she’d fled and certainly wouldn’t have the strength to kill a man and hurl him down to the street.”
He paused long enough to take this in; then he said, “We need to find her anyway. Maybe she can shed some light on this business.”
“She’s been gone a week now,” I said. “She could be anywhere—miles away.”
“When O’Byrne gets back, he can take down her particulars. And we have her photograph downstairs. We’ll put out a bulletin for her. It should be easy enough to spot a Chinese woman. Not too many of them in New York, are there?”
“If she hasn’t already left New York,” I said.
“Then someone will have spotted her on a train. We’ll find her, don’t you worry. Ten to one she paid someone to do the dirty deed for her—those bigger footprints, maybe.”
“Paid someone? She’d just arrived from China. How would she have gotten her hands on any money?” I demanded.
“Stole it from the old guy. Stole something and pawned it.”
“I’ve already tried all the pawnshops,” I said. “She hasn’t pawned anything.”
“You’re a thorough little thing, I’ll give you that,” he said. “Too bad you’re not a man. I could use you at the precinct.”
“You already have some female detectives,” I said. “Mrs. Goodwin is a friend of mine.”
“They are just glorified matrons,” he said. “They might be useful at times, but the last thing we want is women on the force.”
I was wise enough not to pursue this subject. Captain Kear and I were not going to see eye to eye about women.
“Where the devil is O’Byrne with that interpreter?” he snapped. “Surely he can find one damned person who can translate for us?”
Again I was about to chide him for his offensive language in front of a woman, but thought better of it. I had been so used to Daniel, who always watched his language in front of me and apologized if he uttered a curse word by mistake. Clearly this captain was not Daniel’s equal in refinement or intellect. Standing on that windswept rooftop in this alien part of the city, a feeling of longing for Daniel swept through me. I was so glad this case was over and I wouldn’t have to deceive him when I saw him again.
Captain Kear had gone ahead of me to the stairwell and began to descend. I hurried to catch up with him. As we went down into the darkness, we heard feet coming up from the floor below.
“Ah, that will be O’Byrne now,” he said. “Up here, man,” he called. “Have you got us an interpreter yet?”
Instead we heard loud commands barked in Chinese and Bobby Lee’s face appeared, coming up the stairs toward us.
Eighteen
Bobby Lee recoiled in surprise when he saw the policeman.
“
“Hello, Bobby. Haven’t seen you around for a while,” Captain Kear said pleasantly. “I take it you haven’t heard the news yet?”
“News? What news? I just came from Brooklyn. Is this a raid?”
“No raid, Bobby. I’m sorry to have to tell you that Mr. Lee is dead.”
“What? How he die? Heart attack?”
“He fell from the roof.”
I was watching his face. He seemed shocked enough, but the moment I saw him, it struck me that he, of anyone, had a good motive for killing Lee Sing Tai. He might well be able to convince an American court that he was the rightful son and heir. And if the bride was returned to Mr. Lee and had produced a real son, then he’d stand to lose everything. As Frederick had pointed out, he could even be sent back to China.
“He fell from roof?” He shook his head violently. “Not possible. He don’t like heights. He would never go near the edge of roof. Never look down.”
“His bed is up there,” Captain Kear said. “Maybe he walked in his sleep and tripped over the edge.”
Bobby Lee considered this, then shook his head again. “Walk in sleep? No! He not fall,” he said. “Someone push him. Someone kill him. Hip Sing do this. They been waiting to get even.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Bobby,” Captain Kear said. “We don’t want to start another tong war unnecessarily, do we? If there’s out-and-out fighting, then your businesses suffer as much as theirs. And you’d be high on their list to be assassinated first.”
Bobby was scowling. “You are supposed to look after us. How this man get to my father, huh? How come police no see? He have servants. He have bodyguards. And his wife—what about wife? Or new bride? What does this bride say, huh? Ah, so. I see now. Maybe she kill him.”
“What makes you think that?”
“She don’t like it here. She don’t want to be his concubine. She want to go home.”
“His new bride is missing and until a few minutes ago we couldn’t get any sense out of the old wife,” Captain Kear said with a note of superiority in his voice.
“New wife missing? When this happen?” Bobby asked.
I realized with some satisfaction that Lee Sing Tai had kept this news from his paper son. Maybe wives were supposed to keep to their own quarters, so Bobby hadn’t noticed anything was wrong—which would make his
