Yumeko greeted him in a blue and white dress that had about it the air of a little girl-one who had grown up and become increasingly feminine in the process. Chin Soo appeared within seconds; he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and the same trousers that he had had on the night before. Also the same shoes. "I have been working in the jade room," he said.
The house was quite warm. "May I take off my coat?" Tibbs asked.
"As much as you like," Yumeko answered.
That reminded him of something. "You sound like Linda," he said. "The girl whose picture you saw in my apartment She once wanted me to take all of my clothes off."
"That you would do this I believe; that you would speak of it I do not." Her lower lip crept out a little.
Tibbs looked at her for a moment or two. "Do you know what a nudist park is?" he asked.
"That is yes."
"All right: she lives in one. I went there to look into a homicide-on a hot day beside the swimming pool."
"I hope that the water was nice," Chin said.
Virgil lifted his shoulders slightly and let them fall. I was on duty. I didn't go in."
Soo proved his intelligence by changing the subject. *1 have prepared some boxes as you asked. I have made the cushions very soft so that almost any of the jades could be put in one of them and it would look right."
"Good work," Tibbs said. "Did you check the padding?"
Chin looked at him a little coolly. "Of course."
For a moment Virgil became the teacher. "I assumed that you had, but I always check everything twice if I can. That is the only way to be sure." 144
The houseboy bowed. "I have lost face," he acknowledged, "and I deserve to. What are your wishes now?"
"There's some work to be done and I wiU need your help. In the jade room. And I will need Yumeko's permission to handle some of the jades."
"Please to do," she said.
"Thank you-I'll be very careful." He took off his coat and dropped it on a chair. Chin immediately picked it up again and himg it in the hall closet over a wooden hanger. "In that way we do not advertise that you are here," he explained.
Tibbs studied him for a second or two before he spoke. "Let's call it a horse apiece; you're right about that Are you free to help me now?"
"Let us begin." He led the way toward the rear of the house. At the door to the jade room he paused while he produced a clutch of keys and fitted the right one into the door. "These belonged to Mr. Wang," he said. "I hope that it is right for me to use them."
"He trusted you, didn't he?" Virgil let the question stand as an answer. As soon as the lights were turned on he walked into the jade room and looked about As far as he could see by an initial inspection, there was no evidence that anything had been disturbed. He turned. "I'd like to get out all of the boxes, then 111 show you what comes next."
"Yes, sir." The houseboy squatted down and opened the bottom of one of the display cabinets. "I have already checked many of them-that is what I was doing. I can give you some information."
"Please do."
"The forbidden drug, there is not as much of it as I thought The boxes for the older pieces, I mean the pieces that have been here for the longest time, are innocent. Only recent shipments contained it, and even then not all of the boxes, only some."
"How many?"
"I cannot say, sir. I have not examined them all yet."
"Did you mark the ones with the drug?"
"I did not mark them, no sir, but I can tell them."
"How?"
"When I put them back, I stacked those that are ordinary with the pins to the right. The others face the opposite way. It is the way that all of the piles look, so I do not believe that it will be noticed."
Tibbs considered Soo carefully for a few moments. "I told you that I like to double-check things," he said. "I asked you before if you had had training and you denied it. Would you like to reconsider your answer?"
"At the present time I wish only to be instructed by you what you wish me to do," Chin replied.
At that moment Yumeko appeared in the doorway. She looked a question mark at Tibbs, but said nothing. "Come in," he invited. '*This is a good time to talk to both of you."
He took hold of the edges of the table that stood in the middle of the room and issued his instructions. "First of all, if anyone-and I don't care who it is-asks you about the jade collection, neither of you knows too much about it-is that clear?"
He received two silent nods in reply.
"Furthermore, if the question arises, you will say that I have advised you to pack the jades away in a safe place for the time being. That is, as soon as convenient after Mr. Wu has had a chance to examine the collection. And Mr. Nakamura."
"Is Mr. Nakamura a reliable person?" Chin asked.
"I consider him so. The people who employ him certainly are."
"We are to admit him, then?"
"If and when he calls-yes. Now the next thing: because you do not know too much about the collection, you wiU have to do considerable sorting of the boxes to find the right one for each carving."
"I am beginning to understand," the houseboy said, "but please go on."
"I intend to. I want you to get the boxes out-^I'll help you-and line them up in front of the cabinets so that the positions of the boxes correspond to the jades on display. You are preparing to pack the collection away for safe keeping."
"But any visitor would know immediately which box is for which jade," Chin observed. "It is a brilliant idea."
"Just once I am going to allow myself this luxury," Tibbs responded. "Elementary."
"It is not so good, I thmk," Yumeko said.
Tibbs was mildly annoyed. "Why?"
"If it comes somebody who is wishing only the boxes, it wUl be too easy for them to just take them all. Then you discover nothing."
After a short pause Chin spoke. "In China we used to drown the surplus of female babies shortly after birth. It saved much inconvenience later on."
Yumeko clasped her hands and lowered her head. "Please pardon intrusion," she said.
"She's giving you the Oriental put-on," Chin declared.
"I know-but she's right. So we check the boxes for contents and then stack them back-but in order inside the cabinets." Virgil squatted down and looked inside several of the sections. "That ought to make it hard enough to prevent a mass grab for them all."
"We have work to do," Chin said. "Yumeko can prepare us food."
"That isn't necessary."
"It is good for her, let her do it. We have plenty."
"Perhaps later."
It was slow and tedious work; the supply of boxes seemed almost endless and each one had to be investigated carefully. Those which were innocent had to be put back in good order, a task that Chin assumed while Virgil patiently probed each of the blue boxes and a few that were covered in a bright type of brocade. Yumeko offered her help, but for well-considered reasons of his own Tibbs did not desire any more assistance. When at last the final box had been checked and an accurate tally was possible, twenty-eight caches of the fearful narcotic had been found-enough to add up to something more than a hundred pounds in weight.
That should have been a good enough day's work for anyone, but unfortunately much more still lay ahead. Declining the offer of a meal, Tibbs left the house with the promise that he would be back again before seven.