Tom Piccirilli - Sorrow's crown

"Empty threats mean nothing."

"They are an affront to honor. America is unbearable. A wasteland of privilege without principal."

"It is that, and more. My son wanted to come home, and so did I."

"It is not my home."

The timing had to be right. Ten minutes had gone by, but Nick hadn't made any mention of the woman. Had she run off? Jocelyn dug the barrel of the .38 along the groove of my ribs. It hurt like hell, but I did my best to keep my face as straight as hers. I didn't do so well. Anna wheeled forward and my heart sank even lower. If she could have seen what I'd seen in the wake of the dragon-the elimination of a boy's face in the name of hate-she would have stayed back. Or perhaps not.

Anna said, "There is no need for this."

"Quiet, you foolish, nosy old woman."

From the doorway came, " Fuckit ."

Jocelyn drew back out of my range before she would even turn her head. Then she glared at the woman. Neither she nor Harnes showed any change of composure. Harnes said, "Li Tai." I finally knew what to call the woman. Her mouth fell open for a second and then she closed it. Jocelyn said something to her in Chinese. They began a slow chattering that rapidly built to a singsong quarrel. Harnes put in a few words himself, and they all fell silent.

"Jocelyn is your daughter," Anna said.

"Yes," Harnes admitted.

"And you had her mother confined to a mental institution? Why?"

"I did not want her in my life any longer and she threatened to cause a stir with Chinese officials. She managed several of my factories overseas, and had a great many political affiliations in Hong Kong. This course proved to be most beneficial for me."

"So long as you had her you could control these politicians."

"No, money did that, until Hong Kong reverted back to mainland China's rule. Then it became more advantageous to simply leave."

Anna's lips flattened and went white until she found the air to say, "That was nearly two years ago. Why not release her?"

He looked mildly amused. "And why should I?"

I made eye contact with Nick Crummler but couldn't read anything. Jocelyn hadn't pointed the gun at him at all, I'd noticed. Harnes sat, crossed his legs, and straightened the seam of his pants leg.

I said, "You returned from Asia two years ago and left her imprisoned that long for no reason?"

"No, it has been over twelve years." he confessed with the cool alacrity I wanted to set fire to. "I brought her from Hong Kong under the auspices of visiting Disneyland long before my son and I stopped traveling the world and settled back in America."

At the word Disneyland Li Tai squeezed her eyes shut and one massive shiver ran through her body.

"And Teddy didn't know."

"He believed her to be dead. My son was. . . a benevolent soul. He would not have understood."

"It was stupid of you to bring her here," Jocelyn hissed at me. "What could you possibly have hoped to accomplish?"

"This." I unfolded Teddy's sketches and showed them to Harnes. "You didn't know that Teddy volunteered at the hospital, did you? He drew murals in the group therapy rooms. He must've spotted Li Tai there several weeks ago. She was your wife in China, wasn't she? He'd been raised by her."

"For some years, yes."

I turned to Jocelyn, watching all that had laid coiled and under control for so long rising and struggling to get free. I shoved my chest against the gun, hoping it would make her feel empowered enough not to pull the trigger.

"A woman he hardly remembered, and believed to be dead. He came to you, didn't he? He finally realized the kind of man his father was, and he came to you, hoping you'd side with him. How he must have loved you to have trusted you. His sister. He thought you hadn't known your own mother was still alive. But you did know. And you didn't care. That's what Crummler saw that day he came out into the hailstorm. He saw you two arguing. He knew what you were capable of. You terrified him."

"Shut up about that brain-damaged caretaker. He means nothing," she said. "Teddy never understood the man our father was. If he had, he would not have acted so intolerably."

"What did he want to do? Go to the police? Try to get your mother out on his own? He chose to talk with you alone while he visited his own mother. He must've gone to the cemetery every day for a while. He respected the dead."

"He did not respect father."

"And you'd do anything to protect your father," I said. "So you murdered Teddy."

Harnes cocked his head and said, "What?"

"Father . . ."

"What?"

"Farther, it had to be done."

"You? You . . . killed my son?" Harnes said. His voice seemed to come from someplace other than his throat-perhaps Jocelyn still had his breath, or maybe I did-so that he was only a man mouthing silently in a vacuum. He still showed no emotion, other than the slight hint of confusion. "You did this?"

I saw the dragon emerging in Jocelyn's eyes, and stared in lost captivation as it began to overcome her-the lizard beneath the beauty, cold and primordial, jealous and savage.

"Once Teddy was dead you became even more brazen," I said. "You approached Shanks to handle Frost. Your rage was showing." In fact, it started to show again in her loveliness, the shadows moving in her features, and I had trouble speaking and watching at the same time. "Why his face? Why did you cut off his face with Crummler's shovel? Because you saw too much of yourself in it?" Yes, yes, look at her . "Teddy didn't turn against his father. You did."

"Father," she said. The word held such extreme importance for her that she seemed to be saying prayers and making sacrifices upon an altar. "He'd betrayed you. It could not be permitted."

"You did this?"

Jocelyn flicked her wrist casually toward me and I knew the black night she had wrapped inside of would all come rushing out in this moment. I dodged toward Harnes hoping she wouldn't fire if I was too close to him. The shot sounded impossibly loud and Anna lurched sideways, rising slightly-it seemed as if she might actually be standing, about to take a step toward me. I reached and she flopped into my arms, and said, "Oh, dear."

I found my grandmother's blood on my hands and the world grew tight and too painfully well lit. I closed my eyes and opened them again.

Jocelyn twisted and pointed the gun at me. I wheeled blindly and flung myself aside as she fired. Nick Crummler backpedaled and hurled himself at Li Tai as Jocelyn straightened her arm and aimed at her mother. She fired twice more before I dove onto her. We dropped to the floor heavily and rolled into the darkest corner, where we belonged now. Shadows tore at us. Her facade fell in on itself and her nostrils flared, and I saw all the welts of her strange soul rise to the flesh. I watched her became a hideous caricature of beauty, her face haggard and deeply fissured, nose drawn into a snarl and lips skinned back in a sneer. She tumbled against me, desiccated, more terminal than the dead chauffeur.

Everything stilled. I knew my face looked the same as hers. She fired again. I felt warmth slithering out of me. I reached down and grabbed Jocelyn's wrist and brutally pulled it backward, wanting and needing to hear the bone snap. She easily squirmed from my grip and brought the heel of her palm up viciously into my jaw. More blood spurted, but I didn't mind the dragon's bite now. It felt too good letting loose my own beast.

Nick Crummler rose and punched Harnes once in the mouth, and the madman who had poisoned his wives and imprisoned the mother of his own insane child slid to the floor where he stared at me. I pulled my fist back and drove it forward into Jocelyn's stomach, and still she sneered at me. She smashed me in the mouth once more and I slugged her on the chin as hard as I could.