“C losed the place down, boys. Feng comes out and says ‘everybody go home.’ And then he and the Gestapo stood there by the front door and checked everyone before we left.”
“And the cops?”
“Oh, they got all of the names and contact information.” J.J. sat on the well-worn green cloth couch, his wrinkled T-shirt proudly announcing Age and Treachery Will Win Out Every Time Over Youth and Skill. I hoped that wasn’t true.
“Guys, we don’t have time to sit here and discuss this. Em is in serious trouble.”
“Em?” J.J. gave me a puzzled look.
I laid it out as fast as I could, and it still took me over four minutes.
“You don’t have this card, correct?” He smiled and I could see his tongue through the missing front teeth.
“No. And if I don’t produce this card, this blue-”
J.J. scratched himself, let out a long breath and stood up. He turned the corner at the hallway, a mirror opposite of our apartment, and disappeared from view.
“James, Em is in serious trouble and we’re dealing with a-”
“Here you go.” J.J. had the identical card between his thumb and index finger. “It’s blank, with a lot of static on it. Now, if you give this to them, it’s probably enough. If they want to check it out to see if it’s the genuine card from the smoke detector,” he glanced at me, then held me with his eyes, “that one I told you was going to be trouble. Do you remember?”
I nodded.
“Well, it will have static. You tell them that it was run through a magnetic field. You got on an airplane or went through a metal detector somewhere.”
“That erases the card?”
“No. But chances are these guys don’t know that. We haven’t got time to develop much of a plan at all. Go with what you’ve got.”
I couldn’t believe this guy actually had a plan at all. “We’ll use it. Thanks so much, man.”
“You mentioned, briefly, that you had other detection equipment?”
“Well,” James started to do his shuffle, possibly because a spring from his chair seemed exposed and was possibly painful. “We used a GPS unit and something called The Sound Max. It’s a-”
“Hey, I know The Sound Max.”
I remember rolling my eyes at James. “I doubt that you-”
“Long wand, picks up conversations from almost anywhere.”
Damn.
“This building, it’s got two stories?”
“Yeah.”
“Get there early.”
Early was now.
“Set that puppy up on the roof and record the entire transaction.”
“Thanks, man.”
“It’s the best I can do on short notice.” He picked up a toothpick from the end table by the couch and started working in his mouth. James and I bolted for the door, and sixty seconds later we were on the road.
“For a ten-minute talk, it’s not a bad plan, Pancho.”
I had to admit it.
“Damn Sandy Conroy.”
“James, it’s not Conroy.”
“Guy on the phone said it was.” James ground the brakes at the stoplight, looking right and left, then driving through the red.
“Doesn’t make any difference. Chen is the only one who knows about the card.”
“How do you figure?”
“We were in the building the night Sandy Conroy asked Carol about us spying on him. She didn’t volunteer the information about the smoke detector, did she?”
“No. It never came up.”
“But she thought Chen was her partner. Chen was meeting with her at the Tiny Tots Academy. She told him about it. Chen knew about the card.”
“Why didn’t she give it to him. It pretty much incriminated Sandy Conroy.”
“I would guess, just a guess, that she kept the card as a bargaining tool. She had evidence on Sandy with the card. Chen may not know what’s on it, but he knows it has some evidence of the codes.”
“So you’re pretty sure Chen has Em?”
It rang in my ears. Chen has Em. Chen has Em. Chen has Em. “I’d bet on it. And he’s blaming it on Sandy Conroy, just in case we tell anyone.”
The brakes ground as he stopped at a light. It flashed green and James tromped on the gas as the truck eased ahead, slowly.
“James, if anything happens to Em, I will never, ever forgive myself.”
“I won’t forgive myself, amigo. But you know what? We’re going to get her back. I promise you.”
We were both quiet for sixty seconds. Then I could see the building, two blocks away, the gaudy graffiti splashed all over the outside. “I’d give my life for her, James.”
“Hey, you won’t have to.”
“I would. I really would. I just know that.” At that moment there was no question. If I had to die to save her, I’d do it. I just didn’t know it would come to that.