Mike watched as Judy stared at the picture. She was sitting perfectly still, breathing heavily through her nose then she began to shake ever so slightly.
With a soft sigh that sounded a lot like regret, he shifted on the sofa and asked gently, "Who is she?"
Judy swallowed heavily and raised her eyes. She looked scared. "Mary Leary. She's a private investigator."
That was not the answer Mike was expecting, and it took all his professional acumen not to show his surprise. "A private investigator?"
She nodded quickly, worrying her hands now clasped in her lap.
"Why do you know her? I mean, did you hire her… to spy on your brother and his friend?" Mike was trying to work out how this timid young woman, who had no obvious income and a very limited social life, would ever cross paths with a private eye.
Judy shook her head rapidly, almost cartoonishly fast. "No… no, I couldn't do something like that… she, ah, she came to me."
Frowning, Mike sat back, laying the drawing on the sofa next to him so she could still see it. Increasing the distance would ease the sudden tension between them and, hopefully he thought, she would be more forthcoming. "Why did she come to you?" he asked, his tone even and conversational.
She looked at him like a little girl caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "It was about my brother…. Well, about Chin actually. She said she had been hired by some of the restaurant owners and shop keepers… the ones who had been paying money to Chin. They were angry and wanted him to stop so they hired her, she told me, to catch him doing it, to catch him demanding money, and get him arrested."
He frowned. "How was she going to do that, did she tell you?"
"With a camera, she said… she would take pictures of him and take them to the police…"
"But why did she come to you?"
Judy swallowed heavily. "She knew my brother was Chin's friend, and she said she knew I didn't like what they were doing."
"How did she know that?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I only went out to shop, or sometimes have lunch or tea with my friends…"
"And you never saw her watching you?"
"No, never."
Mike paused. "When did she first get in touch with you?"
Her focus turned inward for a split second as she tried to recall. "It was before Christmas… beginning of November, I think… I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly…"
He smiled encouragingly. "That's all right." He paused again, his brows knitting as the building blocks in his brain started to snap together. "Was it before Chin got the gun?" he asked suddenly and she froze, her eyes widening.
"Yes…" she whispered, staring at him with a worried frown. "Why?"
His smile was quick and superficial. "Just curious," he said lightly, as if brushing it off. When she continued to stare, he leaned forward and his smile disappeared. "So, do you know if she got any pictures of Chin threatening the shop owners?"
"I don't know, she didn't tell me."
"Well, what did she want you to do?"
She shook her head sharply. "Nothing," she snapped a touch too quickly and he leaned forward a little further, looking into her darting eyes with a fatherly benevolence that he knew she wouldn't be able to fight for very long. He waited. The knuckles on her hands in her lap went white and she squeezed her eyes shut, raking in a deep breath through her nose. She kept her lips tightly closed.
He gave her a little time. "Judy," he said softly and waited till she opened her eyes, "what did she want you to do?"
She stared at him for several long seconds then her entire body seemed to sag. "She said she had some evidence that you could use to arrest Chin for the murder of that restaurant owner. She said she couldn't go to the police herself because you wouldn't believe her… but that you would believe me."
"So that's why you called me?"
She nodded, looking down at her hands.
"Why me? Did she give you my name?"
She looked up; her dark eyes were filled with guilt. "She said she knew who you were and that you would believe me. But that I shouldn't tell you about her, not at first until I knew if you believed me about Chin and my brother. She said that after you arrested Chin, then she would come to you with the evidence she had collected so you could take it to the District Attorney and Chin would go away forever." She squeezed her eyes closed again and a soft sob escaped her lips. "She said my brother would be let go because he didn't kill anybody…"
Mike leaned forward and put his right hand over both of hers and she opened her eyes. "She lied to you," he said softly. "You know that, right?"
Biting her bottom lip, her eyes brimming with tears, she nodded.
He took a deep breath. "The day you called me, the day of the accident… did you see her that day?"
She shook her head. "No."
"But you saw the accident you said, right?"
She nodded.
"Did you talk to her again after that day?"
Judy nodded again. "She called me that night to ask me what happened when I met with you. I told her about the accident and she was shocked. So she told me to wait until she could tell me when you were back at work and then to phone you again, that she would keep an eye on Chin and Bo until then. So that's what I did…"
Still covering her hands with his, he looked down, trying to marshal some kind of perspective on what he had just been told. He had a lot to work through, he knew that. When he raised his head, she was staring at him with shame and guilt.
"Did I do the wrong thing, Lieutenant Stone?"
