Five pieces of jade

CHAPTER 16

Bob McGowan looked up from his desk to acknowledge the man who stood in the doorway of his oflBce. "Come in, Virgil," he invited, and put down the pen that was in his band.

VirgU Tibbs had a sheaf of paper in a folder. "I have the information you wanted on the Chinese narcotics production," he said.

McGowan waved him to a chair, then came from behind [lis desk to join him in the social comer of his office. "I'd like a briefing," he declared. "I'm going into a meeting early this evening where the topic is likely to come up." He relaxed and prepared himself to listen.

Virgil consulted his notes. "Very well, sir. Starting in 1951 the communist Chinese began carrying forward a very aggressive program of illicit narcotics production, including beroin, which, as you know, is purely a drug of addiction tvith no known medical value whatever. In very round figures communist China has about one quarter of the world's population but does less than one percent of the international trade. As a means of developing more foreign exchange, and also weakening potential enemies, they capitalized on the growing market for drugs."

He turned to another page in the papers he was holding. "There are now factories for the production of heroin and other narcotics at Peking, Tientsin, Dairen, Mukden, Chinchow, Kupehkow, Yenki, Shanghai, Hankow, Chungking, Kunming, and a number of other major cities. Within China these plants are known as 'special products processing factories.' During 1970 they produced more than ten thousand tons of illicit drugs which were exported to the free nations through Cuba, North Vietnam, North Korea, Albania, and a number of African nations."

"Did you say ten thousand tonsT McGowan asked.

"Yes, sir, that's the figure. Do you want some more?"

"Please."

Tibbs went back to his notes. "According to Kao Hsiang-kao of the Institute of International Relations, this trade reached a volume of approximately eight hundred million dollars annually as of 1970. Of course some of this was intercepted; in 1969, which is the latest report available, the authorities in Hong Kong confiscated more than five tons of opium, two hundred and fifty pounds of morphine, and three hundred and ten pounds of heroin, all from communist China. That's only one port, of course, and there's no way of telling what percentage of the total shipments this represents. What gets through is very specifically aimed at certain nations, and we top the list."

"Damn," McGowan said.

"That's putting it mildly, sir. I'm beginning to appreciate the position that Frank Lonigan and George Duffy are in; the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs has a fearful responsibility."

"Yes, with a flow of more than two million dollars' worth a day. Anything we can do to help them, Virgil, I want it done." He went to the door and asked his secretary to bring in some coffee. When he sat down once more his thoughts had changed somewhat. "Now fill me in on the Wang case," he directed.

Virgil laid aside his notes. "It was sticky because it wasn't simply a matter of who killed Cock Robin. Not long ago the Chinese communists came up with a new product: a synthetic drug that outdoes heroin in both euphoric properties and addiction. A victim caught in the grip of this narcotic would be enslaved, to the point where his life would be ruined. The Chicoms were most anxious to introduce this fearful drug into this country, so they looked for a method to smuggle in steady quantities without using any of the usual dope routes. They hit on the scheme of using jade boxes; the carvings themselves are so compelling they were sure that no one would pay attention to the boxes. It was the stage magician's misdirection applied in a new manner."

He paused while the coffee was brought in, then continued. "Wang Fu-sen was a thoroughly honorable dealer in jades; but without his knowledge or consent he was set up to become a link in the chain. Jades are individual and each one has its own fitted box. By sending pictures of the jades in the loaded boxes to a suitable agent here, he could then buy them and acquire the drug as well. After that the boxes could be unloaded and the jades resold-they have a ready market here despite the prices."

McGowan drank some of his coffee, and continued listening.

"Of course it would all have been much easier if Wang Fu-sen had consented to cooperate, but when he was tentatively approached he j amp;rmly refused. Subsequently he let it be known to certain other Chinese-Americans that he was under pressure. They promptly arranged a bodyguard for him and began their own investigation."

"Why didn't they come to us?"

"I have found, sir, that they very much tend to handle their own affairs. Meanwhile, on a trip to the Far East Mr. Wang met Miss Nagashima and realizing that her situation in Japan was a most unhappy one, he brought her back with him. It was personal generosity and nothing more; she returned it by helping to look after his house and by providing a companionship which, while platonic, he much appreciated. The terms of his recent will make that very clear.

