Five pieces of jade

CHAPTER 12

For much of the night Tibbs tossed and turned. He was entirely confident that the watch over the Wang house was in eflect and would take care of any sudden contingencies, but the sharp images that were in his mind would not relent and let him get any sleep. He contemplated taking a phenobar-bital, but rejected the idea because he might have need to be acutely alert at any time and he could not risk it. Remembering what he had learned in the Aikido dojo, he tried consciously to relax his tensions and let his thoughts compose themselves, but when he began to feel that he was ma k ing some progress, his pillow conspired to become hot and lumpy and the bedclothes trapped his legs in their folds.

He got up even earUer than usual and made himself some strong black coffee. He followed it with orange juice and felt a twinge of acid stomach as a result. He shook a small amount of baking soda into a glass, added water, and drank it down. Then, unable to restrain himself any longer, he called in and asked what had happened during the night.

Everything had been quiet at the Wang house; the stakeout had been in full effect, but the report was entirely negative. Business had been dull.

He looked at the clock and wondered if it was too early to call Yumeko. He had no idea when she got up to go to work, but she was employed in Little Tokyo and would have to allow at least forty-five minutes' travel time to get into Central Los Angeles. Assuming that she started at nine, she would have to be up at least by seven-thirty. He waited an impatient twenty minutes and then dialed the number.

He felt a hot flush of gratitude when her voice came on the line; it gave some evidence of interrupted sleep, but there was no petulance in it. "What time do you leave for work?" he asked. 108

"It does not make any work today, Virgil, because it is Saturday." He had completely lost track of the days of the week. "Are you going to be home today?"

"If it is your wish, I will be here. For a little while I would like to go to the store. When do you desire to come?" Tibbs forced himself to be patient and rational. "How about nine-thirty, would that be all right?" "I will make some tea," Yumeko volunteered. Tea again! He didn't especially care for it, but apparently there was no avoiding it Not where Orientals were concerned, at any rate.

*That will be nice," he said, trying to sound as if he meant it. Then he had another thought. "Yumeko, you remember the two men who came to see you, the policemen you were worried about?"

He sensed her tightening over the wire. He got a hesitant, "Yes."

"After I talk to you, I may ask them to stop by-so that they won't bother you anymore. I will be there to look after you."

"If you say it is good, then it will be all right with me. I am a little frightened of them." "I think I can end all that"

*Then please to ask them to come. They will drink tea?" Despite himself Virgil grinned a httle with satisfaction. "Fm sure they'd like it very much," he lied cheerfully. "Do you have some nice Japanese green tea?"

*'Ocha? But yes, I did not know that you liked it Most Americans, they cannot."

"I'll see you at nine-thirty," Tibbs said and then hung up before things went any farther. Feeling a httle better for no real reason that he could trace, he poured some cornflakes into a bowl, covered them with a Uberal amount of low-fat milk, and sifted on some sugar. He ate reflectively and planned what he was going to say to the Feds concerning his "discovery," and what they would be likely to say to him if it proved to be a completely wrong assumption. He planned his hedge carefully and then left for his of amp;ce.

For a wonder the paper work load was not quite as staggering as usual. He disposed of a few things and talked with Agent Jerry Gamer, who had been on the stakeout during the graveyard hours. Nothing whatever had happened. That in a way was good news since it suggested if he was right in his assumptions, then he had so far not missed the boat.

When Gamer had left he tried a call to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and found Dufify in. "I want to put you and Frank in the picture this time," he said. *'I had a brainstorm last night which may or may not be good for something, I don't know yet. If it is any good, then I think I can come up with some answers concerning the supply of KB that's been coming in, the connection of Wang with the trade, and where the girl Yumeko Nagashima fits in."

"Do all that and we'll give you a job," Duffy said.

"No thanks, business is good out here most of the time. Understand that all I have so far is a guess, but if it pans out, would you and Frank be free to meet me at the Wang house at a little after ten this morning?"

"Absolutely. Frank's out, but I can raise him."

"Good. Then let me do some checking first; I'll call you if it looks good-or if it doesn't"

"Fair enough, and all kidding aside, Virgil, thank you very much for the cooperation. This isn't a tea party, you know."

"You could be a little wrong on that, but I understand, and thanks. I'll let you know." He hung up.

