The Interior - Страница 66

"Hello? Are you there?" Anne asked.

"I'm sorry," David said. "I was thinking. I have so much to ask you, but…" He saw Miss Quo staring out the window. She didn't seem to be panicking. "Things are a little crazy here."

"That's okay," Anne said. "Before you ask me anything, let me explain the real reason I'm calling. My brother sent me some papers before he died. They were here when we got back to Russell. I don't know what they are, but he put a note on them. 'If something happens to me…' Can you imagine what it's like to get something like that in the mail? My brother was dead! It's been like some horror movie, only we can't turn it off or walk out of the theater."

"What are they?" David asked, although he already suspected what they were.

"Pages and pages of numbers. They don't mean a thing to me, but in the note he wrote that they were a key."

A key? Miaoshan had her set. Sun had his. Now it appeared that Keith also had his own set. Could it possibly be a key?

"Anne"-he tried to put as much conviction into his voice as he could-"about the papers…"

"You're going to tell me about the girl and how Keith wanted to marry her."

No, he wasn't, but he let it go for now.

"We're from Kansas," Anne went on. "We don't see a lot of Asians where we live. But our feeling was that if Keith was in love, that was his business. We'd do our best to welcome this Meow-meow. Even her name was foreign to us. I mean, it wasn't really Meow-meow, but it sure sounded like that to my dad, so that's what we've been calling her around here. Anyway, you can see why we thought it was a good thing they'd be living in L.A. They have all sorts of people out there, and they wouldn't have stood out so much."

David and Hulan had known that Miaoshan was having an affair with an American. They'd thought it was Aaron Rodgers-and maybe she'd still had an affair with him-but Keith was who mattered. He must have met her during his regular pre-sale visits to Knight International. Keith and Miaoshan? Why hadn't David seen that from the beginning? When Miles had said Keith's girlfriend wasn't from L.A., David had assumed that she'd been a hometown girl. That image fit with what he knew about Keith. Even now it was hard to imagine his friend, who was overweight and in his late thirties, with an eighteen-year-old Chinese factory worker. Of course, things like that did happen. It was called a mid-life crisis. The manipulative Miaoshan must have seen Keith as incredibly gullible. And she'd pushed at that gullibility by asking for and receiving all kinds of gifts-the fancy underwear, the jeans, the makeup, the… Suddenly he remembered the sickening sweet smell at the funeral and what Hulan had said about Miaoshan's bunk.

"Do you wear White Shoulders?" David asked Anne.

"Yes, my mother and I both do," she answered, surprised.

"Keith must have had it bad." It slipped out before David could stop himself.

"He was head over heels," Anne said. "My parents and I hadn't seen him-I mean, we only talked to him on the phone or over the Internet, but you know what I mean-that lovesick since eighth grade when he'd gone gaga over Maryellen Sanders. He was calling me all the time, wanting to know what he should get her. I even bought a few things for her myself. And she must have felt the same way. Meow-meow gave Keith all sorts of things."

"Like the papers," David concluded. "Anne, can you fax them to me? You probably don't have a fax, but you could send them at Kinko's. Do you have a Kinko's in Russell?"

"I don't have to go looking," Anne said, a tad indignantly. "We may be in Kansas, but I still have a fax machine. Here, hang on. I'll send it through. Give me your number."

David gave it to her. Anne said she was going to put down the phone for a second and would be right back. He heard the thump of the phone hitting what he'd imagined was a quaint kitchen counter and realized, given his many misconceptions about Anne and her life, that she was probably in her fully outfitted office. A minute later, Anne picked up the phone.

"It's not going through. Give me the number again."

David repeated it, then Anne said, "Yeah, that's what I dialed. Twice.. Check your machine."

He went over to the fax. Everything looked fine. Miss Quo came away from the window and doubled-checked. It was plugged in; there was paper. Then Miss Quo picked up the line. She paled. "It's dead," she said.

"We need that fax!" David exclaimed.

"I've got a fax on my you know what," Henry said, motioning to the walls. "I'll get you your fax, if you come with me to Taiyuan."

