The Master of Rain

Twenty-seven

The process took longer than Field had thought. The Chinese sergeant refused to let Natasha go without someone from C.1 signing her out and wouldn’t budge even when Field got angry. Caprisi was nowhere to be found, and in the end Field had to summon Macleod to the phone, to tell the desk officer to do as he was asked.

He didn’t want to bother with arranging a car, so they got a rickshaw outside and crammed in together. He was conscious of the fact that their legs were touching. She made no attempt to move away.

Natasha let him into her flat. She slipped off her raincoat and stood in the middle of the room. She wore a simple, dark blue dress, cut close. Its hem rose above her knee as she ran her fingers through her hair.

“Do you want something to drink?” Her voice was an octave lower.

“No thanks.”

“Tea?”

“No.”

“You want something to eat?”

“No, I had lunch . . . of sorts.”

“You don’t think I can cook? Most Russian girls can’t. Lena couldn’t boil an egg when she came here. But my mother died when I was a little girl, and sometimes I used to cook for my father.”

“Perhaps sometime . . . you could cook me something.”

She smiled for the first time today and it lifted his spirits. “I’d like that.”

“Perhaps tonight.”

“Perhaps.”

Field did not know if that was a yes or a no. “But you must be hungry. Please don’t let me stop you.”

“I can wait.”

Natasha sat down, indicating that he should do the same, but the atmosphere had changed now.

“I hope you’re not thinking that your freedom comes without cost.”

She looked at her shoes. When she raised her head, Field saw that she was smiling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are funny. I’m watching you wrestle with yourself.”

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Do you want me, Mr. Field, or will you reject me? Which of you will win?”

“I’m doing my job.”

“Of course you are.” She stood, walked to the mantelpiece, and took down a packet of cigarettes. She lit one and then sat back down, her dress riding up her thigh.

Field’s throat felt dry.

“Is it because you think I belong to him? Does that disgust you?”

“You do have to help me.” Field no longer trusted his voice, which sounded as if it belonged to someone else.

“I don’t have to do anything.”

He stared at her. “Have you ever seen the inside of a Shanghai prison?”

“No.”

“I doubt you’d survive a month.”

“Perhaps you’d be doing me a favor.”

“If that’s what you think, I might as well take you back right now.”

“You cannot hide behind your badge.”

“You don’t believe we can protect you from Lu?”

“Half of you work for him.”

“And you think—”

“No. That’s why I’m talking to you.” She shook her head in irritation. “Please. Do what you want with me, but don’t talk about this anymore.” She took a deep breath. “You ask me if I know who Lena was seeing, but I don’t. She was secretive those last few months.”

“She told you nothing about him?”

Natasha shook her head.

“And yet you lived next door.”

Natasha shrugged. “It was always a desire to be private.”

“So you never saw a man entering her apartment, never heard a voice, never saw a car parked outside?”

“No.”

“It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? The two of you friends, knowing each other back in Kazan. You end up living next door to each other, and yet you know nothing whatsoever about her life?”

“Believe what you want.”

“What about the notes she left on these shipments—the SS Saratoga, due to depart with a load of Fraser’s Electrical Company sewing machines?”

She was still shaking her head.

“I would say the notes were left for someone who would be able to decipher them and would know what they meant. Were they left for you?”

Natasha stared at him without answering.

Field stood and crossed to the window. He looked down toward the racetrack and saw, to his surprise, that the large clock read almost five o’clock.

He turned around. “Do you ever go to Lu’s house?”

“Sometimes.”

“What do you do there?”

She dropped her head an inch, looking at her hands, and Field felt his face reddening again.

“Of course, you go into his bedroom.”

“Of course.”

The emotion was like a drug. His mind raced, his heart thumping in his chest.

“What do you . . .”

“Can we not talk about this now?”

“We don’t have a choice.”

“No.” She was avoiding his eyes. “Of course, but I’m tired.” She looked up. “Please, just not now.”

He could see the pain in her eyes. “I have to go, anyway,” he said. “We have to investigate this Fraser’s factory.”

He stopped at the door.

She had followed him over. “Thank you,” she said.

“Tonight, then?”

“Yes, perhaps.”

And then the door was closing, she was smiling, and reality, once again, was spinning away from him.

Caprisi was standing by his desk, his holster on. “I’ve been waiting,” he said. “The manager finishes at six.” He pointed upstairs. “Granger was looking for you.”

“I’d better go and check in.”

“Come on, Field.”

“I’ll be quick.” He sprinted upstairs to his own office.

Yang was packing up to go and she eyed him without comment. Prokopieff was bent over a pile of newspapers, his jacket on the back of his chair, his thick suspenders off his shoulders. “Lucky bastard with that Medvedev woman,” he said. “You get all the luck.”

Field knocked on Granger’s door and pushed it open.

Granger was on the phone, his feet on the desk. “Yes, sir,” he said. “Yes, sir.” He put down the receiver and raised his eyebrows as he turned toward Field. “Department is using too many paper clips; the commissioner’s very worried.” He lifted his hand and lowered his feet. “It’s a joke, Field. You look anxious.”

“No, just in a hurry.”

“What’s the rush?”

Field hesitated. “We’re just going down to this factory.”

“Which factory?”

“One of Fraser’s . . . an electrical company.”

“Where?”

Field hesitated again. “Yuen-Ming Road, I think.”

Granger frowned.

“It’s to do with this Orlov girl. She made some secret notes about a shipment—sewing machines. We don’t know why it’s significant.”

“Well, be gone, man. Give me a shout later, tell me what you’re up to.”