As he drove toward the Wang home he rehearsed in his mind exactly how he was going to talk to Yumeko: how much he was going to tell her and how much he was going to withhold. It was not too easy a task and he was parking in front of the house before he was fuUy settled in his mind as to what he was going to do. As he got out of his car he] reluctantly concluded that he would probably have to play things by ear. Normally he did not mind, but Yumeko, being Yumeko, compUcated things.

He went up the steps, pushed the doorbell, and waited. In perhaps half a minute the door swung open and he had a i mild shock; Yumeko was elaborately dressed in a flowered silk kimono and her hair was piled up in a totally Japanese style. As she bowed low to him, his first reaction I was that she must have spent every available minute since his call preparing herself to receive him. As he stood and i paused for a moment, uncertain of what he should say, the silence was broken for him. "You like?" she asked.

"Of course, it's beautiful," he answered. Then he found himself a little more. "I wasn't expecting it; you surprised me very much."

She motioned him inside. "It is perhaps not right that I 110

wear kimono because I am only half Japanese. The rest I am what you call here a black girl.'*

"Negro," Tibbs corrected her. "It's a word to be proud of. You have two heritages instead of just one. And. ." he paused quite deliberately, "… if anyone asks you, you are a very beautiful girl."

She lowered her head. "Because you are yourself Negro and also shodan, you are so kind as to say so. Others do not agree."

'Then to hell with them." For a moment he had an urge to kiss her but killed it; it would be all wrong.

"Your friends, they are coming?"

"I think so, but I'm not sure yet. I'd like to ask you a few things first."

"Before tea?"

"Yes-before tea."

With small steps because of her garment, she led the way into the sitting room where they had first met. She sat down on the front of one of the chairs, unable to make herself comfortable because of the elaborate way in which she had tied her obi in the back. She looked at Tibbs as though she were waiting for some sort of judgment to be pronounced.

"Yumeko," he began when he had dropped into a chair, "I have been studying a little about jade and I've learned quite a few things. Am I right in believing that no two jades are alike-that they are all individually created depending on the nature of the raw stone?"

"Yes," she answered. "That is very much true. There are some few things, like incense burners, that are made over and over again almost exactly the same, but these are very ordinary pieces-^sometimes not real jade at all."

"But the pieces you would have here in this house would all be individual?"

'That is so. The very common things Mr. Wang would never have."

"All right, so far, so good. Now something else. I'm not asking you to betray any secrets, but where did Mr. Wang i get most of his jades? I don't necessarily mean people, I'm talking about places.'*

Yumeko folded her hands and studied her fingers. 'The packages, they came from overseas. From the Far East. Very few from Japan. Mostly they arrived from Singapore, Bangkok, Penang, a few from Hong Kong. There is much

jade in Hong Kong, but Mr. Wang would not buy the pieces that came from the communist mainland."

"I see. How about Taiwan-the Republic of China?"

"A few, only a few."

"Any other places?"

"I am not sure; many pieces were here before I came. | But there are not many other places where jade is shipped, " jade of the best quality."

"So it's a fair conclusion that Singapore, Bangkok, Pe- I nang, and perhaps Hong Kong provided more than ninety percent of all the jade that came in to Mr. Wang."

"That is yes."

"Next, did the pieces come one at a time, or did they come several together in a larger carton or crate?"

"Always they came since I was here each one by itself."

"How often did a piece come in?"

"Not always the same, Virgil. Sometimes for two or three weeks nothing, then several in one week. But always each one alone. Maybe I should say that we received. . wait-^I know the word-average of two each week. Between two and three."

Tibbs shifted his position and recrossed his legs the other way. "Now, Yumeko, when I took that jade to Mr. Harvey, you told me that you were going to put it in its box. Then you sorted out several until you found a certain one."

She nodded. "Yes, that is so."

"Now about those blue boxes, they all seem to look alike on the outside, but are they custom-made too? That is, does each jade have its own box especially for it alone?"

*That is yes. The box too is very carefully fitted."

"And the boxes are usually much larger than the jades they hold."

"Yes, there must be room for much padding. Jade is very very hard, but it can also break. That is why the boxes must fit so well."

He got to his feet. "Yumeko, could we go to the jade room and look at some of those boxes?"

She looked at him without understanding. "You wish the boxes?"

"Just to look at them."

