Murder Lo Mein Page 17

  Wilkins followed behind me all the way to the plaza, and I curbed the urge to wave at him again as I entered Asia Village. It probably wasn’t the best idea for me to give away the fact that someone was keeping an eye on me. Kinda defeated the whole purpose.

  On my way to the restaurant, Mr. Zhang came waddling up to me as I passed Wild Sage. His demeanor was always affable and slightly on the curious side. He peered at me through his bifocals, assessing my appearance. “Young Miss Lee, how are you this morning?”

  “I’m doing well, Mr. Zhang, how are you today?”

  He nodded. “I am also well. Do you know if your grandmother will be stopping by today?”

  “I’m not sure, any particular reason you’re asking?” I tried not to smile.

  He chuckled. “She is a very beautiful and wise woman. I would very much like to know her.”

  “I could talk to her for you…”

  Mr. Zhang blushed. “Oh no, please do not mention it, Lana. I will find my own way.”

  “Well, if you ever change your mind…” I started to walk away, but realized who I was talking to. Speaking of wise, Mr. Zhang was pretty adept in that department. I realized he would be able to give me some insight into the whole Sun Tzu thing. He might suggest a possibility that hadn’t been considered yet. “May I ask you a question?” I turned back around to face him.

  “Of course, anything. Mr. Zhang is always here to help.”

  “Do you think it would be odd for someone to quote Sun Tzu in this day and age? People who would do that probably are into history or something, right?” After my earlier conversation with Adam, I began to wonder about the specific connection myself. I had decided on the way to work that we could narrow down our possibilities to people who would be interested in Asian history. Although around here that could still be quite a few people.

  He shook his head. “Sun Tzu is very popular in the business world. Many people seek his teachings to run their companies. Cindy Kwan could tell you the same. I imagine she sells a lot of books in this style.”

  Great. So in light of that information, none of the possible suspects could be eliminated. Everybody involved so far was a business owner, and any of them could have read the book for their own purposes.

  I thanked Mr. Zhang and went on my way to Ho-Lee Noodle House. I needed to start narrowing things down if I was going to get anywhere with this case.

  * * *

  The morning proceeded with nothing of importance occurring. The Mahjong Matrons came in as usual, and gossiped over their pickled cucumbers and rice porridge. I refilled their teakettle at least twice before they decided to head out for the day.

  On my lunch break, I stopped by the Modern Scroll and talked with Cindy Kwan about The Art of War and she confirmed what Mr. Zhang had told me earlier that morning. It was a very popular book in the business world, and she sold plenty of copies.

  Of course, my questioning her about the book led her to ask me whether I was still investigating the recent murders.

  “So, clearly the murderer wasn’t Stella like I originally thought,” Cindy said, leaning over the counter. “My money’s on that Joel guy. For sure. Hands down.” She slapped the counter for emphasis. “Especially with him lurking around the plaza lately. I think he’s been here every day since this mess started. Tell me, Lana, when’s the last time you saw Joel here before that?”

  “Rina mentioned that too,” I told her. “But don’t you think it would be stupid of him to bring more attention to himself? He’s already under suspicion because of the way he acted during round one.”

  “Maybe,” she said, tilting her head in consideration. “However, at the same time, he could be trying to keep tabs on what’s happening around here so he can be one step ahead.”

  She did have a point, and I tossed it around in my head while I took a quick skim through the mystery section of the store. Arguing with myself about whether or not to purchase anything, I left the store empty-handed. I made myself promise that I wouldn’t buy any more new books until I had this whole thing solved. That would be my reward.

  I ventured over to visit with Rina and confirm the time of our coffee date, but she had her hands full with an abundance of women perusing her store. It made me smile to know that her business was doing well. After the loss of her younger sister, Isabelle, it was important for Rina to have something positive in her life. Moving to Cleveland was a big step for her, and I’d hate to see her fail and return to New York. In the short time we’d known each other, we’d gotten pretty close and losing her as part of my daily routine would be both sad and disappointing.

  Continuing my loop around the pond, I caught sight of Freddie Yuan and sped up my pace, hoping that he wouldn’t stop me. Now that I knew the real reason for Adam’s distant behavior, I felt guilty at ever entertaining the idea of another guy.

  I had almost passed the community center successfully, but before I could completely get away, I heard a “Hey, Lana!”

  I cringed, but turned around. He’d said it so loudly there was no way I could deny having heard my name.

  Freddie walked over to greet me. His smile was killer and I silently scolded myself for thinking so. “Hey, there!”

  “Oh, hi, Freddie…”

  “So listen … I was thinking … it was really nice seeing you away from the plaza the other night.”

  “Yeah … you too.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck, flexing his arm muscles in the process. “It occurred to me that we should have drinks sometime. You know, just shoot the—”

  “I have a boyfriend!” I blurted, diverting my attention to the pond. Could I be any more awkward?

  Freddie let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, my bad. I didn’t realize. Anybody I know?”

