Five pieces of jade

CHAPTER 6

Mr. Aaron Finegold sat in his office chair with his long legs thrust out under his desk so that he was all but resting on the base of his spine. His narrow, dark face was capped by a thick mass of black, very curly hair which maintained some semblance of order only under continuous protest. His eyes were deep sunk and fairly close, giving the illusion that they were surrounded by permanent dark circles. Sometimes they appeared sleepy, on other occasions they had been known to suggest a raven with insomnia. With such strong features to support, Mr. Finegold required a nose of more than ordinary distinction and he possessed one. The total effect of his physiognomy was notable-it was an accidental part of his stock in trade.

"You wanted to see me," he said.

Virgil Tibbs had interviewed a great many people in the course of his poUce career, and lawyers were not new to him, in their offices or in court. He therefore looked back at Mr. Finegold with unperturbed composure. "I understand that you were the attorney for the late Mr. Wang Fu-sen."

"Yes."

Virgil laid his card on the desk. "I have been assigned to investigate his death; this necessitates some questions. May I have your cooperation?"

Finegold recognized the ploy and countered it. "I'm sure that you recognize my position and understand what I can and cannot do."

"Among the 'can's,' I trust, is helping me to find the person or persons who caused the death of your client."

That brought things to dead center. "Very well," Fine-gold said, "what do you want to know?"

"First of all, can you tell me if Mr. Wang had any relatives with whom I might get in touch?"

Finegold shook his head. "The only ones I know of are 44

behind the Bamboo Curtain, and I doubt very much if they can be located or written to."

"I have the impression that he may have left a considerable estate."

"I believe that is true. At least in terms of the jade collection he had. His pieces were excellent and very valuable."

"Can you tell me, sir, if there is a will."

"Yes, and fairly recent one."

Tibbs changed his tone somewhat. "You understand, Mr. Finegold, that inheritance is often a very powerful motive for murder."

A silent nod answered him.

'The value of Mr. Wang's estate might have encouraged someone to speed his demise."

The attorney sat up straighter in his chair. "That is true as far as it goes, but it is manifestly unfair. Putting it the way you did means that anyone and everyone who stands to benefit from Mr. Wang's unfortunate death also comes under a cloud of suspicion."

Tibbs crossed his legs. "Mr. Finegold, I didn't come here to spar with you and there is no jury to be impressed either way. I'm solely interested in finding out who killed your chent and why."

"All right, let's go on from that premise. What next?"

"On another topic for a moment: do you have any knowledge, or suspicion, that Mr. Wang might have been in any way involved in the narcotics trade?"

That brought his host up straight in his chair once more. "I'll give you a direct and unequivocated answer to that: absolutely not." He paused a moment before he continued. "I assume that you are not subject to racial prejudices against minorities."

Virgil looked at him, but said nothing.

"It's not precisely accurate to describe the Chinese as a minority, but they are in this country," Finegold went on. "However there are plenty of people ready to attribute to them certain classic vices that they are supposed to favor." "It's my turn to avoid equivocation," Tibbs answered. "I asked you that qtestion because I had a specific reason for doing so. That is confidential information and I will ask you to regard it as such.'*

Finegold surveyed him carefully. "Let me ask you something off the record if I may: if Mr. Wang were alive and weU today, is there any possibility that he might be in jeopardy in connection with illegal drugs?"

"Truthfully, I don't know. At the moment it is enough of a possibility that I'm checldng it out. Mr. Wang does not stand accused posthumously as of now, or if he does, I am unaware of it."

"Then let me say this: Francis Wang was as fine and honorable a gentleman as I have ever known in my life. I cannot even conceive of his having an enemy, although it is patent that he had one, at least. He was my trusted supplier of fine Chinese lapidary work, my client, and my valued friend."

"Francis?"

"Many Chinese, Mr. Tibbs, realizing that their names are sometimes difficult for Westerners, take an anglicized first name to make things simpler. Particularly if they are in any form of trade."

"If your relationship was as you suggest, and I don't question that, may I ask why you seemed reluctant at first to discuss the matter with me? You fuUy understood the purpose of my visit."

Finegold leaned back in his chair. "You have me cornered on that one and I will have to be candid with you. I am interested in protecting Mr. Wang's reputation, even after his demise, and I had that in mind. In addition, there is another consideration. You're going to find this out anyway so I might as well inform you now. Francis asked me to represent Miss Yumeko Nagashima only a week or so ago. Do you know this young lady?"

Tibbs nodded. "Yes, I've had that pleasure. You'd better tell me what kind of difficulty she's in."