With her geta sliding along the floor she led him toward the back of the house and the room where the jade cabinets held their precious contents. She unlocked the door and turned on the lights which brought the multicolored miniature sculptures into a dazzling still life. Still careful to walk around the place where Mr. Wang had lain, she opened the bottom of one of the cabinets and began to remove blue cloth-covered boxes. They varied in size and shape, but otherwise they were monotonously alike. As she handed them up to him, Tibbs put several of them on the table in the center of the room.

Then, while she watched, he began to examine them very carefully. First he lifted each one individually and judged its weight. Then he opened three or four and felt of the padding with the tips of his fingers. All the while Yumeko stood by, watching him but asking no questions. As she watched him, he in turn studied her, but he could detect nothing but an uncertain and rather curious interest in what he was doing.

He picked up each box in turn and carefully inspected the way in which the satin lining had been installed. He studied six of the boxes in this manner and then returned to the one that had been fifth. "Yumeko," he said, "I would Hke to have your permission to take this box apart a little bit. I'll see to it that it's properly repaired for you."

"DozOy" she answered.

Tibbs took out a penknife, opened the smaller of the two blades with which it was equipped, and began with careful concentration to loosen the edge of the lining. After a few minutes he had several inches of the satin laid back, exposing an inner musUn covering. He began to work the blade of his knife deeper against the side of the box, being careful to do as little damage as possible. He worked for a good ten minutes before he finally had access to the substantial material that formed the bulk of the stuflSng. When he first saw it he gave no signs, but his heart began to beat faster and he knew that it was almost certain that his conjecture had been correct. "May I use your phone?" he asked.

Silently Yumeko inclined her head. Calmly he dialed and waited. When he had Duffy on the line he was very brief. "I'm at the Wang house. I think it would be a good idea if you came over." Then he hung up.

"I do not understand," Yumeko said.

Even though it was still relatively early in the day, Tibbs felt a wave of what might have been fatigue, but he recognized it as relief. "In a few minutes Mr, Lonigan and Mr. Duffy will be coming here," he said. "K you wish to prepare tea for them, now would be the time."

She was not quite sure whether it was a dismissal or not,

but she left him. He watched the huge bow of her obi as she retreated toward the kitchen.

When he was alone Tibbs sat down once more and folded his hands in his lap. He pressed his fingers together so tightly they almost seemed to turn white as he thought, evaluating what he had discovered against what he already knew and the few things he still had to learn. There was one awkward little compUcation that had him stymied and which obstinately refused to yield to logic. He attacked the problem once more, as he had several times before, but the light would not come through the darkness. The thing defied him and he could not crack its defenses.

He leaned back, shut his eyes, and began to go over the whole thing again from the beginning. Once more he fitted the pieces together, as he had done with slips of paper on top of his desk, and filled in the several gaps that he had accumulated enough data to close. But the one damnable thing remained, the one circumstance that he could not explain.

He heard Yumeko busy with her preparations and wondered if things were any easier for her than they were for him. In addition to other immediate problems, she was now effectively alone in a strange country. He had no idea what sort of visa she had, but the fact that she had been admitted into the country at all was unusual in view of the antique and grossly unfair immigration laws which applied to Orientals. The very people who made the best citizens on record were the specific ones who were all but excluded, thanks to legal hangovers of the worst thinking of 1910. Anyway, she was in America and at least she had a job. Like most people, she would probably work things out in time.

When the doorbell rang he answered it himself. Lonigan and Duffy were there, and he read on the instant that they had cast themselves in the role of gentlemen callers this time. That made matters a Uttle simpler, because he would not have permitted them to give Yumeko another hard time while he was present. They might be Feds and all that, but he had his own methods and Pasadena was his town.

Yvmieko came in and the two narcotics men responded most appropriately to her appearance. They seemed almost relaxed and their manner reflected itself in Yumeko, who began the final preparations for serving with what Tibbs observed to be a decided easing of her former concern. "I believe that we are to have some tea," he said quite formally.

"After you've enjoyed that, then I may have some information that might interest you."

"We're fully prepared to be interested," Lonigan said. "You're beginning to live up to your reputation."

"Yes," Duffy contributed. "I hope you had fun playing with those two guys from LAPD."

"We had coffee afterwards," Virgil said.

"Yes, I know. They were almost certain that they had a make on your partner. And it would have been a big one for them."

