CHAPTER NINE
From the hallway came the sound of someone whistling. The whistler's lack of talent and the Doppler effect made the melody unrecognizable.
The whistling stopped moving. It was outside their door, and it was possible to pick out a tuneless rendition of "I Am Woman."
The key clicked in the lock, the door opened and Sashur Kaufperson entered her apartment.
Her whistling stopped somewhere in the vicinity of lifting her weary hands up to the sky, when she saw Remo and Chiun standing in the center of her living room.
She paused, then held the door open wide behind her.
"You. What do you want?"
"Talky talk," said Remo. "Close the door."
She looked at him and Remo nodded and she closed the door.
"We can start," said Remo, "with Alvin Dewar. Why did you tell him to kill Warner Pell?"
"Who told you that?"
"Alvin Dewar. Now I answered your question. You answer mine. Why did you tell the kid to kill Pell?"
Sashur glanced at her watch before walking into the living room where she sank into a chrome and velvet sofa.
"I guess I'd better tell you."
"I would recommend that," Remo said. Chiun paid no attention to the conversation. He busily scanned the walls, packed frame to frame with paintings which he thought a waste of both canvas and pigment. On the far wall, he saw a set of gold coins in a frame and walked across the room to examine them.
"I don't know," Sashur said. "Pell was in some kind of trouble. He had been doing some things with the kids. The children were becoming, well, antisocial."
"Get on with it," said Remo.
"Well, I reported Pell to the school system administration and he threatened me and…"
"Hold it," said Remo. "That dog won't hunt. I know you and Pell were in this killer-kid operation. I know there was a lot of money involved. So don't give me any school-system crap. Start telling the truth."
"All right," Sashur said with a sigh. "I was in love with Pell. That's why I split from my husband. He tricked me into working with the kids for him. Then when my husband was killed, I met Pell and he said there was trouble, but that he had no worries. Then he said he was going to hand me up as my husband's killer. Who else had a better motive? I was still in the twerp's will. I'd wind up frying."
"That's absurd," Remo said.
"Not if you know your husband and you know all those mob people he was working for back in Detroit. I panicked, and I told Alvin to shoot Pell."
"Who was the boss of the operation?" Remo asked.
"Pell, of course."
"How was he getting the locations of the victims?"
Sashur shrugged. "I don't know. He handled all that. He just gave me the names to pass onto the kids… Look," she said suddenly. "It's over now. Pell is dead. Maybe I did wrong, but I did some right too, in finishing him off. Now can't you just let me be? You won't gain anything by turning me in."
Remo shook his head and noticed Sashur look at her watch, which she wore on her left wrist in a heavy leather band that would have been at home on a longshoreman.
"But you won't gain anything by putting me away," said Sashur. "I'll give you anything. Anything I have."
Chiun turned from the wall and smiled at Remo.
"How like the Western mind to think that all things and all people are for sale," he said.
"My paintings," Sashur said. She looked toward Chiun. "My collection of gold coins."
Remo shook his head.
"Just a minute, my son," said Chiun. "Some things certainly deserve consideration. The gold coins are a pleasant offering to our house."
"No," said Remo to Chiun. "We're not dealing."
"These are good coins," said Chiun. "Of course they are behind glass and I cannot examine them closely but they are worth much if they are authentic."
"No deals."
"But surely nothing is served by turning in this gracious young lady. Is that helping the Constitution to survive?"
Sashur looked at her watch again.
"I've got to talk to Smitty," said Remo. "From you," he told Sashur, "I want a list of the names of all Pell's kids."
"I'll get it, I'll get it." Sashur stood up. "It's in the bedroom."
"Just a minute," Remo said. He walked to the door of the bedroom and looked in. The only doors belonged to closets. The only windows opened up onto thirteen stories of empty space.
"Okay, get it for me."
He left her in the bedroom and went back to the living room, where Chiun was fingering the frame of the coin collection.
"I believe there is real gold leaf used on this frame," Chiun said.
"Now listen, Chiun. We can't go around letting everybody go who offers a bribe to Sinanju."
Chiun recoiled from the frame as if it were electrically charged. "A bribe? Is that what you call an offering? A bribe?" He clapped his hand to his forehead. "My own son. Adopted, of course. A bribe."
"A bribe," said Remo. "Now no more of it. We're going to get the list and then talk to Smitty before we decide what to do. He might want to handle this himself." He looked toward the bedroom. "She's taking long enough to get a list."
He approached the door just as Sashur emerged. "Here it is." She handed Remo a piece of paper with a dozen names on it. As she handed over the paper, she glanced again at her gold watch.
"These are all of them?" Remo asked.