When Gamer had left he tried a call to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and found Dufify in. "I want to put you and Frank in the picture this time," he said. *'I had a brainstorm last night which may or may not be good for something, I don't know yet. If it is any good, then I think I can come up with some answers concerning the supply of KB that's been coming in, the connection of Wang with the trade, and where the girl Yumeko Nagashima fits in."
"Do all that and we'll give you a job," Duffy said.
"No thanks, business is good out here most of the time. Understand that all I have so far is a guess, but if it pans out, would you and Frank be free to meet me at the Wang house at a little after ten this morning?"
"Absolutely. Frank's out, but I can raise him."
"Good. Then let me do some checking first; I'll call you if it looks good-or if it doesn't"
"Fair enough, and all kidding aside, Virgil, thank you very much for the cooperation. This isn't a tea party, you know."
"You could be a little wrong on that, but I understand, and thanks. I'll let you know." He hung up.
As he drove toward the Wang home he rehearsed in his mind exactly how he was going to talk to Yumeko: how much he was going to tell her and how much he was going to withhold. It was not too easy a task and he was parking in front of the house before he was fuUy settled in his mind as to what he was going to do. As he got out of his car he] reluctantly concluded that he would probably have to play things by ear. Normally he did not mind, but Yumeko, being Yumeko, compUcated things.
He went up the steps, pushed the doorbell, and waited. In perhaps half a minute the door swung open and he had a i mild shock; Yumeko was elaborately dressed in a flowered silk kimono and her hair was piled up in a totally Japanese style. As she bowed low to him, his first reaction I was that she must have spent every available minute since his call preparing herself to receive him. As he stood and i paused for a moment, uncertain of what he should say, the silence was broken for him. "You like?" she asked.
"Of course, it's beautiful," he answered. Then he found himself a little more. "I wasn't expecting it; you surprised me very much."
She motioned him inside. "It is perhaps not right that I 110
wear kimono because I am only half Japanese. The rest I am what you call here a black girl.'*
"Negro," Tibbs corrected her. "It's a word to be proud of. You have two heritages instead of just one. And. ." he paused quite deliberately, "… if anyone asks you, you are a very beautiful girl."
She lowered her head. "Because you are yourself Negro and also shodan, you are so kind as to say so. Others do not agree."
'Then to hell with them." For a moment he had an urge to kiss her but killed it; it would be all wrong.
"Your friends, they are coming?"
"I think so, but I'm not sure yet. I'd like to ask you a few things first."
"Before tea?"
"Yes-before tea."
With small steps because of her garment, she led the way into the sitting room where they had first met. She sat down on the front of one of the chairs, unable to make herself comfortable because of the elaborate way in which she had tied her obi in the back. She looked at Tibbs as though she were waiting for some sort of judgment to be pronounced.
"Yumeko," he began when he had dropped into a chair, "I have been studying a little about jade and I've learned quite a few things. Am I right in believing that no two jades are alike-that they are all individually created depending on the nature of the raw stone?"
"Yes," she answered. "That is very much true. There are some few things, like incense burners, that are made over and over again almost exactly the same, but these are very ordinary pieces-^sometimes not real jade at all."
"But the pieces you would have here in this house would all be individual?"
'That is so. The very common things Mr. Wang would never have."
"All right, so far, so good. Now something else. I'm not asking you to betray any secrets, but where did Mr. Wang i get most of his jades? I don't necessarily mean people, I'm talking about places.'*
Yumeko folded her hands and studied her fingers. 'The packages, they came from overseas. From the Far East. Very few from Japan. Mostly they arrived from Singapore, Bangkok, Penang, a few from Hong Kong. There is much
jade in Hong Kong, but Mr. Wang would not buy the pieces that came from the communist mainland."
"I see. How about Taiwan-the Republic of China?"
"A few, only a few."
"Any other places?"
"I am not sure; many pieces were here before I came. | But there are not many other places where jade is shipped, " jade of the best quality."
"So it's a fair conclusion that Singapore, Bangkok, Pe- I nang, and perhaps Hong Kong provided more than ninety percent of all the jade that came in to Mr. Wang."
"That is yes."
"Next, did the pieces come one at a time, or did they come several together in a larger carton or crate?"
"Always they came since I was here each one by itself."
"How often did a piece come in?"
"Not always the same, Virgil. Sometimes for two or three weeks nothing, then several in one week. But always each one alone. Maybe I should say that we received. . wait-^I know the word-average of two each week. Between two and three."
Tibbs shifted his position and recrossed his legs the other way. "Now, Yumeko, when I took that jade to Mr. Harvey, you told me that you were going to put it in its box. Then you sorted out several until you found a certain one."
She nodded. "Yes, that is so."
"Now about those blue boxes, they all seem to look alike on the outside, but are they custom-made too? That is, does each jade have its own box especially for it alone?"
*That is yes. The box too is very carefully fitted."
"And the boxes are usually much larger than the jades they hold."
"Yes, there must be room for much padding. Jade is very very hard, but it can also break. That is why the boxes must fit so well."
He got to his feet. "Yumeko, could we go to the jade room and look at some of those boxes?"
She looked at him without understanding. "You wish the boxes?"
"Just to look at them."
With her geta sliding along the floor she led him toward the back of the house and the room where the jade cabinets held their precious contents. She unlocked the door and turned on the lights which brought the multicolored miniature sculptures into a dazzling still life. Still careful to walk around the place where Mr. Wang had lain, she opened the bottom of one of the cabinets and began to remove blue cloth-covered boxes. They varied in size and shape, but otherwise they were monotonously alike. As she handed them up to him, Tibbs put several of them on the table in the center of the room.
Then, while she watched, he began to examine them very carefully. First he lifted each one individually and judged its weight. Then he opened three or four and felt of the padding with the tips of his fingers. All the while Yumeko stood by, watching him but asking no questions. As she watched him, he in turn studied her, but he could detect nothing but an uncertain and rather curious interest in what he was doing.
He picked up each box in turn and carefully inspected the way in which the satin lining had been installed. He studied six of the boxes in this manner and then returned to the one that had been fifth. "Yumeko," he said, "I would Hke to have your permission to take this box apart a little bit. I'll see to it that it's properly repaired for you."
"DozOy" she answered.
Tibbs took out a penknife, opened the smaller of the two blades with which it was equipped, and began with careful concentration to loosen the edge of the lining. After a few minutes he had several inches of the satin laid back, exposing an inner musUn covering. He began to work the blade of his knife deeper against the side of the box, being careful to do as little damage as possible. He worked for a good ten minutes before he finally had access to the substantial material that formed the bulk of the stuflSng. When he first saw it he gave no signs, but his heart began to beat faster and he knew that it was almost certain that his conjecture had been correct. "May I use your phone?" he asked.