Dangerous Journey (20 page)

Chapter 18

She spent her days in Jimmy’s garden, painting. First she tackled the view before her, that of Hong Kong harbor.

But then she remembered Darius’s last request to her, that he wanted her to paint Sarawak for him. She did. It wasn’t quite as she had seen it, not like a photograph at all, but an impression of Sarawak, of the colors, the heat, the humidity, even the noise. And of her love.

When she began, she thought she would paint the desolation, the fear, the hatred she had felt, but she didn’t. To her surprise, what she wanted to capture were the times of happiness, the beauty and the uniqueness of the land. It was a catharsis for her, and she wondered if Darius had somehow known it would be that way.

At first she painted quickly, needing the release of her emotions. Then, using the same raw feelings, she carefully planned the next work incorporating all the technical knowledge she had learned over the years.

The result was so good it surprised her. It was an impression, mainly in greens, blues and grays, of a rain forest. It had neither people nor animals, and was blurred, as if in a storm. The image connoted movement, life, beauty, yet also held a sense of threatening danger. The painting had a power to it that assaulted the viewer, making it hard to look away.

Jimmy often stood behind her and watched her work day after day as she sat at the canvas. When she had almost finished the “big” picture, as she called it, he asked if he could buy it.

“No,” she said.

“I’ll give you top dollar,” he coaxed.

“No, Jimmy.” She turned to him and clasped the hand he had laid upon her shoulder, then rested it against her cheek. “If you like it, it’s a present.”

“I couldn’t do that.”

“I insist. I want you to have it.”

He kissed her forehead, then went indoors again.

The searchers he had hired had been in Sarawak for over a week, but there had been no word from them. She knew this was preying on his mind. She, too, had hoped in the beginning, although she had chided herself mercilessly for her foolishness. But slowly, as they waited, as day after day went by with no news, that small hope lessened, then disappeared.

o0o

She was coming up the walk, having gone shopping for more paints, when the door to Jimmy’s house burst open and he came flying down the stairs, a huge smile on his face.

She stood, open mouthed, as he approached, afraid to hope that his joy had anything to do with his best friend. But what else would make him look so thankful? No, it wasn’t possible. She knew it couldn’t be possible, but the name that was always on her mind slipped from her lips. “Darius?”

Jimmy wrapped his arms around her, lifted her off the ground and twirled her around, shouting, “Yes, yes,” while she laughed and cried at the same time.

“Is he all right?” she asked, wiping away her tears when he put her down.

“I spoke to him. He’s fine. He’s in Singapore. He’ll be home tomorrow.”

“Thank God,” she whispered as Jimmy led her inside. Soon, her questions tumbled out. “Was it your search party? Did they rescue him?”

“No. Apparently he was able to get out by himself. I don’t know the details yet. He’ll tell us when he’s here. But he’s got the White Dragon. He found it; that’s why he was gone so long. It was a long search, but he finally found it. It’s what he wanted.”

“Yes,” she said quietly, with a half smile. “It is, isn’t it? Well, I’m glad he’s got it, then.”

“There is one thing, though. He asks a favor of you.”

“Me?”

“It won’t be easy, but he said you are the only one who could ‘pull it off,’ so to speak.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“You must go to Luchow and let the border patrol know—without actually saying so—first, that you know about Chan Li, and second, that Darius will arrive at Kai Tak airport at 1 p.m. tomorrow.”

“You’re kidding!” she gasped. What was Darius thinking?

Jimmy smiled and shook his head. “You know Darius and his plans.”

“But how? Why?”

Jimmy just shrugged. “You’ll have to figure out a good excuse, then go. It’s safe, or Darius would never ask it of you.”

“Do you know what’s going on, Jimmy?”

“Do you imagine I understand Darius?” he countered with a smile.

Actually, she thought that if anyone understood Darius, it was Jimmy, but she also realized that if he didn’t want to tell her something, no amount of prying would get it out of him. She returned his smile. Everything felt good again. She was, as usual, completely in the dark about Dangerous Kane and his plans, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was that he was alive and coming back to them.

Jimmy insisted that she go to Luchow immediately and lent her his Porsche for the drive.

