The Chang house was in an older, poorly-maintained neighborhood. It was a dilapidated plantation style that had been added onto until it sprawled in all directions, filling a large corner lot. Several expensive cars were parked on the strip of dry, weedy grass, and a pit bull in the side yard barked ferociously as she pulled over onto the curb in front.
“Hey!” A dark figure appeared at the iron latticework security door as Lei got out. Her hand settled on the Glock. “What you doing in our neighborhood?”
She faced the house. Several other shadowy figures had clustered around the one addressing her.
“You talking to me?” Lei put cop in her voice.
“I said, what you stay doing here?” A reedy timbre-one of the teenagers.
“Coming to talk to Healani Chang. You got a problem with that?”
The door opened. It was the lanky kid she had run down in the alley. He was wearing a red do-rag on his head, gang colors.
“This is harassment,” he said. Three other teens came out, ranging behind him, their arms folded over their chests as they tried on attitude.
“Chill out.” Lei took her hand off her gun, opened her arms. “I just want to talk to your grandma. Is she home?”
“What you like with her?”
“Nothing. Just saying hi, and hope you boys are staying out of trouble.”
Her nonaggressive stance and calm voice were working.
One of the boys turned and yelled back into the house, “ Tutu! Get one cop out here like talk to you!”
A few seconds passed and the screen door creaked shut behind an older woman in a scarlet muumuu, frowning as she wiped her hands on a dishcloth. She made shooing motions.
“What you boys doing? Get back in the house!”
The teenagers scattered, only Do-rag pausing to give Lei the finger behind his grandmother’s back.
Lei waited as the Chang matriarch came down the steps and stood a few feet away. She reminded Lei of a beautiful warship’s figurehead after it had been through some long campaigns. She folded arms on an impressive chest and gave a good staredown.
“You Wayne’s girl,” she said. Healani Chang knew exactly who Lei was.
“Yes.”
A long moment passed.
“Someone been making trouble for me. I like you make it stop,” Lei said in pidgin.
“You think I care?” Healani Chang laughed, a rusty cough. Lei stared into the woman’s rich, chocolate-brown eyes.
“Please.” She softened her voice. “I just want it to end. I got no beef with you. The cops will be all over you folks if they aren’t already.”
Healani said nothing, staring at her unblinking.
Lei turned away at last. It had been worth a try.
“Wait.” The older woman’s voice was husky, as if from smoking or yelling at the teenagers. “It was Ray, and that other girl Anela in the Mainland. Thought if they made trouble to you, took you out, I’d recognize them and give ’em a part in the family business. It was never going to happen. I told Ray if he kills a cop he brings trouble for all of us.”
“Glad you see it that way,” Lei said. Her ironic tone was lost on Healani.
“I was never going give nothing to Terry’s bastards,” Healani spat. “No matter what they did.”
“The cops took Anela into custody and Ray will have trouble ever shooting anyone again. Know anything about Charlie Kwon? Any way he was involved?”
“Charlie, he my cousin.” Healani nodded as Lei’s eyes widened. “Fucking pedophile deserves to be in Lompoc and I hope he stays there a long time, but he still family. He always had it in for Wayne from going against him on the street, and he tol’ us back in the day what he did to you and Maylene-getting her more hooked by the day until he broke her. From prison he gave Anela information she wen’ pass on to Ray.” Her flat eyes reminded Lei of a moray eel as she shrugged. “They thought they’d impress me with that? I play the game, but I play straight up. So I telling you I had no part in going after you, nor any of my children.”
Lei struggled to assimilate this. Apparently Charlie’d got her mother deep into her addiction on purpose, and raping Lei had been a nice perk along the way. Her vision dimmed, but she dug her nails fiercely into her palm to anchor herself.
She’d deal with Kwon someday. It was a promise.
“So it’s over.”
“It was over when you shot Ray. Stupid bastard.” The way the older woman said the word Lei knew she meant its literal meaning.
“All right, Mrs. Chang.” She couldn’t bring herself to call the older woman ‘auntie’ as would be customary. “Goodbye then.”
Healani didn’t answer, just looking at her with that basilisk stare as Lei walked toward the truck.
Her scalp prickled, a feeling like a thousand fire ants crawling over it. She always knew when someone had a gun on her, and as she glanced up into the doorway she could see Do-Rag waving a massive silver. 357 Magnum at her. Talk about overcompensating. She walked away and got in the truck, pulling away sedately, ignoring the tingling at the back of her head.
She gunned the engine when she reached the end of the block and thumbed open her phone to call Nagata with the details. She’d taken a risk and for once it’d paid off.