Chapter 12
Bai went to Lee’s apartment to watch him clone Wen’s phone. He settled in at his desk and turned on his lab machine, a basic desktop computer without Internet or network capability. The barebones machine had a simple operating system and a myriad of ports for accessing and copying data. He took the secure digital memory card with built-in encryption out of Wen’s phone and put it into an SD port on the lab machine to copy the contents onto a hard disk for backup.
“If there’s a fail-safe program on the phone to protect the contents against unauthorized access, the backup will give us a second chance to decrypt the data,” he explained.
“Great! Whatever that means,” Bai replied, mystified by Lee’s jargon.
“I’m just copying the data in case I screw up.”
When the backup finished, he removed the original SD card and put it into a desk drawer. “While I’m doing this, why don’t you go upstairs and rest? I’ll call you when I have something.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind? I can stay and help.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
He smiled but didn’t look up from his task.
“I’m a distraction. I get it. All right, call me if you find anything of interest. I don’t care how late it is.”
He nodded to let her know he’d heard, too immersed in his task to verbally respond. She let herself out of his apartment and took the elevator up to the third floor. Since it was past eleven, the girls would be in bed. When she stepped out of the lift, she found Elizabeth waiting for her. A worried expression on the older woman’s face informed Bai her long and crappy day wasn’t over.
“The pictures didn’t do you justice, but I could still tell it was you.”
“What are we talking about?”
“You made the ten o’clock news.”
Someone at the Grand Hotel had photographed the altercation in front of valet parking and sold the pictures to a local television station. The shots led the 10 o’clock news report. Bai had been hailed as an unassuming, and presently unknown, hero.
“I’ve made tea,” Elizabeth said. “I was just about to have a cup in the living room, if you’d care to join me?”
Bai recognized the subtle tone that turned what might have been considered an invitation into an edict. They adjourned to the living room, where polished natural bamboo floors and contemporary leather furniture lightened the atmosphere. Large ceramic cups glazed a dark blue rested on the brass and glass coffee table between them.
“I was protecting my date,” Bai declared in her own defense. “Dates are few and far between. I couldn’t let someone just steal him.”
Elizabeth didn’t appear to be amused. “You could have been hurt.”
“But I wasn’t. As a matter of fact, there are a couple of men running around with bruises wishing they’d tried to steal somebody else’s date.”
“How do you feel about Howard?”
Elizabeth’s mercurial change in subject surprised Bai and made her wary. She decided to nip the older woman’s matchmaking attempt in the bud. “If I had to sum up Howard in one word, I’d say he’s an ass. He might even be a complete ass.”
“I believe he’s a nice man,” Elizabeth replied, pointedly ignoring her opinion. “He can be kind, I’m told. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his flaws. We all do.”
“Did I mention he’s an ass?”
“I’m just asking you to keep an open mind.”
Bai held her cup in both hands and leaned back into the soft leather cushions to study Elizabeth. A subcurrent of conversation had taken place that left her puzzled. “Is there something you’re trying to tell me?”
“I think it would be a good idea to give him a second chance. I know his mother quite well, and I feel there’s more to him than what you’ve seen. I’m told he hides his true nature . . . that he’s sensitive.”
“He told me I was old.”
Elizabeth spoke over the rim of her cup. “Most women are married by thirty.”
“So now you’re defending him?”
She smiled. “Facts are facts.”
Bai let out a deep sigh and took a sip of bitter green tea. “Is it the money you find so attractive?”
“There’s nothing wrong with having money, but that isn’t my main concern.”
“I have plenty of money. I don’t need billions of dollars to be happy.”
“You’re wasting your life finding people who don’t want to be found. The Kwan holdings are extensive, and you have an aptitude for management. Wouldn’t you like to challenge yourself?”
“I challenged myself yesterday. I only ate two donuts when I could have eaten the entire bag. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Elizabeth tilted her chin, which packed the emotional impact of Bai’s slamming her forehead on the table. “If you’re not willing to have an adult conversation, there’s no point in continuing.”
With a sullen expression and a stiff posture, she stood to leave the room. Bai considered replacing her tea with scotch when her phone interrupted the thought. The caller was Jason.