The Porsche was the perfect car to negotiate the tiny, twisty road down the Peak. Her heart was in her mouth as she dealt with the heavy traffic of the Wanchai area and, for the first time, drove through the Cross Harbour Tunnel. Finally she passed the city and reached the open spaces of the New Territory to head north to Luchow. She swung off the highway and pulled up in front of the police station she had come to know so well, then went into the border patrol office next door.

As she had expected, Captain Burnham was there, along with several other men. Burnham swaggered over to her.

“More missing relatives?” he asked with properly accented sarcasm.

“Not this time.”

“I thought I instructed you to stay away from here.”

“I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“That’s no assurance you’ll not find yourself in further trouble.”

She had forgotten how big and odious the man was. Her heart sank a little as she wondered how she could pull this off. Then she stiffened her spine and remembered the C period, J period of old, the one who bullied and blustered at the authorities when something mattered to her. She squared her shoulders and continued with her plan.

“Look, all I’m doing is trying to find a very expensive camera. A Leica. I lost it when I was here, and I was hoping you might have found it. That’s all.”

“Why don’t you ask your bounty hunter friend? Lost and stolen goods are his specialty.”

She shrugged. “I’m sure he doesn’t know.”

“Maybe he took it.”

“If he did, I won’t know that until tomorrow. And I don’t want to accuse him of anything until I’m sure it’s not here.”

“What do you mean, tomorrow? Where is he?”

“Singapore. He won’t arrive until one or so. Why do you want to know?”

Burnham looked stricken. “Actually, I don’t. But if I cared about any of this, I would start with you lying to me about his identity!”

She cocked an eyebrow, putting her thumbs in her belt loops. “You know, I think it’s kind of funny, the way you gave me such a hard time about my poor brother when you had an unsolved murder right under your nose!”

His lips turned thin and white. “What are you talking about?”

“Chan Li. He was killed right nearby.”

“That’s a police problem, not the border patrol’s.”

“From what I hear, Chan Li was very much a border patrol problem.”

He glared at her, arms folded. “You seem to know a lot about Chan Li.”

“Just that he was a smuggler and someone killed him right here in Luchow.”

“And about the White Dragon?”

“No.”

“You’re not a good liar, Miss Perkins.”

She backed toward the door, fearful she might have gone too far. “I take it you haven’t found my camera,” she said. “Good day, Captain Burnham.” She hurried from the station, mission accomplished.

As she drove back to Jimmy’s house, she tried to understand what was going on, but none of it made sense to her.

Chan Li was a thief and with other men he had stolen the White Dragon. He double-crossed his fellow thieves, tried to kill them, and hid the White Dragon in a grandfather clock in Luchow. There, he was killed.

One of the other thieves, a pirate, lived long enough to tell her brother Alan where the Dragon was hidden. Alan went to Luchow, stole the Dragon himself, then hid it in Sarawak as he tried to find a buyer.

So who had killed Chan Li?

As Alan tried to find a buyer, he made himself a target of other thieves as well as the police. He learned that the mysterious Mr. Yeng in San Francisco would pay a small fortune for the Dragon and went there to sell it. But Yeng turned out to be too dangerous a man for Alan to deal with. What was Yeng’s role in all this?

And Darius—Darius made no sense at all. She was sure that meeting him in Luchow had been an accident, and that Burnham hadn’t known who Darius was at the time. But he did know that Darius wasn’t Alan Perkins.

Captain Burnham surely knew by now that Darius was a bounty hunter. So why did Darius now want the Luchow border patrol to know he would soon be back in Hong Kong?

Somewhere there had to be an answer, a link that would tie everything together in a way that made sense.

It was evening before she reached Hong Kong Island again. As she drove up the Peak to Jimmy’s house, she looked out at the harbor. Hong Kong had never looked lovelier. The lights were aglow on the island and across the harbor on Kowloon. Even the boats in the water were lit up.

She recognized the romantic Star Ferry slowly making its way across the channel; maybe she would ride it someday with Darius. It seemed as if the very air were filled with laughter and music.

