Wilson hesitated. "No." She then nodded to the INS agent, who spoke in Chinese to the Changs. Mei-Mei's face went still but she nodded and directed the baby to the social worker. "She will . . . " Mei-Mei said. Then frowned, trying to think of the English words.
"Yes?" the social worker asked.
"She will be good take care of?"
"Yes, she will."
"She very good baby. Lost mother. Make sure she good take care of."
"I'll make sure."
Mei-Mei looked at the girl for a long moment then turned her attention back to her youngest son.
Wilson picked up Po-Yee, who squinted at Sachs's red hair and reached out to grip a handful of the strands with curiosity. When she tugged hard, Sachs laughed. The social worker started for her car.
"Ting!" came a woman's urgent voice. Sachs recognized the word for "wait" or "stop." She turned to see Chang Mei-Mei walking toward them.
"Yes?"
"Here. There is this." Mei-Mei handed her a stuffed animal toy, crudely made. A cat, Sachs believed.
"She like this. Make her happy."
Wilson took it and gave it to Po-Yee.
The child's eyes were on the toy, Mei-Mei's on the girl.
Then the social worker strapped the child into a car seat and drove away.
Sachs spent a half hour talking to the Changs, debriefing them, seeing if she could learn anything else that might help shore up the case against the Ghost. Then the exhaustion of the past two days caught up with her and she knew it was time to go home. She climbed into the crime scene bus, glancing back once to see the Changs climb into an INS minibus. She and Mei-Mei happened to catch each other's eyes for an instant, then the door closed, the bus pulled into the street and the vanished, the piglets, the undocumenteds . . . the family began their journey to yet another temporary home.
*
Evidence exists independent of perpetrators, of course, and even though the Ghost was in custody Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs spent the next morning processing the information that continued to arrive regarding the GHOSTKILL case.
An analysis of the chemical markers in the C4 by the FBI had determined that the likely source of the plastic explosive used to blow up the ship was a North Korean arms dealer, who regularly sold weaponry to China.
Recovery divers from the Evan Brigant had brought up the bodies of the crewmen and the other immigrants from the Fuzhou Dragon, as well as the rest of the money--about $120,000. The cash had been logged into evidence and was being stored in an FBI safe deposit box. They also had learned that Ling Shui-bian, the man who had paid the money to the Ghost and had written him the letter that Sachs found on the ship, had an address in Fuzhou. Rhyme assumed he was one of the Ghost's little snakeheads or partners, and he emailed the name and address to the Fuzhou public security bureau with a note telling them about Ling's involvement with the Ghost.
"You want it on the chart?" Thom asked, nodding at the whiteboard.
"Write, write!" he said impatiently. They still would have to present the evidence to the prosecutors and reproducing the information as it was written on the whiteboards would be the most concise and helpful way to do this.
The aide took the marker and wrote down the information that had just come in.
* Ghost used new C4 to blow up ship. Checking origin of explosive through chemical markers.
* North Korean arms dealer is source.
* Large quantity of new U.S. bills found in Ghost's cabin.
* Total approximately $120,000.
* Approx. $20,000 in used Chinese yuan found in cabin.
* List of victims, air charter details and bank deposit information. Checking name of sender in China.
* Ling Shui-bian resides in Fuzhou. Name and address sent to local police.
* Captain alive but unconscious.
* Regained consciousness, now in INS detention.
As Thom was writing on the board, Rhyme's computer beeped.
"Command, email," he snapped.
The computer accepted his gruff tone without affront and offered him the list of new messages.
"Command, cursor down. Command, double-click."
He read the message that had just come in.
"Ah," Rhyme announced. "I was right."
He explained to Sachs that the body of John Sung had in fact been found in the trunk of the red Honda that the Ghost had stolen. As Rhyme predicted, the car had been found sunk in a pond only 200 feet from Easton Beach.
So there would be one more murder count to add to the charges against Kwan Ang.
There was another message that interested him. This one was from Mel Cooper, who was back in his office at the NYPD forensics lab in Queens.
