Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

but couldn’t help it. Outside of a museum, it was as close as she had ever come to a Susa Donovan painting.
    “You can doctor your own coffee,” Archer said, indicating the tray of sugar, cream, cinnamon, and various other spices.
    April ignored coffee and additives alike. “What happened to the pearls you bought from Yin?”
    “Did I buy pearls from him?” Archer asked, sipping coffee made the way he liked it—hot and very dark.
    “Don’t go sideways on me, slick. We both know where you and Hannah spent the morning.”
    “Since when is sleeping late a crime?” Hannah asked.
    “Sleeping isn’t. Neither is screwing. Sawed-off shotguns are.” April flicked a black glance at Hannah. “You have guts, Ms. McGarry. Not much sense, but real guts. What’s it like to love someone enough to die in his place?”
    Hannah went pale. She didn’t want to think about the dream she had had, or the instant early this morning when she had been certain that Archer would die if she didn’t do something. She hadn’t considered the implication of her action at the time, her reckless disregard for her own safety.
    She didn’t want to consider the implication now. It frightened her as nothing else had but the thought of Archer’s death.
    “She would have done the same for a stranger,” Archer said curtly. “That’s just the way she is.”
    “Saint Hannah?” April shrugged. “Whatever you say, slick. But I say you’re wrong.” She cocked her head slightly to the side, studying both Archer and Hannah for a long minute. “Okay, we’ll try it your way. If that doesn’t get to the bottom line in one hell of a hurry, we’ll do it my way.”
    Archer waited, revealing nothing of his feelings. The thought that Hannah had chosen to put herself in the line of fire to save him both angered him and moved him as nothing ever had in his life.
    “Two big white guys walked into the Dragon Moon shortly after six this morning,” April said calmly. “Yin is drinking tea, counting money in his tiny little mind, and holding stolen black pearls. Five of his triad brothers are sitting around a nearby table scratching their balls. A few minutes later, a tall white woman walks in and throws herself at one of the white men’s head. If she’d done the smart thing and jumped the other way, his head would have been blown off and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You hear me, slick?”
    “I hear you.” He glanced at Chang. “You look like you’ve heard it all before. Do you like green tea and dried fish for breakfast?”
    Chang simply watched him with clear, clever black eyes.
    “The man and the woman go down in a tangle while someone keeps firing a pistol,” April said. “Jake Mallory—excuse me—the second white guy rams a table down the throats of the five triad goons and cuts loose with a sawed-off shotgun. It chews up a wall and a good chunk of Yin’s brother, Ling, who was too stupid to know the difference between cheap paneling and body armor. The white folks leave, taking the pearls and leaving the money—unmarked, nonsequential hundred-dollar bills, by the way. The getaway car is driven by another big white guy. A blond. No plates on the car. No prints on anything at the café. No tracing the money. A clean job all around. You still with me, slick?”
    He nodded casually, but he pulled Hannah closer. The fine trembling in her body made him angry. She had been through enough in the past week. She didn’t need April’s caustic summary of the few bloody moments in the Dragon Moon café.
    “Okay,” April said. “Uncle doesn’t give a rat’s fried green ass about what happened in some dirtbag triad cave. Even if Ling dies, he wasn’t that useful. We wanted to have a show-and-tell with Yin, but he grabbed the first westbound plane he could and headed straight for Hong Kong. The Chang family is going to find him for us.”
    “I’m happy for you,” Archer said blandly.
    “I want those pearls.”
    “Why?”
    “That’s not on the table.”
    “What is?”
    “Hand over the pearls and Uncle will be deaf, dumb, and blind on the subject of what happened in the Dragon Moon this morning.”
    “As you pointed out,” Archer said, “it was a clean job. Put something more on the table.”
    April’s eyes narrowed to fierce slits. “One of these days, big boy, you’re going up to your lips in fresh shit.”
    “I’ve been there. That’s why I’m here. If you want me to find those pearls for you,