Peggy agreed as long as we went to the warehouse right then. I think she was counting on Nancy and me nixing the whole thing because of the lateness of the hour and our own fatigue.
She didn’t know the resilient nature and infinite patience of benshengren.
Didn’t we wait out the Dutch occupation of Taiwan until the pirate Kochinga drove them out? Didn’t we wait fifty years for the Japanese colonial masters to leave? Aren’t we now waiting for the mainlanders to go back to their beloved homeland? Well, the bad ones, anyway.
Actually, here’s one thing I don’t understand about mainlanders. How come when they came over in 1949, they were all about “Kill the Commies,” but now they love the People’s Republic?
What could have changed the minds of the mainlanders, who are, in general, incredibly stubborn?
As we entered the empty warehouse, I decided to put the question to Peggy.
“Pardon me, I was wondering something about your family.”
Peggy unlocked the main door with a card swipe, then pressed a button on her fob, causing her sports car to chirp. “Yeah, what, Jing-nan?”
We walked into the lobby, which was only partially lit. It smelled like the floor had been mopped recently.
“Your family, you guys were all Nationalists back in China. Why do you love the Communists now?”
Peggy laughed to herself as she jerked open a drawer where a security guard had once sat. “You people are ridiculous,” said Peggy as she handed flashlights to Nancy and me. “You have no idea what it was like in China. During World War II, you were lounging around in your kimonos like a bunch of Nip-lovers. Meanwhile, we were fighting the Japanese twenty-four seven. Then after that, thanks to Mao’s treachery, the Chinese turned their guns on each other. My family was lucky to get out, but not all the Lees were so lucky.”
I turned on my flashlight to test it and shone the light in her face. “Wasn’t Chiang treacherous, as well?”
She pushed my arm down and trained her light on my face. “You would have been the same way. If you didn’t fuck over someone when you had the chance, they’d end up getting you.”
“What an awful way to live,” said Nancy. She turned on her flashlight and flipped through the logbook on the desk. “I can’t believe the kidnappers didn’t have the courtesy to sign in and out.”
I walked away from Peggy’s flashlight beam but she continued to talk. “My family did what they had to in order to survive and ensure that their descendants prospered. They didn’t love the Nationalists. I can say that now.”
“Peggy,” said Nancy, “you said that some of your family didn’t make it out of China?”
“I think some stayed,” said Peggy. “Some made it out to some other countries. We were one of the big landlord families, so all of those peasants wanted a piece of our ass. But enough with the family history—let’s try to find something to catch those kidnappers or else we’re just wasting time. If we come up empty then we pack it up and head home. The basement entrance should be around here.” She began to walk, one hand extended in front of her.
“Why can’t you turn on the lights?” asked Nancy.
“There are no lights to turn on. The building is basically offline.” I heard a click and a metallic door groan as her flashlight beam swung in the dark. “I found it! Let’s go already!”
We followed her to the stairwell entrance. She stomped down the grated steel steps.
“Are you sure you can do that in heels?” Nancy called after her.
“I got this,” Peggy yelled back. Nancy shrugged and followed. I went last because I had remembered that a man had been killed here on a live-streamed video, and it had begun to creep me out.
On the basement level, we all noticed that the rear was fairly well lit. The signs from the gigantic shopping mall caused the Ferris wheel’s spokes to cast shadows along the walls. Some areas of the room were bright as day.
“Well, we’re here,” said Peggy. “Now what should we do, Captain Jing-nan?”
I swung my light around. The room was smaller than I had thought it would be and it appeared to be empty. Still, it was about half the size of a basketball court and there could be clues lurking somewhere.
“I think we should split up and search the floor thoroughly.”
“I’m sure my father’s people already did.”
“Let’s just make sure,” I said. “Peggy, take the area along the left wall. Nancy, you take the right. I’ll walk around the center. If you guys find something, don’t touch it. Take a picture, mark it with GPS and we’ll have the cops check it out. Let’s meet up at the far wall.” Peggy proceeded as directed. “Don’t be scared, Nancy,” I said.
She pushed me playfully. “Just for that, I should hide and jump out at you.”
“No!”
“All right, Jing-nan. Seriously though, what should we look out for?”
“I’m not sure. I just feel like there’s something about this place that everybody’s missed.”
Nancy touched my back. “I’ll look carefully,” she said as she left.
I stretched the oval of my flashlight beam along the floor from one side to the other. The three of us walked at the same measured pace. A foot of dust rose up to haunt me with each step. It seemed to clear up for a stretch, and then I found what looked like a comet spray of blood.