Once they were in the car, Caprisi asked him what had happened.

Field explained, as far as he could. “She’s frightened of Lu,” he said.

And then, as if responding to the flick of a switch, there was the roar of thunder and the heavens opened again, the rain falling with such force that the driver had to slow to walking speed. Field watched people scurrying for cover.

It took them about thirty minutes to find the factory in Yuen-Ming Road, the driver frequently stopping and placing his face up against the windshield in an attempt to get his bearings.

There was a sign and then a blue iron gate, open just enough to allow a car through. The front wheels dipped into a large puddle as the car turned off the road.

“Stop,” Chen said, and the driver did so instantly. The Chinese detective was suddenly agitated. “There’s no security at the gate, why isn’t anyone here?” He raised the machine gun and placed the tip of it against the window. Both Field and Caprisi pulled out their revolvers. Field’s heart was pumping fast.

“Go on,” Chen told the driver. The man looked around. He was much younger than Field had realized, and he was frightened.

They edged forward slowly.

“Come on,” Chen said, his voice tense. The driver revved up and they shot through the gate. The entrance to the factory loomed ahead of them, its doors pulled back wide.

“Run,” Chen said. They threw open the car doors and Field followed him. Caprisi was two paces behind.

Water was dribbling down Field’s face, his feet and clothes soaking from the short sprint to the awning. He raised his hand, revolver pointing forward.

The roof was high; metal lamps hung down on long metal poles. In front of them, there were hundreds of wooden worktops, to their right a line of heavy machines. In the far corner, an iron staircase led up to a glass box that Field assumed was the supervisor’s office.

Chen’s face was harsh, his mouth pursed with aggression as he walked forward, swinging his machine gun in a wide arc.

He stopped and looked at his watch. “Not yet six and no one here.” He turned to his right and touched one of the big machines. “Still warm. They got out quick.” He dropped to his knees, and as he did so, there was the sudden roar of an engine and a loud bang as a car smashed into the side of the factory door.

Field was blinded by headlights as the first bullets whipped into the metal behind him. He dropped to the floor, deafened by the sound of the ricochets, crawling away as Chen and Caprisi were doing, trying to find cover behind one of the big machines.

Chen got there first and rolled onto his side beneath it. Caprisi slid beyond him as the bullets pinged off the metal. The rest of the fire was indiscriminate, glass from the windows high on the wall showering them like confetti.

There was a momentary lull. Chen pulled his knees up underneath him, jumped to his feet, and returned fire. Field tried to follow, but Caprisi took hold of his sleeve and shouted over the noise for him to stay still.

Chen fell back, hitting one of the machines and landing on his side, his machine gun clattering on the floor in front of them. The Chinese detective clutched his arm, grimacing in pain. Caprisi lunged forward and tried to pull him to safety. “All right,” Chen said through clenched teeth. “Arm. All right.”

There was silence.

They heard footsteps.

Caprisi was gripping Chen’s arm and trying to stop the bleeding, his face twisted with the effort. He pulled at Chen’s raincoat, trying to get it off so that he could reach the pressure point on the inside of the arm, while holding his hand up in the air, above the level of his head.

Field looked over to the machine gun.

The footsteps grew louder. His hand was shaking.

He saw the corner of a fedora.

He lunged over Chen’s legs, dropping his revolver, diving for the machine gun, kneeling, head down, trying to get his finger to the trigger, looking up to see the man in the hat swinging around.

The machine gun juddered in his hand, thumping back against him. The man was peppered with holes, and specks of blood floated above him in a fine mist as he fell, his face white with the shock of his own death.

Field got to his feet, turned toward the next man, and pulled the trigger. The gun flew up in the air, but the other two men behind turned and ran.

The car revved up and reversed as they sprinted toward the door, shouting.

Doors slammed, the car’s engine roared, and then it was gone, leaving the factory eerily silent.

“Is he—”

“Check the others are dead,” Caprisi said, still fighting to get Chen’s raincoat off.

Field stood. His legs were shaking, the gun hanging down beside him.

He walked slowly, listening to the sound of his own footsteps as he moved toward the bodies.

Both men were Chinese. The first wore a blue suit. His chest was full of holes, a pool of blood beneath him. His fedora lay a few feet away.

Field had hit the second man in the head. There was less blood, but his face was contorted and ugly.

“Are they dead?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Yes,” Field shouted.

“Well then, come back.”

Their voices seemed to echo.

Field returned and crouched beside the American. “It’s an artery,” Caprisi said. “Get his sleeve off that arm and rip it. Rip the coat or the shirt—anything.”

Field handed him the strips of material.

“Now, while I keep my finger on the pressure point, get this off. Tear it. Don’t worry about Chen.”

Field grabbed Chen’s raincoat underneath the arm and pulled it off. Caprisi gave him Chen’s hand and indicated he should hold it up while he tried to get the makeshift bandages around the wound to stop the bleeding.

“It’s all right, Chen,” he said quietly. “It hurts, but it’s not going to kill you.” Caprisi stood. “All right, let’s get you out of here.”

They lifted Chen up. One arm was over Field’s shoulder, and Caprisi still held the other above the level of his head. The front of Caprisi’s shirt and his hands and face were covered in the Chinese detective’s blood. As they walked past the line of machines, the American said, “They knew we were coming.”

The rain was still like a wall beyond the entrance, pounding onto their heads and into their eyes as they stepped out, trying to spot the car. The lights were not on, and several seconds passed before they realized that it was full of holes, the windows broken, their young driver slumped forward over the wheel.