Flower Net (Red Princess 1)

“No,” Hulan answered. “I think I suspected you after the bomb…”

“Hulan!” David’s voice was rough.

“I tried to tell you and you laughed the idea away,” she told David, not taking her eyes off her father. “Then there were so many other things. What happened with Spencer Lee’s petition, how the execution papers were so easy to find in Section Chief Zai’s office, how the vice minister told us Zai was in Tianjin, then seeing the Pitao camp.”

“But you didn’t follow your instincts,” Hulan’s father admonished gently.

“Oh, Ba…”

The regretful sound in Hulan’s voice erased the smile from her father’s face, which twisted with rage. In that moment, the horrible reality of their situation hit David. They were alone with this man miles and miles from anywhere and anyone. Father and daughter began to speak, but David deliberately tuned them out to concentrate on how they might escape. The room had only the door for an exit. If worst came to worst—and David had no illusions that it wouldn’t—he might be able to push Hulan out of harm’s way either out the door or behind one of the eight bear cages that were set two to a wall. But how long would that protect her? A minute? Five? And then what?

“But why the triads?” Hulan was asking her father. “I see now I didn’t know you, but I always thought you held them in contempt.”

“When I hear you like this,” Liu mused, “I think, My daughter is not so stupid. She is slow maybe, but not stupid. You are right. I abhor the triads.”

“But you made some connection with the Rising Phoenix during the ministry’s past investigations,” she surmised. “That’s why you’d never let Section Chief Zai take his evidence to the courts.”

“They offered me money,” Liu said, jutting his chin. “I took it. Then, when this opportunity came along, I thought, Here are people who can transport our shipments and distribute the product in the United States. We had a very good relationship…”

“Until?”

“The others wanted to make more money. Those boys and the father went behind my back and made a deal. So I killed the boys. But I also wanted to send a message. And I did. But I think you and Attorney Stark figured this out.”

“David did, yes.”

Liu turned his virulent gaze to his daughter’s lover. “Tell me, David”—the sound of his name spoken in such a patronizing tone sent a chill down the American’s spine—“how did I do it?”

“You needed information first,” David said. “You knew that your partners had made some kind of a deal with the Rising Phoenix. Were they planning to cut you out entirely?”

Hulan’s father nodded, then said, “Go on.”

“Henglai was smaller, so you probably overpowered him first. Those boys must have been surprised. You were their partner.”

“They thought I was a weak old man. They were wrong.”

“Billy was a tough kid, so you focused on Henglai. You tortured him with—what?—cigarettes?” When Liu said nothing, David went on. “You didn’t need to kill Billy at all. He could have passed on your message. But by then you were carried away.”

“But my method,” Liu said irritably.

“The beetle,” David answered quickly.

“Correct. It was so easy to put a little of the powder on a cloth and hold it over their mouths and noses. But then…” Liu shook his head in distaste. “It was unpleasant, watching the blisters form on their lips and nostrils, listening to their screams, waiting for the stomach hemorrhage that would finally silence them.” He mutely relived the memory, then inquired in an interested voice, “And where were they killed?”

David and Hulan didn’t know. Liu grunted. “A warehouse, but who cares?”

“Afterward, you took Billy Watson to the park,” David continued. “You wanted him to be found, and you wanted him to be found where his father could see him.”

“If the top beams aren’t straight, the bottom ones are crooked also,” Liu recited. “Do you have that saying in America?”

“No.”

“But you understand the meaning.”

“I think so. Like father, like son?”

“Exactly. And the son had to be destroyed to make the father see his mistakes. This betrayal…” Liu’s jaw clenched. “This betrayal was Watson’s doing. He thought he was the big man. He thought that just because he had the ranch that he was taking the biggest risks. He thought, I have the two boys, I have the Rising Phoenix, why do I need old Liu? But the whole thing had been my plan. I was in charge. It was a hard lesson, but Bill Watson learned the truth.” Liu stared at David with cold black eyes. “Now tell me about Henglai.”

“The canal, am I right?”