“Remember I talked to you about Mr. Brown, the private detective who’s trying to figure out who killed Mr. Monroe? Well, last night I heard,” she hesitated, “overheard him and my aunt, Mrs. S, talking about who might’ve done it.”
“Suspects!” Now Mick sounded really excited. “And they think a Chinaman did it?”
“Not Mrs. S, but the detective hinted around that he thought so.” She took a deep breath. “The music store where we live and my aunt works. There’s a Chinaman who works there, too. Repairing instruments and doing other stuff. His name is John Hee.”
Mick looked confused. “This Mr. Brown suspects him? Does he live down by the wharves around Mission Creek? Why doesn’t he live in Chinatown?”
“The music store has a warehouse down there. Anyhow, Mr. Brown was suggesting…” she was squirming a little now “…that maybe John Hee had something to do with Mr. Monroe’s death. But I’m with Mrs. S on this. I don’t think he did it.”
Mick looked doubtful. “I dunno. The stories I hear about Chinatown, and the tongs, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of them.”
“Well, Mr. Brown said he’s going to follow John Hee tonight and, I guess, try to find out more about him. So, Mick, you and me are going to follow them and see what’s up.”
“Into Chinatown?” He sounded really surprised now.
“Have you been there before?”
“Well, sure. The boys, you know, we go there sometimes on a bit of a dare. But you, you can’t go, you’re a girl.” He stopped. “Sorry, Antonia. I don’t mean no disrespect.”
“I’ve got a way we can do this,” she said, determined to say her piece. “And there’ll be two of us, and you’ll be with me, and no one will recognize me.” She thought of the men’s clothes she’d worn as a newsie in Leadville, when she pretended to be a boy. The clothes she’d snuck out of her storage room trunk and stuck under her bed to be ready for tonight.
She continued, “So, this is what we’re gonna do. What’s the name of your sister who’s in my class?”
“Who’s your teacher?”
“Persnickety Pierce.” She bit her lip. “I mean, Miss Pierce.”
He snorted. “Persnickety Pierce. That’s a good one. Did you make that up?”
She nodded.
“That’d be Katie.”
Antonia flashed on a redheaded girl with a face covered with freckles and two braids that always seemed about to unravel.
“She can be a bit of a prissy missy,” he added. He slowed to a stop and pointed. “See that two-story house about halfway down across the street with two girls on the stoop? That’s our place. My brother Daniel—he’s the street patrolman you met—lives on the top floor, with his missus and baby, and my ma’s sister and gran. The rest of us live on the bottom floor.”
Antonia noticed the house had flower boxes along the bottom windows, and looked clean and nice. Mrs. S, if she ever saw it, would approve.
She said, “Now let’s walk back toward the music store.” They turned around and headed toward Market Street. Antonia continued, “I’m gonna tell Mrs. S that Katie invited me to your house for dinner tonight. One reason I want to see your place is so I can say I walked there with her after school and it’s not far away.”
“Uh, this might be hard to get Kate to agree to. She’ll want to know what this is all about, and why you’re coming over, and—”
“I won’t be coming over,” said Antonia. “It’s a ruse.” She liked how the word ruse sounded. It sure sounded better than saying they were going to lie.
“And,” she continued, “you’re going to tell your parents that one of your friends asked you over for dinner, and that you’re gonna stay a while afterwards and help him with whatever you’re studying now in class.”
“Geography,” said Mick absently, his eyebrows creased in a frown. “So, you won’t be at my home having dinner, I won’t really be helping a friend with homework, instead we’ll be trailing a detective who’s trailing a Chinaman?”
“Right!” Antonia was proud of herself for coming up with this devious plan. “And since John Hee leaves work at six, you better come over at, say, five-thirty to walk me to your home for dinner.”
“Oh yeah?” He looked a little taken aback at that. “Why?”
“Well, Mrs. S isn’t gonna let me just waltz around downtown on my own after dark. But if she meets you—and I just know you can do all the ‘hello, ma’am, nice to meet you, ma’am’ proper talk—she won’t mind.”
“I can do that.” He looked down at his school garb. “If we’re going to be sneaking around Chinatown, I can’t wear this.”
“I have it worked out. Bring a rucksack with the kind of clothes you want to wear. If she asks, you can say it’s books or last minute groceries for dinner or something. But I don’t think she’ll ask you. Once we leave, I know a place right close by where you can change clothes. No one will know.”
“And what about you?” He looked her up and down, from her ruffled bonnet and lace collar to her plaid skirt and proper boots. “What are you going to do?”
She grinned. “Don’t worry about me. Once you’re changed, I’ll do the same. You’ll see.”
Once they got close, Antonia showed him the door next to the store, the one that led up to where they lived. “Just ring the bell. But don’t be later than five-thirty.”
Mick nodded and glanced up at the sky. “I’d better skedaddle then. I sure hope you know what we’re doing here. I don’t like lying to my parents. My da, he’s got a nose for liars.”
“Well, look at it this way. You are helping a friend…me! And it’s even with geography of a sort. You’re going to get us around Chinatown, and that’s something I sure couldn’t do on my own. It’ll be an adventure, Mick. And we’ll
