Black Karma Read online

  Meyers returned, and the detectives thanked them for their assistance then nonchalantly left the room with the same lack of urgency they’d shown upon arrival. Gary Yan returned as the last crime scene technician closed the doors between the two rooms before departing.

  “I’ve arranged another room for you on the eighth floor,” Yan said, holding out a key card for Lee.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Bai said.

  Yan smiled tightly. “I insist.”

  She looked at Lee, who shrugged and took the proffered card. “I’ll just need a few minutes to collect my things.”

  “I’ll wait for you,” Yan said as his earbud squawked. He frowned as he listened then refocused on Lee and Bai. “I’ll be back to make sure you’ve vacated the room.”

  As soon as the door closed behind Yan, Lee retrieved leather gloves and a set of locksmith’s tools from the surveillance case. In only moments, he had the double doors between the rooms open again.

  “Wen’s phone is still in here somewhere,” she said to Lee. “I’m sure of it.”

  A quick search between the mattresses and under the bed proved futile. Crawling around on all fours, she looked under the dresser while Lee hurriedly searched the bathroom, including the toilet tank. The room safe sat open and empty. She checked the safe and felt along the back of the metal box for a false wall; there wasn’t one. Lee pulled out the drawers from the bureau and the desk; they were clean. They’d run out of places to look and were about to give up when a thought occurred to her.

  “Lee, do you still have the card Wen gave you?”

  He fished the card out of his pocket and handed it to her. She tapped the number into her cell and hit the call button. A current Chinese pop song played through a tinny speaker. Following the sound, they walked across the room to a flat-screen television attached to the wall. Lee played his hand over the top edge of the screen until his fingers came to rest on something that shouldn’t have been there—a cell phone. He retrieved the phone from its hiding place and pulled the battery out of the back of the device before putting the pieces into the pocket of his jacket.

  “If someone is tracking this phone, I don’t want them to follow us,” he explained.

  They put everything back the way they’d found it, then exited the room the way they’d entered by relocking the doors. Lee picked up the surveillance case and accompanied Bai out of their room.

  They talked as they waited for the elevator.

  “I’ve had worse days,” she confided. “Not a lot of them, but some.”

  He sighed. “I feel bad. Maybe if I’d done something differently, Wen would still be alive.”

  “And maybe she’d have died a lot sooner if we hadn’t gotten her out of the house in Berkeley. Someone, other than us, tracked her here. She’d only been here a few hours. That’s pretty short notice to put together a hit. I’m guessing she was targeted long before we met her. Black karma.”

  “There’s no such thing as black karma,” Lee said derisively.

  “Tell that to Wen Liu.”

  Lee turned his head to look at her and shook his head. “Whatever the case may be, I feel sorry for her. I was right there and still couldn’t do anything to prevent her death.”

  “Don’t dwell on what can’t be changed. You had no way of knowing Wen was in danger. Instead of feeling guilty, think about what we can do to help bring her killer to justice.”

  He looked at her and nodded. “She must have had a good reason to hide her phone. I’ll want to clone the cell’s memory before I attempt to hack through the security on her device. I’ll need my lab machine to do that.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “That will depend on the level of security and the type of encryption she used. If the key to the encryption is stored on the phone, I’ll have the memory card cracked in a couple of hours. If she was sophisticated enough to keep her encryption key elsewhere, we could have a problem. I’ll probably have her call log and address book within an hour or two. They’re rarely encrypted.”

  “I’m curious to find out who she’s been talking to. While you’re working on the phone, I’m going to do another Internet search on Daniel Chen. His profile doesn’t add up. The background I’ve found on him so far only dates back a few years. Before that, Chen didn’t exist.”

  “Looking for Chen is turning out to be a risky business. Are we really sure we want to find him?”

  “Wen Liu is dead. So are the Norteños we found in Chen’s office. He may be the only one who can tell me why they died. Now I absolutely have to find him.”

  Lee turned to give her an appraising stare.

  “What?”

  “Your logic just reminded me you’re a girl.”

  She shrugged off his comment. “Do you think thirty is old?”

  He looked at her blankly. “Not since I turned thirty.”

  “Funny how that works, don’t you think?”

  Chapter 12

  Bai went to Lee’s apartment to watch him clone Wen’s phone. He settled in at his desk and turned on his lab machine, a basic desktop computer without Internet or network capability. The barebones machine had a simple operating system and a myriad of ports for accessing and copying data. He took the secure digital memory card with built-in encryption out of Wen’s phone and put it into an SD port on the lab machine to copy the contents onto a hard disk for backup.

  “If there’s a fail-safe program on the phone to protect the contents against unauthorized access, the backup will give us a second chance to decrypt the data,” he explained.

  “Great! Whatever that means,” Bai replied, mystified by Lee’s jargon.

  “I’m just copying the data in case I screw up.”

  When the backup finished, he removed the original SD card and put it into a desk drawer. “While I’m doing this, why don’t you go upstairs and rest? I’ll call you when I have something.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind? I can stay and help.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  He smiled but didn’t look up from his task.

