Murder In Chinatown (24 page)

Keely reached out to adjust it and saw the blood on her hand. She moaned. “I want to wash it off! I need to take a bath and wash it off!”

“Is there a bathroom here?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, in there.” She pointed at a door, and when Sarah opened it, she discovered a lavishly appointed bath with marble floor and fixtures. She turned on the spigots in the tub full blast.

F
RANK WATCHED IN AMAZEMENT AS
S
ARAH TOOK THE
girl away. He was sure of it now. Keely O’Neal was crazy. He’d never imagined she could care for Wong that much. He’d seen mothers throw themselves on their dead children or wives on their husbands. He’d seen men clinging to their dead wives, too, but that wasn’t the kind of relationship Keely and Wong had.

He looked down at the body in disgust. At least he’d had time to examine everything before she got here, because she’d certainly messed it up too badly now to ever guess what had really happened. From what he’d surmised, Wong had been sitting on the sofa. He must have been entertaining his killer. The killer was someone Wong trusted and had no reason to fear, because he’d picked up the fireplace poker and come up behind Wong and crushed his skull. Wong probably hadn’t known what hit him. He’d slumped to the floor, dead or unconscious. Probably unconscious, because the amount of blood indicated he’d lain there awhile bleeding before his heart had stopped and the blood flow along with it. One blow was all it had taken. The question now was who had struck it.

Somehow, Frank wasn’t surprised to find that Wong had a telephone. He’d already heard the groaning of the pipes as water struggled to reach the floor above, telling him of the luxurious plumbing system. Keely must have thought she was in heaven, living in a place like this, he thought as he picked up the phone and asked the operator to connect him with Police Headquarters.

W
HEN
S
ARAH HAD GOTTEN
K
EELY OUT OF THE TUB,
dried off, and wrapped in a robe that had obviously belonged to Wong, she looked around for some clothes for her to wear. Malloy would want to question her, and then they’d have to take her somewhere, probably back to her family. She couldn’t do that in a thin silk robe.

“Where are your clothes?” Sarah asked, looking in vain in the drawers and the clothes press.

“I don’t have any,” she said, adjusting the robe. “Just what I was wearing when I first came,” she added at Sarah’s shocked look. “Ah Woh took them to wash, I think. I never needed them after that. Johnny liked me best with no clothes on.”

“Well,” Sarah said briskly. “I’ll ask Ah Woh if he knows where they are. You’ll need them now, I think.”

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of wearing Johnny’s clothes,” she said, looking askance at the robe she was hugging around herself. “What will happen to me?” she asked after a moment.

“Don’t worry about that now,” Sarah said. “You’ll be fine. I’ll be right back.”

Sarah hurried out, trying not to imagine the days that Keely had spent with Wong. Malloy had said he thought Keely had the upper hand, but how could she have? She may have come voluntarily, but she’d been a virtual prisoner here after that. She didn’t even have any clothes! She’d been completely at Wong’s mercy. Sarah found herself not quite as upset about his murder as she had been.

Ah Woh had recovered somewhat by the time Sarah found him again. He was pacing in the hallway, keeping an eye on the people who had gathered in the parlor while she’d been busy upstairs. Sarah recognized Officer Donatelli and some of the men from the coroner’s office. Sarah asked Ah Woh about Keely’s clothes.

He made a face, but he said, “I get.” He started for the back of the house, and Sarah waited in the hallway. She stepped closer to the door to hear what was being said in the parlor. Malloy was instructing Donatelli to take some men and question the neighbors to see if anyone had seen somebody going or coming from the house during the time Ah Woh had been gone.

Then she heard Ah Woh cry out. She reached the kitchen first, but Malloy and his cohorts were right behind her.

“What is it?” she asked, looking around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

Ah Woh held up a towel. It was stained with blood.

“Where did you find it?” Malloy asked, pushing past her into the kitchen.

“On floor.” He pointed.

“The killer would have had a little blood splashed on him,” one of the other men said. “From the force of the blow. Looks like he washed up before he left.”

Ah Woh looked at the towel in his hands. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he keeled over in a faint. This time Malloy wasn’t quick enough, and the poor fellow fell to the floor with a crash.

By the time Sarah had helped minister to Ah Woh and bring him back to consciousness, and found Keely’s clothes, all neatly washed and pressed, she had begun to worry about the girl she’d left alone for so long. She needn’t have worried. Keely was back in the bed, fast asleep, when she found her again. If Wong had given her something to put her to sleep, as Sarah suspected, it probably had not worn off completely. Either that or the shock had knocked her out. It did that to some people. They couldn’t feel the pain when they slept. Sarah let her sleep until Malloy came knocking. He was ready to question her now.

This time Keely awoke more easily, but when she saw Sarah, her expression crumbled. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?” she asked.

“I’m sorry, Keely. It wasn’t a dream. You need to get up and get dressed now. Detective Sergeant Malloy has some questions for you.”

She let Sarah help her dress, and then allowed Sarah to brush out her hair. Sarah saw some flakes of what she thought was dried blood and wished she’d thought to have Keely wash her hair, too. It was too late for that now, though. She wouldn’t mention it to the girl. Besides, she was able to brush nearly all of it out.

“What will he ask me about?” Keely asked when she was finally ready.

“What you saw and heard.”

“I didn’t see nothing,” she protested. “I was asleep.”

“Then tell him that,” Sarah said. “I’ll stay with you, if you like.”

“I would,” she said pitifully. Sarah’s heart went out to her.

F
RANK COULD HARDLY BELIEVE THE GIRL WITH
S
ARAH
was the same one he’d encountered on his previous visit. Gone was the sly little piece who’d taunted Frank with her sexuality. In her place was a sweet, innocent girl who looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Her clothes were faded and worn, but so neat and prim that they only made her look more vulnerable.