She answered in a rapid-fire manner. “I’m tired. I’ve had a crappy day. You’re not going to make it worse, are you?”
“There’s a strong possibility I will.”
“Where are you?”
“Macau.”
“What are you doing in Macau?”
“Running a casino, but that’s not why I called.”
There was silence on the line.
She wondered if Jason wanted her to guess why he’d called. Too tired to play games, she replied, “I’m hanging up now and going to bed.”
“I’m told you made the ten o’clock news.”
“Word travels fast.”
“I understand you were with Howard Kwan.”
“I had a date.”
“That’s not a good idea,” he said in an ominously flat voice.
She found her temper rising. “Since when do I need your permission to date?”
He hesitated before answering. “Stay away from Howard Kwan. His family is poison.”
“I’ll take your advice under consideration,” she replied, unwilling to cave in to his demands without at least token resistance.
“I’ll be back in a day or two. Don’t do anything foolish while I’m gone.”
“How do you define ‘foolish’?”
“‘Foolish’ would be taking on three thugs with a dozen witnesses around to take pictures.”
He might have had a point, but she couldn’t see any advantage in ceding it to him. “It was a spur-of-the-moment reaction. A girl has to do what a girl has to do.”
“There you are. You just defined ‘foolish’ and saved me the trouble. I’m serious, Bai. His family is bad news.”
“Then we have something in common. Don’t we?”
“More than you know.” His flat tone made the hair on the back of neck rise. “Give my love to the girls. I’ll see you in a day or two.”
He hung up before she could reply.
She huffed into the phone and tossed the device to the other side of the couch. The phone hadn’t finished bouncing on the leather cushion when it rang again. She belly-flopped onto the cushions and stretched to retrieve the device. It was Lee.
“Did you find something?” she asked.
“Yes. You need to see this.”
“I’m on my way.”
She ended the call and walked across the living room to the foyer where the open elevator waited. The lift took her to the ground floor where she took three steps across the lobby and through the door Lee held open.
He smiled and put an arm around her shoulders to direct her into his study. “Let me show you what Wen was trying to protect.” He pointed at the monitor on his desk. “Come and look at this.”
She walked around the desk in order to see the screen. “What am I looking at?”
“These are the encrypted files on the flash drive,” he explained, pointing at small icons on the screen’s monitor. “I’ve just started to look at what’s inside the files, but I’ve already come across a half dozen confidential documents. What I’ve seen indicates she had a wide range of interests, everything from pharmaceutical research to engineering diagrams.”
“What do you think the files mean?”
“I think she was an information broker, someone who buys and sells confidential information, like a fence for stolen secrets. From the correspondence I’ve seen, she appears to have had a number of aliases. That’s assuming ‘Wen Liu’ is her real name and not an alias. Look at this.”
He clicked on another folder, and a list of names with contact information appeared on the screen. “This is her address book. She has hundreds of contacts listed.”
He scrolled down the list. “Here’s someone we know who might be able to shed some light on her activities.”
Jason’s name was listed under “L” for Lum, along with his private cell number.
“It seems I’m not the only woman to have his private number,” Bai said. “How about a Daniel Chen?”
“I looked,” Lee stated. “There’s nothing under Chen, and I wasn’t able to access her call log to see whom she called and when. I may have to activate the phone to do that, and I want to get as much data as possible first in case I trigger a defensive program that will shut down or wipe the phone.”
She nodded without really understanding. “I can see why she’d want to hide her identity. Selling confidential information is a dangerous business. Do me a favor: see if Howard Kwan is on her list.”
He did as requested and scrolled the screen up. There were about a dozen Kwans on the list, Kwan being a common name. Howard was among them. Whether or not the Howard Kwan listed happened to be the one she’d just met, Bai had no way of knowing.
She tapped the number listed for Howard Kwan into her phone, which had a blocked caller ID.
“Who is calling?” asked a voice she recognized as Howard’s.
She ended the call without responding. “Wen, it appears, led an interesting life.”
“Yes,” Lee replied with a thoughtful expression, “the kind of interesting life that can get you killed. I have the sneaking suspicion the more files we decrypt, the more suspects we’ll find who might have wanted her dead.”