"Now about Mr. Harvey. He is, or was, a stock trader who made his living for some time through speculation. But when I examined the records of his stock transactions, I discovered that Uke a great many others, he had badly misjudged the heavy and sustained bear market of 1969 and 1970. He sometimes held short positions, but he knew that that is a dangerous game and tried to guess the upturn instead. He lost most of his financial resources and capped it by getting into a bitter confrontation with his wife; his position became, for him at least, almost untenable.

"In near desperation he looked for some field where he could make a fast and near-certain profit, legal or not. Through channels which I frankly haven't traced yet he got into the fringes of the narcotics trade. I suspect he made his initial contacts through gambling associations; he admitted to me that he is an inveterate gambler. Gambling and narcotics have been shown to have close connections in many instances. With his remaining capital he began to i finance shipments from Mexico and within a few weeks he realized some sharp gains. However, the Mexican narcotics trade had been penetrated by the Chinese communists and i through that connection they were able to get to him. He I was approached with an inviting proposition which offered steady substantial profits at apparently very little risk: all he had to do was to appear as a jade collector, and

to phone in certain tips he would be given on heroin shipments. Even if the roof fell in on the whole thing, it would be almost impossible to prove anything against him-and that part was perfectly true.

"So Harvey began, but he made a serious mistake right at the beginning-he underestimated the intelhgence of Wang Fu-sen. He was instructed to buy certain jades, but his apparent, too-rapid choices from a magnificent stock aroused Mr. Wang's suspicions. In view of the pressure to which he had already been subjected, Mr. Wang put two and two together, reasoned it out, and discovered the secret of the boxes. The next time that Harvey called, Wang gave him a simple choice: stop immediately or the whole thing would be reported to us.

"Harvey told his contacts and they in turn promptly imported two Chicom enforcer types via fake passports and tourist visas to deal with the matter. They called on Wang and attempted to frighten him into silence and cooperation. He calmly refused-and then made a new will. Not too long after that he was killed." «,

"Which is where you came in." "

"Yes, sir, but despite the fact that the case had complications, a few things were apparent from the beginning and they led to the eventual solution. When I first saw the body of Mr. Wang, I could not help noticing the way in which it lay. The arms were at the sides and it was face up at a thirty-degree angle to the jade cabinets. It was manifestly impossible for anyone to be stabbed and then to faU into that position, so despite the fact that a stone knife, or something resembhng one, was deeply buried in the chest, I questioned it immediately as the cause of death.

"Also the deceased had been a slender, frail man and to drive such a weapon into him while he was standing would have been all but impossible: he would either have fallen backwards from the force before such penetration could be achieved or he would simply have collapsed in a heap. The only logical inference was that the knife had been driven in after the body was lying on the floor. That was quite possible, because the floor itself would have provided the necessary backing. There is a vast difference between a very sharp, slender stiletto, for example, and the stone weapon that was used and which, I know now, wasn't really a weapon at all."

"Wait a minute, I want to get some more coffee," Mc-Gowan said. Once more he went to the door and signaled. 160

"How did you get onto Harvey?" he asked when he came back.

"At first, pure luck, later on by a process of elimination. When I started in on this case I didn't know the first thing about jade, but it would have taken a blind man not to be impressed by the magnificent display in Wang Fu-sen's home. Despite the fact that I had the owner's dead body lying on the floor and demanding my attention, the jades were fascinating; I had never seen anything like them before.

"I picked up an immediate lead to Donald Washburn, whom I had just met that afternoon. I called on him promptly and discovered two things: that he had a very genuine interest in jades and a narcotics problem within his own family. I didn't really tie in the narcotics angle, however, until I discovered that our friends Lonigan and Duffy had been to see Miss Nagashima and apparently had given her a pretty hard time. That was plainer than a letter to Santa Claus and the possibility, even the likelihood, that the deceased had been a dope dealer was right there in front of me.

"As you know, I'm not overly impressed by character references, but I was subsequently interested in the fact that everyone whom I interviewed, without exception, gave him top marks for good character, and the people concerned were of a high level of responsibility-Aaron Finegold for example. Of course that left Miss Nagashima to be considered and you can believe that I considered her. Particularly when I discovered that she had failed to mention the houseboy to me over a period of several days. And there were some other indications.

"I admit that I was quite interested in Mr. Washburn at first, but it didn't fit. His own son was an addict imder treatment. Also he was working with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and had their implied endorsement. Lastly, he had the laboratory facilities to make keto-bedmidone himself and in fact did, so importing it didn't add up to reality.