That executive had been shot right here and died. I swept my light around and found two lines in the blood pattern that must have been made by the dog cage. I pinned my flashlight to my waist with my elbow and tried to focus my camera on the stains. My fingers twitched as I snapped a few pictures, most of them focused.
I’ve had my hands covered in blood up to my elbows, but that was animal blood, not human. The sight of the stains made me sick. I hoped Tong-tong’s people had allowed the cops to come in and record all this. I mean, the cops must’ve when they took the body out. My pictures were only going to supplement what the cops had.
There wasn’t much else I encountered on my walk to the wall. Some old cardboard apparel tags, piles of plastic hangers and collapsed ghosts of plastic bags.
I noticed Nancy had paused at some point near the end of her walk.
“Did you find something?” I asked her.
She made a gross-out face. “I found a plastic bag of clothes,” she said. “I didn’t touch it, but it smelled like shit and it was covered in ants.”
Peggy charged over to us. “Were those my father’s pants?”
“I don’t know. I saw the fabric. It looked like a suit.”
Peggy stalked off in the darkness, retracing Nancy’s steps. “I am not going to let the cops get a hold of it!”
“Peggy,” I said, “don’t mess with evidence!”
“Like hell it’s evidence! It’s just one more thing that could embarrass my father!”
We heard footsteps doing double-time on the metal stairs. Whoever was making the racket had much better flashlights than ours. They were practically car lamps.
“Who’s here?” a gruff voice demanded.
“It’s Peggy Lee,” she threw back. “I’m the owner of this building.”
The footsteps slowed to a stop. “Oh, Ms. Lee, I’m so sorry.” The outline of a uniformed security guard began to define itself as he approached. “It is you, isn’t it?”
Peggy put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, we’re not neighborhood kids playing hide and seek, are we? And what’s up with the gun, pal?”
I hadn’t noticed that he had a gun drawn. He mumbled something and holstered it.
“Since when do we authorize our people to carry weapons?” asked Principal Peggy.
“It’s a precaution,” said the guard. “Because of your father.”
He pushed back his snapback cap and wiped sweat away from his forehead. I caught a dopey look in his eyes before he pulled his hat back down. Lee Enterprises it read on the front.
A slightly shorter security guard trudged up next to him.
“Are you carrying a gun, too?” accused Peggy.
“Uh, one gun between us is good enough. We saw some lights in here and we had no idea what to expect.”
Peggy pointed at the taller guard. “You. What’s your name?”
“Lee. Like yours.”
“Your name just happens to be the same character, but it’s not like ours. Anyway, there’s a bag of shit-stained pants near the wall over there. I need you to pick it up and get rid of it. Throw it in the incinerator, if there is one around here.”
He swallowed. “A bag of shit?”
“You have a problem with that?”
“I’m a guard, not a garbage man. I’m not even a low-level security guard.” He stammered a little. Clearly he didn’t think carrying shit was in his job description. “I’m stationed at the dormitory across the street.”
The shorter guard couldn’t suppress a giggle.
“Hey, shorty,” said Peggy, “what do you do?”
“I’m . . . I’m a footpost guard.”
“Go pick up that bag of shit!”
We walked to the dormitory guardhouse, a small concrete bunker next to the rolldown steel gate. It was the place where migrant workers had to check in before entering and being locked in for the night.
It was meant to be a one-man security post, and Lee was justifiably surprised to find another guard sitting in the seat with his back to us.
The guest was a big man and his ill-fitting uniform shirt didn’t reach his waist. The hat was on backwards and an opened beer bottle was clutched in his right hand.
“Ma de!” declared the returning guard. “That’s my booth, asshole!”
Dwayne turned around in the seat.
“I would have to say, sir, that your time really is up.”
Lee drew his weapon. Nancy pressed herself against me. I shifted until I was between her and the gun. Peggy sauntered behind the guardhouse.
“Hey, what the fuck are you doing here?” I heard her say. Then I heard a muffled clicking sound. Frankie appeared, his hands clasped at his chest level as he took measured steps toward Lee.
“Would you happen to be a gambling man?” he asked Lee.
“What?” He was confused why his drawn gun wasn’t acting as a deterrent.
“Do you like to gamble? Shit, you were in the army, weren’t you? Don’t tell me you don’t like to toss dice in a bowl.”
“I could arrest you right now,” said Lee. “Both of you! What are you, homeless foreigners?”
