Murder In Chinatown Read Free Page A

Sarah’s favor, but he didn’t say so to his mother. “Go to bed, Ma,” he said wearily.
    “What about you? You need your rest,” she asked anxiously.
    “I think I will take another look at the files, after all,” he said, more to annoy her than because he really wanted to. “I won’t be long.”
    He ignored her snort of disapproval as he reached for the stack of files. He didn’t open them, though. When his mother had gone, he set them down again with a disgusted sigh.
    What had ever made him think he could solve Tom Brandt’s murder? Four long years had passed, and the evidence had been slim even back when it happened. True, he’d found a witness and learned some interesting new facts about some of Dr. Brandt’s patients. He’d developed a theory about the case, and he’d even gotten permission from Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt himself to work on it… in his spare time. Trouble was, he didn’t have any spare time. He needed more information, the kind that took lots of digging and hunting people down and getting them to talk about things they’d forgotten long ago or didn’t want to remember at all. That kind of investigation took weeks, and Frank didn’t have weeks to devote to it. He didn’t even have hours to devote to it.
    Unless he got some help, Tom Brandt’s murder would never be solved. Frank knew where to get that help, too. Trouble was, he’d rather cut off his arm than ask for it. Then he glanced down at the sheet of paper with Brian’s name scrawled all over it, and he remembered all he owed Sarah Brandt. That was when he knew he’d do whatever it took to bring her husband’s killer to justice.
     
    C ORA L EE DIDN’T HAVE TO WAIT FOUR MORE WEEKS FOR her baby. He arrived on the very day Sarah had guessed he would. Cora’s labor lasted only five hours and ended in the late afternoon. No all-night vigil for Sarah. She hadn’t even been called out of bed. All in all, a very satisfactory experience for everyone.
    She and Minnie Mae Lee were sitting with the new mother while she nursed her son for the first time.
    “You’re doing real good, Cora,” Minnie assured her. “He’s a fine boy. Look how fat! George’ll be that proud of him!”
    “Have you picked a name yet?” Sarah asked.
    “Oh, yes,” Cora replied. “Daniel, after my father.”
    Minnie shook her head. “The Chinese don’t name a baby after a close relative like that. George’ll take a fit.”
    “George is in America now,” Cora said. “He took an American name, just like Charlie and all the other businessmen do. He needs to name his son like an American, too.”
    “Speaking of George, where’s he got to?” Minnie asked. “I thought he’d be up the minute he heard.” Minnie and her family lived upstairs, and she had sent her son Harry out to find the new father and deliver the news.
    “He won’t come ’til Mrs. Brandt is gone. He’s bashful,” Cora explained to Sarah.
    “Bashful,” Minnie echoed with a laugh. “That’s one way to say it.”
    “How would you say it?” Cora challenged her.
    “Private,” Minnie said after a moment’s thought. “Chinese men, they don’t go around with their women in public, not like white men,” she told Sarah. “They leave us pretty much to ourselves.”
    “Which is fine with me,” Cora said. “George never tells me what to do or where to go, not like an Irish man would.”
    “Don’t think they ignore us, though,” Minnie hastened to add. “They’re the kindest men alive. Always polite, never a cross word.”
    “And nothing’s too good for us, either,” Cora said. “Well, you can see for yourself how it is.”
    Sarah could. A quick glance around the beautifully furnished bedroom of the flat Cora shared with her husband showed her every comfort a woman could wish for.
    “I think he’s asleep,” Cora said, gazing adoringly down at her child.
    “Probably just needs to burp,” Minnie said. “Let me have him.”
    She took the child from