"Johnny Wu also displayed a considerable knowledge of jade and interested me until, somewhat by accident, I met Mr. Harvey. As soon as I had contact with him I knew that I had hit pay dirt"

"How?" McGowan asked.

"In the first place I delivered a valuable and very lovely jade to him, but he was remarkably disinterested in it. He

hardly looked at it before he put it aside. That seemed very strange. Next, after I had introduced myself as a poHce oflB-cer and specifically told him that I was working on the Wang murder, he pretended almost complete disinterest in the deceased and continued to patronize the hell out of me. That's about as far as you can get from rational behavior; most people are only too glad to clear themselves if they are anywhere near a homicide and aren't responsible for it"

"Granted. Anything else?"

"Yes. In view of the very casual way he had treated his new acquisition I made it a point to ask him if he had taken a long time in its selection. He answered me, *No, I never require time to make up my mind. That's one of the basic principles for success in the market' The hell it is; nobody has snap judgment that good. And who would look at more than a hundred magnificent jades and then pick one out as though it were nothing more than a candy bar?"

"So you had him pegged at that point."

"No, sir, not entirely, but I was interested enough to ask to see his jade collection. Any normal collector would be eager to display his acquisitions, but Harvey first wanted to know if it was necessary. When he finally did show me his supposed treasures, he had them in his oJB amp;ce, twelve of them, in a case where they were lined up like so many lead soldiers. I studied them for a Uttle while just to give him a chance to tell me about them, but he didn't have a word to say. As a jade collector he was a total miscast; he wouldn't have convinced a schoolchild. Later on I made it a point to look at several other private collections: the Finegolds', the Washbums', and Johnny Wu's. All of them were tastefully arranged and the owners were dehghted to display and talk about them. The question then was: why was Harvey buying jades when he so obviously was disinterested in them? Possibly for investment purposes, but that would be over a period of time and it was out of character for him to deal in fine art objects. When I learned about the drugs in the jade boxes, I didn't have to look any farther for an answer. But, danunit, I couldn't prove anything! I knew that he had knowledge of the murder, if murder it was, but I had no way to put the screws on him. Then, at last I found out about the two strong-arm types that were loose in town and the picture began to shape up."

"Is that why you set up a stakeout and threw a party with Bob Nakamura in the role of a jade buyer?"

"Yes, sir, of course. I remembered something Harvey had 162

told me. He said that he made his money taking advantage of the amateurism of many small investors who have no clear idea of the market or what they are doing. I thought that it might be profitable to reverse that principle and take advantage of his lack of understanding of homicide investigation. If I could get him to reveal himself, even to a minor degree, then he might construe that as meaning that it was all over and lower his defenses. It worked. I set him up for an apparently dead-safe breaking and entering which he might easOy have beaten in court if he had wanted to contest it. So right at that point I asked him a question that was calculated to trigger him into t hinkin g that it was all over. He fell for it and that was that."

Bob McGowan stretched his long legs and for a few seconds contemplated the toes of his well-shined shoes. Then he looked again at Tibbs. "So Harvey murdered Wang Fu-sen."

"No, sir, he didn't"

"Now wait a minute-I don't follow you." "I'll try to clarify it. The two hard cases we have in custody called on Wang Fu-sen and beat him up, trying to force him to remain quiet and cooperate. They throttled him, knocked him senseless, and left him lying on the floor. That's firm and established. He might have been dead at that time, but I seriously doubt it: the medical evidence will tell us one way or the other."

"I'll assume that he was stiU living."

"Good. Now Harvey may be ruthless, but he isn't stupid. The Chicoms take no chances and while he had played ball all the way, if Wang talked, he was in for it. So he didn't have to think very hard to figure out who would be the next to be silenced. Himself. He knew what was going to happen, so he went to the Wang house himself to find out the score. He was safe, he thought, he was presumably coming to buy jade. He found the door open, went in, and discovered Mr. Wang lying on the floor. He mistook him for dead. In that desperate moment he had the idea that he could get rid of the two Chinese by pinning it on them; by making it look Like a ritual killing or a tong murder. A lot of people still believe in those things, you know. He found one cabinet unlocked; Wang had been rearranging the contents. The stone knife, or what looked like a knife, was there. He took it and drove it into Wang's chest. In my opinion, that's when Wang was killed, but because Harvey thought that the man was already dead, it was technically accidental ho-

micide and not murder. The intent to kill wasn't there, or if it was, we can never prove it"

*'You told me it wasn't simple," the chief said.

