perfectly made. He checked the bathroom, which was spotless and smelled of bleach. The room was sterile enough to host an organ transplant operation.
The crime scene investigator stepped from Wei Ling’s former residence in the storage room and looked around for any obvious photo shots he may have missed. He had been there an hour already, snapping through two hundred shots with the bodies and another hundred after they had been removed.
“Good afternoon, Captain,” the investigator said, finally speaking.
“Not for the two victims.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Give me the scoop. Tell me what I need to know.”
“Two victims in the infirmary. One Caucasian, the other Asian, all signs indicating that it was Lee Chang, though I have never met him.”
“I saw him in the body bag. It’s him.”
“Like I said, I never met him.”
“What’s in that room?” the captain asked, nodding in the direction of the storage room.
“It seems like a storage closet that has had a bed thrown in it. The room is pretty clean of evidence as far as the crime is concerned, less for the handcuffs. One bed, one side table, a trash can, a bed pan….”
“…handcuffs?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I would say that’s out of the ordinary. An empty infirmary and a bed in the storage closet with handcuffs.”
“A worker who was being punished?” the investigator asked noncommittally.
“Possibly,” the captain answered, suddenly concerned that he may have to explain the situation to someone outside of the comfort of his island.
“Where is the person who was in this room?”
“It looks like she left with the doctor.”
“The doctor? I thought the doctor was pulled off the beach a few weeks ago.”
“He was. A new doctor arrived from China sometime during the last week.”
“Where is he now?”
“We don’t exactly know. We’re trying to locate him. He was staying at a hotel in Garapan City. No one really seems to know much about him.”
“Has anybody notified next of kin for Lee Chang?”
“The housekeeper is upstairs. She made the call about thirty minutes ago.”
“Did she see anything?”
“She claims she was upstairs working.”
“Squeeze her a little. Make her cry if you have to. She knows something. Lee Chang wasn’t changing any bedpans himself.”
The captain thought as he looked around the crime scene. What a mess. As the crime scene investigator left the room, Captain Talua gave his parting remarks. “I have to check on something, but I want updates every thirty minutes. Phone, radio. Whatever.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 39
With Jake in the passenger seat, Tony drove the SUV down the last hundred yards of road and came to a halt in front of the police barricade. Two squad cars were parked at an angle, head-to-head, blocking the road and the main entrance to Chang Industries under the auspice of checking passing vehicles. In the last hour, traffic had amounted to one delivery truck that was turned away and now Jake and his three burly guests. Tony looked at the police and his natural aversion to blue flashing lights made him squirm in his seat.
Jake looked at the looming fence with its roll of razor wire running along the top and his lips puckered slightly. The description of Chang facilities as a prison went far beyond proverbial. Tony eyed the fence through the windshield and had a flashback of a federal vacation he had endured in New Haven, Connecticut, for getting caught with an eighteen wheeler full of stolen cigarettes.
“Jake, maybe we should come back.”
“It would be too suspicious. Besides, I didn’t just fly halfway around the world to get cold feet. We are U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. We haven’t broken any laws.”
“Yet,” Tony added. The Castello brothers sat expressionless in the back seat.
“We aren’t going to break any laws, Tony. Chang Industries cannot keep us from meeting this girl. This is not a prison. She is here of her own free will. If she decides she wants to leave, we are here to assist.” Jake held a folder in his hands with legal documents quoting every law that Lee Chang was breaking on U.S. soil, unlawful imprisonment at the top of the list. Tony and the Castello brothers were there purely as a show of force. A combined seven hundred pounds of persuasion.
Jake rolled down the passenger side window, nodding and smiling at the officer.
The elderly statesman of the Saipan Police Force was quick to try his rusty, ornery officer routine.
“Who are you?”
“Jake Patrick.”
“What are you doing here?”
“We had an appointment to meet with Lee Chang. These gentlemen are my business associates. Here is the invitation and our itinerary.”
Jake produced documents that would have made Lee Chang wonder if he had arranged the meeting himself. They were perfect forgeries, including an invitation on Chang Industries letterhead complete with the signature of the rapidly cooling Lee Chang.
“You are awfully young to be a businessman.”
“Well, Mr. Patrick you won’t be doing any business here today. A serious crime has been committed on the premises. Turn your car around and get out of here.”
Jake looked at the old officer who hadn’t been on a crime scene in nearly a decade and then looked at the activity on the grounds of Chang Industries. As Al would have said, the police presence was not a “positive development.”
“Sir. I can see you are busy, but it’s urgent that I see Lee Chang.”
“You’ll have to come back.”
“It’s important,” Jake said one more time.
“If it’s important enough, you’ll come back.”
The officer’s radio crackled and Tony jumped in his seat. Officer Moses cut off his radio and looked at Jake. “What are you waiting for? Move out.”
Tony stared straight ahead and waited for the nod from Jake, who was changing mental gears. His call several weeks prior to the Saipan police had proven fruitless. The Saipan Police were in a position to lie without impunity and he would never know the difference. He, quite simply, didn’t know if they were friend or foe.
The elderly officer gave him his answer. “Move your car or I’ll have you arrested for obstruction of justice and interfering with a police investigation.”
“Yes, sir,” Jake replied, throwing in a “thank you” for added politeness.
Tony looked at the flashing police lights in his rearview mirror and felt better with every foot of distance he put between the car and the scene behind him.
“What now?”
“We go to the hotel and check in. I need to make a phone call,” Jake said trying to keep some semblance of a plan. Al’s words and the sight of Chang Industries bounced around in Jake’s head. He tried to force them out.
