Point Blank (Sisterhood Book 26) (8 page)

“Will you come back to visit me?”

“I don’t think so, Lily. I live too far away. I won’t forget you, though, because you are my little sister. I will think of you all the time. You will miss me at first, but then my memory will fade. You will be given another big sister to watch over you until it is your turn to become the big sister. We should go now. Are you ready?”

“Yes. But you are wrong, Yuke Lok, I will never forget you. Maybe someday you can come to America, and you and I will be like Daddy and Uncle Jack. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“That won’t happen, Lily. Life here in China is not easy. You need a lot of money to travel. My parents are not rich. I must find employment when I leave here. I think I will teach. I must be here to help my parents when they get old. Maybe you can come and visit me. We can write letters to each other. Or we might be lucky and get computers. Then we can e-mail and do that thing where we can see each other. Sometimes I wish the brothers were more modern in their thinking, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I understand why it has to be like this. Daddy explained it all to me.”

“Tell me more about all your aunts and uncles back in America. How did they get to be so rich? What is it like to be rich, Lily?”

“I don’t know, Yuke Lok, because my daddy is not rich. The others are, I guess. They have cars and boats and big houses. We live at the dojo. We always have food and nice clothes, but so do most people in America, and they are not considered rich. I need to study up more on that. I know Grandma Annie and Grandma Myra are rich, because Daddy said so. They aren’t really my grandmas, but I have to show respect and give them that title. I love them very much. I don’t know much about money. Do you?”

Yuke Lok laughed. “Enough to know I don’t have any. I’d like to have money someday, so I could go shopping and buy . . .
something.
Just buy something that’s all mine.”

“Like what?” Lily asked, curiosity ringing in her voice.

“A pretty red or yellow hair ribbon or maybe one of those shiny hair clips. In the shape of a butterfly. And some
lipstick
! Bright red to go with the hair ribbon.” Yuke Lok giggled, and so did Lily. “Brother Hung would punish me for such wishful thoughts if he knew.”

Lily laughed out loud. “He’s never going to know, and I will keep your secret.”

The girls trudged on, giggling and laughing over this and that until the sun started to set. “We’re almost there, Lily. I’m tired now, are you?”

“Yes, I am tired, and I am also hungry. We’re safe, aren’t we?”

“Yes, Lily, we are safe,” she said aloud. Then Yuke Lok muttered, “For now.”

 

J
ack Emery looked around Myra’s empty kitchen. Just an hour ago, it was teeming with chattering women and silent, observant men who were now down in the war room with Charles and Fergus. He’d remained topside, to accept the UPS and Federal Express packages that were due shortly.

Jack leaned against the kitchen counter as he sipped at his coffee. He admitted to himself that he was a little nervous about the upcoming trip to China. Not nervous for himself but for Harry, who was like a scalded cat. But who could blame him. He and Yoko were both worried sick about their daughter, Lily, and rightly so. Somewhere deep inside him, he knew that the little girl was safe. He didn’t know how he knew, he just knew. And as hard as he tried, he could not convey that confidence to Harry and Yoko. He knew in his gut they were focused on the worst-case scenario. If he were walking in their shoes, he might be out of his mind, too, but he didn’t think so. He had been an optimist all his life. No reason to switch up now.

Jack let his gaze wander to the Wolf range and clock that said Federal Express was late. He shrugged. He moved then, closer to the kitchen window to stare out at the last of the autumn leaves swirling about in a brisk wind. They were colorful, he had to admit. He loved autumn, always had, as did Nikki. Nikki loved Halloween, her favorite holiday of the whole year. She said it brought back the kid in her, when she believed in spooks and goblins. The thing he loved about autumn was the pumpkin pie, the pumpkin fritters, the pumpkin pudding, the pumpkin bread, the pumpkin
everything.

Jack turned to look at the clock again. Harry and Yoko should have arrived by now. Harry was always on time. And more often than not, he was early. What was keeping him? Maybe he should call. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t. Harry would take the phone call all wrong, immediately assume that Jack was worried, and that was the one emotion he did not want to convey to Harry, who was antsy enough for all of them. Better to wait, he decided. Still, the thought wouldn’t go away. He started to pace as his mind raced with possibilities. What the hell was going on? Something not good, he was sure of it.

What was going on was that Harry was pulling out his hair as he tried to grapple with what Cooper was doing. Yoko threw her hands in the air, moaning that something was wrong, and Cooper was trying to tell them, but they just weren’t
getting it.

“Enough, Yoko!” Harry roared. Yoko’s eyes widened. She went silent in mid-moan because she had never heard that tone in her husband’s voice. As in never
ever.

Harry eyed Cooper, who was dancing around in circles, something he’d been doing for close to an hour. He would stop intermittently, run to Lily’s room, and then run back out. He’d jumped on her bed, trying to reach the shelves overhead. Then he’d run to Harry and Yoko’s bathroom and do the same thing. Clearly, he wanted something, but Harry had no clue what it was. His barking was incessant now, bordering on hysteria.

