Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

said. “I have the original in my files.”
    “I didn’t know you could read Chinese,” Archer said.
    “I can’t. For all I know, it could be a laundry list. That’s why I insisted on a thumbprint and a driver’s license. Washington, state of. That’s the number below the print.”
    “How did you meet him?” Archer asked.
    “A cold phone call from an intermediary who saw my ad in the phone book.”
    “In Australia?”
    “No. Seattle.”
    Adrenaline licked lightly beneath Archer’s skin. A man who wrote only Chinese, yet had a Washington driver’s license—probably a fake, or one that was borrowed/stolen from another Chinese. But all he said was, “He’s here?”
    “He was two days ago.”
    “Where is he staying?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Where did you meet him?”
    Unhappily Teddy tugged at one earlobe. “Some dump on Third Street called the Dragon Moon.”
    “Didn’t we pass it on the way to the Pearl Exchange?” Hannah asked.
    Archer nodded. Like any city, Seattle had some open civic sores despite persistent urban renewal. The land where Donovan International and the Donovan condo had been built was part of an urban renewal project. The Dragon Moon was one of the oozing pockets that had escaped razing and rebuilding. It was only three blocks away from the Donovan condo.
    “You’re a brave man,” Archer said.
    “Or a dumb one.” Teddy sighed again. “Hell, it’s hardly the first Asian dive I’ve been in.”
    “You’re lucky it wasn’t the last.”
    “Yeah, I got that impression. The customers were as tough a bunch as I’ve seen, and I’ve seen more than a few. I made real sure we conducted our business at the table closest to the front door and my back was to the wall.”
    One corner of Archer’s mouth kicked up. Beneath the easy grin and loud shirt, Teddy was no fool.
    “Cash?” Archer asked.
    “What do you think?”
    “Cash. How much?”
    Teddy grimaced. “Five hundred each. Fifty-five hundred total.”
    With no change of expression, Archer filed the fact that the thief either didn’t know what the pearls were worth or didn’t have the contacts to get a better price. “You must have thought you’d died and gone to heaven.”
    “Not until I was out the door, in a cab, and across town,” Teddy admitted. “Then I smiled a lot.”
    “Where are the rest of the pearls?”
    “What pearls?”
    “The ones you didn’t buy until you were sure these were good.”
    Teddy’s jaw dropped. “How did you know?”
    Archer just smiled. It wasn’t a friendly gesture. “How many pearls does he have?”
    “He didn’t say.”
    “What kind?”
    “Black, mainly. The special kind of black.”
    “When are you meeting him again?”
    “Who says I am?”
    “I do. You’re a good pearl man, Teddy, but you’re greedy. The goods are stolen. You know it as well as I do.”
    “I don’t know any such thing.” He smiled an off-center smile. “So tell me—how is it better if you buy them than if I do?”
    “They’re already half mine by law.”
    Teddy shut his mouth, studied Archer, then slowly shook his head. “Nope. I’m not buying it.”
    Hannah flicked her nails against the tabletop, drawing Teddy’s attention. “You’d better buy it, boy-o, or you’ll go to jail for receiving stolen goods.”
    “Who’s she?” Teddy asked.
    “Hannah McGarry. She owns the other half of Pearl Cove, the Australian pearl farm that grew those black rainbows.”
    “Well . . . shit.” Teddy leaned back in his chair and sighed hugely. “On the good-news side, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the Dragon Moon again.”
    Neither was Archer. But how he felt about it wasn’t on the table. “When?”
    “Tomorrow morning.”
    “You weren’t flying very far today, were you?” Hannah asked idly, but her eyes were cold indigo.
    “Just down to San Francisco.”
    She raised her dark eyebrows.
    “Look,” Teddy said defensively, “he gave me a bill of sale—”
    “In Chinese, which you don’t read,” she cut in.
    “—for those pearls. That’s all the law requires.”
    For a moment she closed her eyes. Weariness rolled through her like a long, breaking wave. “The letter of the law. Lovely.” Then, before Teddy could say any more, her eyes opened again. They were as bleak as Archer’s. “I’m not judging you, Mr. Yamagata. If I did, I’d say that you’re more honest than the law requires in the vast majority of your dealings. This deal, however, was the exception