"None that I'm aware of."

"You just told me that Mr. Wang asked you to represent her. Normally he would hardly do that for a houseguest without some reason."

"Mr. Tibbs, I hope that I'm never placed in the position of having to defend a guilty client in court against you. Miss Nagashima is something of an enigma; I don't know a great deal about her background, only that Francis Wang befriended her and very obviously was glad that he had done so. I seriously question that there was any sexual relationship between them and I also strongly doubt that there was any blood relationship."

Virgil nodded. "I agree on both counts, at least as of now. That's based on personal judgment and nothing else."

"Good. That's as far as I feel that I can take it at this time, but since I have been retained, even though very informally, to look after Miss Nagashima, I had her interests in mind when we were talking earlier."

Tibbs locked his fingers and then pressed them until they seemed to grow white. "Mr. Finegold, I understand your reluctance to continue and I believe I know the reason for it. I want to ask you one more question nonetheless.'*

"I'll answer it if I feel that I can."

"Very well. I beheve you anticipate what it is now. You have already informed me that Mr. Wang made a recent will. And that he asked you, also very recently, to protect Miss Nagashima's interests. And you have stated that to the best of your knowledge she was not in any difficulty at that time." He looked up. "The inference is, of course, perfectly obvious. Was, or is, Miss Nagashima mentioned in that will?"

For several seconds the subdued hum of an electric clock on the desk was the only real sound in the room. When Finegold spoke, his voice was controlled. "I will answer that question with the understanding that the information is for your private use only as a police officer until such time as it is made public."

"Agreed, with the proviso that it may be necessary to discuss it within the police department to a limited degree."

"Accepted. Very well, then: Mr. Wang made a number of provisions of a personal and also a charitable nature. He left certain asssets to his family association. After that what was left, and I would say that it is considerable, goes in its entirety to Miss Nagashima. She does not know this, or didn't at the time. In particular the considerable treasure that Mr. Wang's jade collection represents will all be hers."

"Thank you, Mr. Finegold; no wonder you were retained to protect her interests. I am frankly amazed to discover that she is an heiress."

The attorney got to his feet. "No more so than I was, Mr. Tibbs, when I was asked to draw up that document. But Francis was, in his quiet way, totally determined, and there was no point in arguing with him. Somehow, in some way, that girl had become someone very important in his life."

The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs advised over the phone that both Mr. Lonigan and Mr. Duffy were out and could not be conveniently reached. Expecting that that would be the case, Virgil left his number, 577^598, and then returned to his car. He drove, slowly and thoughtfully, to the municipal library and went inside.

The reference librarian knew him well, as she had cause to. "What will it be this time, Mr. Tibbs?" she asked. "You won't surprise me with anything."

Virgil smiled. "What have you on jade?" he asked.

"Oh, quite a bit. Are you interested in the stone itself, in jewelry, in American jade, or Chinese carvings?"

"Chinese carvings-definitely."

"Oh yes, I remember reading about that in the paper. Of course it would be your case." She rose. "I don't remember the author's name, but there is a very good book on the subject that was recently reprinted. Someone else was in here asking about it very recently."

She led the way to the catalog and quickly located the cards that she wanted. "There are a number of works available, some of them very technical. As an introduction, I think I'd recommend The Stone of Heaven by Gump. After that you'll want-yes, here it is- Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages by Nott. Now I just hope that they're in. Nott is a standard work and the one I was telling you about."

Ten minutes later Tibbs left the hbrary bearing two volumes-a fairly slender one and a second which was much more substantial. When he got back to his office Bob Naka-mura was out, but as he put the books down he saw the note Bob had left for him in the center of his desk. Call Chief McGowan as soon as you get in.

It took a few seconds for the call to be completed. When it was, McGowan's quiet, unruffled voice came over the line. "Come on up, Virgil. A couple of gentlemen are here who have been waiting to talk with you."

Tibbs knew immediately who the gentlemen in question were. It seemed to him, for just a moment, that they could not leave either himself or the case he was working on alone, and he was annoyed. Then he got hold of himself and remembered that if they had not come to see him, it would have been the other way around. All they had done was to save him some trouble.

As he walked into the chiefs office, both Lx^nigan and Duffy got to their feet and shook hands. "I'm glad to see you," Virgn said truthfully. "I've been trying to get in touch with you."

"We've heard," Duffy responded. "We were expecting that you'd call. Our paths seem to have crossed quite abruptly."

"Since you gentlemen obviously want to compare notes, why don't you use the conference room?" McGowan said.

