Slice by Miller Rex

Author:Miller, Rex [Miller, Rex]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Crime & mystery, Fiction
ISBN: 9780330304405
Publisher: Pan
Published: 1991-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

HONG KONG (1977)

“They know where she is,” Eichord said to the smaller man beside him at the rail of the ferry.

“Yeah.” Jimmie Lee nodded. “I ‘magine so. You have to understand the way these people think. This ain't Chinatown, Jack. This is a"—he searched for the right word—"whole world with a set of laws and rules and traditions you can't begin to realize."

“Try me."

“You're not just an outsider here, coining in to investigate a murder in Chinatown. With all the aura that goes with any policeman in the States. All the force and backing and cultural influences. But here"—he shook his head at the hopelessness of it—"they see you as nothing. Or me. Any cop from the Occidental world. Our ways have no meaning to these people, so our laws don't either."

“Yeah, well, there's law and then there's right and wrong. This woman is a killer—and she's murdered again and again."

“Thing is, Jack, it's a society that takes care of its own. And she is"—again Eichord felt him trying for a way to put the disparate values into currency a Westerner could spend—"connected to something that is bigger than anything you've ever come up against. No puny Mafia or organized religion or even philosophy can touch this thing the Chan woman was. She is"—and he said a Chinese name—"which means Shadow Clan. But that is not what it means at all."

“Yeah?"

“You don't give a shit, right?"

“Right. I don't shiv a git. I ain't goin’ back without her."

“Right."

“Not after coming this far. Not after having my chain yanked by those asshole lawyers. Not after fightin’ ‘em even to ARREST much less fucking go after a twenty-year-old prosecution. And then get all THAT rammed through and then track her this far and then lose her murderous old butt because she's, uh—"

“Shadow Clan,” he supplied in a quiet voice.

“Frankly, Scarlett, I don't care if the bitch is Knights of Columbus. We're going to take her down."

Jimmie Lee stood looking down at the water beneath them. “You just don't understand. To you everything is cut and dried. Right and wrong."

“Yep. In this case that's what it is."

“Law and order. Rules and regs. Bad guys and good guys. Black hats and white hats."

“I know if a woman is killing little kids and a husband she deserves to fall no matter how connected she is."

“By rights...” He paused. “By rights I shouldn't have pursued this once I found out she was in the thing.” He looked at Eichord. “That's what makes it all so impossible for an outsider. Even ME, as Western as I am, as far removed from this culture as you can get, James Lee, the all-American chink, I'm connected to her. If you want to look at this thing theoretically."

“How so?"

“Literally, in that my father was her brother. My brother too."

“Huh?” Eichord was shaking his head.

“All the clans are interconnected. By the secret societies—the triads they call ‘em now. The brotherhood."

“The triads are CRIME societies. Your family isn't part of that.” Lee said nothing.

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