Stealing Time

CHAPTER 48

A

pril and Mike were stuck in the middle of Friday afternoon traffic. April held the cell phone to her ear, waiting for someone to pick up. The red gum ball flashed importantly on the roof of the car, and the siren was very loud. Nervous motorists took a look at Mike's red car with tinted black windows and moved over even though the dirty Camaro didn't remotely resemble a police car. The cooperation got them up to about thirty-five miles an hour. After three rings an unfamiliar, croaky voice answered.

"Wei."

The sound of a stranger on her parents' phone struck April with another wave of nausea. The hot, dizzy feeling swept over her, filling her mouth with water. The heavy traffic had been moving along at an even pace. Suddenly it was slowed almost to a stop by the yellow arrow of a street sweeper ahead of them, cleaning the roadway at rush hour. Her gut clenched. She grimaced and closed her eyes.

"Wei?"

the voice said again, more urgently this time.

"Who's that?" April asked in Chinese.

"It's your mother, who you think?" Also in Chinese.

"What's the matter, Ma?" April asked, instantly feeling better.

Skinny Dragon Mother made a little crying sound. "I very sick."

"Too bad," April said, feeling better still. The dragon did sound pretty weak and pitiful, but April wasn't going to let it bother her.

"Come home right away. Maybe I die."

"That's terrible." April tried to put a little concern in her voice, but wasn't entirely successful.

"Come home right away. Need doctor."

Skinny hated doctors. She would never say she needed one without a very good reason. A reflex of filial thoughtfulness crept over April in spite of herself. "Is Dad there?" she asked.

"No."

"Anyone there?"

"Dog here."

"I mean someone who could help you."

"You police captain. You supposed to take care of me; mother comes first."

"Ma, listen to me. I'm chasing a killer right now. I can't come home and take care of you."

"Killer more important than me?" Skinny screamed.

"Be reasonable, Ma; you hurt me last night. That doesn't make me feel like caring for you." April found this surprisingly easy to say on a cell phone while Mike was driving the Camaro with the siren blasting. "You made me sick. I was sick on the job. I threw up and lost face in front of the whole department. I was on my knees because of you. You think I have sympathy now because you don't feel well?"

"What's wrong with you, ungrateful worm?" Skinny wailed.

"Gee, I'm not sure. Maybe my heart, maybe my liver. Maybe my brain. It's hard to know. Only the person who poisoned me would know for sure." The siren screamed, but so did her mother.

"Oh,

ni,

you bad girl," Skinny cried over the siren.

"If I'm bad girl, then a bad mother must have raised me," April shot back. She heard a scream on the other end of the line.

"I best mother!"

"Best mothers don't poison their daughters to get their way."

"You were sick before, only try to help,

ni.

You better now?"

"You made me sick because you don't want me to be happy. You don't want me to choose my own husband, my own life." They passed the road sweeper and sped up.

"What's going on?" Mike asked.

Sai attempted a death rattle on the other end of the line.

April didn't answer Mike and didn't care what noises her mother made. "Too bad. You got yourself sick when you cooked up that poison in the kitchen. Just because you didn't want me to be happy, you probably smell and feel as bad as I do."

"Maybe I die. Then who take care of your father?" Skinny countered.

Uh-oh. April wasn't up to a possibility as loaded as that. "Better not die; he'll find another wife to take your place."

Skinny made a clicking noise that April interpreted as "Not a chance; you'll get him for sure."

"What was the shit in the kettle?"

"None of your business." But at the thought of a successor wife she changed her mind fast. "Dragon bones; sour herbs," she admitted.

"Must have been some low-quality, very sick dragon. I bet those bones were black, huh. That's what you get when you use cheap ingredients." "You okay,

nil

You learn lesson?" Sai asked, almost meekly.

What lesson? Skinny never even articulated why loving a non-Chinese was such a big deal. If she'd said, "Look what happened to Lin Tsing for messing with a Caucasian; look what happened to Heather Rose," then maybe she'd have a point that April could think about. They could have discussed it. Skinny could have gotten to know Mike and judged for herself whether he was a good man for a woman—of any culture. But Skinny was a wrathful dragon. She couldn't tell a good man from a bad one, was interested in her own prejudices, not facts.

"M, you come home and take care of best-quality mother," Sai Woo said in her most guilt-inducing voice.

"Drink lots of fluids. Call Mr. Wang. Maybe he knows what to do for bad dragon bones."

"M, you mad at me?"

"Yes."

"You coming home after you catch killer?"

"Not like before, Ma." April finished telling her mother off in Chinese and hung up the phone.

"What was that all about?" Mike asked, looking at her strangely.

"Oh, nothing much. My mother took some black dragon bones, and it made her sick."

"The same ones that got you?"

"Yeah. She wanted me to come right home and take care of her." April shook her head. Mothers!

"You want to take a detour and check on her,

queridaT'

"No way. You know we've got local people waiting for us. Let her wait."

"How are you holding up?"

"Me?" April took a deep breath, testing. "I feel great, just great." And it was true.

"Good, here's Ring Road." Mike slowed down and took a right.

"Nice area," April remarked.

"Looks like he beat us." Mike pointed out the long blue limo in the middle of the next block. The light turned red. He ran it.