9 Dragons

whole, their distended eyes cooked white. Bosch pushed the bowl away.
    His phone buzzed. He checked his watch before answering it.
    “You already sent it?” Bosch asked.
    At first there was no response.
    “Sun Yee?”
    “Harry, it’s Chu.”
    Bosch checked his watch again. It was time for the last text.
    “I gotta call you back.”
    He closed the phone and once more looked out across the tables of three restaurants, hoping for the needle-in-the-haystack moment that would reveal the contact. Somebody reading a text, maybe typing a response.
    Nothing came. He saw no one pull a phone and glance at the screen. There were too many people to cover at the same time and the futility of the plan began to open a hollow in his chest. His eyes moved to the table where the woman and boy had sat and he saw that they were gone. He swept the restaurant and saw them leaving. The woman was moving fast, dragging the boy by the hand. In her other hand she carried her cell phone.
    Bosch opened his phone and punched in a call to Sun. He answered immediately.
    “The woman and the boy. They’re coming your way. I think it might be her.”
    “She got the text?”
    “No, I think she was sent to make the contact. The texts went offsite. We have to follow the woman. Where’s the car?”
    “Out front.”
    Bosch stood up, put three hundred-dollar bills down on the table and headed toward the exit.

35
    S un was already in the car waiting out front of the Yellow Flower. As Bosch was opening the door, he heard a voice calling from behind him.
    “Sir! Sir!”
    He turned and it was the waitress coming after him, holding out his hat and the map. She had also brought the change from his tab.
    “You forgot these, sir.”
    Bosch grabbed the items and said thanks. He pushed the change back toward her.
    “You keep that,” he said.
    “You did not enjoy your shrimp rice,” she said.
    “You got that right.”
    Bosch ducked into the car, hoping that the momentary delay would not cost them the tail on the woman and the boy. Sun immediately pulled away from the restaurant and into traffic. He pointed through the windshield.
    “They are in the white Mercedes,” he said.
    The car he pointed at was a block and a half ahead, moving in light traffic.
    “Is she driving?” Bosch asked.
    “No, she and the boy got into a waiting car. A man was driving.”
    “Okay, you got them? I need to make a call.”
    “I have them.”
    As Sun followed the white Mercedes, Bosch called Chu back.
    “It’s Bosch.”
    “Okay, I got some information through HKPD. But they were asking me a lot of questions, Harry.”
    “Give me the information first.”
    Bosch pulled out his notebook and pen.
    “Okay, the phone number you gave me is registered to a company. Northstar Seafood and Shipping. Northstar is one word. It’s located in Tuen Mun. That’s up in the New-”
    “I know. You have the exact address”
    Chu gave him an address on Hoi Wah Road and Bosch repeated it out loud. Sun nodded his head. He knew where it was.
    “Okay, anything else?” Bosch asked.
    “Yes. Northstar is under suspicion, Harry.”
    “What’s that mean? Suspicion of what”
    “I couldn’t get anything specific. Just of illegal shipping and trade practices.”
    “Like human trafficking”
    “It could be. Like I said, I could not get specific information. Just questions about why I was tracing the number.”
    “What did you tell them?”
    “That it was a blind trace. The number was found on a piece of paper in a homicide investigation. I said I didn’t know the connection.”
    “That’s good. Is there any name associated with this phone number”
    “Not directly to the number, no. But the man who owns Northstar Seafood and Shipping is Dennis Ho. He is forty-five years old and that’s all I could get without making it seem like I was working something specific. Does it help?”
    “It helps. Thanks.”
    Bosch ended the call and then updated Sun on what he knew.
    “Have you heard of Dennis Ho?” he asked.
    Sun shook his head.
    “Never.”
    Bosch knew they had to make a major decision.
    “We don’t know if this woman has anything to do with this,” Bosch said, pointing ahead at the white Mercedes. “We could be just spinning our wheels here. I say we break off of this and go directly to Northstar.”
    “We don’t need to decide yet.”
    “Why not? I don’t want to waste time on this.”
    Sun nodded in the direction of the white Mercedes. It was about two hundred