“He claims she’s working. I could check that out. I could keep harassing this guy, checking everything he says. But you know, I’m not getting the feeling that the wife has been kidnapped. This is not a straightforward extortion. It’s something, but I don’t know what. And the thing is, they don’t want us involved. We could be making things worse. It’s his money, right?”
He heard Nina sigh. “If he turns that money over to someone who is pressuring him, Paul-it’s his family’s future. It’s the difference between extreme poverty and college for their kids, a farm wherever they’re going-”
“At some point you have to do what he says,” Paul said. “I think we have to give him the check. Kao himself is asking for the money, that’s clear. Still, there’s the young girl. She’s a beautiful kid, Nina, you should see her. She was crying in the bedroom. I got one of those flashes you always talk about. That she is involved.”
“Where’s his son?”
“At school, I think.”
“Wonder why I never met his daughter. They brought their son to my office,” Nina said, mule-like, still balking at letting the money go.
“By the way, there was more than one robber,” Paul went on. “Mai let that slip.”
“So Kao lied to the police. Why would he do that?”
“No idea.”
“Someone dangerous is still out there and the police don’t know about it.”
“I would say very simply that Kao wants the money to return to Laos,” he said, “maybe because of the second guy. But that isn’t all of it. This young girl-”
He almost heard the decision being made during a portentous silence on the line.
“I’m not going to do it yet, Paul. I’ve got it deposited in my trust account, but I’m not going to write out the check yet.”
“So how do I wrap this thing for you? Make you feel like writing the check? What do I tell this angry client?”
“Just one more thing, Paul. Talk to Mrs. Vang and make sure she and her son are safe, too. She’s co-owner of the store. She’s my client, too. Just do that. Jack wants to talk about all this some more. I’d like to get his thoughts on this before then.”
“Find the wife.”
“Sorry, Paul. It sounds difficult-”
Back in the house he tried to put a happy spin on Nina’s decision. Yes, she would deliver the check just as fast as she could. Maybe even Monday, wasn’t that a happy thought? There was just this one teeny detail, he had to talk briefly with Mrs. Vang-
Kao hit the roof. He started shouting again and this time Dr. Mai couldn’t calm him down. Walking into Paul’s face, Kao poked his finger in Paul’s chest. Paul stepped back, telling Wish it was time to go, they’d be in touch. In perfect American English, Kao said, “Get out!” and herded them outside, hard fists at the ready. The door slammed, leaving the lot of them behind, the old man, the angry man, and the teenage Venus of Fresno.
“What now?” Wish said.
“Food,” Paul said.
16
A BOUT FOUR-THIRTY ON THURSDAY, Paul’s second call came in. Driving back from court in the nice clean Bronco, Nina had just passed the Swiss Chalet Restaurant on the left when she heard the ring from the purse lying next to her on the seat. A warm breeze pouring through the open windows made it hard to hear.
“Last report of the day,” he said. “We’re en route to the coast to get a line on Brandy’s fiance, Bruce, so I thought I’d give you the finals. First, Cody Stinson has been arrested for the murder of Phoebe Palladino, as I mentioned in my message this morning. Word is Mario Lopez will be released sometime this afternoon. Then there’s the Vang file. Mrs. Vang wasn’t too hard to track down. We met her at a fabric store in the suburbs, where she works. She says she has a new place.”
Stuck at a red light, Nina said, “New place? She’s not living with her husband?”
“No, she isn’t. That’s the key to everything. She’s moved out. She looked fine, by the way. No sign anybody was trying to extort from her. She says her kids are safe and well and I believe her.”
“You got a lot out of her. It sounds like she knows English better than I thought. But something major has happened?”
“Well, you were right and you were wrong about that. Before we left town, we talked with a chatty neighbor who is not Hmong. Found a few things out. The family has split up, but that doesn’t seem to have any connection with the lost file. It’s the settlement money. Here’s the story. Vang’s beautiful young daughter took up with a gang member by the name of Song Thoj who lived down here in Fresno. The Vangs lived at Tahoe at that time, and he spent a lot of time up there.”
“The man Kao shot!”
“That’s right. Kao found out about the relationship and locked up his daughter. The boyfriend couldn’t get to her, so he drove up to Tahoe one night with a gun and shot Kao.”
“Why didn’t they tell the police?”
“And ruin the daughter’s reputation? She’s only fifteen. She never could have married. They wanted to save face. That’s how Mrs. Vang explained it to me.”
“Poor Kao. And his poor daughter.” Green light. She drove on toward the office.
“So the parents carried on as well as they could, but Kao started packing a weapon. Sure enough, the boyfriend, Song Thoj, came back again to the store with another guy. This time Kao had to kill Song Thoj or be killed.”
