No Accidental Death by Garrett Hutson

Author:Garrett Hutson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Corruption, cover-up, war zone murder, LGBT mystery, LGBT historical fiction, murder in Shanghai
Publisher: Garrett Hutson
Published: 2021-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

16

Doug double checked the address. The enormous house, in the gleaming white Art Moderne style, with shiny chrome edging at the flat roofline, couldn’t be right.

This was the right place, but he wondered how on earth someone could afford to live in this mini-mansion on the salary of an American Navy Commander. Shanghai was certainly less expensive than any comparable American city, and foreigners lived well here, but this was still a rich man’s home. And in a stylish neighborhood, just a block off of Avenue Haig, with its high-end shopping; and several blocks west of the Recreation Grounds.

Pete and Julia don’t even live in a house this size, he mused. They lived in a brick townhouse a few blocks away—and he knew for a fact that they were actually rich.

Commander Montgomery Rose came from a long line of naval officers, of which he was quite proud, and had informed Doug early in their acquaintance. His great-grandfather was a captain who’d served the Union during the Civil War, in spite of being from an old Virginia family—but, Rose had commented almost as an aside, the Navy hadn’t been as full of traitors as the Army, and most southerners in the Navy had remained loyal. He was as proud of that as anything else.

Monty’s father had also been a captain before he retired nine years ago—no admirals in the commander’s lineage, as Doug recalled. So, where had this money come from?

He pushed the ivory button beside the door, and the new-style electric doorbell ding-donged inside. A moment later, the door was answered by a young Chinese girl in an expensive green silk qipao, with gold embroidery.

“Good afternoon, sir,” she said in English. “You wish to see Mr. Rose?”

Doug was taken aback, and for a few seconds the cat held his tongue. The girl in front of him couldn’t be more than sixteen years old; and her perfect English compounded the surprise.

“Is Mr. Rose in?” Doug finally asked, careful to use the civilian term.

“Yes, he is finishing his bath. Please come inside, and I will tell him he has a visitor. May I tell him your name, sir?”

I’d rather you didn’t. But while Doug hated to lose the element of surprise, it would be worse to lie about his identity and then have Rose wonder why he’d lied. That wasn’t worth the momentary—and fleeting—advantage when Rose first saw him.

“Tell him Douglas Bainbridge is here to see him.”

It was less than two minutes after the girl bowed and backed away that Rose came hurrying down the open stairs, tying the belt of his bathrobe as he went, his bare feet smacking on the hard surface of the steps. His hair was wet and pushed back from his face, a lock of it sticking out backward from the crown of his head.

“Bainbridge, I wasn’t expecting you. This must be urgent, to have not called first.”

Doug recognized the subtle scolding, and ignored it.

“It is important, yes,” he said, relishing the commander’s dishevelment. Rose was off-balance, at least for the moment.

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