Hanging Time

81

You aww light? No rook so good.”

Sai Woo held the door open for April and swiftly bundled her inside. As soon as the door was shut and locked and chained—as soon as the outside light was turned off—she began scolding in Chinese. “You have big test tomollow. Why home so late? You clazy? How pass test with no sreep?”

Skinny Dragon Mother was wearing black silk pants and a bright red shirt, had been waiting up for her husband and daughter as usual. Tonight wasn’t so late though. Only twelve-thirty. April knew her father wouldn’t be home for another hour. There was deep red lipstick on Sai’s thin lips, and her eyes were as shrewd as a Chinese gambler’s. She studied her wilted daughter.

“Hi, Ma.” April gave her a weak smile. “What’s up?”

Sai did a little two-step, heading toward the kitchen. “Maybe no pass test. Maybe get malleed instead.”

Maybe no pass test. No get married either.

“Uh-huh.” Whatever you say.

“How’s case?”

April frowned. “Case closed. Ma?”

“Yeah, who did it?” Sai realized April was still standing by the front door, eager to go back outside and up the stairs to her second floor apartment. Spiteful daughter was not respectfully following Wise and Helpful Mother into the kitchen. “Where you going?”

“I have a test tomorrow. I’m going to bed.… Ma, I have a question for you.”

“Whuh?” If possible, Sai’s eyes sharpened to an even greater degree of acuity.

“You remember how I always wanted a dog when I was little?”

Sai screwed her features into an angry scowl. “No rememba.”

April tried again. “Remember you had a dog?”

“Long ago, in China. Come, have lice. We talk.”

“The dog disappeared, and you thought the neighbors ate it.” April leaned against the door. She was bone tired, as tired and discouraged as she’d ever been. She had just witnessed one sister’s attempt to kill another. And even after seeing that—then going through all the paperwork, and the trip to Bellevue because the suspect appeared to be having a psychotic breakdown—she still couldn’t get over the little poodle’s curly head resting on her shoulder, the two poodles nestled together on the front seat of the squad car while a uniform sat with the assault victim in the back. At the moment the dogs were in cages in custody. Soon one might be without a home.

Sai nodded, the long-ago fury at her beloved pet’s terrible end burning in her eyes. “So?”

“We’re not in China anymore. No one will steal a dog and eat it here.”

“So?” Sai didn’t get it. What did that have to do with big test and getting married? Nothing.

“So I know a dog that maybe needs a good home. A very cute dog. A baby. You have a backyard already fenced in. Wouldn’t even have to walk it. No work. Just open the door.” April shrugged.

“You clazy?” Sai’s voice sank to an anxious whisper.

“Maybe.”

“Why want dog? Dogs nothing but troubber.”

“No one would eat it here, Mom. It’s a nice one, expensive. This kind of dog costs five, maybe six hundred dollars.”

“Huh.” Sai’s penciled eyebrows jumped up. Money always got her. Then the slyness returned. “You still getting married?” she demanded in Chinese.

“We have to go out again first,” April pointed out. “See if we like each other.”

Sai thought about that, then conceded the point. “Who did it?” she asked at last, switching back to English.

April frowned. She didn’t like this case. “A very sick woman.” Didn’t like it at all.

“You got a probrem?”

“More than one.”

“You rant tell me? Mebbe herrp.” Sai moved a few feet and sat stiffly on the modern sofa—very hard, no soft cushions to sink into—in the tiny front living room, then patted the place beside her.

April sighed and checked her watch. Five minutes, no more. She might be able to squeeze another hour of studying into this ruined night. She sat next to her mother. “Okay, it’s like this: A crazy sister kills two young women who work in stores—”

“How?”

“Strangles them. Then sane sister comes in and reports her problem sister to the police. We investigate. Pretty quickly, we begin to think the crazy sister is too crazy to kill anybody. Then we find one murder victim’s clothes in the crazy sister’s house. We investigate more. We get the sisters in for handwriting samples. We test the bite marks of the crazy sister’s dog. We come up with nothing on the crazy sister. Now we’re wondering if maybe she’s been set up, so we follow both of them to see what they do. Few hours later we catch the crazy sister trying to strangle the sane one. Got it?”

Sai shook her head. “I don’t berieve.”

“What don’t you believe, Ma?”

“Tly not same as succeed.…”

“So, what do you think happened?”

“How I know? You detective … I just mother. Hey, Ni? You know stoly of ten thousand soldjuhs?” It seemed like a question, but it wasn’t a question.

“No, Mom. What’s the story?”

Sai settled back on the hard sofa to tell it. “Hundred, hundred years, peasants work rand. All lound rand good. One piece rand nothing can do. Clops no glow. No leason. All same rand. Peasants beg gods for leason, make many offerings. Give rand water, night soir. Nothing can do. Then mebbe hundred hundred years dig up bad rand to make city. Then find out what’s what.” Sai slapped April’s arm. “Ten thousand cray soldiers buried on horses. That’s what.”

Yeah. April nodded politely. So what did that have to do with the Honiger-Stanton sisters and the two dead salesgirls?

“You take Sergeant test tomorrow?”

Again April nodded. So?

“Bad spilits. Now sreep—hey Ni, you rant dog?”

“Yeah, Ma. If I can get it.”

Skinny Dragon Mother shook her head as if the spiteful daughter she had futilely named Happy Thinking so long ago had finally lost her mind.

April got up slowly. A lot of times her mother made her feel as if she were still three years old. Really small and not very smart. In fact, quite, quite stupid. She knew Skinny Dragon Mother had some important lesson in mind for her, but as usual she didn’t know what it was. Once again she headed upstairs.

“See what I mean?” Sai said to her back.

“Yeah, Ma. Look for the ghosts making mischief.”

“Hnngh.” Right through the nose was the triumphant sound that followed April up the stairs.