though I were the one whose On light wasn’t lit. “Because word must be getting around already! Before we even do the first job, we get another one. The customer’s happy, he tells other people, then the second customer’s happy, he tells more people, and there you go: the Chinatown White Eagles, Soldiers of Fortune.”
* * *
“The Chinatown White Eagles, what?” Mary couldn’t have sounded more incredulous if I’d told her they’d all taken Buddhist vows.
“I know. But doesn’t it sound like you should be keeping an eye on them?”
“You don’t know anything about this big score?”
“No, except they’ll never pull it off if they let Armpit anywhere near it. But I don’t think it’s as simple as robbing a jewelry store.”
“You said Mr. Chen’s name got a reaction.”
“Maybe he pays his protection money to the White Eagles, so Armpit knows him. I think Armpit really doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s a bad liar.”
“And you’re not going to make him find out about your break-in?”
I sighed. “It’s too risky. He’d be as obvious to his dai lo as he was to me. I don’t like the guy, but he is my cousin.”
“If we break this big score, I might have to arrest him.”
“Be my guest. I just can’t be the one who gets him killed.” She wasn’t happy, I could tell, but she was Chinese, so she got it. “I did keep some leverage. He’s really scared about the fingerprints, that the tongs will come down on the White Eagles and he’ll be blamed. So I promised I won’t use them for a while, assuming he gives me something useful at some point in the future.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
“I won’t. But it’s not a bad trade, since I don’t have fingerprints.”
“If the big score has anything to do with a jewelry shop, even if it’s not a burglary,” Mary thought out loud, “it’s got to be one the White Eagles shake down. They wouldn’t dare cross another gang, even if they were being paid.”
“That occurred to me, too. Can you find out which real estate is theirs?”
“Patino’s up on that, the maps and charts. And maybe I can get a line on one of these customers. I’ll see if anyone knows who’s been hanging around with the White Eagles’ dai lo. Or I could just pick him up.”
“Fishface Deng? And do what? He’d get a lawyer, you’d get nothing, and he’d know you know they have something big coming up.”
“I hate to just wait and let it happen.”
“I sympathize. But I’ll keep the pressure on Armpit. He may come through yet. And whatever it is, and even if it isn’t related to my break-in—”
“Which you’re sure it is.”
“I don’t know. Maybe not. But even if it isn’t, won’t it be great for your career when you catch the White Eagles with their hands in the rice jar?”
“Where to, boss?” I pocketed my phone. Bill and I stood in the muggy evening watching the skateboarders rattle down the Union Square steps.
“You’re the boss. I’m just the crazy, word-hating muscle.”
“I’m tired of that. I want to be the muscle for a while. Being the boss takes too much thinking.”
“Works for me. If I’m the boss, you’re fired.”
“Now you sound like Alice.”
Wouldn’t you know. As soon as I said her name, my phone tinkled the new-client song.
I threw it open and stuck it to my ear. “Lydia Chin. Alice? Is that you?”
“Lydia? Yes, it’s me.”
“Where are you?” One finger in my ear to block the traffic and the skateboards, I tried to make my voice normal. She didn’t know how much I knew, and I didn’t want to spook her.
“Lydia, I need to talk to you.”
“Yes, I think we should. Are you back in New York? I’m free right now.”
“How about later tonight? About eleven? In Sara Roosevelt Park.”
That threw me. “That park’s not the most savory place at that hour. Why not—”
“No, Sara Roosevelt Park at eleven.”
“Why?”
“It needs to be someplace unexpected. I can’t risk being seen.”
“What are you talking about?”
Then she put an end to my attempt at normal. “Lydia, it’s Wong Pan. He says he’s got the Shanghai Moon.”
31
“Sara Roosevelt Park at eleven?” Mary was only slightly less incredulous than ten minutes before. “Why there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay, we’ll be there.”
“So will we.”
“No.”
“Yes! Mary, she’ll be casing it, you know she will. She won’t show unless she sees us.”
“I’ll have someone there who looks like you.”
“Both of us? Even if you did, she might not buy it. Besides, we don’t