came in.” He gestured toward the right side of the garage. “We’ll try to do a match, but the shoe is an average size and a common style,” he answered. “No trace of him. The ground is dry, nothing on the pavement on the streets behind her place, but we found something more interesting downstairs.”
George said, “Lead the way.” She and Mark followed him inside, careful to not touch anything. George and Mark were looking around, admiring the beautiful décor. It was immaculate, as well. They could see the kitchen, very modern, and yet it appeared warm and frequently used. They took the stairs to the basement, following Don.
The “basement” was actually a carpeted game room, with casual, comfortable furniture, a flat screen TV on an antique console, end tables with tall burnished silver-based lamps, and several numbered prints, all large, modernistic of bright sweeping colors. A powder room with shower was in the far corner, near the small laundry room, which was hidden behind louvered doors. Nearby was what appeared to be a closet, with yellow tape across it. The “closet” was the jewel.
“Don, what’s in the closet?” asked George. She assumed it housed the furnace and air-conditioning.
“It’s a small but well-equipped laboratory. No one can enter until forensics checks it out. They are on their way. They will need to wear protective suits, in case,” and he nodded his head.
George understood and said to Mark, “This may be one of the missing pieces.”
Mark said nothing. He just kept looking around, trying to digest everything that had happened.
He said, “Clever girl.”
“We assume you have some background on Chen,” George stated.
“Yes, but not what you might think,” he added. “The NCS has had her on their watch list for a little over a month. Nothing has occurred out of the ordinary. She has been involved with a certain Army Lieutenant Colonel Maxwell Graham, West Point grad, special service chief to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a straight arrow. He reported some findings to a friend of his, a fellow West Point grad, Greg Hammond, who works for the NCS. Dr. Chen had full security clearance and excellent credentials. We had no reason to suspect her, and our surveillance has been steady but never came up with anything. Colonel Graham has been watching her, let’s say, very closely.” He raised his eyebrows. “They have been hot and heavy since January, this year.”
He continued, “From the NCS investigation, we know that Chen also had previous involvement with Adams. It ended badly. She caught him with his pants down, banging some broad— excuse me, Agent Reed. I guess he paid Chen off with a promotion to assistant director of Edgewood Labs. There were two others in line for the position ahead of Dr. Chen, but she was proven capable and apparently had received several notable mentions in scientific journals for her work.”
“This gets more and more interesting,” George said.
“Here’s another angle. Her mother, a native of China, Rose Lee Chen, met and eventually married an American chemistry professor. They met in Hong Kong. He was there on business, consulting for a major chemical manufacturer headquartered there. He brought his wife and her daughter, Suzy, back to the US. Her adoptive father is a professor at the University of Delaware, and her mother is a pianist, having taught piano in Beijing before being allowed to move to Hong Kong. Rose’s first husband, Suzy’s biological father, died in a labor camp in China when she was a baby.
“Rose’s husband, Dr. Robert Thompson, adopted Suzy and loves her as his own. He is unaware that there is another child, a twin sister. Rose was only allowed to have one child under Chinese law. The Chinese authorities took her other daughter and placed her in a government orphanage. She is Suzy’s identical twin. She only learned about her twin sister, Lee, this past year. Lee is living in Beijing, surviving as a prostitute. We don’t know exactly how or when Suzy learned this.”
“Interesting and puzzling,” said George.
“There’s more,” said Don. “A Swiss bank account, ten million US seems to have some tie to Dr. Chen.”
“Okay,” George was impatient. “Whose name’s on it?”
“No name. Just a number.”
.
64
Lee didn’t understand what Lou E was saying.
“Please explain,” she pleaded.
“We must hurry, Lee, before the other girls awaken,” was all he would say. Tears were flooding down her sculptured face, her eyes reddened and swollen from crying. He had knocked on her door very early and then entered her room, carrying