Harry dropped to his knees and cupped the dog’s head in his hand. His thoughts were as frenzied as Cooper’s as he tried to understand what the dog wanted. Something important to Lily. That was a certainty.

“I get it, I get it,” Harry whispered. “You want something from both rooms, but you can’t get to it. Help me out here, pal. You need to show me.”

Cooper stopped barking long enough to raise his paw and place it on Harry’s shoulder. His head bobbed before he trotted to Lily’s room, where he jumped up on the bed. He threw back his head and howled.

Harry’s eyes scanned the shelf above Lily’s bed. Books, a play cash register, a stuffed bear, a cone covered in glitter that Lily had made in kindergarten, a jewelry box.

“Obviously, it’s something on the shelf. Take it all down, Harry, and see which one he wants.”

One by one, Harry took the items off the shelf and laid them on the bed. Cooper didn’t make a move until Harry placed the ballerina jewelry box on the bed. He raised the cover and watched as the tiny figure did a pirouette to a tinny tune. Cooper wasn’t the least bit interested in the ballerina. He used his paw to poke among the trinkets. Finally, he found what he was looking for, a gold-plated butterfly barrette that Lily used to pull her hair back. Cooper clamped it between his teeth and ran to the door, where he looked around for his basket, which was out at the farm. Yoko knew instinctively he wanted a basket. She ran to her room and dumped out some trinkets she kept in a straw basket by her chair. She raced back to the door and placed it on the floor. Cooper dropped the hair clip in the basket, then sprinted for the bathroom, where he again threw back his head and howled.

“He wants something on the vanity. What?” Yoko wailed.

Harry scooped everything off the vanity and laid it on the floor. He and Yoko watched as Cooper pawed through everything until he came to several tubes of lipstick.

“Oh, God, I bet he wants a special color. Open them up, Harry, and tell him what each one is. What does this mean? Why does this dog want my lipstick?”

Harry’s tone was sharper than he meant it to be. “Like I know, Yoko! This says Sunset Pink.” He showed it to Cooper, who looked away. “Okay, wrong color. Let’s try this one, Coral Reef.” Cooper again looked away. “Third time is the charm. We have here . . . Cherry Orchard.” Cooper barked. Harry capped the tube and placed it on the bathroom carpet. Cooper had it between his teeth in a nanosecond. He trotted to the door and dropped it in the basket with the hair clip. Then he sat back on his haunches and barked.

“Okay, he’s ready to go,” Harry said, relief ringing in his voice.

“What does all of this mean, Harry?” Yoko whispered.

“Yoko, my dear, sweet wife, I do not have a clue. If you want a guess off the top of my head, then I would have to say he was somehow, some way in touch with our daughter, and she requested these things. Why is a whole other story. If you don’t like my version, make up one that makes you happy. Let’s not talk about this anymore.”

“We need to talk about it, Harry. I’m taking this all as a positive sign that Lily is okay, and Cooper has . . . um . . . been in touch with her. For whatever reason, she wants my lipstick and her butterfly hair clip. Lily and Cooper have always had a special bond that none of us understood, yet we accepted it. This is Cooper letting us know that our daughter is all right in the only way he knows how. We need to be grateful for this strange dog, Harry. I will never understand how it all came to be, but I will be forever grateful to this four-legged creature. I know you feel the same way, but for some odd reason, you find it hard to talk about. Give it up, Harry. Join us and believe in this mystical dog and his powers.”

“I do believe, Yoko. I just feel like I need to know the how and the why of it. Why us?”

“I don’t think we’re ever going to know. And, Harry, I’m okay with that as long as Cooper is in our lives, especially Lily’s. I feel so much better now. I really do. Cooper is telling us our daughter is safe, and that’s all that matters.

“One last thing, Harry.” In a voice ringing with pure steel, Yoko said, “And when I wrap my arms around my daughter, I am never letting go until we are back here in this dojo. Make sure you understand that.
Lily is coming home.
”

Cooper barked, a joyous sound.

Harry Wong was a wise man. He knew when he was beaten even before he stepped on the high road, knowing all along that this was going to be Yoko’s position. He nodded.

And that was the end of that.

 

 

Jack was on his third cup of coffee, his nerves twanging all over the place, when he finally heard the UPS driver sound off on his horn. He reached up and released the gate to allow the big brown truck to roll through. He watched in amazement as the driver and his helper hopped out to unload box after box onto the dolly that would transport it all to the kitchen. Lady and her pups stood in the kitchen, eyeballing all that was going on. Finally, satisfied that her help wasn’t needed, she herded her brood back to the family room and the warmth of the fireplace.

What did those women order, Alexis in particular, Jack wondered as the driver neatly stacked the boxes at the far end of the kitchen. “Eighteen boxes. Sign here, sir.” Jack scribbled his signature and tipped the driver. Okay, one delivery down, one to go, plus Harry’s arrival, and Jack’s world would be right side up.