And no matter what he was up to, she loved Darius.

o0o

The next morning, Jimmy said she should wait at the house while he went to pick up Darius at the airport. She was shocked and tried to protest, but he wouldn’t listen, saying he had to stop off at his office first, and that she would be bored. Then he left.

C.J. walked around the house, around the garden, then around the house again. She didn’t know what to do with herself. It was only eleven o’clock. She had been pacing since eight.

She changed her clothes three times. She was disgusted at how plain and drab her clothes were. Why didn’t she ever buy red? She finally settled on dark blue slacks, blue sandals with little heels, a blue-and-white striped blouse and a white jacket. They hung loosely on her, startling her by how much weight she’d lost the past few weeks.

Darius’s plane was arriving at one. Jimmy would pick him up, and he could be home as early as one-thirty. No, two o’clock was more likely. Wait! He had the jade with him.

He’d have to turn it in to Customs at the airport. There would be a lot of questions; he’d have to make depositions.

It could take hours. And he’d be alone, except for Jimmy.

But she was the one who had gotten him into this, so why shouldn’t she be there with him, to help with the explanations? To hold his hand, if she couldn’t help in any other way.

She picked up her bag and jacket. No wonder Jimmy had thought she should wait at the house. He was, as usual, more concerned about her physical comfort than her emotional state. He thought she might get tired or bored. Silly man! How could she be either as long as Darius was near?

She took the tram down the hill and was at the airport by twelve-thirty.

The gate where the plane from Singapore would be arriving was easy to find. She still had at least twenty minutes to wait, and once the plane landed, it would take a while before Darius went through Customs.

A gift shop was nearby. It was worth a visit. Maybe she could find something Darius would like. She was walking toward the shop when someone slipped his hand onto her arm, hurrying her away from the arrival gate.

She spun around to look into a familiar face. The man had white hair and pale blue eyes. She remembered him—Robert Davis, the British intelligence agent.

He nodded, his face stern, and continued leading her away. “Miss Perkins, I must ask you to stay away from this area.” His tone was quiet, matter-of-fact. They didn’t miss a step as they walked.

“But?” Her heart sank. Of course—Darius. He was the reason the agents were there. Did they know about the White Dragon? That Darius had it? But how could they?

“Will you do as I say? It may not be safe, considering some of the people you do—and do not—know.” She was confused by his words. People she didn’t know? Who? What were they planning to do?

“What do you mean?” She stopped walking, ready to plead, beg, anything to have him tell her what was at the bottom of this. “Please, tell me.”

“In good time, my dear.” He patted her hand. “In good time. Now, just wait anywhere around here. I’ll know how to find you.”

Like hell I will, she thought, watching his retreating figure. She went into the largest tourist shop she could find and picked out an orange, floppy-brimmed sun hat. She tried it on. The brim covered most of her face. She decided to tuck her hair up under it. “Do you sell hair bands and hatpins?” C.J. asked the saleswoman. She didn’t want the hat to fall off.

“Barrettes and elastic hairbands are over there. But hatpins? Oh, I know what you mean. The only ones we have are these souvenirs.” She pointed to a display that had been pushed far to the back of the counter.

C.J. picked one up. It was long, with a red-and white HOORAY FOR HONG KONG flag attached to the top of it. “I’ll take it.” She added a hair band, and then glanced at the clothes. In for a penny, she thought as she reached for a tight rather low-cut pink T-shirt with Hong Kong emblazoned on it, snug jeans, and oversized sunglasses. At the last minute, she added red lipstick.

With a grimace, she pulled out her money. She was truly desperate.

In the women’s room, she put on her new clothes, stashing her old “sensible” outfit in the shopping bag. She had never worn anything quite so sexy and figure-hugging.

As she passed by a shop window, she caught a glimpse of herself. With a start, she saw that she looked completely different from the way she had a few minutes ago when Davis talked to her. Even Mildred wouldn’t recognize me, she thought, and marched toward the gate.

It was almost time for the plane to appear. She lingered in the back of the arrival area, where she could see everyone.

She knew that the British agents were there somewhere, but they had managed to disappear. She looked over the crowd, then gasped. An Oriental man, the one she had hit with the mallet at Yeng’s place, stood among the people who had assembled to meet the flight. What was he doing here?