Bless the Bride

whisper. “My master. Lee Sing Tai.”
    “That’s right,” I said. “He hired me to find you.”
    She shrank against Annie, clutching her as if she was drowning. “Why you bring me here and say you want to help me then? Why not take me straight back to him?”
    “Because I do want to help you,” I said. “When he hired me I had no idea it was a person he was looking for. He asked me originally to look for a piece of jade.”
    “My bride-piece. This belong to me,” she said, patting at her chest to indicate it was hidden under her clothing. “I have a right to take it with me.”
    “And you still have it?”
    “Of course. I no sell my bride-piece. It was present. Given to me.”
    “It was only when I couldn’t find it in pawnshops that Mr. Lee told me he was really looking for a woman. The way he spoke frightened me. I won’t help anybody to keep another person as a slave.”
    Annie looked up at me with dark, expressionless eyes. “You foolish woman. Lee Sing Tai not forgive you. He find you and punish you, just like he find Bo Kei and punish her. I tell her, she not be free from him ever.”
    Bo Kei shivered and grasped even harder at Annie.
    “Bo Kei?” I asked. “Was there someone else you hoped was looking for you? Someone you wanted to find you?”
    Her eyes gave her away before she shook her head and said, “No. Nobody.”
    “I just thought…” I said. “Frederick Lee came to see me today.”
    Again her face betrayed her before she spoke. “You saw Frederick? He is well?”
    “He wants to find you,” I said. “He wants to rescue you and take you away.”
    “Lee Sing Tai not allow him,” she said flatly.
    “He no longer works for Mr. Lee,” I said. “Mr. Lee fired him because Bobby Lee told him lies about you. He said that Frederick made advances to you on the train coming here.”
    “Not true,” she said vehemently. “He treat me with respect, he behave like gentleman, always like gentleman. He never say or do anything wrong, but I know that he likes me. I can tell.”
    “Yes, he likes you lot. And now that he no longer works for Mr. Lee and no longer has to show loyalty to his employer, he wants to take you away somewhere.”
    “No use!” Annie spat the words. “You think you can hide from Lee Sing Tai? Where you think you go, huh?”
    “I have rich friends,” I said. “Maybe they can find you both jobs working in a white person’s household far from here. I don’t think Mr. Lee is likely to find you if you live in an American community miles away.”
    “You think this is possible?” She was staring at me with hopeful eyes, exactly as Frederick had looked at me.
    “I’ll do my best for you,” I said. “Tomorrow Frederick will come to see me again and I will arrange for the two of you to meet somewhere safer than this. Before that time, please stay quiet and hidden.”
    “And what you tell Lee Sing Tai?” Annie demanded.
    “I will tell him that by the time I picked up their trail they were already far away.”
    “ Wah, ” she said in scornful tones. “He not let you get away with that. Lee Sing Tai one smart man.”
    “Would you rather I just delivered her back to Mr. Lee?” I asked.
    “No,” she said hesitantly. “But I know. I have seen. This is a bad man. He kills a person like snapping the neck of a chicken.”
    I swallowed hard, physically feeling a hand grasping my own neck. “My future husband is a policeman,” I said. “If Lee Sing Tai knows this, he won’t dare come near me.”
    Annie actually laughed out loud at this. “You think police not do what Lee Sing Tai wants? He pays them plenty money and they shut their eyes. He has houses of women, gambling places, opium too, and the police walk right by.”
    “There has to be an answer,” I said. “You are living in a free country now. Men are not allowed to treat women as slaves here. One way or another we are going to make sure that Bo Kei and Frederick get away from here safely, I promise you.”
    I left then, hurrying back to the waiting cab. But I have to confess that my heart was beating rather rapidly. I had taken some risks in my life as an investigator, but I certainly didn’t want to go up against a man who snapped the neck of a man as if he was a chicken and who had the police in his back pocket.

Fifteen
     
     
     
    Sid and Gus were already in a party mood that evening and wanted me to try out various silly costumes as well as experiments in rum punches that Sid was