From: M. Cooper
To: L. Rhyme
Re: Results of chromatographic and spectrometric analyses of Department of Justice PERT Evidence Sample 3452-02
The official-sounding heading was in contrast to the informal message below it.
Lincoln:
We have met the dynamite and it is phony.
Dellray's butt wasn't in any danger. The perp screwed up and used dummy explosive--stuff used for training. I tried to follow up and trace it, but nobody has a database on fake bomb materials. Might be something to think about.
Rhyme laughed. Some arms dealer had scammed Fred Dellray's attacker by selling him the fake explosives. He was relieved that the agent hadn't really been at risk.
The doorbell rang and Thom went down to see who it was.
Heavy footsteps on the stairs. Two sets. He believed they belonged to Sellitto and Dellray--the cop walked with distinctive, heavy footfalls and the agent took the stairs two at a time on his long legs.
For a moment Rhyme, otherwise reclusive, was glad they were here. He'd tell them about the fake bomb. They'd all get a laugh out of it. But then he was aware of something else and an alarm bell went off inside his head. The men had stopped outside the doorway and were whispering. It was as if they were debating between themselves who should deliver bad news.
He was right about whom the steps belonged to. A moment later the rumpled cop and the lanky FBI agent pushed into the bedroom. "Hey, Linc," Sellitto said.
One look at their faces told Rhyme that he was also right about the bad news.
Sachs and Rhyme exchanged a troubled glance.
Rhyme looked from one to the other. "Well, Christ, one of you say something."
Dellray uttered a long sigh.
Finally the detective said, "They took him out of our jurisdiction--the Ghost. He's being sent back to China."
"What?" Sachs gasped.
Angrily Dellray said, "Bein' escorted onto a flight later today." The agent shook his head. "Once it takes off he's free."
Chapter Forty-seven
"Extradited?" Rhyme asked.
"That's the fuzzy little spin they're putting on it," Dellray growled. "But we ain't seen any single solitary arrest warrant for him issued by a Chinese court."
"What does that mean, no arrest warrant?" Sachs asked.
"That his fucking guanxi's saving his ass," Rhyme said bitterly.
Dellray nodded. " 'Less the country that wants the extradition shows valid paper, we never send nobody back over. No way."
"Well, they'll try him, won't they?" Sachs asked.
"Nup. I talked to our folks over there. The high-ups in China want him back, lemme quote, 'for questioning in connection with irregular matters of foreign trade.' Not a breath 'bout smugglin', not a breath 'bout murder, not a breath. 'Bout. Nothin'."
Rhyme was stunned. "He'll be back in business in a month." The Changs, the Wus and who knew how many others were suddenly at risk again. "Fred, can you do anything?" he asked. Dellray was well thought of in the FBI. He had friends at headquarters down on Pennsylvania Avenue and Tenth in D.C. and had a good stockpile of his own guanxi.
But the agent shook his head, squeezing the cigarette that rested behind his right ear. "This li'l decision got made in State De
partment Washington. Not my Washington. I got no clout there."
Rhyme remembered the quiet man in the blue suit: Webley from State.
"Goddamn," Sachs whispered. "He knew."
"What?" Rhyme asked.
"The Ghost knew he was safe. At the takedown he was surprised but he didn't look worried. Hell, he told me about killing Sung and taking over his identity. He was proud of it. If anybody else'd been collared like that, they would've listened to their rights and shut up. He was goddamn bragging."
"It can't happen," Rhyme said, thinking of the poor people floating dead in the Fuzhou Dragon and lying bloody on the sand at Easton Beach. Thinking of Sam Chang's father.
Thinking of Sonny Li.
"Well, it is extremely happenin'," Dellray said. "He's leaving this afternoon. And there's not a single damn thing we can do."
*
In the Federal Men's Detention Center in downtown Manhattan the Ghost sat across the table from his lawyer in a private conference room, which the lawyer's handheld scanner had assured them was not bugged.
They spoke in Minnanhua Chinese, quietly and quickly.
When the lawyer was finished telling him about the procedure for his release into the hands of the Fuzhou public security bureau the Ghost nodded and then leaned close. "I need you to find some information for me."