  “Maybe? I’m dating Detective Trudeau…”

  “Oh, wow … a detective … how could I compete with that?” He scratched his chin. “Well, hey, can’t blame a guy for tryin’.”

  “You know who you should ask out? Rina,” I told him. “She mentioned she thinks you’re very attractive.” I pointed in the direction of her store. I knew she was going to kill me for this, but I would deal with the repercussions of that later.

  His head turned in the direction that I pointed. “Oh … Rina. Yeah, she seems like a cool chick. Kinda straitlaced for me though … but I’ll think about it. Anyway, no hard feelings on my end. If you change your mind though … or things go south with the detective, you know where to find me.” He winked before jogging back to the community center.

  Before I turned around to head back to the restaurant, I noticed Ian standing at the door of the property office watching the exchange. Great, just great.

  * * *

  After lunchtime, business slowed, so I snuck into the office and called Megan to fill her in on what just happened with Freddie Yuan and the conversation I’d had with Adam the night before. She snickered before making some inappropriate catcall comments.

  “It’s not funny,” I scolded her.

  “But it kind of is,” she replied. “This is the way of life, my friend. You finally found yourself a great catch, and all of a sudden these other guys come out of the woodwork. It’s classic.”

  “I feel awful though.”

  “Don’t. You didn’t do anything wrong. So you found another guy attractive. Big deal. Things with Adam haven’t really presented themselves in the right light. This conversation you guys had last night was huge. And, it’s a game changer. He’s not someone to bring a woman into his life lightly. Now you guys are getting somewhere.”

  “True…”

  “So, enough boy talk. I have been waiting to tell you this all day. I found out something about Stella that you’re going to find superinteresting.”

  “What? I can’t believe you didn’t bring that up first. Do tell!”

  “Okay, so you know how I said there would be tons of articles on her because of her death?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Last night on my break,
I was scrolling through yet another article about how she came to be a hotshot chef and it mentioned again how she went to that fancy culinary school.”

  “Right, the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking.”

  “Yeah, so the person writing the article asked whoever from the school to provide some pictures of Stella for the paper. And you’ll never guess who is caught in the background in one of the photos.”

  “Who?” I asked, inching to the edge of my chair.

  “Joel Liu.”

  CHAPTER

  24

  “You have got to be kidding me! So he and Stella go way back then.”

  “That’s not all,” Megan said. “After that, I started to think about our little trio of suspects, and dug around some more with the school as my connection. Sure enough, Penny Cho attended the school too.”

  My eyes widened. “Really? Penny went there too?”

  “Yup. Pretty interesting stuff, huh?”

  “I would say so.” I stood up from my seat at the desk feeling anxious. With this new information, we knew for sure that they had been connected in the past. Going to school with people could be a bonding experience or it could be the perfect recipe for enemies.

  “What are you thinking?” Megan asked, breaking the silence.

  “Sorry, just thinking about the possibilities this opens up. This could change the dynamic of everything we thought we knew.”

  “I agree. I say we keep digging into these three and see what we turn up. Even though Walter Shen is a jerk, he’s probably just that … a jerk.”

  “True, but I don’t want to eliminate Ray Jin just yet. There’s something odd about him that isn’t sitting well with me. The way he’s been acting about the contest hasn’t been consistent. I’m not sure if I’m reading something into that, so I want to check it out.”

  “Well, if Joel did kill Norman Pan, then it was because he’s mad about the contest, and Ray won the contest last year … allegedly because of dirty dealings.” Megan let that statement hang while I made my own assumptions based on her theory.

  “So if this theory checks out … Ray could potentially be the next target,” I said.

  “Exactly. And maybe because he has a guilty conscience he suspects it and that’s why he’s been acting so erratically.”

  I took a deep breath and sat back down in my chair. “Okay … do you think I should warn him?” Something needed to be done. Being at the restaurant doing nothing was going to make me a nervous wreck.

  “I wouldn’t bring it up just yet. From what you’ve told me so far he sounds a little on the angry side, and if you approach him, he might try to retaliate. You said he was already trying to pin the murder on Joel anyway, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, he’s not being shy about his feelings on the subject.”

  “How about we solidify this new theory of ours first? If we can get something concrete on these two, then you can take that to Trudeau and let him deal with the rest. It’ll at least put the investigation in the right direction.”

  While she spoke, I came up with a plan that I could put into action immediately. Penny was too mad at me and had made it clear that she didn’t want to talk about it further, so I doubted I could learn anything more from her. Megan was right about not approaching Ray too soon, so that left one weak link. Joel Liu.

  “Here’s the plan,” I told Megan. “I’m going to confront Joel about him talking with Jackie Shen.”

  “What do you mean? How does anything involve that girl?”

  I’d forgotten I never had the chance to tell Megan about what I’d seen when I was out with Rina at Wok and Roll over the weekend.

  “Ohhh, that’s a good angle,” Megan said after I filled her in. “Then maybe he’ll admit he has a history with Penny and you can find out what happened with the three of them.”