  “I’m a distraction. I get it. All right, call me if you find anything of interest. I don’t care how late it is.”

  He nodded to let her know he’d heard, too immersed in his task to verbally respond. She let herself out of his apartment and took the elevator up to the third floor. Since it was past eleven, the girls would be in bed. When she stepped out of the lift, she found Elizabeth waiting for her. A worried expression on the older woman’s face informed Bai her long and crappy day wasn’t over.

  “The pictures didn’t do you justice, but I could still tell it was you.”

  “What are we talking about?”

  “You made the ten o’clock news.”

  Someone at the Grand Hotel had photographed the altercation in front of valet parking and sold the pictures to a local television station. The shots led the 10 o’clock news report. Bai had been hailed as an unassuming, and presently unknown, hero.

  “I’ve made tea,” Elizabeth said. “I was just about to have a cup in the living room, if you’d care to join me?”

  Bai recognized the subtle tone that turned what might have been considered an invitation into an edict. They adjourned to the living room, where polished natural bamboo floors and contemporary leather furniture lightened the atmosphere. Large ceramic cups glazed a dark blue rested on the brass and glass coffee table between them.

  “I was protecting my date,” Bai declared in her own defense. “Dates are few and far between. I couldn’t let someone just steal him.”

  Elizabeth didn’t appear to be amused. “You could have been hurt.”

  “But I wasn’t. As a matter of fact, there are a couple of men running around with bruises wishing they’d tried to steal somebody else’s date.”

  “How do you feel about Howard?”

  Elizabeth’s mercurial change in subject surprised Bai and made her wary. She decided to nip the older woman’s matchma
king attempt in the bud. “If I had to sum up Howard in one word, I’d say he’s an ass. He might even be a complete ass.”

  “I believe he’s a nice man,” Elizabeth replied, pointedly ignoring her opinion. “He can be kind, I’m told. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his flaws. We all do.”

  “Did I mention he’s an ass?”

  “I’m just asking you to keep an open mind.”

  Bai held her cup in both hands and leaned back into the soft leather cushions to study Elizabeth. A subcurrent of conversation had taken place that left her puzzled. “Is there something you’re trying to tell me?”

  “I think it would be a good idea to give him a second chance. I know his mother quite well, and I feel there’s more to him than what you’ve seen. I’m told he hides his true nature . . . that he’s sensitive.”

  “He told me I was old.”

  Elizabeth spoke over the rim of her cup. “Most women are married by thirty.”

  “So now you’re defending him?”

  She smiled. “Facts are facts.”

  Bai let out a deep sigh and took a sip of bitter green tea. “Is it the money you find so attractive?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with having money, but that isn’t my main concern.”

  “I have plenty of money. I don’t need billions of dollars to be happy.”

  “You’re wasting your life finding people who don’t want to be found. The Kwan holdings are extensive, and you have an aptitude for management. Wouldn’t you like to challenge yourself?”

  “I challenged myself yesterday. I only ate two donuts when I could have eaten the entire bag. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  Elizabeth tilted her chin, which packed the emotional impact of Bai’s slamming her forehead on the table. “If you’re not willing to have an adult conversation, there’s no point in continuing.”

  With a sullen expression and a stiff posture, she stood to leave the room. Bai considered replacing her tea with scotch when her phone interrupted the thought. The caller was Jason.

  She answered in a rapid-fire manner. “I’m tired. I’ve had a crappy day. You’re not going to make it worse, are you?”

  “There’s a strong possibility I will.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Macau.”

  “What are you doing in Macau?”

  “Running a casino, but that’s not why I called.”

  There was silence on the line.

  She wondered if Jason wanted her to guess why he’d called. Too tired to play games, she replied, “I’m hanging up now and going to bed.”

  “I’m told you made the ten o’clock news.”

  “Word travels fast.”

  “I understand you were with Howard Kwan.”

  “I had a date.”

  “That’s not a good idea,” he said in an ominously flat voice.

  She found her temper rising. “Since when do I need your permission to date?”

  He hesitated before answering. “Stay away from Howard Kwan. His family is poison.”

  “I’ll take your advice under consideration,” she replied, unwilling to cave in to his demands without at least token resistance.

  “I’ll be back in a day or two. Don’t do anything foolish while I’m gone.”

  “How do you define ‘foolish’?”

  “‘Foolish’ would be taking on three thugs with a dozen witnesses around to take pictures.”

  He might have had a point, but she couldn’t see any advantage in ceding it to him. “It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction. A girl has to do what a girl has to do.”

  “There you are. You just defined ‘foolish’ and saved me the trouble. I’m serious, Bai. His family is bad news.”

  “Then we have something in common. Don’t we?”

  “More than you know.” His flat tone made the hair on the back of neck rise. “Give my love to the girls. I’ll see you in a day or two.”

  He hung up before she could reply.

