“Same as usual.”
“Are your friends doing all right? Taylor? Nikki?”
“Screwed up, as usual.”
“Then what do you feel low about?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Paul and me? Is that bothering you? Do you want to-”
“Things were easier before. It’s more tangled up now. I want to get to know my dad better, but he’s so far away and I live here with you. I want to stay on your good side, but you don’t like my friends. You need me, so does he.”
“I do need you, Bob.”
“But he needs me in a different way. You need me to stay your little kid.”
“But, Bob, you
“Sometimes. Sometimes I’m a man.”
“What?” Nina said. She was too tired to deal with that one.
“G’night.” He closed his eyes.
“Good night, honey.”
She managed to brush her teeth and throw water on her face before climbing into bed. Could it possibly still be Monday? She checked her watch, the modern curse, again.
No. Tuesday had arrived. Maybe she’d get a chance to breathe.
But then she remembered what T-Bone Walker said about Stormy Monday:
11
P AUL PROPELLED A LEG from the Mustang and then a small Styrofoam cup full of espresso he was holding, lid askew. Then the rest of him slid out and straightened up. Not one drop spilled, not that the asphalt of the Starlake Building parking lot would have suffered. The air had that peculiar late-summer Sierra quality of being both crisp and warm at the same time. He checked his watch, saw that it was one minute to nine, and leaned back against the car, planning to spend the entirety of that minute with his face turned to the sun and his eyes closed.
A large indeterminate-model brown car-who made brown cars and why did anyone buy them?-pulled up sedately beside him. Wish Whitefeather was in the driver’s seat and Sandy sat in the passenger’s seat, spine straight, purse in her lap. Paul saw with a small start that both Wish and his mother had the same profile, strong brow ridge and nose, beetling brows. As Wish turned off the ignition, they both turned toward him. Sandy said, “It’s you.”
Paul bowed and opened the door for her. “And how is my favorite Washoe maiden?” he said.
“Don’t think that’s gonna gain you any points.” Sandy gathered her coat around her. Paul had noticed that she often wore her coat outdoors, even on warm summer days. Heaving herself out of the car, she brushed out the coat crinkles and adjusted herself while Paul shut the door. “Well, speak up,” Sandy demanded. “How was the drive?”
“Long. I wish a big earthquake would come and cram the coast against the mountains so I wouldn’t have to drive so far.”
“You could always move here,” Sandy said. Paul smiled and thought he detected a faint thawing of her expression in return.
“How you doin’, buddy?” he said to Wish, who had carefully locked up and was following them toward Nina’s office. Wish was still a sloucher, too tall for the rest of the world and trying to blend in. He wore his straight hair longer these days and a loose black sweater contributed an illusion of broad shoulders. At age twenty, he was starting to settle into himself without any of the jaded irony of his fellow MTVers. Paul liked that, liked his straight-up enthusiasm and naivete, but had to stay watchful when Wish rode with him.
“Real good. Been hiking a lot. Goin’ to school. Gave the van a paint job.”
“You did? What color?” The van had once been Paul’s.
“Brown.”
“Hmm.”
“Then you don’t have to wash it so much.”
“So Nina talked you into helping out for a few days?”
“I only have three classes this semester, and a pretty flexible schedule. I wouldn’t miss out for anything. Mom says Nina needs help.”
“I never said a thing,” Sandy said.
“You don’t have to say it, Mom. I knew it the minute you told me to get up early and come to the office with you. Don’t worry, Paul, you got backup now.”
“I feel better already,” Paul said.
They went into Nina’s office and Nina called from the conference room, “In here.” She shut the law book she had been reading when she saw him, looking relieved. New strain lurked in her eyes and she’d forgotten the mascara that morning, a sure sign that the night had not gone smoothly.
She got up. Paul came around the table to give her a hug and a kiss while Sandy and Wish hovered back in the outer office. Nina’s soft brown hair swung around her face, smelling like a rain forest, and he rubbed her back through the silk blouse and inwardly cursed her high IQ. Once in a guilty while, a dull-normal version of Nina who didn’t have any significant problems or complexity held real appeal. He was not proud of these thoughts; they were as involuntary as the sexual response she aroused when she brushed her hair against his cheek. Lucky for him, she couldn’t see into the dull-normal corner of his mind or she wouldn’t be looking at him so kindly.
“Thanks a lot for coming,” she said. “I know it isn’t easy for you to get away.”
“Couldn’t let you down.”
“Hey, Wish. It’s good to see you.”
“At your service,” Wish said, stopping just short of a courtly bow. “I can’t wait.”
