The Stone Monkey

him personal, I’m saying. The driver . . . ” Li frowned, lookedfrustrated and spoke again to Deng, who offered, “ ‘Betray’?”
    “Yes, betray him. He now Ghost’s enemy.”
    Lincoln Rhyme tried not to laugh. “Noted, Sonny.” He turned back to Dellray and Sellitto. “Now—”
    “I see your face, Loaban,” Li said. “I not saying gods come down and give me sign of crows. But remembering birds make me think different way, open up my mind. Get wind flowing through it. That good, you not think?”
    “No, I think it’s superstitious,” Rhyme said. “It’s woo woo and we don’t have any time for—What the hell are you laughing at?”
    “Woo woo. You say woo woo. You speaking Chinese. ‘Woo’ mean fog. So you say something woo woo, it foggy, unclear.”
    “Well, to us it means supernatural bullshit.”
    Even facing Rhyme’s considerable bluster, Li wouldn’t back down. “No, this not bullshit. Find that driver. You got to, Loaban.”
    Sachs’s eyes were studying the small, persistent man. “I don’t know, Rhyme.”
    “No way.”
    “Fuck good idea, I’m saying,” Li assured the criminalist.
    There was thick silence for a moment.
    Sellitto intervened. “How ’bout if we put Bedding and Saul on it, give ’em a half-dozen guys from Patrol, Linc? They can check corporate and lease X5 registrations in Manhattan and Queens, only those—Chinatown here and the one in Flushing. And if there’re any other breaks and we need bodies, we’ll pull ’em off.”
    “All right, all right,” Rhyme said angrily. “Just get moving on it.”
    “Half-dozen just six, right?” Li complained. “Need morethan that.” But Rhyme’s glare silenced him. “Okay, okay, Loaban.”
    Pecking crows, stone monkeys and The Register of the Living and the Dead  . . . Rhyme sighed then looked over the team. “Now, if it’s not too much to ask, can we get back to some real police work?”

GHOSTKILL
----
    Easton, Long Island, Crime Scene
    • Two immigrants killed on beach; shot in back.
    • One immigrant wounded—Dr. John Sung.
    • “Bangshou” (assistant) on board; identity unknown.
    • Ten immigrants escape: seven adults (one elderly, one injured woman), two children, one infant. Steal church van.
    • Blood samples sent to lab for typing.
         • Injured woman is AB negative.
    • Vehicle awaiting Ghost on beach left without him. One shot believed fired by Ghost at vehicle. Request for vehicle make and model sent out, based on tread marks and wheelbase.
         • Vehicle is a BMW X5. Checking registered owners.
    • No vehicles to pick up immigrants located.
    • Cell phone, presumably Ghost’s, sent for analysis to FBI.
         • Untraceable satellite secure phone. Hacked Chinese gov’t system to use it.
    • Ghost’s weapon is 7.62mm pistol. Unusual casing.
         • Model 51 Chinese automatic pistol.
    • Ghost is reported to have gov’t people on payroll.
    • Ghost stole red Honda sedan to escape. Vehicle locator request sent out.
    • Three bodies recovered at sea—two shot, one drowned. Photos and prints to Rhyme and Chinese police.
    • Fingerprints sent to AFIS.
         • No matches on any prints but unusual markings on Sam Chang’s fingers and thumbs (injury, rope burn?).
    • Profile of immigrants: Sam Chang and Wu Qichen and their families, John Sung, baby of woman who drowned, unidentified man and woman (killed on beach).
    Stolen Van, Chinatown
    • Camouflaged by immigrants with “The Home Store” logo.
    • Blood spatter suggests injured woman has hand, arm or shoulder injury.
    • Blood samples sent to lab for typing.
         • Injured woman is AB negative.
    • Fingerprints sent to AFIS.
         • No matches.

Chapter Sixteen
    The family name Chang means archer.
    His father, wife and children sitting around him, Sam Chang, with a calligrapher’s magic touch, drew the Chinese characters for this name on a slat of broken wood he’d found in the backyard of their new apartment. The silk case holding his prized wolf-, goat- and rabbit-hair brushes, ink stick and stone well, had gone down with the Fuzhou Dragon and he was forced to use a dreadful American plastic pen.
    Still, Chang had learned calligraphy from his father when he was young and had practiced the art all his life, so, although the line width of the ink didn’t vary, the strokes were perfectly formed—they were, he decided, like the studies by