The lawyer took out a pad of paper. The Ghost glanced at it once and frowned. The lawyer put the foolscap away.
"There is a woman who works for the police department. I need her address. Home address. Her name is Amelia Sachs and she lives somewhere in Brooklyn. S-A-C-H-S. And Lincoln Rhyme. Spelled like in poetry. He's in Manhattan."
The lawyer nodded.
"Then there are the two families I need to find." He didn't think it wise to describe them as people he was trying to kill, even in the absence of listening devices, so he said simply, "The Wus and the Changs. From the Dragon. They might be in INS detention somewhere but maybe not."
"What are you--?"
"You don't need to ask questions like that."
The slim man fell silent. Then he considered. "When do you need this information?"
The Ghost wasn't sure exactly what awaited him in China. He guessed that he would be back in one of his luxury apartments in three months but it could be less. "As soon as possible. You will keep monitoring them and if the addresses change you will leave a message with my people in Fuzhou."
"Yes. Of course."
Then the Ghost realized that he was tired. He lived for combat, he lived to play deadly games like this. He lived to win. But, my, how tired you got when you broke cauldrons and sank boats, when you simply did not accept defeat. Now he needed rest. His qi sorely needed to be replenished.
He dismissed his lawyer then lay back on the cot in the antiseptically clean, square cell, the room reminding him of a Chinese funeral parlor because the walls were blue and white. The Ghost closed his eyes and pictured Yindao.
Lying in a room, a warehouse, a garage, which had been arranged by a feng shui artist in the opposite manner of most practitioners: the nature of his fantasy room would maximize anger and evil and pain. The art of wind and water can do this too, the Ghost believed.
Yin and yang, opposites in harmony.
The supple woman tied down on the solid floor.
Her fair skin in darkness.
Hard and soft . . . .
Pleasure and agony.
Yindao . . . .
The thought of her would get him through the difficult coming weeks. He closed his eyes.
*
"We've had our differences, Alan," Rhyme said.
"I guess." INS agent Coe was cautious. He sat in Rhyme's bedroom, in one of the uncomfortable wicker chairs that the criminalist had furnished the room with in hopes that it would discourage visitors from staying for long periods of time. Coe was suspicious about the invitation but Rhyme didn't want there to be any chance of someone's overhearing them. This had to be a completely private conversation.
"You heard about the Ghost's release?"
"Of course I heard about the Ghost," the man muttered angrily.
Rhyme asked, "Tell me, what's your real interest in the case. No bullshit."
Coe hesitated and then said, "The informant of mine he killed. That's it."
"I said no bullshit. There's more to it, isn't there?"
Coe finally said, "Yeah, there's more."
"What?"
"The woman who was the informant, Julia? We were . . . We were lovers."
Rhyme carefully scanned the agent's face. Although he was a firm believer in the overarching value of hard evidence he wasn't wholly skeptical to messages in faces and eyes. He saw pain, he saw sorrow.
After a difficult moment the agent said, "She died because of me. We should've been more careful. We went out in public some. We went to Xiamen, this tourist city south of Fuzhou. There're lots of Western tourists there and I thought we wouldn't be recognized. But I think maybe we were." There were tears in his eyes now. "I never had her do anything dangerous. Just glance at scheduling calendars from time to time. She never wore a wire, never broke into any offices. But I should've known the Ghost. Nobody could get away with even the slightest betrayal."
I am coming into town on bus, I'm saying. I saw crow on road picking at food. Another crow tried steal it and the first crow not just scare other away--he chase and try to peck eyes out. Not leave thief alone.
"The Ghost got her," Coe said. "She left two daughters behind."
"That's what you were doing overseas during the time you took off?"
He nodded. "Looking for Julia. But then I gave up on that and spent my time trying to get the children placed in a Catholic home. They were girls--and you know how tough a time orphaned girl babies have over there."
Rhyme said nothing at first though he was thinking back to an incident in his own life that was similar to Coe's tragedy. A woman he'd grown close to before the accident, a lover. She was a cop too, a crime scene expert. And she was dead because he'd ordered her into a booby-trapped scene. The bomb had killed her instantly.