When they were all settled around the long table with their notepads, instead of launching into discussion, Nina did a strange thing. She picked up the cordless phone and punched numbers, a finger touching her lips.
“Dr. Mai?” she said a moment later. They could only hear her side of the conversation. “How are you? Uh huh. Yes, I have some news. We are settling the insurance amount at two hundred ten thousand as Kao instructed through you. Yes.” She paused, then said, “That’s why I’m calling. Right. I’ll have the check this afternoon. But there’s a problem.
“A problem, right. I can only turn the money over to Kao Vang and his wife. I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to find him and bring them up here. Well, you’ll just have to. No, I won’t turn the money over to you. I know you have the power of attorney. I can’t accept it. I regret that I am unable to accept it.”
Her pause this time lasted quite a while. Then she said, “I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is. I am not going to go into my reasoning at this time. I’m going to hold the check until my clients are available. Dr. Mai? Dr. Mai, listen to me. Where is Kao?”
She raised her eyebrows and set down the phone. “He hung up. He’s angry. I wanted you all to hear me withhold that check,” she said. “It may be legal malpractice, but I had to do it. Now let me back up and tell you about the Vang insurance case. Then I would like to know if you think I just did the right thing.”
She told a succinct story of Kao Vang in five minutes. For once, she had not prepared the usual written case summaries for them, she just laid things out, ending with, “And that’s the first file that’s missing. I have two hundred ten thousand dollars that belongs to Kao Vang that I am picking up from the insurance company this afternoon, and I am not going to go through an intermediary like Dr. Mai no matter how many powers of attorney are thrown at me. So. I’d like to hear your thoughts.”
“I don’t get why,” Wish said immediately. “Dr. Mai wouldn’t steal the file, would he? He already knew everything because he was there with your client all the time. So why don’t you trust him?”
“Good question. I only know one thing. Over the weekend, I lost touch with my clients and that doesn’t feel right. I have to know the Vangs are all right. I have to see that for myself, not take anyone else’s word for it. And once I hand that check over to Dr. Mai, I will never see him or the Vangs again.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because they never wanted to come to a lawyer in the first place, Wish. They aren’t comfortable with this system and they don’t particularly trust me, I would guess. They want to fade into the woodwork, maybe leave the country. That’s fine, but with the file missing and Kao unwilling or unable to talk to me, I have reached a degree of discomfort or concern that is going to prevent me from handing over that check even to an authorized represen- tative.”
Wish scratched his head. “You mean you have a gut feeling things aren’t right?”
Nina said, “You got it, cowboy. Did someone call someone else with information that was in my file? The guy who robbed his store, the one Kao shot dead-did someone in his family steal my file to get at Kao? Is Kao in danger? Is Dr. Mai legit?”
“What do you think is wrong?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been doing some reading about the Hmong. They’ve had a hard time adapting to this country, and with California cutting off welfare benefits after two years, Hmong people are going hungry. The violence in their own country left many of them with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Hmong men sometimes just die in their sleep for no known reason. It’s called sudden adult death syndrome, and the medical guess is that severe and unremitting stress causes it. The women have their own set of problems. They usually take care of big families and do the whole second-class citizen thing, walking five steps behind the men. That doesn’t work too well when there’s no man to walk behind, for instance.”
Sandy said, “But they need that money. And withholding a client’s money is an absolute no-no, isn’t it? I thought Dr. Mai was all right.”
“Maybe he is all right,” Nina said. “Maybe he’s trying to help the Vangs. Maybe I’m causing them a big problem. I can’t help that if they won’t talk to me directly.” She firmed up her jaw.
Paul said, “I hark back two days to our talk with Jack. Remember? He said the state bar problems usually have to do with money disputes. Have you talked to him about this? You could just pass on the check, avoid any question of malpractice, and flourish the power of attorney if Dr. Mai steals the money. You would be protected.”
Nina waved her hand. “True, the power of attorney seems to be legitimate. Paul, would you pay out the money in these circumstances? Did I do the right thing morally? Totally aside from the fact that I’m exposing my own rear end.”
Paul sighed and said, “Of course you did, honey. You have Mai’s address in Fresno? I’ll follow up for you.” She smiled and gave it to him. Paul went on, “I need to look at this large claim you put together. Maybe there’s some information hidden in a receipt or supplier’s note about where the Vangs live.”
“Very little of the supporting documentation is in English.”
“Can we have it translated?”
“That’ll take too much time, Paul. I can’t hold the check for very long. Here are the police reports that detail the original robbery and shooting, the second attempt when Kao killed the robber, and the arson. These reports will tell you all I know about Kao Vang’s enemies. But first, obviously, you need to try to talk to Dr. Mai.”
