-4-
The next murder happened two days later. Tak-Wah Fong’s body was found in the back of his restaurant. This death attracted a bit more attention than Shaoming Li’s, though nobody knew it was a murder. Still, it was a vicious enough death that reporters swarmed all over the story. According to the paper, Tak-Wah Fong had been attacked by his own dogs. The paper mentioned one strange item discovered at the scene. Along with a pair of live pit bulls, police found a third dog. But that one was a dried up husk.
This time, I was disturbed enough to track John down when he didn’t answer his phone. His sister Katie, who is two years older than John and two light-years better looking, let me in. I went up to his room and held up the paper.
“There’s been another killing.”
John pulled the pillow over his face. “Are you going to wake me up every time someone from around here dies? Because if you are, I’m never going to get any sleep.”
I yanked the pillow away and thrust the paper in his face. “Is this guy an importer?”
John sighed and took the paper from me. “Yeah. Tak-Wah Fong was an importer. Different front operation, but he brought in the same kind of stuff as Li. They each had their own territory.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” I said. “It wasn’t his own dogs that killed him.”
I could picture everything in my mind like it was a silent movie. It’s late at night. The restaurant is closed, but the owner, Fong, is available for other business. The albino comes in. He brings a dog with him. Or maybe he grabs one of Tak-Wah Fong’s dogs. He presses the dog to his face and starts to change. His head becomes…
“Hey, Earth to Andy.”
“Huh?” I realized John had been talking to me. “What?”
“Wow, you were drifting off toward elsewhere,” John said. “Let it go. This has nothing to do with you. It doesn’t even have anything to do with me. These guys live and die by their own rules.”
“No. I can’t let it go. This is about more than murder.” I hated the thought of sharing my universe with a creature like that. “You said there were three importers. We have to warn the third guy.”
“I’m sure he knows something’s going on.” John said. “Everyone in town is going to notice that two importers died.”
“But he doesn’t know about this creature. I have to warn him there’s a killer stalking him.”
“Sam Yung wouldn’t listen to you,” John said.
“Sam Yung,” I said, repeating the name.
John groaned. “Man, forget the name. Please. He won’t see you. You won’t get near him. He’s big trouble. He eats kids like us for snacks.”
“I have to try.” I walked out of John’s bedroom. Behind me, I heard him running to catch up.
“Okay, just wait a sec while I throw on some clothes. Maybe I can at least keep you from getting your throat slit while you try to find Sam. You’re already pale enough.”
“Thanks.” I was glad he was coming.
We went into the depths of Chinatown to find the last of the big three importers. Unlike the other two, he didn’t have one main front operation. I let John do the talking. We got yelled at a lot, and even spat at once. I didn’t know if it was because we were asking about Sam Yung or because I was with John. But he was right—nobody takes kids seriously. Even kids old enough to drive and shave don’t get any respect.
We kept trying. If you knock on enough doors, eventually, you get an answer. In the end, we didn’t find Sam. It wasn’t necessary. One of Sam’s men found us.
This guy in a cheap brown suit, black shirt, and white tie slipped up from behind and tapped John on the shoulder. They talked in Chinese.
Then John said, “Sam wants to know why we’re looking for him. I told this guy that we had private business to discuss, concerning Sam’s safety. He said he’s taking us to see Sam, but if we annoy him, we’ll end up tied to a pair of rocks at the bottom of the Naugus River. The fish will eat our eyes and the turtles will dine on our tongues.”
“Thanks for sharing that.” I wondered how many different kinds of monsters I was dealing with. Maybe the ones who never shifted their shape were even worse than the unnatural killers.
It was too late to back out. We followed the guy down a maze of side streets toward an old, rickety building. There was no sign in any language out front—just a street number. We went inside, then climbed stairs that creaked beneath our weight. The bannister was loose under my hand. I could swear I felt the building shifting under me. I smelled stale food on the first floor, but something darker and more exotic took over as we moved past the second floor, up to the third.
“This whole place is falling down,” I whispered to John.
The guy glared at me, hissed a couple words at John, then led us down a hallway. It was too narrow to walk side by side. John went first. I was just a few steps behind him. We moved past several closed doors. There was an open door ahead on the right. John glanced in, then turned his head away like he’d accidentally looked straight at the sun.
– End Chapter Four –