"It's available. Let me know if you arrive at any decisions."

As he walked out toward the conference room Tibbs saw once more the face of Yumeko when she had told him about her visit from the federal narcotics agents. Her dismay had been too real to have been put on; she had been genuinely shaken up. Now he intended to find out why.

When the door had been closed, Lonigan opened the conversation.

"When we first talked to you, Mr. Tibbs, we didn't foresee that Wang Fu-sen was going to die violently that same day and that you would handle the case."

"It's one helluva coincidence," Virgil said, and looked a question mark at him.

"Yes and no. Coincidence that the man died just when he did, not so remarkable that you were assigned to it You're the top homicide man here."

Something in his tone suggested that the sentence was not complete in itself. "Are you telling me," Tibbs asked, "that Chief McGowan was aware of your interest in that man?"

"Before we asked for you," DuJQfy said, "we leveled with him. Naturally-he's the boss."

"All the way?"

"A good part of it"

"Then why wasn't I told?" Tibbs asked.

"You are being told-now. You've been a little busy, and so have we.*'

VirgU sat down and stretched his legs under the table. "I think it would be a good idea if we had a friendly understanding. You've got a damned important job to do- and so have I. The difference is that I can finalize and you can't. So I should be out of the picture, hopefully, before too long. In the meantime, for God's sake, let's not get in each other's way!"

"Amen to that," Lonigan said, and sat down too. "I know what's on your mind-we were out talking to that girl- Nagashima."

"Let me have it," Tibbs said. "What have you got on her?"

Duffy dropped into one of the vacant chairs. "Your name's Virgil, isn't it? All right, Virgil, the straight answer is that we don't know."

"On Wang himself?"

"We don't know that either."

"Well, for your information, gentlemen, you scared the pee out of her and then left her with the happy thought that you were coming back."

Lonigan became tougher. "We are, unless we are absolutely satisfied about something and convinced that she's in the clear. That isn't the case right now."

"What are the odds that she's implicated?"

"No bet."

Virgil's voice acquired a snap that more than matched Lonigan's. "A few hours ago you were inviting me to work with you, now you're holding out on me while I'm engaged in a murder investigation. If it works out that that girl killed her benefactor, and she's convicted of it in court, then she could be sentenced to the gas chamber. That's about as serious as you can get. You had a right to go and see her, but in doing so you messed me up but good. Now I suggest that we lay a few cards on the table so that we stop working at cross purposes."

Duffy calmed things down. "You're right, Virgil, I can't dispute that. I suggest that we do work together; we'll put you in the picture if you, in turn, will give us what help you can with what we're up against."

"All right. Let's have it"

Lonigan began. "Generally there are three sources for the Dlegal narcotics and drugs that are on the market: the Middle East via France, Mexico, and the Far East. Most of the heroin that feeds into the East Coast originates in Turkey as opium; it's converted to morphine in Lebanon and in turn into heroin in southeastern France, usually in or around Marseilles. Heroin also comes up from Mexico, but it's usu-ually of much poorer quality; it's consumed for the most part in California and some in Hawaii. The price has gone well above four hundred and fifty dollars an ounce, and that's for a diluted product."

"I know most of this," Virgil said.

"I assumed that you did, but I've got a reason for going over it now. There are certain prime ports in Southeast Asia that are shipping out illegal drugs to this country. They include Bangkok, Penang, and Singapore. Much of it, in the form of solid blocks of morphine trademarked 999, is shipped to Hong Kong. There the conversion to heroin is done. At one step in the process, if the stuff is heated a little too much, the whole place can blow up. That happens, ever›^ now and then."

"That should help a httle with the control problem." 50

"I'd like to think that it does. But now let me put some pieces together for you: the chief sources for jade carvings are also Hong Kong, Singapore, and to a lesser degree Bangkok. For a while jade wasn't allowed to come into the United States, but our late friend Mr. Wang managed to keep supplied. Or so we are reliably informed. And there is some supporting evidence that the narcotics traders have been in frequent contact with him; we have that pretty well established as a matter of fact. Then, just at a crucial period, the young lady now living in his home arrived from the Orient and took up residence with him for no visible reason. And no sooner was she here than the supply began to increase."

Tibbs interrupted with a question. "Is this circumstantial so far, or do you have any direct evidence?"

"Nothing direct-as yet. Now two more things that may help to focus the picture a little. Literally every day hundreds of tons of imports of all kinds arrive in this country; it's a physical impossibility to search every shipment thoroughly for contraband, so we rely very heavily on informants overseas. We stop a lot of stuff that way. Not all, of course. Some of the information we have been getting pointed to Wang. That's definite."