# # # # #
"Do all you guys know Jason?" Steve asked, every detective fibre in his body now on full alert.
Everyone at the table nodded. "For years," one of them said.
"But he wouldn't hurt Bobby, for god's sake, no!" one of them almost shouted, shocked that a thought so vile could have crossed anybody's mind. Angry voices of agreement rose around the table, and Steve had to raise both hands to quiet them down.
"Okay, okay, okay," he finally managed to concede when the din subsided, "but then why isn't he here? Wouldn't he want to be here with you all, the people who meant the most to Bobby…?" He stared into each angry and grieving face around the table individually; everyone looked guilty and there were a few nods of consent.
"If he was with Bobby that night, we need to talk to him," Collier said evenly, his own gaze travelling the table. "Do any of you know where he lives?"
The others looked at each other, then a slight black man with an impressive Afro met Collier's eyes and nodded. "I know where he lives. It's not too far from here. I don't know the address, but I know where it is. I can show you."
Collier looked at Steve and they both nodded. "Right now?"
Sliding off his chair, the black man looked at them and shrugged. "Sure." He took several bills out of his pocket and slapped them on the table, glancing at the others. "I may or may not be back," he said with a heavy sigh.
As Steve moved away from the table, he looked back. "Thanks…" he said softly with a helpless shrug.
"Just, ah, just catch the bastard that did it, will ya?" one of them said and the others nodded.
Smiling sadly, Steve nodded as well. "We'll do our best, I promise you." He knew how hollow that promise usually was in the homosexual community, where crimes against gays were usually shifted to the bottom of the pile. One of the first things he had learned from Mike was that every murder would be investigated with the same vigour and dedication, no matter the victim. "We'll get him," he said again, a little more forcefully this time, then followed Collier and their escort across the crowded bar towards the front door.
"I'm Lester," Jason's friend said as he held the door open for the cops to exit the crowded and noisy bar.
Collier smiled. "Ethan."
"Steve." He smiled at the smaller man between them as they started down the street, bustling with activity even on this chilly Tuesday night. "You know Jason long?"
Lester shrugged, his hands in his brown leather bomber jacket pockets. "About a year I guess. Ever since I moved to The City?"
"You aren't from here?" Collier asked.
Lester shook his head. "I'm from Sacramento. And let's just say they aren't as, ah, well, as sympathetic towards us kinda folk up there…" He chuckled softly, continuing to shake his head as he stared at the sidewalk.
After allowing a couple of long seconds of silence to stretch out between them, Steve cleared his throat lightly. "So, ah, in your opinion… is Jason capable of doing anything to Bobby?"
"God, no!" Lester spat out, his head snapping in the detective's direction. "Jason's a pussycat. He's almost scared of his own shadow. That's why he gravitated to Bobby… Bobby kinda took him under his wing, you know." He kept staring down as he led them around a corner. "But now you guys got me worried that something may have happened to Jason…" he said quietly, and Steve and Collier glanced at each other overtop of the downturned head. That was a question that had been on both their minds since they heard the name mentioned.
"Well, that's what we're gonna find out," Steve said with a confidence he really didn't feel.
# # # # #
He knew he had a lot more questions that needed answers, answers he wouldn't get from Judy. He was pretty sure she was being completely forthcoming with him; she just didn't know the information he needed.
It seemed inconceivable that none of the shop and restaurant owners that both he and Johnny Doan had talked to hadn't mentioned hiring a private investigator to help them get rid of the threat that Chin Han posed, especially now that Han was behind bars awaiting trial; it wasn't illegal to hire a private eye. Or that none of them had recognized the woman with the dog, if it had been the same woman that was there to help them.
So he knew another trip to Chinatown was in the offing, this time with the composite and a lot more questions. And it wouldn't be hard to find out if indeed this woman was a licensed private investigator after a trip to City Hall.
And he would have to have a little talk with Chin Han about how and when he'd managed to get his hands on a gun - a gun that took the life of a restaurant owner on Christmas Day.
He sat behind the wheel of the dark blue sedan for several minutes, trying to digest everything he had just learned. Talking to Judy Ludong hadn't cleared anything up; it had just made things more opaque.
He wished Steve was around so he could bounce his nascent theories off him, but until he had heard from Doan about the background check and surveillance he was doing on Linda, it just wasn't viable. He wanted to clear Linda completely before he said anything about what he was doing with his partner. Until then, he knew, he would have to go it alone.
He turned the key and the powerful engine roared to life. With a tired and frustrated sigh, he pulled the sedan away from the curb and headed home.