“Us? Foreigners?” said Dwayne. “My people are as old as the soil and my children are going to live to see everybody else leave.”
“Mr. Security Guard,” said Frankie. “There’s already been enough maligning of foreigners lately. Let’s just stop.” The shorter one began to back away and Frankie whistled at him. “You. Stay here with us. I’ll give you good odds. I’ll give you three-to-one odds that your friend here is going to put down his gun when I show him what’s in my hands. Are you in?”
“No!”
“I’m in for one hundred NT!” declared Nancy. I tensed up but she whispered in my ear. “I asked Frankie and Dwayne to come just in case we needed backup.” That calmed me immediately.
“I’m in for a hundred NT also,” I said.
Frankie raised his hands over his head and shook them. “Sorry guys, I don’t take bets from anyone I know. Anybody else? Betting closes in three, two . . . one!” Frankie stared at Lee. “Ready?” Frankie opened his hands and several bullet cartridges flew out and twinkled in the air as they fell to the asphalt. “Drop it, Lee. An unloaded gun is only good for hammering nails.”
Lee pounced on a bullet. I wish I had my phone camera ready. I could’ve created a slo-mo video recording of Frankie flying through the air and kicking the gun out of Lee’s hands. It would have gone viral on Unknown Pleasures’ Facebook page.
Lee spun to the ground, landing on his left shoulder. He lay there and massaged his right wrist.
“Looks like you brought a gun to a fistfight,” said Frankie.
“Get fucked, old man,” said Lee as he remained prone.
I walked up to the guardhouse and pointed at Dwayne’s face. “You look ridiculous in that uniform. I think you should wear it to work every day.”
Dwayne lazily folded his arms behind his head. “This is my real job. Saving your ass.”
“I’m glad you and Frankie came,” said Nancy.
“No sweat at all. It was an easy MRT ride.” Dwayne glanced over his shoulder. “You know what, though? I do want to ride that Ferris wheel at some point. But not tonight.”
Lee dusted off his hands and legs. Before he stood fully erect, he pointed at Dwayne. “My employer will have your head!”
Dwayne leapt out of the guardhouse and smashed his fist into Lee’s face, just below the left cheekbone. I’d be surprised if fewer than two teeth had been knocked out. Lee hit the ground like a skydiver without a parachute.
“I do the headhunting around here,” Dwayne spat at Lee, who was splayed out like the fossil of a flying dinosaur. The other security guard tried to break into a run, but Frankie already had him by the sleeve.
“Don’t worry, we know you’re just a low-level chickenshit fuckup. They’ll go easy on you, assuming you’re not up to anything else.”
Peggy, sensing that any threat was over, came out and stood next to Dwayne.
“I’m calling the cops now because I don’t know what the hell is going on!”
“Huang and Kung are already on their way,” said Nancy. “Along with other interested parties.”
“Jing-nan better have a good lawyer for you two,” said Peggy, pointing at Dwayne and Frankie.
“You oughta put in a call to your lawyer, Peggy,” Frankie parried.
“For what?”
“For throwing the book at your guard Lee. He abandoned his post, for starters.”
“He deserved to get punched out for that?”
Frankie idly rolled his right foot on a loose bullet. “No, not for that,” admitted Frankie. “But for kidnapping your father and killing that executive, yeah, he deserves it.” He turned to the guard in his custody. “You, what’s your name?”
The guy cleared his throat. “Chen.”
“You know how the old fairy tales always have some generic guy named Chen who gets killed by page two? In any case, are you related to Jing-nan here?”
“No. I don’t know him.”
“Does this guy look familiar to you, Nancy?”
She leaned in slightly and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before. Should I know him from somewhere?”
Frankie tilted his head back. “Oh, this is my fault. We’re playing this game with the wrong pair of people. Peggy, take a good look at that poor bastard on the ground. Dwayne, roll him on his back. There. Does he look like anyone you know?”
Peggy cracked her knuckles and approached Lee until her toes were inches away from his head.
“I don’t think I’ve seen him before. It’s weird, he sort of looks like one of my uncles, a little.” She brought her hands together in a sudden clap and raised an eyebrow. “Is it my uncle, after plastic surgery?”
“I don’t know about the plastic surgery part, but if you were on better terms, you’d be eating at the same extended-family banquets. He’s apparently the grandson of your grandfather’s oldest brother.”
Peggy squared her feet with her shoulders. “What? My great uncle’s family went to Thailand after the war. We never heard from him again.”
