Black Karma (10 page)

He obviously didn't want any more complications than necessary. Considering his perspective, Bai could understand how having hotel guests spied upon would definitely be a complication.

Lee didn't waste any time in scooping up the microphone off the floor. He packed the listening device along with the rest of his equipment into the surveillance kit and placed the suitcase on a stand next to the dresser. He'd barely finished stashing the suitcase when the police arrived.

Homicide detectives nonchalantly strolled into the room to introduce themselves. “My name is Meyers, and this is my partner, Detective Gomez,” said one of the men, a Caucasian with a paunch and pitted skin. He wore coffee stains on a white shirt with an open collar under an off-the-rack gray suit.

After walking over to look at the victim through the open doorway, he tilted his head and frowned. “What a waste! Who would shoot a beautiful woman like that? That's just criminal.”

He turned around and walked back to observe Bai and Lee. His cavalier behavior suggested he wasn't in a hurry.

Gomez, Meyers's partner, a middle-aged Latino in a tailor-made blue suit, broke the silence by directing a question at them. “Did either of you witness the killing?”

“No,” Lee replied. “I was in the room alone when I heard the shots fired. Bai was upstairs in the lounge having a drink. I called hotel security as soon as I heard the shots.”

“You didn't see anyone or hear anything else unusual?”

“Just the shots.”

The detectives looked them over then seemed to dismiss them.

Gomez turned his attention to Yan. “We understand you have the perp on video.”

“Yes. If you'd like to follow me downstairs to our security offices, I'll provide you with the disc.”

Gomez nodded to Meyers, who followed Gary Yan out of the room. Once they were gone, the medical examiner and crime scene investigators showed up.

Gomez spoke with the CSI technicians then turned to Bai and Lee. “We'd like to use your room as a staging area for our investigation. Doing so will leave the door the killer used free from contamination until CSI can collect any possible evidence. I'm sure after we've collected your statements, the hotel will find other accommodations for you.”

Gomez didn't voice the statement in the form of a request; neither did he wait for their reply. The medical examiner walked through the adjoining door to anticlimactically pronounce Wen dead. Technicians then took photographs of everything in her room before wrapping her hands in plastic bags to preserve any potential evidence, though the likelihood she'd come in contact with her killer seemed remote. They then placed her into a black plastic body bag for the trip to the morgue.

Meanwhile, Lee provided Detective Gomez with a recorded statement, neglecting to mention the microphone under the door. As Lee spoke into the recorder, the techs wheeled the body out on a gurney through his room for a ride down the service elevator. Bai watched silently as homicide detectives gathered Wen's personal possessions. They took her clothes hanging in the closet and her cosmetic case out of the bathroom, stripping the room of all her possessions. The police hastily inventoried the contents of her handbag before sealing everything in plastic. Curiously, they didn't find a cell phone.

Meyers returned, and the detectives thanked them for their assistance then nonchalantly left the room with the same lack of urgency they'd shown upon arrival. Gary Yan returned as the last crime scene technician closed the doors between the two rooms before departing.

“I've arranged another room for you on the eighth floor,” Yan said, holding out a key card for Lee.

“That won't be necessary,” Bai said.

Yan smiled tightly. “I insist.”

She looked at Lee, who shrugged and took the proffered card. “I'll just need a few minutes to collect my things.”

“I'll wait for you,” Yan said as his earbud squawked. He frowned as he listened then refocused on Lee and Bai. “I'll be back to make sure you've vacated the room.”

As soon as the door closed behind Yan, Lee retrieved leather gloves and a set of locksmith's tools from the surveillance case. In only moments, he had the double doors between the rooms open again.

“Wen's phone is still in here somewhere,” she said to Lee. “I'm sure of it.”

A quick search between the mattresses and under the bed proved futile. Crawling around on all fours, she looked under the dresser while Lee hurriedly searched the bathroom, including the toilet tank. The room safe sat open and empty. She checked the safe and felt along the back of the metal box for a false wall; there wasn't one. Lee pulled out the drawers from the bureau and the desk; they were clean. They'd run out of places to look and were about to give up when a thought occurred to her.

“Lee, do you still have the card Wen gave you?”

He fished the card out of his pocket and handed it to her. She tapped the number into her cell and hit the call button. A current Chinese pop song played through a tinny speaker. Following the sound, they walked across the room to a flat-screen television attached to the wall. Lee played his hand over the top edge of the screen until his fingers came to rest on something that shouldn't have been there—a cell phone. He retrieved the phone from its hiding place and pulled the battery out of the back of the device before putting the pieces into the pocket of his jacket.

“If someone is tracking this phone, I don't want them to follow us,” he explained.

They put everything back the way they'd found it, then exited the room the way they'd entered by relocking the doors. Lee picked up the surveillance case and accompanied Bai out of their room.

They talked as they waited for the elevator.

“I've had worse days,” she confided. “Not a lot of them, but some.”

He sighed. “I feel bad. Maybe if I'd done something differently, Wen would still be alive.”

“And maybe she'd have died a lot sooner if we hadn't gotten her out of the house in Berkeley. Someone, other than us, tracked her here. She'd only been here a few hours. That's pretty short notice to put together a hit. I'm guessing she was targeted long before we met her. Black karma.”

“There's no such thing as black karma,” Lee said derisively.

“Tell that to Wen Liu.”

Lee turned his head to look at her and shook his head. “Whatever the case may be, I feel sorry for her. I was right there and still couldn't do anything to prevent her death.”

“Don't dwell on what can't be changed. You had no way of knowing Wen was in danger. Instead of feeling guilty, think about what we can do to help bring her killer to justice.”

He looked at her and nodded. “She must have had a good reason to hide her phone. I'll want to clone the cell's memory before I attempt to hack through the security on her device. I'll need my lab machine to do that.”

