Stephen Knight - White Tiger

“I’m looking at one right now,” Hoffer shot back without hesitation. Chee Wei snorted.

“Everybody’s a comedian. We’re here to see Miss Zhu. The Danny Lin case.”

“Oh yeah, the dick murder.” Hoffer made a chopping motion with his hand. “Hell of a way to go.” He checked his book. “Zah-hoo Soo? Is that how you pronounce it?”

“Close enough,” Chee Wei said, though Ryker knew he could have belabored the point and given Hoffer pronunciation lessons.

“Her lawyer’s on his way down. You want to wait for him?”

“We’ll keep her company until he gets here,” Ryker said, not relishing the prospect of meeting Victor Chen under any circumstances. “Bring her into one of the interview rooms, will you? We’ll have three coffees. And don’t forget the donuts. I know you’re hiding them somewhere. The ones with the pink icing and the sprinkling.”

“Sure thing. You want me to suck your dick too?”

“Now you’re spoiling me.”

They found a vacant interview room and waited while Xiaohui Zhu was brought from her cell by a female cop. Ryker nodded his thanks. Xiaohui’s gaze darted around the room, as if she was surprised to find they were alone. She wore standard issue cotton shirt and pants, and a pair of light sneakers without laces. Her jewelry was missing, of course. Everything that could be used as a potential tool to commit suicide resided in an envelope under lock and key in the store room behind Hoffer’s desk.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Chin is on his way,” Ryker said. “We’ll be talking to him in just a minute. Sit down, Miss Zhu. Make yourself comfortable. As a matter of fact, I was just talking to someone else who knows you. We had a meeting upstairs. James Lin. He says hi.”

A fearful expression passed across Xiaohui’s face. Ryker tried not to loathe himself for what he was doing. Icy bitch or not, she didn’t deserve to be scared. At his invitation she lowered herself into a chair.

Chee Wei stood silently by the door in perfect voyeur’s position, his eyes glued to the woman. If she even noticed him she gave no sign.

“Miss Zhu, I’m going to come right to the point,” Ryker said. “I don’t think you murdered Danny Lin, and the forensic evidence supports this. There was no blood on your clothing or upon your person. And the medical examination confirmed exactly what you told us.” She looked up at him with big eyes filled with relief. “I’m sure Mr. Chin has been giving the D.A. all kinds of hassle to get you released. He’s right, we have no evidence. Right after we talk, I’ll get the paperwork stamped. It shouldn’t take long.”

“If you had listened to me in the first place, I would not have had to suffer the indignity of arrest. My own family thinks I am a criminal! And a woman calling herself a doctor physically assaulted me.”

“For which I apologize,” Ryker said, wondering how many lesbian porno flicks Xiaohui had starred in where much, much worse had been inflicted upon her. “I’ll call your sister if you like, and explain our mistake. It’s the least I can do.”

She hesitated, thinking about that, then shook her head. “There is no need for you to trouble my family further. I will do my own explaining.”

Ryker wasn’t in the least surprised. “Great, but if there’s anything I can do, let me know, won’t you?” She afforded him a curt nod. Ryker looked at his watch, looked at the door, sat down opposite her. “Tell me something, Miss Zhu. Did you ever have any dealings with James Lin? What I mean is, did you ever meet him when you were in Danny Lin’s company?”

“Lin Dan would never have introduced me to his father.”

“Oh, sure. I wasn’t thinking. No, I just wondered if you’d met him, perhaps at a social occasion, even if he didn’t realize you and Danny were seeing each other. It just seems to me, and I hope you don’t mind my saying so, Miss Zhu, that you are an extremely attractive woman. Please don’t be offended. It’s just, well, it strikes me as strange that Danny would hide you away in a hotel room. I can’t imagine doing that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not having some kind of midlife crisis fantasy here. But if I were with you? I’d make damn sure everyone knew about it. I’d be parading you up and down the street. I’d be taking out ads in the paper. That’s not poetic enough. Let me try again. You grow the world’s most beautiful orchid, you don’t keep it in your greenhouse. You take it to the world orchid championships so people can admire it.”

Ryker feared he’d gone too far, that his rhetoric might have alerted her to his deep sea fishing. But she showed no sign of suspicion. If anything, in fact, she seemed more relaxed and at ease, as if she found herself in agreement with what he’d said. Perhaps she’d thought exactly the same things herself whenever Danny Lin invited her to a champagne-and-cum session in the Taipan Suite? Was there ever a hooker in all of history who didn’t imagine herself standing by the side of her sugar daddy, elevated from sordid mistress to respected wife? Ryker was willing to bet hard cash that at some point in their relationship, Xiaohui had lain beside a thoroughly exhausted Danny Lin and whispered sweet nothings into his ear about how he must be crazy to stay with a wife who didn’t understand him, and failed to cater to his every bizarre sexual fantasy, like she did.

Which thought gave rise to recent memories of Valerie Lin, who didn’t look anything like Xiaohui, whose flawless beauty was undeniable. Yet the widow Lin had popped Ryker’s cork just by breathing. Would he feel differently about Xiaohui if he hadn’t met Danny Lin’s wife first? Somehow he doubted that. Some people were just incompatible with each other. He recognized the fact he was absolutely wrong for Xiaohui and she for him. Valerie Lin, on the other hand-

“We did meet,” Xiaohui said. “Just once.” She stared at the table top. “At a reception. For businessmen. From Beijing and Korea.” Her hesitant delivery made Ryker think she was recalling the memories only with difficulty. “Lin Dan’s father thought I was the wife of one of those present. But the wives would not speak to me. Lin Dan realized it was a mistake. Realized the risk he was taking. His father would be angry if he found out. He arranged for me to be taken by taxi to the hotel.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Perhaps a month ago. Longer. Six weeks.”

“Here in San Francisco?”

She frowned, puzzled. “No. Shanghai.”

Ryker sensed Chee Wei’s curiosity from across the room but didn’t look at him. “Aside from the businessmen, Miss Zhu, was anyone else there?”

“The senator,” Xiaohui said, as the door opened and Victor Chin entered carrying a leather briefcase. The Chinese lawyer looked from Ryker to Chee Wei, and was not happy.

Ryker stood and said, “Mr. Chin, we were just telling your client she’s no longer a suspect. We have no reason to hold her. I’m going to talk to the desk sergeant, get the paperwork pushed through.”

“And you are?”

“Detective Sergeant Hal Ryker.”

“Ah. We’re going to sue you for wrongful arrest, detective sergeant. Your unforgivable victimization has caused my client considerable distress.”

Ryker had been expecting something of the kind, and was a long way from shocked. “Make sure you invite the press along to the court hearing, Mr. Chin,” he said. “We’ll give them a good story. How Danny Lin flew a high-class hooker in from Shanghai whenever he felt horny. How they both got high as a kite on coke, and she fucked him senseless in a thousand-dollar-a-night hotel suite overlooking San Francisco Bay. How she stars in low budget porno flicks whenever she’s over here, just to earn herself some lipstick money.”