“Are your brother’s business interests the same as yours?” I asked, trying for the most delicate phrase.
“Piotr said you were a police detective before the war,” Jai-li said with a gentle laugh. “And I see you still are.”
“All I do is ask questions,” I said, spreading my hands in an open gesture. “Which often makes people uncomfortable. In normal conversation, people avoid a question they don’t want to discuss. The person who inquired feels bad and drops it, maybe even apologizes for intruding. But the police don’t mind making people uncomfortable. It often helps to reveal the truth, even if it may be unpleasant.”
“Yes,” she said. “We do not discuss family business quite so readily here.”
“A Chinese custom?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” she said, with a small shrug of the shoulders. “It may have more to do with our status as outsiders. The English tolerate us because we run many small businesses and keep the goods and supplies they rely on flowing to them. The Melanesians like the things we sell them, since they have no means to produce much on their own. But there is always a resentment of outsiders lurking beneath the civilized veneer of this colonial outpost, don’t you think? Especially successful ones.”
“Oh, I think the civilized veneer is stretched pretty thin everywhere these days,” I said. “Now, I must ask again about your brother’s business interests and your own.”
“Let me say this, Lieutenant Boyle,” Jai-li began, folding her hands demurely in her lap. “If either Rui or myself were found to have been killed, there would be questions. Are you familiar with the triads?” The last word came out as a whisper.
“Yes,” I said. “Chinese gangs, like the Italian Mafia.”
“Societies,” she said, with a slight shrug, as if to show it was all in how you looked at things. “We are not members, but we are associated with the Wo Shing Wo triad. We provide assistance from time to time. Assistance of a nature I decline to discuss.”
“You’re a Blue Lantern, then,” I said.
“Lieutenant Boyle, you surprise me,” Jai-li said, gracing me with a smile. “Yes, that is the correct term. We are not initiates, but rather associates. I only tell you this much to draw a distinction between my brother and Rui and I. He wanted no part of such business. Even though he was the oldest, he never sought to continue in our father’s footsteps. He wanted his own life, free of any obligations to the society.”
“But he needed money, I understand.”
“Yes. When the Japanese came, he lost all his goods and had to flee into the jungle. Since he was a kind man, many of the planters owed him money. Who knows when they would have paid? After the war? Or might they simply walk away from their losses? Shan was not in a good position, financially.”
“The bamboo plant your sister gave Jack Kennedy to deliver-that was not simply a gift, was it?”
“No, I am afraid not,” Jai-li said. “Rui is a better businesswoman than I. Ruthless, some say. She wanted to remind Shan of his obligation to us, and his foolishness in striking out on his own. I hope you do not need to speak further of this. It does not reflect well upon our family.”
“I will have to speak to Rui,” I said.
“That will not be possible for a few days,” she said. “My sister has sailed for New Caledonia. A business trip to meet with our French colleagues there. Necessary, even with Shan’s death.”
“Thank you for being honest with me, Miss Chang,” I said. “It helps us narrow the investigation.”
“Please, call me Jai-li, Billy.” she said. “The baron spoke so much about you, I feel we are already friends.” I was surprised but pleased that she allowed this informality, so I decided to press my luck.
“Then let me take a little more of your time, Jai-li. I assume you’ve heard of the killing today. Deanna Pendleton was stabbed not far from here.”
“Yes, of course. I was very sad to hear of it. We met at Captain Sexton’s and I was impressed by her bravery.”
“Do your people have any idea who could have done it?” I asked.
“Only that it would not have been anyone from Chinatown. We frown on violence here. We do not wish to be declared off limits by your shore patrol. It is important that the servicemen who come here feel safe. Safe enough to freely spend and contribute to the community.”
“When you say you frown upon violence, what do you mean exactly?” I understood the part about contributions. Every merchant in town paid a percentage to the Changs, so it was in everyone’s interest to keep crime down. The gritty street type of crime at least.
“That it would make Zhou extremely unhappy, which would not be good for the parties involved. Or their families. Is that clear enough?”
“I expect that approach works quite well,” I said. “So no reports of suspicious strangers or a sighting of someone with Deanna?”
“Billy, to most of the people here, all gwai lo look alike.”
“White ghost,” I said. “Or is it white devil?” I’d heard the term plenty back in Boston’s Chinatown, never uttered in a kindly tone.
“It does mean white ghost, from the color of your skin,” she said. “Is there a connection between Shan’s death and the others?”
“I think so,” I said, suspecting I could trust Jai-li, at least as long as I didn’t borrow money from her. “I believe Daniel Tamana, your brother, and Deanna all knew something that got them killed. Shan may not have been aware of what he knew, or the implications of it. Daniel knew for sure, and Deanna must have figured it out for herself.”
“And all three are dead, with no trace of the killer,” Jai-li said. “It is indeed a white ghost you are seeking.”
Chapter Nineteen
As I was leaving, Jai-li told me to please ask for any assistance I might need to find her brother’s killer. She told me to ask for Zhou. Jai-li said goodbye and left me with Zhou in the hallway, waiting for my automatic to be returned. In a few minutes a servant delivered the.45 and my jackknife on a platter. Classy.
“They’ve been cleaned,” I said, feeling a slight oily sheen on the knife.
“In this climate, rust is the enemy of any metal,” Zhou said. “I hope you don’t mind that we took the liberty.”
“Not at all,” I said, holstering the pistol, wondering if a pressed uniform and well-oiled pistol were specialties of the house. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Ask anyone in Chinatown for Zhou,” he said. “They will bring you right to me.”
“What if I ask for Jai-li?”
“They will bring you to me even faster.” I think he almost smiled.
It didn’t take long to drive to the PT base at Sesapi, where Kaz and I had first stepped foot on Tulagi. By now, if luck were on his side, he would have seen Dickie Miller. Considering his choice of Chang sisters, luck was definitely running Kaz’s way. Or had Jai-li chosen Kaz? Still, it was good luck any way it shook out.
I hoped for some of that luck to rub off when I talked to John Kari. I had him at the scene of the crime, but that was it. I needed something else, any kind of clue to support his involvement. I remembered that the signals unit was housed in an old police station, and hoped I’d have need of a cell there before long, at least for one of the murders.
I parked the jeep near the wharf, where a line of ten PTs were moored. Sesapi was hardly the garden spot of Tulagi. On the steep bank opposite the wharf, tents and jury-rigged lean-tos held everything from crew’s quarters to machine shops. Palm fronds and coconut logs were the mainstay of these structures, which gave shade and looked like they might keep out the rain if it held to light showers. This was a working PT base, miles from the kind of navy Captain Ritchie was so fond of.
Well-trodden paths led in every direction, some of them to winding steps set into the embankment. I took them through a beehive of activity as sailors rolled steel drums of aviation gas to be stacked up under crudely painted signs.