For starters, I’d like to question your runaway bride. Why don’t you come back with me and you can give me her particulars and tell us how far you’ve got on the search.”
He’d phrased it as an invitation, but it really was a command.
“You’d better come along to take notes, O’Byrne,” the captain added. “And I want the missing servants found. Houseboy and cook, wasn’t it? And I gather there are usually bodyguards outside his place. Where the hell were they? They’ve run off too. Get to it, Hanratty, and spread the word that these men are our main suspects if they don’t show up immediately. The rest of you keep the crowd away. Ask if anyone saw him fall, or saw anything at all. Not that I’m hopeful that anyone will come forward, but we can try. Oh, and make sure someone comes to get me the moment the doctor and photographer arrive.”
He shoved his way back through the crowd, clearing a path for me. While he had been giving his orders, I had been taking a long look at the corpse and I’d noticed something else. I moved closer to Captain Kear. “He’s got a wound on one side of his head,” I said, this time in a low voice so that nobody else could overhear. “He couldn’t have received that during the fall.”
“He could have hit something on the way down,” Kear said.
I looked up at the building. There was a succession of balconies, but they didn’t project in any way; in fact his descent would have been smooth and swift.
“I think somebody killed him first,” I said, “or at least knocked him out.” Even as I said it I could hear a voice in my head yelling at me to shut up. If he was lying where he landed on the street, then there was the possibility that he tripped and fell, however strangely he had landed. If, on the other hand, he had a large dent in one side of his head, then it was obvious that somebody knocked him out before throwing him over the edge.
“I’d keep that to yourself if I were you,” Captain Kear muttered. “For the moment the official line on this is going to be accidental death. If I get word that On Leong is going to blame it on Hip Sing and we’re about to be back in a full-flown tong war, then I’ll have to come up with a suspect pretty damn quick.”
I had observed that he was not toning down his language in the presence of a lady. This surprised me until I realized that he was not treating me like a lady. I was a detective, a professional. That made me feel a certain sense of satisfaction.
We turned the corner back into Mott Street with Constable O’Byrne leading the way.
“Is it possible that it was committed by Hip Sing?” I asked. “I understand that Mr. Lee was very thick with On Leong.”
Captain Kear shook his head. “It doesn’t seem like their method of operation at all. Gunning down someone in the street, a quick stab in the back—that would be normal tong tactics, not a death made to look like an accident. They actually want the other side to know when they are killing someone. Besides, it’s in Hip Sing’s interest to keep the peace right now. They suffered far worse in the last round of violence than On Leong did. They need to build up to full strength again before the next round begins.”
“You think it will break out again?”
“Bound to. While you’ve got struggles for control of the Chinese community they’ll keep on at it until one side wins.”
“I understand that On Leong pays you to turn a blind eye to their activities,” I said. “What about Hip Sing?”
“You mentioned that before,” he said sharply. “Are you talking about bribes? Bribes are not allowed in the police department. Who told you that?”
“It was old Mr. Lee himself,” I said, realizing that once again I’d let my mouth run away with me and this wasn’t the wisest thing to say. “He said he had the police in his pocket.”
Captain Kear’s face was flushed. “Well, he might have made a donation to our benefit fund, in return for which we kept an eye on his businesses and saw that nobody robbed them or firebombed them, but that’s another thing entirely.”
So he’d just confirmed by his guilty bluster that Lee Sing Tai had been bribing the police—which might have given someone else a motive for killing him. What if Mr. Lee had threatened to spill the beans at police headquarters? It seemed to me that given the diverse nature of Lee Sing Tai’s business ventures, any number of people might have wanted him dead.
“And another thing,” Captain Kear said. “How the hell could Hip Sing gain entry to Lee Sing Tai’s home? He always had bodyguards lurking on the street nearby. He kept servants around him. They’d never have admitted a Hip Singer. The tongs always meet on neutral turf at the Port Arthur restaurant.”
I gave myself a facetious reminder never to go and eat there in case a gun battle broke out around me and I grinned. I suppose one has to make light in the middle of tension. But then I considered what he had just said.
“If Mr. Lee was sleeping on the roof, might it not have been possible to gain access from the roof of a nearby building?” As soon as I said the words I realized that once again I should probably have kept quiet. Now I was actually putting into his head a way to pin the crime on Bo Kei. And if he did, I couldn’t save her without admitting that I knew that she was safely in the settlement house. I’ve always liked to appear clever, I suppose, or at least to prove I’m equal to any man. It’s one of my failings.
He looked surprised. “You think that’s possible? That never occurred to me. You might be right. You hear that, O’Byrne. The young lady suggests it might have been possible to access the roof from another building.”
“Have to have been a darned good jumper,” O’Byrne said.
I knew it could be done, but this time I said nothing.
“Let’s take a look, anyway,” the captain said. He paused outside the Golden Dragon Emporium and looked up and down the street, which still remained unnaturally empty. “Where is everybody, for God’s sake?” he demanded. “O’Byrne, go and round up someone who can interpret for me. I want to question the old woman and also the servants when Hanratty brings them in. They’ll sure as hell all claim that they can’t speak English.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” the constable said, looking dubiously at all those closed and shuttered doors.
“Start with On Leong headquarters,” the captain said. “There has to be someone inside and they’d lose face if they didn’t come to the aid of a top man like Lee Sing Tai. Remind them of that.”
