Linger Awhile

11 Chauncey Lim

9 January 2004. I saw Justine Trimble commit murder last night. I’d been keeping an eye on Fallok’s place when I saw her come out. In full colour, which was startling. After reaching the street she leaned against a building for a few minutes, and then a woman who was passing spoke to her. Suddenly, before you could say ‘Chow Yun Fat’, Justine had the other woman in a close embrace. They stayed like that for perhaps ten minutes; then the other woman slumped to the street and Justine picked her up, slung her over her shoulder, carried her about half-way down the block, went down some area steps with her, came back up without her and walked away.

I hurried to where she’d left her victim. The woman was young and pretty, white as a sheet and stone-cold dead. Very sad but there was nothing I could do for her so I hurried after Justine. I followed her up Marshall to Great Marlborough Street where she took off her anorak and stuffed it into a dustbin. I retrieved it because you never know. I followed Justine as far as Oxford Street but there I lost her in the crowd. I took no further action because Rightnow is a good dog but Notyet is a safer bet.

10 January 2004. Next day I still hadn’t worked out my next move so I went up to Golders Green hoping for inspiration from Rosalie Chun at Elijah’s Lucky Dragon. ‘My goodness, Chaunce,’ she said, ‘you look as if you’ve seen the Malach ha-Mavet.’

‘Who’s that when he’s at home?’ I said.

‘The Angel of Death.’

‘That’s pretty close to the mark. I think I need something strong, Rosalie.’

‘You got it, bro. I’m giving you cheese blintzes Jackie Chan with special kick-ass cottage cheese. If I tell you the secret ingredient I’ll have to kill you, so don’t ask.’

‘Who’s asking?’ I said. ‘Just lay them on me.’

Rosalie does not make exaggerated claims for her food. The blintzes put new heart into me but I still wasn’t sure what my next move should be. I’d seen what I’d seen, and Justine had definitely offed someone. Should I turn her in? I’m ashamed to say that if Justine had been ugly I’d probably have acted as a good citizen should. But she wasn’t ugly, she was adorable-looking, and I didn’t want to think of her behind bars. ‘Rosalie,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘What’s the problem?’ she said.

‘It’s a moral question,’ I said, ‘involving someone I know.’

‘This is something big, yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Talk to Elijah,’ said Rosalie. ‘Moral, financial, whatever, Elijah’s your man.’

‘You mean the prophet Elijah?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘He took off for heaven in a chariot of fire,’ I said. ‘Surely he’s retired now?’

‘No, he’s not,’ said Rosalie. ‘You know why this restaurant is called Elijah’s Lucky Dragon?’

‘Not yet.’

‘It was The Lucky Dragon before I owned it but it wasn’t lucky. Back in 1982 the owner wanted to sell it for 150,000 pounds. I had 4,000 in savings but I couldn’t get a mortgage for the rest. This was before I was married. Elijah appeared to me in a dream, he looked like a tramp. “Is that you?” I said. “You were looking for someone else?” he said. “No,” I said, “you’re the one I want.” “Good,” he said, “call it Elijah’s and it’ll be lucky.”“Call what?” I said.“The restaurant you’re buying,” he said. “Who’s buying?” I said. “I haven’t got the money.”“You’ll have,” he said,“you’ll buy, and you’ll put my name on the sign so it’ll be Elijah’s Lucky Dragon, OK?” “OK,” I said. “Now what?” “Who knows?” he said, “But you can bet your arse on Elijah, I was always a fast runner.” I woke up and looked in the paper and it was the Grand National that day. There was no horse called Elijah but I found First Kings at a hundred to one so I got my 4,000 out of the bank and went to Ladbrokes and put it on First Kings to win.

‘There was a man standing behind me at the window, shorter than me and Chinese. I could tell that he liked my looks. “Who’d you bet on?” he said. “First Kings,” I said. “First Kings is a hundred to one,” he said, “you’re a plunger.” “The name excites me,” I said. He nodded as if he understood that. “Same odds as Foinavon when he won it in sixty-seven,’ he said. ‘How much did you bet?” “Four thousand,” I said. “I think you’re lucky,” he said, “so I’ll do the same, and if we win let’s go somewhere for drinks and dinner.” First Kings finished first and we won 800,000 pounds between us, Lester Chun and I. We had dinner at Mr Chow and Lester said, “What shall we do with all this money?”’

Rosalie looked around at the dining room. ‘This is what we did with some of it,’ she said. ‘Elijah done good for us.’

‘Right,’ I said, ‘but does he take on non-Jewish clients?’

‘Elijah is a stranger himself,’ said Rosalie, ‘so he’s always ready to help a stranger. What’ve you got to lose?’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘I’ll try for an Elijah dream.’ I wasn’t expecting anything to happen very soon but on the way home I fell asleep on the train and dreamt that it was raining and I was standing under a bridge. Another man came in out of the rain, he looked like a homeless person. ‘I wasn’t expecting rain this week,’ he said.

‘Are you Elijah?’ I said.

‘Who wants to know?’ he said.

‘I’m Chauncey Lim,’ I said. ‘Rosalie Chun’s a friend of mine.’

‘You don’t look Jewish,’ he said.

‘I’m not,’ I said, ‘but I’m a stranger and I’ve got a question.’

‘OK,’ he said. ‘What’s your question?’

When I told him, he said, ‘Nobody likes a snitch, Chaunce.’

‘So I shouldn’t tell the police?’

‘I’ll have to think about this, OK? Leave it with me.’

Well, I thought as I woke up, that’s one less decision to make.