But Henry didn't need to resort to this kind of bribery. If Anne really did have a key, then maybe this would all become clear. It was a risk, but at this point everything was a risk.

"Give me the number," David said.

Henry did, and David in turn recited it to Anne. When he was done, Henry added, "Tell her to wait awhile. I've got to get my guys together and the electricity on before we can receive."

David passed on Henry's comments, then said, "I don't want to sound melodramatic, Anne, but if anything happens to us, will you get those papers to Rob Butler? Tell him… Tell him… Anne? Anne?" But the phone had gone dead. The line had been cut.

David set the receiver back in the cradle. He tried to maintain some semblance of calm, knowing that fear would dull their senses. "We really need to go," he said.

They gathered up their belongings and headed for the door. David looked back. It had been a nice office and a nice attempt at a new life.

Quo Xuesheng still held her post at the window.

"Miss Quo?"

She turned to face him. "You go ahead."

"Don't be foolish," Hulan said harshly. David realized it had been a long time since he'd heard her voice.

Miss Quo straightened her shoulders, crossed the room, and took Hulan's good hand. "You're right. I shouldn't run away. I've done nothing wrong. Thank you, Inspector, for giving me courage. I'll tell my father that you have, as always, been a good friend to our family."

David wanted to argue with her, but determination had formed as hard as stone just under his assistant's blotchy and swollen skin.

"Go on," Miss Quo said, walking back to the window. "I'll stay here. When they come, I'll tell them something."

It was a vain hope for delay. With the phone lines cut and the possible monitoring of the office, their movements were probably already known, which might make this whole venture futile.

"Good luck," David said, then closed the door behind them.

Henry wanted to take his car, but Hulan overrode him and they piled in with Investigator Lo, because she thought the small insignia on the car might give them some authority. (On the other hand, if the cameras that were set up at the major intersections were already alerted to look for them, then they would be exceptionally easy to follow. But Hulan decided it was a risk worth taking.) As soon as they were in the car, Hulan handed Henry her cell phone. He spoke elliptically, saying that he'd like his crew to get the electricity running, hoping they would interpret that to mean they should get the plane fueled and ready as he'd be leaving town shortly.

Then, as they headed across town, making for the expressway that would take them to the airport, David reported his conversation with Keith's sister. When he came to the end, Hulan, who'd revived slightly, said, "Suchee-everyone actually-kept saying Miaoshan wanted to go to America. I thought it was a dream for her, an unrealistic dream. Peasants never leave. It's even hard for them to get away from their villages and go to a big city, so how could she ever think she would get to the U.S.? But obviously she had a plan."

"Do you think she loved Keith?"

Hulan thought about Miaoshan, then said, "On the surface she seemed a typical peasant girl. But again and again she has shown a deep capacity for deception and manipulation. With Tsai Bing there probably was love, but they'd known each other from birth and grown up together. Theirs was a familiar love. Knowing they were to be married, they'd had sex as comfortably and unemotionally as an old married couple."

(Now, that was a worldview that under different circumstances David would have pursued with the woman he planned to spend his life with, but now wasn't the time.)

"Tang Dan?" Hulan continued. "Who can tell? Maybe Miaoshan wanted the experience of an older man. Maybe she feared she'd never get out of the countryside and thought that at least she could marry the richest man in the county. That story is common the world over."

"What about rape?" Henry asked. He didn't know who this Miaoshan was, but he was intrigued.

"Could be," Hulan answered. "Rape is probably the most taboo subject in all of China. It's the worst shame. If she'd been raped, she would never have said a word." Hulan paused. "But I think not. Siang, Tang's daughter, said she saw them together. She was disgusted, but I don't think she would have mentioned it if there'd been a struggle. No, it wasn't rape."

"Guy Lin loved her," David said. "There's no question in my mind about that."

"Who's that?" Henry asked.

"He's the one you've seen on television with Pearl Jenner," David responded simply.

"Yes, he loved her," Hulan concluded. "But he lost his usefulness when she no longer needed him. Which brings us to Keith."