“What was really going on in that store? Who was this second guy we’re hearing about for the first time? They didn’t tell the police about him.”
“Apparently, they found it useful to claim these were simply attempted robberies. Then the store was burned down, and I have the impression the second robber was suspected, at least by the Vangs, but they refuse to talk about him and so the complete story about what happened remains murky. The store’s burning broke Kao completely. All he wants is to get back to Laos somehow and save his daughter from this den of iniquity. Dr. Mai helped him make the insurance claim to get the ticket money.
“Meantime, Mrs. Vang has lived here long enough to undergo a revolution in her thinking. Turns out she’s an excellent seamstress. Hmong women are not supposed to work outside the home, but with the Blue Star situation, Kao had to let her. She’s been studying English and made some new friends, particularly a lady from El Salvador who works with her, a big influence. In short, Mrs. Vang doesn’t want to go back to Laos, and furthermore, she doesn’t want her children to go back. She wants her son and daughter to be American.”
“But Kao-”
“She says he’s stubborn. He won’t go to the cops for all the reasons mentioned, and he’s paranoid. She loves him but she says she won’t go with him. She says she’ll die if she has to go back to the old life. I have the impression that there is even more in their past-did you know the men often have several wives? I suspect that there may be another wife in Laos. Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be any solution except for the family to split up.”
“What about their kids?”
“The final decision hasn’t been made. Dr. Mai and a few of the senior members of the community are trying to mediate that. Mrs. Vang seems sure the kids will remain here.”
Nina said, “It’s tragic, Paul. It isn’t fair. They have had to go through so much.”
“One more twist,” Paul said over the phone.
“The money?”
“Right. Mrs. Vang didn’t know you had the check and didn’t know Kao was trying to collect the money without her cooperation. She didn’t say much about that, but I could see the information hit her hard. Evidently Kao figures he’s the head of the family, so he’ll take control of the money. Then he’ll pressure his wife into doing what he wants her to do.”
“But this is America,” Nina said, “and Mrs. Vang owned half their store. Half the money is hers.”
“That’s right.”
“Thanks so much for going the extra step, Paul. I never would have forgiven myself.” Nevertheless, Nina felt sad. The family had cracked. The insurance money couldn’t save them as a family. She couldn’t fix that no matter how hard she tried.
“None of this has anything to do with the file,” Paul insisted. “You had a gut feeling something was wrong and you made me look into it and we prevented a major injustice.”
Nina pulled into the Starlake lot and turned off the ignition. “I don’t expect to fix all the problems in the world. I just wish I could.”
“Take a step back,” Paul advised. “One more thing. I also went to the last known address of the boyfriend Vang shot during the second robbery attempt. It’s a dump under a freeway overpass. I was looking for information on the second robber. The people who live there now are from Alabama and never heard of the kid or his family. I think, since you knew nothing about a second robber, whoever has your file doesn’t know either, so there’s been no contact. I don’t think we need to worry that there’s danger coming from that quarter, and I couldn’t do any more on it today. We have two other files demanding attention, so I quit for now. Is that okay?”
Holding the phone to her ear, Nina walked into her building. She waved at the real-estate ladies in their office, walking all the way to the other end of the hall to her office, thinking: Was this new information enough to appease her gut-level worry about this case? How far could she go? She now understood Kao Vang’s demand for immediate payment. She didn’t like hearing that there was another loose end, a second robber even the police didn’t know about-but this could go on forever.
She was satisfied that the Vangs were safe and unthreatened. Her duty now was to give them their money and provide them that resource as they flailed around trying to solve their other family problems.
“Go on down to Palo Alto and turn that eagle eye to the campground case,” she said. “I’ll tear up the joint check and issue two separate checks, half and half, from my trust account, then have a courier deliver them to Mr. and Mrs. Vang separately on Monday. I just want more time to let things settle in my own mind. They’ll get their money. We can’t get involved any further. It’s already Thursday, so first day of business next week.”
“Good plan,” he said.
He knew she was delaying, but that was her choice. The jerky, sudden twists and turns of the case continued to make her apprehensive. She needed to sit on the information for the weekend and didn’t want to rush into something she would regret.
“Vang won’t be happy to be outfoxed by you and the wife.”
“Tough,” Nina said. “I understand. He’s been hurt. He feels the money is his because of his injury. He’s the father of the girl who precipitated all the problems and the head of the family. But the money can’t make up for all that. The money is for the business, which Mrs. Vang put her toil into, too. So we do this our way. Give me Mrs. Vang’s address.”
He did.
“Now, there’s a final issue. Who took the files.”
“Right.”
“Do you think, after you visit Palo Alto on the campground case, and after you interview Ali Peck up here on the Cruz case, that you could zero in on which of our three favorite people had means and motive, et cetera?”