Frankie flashed a smile. “His family’s been keeping track of you.”
“If you don’t mind, Peggy,” I said, “I think it’s time to invite the police to enter this zone and help get this all straightened out.”
Nancy danced in place. “First things first, Peggy! You have to thank me for texting Dwayne and Frankie. If they weren’t here, this guy would never have been caught. Who knows, maybe he would’ve killed us.”
Peggy looked at Frankie and then at Nancy. “He wasn’t going to kill us, was he?” She walked over to Lee and nudged his face with her shoe. “Hey you, were you going to shoot us? Even me, your own blood?” The man was completely out and a small trickle of blood came from his lips.
Peggy glared at Nancy. “I don’t believe in gratuitous appreciation, but you did go above and beyond. I even told you not to tell anyone but you still told Frankie and Dwayne. Thank you.” She punched a number into her phone and put it to her ear. “But I wouldn’t promote you because you disobeyed orders.”
“I wish she were my boss,” I muttered to Nancy.
“I heard that,” Peggy stated.
Peggy hadn’t called the Taipei police. She got in touch with a family friend at the Republic of China Air Force.
When three unmarked SUVs rolled up I thought they were some of Frankie’s underworld friends, but the men who emerged were dressed in jumpsuits and jackboots. A single man hoisted up Lee by the armpits and pulled him into the back of an SUV. It spoke to how efficient they would be in retrieving injured comrades. They shoved the shitbag in with Lee, and strong-armed the other guard, Chen, into the middle of the back-row seat. Another man entered the security booth and remained standing at attention.
The air force guys were under orders to take custody of the lot of us. I didn’t feel unsafe, however, as I got into what turned out to be the second car in the convoy. Nancy sat next to me and Dwayne sat behind us with a man who was as upright and alert as a dog show Doberman pinscher.
We rolled west toward the general headquarters of the air force. The man left in the guardhouse saluted us.
During the ride, Dwayne told us in a hushed voice that after he and Frankie had gotten Nancy’s message, they took a taxi to the warehouse and walked the perimeter of it. Dwayne noticed that a guard on duty had fallen asleep, and snuck up on him, ready to scare him as a prank. Then he saw the man had a holstered gun.
Frankie managed to pry open a window and get a hold of the gun. After he removed the bullets and replaced it, Frankie called a friend to trace the weapon’s serial number. Dwayne and Frankie were debating what to do when the other security guard came strolling in and they quickly decided to hide. Chen woke up Lee and the two were joking around when they noticed lights were flashing around the warehouse windows.
Chen and Lee took off for the building. When it was clear they weren’t coming back soon, Frankie searched the booth and found a number of incriminating papers, documents from the Chinese government and names of Chinese spies in Taipei. Lee had figured that his booth would be the most secure place to stash such things, but it became a convenient place to find everything in one spot.
I interrupted the story. “Dwayne, where is Frankie right now?”
He cleared his throat. “He’s in the general’s car behind us. They’re going through the papers right now. A bunch of people are gonna be in deep shit.”
Nancy raised her hand. “What about the gun? How did Lee get one?”
Dwayne glanced at the rearview mirror of the SUV. “It’s a military issue, of course. Frankie thinks the gun was sold by a gang that operates within the army. These air force guys are going to look up the serial number, see what the deal is and then make it disappear. You watch.”
I turned to the tinted window and watched the edge of the dark road wriggle through the night. I thought about my parents and my grandparents and the choices we all made so that I would be right here, right now.
Nancy said something just as I had the same thought. “I wish Peggy had called the cops instead.”
Dwayne made a disapproving sound in his throat. “I don’t. If the cops showed up, they’d probably let Lee go to meet with his attorney or whatever. I say to hell with his civil rights.”
I glanced at the Doberman-faced guard. If he were listening, he showed no sign of it.
Nancy tried to wrap her arms around herself and crossed her legs. “I don’t see why they had to take us with them,” she said.
“All of us have to corroborate Peggy’s story. And Nancy, you’ll have to explain that you brought in me and Frankie. It will help in case there are charges for trespassing on private property.”
“I’m glad we were with Peggy,” I said. “We couldn’t very well be trespassing with a member of the owner’s family. Huh, Nancy?”
One corner of Nancy’s mouth twisted into a line chart projecting lower revenue for the next fiscal year. “Does the air force really have the personnel and the time to interrogate us?” she asked.
Dwayne propped up his elbows on either side of my headrest. “It’s not the air force that’s gonna be demanding answers, Nancy!”