“How long will that take?”

“That will depend on the level of security and the type of encryption she used. If the key to the encryption is stored on the phone, I'll have the memory card cracked in a couple of hours. If she was sophisticated enough to keep her encryption key elsewhere, we could have a problem. I'll probably have her call log and address book within an hour or two. They're rarely encrypted.”

“I'm curious to find out who she's been talking to. While you're working on the phone, I'm going to do another Internet search on Daniel Chen. His profile doesn't add up. The background I've found on him so far only dates back a few years. Before that, Chen didn't exist.”

“Looking for Chen is turning out to be a risky business. Are we really sure we want to find him?”

“Wen Liu is dead. So are the Norteños we found in Chen's office. He may be the only one who can tell me why they died. Now I absolutely have to find him.”

Lee turned to give her an appraising stare.

“What?”

“Your logic just reminded me you're a girl.”

She shrugged off his comment. “Do you think thirty is old?”

He looked at her blankly. “Not since I turned thirty.”

“Funny how that works, don't you think?”

Chapter 12

Bai went to Lee's apartment to watch him clone Wen's phone. He settled in at his desk and turned on his lab machine, a basic desktop computer without Internet or network capability. The barebones machine had a simple operating system and a myriad of ports for accessing and copying data. He took the secure digital memory card with built-in encryption out of Wen's phone and put it into an SD port on the lab machine to copy the contents onto a hard disk for backup.

“If there's a fail-safe program on the phone to protect the contents against unauthorized access, the backup will give us a second chance to decrypt the data,” he explained.

“Great! Whatever that means,” Bai replied, mystified by Lee's jargon.

“I'm just copying the data in case I screw up.”

When the backup finished, he removed the original SD card and put it into a desk drawer. “While I'm doing this, why don't you go upstairs and rest? I'll call you when I have something.”

“Are you sure you don't mind? I can stay and help.”

“That's what I'm afraid of.”

He smiled but didn't look up from his task.

“I'm a distraction. I get it. All right, call me if you find anything of interest. I don't care how late it is.”

He nodded to let her know he'd heard, too immersed in his task to verbally respond. She let herself out of his apartment and took the elevator up to the third floor. Since it was past eleven, the girls would be in bed. When she stepped out of the lift, she found Elizabeth waiting for her. A worried expression on the older woman's face informed Bai her long and crappy day wasn't over.

“The pictures didn't do you justice, but I could still tell it was you.”

“What are we talking about?”

“You made the ten o'clock news.”

Someone at the Grand Hotel had photographed the altercation in front of valet parking and sold the pictures to a local television station. The shots led the 10 o'clock news report. Bai had been hailed as an unassuming, and presently unknown, hero.

“I've made tea,” Elizabeth said. “I was just about to have a cup in the living room, if you'd care to join me?”

Bai recognized the subtle tone that turned what might have been considered an invitation into an edict. They adjourned to the living room, where polished natural bamboo floors and contemporary leather furniture lightened the atmosphere. Large ceramic cups glazed a dark blue rested on the brass and glass coffee table between them.

“I was protecting my date,” Bai declared in her own defense. “Dates are few and far between. I couldn't let someone just steal him.”

Elizabeth didn't appear to be amused. “You could have been hurt.”

“But I wasn't. As a matter of fact, there are a couple of men running around with bruises wishing they'd tried to steal somebody else's date.”

“How do you feel about Howard?”

Elizabeth's mercurial change in subject surprised Bai and made her wary. She decided to nip the older woman's matchmaking attempt in the bud. “If I had to sum up Howard in one word, I'd say he's an ass. He might even be a complete ass.”

“I believe he's a nice man,” Elizabeth replied, pointedly ignoring her opinion. “He can be kind, I'm told. That's not to say he doesn't have his flaws. We all do.”

“Did I mention he's an ass?”

“I'm just asking you to keep an open mind.”

Bai held her cup in both hands and leaned back into the soft leather cushions to study Elizabeth. A subcurrent of conversation had taken place that left her puzzled. “Is there something you're trying to tell me?”

“I think it would be a good idea to give him a second chance. I know his mother quite well, and I feel there's more to him than what you've seen. I'm told he hides his true nature . . . that he's sensitive.”

“He told me I was old.”

Elizabeth spoke over the rim of her cup. “Most women are married by thirty.”

“So now you're defending him?”

She smiled. “Facts are facts.”

Bai let out a deep sigh and took a sip of bitter green tea. “Is it the money you find so attractive?”

“There's nothing wrong with having money, but that isn't my main concern.”

“I have plenty of money. I don't need billions of dollars to be happy.”

“You're wasting your life finding people who don't want to be found. The Kwan holdings are extensive, and you have an aptitude for management. Wouldn't you like to challenge yourself?”

“I challenged myself yesterday. I only ate two donuts when I could have eaten the entire bag. Doesn't that count for something?”

Elizabeth tilted her chin, which packed the emotional impact of Bai's slamming her forehead on the table. “If you're not willing to have an adult conversation, there's no point in continuing.”

With a sullen expression and a stiff posture, she stood to leave the room. Bai considered replacing her tea with scotch when her phone interrupted the thought. The caller was Jason.

She answered in a rapid-fire manner. “I'm tired. I've had a crappy day. You're not going to make it worse, are you?”

“There's a strong possibility I will.”

“Where are you?”

“Macau.”

“What are you doing in Macau?”

“Running a casino, but that's not why I called.”

There was silence on the line.

She wondered if Jason wanted her to guess why he'd called. Too tired to play games, she replied, “I'm hanging up now and going to bed.”

“I'm told you made the ten o'clock news.”

“Word travels fast.”

“I understand you were with Howard Kwan.”

“I had a date.”