Stealing Time

CHAPTER 23

M

ilton Hua was not back from work at the restaurant when April Woo finally returned Nanci's call, soon after ten

P.M.

"Hey, Nanci, I got your message. What did you do, go and move to Long Island?" April demanded when Nanci picked up on the first ring.

"April, oh God, thanks for getting back to me so soon. Yeah, Milton has his own restaurant now. We bought a house in the suburbs, can you believe it?"

"Sure, I believe it. Food any good?"

"You know it is." Nanci's voice dropped. "April, are you at work?"

"I have time for you, Nanci. We go back a long way. So there are big changes in your life, huh? You two breeding yet?"

"What?" The question startled her.

"Just wondering if you've started a family."

"Oh, that." She twisted the phone cord. "Funny you should ask that. No, not yet. You know Milton. He had to have every

i

dotted, every

t

crossed, money in the bank, the whole bit before he'd commit to family. How about you, married yet?"

"No, but I've been promoted. I'm a sergeant now."

Nanci could hear the pride in her voice. "Congratulations. That's—great." There was a lot of noise in the background that stopped her from going on. April was at work. Nanci couldn't help being afraid of the police. Now she was nervous because April had a higher rank. She wasn't sure how that altered the situation. Would she be more sympathetic to the situation or less?

"So, you called me, Nanci. What's going on? You have a problem?"

"Yes, I have a big problem. But we haven't seen each other for a while. Things have kind of changed. I don't know where to start." Nanci dropped the phone cord and started twisting her wedding band around on her finger.

"Nothing's changed between us. I've known you since you were seven."

"And you were a real goody-goody twelve-year-old."

"So give."

"Did I ever tell you about my cousin Lin?" Nanci knew she probably hadn't.

"What about her? Is she the one in trouble?"

Nanci was ashamed of herself, ashamed of this story. She was sitting in a comfortable house and her cousin was sick somewhere and a lot of people who should be taking care of her were lying about where she was and what had happened to her.

"Yes, and she's all the family I have left. Except for Milton, of course. She came in from China last summer."

"Illegal?"

"You going to make trouble about it?"

"Immigration is not my department, you know that. Go ahead, what's the problem?"

"You know how difficult sixteen-year-olds can be. Lin got here, thought she was too old to go to school, didn't want to live with us. Went to work in a factory. I couldn't get a word out of her. I thought she might have a boyfriend in the gangs and that was the reason for her being so secretive."

"What kind of secretive? Was she into something, flashing money around?"

Nanci sighed. "No. That was the thing. She was a mess, living in a dump. I didn't hear from her for a while."

"Could you hurry it up a little, Nanci? I'm working on something."

Nanci's voice got very small. "I know you're busy. But I didn't have anybody else to call."

"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm under a lot of pressure right now. Go ahead."

"Well, we had a fight. I wanted to apologize. So I went to look for her, but the people where she used to work told me they've never heard of her. The people where she lived say the lady from work took her to the hospital. I went to Beekman Downtown; she wasn't there. Then I called

all

the hospitals. She's not anywhere. I even checked the morgue. That's pretty crazy, isn't it?"

"I hope so." The noise intensified on the other end of the line.

"What's going on there? Did something happen?"

"Don't you read the newspapers out there on Long Island? We got a missing-kid case."

"Are you working on that, April?" Nanci said faintly.

"The mother's Chinese. ABC, but they thought she might not speak English. I got lucky."

"American-born, huh?"

"Yeah, she got herself beaten up. Nice mixed marriage. He's a lawyer. Looks like it's not working out. You're lucky you have Milton."

"I know." Nanci fell silent. "I'm sorry to bother you, April. Maybe I'm making too much of this."

"It's not a problem." April's interest seemed to sharpen suddenly. "Give me some last-seens and I'll get on it. I have to go downtown tomorrow anyway. I'll make some time for it, okay?"

Nanci was doubting the wisdom of having made the call. She should be able to deal with this herself. Why involve the cops? She might even make it worse. "Could be she's just run off with a boyfriend," she said slowly.

"Could be."

"People lie all the time," Nanci said.

April agreed with her. "They do. But you're worried. I'll check it out. Where did she work? Where did she live? What's her name?"

"Tsing, same as mine was. Our fathers were brothers. Maybe I should give it another day, huh? Do you think I'm overreacting?"

April sounded impatient. "I'm not going to fight with you. You want help, you give me the info. I'll handle it discreetly, okay? Do you have a picture of her?"

"We just moved. Stuff is everywhere. If I look around, I might be able to find one. Can I let you know about all this tomorrow?"

"You can let me know any day. You have my number."

"Really, thanks. I appreciate it." Nanci hung up. She didn't even know where to look for a photo of Lin, and she knew April was mad at her because she was afraid to follow through. That made her feel worse. Even so, she decided to wait another day before pursuing it further.