Author's Note: Almost finished. I hope everyone enjoyed this little jaunt back to the "Dirty Thirties." Thanks to all who reviewed. My Muse Jinakel, thank you most of all. This is dedicated to all those Trowa fans out there; I know we're few and far between and sometimes it's just hard to find some good Trowa fiction. L-3 forever!!!
This is not my room. This is not my bed. I haven't a clue where I am. The only thing that I know is that I smell jasmine. I haven't opened my eyes yet; maybe if I do that I'll remember. My room smells like shit and dead fish. This room smells heavenly. It's warm and inviting and reminds me of my sister. My eyes open, scarlet reds assault it; another color associated with my sister. I'm in Roddy's bedroom I instantly remember, but she's not here. The only thing is a white rose laid upon a crimson pillow and a small note attached to it. I pick it up and read it.
Dearest Trowa,
Thank you for last night; it was wonderful and special, and something that I will never forget. I had some business to attend to before the signing with Quatre this afternoon. Whenever you are ready, Chu will take you back to your apartment. I hope to see you later if I'm not too busy. I will wire you if I can make it, if not, maybe tomorrow.
Roddy
She has impeccable handwriting.
Could it be that I was falling for her the whole time that I was working this case? I've never felt this way before. I jump from the bed; naked as the day I was born and make my way towards the toilet. I shower, don't bother shaving and dress quickly. I run down the stairs and Chu is sitting and waiting for me. He's reading a paper and the maid offers me some toast with a strange tasting marmalade and some ginger tea for breakfast. Chu waits, glances over once in a while from his paper, then turns his attention back to the paper. I finish quickly and he, just as quickly, goes and readies the car. I've never felt more like royalty than at this moment.
When I walk out to the car, I can tell that Chu is not happy with something. He opens the back door for me and before I'm actually in the car, closes it swiftly. His driving is jerky on the way back to my apartment. Finally we make it back, and I slightly start to believe that Roddy just has bad taste in drivers, until he pulls me aside after opening my door. His grip is firm, something that can be mistaken for nothing other than business.
"Don't get involved with her so quickly after her husband's death. It's not honorable." I look Chu in his coal black eyes, his, no doubt shoulder-length, hair pulled back in a ponytail under his driver's cap. Resolutely, he looked like no other formidable Asian, other than the confident manner in which he carried himself. Yes, he was unlike Lee, who was a skittish, moronic, waif of a man in manners. But in appearance, the two men were almost identical. Who did he think he was, grabbing me like this? I had the mind to soc him in the eye. Instead of taking to violence, I glare down at the hand on my shoulder and look back at his eyes. He has a smirk on his face, making his high cheekbones and slanted eyes look almost superiorly evil, but those eyes are as cold and as mean as they are black. We stand like this for what seems like minutes, until I swallow my anger in a huff.
"Whatever you say, Chu," I shrug him off and practically stuff my hands into my pockets to avoid punching the guy. He watches me until I'm at my apartment complex door and then I see him get into the car and start it, driving off as soon as I'm opening the door and stepping into the safety of the building. Who the hell did he think he is?
I walk down the hall and notice that my door is open. Duo must be here. Without surprise I walk into the room and I see him sitting on my couch with Hilde in the kitchen making something to eat. I shouldn't have ever given him my extra key.
"The walk of shame? Where have you been all night, buddy?" a smile is on his face. I look over at the clock; it's about two in the afternoon, I must have slept for a long time over at Roddy's. I fall into the seat next to Duo and sigh.
"Haven't seen you since before the funeral, what happened? I came over but you weren't here. You didn't go out and get plastered with some dame, did you?"
"No, Duo, it's nothing like that," I'm distracted by Hilde's humming from the kitchen. I turn to Duo and he shrugs.
"What's she doing?"
"Making something out of the small amount of food in the refrigerator and the meat that I picked up from the butcher this morning. It's a surprise. Please, continue."
"Well, I went to the funeral and I see Roddy. She says that she's going to pay me the full because I was such a nice guy. Sends over her new, strange, driver to take me to her place. She pays me and I end up, you know… the rest is, as they say, history," Duo looks at me with wide-eyed shock.
"How is it that you always end up sleeping with every female client that you have?"
"Women dig me."
"You're just a horny, P.I." Duo laughs and turns his attention to Hilde who has entered the room with two plates of food.
