9 Dragons

the tabletop.
    “Can you tell me your full name?”
    “Mia-ling Li.”
    Her name had been westernized with her given name first and the family name last. But she had not taken a wholly western name like her father and brother. Bosch wondered if this was because the men were expected to integrate into western society while the women were held back from it.
    “When is your birthday?”
    “February fourteenth, nineteen eighty.”
    “Valentine’s Day.”
    Bosch smiled. He didn’t know why. He was just trying to start the relationship over. Then he wondered if they even had Valentine’s Day in China. He moved on with his thoughts and did the math. He realized that while she was still very attractive, Mia was younger than she looked, and only a few years older than her brother, Robert.
    “You came here with your parents? When was that?”
    “In nineteen eighty-two.”
    “You were only two.”
    “Yes.”
    “And your father opened the store then?”
    “He didn’t open it. He bought it from someone else and he renamed it Fortune Liquors. Before, it was called something else.”
    “Okay. Are there any other brothers or sisters besides you and Robert?”
    “No, just us.”
    “Okay, good. Now, you said you have been living with your parents. For how long?”
    She looked up briefly and then back down.
    “My whole life. Except for about two years when I was younger.”
    “Were you married?”
    “No. What does this have to do with who killed my father? Shouldn’t you be finding the killer?”
    “I’m sorry, Mia. I just need to get some basic information and then, yes, I will be out there looking for the killer. Have you talked to your brother? Did he tell you I knew your father?”
    “He said you met him one time. You didn’t even really meet him. That’s not knowing him.”
    Bosch nodded.
    “You’re right. That was an exaggeration. I didn’t know him but because of the situation we were in when I…met him, I feel like I sort of knew him. I want to find his killer, Mia. And I will. I just need you and your family to help me wherever you can.”
    “I understand.”
    “Don’t hold anything back, because you never know what might help us.”
    “I won’t.”
    “Okay, what do you do for a living”
    “I take care of my parents.”
    “You mean at home? You stay home and take care of your parents”
    Now she looked up and right into his eyes. Her pupils were so dark it was hard to read anything in them.
    “Yes.”
    Bosch realized he might have crossed into a cultural custom and standard he knew nothing about. Mia seemed to read him.
    “It is tradition in my family for the daughter to care for her parents.”
    “Did you go to school?”
    “Yes, I went to university for two years. But then I came home. I cook and clean and keep the house. For my brother, too, though he wants to move to his own place.”
    “But as of yesterday, everybody was living together.”
    “Yes.”
    “When was the last time you saw your father alive?”
    “When he left for work yesterday morning. He leaves about nine-thirty. I made him his breakfast.”
    “And your mother left then, too?”
    “Yes, they always go together.”
    “And then your mother came back in the afternoon?”
    “Yes, I make the supper and she comes for it. Every day.”
    “What time did she come home?”
    “She came home at three o’clock. She always does.”
    Bosch knew that the family home was in the Larchmont area of the Wilshire District and at least a half-hour drive from the store. The direct route would have been on surface streets the whole way.
    “How long before she took the supper and went back to the store yesterday?”
    “She stayed about a half hour and then she left.”
    Bosch nodded. Everything was jibing with the mother’s story and the timing and everything else they knew.
    “Mia, did your father talk about anybody at work he was afraid of? Like a customer or anybody else?”
    “No, my father was very quiet. He didn’t talk about work at home.”
    “Did he like living here in Los Angeles?”
    “No, I don’t think so.”
    “Why?”
    “He wanted to go home to China but he couldn’t.”
    “Why not?”?
    “Because when you leave you do not come back. They left because Robert was coming.”
    “You mean your family left because of Robert?”
    “In our province you could only have one child. They already had me and my mother would not put me in the orphanage. My father wanted a son and when my mother became pregnant,