They jumped into Fuller’s car, shaking off the rain, and the windows quickly steamed up. Fuller turned to Li in the back seat. ‘What did you make of them, Li?’
Li thought for a moment. ‘I’ve seen them all before,’ he said, and in his mind’s eye he saw a parade of faces pass before him. Corrupt politicians and Party officials, businessmen on the take, civil servants with small salaries and big houses. ‘I’ve seen them on village councils and street committees, at Party gatherings and on public platforms. I’ve arrested more than a few of them in my time, and I’ve seen them in football stadiums with a gun pressed in the back of their head and the piss running down their legs.’ If not them, it was people just like them who had forced thousands of young men and women into prostitution and virtual slavery. The venom in his tone made Fuller and Hrycyk turn to look at him.
Hrycyk grinned. ‘I take it you weren’t impressed, then?’ Li didn’t think a response was required.
Fuller started up the engine of the Chrysler and said, ‘Washington’s diverting emergency funds to a massive operation along the Mexican border. They’re going to quadruple the number of Border Patrol guards and enlist the help of the local police departments. Every vehicle coming into the country’s going to be stopped, every truck searched with dogs and x-rays and carbon dioxide detectors.’ The windshield wipers scraped rhythmically back and forth, the vents blew out hot air to demist the car.
Hrycyk was unimpressed. ‘Now that’s what I’d call shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. We’ve been screaming for an increase in Border Patrol for years.’ He hissed his frustration. ‘Jesus, we been telling them long enough that people-smuggling was bigger than drugs. It’s the goddamn drug runners who’re bringing the people in, for Chrissake. They’re experts at moving stuff in and out of the country. They’ve been doing it for decades.’
‘Well, whoever’s bringing them in,’ Fuller said, ‘that’s who’s injecting them. And I don’t figure it’s any of the people we just sat around the table with. Whatever else they’re involved in, I don’t think it’s that. Did you see their faces when I told them what was going down?’
‘Sure didn’t look too happy,’ Hrycyk conceded.
Li stared through the rain running down his window and somehow couldn’t convince himself that the faces which had expressed such shock in Soong’s suite were anything more than masks, like those he had seen on trips to the Peking opera with his uncle.
II
From her window, Margaret could see the sky breaking up, shredded by light and patches of pale blue. Dark, tumescent clouds edged by fine patterns of gold, sunlight bursting through the gaps, delineated like rods of platinum striking toward the earth. Even in her anger, she could not help but admire its magnificence.
‘So I don’t have a leg to stand on?’ she barked into the phone. ‘He can just throw me out on the street because I changed the locks without his permission?’ She sucked in air through her teeth. ‘I hope you’re not thinking of charging me for that information.’ She gasped her disbelief at the response. ‘Well, thank you! Next time I need a lawyer, I’ll know who not to call.’ She slammed the receiver back in its cradle. ‘Damn you!’ she shouted at the ceiling, at the sunset, at the liquid gold reflections in every west-facing window in medicine city.
The phone rang and she snatched it back to her ear, surprised by the heat of her anger still retained in the plastic. It was Lucy. ‘I think you should know, Dr. Campbell, that they can hear you at the end of the corridor.’ And before Margaret had time to respond she added, ‘And you should also know that hell and damnation are very real to some of us.’
‘I know that, Lucy,’ Margaret said. ‘They’re very real to me, too. Was there any other reason you called?’
‘Mr. Li is here.’
Margaret was at the door even before Lucy had time to hang up. The afternoon had felt interminable. She had been unable to concentrate on the mountain of paperwork which had piled up in her in-tray during the last few days. There were two bodies in the morgue awaiting autopsy — a murder and a suspect road accident — and she had spent an hour phoning the hospitals trying to enlist pathologists to do post-mortems out of hours. She held the door open for Li and waited until he was in and she could close it behind her before she threw her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest. ‘My God, Li Yan, where have you been? Why are you never there when I need you?’
She felt his initial surprise, and then he held her at arm’s length, concerned. ‘Where’s Xiao Ling?’ he asked.
‘I had them set up a cot bed for her in an office downstairs. She’s sleeping.’
‘What’s wrong?’
And she felt her fear returning, and her hands started shaking as she took him step by step through the nightmare of their drive down from Huntsville. His face was carved from stone. Grim and thoughtful. ‘What did they want, Li Yan?’ she asked when she had finished. ‘One of them had a gun, I’m sure. Only, when I tried to confront them they just drove away. Xiao Ling looked liked she’d seen a ghost. Like she knew them. She called them something…’ She searched her memory for the words Xiao Ling had whispered. ‘Ma ja…something like that.’
‘Ma zhai?’ Li said.
‘That’s it. What does it mean?’
Li frowned. ‘It means “little horses”. It’s what they call members of the Chinese street gangs here. We picked up a couple when we raided that cellar in Chinatown. They’re the enforcers, the ones who beat and intimidate the illegal immigrants into coming up with the money for the snakeheads. And usually they are the ones sent to collect protection money from the shops and restaurants on the gang’s turf.’ He paused. ‘Are you sure Xiao Ling recognised them?’
‘She must have. How else would she have known what they were?’
He nodded.
‘So what did they want?’
Li said, ‘If they had wanted to hurt you, they would have.’ He took a moment or two to think about it. ‘So they must have wanted to scare you. Because that is what they did.’
‘Yeah, and they were pretty good at it, too.’ Her attempt at a smile fell short of its objective. Li drew her to him, brushing the hair from her face and softly kissing her forehead. She looked up into his face. ‘But why would they want to scare me?’
Li’s face coloured slightly. ‘Not you, Margaret,’ he said. ‘Xiao Ling.’ And he remembered Hrycyk’s words as they left Minute Maid Park just half an hour ago. I’m betting a good few of them have seen enough to incriminate more than one of the uncles in there in a whole range of illegal activities. She had worked in the Golden Mountain Club. She had been favoured by the bosses, she’d said. She must have seen things, heard things that someone was very anxious she did not convey to Li. ‘She must know something,’ he said, and he told Margaret about the club. ‘I’m going to take her to Washington tonight. She’s not safe here.’
Margaret felt a depression wash over her at the thought of Li going. Everything in her life seemed to be in a state of flux. And the residue of fear from the encounter with the ma zhai was still powerful enough to leave her feeling vulnerable, even raw.
‘When will you be back?’ she asked.
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. My first responsibility is to Xiao Ling. Once she is safe in Georgetown with Meiping to look after her, then I will consider what my options are.’ But he knew they were limited. He could either throw himself on the mercy of his Embassy and ask to be allowed to take her back to China with him, or he could let her take her chances through the American court system while he continued to play an active part in the investigation. Neither option left much room for Margaret. He knew she was afraid. He looked at her. Fear made her seem smaller, more defenceless. It was only the power of her personality that ever made her seem bigger, stronger than she really was. But then he hardened his mind to her. It was only two nights ago that she had told him she thought they should keep things between them on a professional basis. ‘I must book a flight,’ he said. ‘Can I use your phone?’