Frank took Keely and Sarah into the dining room and sat them down at the table. The room was gloomy from the dark mahogany furniture and because the heavy velvet drapes sealed out most of the sunlight.

“Is Johnny still here?” the girl asked in a timid little voice Frank hadn’t heard before.

“No, they took him away,” Frank said. She seemed relieved at that. “I need to ask you some questions, Keely.”

“I don’t know nothing,” she insisted. “I was asleep. Tell him, missus,” she begged Sarah.

“Just answer his questions the best you can,” Sarah said.

Keely stuck out her lower lip, like she was pouting, but Frank didn’t really care. “Tell me everything that happened today, starting with when you woke up this morning.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I woke up. I mean, Johnny woke me up. He always likes a little poke first thing in the morning.”

Frank felt the heat crawling up his neck, and he refused to look at Sarah. He knew this wouldn’t embarrass her, but he couldn’t help being embarrassed
for
her. “Did you come downstairs for breakfast?”

“No,” she said. “Johnny always brings it up to me. I stay in the room all the time.” She looked at Sarah. “That’s why I never needed no clothes.”

Frank didn’t dare look at Sarah’s expression. “What happened after you had breakfast?”

That shoulder again. “The usual thing. Then we laid around for a while.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a hint of irritation. “I didn’t pay no attention.”

Frank bit back his own irritation. “All right. Then what happened?”

She wrinkled up her nose as if she was trying to concentrate. “That’s when he went down and made the tea, I think. He brought up a pot of tea to the room. He told me to drink it all.”

“Then what happened?”

“I got sleepy, and he told me it was all right to take a nap, so I did.”

“Do you usually take a nap like that?”

“I sleep whenever I want,” she said. “And wake up whenever I want. I don’t have much else to do but keep Johnny happy.”

Frank managed not to wince. “How long did you sleep today?”

“Until she woke me up,” she said, pointing at Sarah.

Frank hid his annoyance. “Did you hear anything? Did anything wake you up?”

Keely wrinkled her nose again. “I think…I thought I was dreaming, but maybe I heard some voices, like somebody shouting or fighting or something.”

“And you didn’t go see what it was?” he asked.

“I told you, I thought I was dreaming. I didn’t really even wake up good.”

“The tea may have been drugged,” Sarah said.

Frank had been thinking the same thing, although why Wong would drug her, he had no idea. “Had Wong given you stuff that made you sleepy before?”

She considered the question carefully. “Now that you say it, maybe he did. I mean, sometimes I’d get real tired for no reason and go to sleep.”

Frank figured Wong had wanted some time away from her, but he didn’t say it. “You’ve been here how long now?”

“I don’t know. How many days since you first came?” she replied.

“That was yesterday.”

“Five days, then.”

Frank nodded. That was what she had told him before. “Did Wong have any visitors while you’ve been here?”

“Angel’s father came,” she recalled. “Johnny already told you that.”

“Did he come just that once?”

“That’s all I know of.”

“Anybody else?”

She made a face. “My ma came last night.”

“Your mother? What did she want?”

Frank caught a glimpse of the sly smile she’d shown him yesterday. “She wanted me to come home, but Johnny wouldn’t let me go. He threw her out.”

“Was he keeping you a prisoner here?” Sarah asked in alarm.

“Well, kind of,” she allowed, trying for innocence again.

“You came here on your own,” Frank reminded her. “And you seemed pretty happy yesterday. You said Wong was going to marry you.”

“Well, now, he was standing right there, wasn’t he? What was I supposed to say?” she asked indignantly.

“You said it when I woke you up a little while ago, too,” Sarah reminded her. “You seemed pretty fond of Mr. Wong.”

Keely clearly couldn’t make up her mind how she wanted to portray Wong. “He was all right, I guess,” she admitted. “He didn’t hit me or nothing.”

“And you wanted to marry him,” Frank reminded her.

“He said he would, and he had to, didn’t he? After what he did to me?”

“Why did you come here in the first place, Keely?” Sarah asked.

The girl seemed surprised by the question and not at all certain how to reply. “I…It seemed like a good idea.”

“Who gave you the idea?” Frank asked.

“I don’t remember,” she lied.

“I think you do,” Frank said. “I think Angel told you about Wong. I think she told you he was rich and that he wanted to marry her. I think you decided that since he couldn’t have Angel, he might take you instead.”

“What if I did?” she asked petulantly. “Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

“And you thought if you moved in here and made Wong happy, that he’d marry you, and you’d have an easy life. Is that what you wanted, Keely? An easy life?”

She stared at him for a long moment, trying to decide how to answer him, and then she burst into tears.

Frank fought the urge to swear as Sarah took the girl into her arms and tried to comfort her. So much for getting anything more out of her now.

Keely sobbed on Sarah’s shoulder for a while, until she ran out of steam. Then she pulled away slightly and looked Sarah in the face. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

Sarah smiled reassuringly. Frank figured she could calm anybody down with that smile. “Don’t worry. We’ll take you back to your mother and—”

“No!”
she cried, rearing back like Sarah had slapped her. “I don’t want to go back there! Can’t I stay here?”

“Not with Wong dead, you can’t,” Frank informed her. “I don’t know who this place belongs to now, but it’s not you.”

“Your family will be glad to have you home again,” Sarah tried.

“No, they won’t! They’ll hate me because I ran off with a Chinaman.”

“But your mother came to get you last night,” Sarah reminded her.

Keely looked a little surprised at this reminder, but she recovered quickly. “My brothers won’t want me back, though. Or Iris. I’m afraid of what they’ll do!”