"So, who is this new driver?" she asks as she hands me a plate of food. I look down at it; it looks edible and start to dig in. Surprisingly, it's pretty good.
"Name's Chu, nothing special. He's a bit overprotective of Roddy though. He pulled me aside before I got in here and said that I shouldn't be getting involve with her so soon after her husband's death."
"It's so sad that he's dead. Wuffie was such a swell fellow. What happened to Lee?"
"He went to China to visit some family."At this point I can tell that Duo is neither concerned nor caring about the conversation between Hilde and I. He's actually enjoying the food that she cooked.
"Lee doesn't have any family in China. He was the last one of his family actually," she says and takes another bite of food, this time from Duo's plate.
"That's strange, well, maybe he just got some time off and that's what he told Roddy. Who knows?"
"So, about Chu?" she bade me continue.
"Why are you so interested in this Chu fellow; you guy is sitting right here," I make it known.
"It's because I don't quite remember a Chu and I want you to jog my memory. Even when Lee did have days off he was always replace by Albert, so I'm trying to remember Chu. So go on." That's a good enough answer for me.
"Well, he has long hair…"
"That's not possible," she gets up from her seat on the chair and takes our plates into the kitchen. I stare at her back strangely.
"It most certainly is possible, the guy just dropped me off; I'm sure I know what his hair looked like?" I scream into the kitchen.
"Well, only the heads of the different Triad syndicates are allowed to have long hair," she's muffled but I can understand every word. I noticed that; everyone that surrounded Roddy had neatly cut hair, that's why Chu's ponytail caught my attention. I reach into my pocket and pull out my note slowly. I flip it open to the page of Roddy's description; sure enough long hair is one of the factors. I swallow hard. Hilde comes walking back into the room looking at me strangely.
"Trowa, you look like you've seen a gho…" her voice fades off and I notice that her eyes have caught by something. It's the single picture that I have of Cathy on top of the radio. It's the one that Duo took the day we opened the agency. She and I are armed linked and smiling, our hands outstretched to show the sign. We really aren't looking at the sign, well I'm not anyway; I'm looking at her.
"I know that dame," her voice is as low as a whisper as she walks towards the picture. She picks it up and stares at it strangely then looks at me and Trowa.
"Who is she, Trowa, one of your old dames?" she asks. Of course, I'm completely offended and Duo can tell that I'm about to smack Hilde. Instead of me answering her, Duo grabs the picture from her hand and looks it over.
"That's Catherine, Trowa's sister and my wife. She was killed."
"I know her," Hilde exclaims, her squealing accent almost too shrill for me to bear. She sat down next to Duo, her head in her hands deep in thought. Finally she looked up at both of us with her big blue eyes.
"She used to come to the Savoy all the time. Wufei was always giving her things- money, expensive clothes; he even gave her a car once. She didn't like him giving her all that stuff, but he wanted her, I don't know why. Pretty soon Chang gave up on her, but he lavished affections on her that he never did on any other woman, not even me, and especially not his wife." Hilde looked serious, but I couldn't accept it.
"Cathy would have told me about Chang, wouldn't she?" I looked at Duo with heavy eyes.
"I always wondered how she got that damned car. Well, what's done is done. Chang is dead, they pulled him out of the harbor completely naked and with a destroyed face. They did a once over on him that I wouldn't believe."
"Yeah, it was a closed casket," Hilde disappeared then repapered with the paper.
"Here, Trowa, we kept it for you; your name is mentioned a couple of times. Duo said that you keep newspaper clippings of your personal cases." She handed me the paper and I stared intently at the front page. There was a grotesue picture of a net pulling the mangle and disfigured body of Chang from the harbor. Yet, there was something wrong. The man was naked, all angles of him able to be scene, except for his most private of parts and there was something missing.
It's a symbol of unity, balance, and good fortune.
Her voice rang clear in my head, Roddy's silky smooth voice explaining the reasons behind the marking on the small of her back.
All the Triad family members have this tattoo.
But in this picture, this dead body of Chang had no identifying marks. Hell, the man didn't even have long hair. The only thing that went along with Chang's description was that the man was Chinese. I started to shake, a gross reality hitting me with as much force as a freight train. I'd been had.
"Are you okay, Trowa?" Duo asked, noticing my furrowed brow. I looked over to him then to Hilde.
"Tell me everything you know about Roddy Chang," I said, settling Hilde into a comfortable seat.
"Why?" Duo asked.
"I've been had, everyone has."
