The Finder

36

What a rotten place to die. He'd let her open her eyes and so now she looked around at the small cement-walled room with no windows, perhaps fifteen feet on a side. Next to her was an old porcelain tub with some kind of strange piping going into it. But odder still was the thick brown mixture in the tub; that was what gave off that strong chemical odor, a bad smell that reminded her of the iron yard in Shanghai where she worked one summer in the office doing paperwork while boys just off the train from the countryside worked long hours stripping the paint from old sheet metal. A trickle of water dribbled from the tub hose and emptied into a floor drain. Above her was a solitary incandescent lightbulb, bright, too high to reach and turn off.

She was sitting on an old mattress, her legs still taped and roped at the ankles, as were her wrists again. A thick metal chain was looped tightly around her waist, secured with a lock, and the other end of the chain was locked to a steel ring set into the cement floor. There was enough slack in the chain that she could sit up on the mattress but not enough that she could stand.

This guy is going to rape and kill me, Jin Li thought. This is the kind of place that crazy men torture and slaughter women. There were plenty of these kinds of men in America, she knew, just as there were men like this in China.

She was hungry but, more important, suffered a terrible thirst, perhaps because of the chemical fumes. She needed more water, but the man had climbed up the stairs to go do something, leaving the ceiling hatch open. He was taller than Ray but older and not as fit. Yet she feared him, not just because of what he had already done to her but because he radiated a malevolent potency. He was studying her closely, she knew, like a safecracker trying to figure out the combination, and she had certainly not forgotten his hands on-and inside-her body while in the van. If he did that then, what would he eventually do in the safety and obscurity of this windowless cement room? She could see he was thinking about it. Sort of tasting the idea in his head, his mouth already filled with saliva.

Victor had left the hatch open but he knew she wasn't going anywhere. He needed to concentrate now and dialed the number for Tom Reilly's wife's cell phone.

It picked up. "Is this Mrs. Reilly?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"I'm looking for your husband."

"This is not his number."

"I understand that," he said evenly.

"Who is this?"

"Someone who needs to reach your husband."

"I don't speak to people who don't tell me their name." She hung up.

Victor waited a minute. Then he dialed using another clonephone.

"Hello?" came the cautious voice.

"Mrs. Reilly, give me your husband's number."

"He's in a business meeting tonight."

"I don't care."

"He cares." She hung up again.

He called back on the first phone.

"Listen," she said, "I'm calling the police."

"I wouldn't," said Vic. "That's not a good idea, under the circumstances."

There was a pause as if she was considering something.

"Who shall I say is calling?" she asked, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Tell him the following words."

"Words?"

"Yes. Here they are. Write them down. The first word is 'CorpServe.' C-O-R-P-S-E-R-V-E. The second word is 'Mexicans.' As in Mexico, the country. Mexicans. The third word is 'dead.' Tell him those three words. He will be eager to speak with me then. I will call you back in three minutes." Vic hung up. This, he told himself, was going to be good.

We are way outside the paradigm now, Ann thought. She looked at the phone in her hand. She'd written the three words on the front of a patient's file.

"Yeah," came Tom's voice when she called. "Ann?"

"Got a strange call, Tom."

"Strange how?"

"From a man who wants to talk to you. Wouldn't give me his name. He told me three words to say to you."

"What?"

"What's going on, Tom? I'm beginning to feel-"

"Tell me the words, Ann, and we'll fucking worry about your feelings another time!"

She hadn't heard that tone in years. "The words are 'CorpServe,' 'Mexicans,' like the country, and the last word is 'dead.' "

"Okay."

"Okay? Dead Mexicans is an okay thing?" she cried.

"Yes. What next?"

"He wants your number, Tom." Her voice rose in anxiousness. "He's about to call back."

"Give it to him," answered Tom. "I think I know who this is." The timing could not be worse. The fellow named Elliot had started some of his preliminary buying of Good Pharma stock, tightening up the loose supply of shares that were available right now, but they weren't getting any movement upward in the price because Mr. Chen refused to talk. Tom watched Martz looking at him from across the rooftop, then back at Elliot. This crazy attempt to lift Good Pharma's stock price wasn't going to work. He saw that now, as plainly as he could see the red and green lights on the top of the Empire State Building, once and now again the tallest structure in New York City.

Vic dialed back using a different clonephone.

"This is his number," said his wife, repeating it. "He's there right now."

"Thank you for your assistance," said Vic.

"Fuck you, asshole." The phone went dead.

He dialed Tom Reilly.

"Yeah, James?"

"What?" said Vic, wondering if he sounded like James Tonelli, one of the names on the list.

"Why the fuck you calling my wife's cell phone number? How'd you get it?"

Gotta move fast here, thought Vic.

"James, this is Tom Reilly asking you a question. Talk, man."

"Mexicans," said Vic.

"I know. I heard. Again, why you calling my wife, James?"

"This isn't James, Tom."

A pause. "Who is this?"

"This is someone who knows what you told James Tonelli to do."

"I didn't tell him anything to do."

"Bullshit you didn't. You told him to kill some CorpServe workers."

"Who is this?"

