Stephen Knight - White Tiger

“Hello.”

“Valerie. It’s Hal.” Ryker kept his voice low, but he could see Chee Wei practically cupping a hand to his ear to try and listen in on his conversation. Little creep, he thought.

She was silent for a long moment. Ryker was about to speak, to apologize, to ask if she was all right, anything to fill the void. He was thankful she beat him to the punch.

“I’m sorry I took so long this morning. I guess…I guess you had to go.”

“I did. But it’s not because of anything you did.”

“I know that. You said your partner called you, and that you had to leave anyway…isn’t that right?”

He breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Yes. Yes, that’s exactly right. Listen Valerie…I need to ask you some questions.”

“About my husband. Of course.”

“No. About his brother. John Lin.”

“Lin Jong…? What…what would you want to know about him?” She sounded confused, and Ryker imagined she was trying to correlate his intended line of questioning with the murder of her husband.

Maybe she doesn’t know Lin Jong is dead?

“Do you know John-Lin Jong?”

“Of course I do. He’s my brother-in-law. He also works for my father-in-law, though in a much more senior capacity than…than my husband did.” She paused. “Why do you want to know about him? ”

“Where is he now?”

“The last I heard about him, he was in Shanghai. He was supposed to come back last month, but he had to stay longer than planned.”

“Was your husband close to him?”

“Close? They were rivals. They hated each other with a passion. Danny went almost insane with jealousy after Lin Yubo promoted Lin Jong to president of Lin Industries. It meant that John would take over the entire organization after Lin Yubo retired. Or died.”

“When was the last time you or your husband heard from him?”

“Hal…what’s this about?”

Ryker debated what to tell her, then figured he had gotten everything she knew. She didn’t know her brother-in-law had preceded her husband in death, which likely meant James Lin wasn’t a stranger to screwing over his family anymore than he’d bend over anyone else.

“Valerie. John Lin was murdered in Shanghai a month ago. And it seems that whoever killed him also killed your husband.”

She was quiet for a long time. In the outer office, Chee Wei had given up acting like he was busy doing something else. Now, he just stared at Ryker through the windows in Spider’s office. Ryker waited, and wondered just how much of this conversation was going to go in the murder book.

“Jesus,” she said finally. Her voice was so small Ryker almost missed the utterance altogether.

“You had no idea.” It wasn’t a question.

“No. No! I had no idea at all! My God, does his wife know?”

“I have no idea who knows what, Valerie. I only found out myself this morning from the Shanghai police,” Ryker lied, thinking of the possible repercussions should James Lin somehow learn of Chee Wei’s Hong Kong connection.

“So…so Lin Yubo…he knew?”

“Yes. He knew all about it all along.”

She struggled with that. “And…and he didn’t tell Danny?”

“If your husband never mentioned it, then I would guess not.”

“Then Lin Jong’s family doesn’t know either. That old, reptilian bastard …”

Ryker needed her on course before her temper got the best of her. “Valerie. Valerie, I need you to try and remember something. Did you know what John Lin was in Shanghai for? You said it was for business, but do you know for what, exactly?”

“It was…it was for meetings. He was to help arrange visits for…for Chinese dignitaries, I think…” She went on, but Ryker muted the phone and yelled to Chee Wei.

“What was the name of the guy I said I saw last night?”

“Ren Yun!” Chee Wei shouted back.

Ryker took the phone off mute and interrupted Valerie. “Valerie, I’m sorry, but I need to find out what John Lin was doing in Shanghai. What dignitaries was he working with?”

She paused. “I’m not sure. I’m not that plugged into the business world-”

“Was one of them named Ren Yun?” Ryker pronounced the name terribly, but she got it.

“Yes! Yes, how did you know? He was at my father-in-law’s last night, wasn’t he?”

“He was. And I think he’s someone I’m going to need to talk to. Thanks, Val. You’ve been great.” He paused. “All around great in a way I don’t get to see very often. And I mean that as high praise.”

She snorted softly. “It’s been some time since someone has given me ‘high praise’. Thanks. I’ll accept it.”

Ryker smiled even though Chee Wei was staring at him through the glass like some kind of pervert voyeur. “Great. Can-can I call you later? It’s probably not job-related…” He was aware of his fumbling, but he couldn’t help it. This was all very new to him.

“I’d like that, Hal.”

Ryker said his good-byes and hung up. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was 11:30am. As he stepped out of the office, he ran a hand over his face, feeling the razor stubble on his chin.

“So who was that?” Chee Wei asked.

“Valerie Lin.” Ryker tried to keep his voice casual as he walked back to his desk.

“Why you old dog,” Chee Wei said with a huge, shit-eating grin.

“What are you talking about?”

“Come on! I saw you talking to her on the phone. Getting all tender. And wearing a suit on a Saturday morning? Dude, you were out doing some serious partying with the lady, weren’t you? Did you”-Chee Wei rose and pumped his hips-“get your love on?”

Ryker rolled his eyes. “Let’s grab some lunch and then head up to Tiburon. I want to chat with Lin and his house guest.”

The high rise office building was mostly vacant, save for maintenance and janitorial workers. Few tenant employees were about, which made things a bit easier; there were fewer people to see Manning hustle Lin inside through the parking garage. He was stopped at security, and he was surprised to see the same two security guards who had greeted him on his first visit.

“You guys work around the clock?” Manning asked.

“Ha. We work in shifts,” the 20-something said. He looked at Lin and nodded respectfully. “Hello, sir.”

Lin nodded back, but that was it.

“We’re going to forty-five,” Manning said. “We’ll probably have some food deliveries and stuff like that. If anyone else comes in with access to that floor, please let us know. You can call Mr. Lin’s office direct, and I’ll answer the phone.”

“Something going on?” This came from the older guard. He slowly edged toward them from behind the lobby desk, his eyes flat and expressionless. The eyes of an ex-cop.

“Mr. Lin has some serious issues with a business unit in China. He needs access to the corporate network, including secure files and the like which aren’t accessible from his home. And some of that work is classified. He wants to be notified if anyone enters the floor.” Manning looked from one guard to the other. “Is that going to be a problem?”

The older guard ignored Manning and looked at Lin. “Mr. Lin, is everything all right?”

Lin looked properly indignant. “Yes, yes, everything is fine! Please do as my man tells you!” He then turned and marched for the elevator bay.

The older guard nodded sourly and directed Manning toward the metal detector. “You know the drill.”

“I have a building permit allowing me to carry my weapon in the building.” Manning pulled the plastic card from his wallet and showed it to the two guards. The older one examined it critically.