'Less she got lot of cash.'
'Un huh. You and Vinnie see you can find her,' I said.
'She could be with somebody else,' Hawk said.
'If she is, find them too,' I said.
'Don't do anything. Just locate her and let me know.'
'Sure. You going to the movies?'
'Lonnie Wu is missing,' I said.
'His wife is here in the office.
I'm going to help her find him.'
Hawk was silent for a long moment on the phone.
'Maybe Lonnie with Jocelyn,' he said after a while.
'Maybe so,' I said.
Hawk was quiet again.
Then he said, 'This the silliest thing you ever got me involved in.'
'Without question,' I said.
'Maybe the Death Dragons won't bother you,' Hawk said.
'You with Mrs. Wu.'
'I'm not worried about the Death Dragons,' I said.
'At least I know where I stand with them.'
'No small thing,' Hawk said, 'in Port City.'
CHAPTER 47
It was the gang kids that found Lonnie Wu. In the bird-watching pavilion out across the causeway on Brant Island Road, where I had stood in the darkness watching the ghostly Asians immigrating.
When Rikki and I got there, only two of them were around, leaning against a black Firebird with chrome pipes and silver wings painted on the hood. Neither one looked old enough to drive.
They spoke to Rikki in Chinese and nodded toward the pavilion.
She took my arm as we walked toward it.
Lonnie was there. Crumpled in the corner, his back propped against the low railing, his feet stuck straight out in front of him, his argyle socks looking forlorn. You don't have to have seen many corpses to know one when you see one. I heard Rikki's breath go in sharply and felt her hand tighten on my arm.
'No need to look,' I said.
She didn't answer, but we kept going until we were standing right above him, looking down. He was facing west, his back to the ocean, and the early afternoon sun hit him full in the face. Before Lonnie died, someone had beaten hell out of him. His nose was broken, one eye was closed. His lip was so swollen it had turned inside out, and several of his teeth were missing. There was dark blood soaked into the front of his shirt. Rikki stared down at him for a moment, then turned away and pressed her face against my chest. I put my arm around her. Several herring gulls swept in on the wind and settled on the pilings of the causeway, reorganizing their feathers as they landed. Road kill was road kill to them. They didn't make fine distinctions.
'Do you have a friend that you could stay with?' I said to Rikki Wu.
With her face still pressed against my chest, she shook her head no.
'Family?'
'My brother will come.'
'Okay,' I said.
'I'll ask you to sit in the car for a minute or two and then we'll go back together.'
She made no reply, but she didn't resist when I turned her and walked back to the Mustang. The two kids looked at me blankly.
They made no finer distinctions than the gulls.
'Either one of you speak English?' I said.
The smaller of the two wore an oversized Chicago Bulls jacket.
He smiled widely. The other one, taller but just as frail, with his long hair blown forward by the wind, showed no expression at all.
'Dandy,' I said and went back up the causeway. I heard the doors open and close on the Firebird and then it started up and roared away. Who could blame them. No reason to hang around.
They didn't work for Lonnie Wu anymore.
I squatted on my heels beside Lonnie's body. I didn't like it, but there was no one else to do it. I felt inside his coat and found his holster on his belt near his right hip. The holster was empty. I looked for bullet holes or stab