"Someday, sir," Tibbs said, "I want to investigate a murder done in an English country house over the weekend with only six persons present and the outside roads impassable because of a sudden storm and flood. One where the victim is found in a locked room with an arrow through his heart and there isn't any question of multiple assault or lack of premeditation."

McGowan shook his head gravely. "I've heard of that case," he said. 'The butler did it."

Tibbs shrugged his shoulders. "Now you've spoiled all my fun."

"Not quite. Miss Nagashima was in to see me earlier today. You can do me a favor if you will-pick her up at four o'clock. ." he glanced at his watch". . fifteen min-tues from now at the parking lot across the street and drive her home. Then call it a day."

"I was going to see her anyway, sir. There's a little detail I want to discuss with her."

"Fine, you do that. Did Harvey talk?"

"I managed to persuade him that it would be in his best interests to be candid with us."

"One last question: where are the jade boxes with the dope in them?"

"Downstairs in narcotics."

"Good. Go get Miss Nagashima.'*

"Yes, sir."

Virgil cleared the top of his desk by putting things into a drawer that had served that purpose before, said goodnight to Bob Nakamura, and went out to collect his passenger. He used his own car to pick her up; she climbed in sUently and sat beside him. He remained quiet too until they had cleared the immediate downtown traffic, then he spoke to her. "Yumeko, you know what you did, don't you?"

She lowered her head. "Yes," she whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

She fumbled with a miniature handkerchief, then swallowed hard. "I don't know," she answered.

"Chief McGowan almost asked me and if he had, I would have had to tell him."

"I know."

He guided the car aroimd a comer and slowed down for

the residential street. "If I hadn't studied that jade book, I might have been in trouble."

"Yes." She did not look up.

"All right, Yumeko, why did you put those four jades on the floor around Mr. Wang's head?"

When she looked up there were tears in her eyes. "You know," she answered. "You ask me if we have any funeral jades and I say no."

"But you're Japanese."

"Half," she corrected.

"If you want it that way. But why?"

She wiped her eyes. "I want to do him honor. I know we have no funeral jades to put on his tongue and in his ears, so I make honor for him that way."

"All right, but why didn't you tell me that?"

Again she lowered her head. "I don't know."

He left her alone after that until he pulled up in front of her house. "Here you are," he said.

She laid a hand on his arm. "Please to come in one minute," she asked. "I have reason."

He followed her up the steps and through the foyer after she had unlocked the door. "Chin Soo is gone," she explained.

"Permanently?"

"No, not yet."

She patted her hair into place and stole a glance in the hall mirror; then she led the way toward the rear of the house. From her purse she extracted the ring of keys that had been Mr. Wang's and opened the door to the jade room. It looked very much as it had before as soon as she turned the lights on; the serenity of the rare objects that it contained behed the violence that had happened there.

She fitted a cabinet key and slid back the glass panel. Then she took out the mutton fat vase with the intertwined branches and flowers that she had used when she had lectured to him about jade. She held it out. "This is for you," she said.

Virgil shook his head clearly and at once. "No, police officers cannot accept gifts. It's magnificent and thank you, but no."

Yumeko did not move. "I know this, so I ask McGowan sensei and he give special permission. You can ask him."

"Yumeko, thank you again, but I'm afraid that I can't."

"You accept picture of beautiful naked girl. Also valuable."

Because she was still holding it out he took the magnifi-

cent carving from her and held it in his hands for several seconds. Then he set it down carefully on the table beside him and moved a step away.

"A police oflBcer cannot accept a gift," he repeated.

She picked up the jade and moved until she was directly in front of him. "It is not a gift," she said. "It is bribe."

"Bribe! Do you know what that means?"

"Yes, I know. I also tell Mr. Chief McGowan that I bribe you."

"I don't get it," Tibbs said.

She lifted his hand and laid it against the jade. "This is bribe and you take it. I want you to become my boyfriend."

"But you don't have to bribe me to do that." StiU slightly upset, he spoke without thinking.

She smiled at him. "Good you say so!"

He looked at her-at her Japanese features and her dark Negro skin. Then he made the mistake of looking at her eyes and was held there. "You will do?" she asked.

"Put down the jade," he answered, "and we'll see.'*