a few people and everyone swore they knew nothing about anyone doing anything irregular. Idiots. But he had deliberately started with the individuals he had known to be fools, in order that word might spread throughout the society that Peter Mah was looking into things. Hopefully fear would make the guilty party careless and therefore easier to catch. However, even if the traitor were intelligent and brave, Peter would catch him anyway.

He was very good at his job.

Very good indeed.

“
What’s up with you and driving?” Karen glanced over as she changed lanes and accelerated into a hole in the heavy traffic ahead of them.

“
Not sure what you mean,” Hank said, watching the pedestrians along the street.

“
Sure you do. You never want to do the driving.”

“
I prefer to be a passenger. Get to see more stuff.”

“
Do you even
have
a driver’s license?”

“
Of course I do.”

Karen grunted. “Not that I care, mind, because I’d rather drive, but it gets me curious.”

“
Don’t ask dumb questions.”

“
Okay, okay.” She lifted a hand from the steering wheel in surrender. “Driving’s a control issue and I wouldn’t have thought you were the passive type.”

“
Control issue. Passive type.”

She shrugged. “Guys in law enforcement are almost never passive types. Even Waverman makes a big deal about being in the driver’s seat and who all sits where and who can roll down the window and who can’t. He’s got a control-oriented personality on top of being a wiener. But you ride everywhere. You scrounge rides or pay for a taxi. I don’t get it.”

“
I like to look around,” Hank said again. “Somebody else stares at the bumper ahead of us while I check out what’s happening around me.”

“
Mmm.” Karen lifted her eyes from the car ahead of them to glance right and left. Then she sighed. “So is Duncan completely nuts, or what?”

Hank filled her in on what Josh had told him. He described the video clips he had watched, he went over the family connections and he finished with Peter Mah.

“
Nobody mentioned a Triad connection to the Liu killing,” Karen said.

“
Yeah, I know. It didn’t come up. Joe didn’t say anything about it, and I didn’t see anything in the book about it.”

“
Well, no offense, Lou, but the investigation was a little superficial, don’t you think?”

“
It was a busy time,” Hank said, “but I guess he was satisfied with the way it appeared. It looked like a drug deal gone bad.”

“
That how you saw it?”

Hank looked out the window. “No,” he said finally, “not when I think back. I remember thinking that what I was seeing didn’t jibe with the story. The drug stuff was supposed to suggest he’d been trying to work a sale and got beat up and shot for trespassing, but it was clear from the evidence he’d been shot somewhere else and transported there. Which made the drug sale narrative bogus.”

“
And so?”

Hank shrugged. “It was Joe’s case, he had the lead. I was busy with other stuff. Then after he left it got sent to Cold Case along with his other open files. One of those things.”

“
So now we’re driving all the way out to Springhill to check on the story of a concussed student who thinks some little kid knows about a murder that happened before he was born. This’ll be good, huh?”

“
I’m curious,” Hank said, twisting in his seat to stare at her. “How does Sandy put up with your sarcasm and heavy attitude?”

“
He thinks it’s a major turn-on.”

“
Oh, wait, his mouth is just as trashy as yours, isn’t it?”

“
Not as. Feds have to have a little more polish than your average city cop.” Karen’s boyfriend, John “Sandy” Alexander, was a field agent with the FBI’s local office. So far, the relationship had lasted for two years.