“They didn’t know they were telling us. My friend pretended not to speak Chinese. They provided a translator — and then they spoke with complete freedom in front of us.”
“Oh.” He smiled at her, admiring. She had guts. “Your friend is Chinese? Or Western?”
“Half,” she said.
“Ah. A woman?”
“A man.”
“I see.” He looked Maggie over again. Maybe this was the reason for the lift of spirit he had noticed when she walked in. Good. He would like to see her get her soul back. Why? he wondered. Maggie was not really his friend. He had liked her when he met her three years before, but that was because she came with Matt, and Matt had become his friend in the course of the all-night rambles that had taken them to the very edges of what the Chinese called the guiding, the fixed rules. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secrets, Carey had said to him. Naturally this meant he might someday have to lie to Matt’s wife, but since he didn’t know her back then, it was easy to promise. Now Matt was gone, and he was helping the wife — of course. It was his job. Shi wo yinggai-de, he thought, one of the first simple Chinese expressions he had learned, It’s what I should do.
He opened the file in front of him, slid the permissions into it. In the beginning and the end, he was a lawyer. He was always grateful for the way structure held things together. He drew out a sheet he’d prepared.
“I think you’ll feel better once you see this,” he said. “Maybe you’re right and there’s only a half-half chance the girl is his, but let’s just say she is. I figured out that your exposure isn’t as high as you think. Matt left you the house, right?”
“Yes — ”
“I hope you don’t mind that I looked all this up. It wasn’t hard. The firm handled the will, after all. So — the life insurance was enough to pay off the house. And you did that. Right? That’s what it says here. Paid off the house.”
“Yes — ”
“That means you’re in good shape. If you hadn’t paid off the house, I’d be worried. Where you’re exposed is in what’s liquid. See? Your primary residence is off-limits. So if everything he left you is invested there, you don’t have to worry, no matter what happens. They can’t touch it.”
“The house,” she said.
“Right.”
“I sold the house.”
A silence. “But you bought another,” he answered. It was one of those hopeful statements that stops just short of being a question.
“No.”
“Then where do you live?”
“A little place I rented.” How little, she knew he couldn’t imagine, so she left it at that.
“Where’s the money?” he said.
“In cash.”
His voice tightened up. “Then you can lose half of everything.”
“Clearly,” she said. “But first of all, that’s only if she’s his daughter. And if she’s his daughter, why is that losing? She should have it.”
“Half of everything? In cash?” He withdrew the spreadsheet and put it away, realizing she wasn’t even going to look at it. “I can’t believe you’re saying that.”
“Well, I am.”
“Am I wrong? Or do you sound like you actually wouldn’t mind a match from the lab too much?”
“It’s not like that. Some things you don’t get to mind or not mind. They just are. Maybe that’s what’s changed — I met Shuying. She’s not theoretical anymore. She’s a kid. If she’s Matt’s, I’ll take care of her. I can’t believe you’d even suggest I do anything else.”
He bristled faintly in response. “There are degrees, you know. Anyway. Maybe she’s his. And maybe she’s not. If she’s not, that’s it. We get rid of the claim and we’re done.”
“And Shuying?”
“Then Shuying is not our problem. They file against the other guy. At that point it’s none of your business.”
“What if they need help doing that?”
“Maggie,” he reproved her.
“I don’t want the kid left out in the cold.”
“Stop. Get the test back. Then we’ll talk.”
“All right,” she said, “but only for now. Until I hear.” She rummaged in her purse and came up with the newspaper clipping. “I brought this to show you. Did you ever see it? It was in the news after Matt died.”
Carey looked at it and felt his heart contract. There was Matt, the man by whose side he had prowled the magical night and returned, again and again, to the rigor of day. There was Matt on the ground,