  “Yeah, if I pretend to be concerned about him trying to mess around behind Penny’s back that should get him talking. The concerned-friend role usually works.”

  “But what if he says that he’s not with Penny and leaves it at that?”

  “If he says they’re not romantically involved, then I’ll throw Jackie under the bus and tell him she mentioned that he’s been calling Walter Shen … and we’ll see if that takes us anywhere. If he gets too defensive about it, we’ll know that something’s up with them and we can officially bump Walter back to the top of the list.”

  Megan sighed with relief. “Lana … we’re getting close to something. I can feel it.”

  When we hung up, I felt a sense of satisfaction. This knowledge could take us somewhere. Hopefully that somewhere was in the right direction.

  The restaurant was still pretty slow, and Nancy seemed to have everything under control. Taking the bank deposit with me on my way out, I swung by to see Rina and cancel our coffee date, promising that we’d get together another day. Right now, I needed to pay a visit to Joel’s restaurant.

  * * *

  As I’d anticipated, business was slow for Joel as well. I thought about the last time I’d been there and the fact that Stella had met with him shortly before her death. Even with Wilkins in the parking lot as my shadow, I needed to be careful. There was no telling what type of situation I was walking into.

  The same hostess was standing near the door when I walked in and I wondered if Joel had the means to hire any other staff. It was beyond me how he was able to pay anyone to begin with.

  The hostess smiled cheerily at me. “Back again, I see. Would you like a table? Or will you be taking out today?”

  I returned the smile as I stepped up to the hostess stand. “Actually, I only need to speak with Joel today. Is he available?”

  The smile fell from her face. “Let me see if he’s free.”

  While she went to search for Joel in the back, I glanced around the dining room, giving it a more thorough scrutiny than I had on my previous visit.

  The place needed some updates. Most of the vinyl booths were beginning to tear and crack, the wallpaper was peeling at the seams, and the lighting was horribly dim. If Joel managed to keep himself in business, he would definitely need to make some improvements before things got any worse.

  A few minutes passed before the hostess came back. She wasn’t as chipper as she’d been when I first arrived. “Joel will see you now,” she said with little inflection.

  “Thanks.” I gave her a polite nod and headed through the restaurant to the back where his office was located. I thought it was a little rude of him not to come out and greet me, but I wasn’t going to split hairs over it. At least he wasn’t avoiding me.

  The kitchen was exceptionally clean and I attributed that to the lack of the business. The cook seemed bored, and I caught him scrolling through something on his phone. He hardly flinched as I walked by.

  Joel was sitting at his desk, staring off into the distance, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. When I walked in, he shifted his eyes toward me, but made no other acknowledgment.

  I sat in the chair across from his desk, saving my smile for a better use. “I won’t be long; I just wanted to ask you one thing.”

  He sat up in his chair and folded his hands over his waist. “Is it another ridiculous accusation?”

  “Are you dating Penny?”

  He blurted a laugh. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Why is that so funny? You’ve been seen together a lot lately. There’s a rumor floating around the Village that the two of you have been quite cozy.”

  “That damn plaza of yours,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s worse than a tabloid.”

  “If you would just answer the question, things would move a lot faster. If you are dating, I don’t see why it would be such a big deal to tell me.”

  He sighed, leaning his head back. “No, we’re not dating … we’re just friends.”

  I took a moment to consider how I wanted to word my next question. If he wasn’t dating Penny, then I would have to move onto the Walter Shen angle as I’d considered e
arlier. I would have preferred that Joel told me he was in fact dating Penny. Any other explanation for why he was hanging around the plaza would be better than the alternative.

  “You came all this way to ask me that? You could have asked Penny that. Or is she sick of your ridiculous nonsense too?”

  “No…” I grumbled. “There is something else I wanted to ask you about.”

  “Out with it then.”

  “Why are you so interested in getting a hold of Walter Shen?”

  “Ah … so that’s the real reason you came here. And tell me exactly, what business is it of yours?”

  There truthfully was no reason for it to be. I hadn’t thought through that part of it and my mind was drawing a blank. What was my purpose for caring?

  We stared at each other, and the longer the silence lasted, the worse my brain functioned.

  “How about being honest with yourself on why you’re really here?” He checked his watch. “I have things to do.”

  I wiped my palms on my pant legs. “Okay, fine. I thought it was awfully suspicious that you were talking with Jackie the other night, so I asked her about it. At first, I thought you were hitting on her. Then she told me that you wanted to speak with her father … and it struck me as odd, considering you and Walter Shen have never been friends. He’s disrespected you just as much as Norman has. With current circumstances, I have to wonder if—”

  “You’re not going to let this whole thing drop, are you?” he asked.

  Mild relief washed over me. I was glad he didn’t let me say the actual words. “No.”

  He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. “If I tell you something, can you try and keep it to yourself for the time being?”

  “Depends on what it is.”

  “Then no deal.” He folded his arms across his chest. “If you can’t keep your mouth shut—”

  “All right, fine,” I said. If he had something worth hearing, I needed to know what it was.