"I want money, Tom. Real money. I know what you do, I know where your wife is."

"Listen-"

"No, you listen. I'll be calling back in one minute. Think about how much it would cost to pay me or how much it would cost you personally if I told people what you told James Tonelli to do."

He waited three minutes. Then called back.

"Two million, Tom. I want that in cash by the end of the day tomorrow." He hung up.

Tom examined his phone. He knew that Martz was wondering why he was taking a personal call at a time like this. But he had to play ball with this other guy. If he didn't, then-well, then he's sitting in court listening to James Tonelli, witness for the state after copping to a reduced charge, saying how Tom had ordered the cold-blooded murder of two Mexican girls. By then he would have lost his job, his wife, his whole world. He could get hold of $2 million easily enough; that was a quick call to his private banker. Maybe I should stall the guy, Tom thought. But he remembered that the guy had Ann's cell number, which she generally didn't give out. It was used for emergencies at the office only. And for talking with Tom. If this guy had her number, then maybe he knew where they lived.

"Tom?" called Martz from across the roof.

But there was another distraction. Phelps was holding a cell phone. "Our friend here Mr. Chen had a message, from a Brooklyn cell phone, I think."

"Put it on speaker."

They did. It was a woman crying frantically in Chinese, speaking rapidly. Maybe she said the word "Brooklyn," Tom couldn't tell. The effect on Chen, he noticed, was immediate. He became agitated.

"What'd she say?" Martz asked Hua.

"She says she is kidnapped in Brooklyn and she thinks it's a place with a lot of shit and the guy's name means he is a winner."

"That's right," said Chen. "Exactly. That is my sister!"

Chen's phone rang again.

"On speaker again," said Martz.

"Who's this?" came a man's voice. Tough sounding.

Martz answered. "Why are you calling this number?"

"Looking for a guy named Chen."

"What do you want to say?"

"Let me talk to Chen."

Martz shook his head. "Can't do it."

They heard a woman crying out in Chinese, shrieking, weeping.

"Jin Li!" yelled Chen. "I hear you."

"Shut the fuck up," the voice on the phone barked.

They heard the Chinese woman again, being struck.

"Chen, I got your sister here," came the voice. "I want money fast. You heard her message. She might not be alive much longer."

Martz held up his hand. "Who is this?" he demanded.

"Someone who wants to speak to Chen." The phone went dead.

Chen said, "Let me make a call. I have to use my phone."

"No. Nobody does anything." Martz had to think it through. Chen's sister worked for CorpServe, he remembered, supervised the cleaning of the Good Pharma offices. The lift had started but they were losing time, not getting anywhere.

"I think I know who this is," Tom said to Martz. He'd be careful to move the blame away from himself. "This is where our problem began, thanks to Chen."

A phone rang again, Tom's this time. "Yes?"

"Put it on speaker, Tom," ordered Martz.

"Hang on," Tom said. "This is a private call."

"Not right now!" Martz yelled. "Your nuts belong to me, Tom Reilly, I've had enough of your bullshit!"

Tom put his phone on speaker. "Go ahead."

"Listen to me, listen to me good," came the male voice. "I'm going to explain-"

"It's the same voice!" yelled Martz. "Same as the other phone! Calling you!"

"Who's that?" came the voice. "You were on the other call!" There was some fumbling and static. "Wait, you motherfuckers, you just wait."

The phone in Phelps's hand rang. Chen's phone.

"Put that one on speaker," said Martz. "Christ. Now we got both of them."

"Who the fuck am I talking to?" came the man's voice out of both phones. A weird screeling feedback infected his voice. "I'm talking to everybody?"

No one answered. The wind moved over the roof.

"Listen, motherfuckers, listen Thomas Reilly or William Martz or Christopher Paley-"

"Who's that?" Martz interrupted.

"Company lawyer," Tom answered.

"Listen, you motherfuckers, and Chen, if he's there, listen to this-" There was the sound of three gunshots, pop-pop-pop, and then the screaming of the Chinese woman, a horrible keening. Had he shot her? "Hear that? I want a million in cash right now. I will be calling back in ten minutes. Or this woman is dead."

Both phones hung up with a loud click.

"We've been hijacked," Martz said. "I don't get it."

Now it was Chen who had a question. "This is fake, this is to make me call China for you?"

"No, goddamn it," said Martz, looking at his watch. "No. Getting a million dollars in the middle of the night is not easy." He sighed heavily, the cost of business getting steeper. "Look, Chen, I don't know who this guy is, but a million dollars is not going to stop me now. You understand? I got a lot more riding than that. And you, you have your sister. We could go to the police-"

"No, no police," said Chen. "I do not like police."

"Neither do I."

Chen seemed calm, resolved. "You will let me make one phone call, and then I will call China for you. I will call everybody in China for you. This is my sister."

Martz looked around at the others, not sure if he'd been tricked. Tom Reilly shrugged. "We got to do something."

Martz stared ferociously at Chen. "Deal," he said.

They gave Chen his phone back. He dialed.

"Who're you calling?" Martz said, but Chen, intent on getting the digits correct, wasn't listening.