  She huffed into the phone and tossed the device to the other side of the couch. The phone hadn’t finished bouncing on the leather cushion when it rang again. She belly-flopped onto the cushions and stretched to retrieve the device. It was Lee.

  “Did you find something?” she asked.

  “Yes. You need to see this.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  She ended the call and walked across the living room to the foyer where the open elevator waited. The lift took her to the ground floor where she took three steps across the lobby and through the door Lee held open.

  He smiled and put an arm around her shoulders to direct her into his study. “Let me show you what Wen was trying to protect.” He pointed at the monitor on his desk. “Come and look at this.”

  She walked around the desk in order to see the screen. “What am I looking at?”

  “These are the encrypted files on the flash drive,” he explained, pointing at small icons on the screen’s monitor. “I’ve just started to look at what’s inside the files, but I’ve already come across a half dozen confidential documents. What I’ve seen indicates she had a wide range of interests, everything from pharmaceutical research to engineering diagrams.”

  “What do you think the files mean?”

  “I think she was an information broker, someone who buys and sells confidential information, like a fence for stolen secrets. From the correspondence I’ve seen, she appears to have had a number of aliases. That’s assuming ‘Wen Liu’ is her real name and not an alias. Look at this.”

  He clicked on another folder, and a list of names with contact information appeared on the screen. “This is her address book. She has hundreds of contacts listed.”

  He scrolled down the list. “Here’s someone we know who might be able to shed some light on her activities.”

  Jason’s name was listed under “L” for Lum, along with his private cell number.

  “It seems I’m not the only woman to have his private number,” Bai said. “How about a Daniel Chen?”

  “I looked,” Lee stated. “There’s nothing under Chen, and I wasn’t able to access her call log to see whom she called and when. I may have to activate the phone to do that, and I want to get as much data as possible first in case I trigger a defensive program that will shut down or wipe the phone.”

  She nodded without really understanding. “I can see why she’d want to hide her identity. Selling confidential information is a dangerous business. Do me a favor: see if Howard Kwan is on her list.”

  He did as requested and scrolled the screen up. There were about a dozen Kwans on the list, Kwan being a common name. Howard was among them. Whether or not the Howard Kwan listed happened to be the one she’d just met, Bai had no way of knowing.

  She tapped the number listed for Howard Kwan into her phone, which had a blocked caller ID.

  “Who is calling?” asked a voice she recognized as Howard’s.

  She ended the call without responding. “Wen, it appears, led an interesting life.”

  “Yes,” Lee replied with a thoughtful expression, “the kind of interesting life that can get you killed. I have the sneaking suspicion the more files we decrypt, the more suspects we’ll find who might have wanted her dead.”

  Chapter 13

  The day started out humid and warm with the scent of rain in the air. Bai decided to take advantage of the balmy weather and walk the three blocks to her office. While she stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, a limousine pulled to the curb in front of her. A man in a black suit wearing an earbud stepped out of the front passenger door to walk back and hold the rear door open. She regarded him as she crossed her arms, her hand on the sleeve of her jacket.

  “Who?” she asked.

  “Chairman Kwan,” he replied and bowed deeply.

  Frowning, she hesitated before stepping into the car, curiosity overruling common sense. The car pulled back into traffic and headed west. The limo rolled up California Street and into the Nob
Hill District to stop in front of the venerable Mark Hopkins.

  An opulent hotel, the Hopkins once served as a destination for celebrities and royalty. During the thirties and forties, music greats such as Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman provided a swinging nightlife. John Barrymore had been a regular. Located at the top of Nob Hill, the hotel still retained its charm and a fabulous view.

  Bai’s escort led her through the lobby and into the elevator that took them to the eighteenth-floor penthouse. When she stepped out of the lift, six Asian men in similar dark garb stood guard. A couple of them frowned at the sight of her. She returned their measured gazes without smiling.

  Her guide ushered her through a set of dark-paneled double doors. She inhaled deeply and braced herself before walking into a lavish apartment decorated with neoclassical furniture. Fresh long-stem roses in large vases sat on leather-topped tables embossed with gold filigree. At the far side of the room sat a diminutive woman in a high-backed upholstered chair with her hands folded and her legs tucked to the side, the embodiment of appropriate comportment.

  She wore a perfectly tailored black suit that showed off a fortune in diamonds. Rings stacked her fingers, and a necklace wrapped around her throat in a glistening display of wealth. Her bob was perfectly cut and framed a lovely face with a welcoming smile. Bai stood transfixed for a brief moment. Somehow, the woman seemed familiar.

  “I can’t help feeling we’ve met before,” Bai said.

  The woman smiled and gestured to the matching chair facing her. “My name is Jade Kwan. I’m Howard’s mother. Won’t you be seated and have tea with me? I believe we have a great deal to discuss.”

  Bai balked. “I’ve already told Howard I’m not interested. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Jade’s smile widened as she nodded. “Please, have a seat and let me explain.”

  Bai sat down cautiously. Her eyes remained fixed on Howard’s mother, who continued to smile as she poured tea from a porcelain pot into matching delicate cups of fine bone china.