wounds. I saw none. I felt along his rib cage, I could feel some broken ribs. In one instance the fracture was compound. I felt myself grimace. Some of his fingers appeared broken. His flesh was cold, and he was stiff. His hair was tangled, and strands of it, stiffened by hair spray, stuck straight out at odd angles. He was so messed up it was hard to tell for sure, but probably the gulls had already been at him.
I stood and looked down at Lonnie's body. He was as far from China as he could get, on the eastern edge of the wrong continent, on the western edge of the wrong ocean. I looked out at the waves rolling uneventfully in from the horizon. They came a long way to this shore, but not as far as Lonnie had come, and nowhere near as far as he had gone.
I turned away and walked back down to my car and got in beside Rikki. She wasn't crying. She simply sat staring at nothing, her face composed, her hands folded in her lap. I started the car and let it idle.
'We should call the cops,' I said.
'No,' Rikki said.
'I will call my brother.'
'Eddie Lee?'
'Yes. He will take care of everything.'
'The body?'
'Everything.'
'So why didn't you call him in the first place?' I said.
'Why did you come to me?'
'I didn't want him to know,' she said.
'I didn't want him to know that my husband was gone. I didn't know what we'd find out. My brother doesn't, didn't, admire my husband. He thought he was shallow and vain. I didn't want to shame myself.'
'Your husband got to be the dai low here because he married you,' I said.
'Yes.'
'Might the tong have killed him?' I said.
'No. My brother is my brother. He would not allow anyone to kill my husband.'
'Even if he were disloyal to Kwan Chang?'
'My brother would not allow someone to kill my husband.'
'Someone killed him,' I said.
'It was not a Chinese person,' she said firmly.
I nodded and handed her the car phone. She dialed and spoke in Chinese while I turned the car and headed back toward town.
When Rikki got through I called Mei Ling.
CHAPTER 48
Two silent Chinese women had come to sit with Rikki Wu at her home, and I was alone with Fast Eddie Lee and Mei Ling in the office behind the restaurant. It was a small room with a rolltop desk and a computer on a roll-away stand. On the wall above the rolltop was a picture of Chiang Kai-shek in his generalissimo suit, the tunic buttoned tight at the neck.
Eddie was a solid old man, not very tall, but thick, with a round face and blunt hands. He had wispy white hair and there were liver spots on the bare scalp that showed through. He was wearing black pants and a white shirt, and he sat on Lonnie Wu's leather swivel chair with both feet flat on the floor and his hands resting on his knees. He looked at me without any expression for a while.
'You have the body?' I said to him.
He nodded.
'You speak English?' I said.
'Some,' he said.
'Better Chinese.' He turned his head slowly and looked at Mei Ling. She smiled and spoke in Chinese. He answered her briefly and then turned his head back slowly to look at me some more.
'You know what killed him?' I said.
He nodded. He spoke to Mei Ling.
'He says his doctor has examined Mr. Wu,' Mei Ling said.
'He was beaten to death.'
I nodded.
'Where's the body now?' I said.
Eddie Lee looked at Mei Ling. She translated. He answered.
'He says the body is being properly cared for.'
I nodded again. Eddie and I looked at each other some more.
