The Lost Torah of Shanghai by Linda Frank

Author:Linda Frank [Frank, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Walking in from my swim the next morning, I found Simon on the phone, this time speaking Hebrew. Mine is not fluent enough to catch his rapid-fire conversation. It must have been a business call with his Tel Aviv office, though it was the middle of the night in Israel.

“What’s happening?” I asked him when he hung up

“If you mean in Israel, the Scuds are still flying in on a nightly basis,” he said.

“Who in Israel is on the phone at this hour?”

He didn’t answer that but said, “Poor Ruth. I don’t know how she can stand to be away. She must be very conflicted. She looks so worn down. Let’s hope we get to the bottom of this soon, so she can go home to Boaz and the kids. Come on, let’s go down to meet Jennifer. We’re late.”

We’d made a plan to have breakfast at the hotel with Jennifer Wong, forfeiting for the cause the delicious greasy repast on the streets of Shanghai. The Jin Jiang’s buffet featured everything from rubbery dumplings and congee—thick Chinese rice porridge—to made-to-order omelets and a huge display of the noodles, miso soup, dried fish, and pickles that catered to the palates of the Japanese businessmen dominating the dining room.

Detective Wong was already there, drinking coffee when we approached the table. After visiting the buffet, we discussed the forthcoming visit to David’s house. We all sensed it could be key to unraveling the disappearance of the Torah, as well as to Wong’s investigation into smuggling. It could also be very dangerous.

“I suppose involving the Chinese authorities isn’t a good idea,” Simon said. “The Chens are so sensitive to any word leaking out about the missing Torah.”

“I am a cop, you know,” Jennifer said, the slightest bit of peeve evident in her voice. “And I do have some reciprocal authority from the Chinese government.”

Simon looked contrite to make amends with Jennifer, but without revealing the Mossad portion of his résumé. “Can you use a gun here, Jennifer?”

“Yes. The Chinese know I’m here looking for Freddy. They consider him evil, and very threatening, so they’ve granted me permission to use a weapon, if necessary, at least for self-defense. ‘However you define that’ are the precise words my Shanghai police contact used when he gave me the official permit letter. I had to take my gun over to the department office to be inspected.”

All this talk about guns made me squirm, and I nearly choked on the ultra-sweet faux orange juice I was drinking. “Do you think it will come to that—gunfire?”

“I certainly hope not,” Jennifer said.

“One can never be too cautious in a situation like this,” said Simon with an air of professional authority that might have baffled Detective Wong, though she didn’t question it. Perhaps she divined the diamond trade to be as dangerous as “a situation like this.”

“Speaking of which, how could I have forgotten?” I said. “Mr. Xu, the antiques dealer we met, is dead. He left us a message yesterday

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.