Duflfy picked up. "The big kicker we've been saving for last. You'd better brace yourself for this one."

"Go ahead."

"Let me ask you: what's worse than horse-heroin?"

"Nothing that I know of," Tibbs answered. "In some cases LSD because of the unpredictable aftereffects. The fact that the user can take off on another trip anytime, without warning, weeks or months after the most recent use of the drug."

"True, but LSD isn't truly addictive. I'm talking now about drugs of pure addiction."

"On that basis, heroin heads the list."

Duffy shook his head. "It used to, but not anymore. Have you ever heard of keto-bedmidone? Or Claradon, that's another name for it."

Virgil shook his head.

Lonigan folded his hands on top of the table. "It's a synthetic, made and used in Europe for certain very limited medical purposes. It's a powerful analgesic which can be administered for the relief of extreme pain, say to a person who has been badly mangled in an accident and isn't expected to live."

"How about Demerol?"

'There are lots of things that can do the job; keto-bed-midone is one of them. But it has two other properties that make it extremely dangerous. First, it produces significant euphoria, in addicts' language a tremendous high. And it is extremely addictive. Considerably more than heroin.*'

"In other words, it outdoes heroin all the way?"

"In broad terms, you could put it that way."

"It must be hellish stuff," Tibbs said.

"It is. It's completely banned in this country, but recently it has turned up here. I doubt if many junkies, knowing what it is, would risk it themselves, and you know what they do to their bodies."

"I've seen some things."

Lonigan paused, as though he was choosing his next words with great care. "Virgil, we have it that the Chicoms have been making this stuff and that they have definite plans for introducing it into this country in quantity. They know what it can do."

Tibbs had a question. "Frank, gone as the junkies are most of the time, they have some brains when they're normal. As long as they can get heroin, do you think that they would lay themselves open to anything like this?"

Lonigan nodded. "That's our hope. They got wise to speed and eased up on it. If any more of this stuff gets on the market, then we'll put out the word and do it fast. Of course there's a small percentage of drug users who'll try anything just to prove how brave they are. They play Russian roulette with their lives all the time. Have you heard of fruit salad?"

Virgil was grim. "We brought two of them into Huntington Memorial last month. One terminal, one made it by the grace of God and a stomach pump. About keto-bedmidone; have you any idea when it's supposed to be coming in?"

"No, we don't have that. Only some pretty solid information from Hong Kong that it would be on its way, and that the late Mr. Wang would be the recipient. Or the girl; she may have been planted there for that purpose. So you see now why we're so interested in that young lady.'*

When Tibbs got back to his office Bob Nakamura was there. He was catching up on paper work, mountains of which cleared through the department every month. It seemed that pohc^ administration had to be buttressed by a phalanx of paper or it would not operate.

"After all these years I ought to be getting used to you, 52

Virg," he said, looking up from his typewriter, "but you never cease to amaze me. I've been in touch with the morgue. How in the hell did you know that that stone implement sticking out of the late Mr. Wang Fu-sen's chest probably wasn't the cause of his death? You were right, but I have it from Floyd Sanderson that all you did was kneel down and look at the body passively for two or three minutes."

Tibbs shrugged. "If you'd been there, you would have seen it too."

"I'm not so sure; armed robbery is more my line. Anyhow, what was the gimmick?"

"First, please tell me how the man died."

*That's the funny part, Virg; they aren't sure yet. Apparently somebody may have stabbed him with it after he was dead."

*That was my conclusion," Tibbs said dryly.

"All right, wonder boy, open up. What gave it to you?"

*'The position of the body principally, that was the major factor. Once that suggested the idea, several other things contributed."

"Such as?"

"Have you seen the pictures?"

"Not yet."

"Go look at them. K you have any questions after that, we'll talk about it."

"You don't want to discuss it now."

*That's right; I've got another idea I want to think about. Forgive me, will you?"

"Of course. When you get an idea, I usually keep out of the way."

Tibbs looked at his own desk and shook his head in despair. "It isn't anything tremendous right now-at least not on the surface. It may never be. But I think, in the interests of duty, of course, that I'm going to take a lady to dinner."

"Miss Nagashima?"

"Yes, if that's who she really is. The Feds had a go at her this morning, but when I talked to them, they were notably mum about what went on. I have a few innocuous questions I'd like to ask her myself. In a nice way, of course."

Nakamura looked at him. "Heaven help her," he said.