"Did it work?" the criminalist asked. "With the girls?"
"No. The state took them and I never saw them again." He looked up and wiped his eyes. "So that's why I go on and on about undocumenteds. As long as people pay fifty thousand bucks for an illegal trip to America we're going to have snakeheads like the Ghost killing anybody who gets in their way."
Rhyme wheeled closer to Coe. "How badly do you want to stop him?" he whispered.
"The Ghost? With my whole soul."
That question had been easy. Rhyme now asked the hard one. "What are you willing to risk to do it?"
But there was no hesitation as the agent said, "Everything."
Chapter Forty-eight
"There may be a problem," said the man's voice through the phone.
Sitting in the middle row of a large INS van en route to Kennedy Airport, sweating Harold Peabody nodded as if the caller could see him.
He didn't need problems, not with this case. "Problem. I see. Go ahead."
The man beside Peabody stirred at these words, the quiet man in the navy-blue suit, Webley, who worked for the State Department and who'd made Peabody's life unrefined hell since he'd flown in from Washington the afternoon of the day the Fuzhou Dragon sank. Webley turned his head toward Peabody but remained stony-faced, a skill he was extremely good at.
"Alan Coe disappeared," said the caller, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Manhattan office. "We had a report that he was talking to Rhyme. Then he vanished again."
"Okay." Peabody tried to figure out what this meant.
Behind Peabody and Webley were two armed INS agents on either side of the Ghost, whose handcuffs kept clinking as he sipped his Starbucks coffee. The snakehead, at least, seemed untroubled by the talk of problems. "Keep going," Peabody said into the phone.
"We were keeping an eye on Coe, like you said. 'Cause we weren't sure if he'd try
to do harm to the subject."
Do harm to the subject . . . What a fucked-up way to talk, Peabody thought.
"And?"
"Well, we can't find him. Or Rhyme either."
"He's in a wheelchair. How hard is it to keep track of him?" Doughy Peabody was drenched. The storm had passed and, though the skies were still overcast, the temperature was in the high 80s. And the government van had government air-conditioning.
"There was no surveillance order," the ASAC reminded calmly. "We had to handle it . . . informally." His equanimity, Peabody realized, put the FBI agent in control of the situation and he reminded himself to try to gin up some more power.
Bureaucracy was such a bitch.
"What's your situational assessment?" Peabody asked. Thinking: How's that for jargon, you asshole?
"You know Coe's had a top-of-the-deck priority to get the Ghost himself."
"True. And?"
"Rhyme's the best forensic detective cop in the country. We've been sniffing the thought that he and Coe're planning to take out the Ghost."
How do you sniff a thought? Peabody wondered. "How do you mean?"
"With Rhyme's grip on forensics they might've come up with some way to make it impossible to convict Coe. Manipulate the evidence somehow."
"What?" Peabody scoffed. "Ridiculous. Rhyme wouldn't do that."
These words now brought some emotion to Webley. He frowned.
"Why not?" the ASAC continued. "Ever since his accident he's not the most stable person in the world. He's always had this issue about killing himself. And it sounds like he got pretty close to that Chinese cop. Maybe when the Ghost shot Li it pushed him over the edge."
This sounded crazy, but who knew? Peabody caught people trying to sneak into the country illegally and sent them back home. He didn't know the workings of the criminal mind. In fact he had no experience with psychology whatsoever, except resentfully paying his ex-wife's shrink bills.
As for Coe, well, he definitely was unstable enough to try to cap the Ghost's ass. He'd already tried to take him out--at the Wus' apartment on Canal Street.
"What's Dellray say?" Peabody asked.
"He's operational in the field at this time. He's not returning calls."
"Doesn't he work for you?"
"Dellray pretty much works for Dellray," said the ASAC.
"What're you suggesting we do?" Peabody asked, using his wrinkled tan jacket to wipe his face.
"Do you think Coe's following you?"
Peabody glanced around him at the billion cars on the Van Wyck Expressway. "Like I could fucking tell," he answered, giving up entirely on the language of high-level government.