Tibbs turned serious. "We weren't trying to pick on them, and I had damn good reason for wanting to go on the street. How are things, by the way?"

Lonigan shook his head. "Virgil, the panic is on and you'd better beUeve it. The LAPD has half of the drugstores in critical areas staked out, the treatment centers are jammed, and every hour more come in."

"Something else," Duffy added. "We were tipped on another shipment coming up from Mexico. Not a big one this time, but very carefully covered up. Normally it would have gotten through no matter how hard we tried to stop it. We passed the word on to the customs people and they made the grab."

"Is there any heroin in town?"

"I doubt it, Virgil. At least there's not enough for anyone to find. A few junkie dealers may have some stashed away for their own use, but there's none to buy."

"How about keto?"

*There's a little, thank God that's all at the moment. We had two DOA's from it yesterday. Hot-shotted. One was a sixteen-year-old girl: a pretty thing from a good family. Hippie boyfriend, you know the rest."

Yumeko appeared carrying a tray. Lonigan offered to take it from her, but she set it down and began to arrange the tea things. When she was ready she sat down and prepared to play hostess. "I must explain," she said, with her eyes modestly lowered. "Mr. Tibbs, he suggest that I offer you Japanese green tea. This is something which most Americans, I know they do not like. So I make some just for him because he understand it. For you I give the regular black tea-is this aU right?" Then she looked up, all innocence.

At that moment Tibbs for the first time seriously wondered if she were really capable of murder. Yumeko was not the simple child that he had unconsciously assumed her to be.

"Excellent," Lonigan said. "I do prefer the black tea and George, Mr. Duffy, does too."

"That is good." Yumeko said. Carefully she poured and served, first the black tea to the federal men, then the thick, bitter green tea to Tibbs and herself. Then, after passing a plate of small cookies, she sat down quietly beside him on the davenport. "I will come here if you allow," she said. *Then you can protect me." "Touche," Tibbs said. "I do not understand."

"Mr. Tibbs is admitting that you are a smart girl," Duffy said. "Allow me to second that thought."

"Enjoy your tea, gentlemen," Virgil said. *Then, if you don't mind Til consult my superiors at our headquarters. After that, I believe I can show you how the drug you have been chasing has been coming into the country." He pulled a small wax evidence envelope out of his coat pocket and handed it to Duffy. "You might check that stuff out," he suggested, indicating a small supply of white crystals that the envelope contained. "If it's what I believe it to be, you have your inmiediate problem solved."

Duffy's mood changed on the moment. "Virgil, if it is, we can't thank you enough. And you'll get the credit."

Tibbs shook his head. "Skip the credit," he said. "All I want is a murderer."

"Can we help?" Lonigan asked.

"Yes, if you will. Assuming that the lead I'm giving you pans out, I want to ask that you leave things strictly alone and trust our boys for just a short while. Then you can have the whole ball of wax."

"All right, but you understand that we will want to make some arrests."

Tibbs sampled his bitter tea, but refused to let his reaction to it show on his face. "Certainly," he agreed, "but only after I've got my man first."

The doorbell rang. Yumeko rose to answer it, but Tibbs got up too and paused, on his feet, just around the comer. He heard Yumeko say, "Come in," then he waited.

In a moment the visitor came into his line of vision; he was a young man, Chinese or possibly Japanese, and his manner betrayed strong hesitation. Tibbs had seen it too often, the symptoms of suppressed fright or fear. As he stepped out, Yumeko was very quick to perform introductions. "I present you to my friend Mr. Tibbs," she said."This is Chin Soo, houseboy to Mr. Wang."

Tibbs decided immediately how to play it. "We have been very worried about you," he said. "And Miss Nagashima has been most upset. Are you all right?"

"Yes," the boy said. With the single word he revealed enough English to make communication possible.

"I was about to put out a missing person bulletin on you. Where have you been?"

Chin Soo looked sideways as though to assess the possibility of turning and running for his life. Then he accepted the fact that there was no retreat. "I stay away," he said. "I afraid. Man say to go and I go."

"I see. Who was the man who told you to go?"

Chin Soo looked at him, apparently trying to decide whether or not he was compelled to answer that. Once again the avenue of retreat was closed to him, and he had no choice but to reply. "Mr. Johnny Wu," he said.