The Federal Express driver sounded his horn fifteen minutes later and offered up an apology, saying he’d gotten a flat tire along the way. Compensation would be shown on the next bill. Jack nodded as he, like the UPS driver, dollied in eleven boxes and stacked them next to those left by the UPS driver.

Thirteen minutes after the gate closed behind the Federal Express truck, Harry Wong tapped his horn, pressed in the code, and roared through the gate.

Jack’s sigh and moan of relief were so loud that Lady appeared in the doorway to check things out. Satisfied that all was right in the kitchen, she returned to the family room to munch on her chew bone.

Harry, Yoko, and the mystical dog blew in with the wind, Cooper racing to where his basket of treasures rested. He dropped his two new treasures into the basket and ran off to find Lady and her pups.

“In a million years, you are never going to believe what I am about to tell you,” Harry said in the strangest voice Jack had ever heard. Yoko’s bobbing head scared him.

“If I’m not going to believe it, then don’t waste your time telling me,” Jack said, hedging as he tried to figure out Harry’s strange tone and the blank look on Yoko’s face. “Okay, okay, tell me before you explode.”

They told him, their words tripping over each other. “Go ahead, Jack, check Cooper’s basket, and you’ll find one butterfly hair clip and a tube of, what was the color of that lipstick, Yoko?”

“Cherry Orchard. He didn’t want the pink or the coral, he wanted the Cherry Orchard. It was like he knew the color he was looking for. Stop looking at me like that, Jack. It’s all true.”

Jack’s head reeled at Yoko’s fretful tone, which sounded as if she was on the verge of tears.

“Uh-huh. Okay.” He wondered if Harry and Yoko thought he was as stupid as he felt. He shrugged. In the end, it was what it was, and nothing was going to change. A tube of Cherry Orchard lipstick and a butterfly hair clip were not going to change the world as he knew it. He shrugged again.

“Guess we should go down to the war room and let them know that all of Alexis’s and Charles’s purchases arrived.”

The war room was quiet, with Lady Justice holding court on the wide screen that hung suspended from a giant rafter. Jack looked around at the thick files covering the special table Isabelle had designed to accommodate everyone. The only sounds to be heard were pages being turned, the soft hum of the heating unit, and the constant pinging of the fax machine. In spite of himself, Jack grinned at the show of reading glasses in colorful designs that everyone was wearing. He particularly liked Nikki’s purple polka-dotted ones. He had a pair of black polka-dot glasses, a gift from Nikki. She said no one would laugh at him because they were manly. All the guys laughed.

He waved and took his seat at the table, as did Harry and Yoko. Jack tried not to see the way Harry’s eyes bugged out at the thickness of the report at his seat. Like Harry was really going to plow through all those pages. Not.

The silence came to a screeching halt when Charles blew the whistle hanging around his neck. The whistle was proof that he was in charge. The moment he had everyone’s attention, Charles honed in on Jack. “Did everything arrive?”

“It did, and it’s all stacked up in the kitchen.” Hoping to ease Harry’s misery, Jack looked up at Charles, and said, “Do we really need to read all of this right now?”

“No, of course not. You’ll have ample time to read all of it on the plane to Hong Kong. Just a few minutes ago I received confirmation from Annie’s and Dennis’s pilots that the planes are being readied. Our ETD is tomorrow at nine in the morning. Just to make sure everyone is clear here, Avery Snowden and his people will be flying on the Welmed Gulfstream, courtesy of our young friend Dennis. The rest of us will be on Annie’s plane. Look at the screen, ladies and gentlemen!”

The wide screen showed two magnificent planes back to back. Charles clicked the button on his remote. Annie laughed when she saw the bright red-and-gold lettering that said
CRESCENT CHINA TOURS
and underneath the blocked Chinese letters that said the same thing. The Welmed plane had the same identical lettering, but there was a bright sky-blue number two next to the letters. “It was Lizzie’s idea to make Crescent China Tours look solvent should anyone inquire. She backstopped everything beautifully, as she always does. I will be the one carrying all the legal papers, just so you know.”

Charles looked down at Myra. “All physicals are done, passports in order. Are we a go?”

“We are good to go, dear.”

“Do any of you have any questions?”

Dennis’s hand shot in the air. “Who is staying behind?”

“Just me,” Abner said. “You guys are going to need me here. I’ll just be a click away, as will Lizzie just in case things turn sticky.”

Dennis had another question. It was the reporter in him. “Are you staying here at the farm or going back to your loft?”

“I’m camping out here and will be in charge of all of the dogs except for Cooper, who is going with you. I don’t know how Lizzie did it, but she got clearance to take Cooper into the country. I’ve got it buttoned down here, so relax.” Isabelle winked at him, then smiled. Abner turned bright pink as Dennis sighed with relief.

“Anything else?” Charles asked.

All eyes turned to Harry and Yoko. Yoko shook her head to indicate she was okay with everything. Harry simply waved his hand in the air, indicating the same thing. As one, the room relaxed.