“So,” I said tentatively, “Tan gone, Loo in the hospital, Ironman in jail—sounds like the Li Min Jin is leaderless. And about to be evicted.”
Mary lifted her eyebrows. “You don’t expect thanks, I hope.”
“More like forgiveness?”
“Maybe.”
“Hey. My client—”
“I told you—”
“No, really, my client. Hi, Mel. What are you doing here? You missed my buying spree at the Ice Cream Factory.”
“That’s okay. I’m actually getting ice cream later. I’m meeting your brother here, and I saw you, so I thought I’d come by to defend your honor. Honestly”—she faced Mary—“it was all my fault.”
“What was?” Mary asked.
“Whatever you’re mad at Lydia and Bill for.”
“I’m mad at Lydia for being an idiot and at Bill for not stopping her. No way I’m blaming that on you. I’ve known them for too long. But some things never change, so why should I waste my energy?”
“I endorse that,” said Bill.
“Me too,” said Chris.
“Let’s go back to the important part,” I said. “You’re meeting my brother?”
Mel smiled. “I think Mr. Gao was right about him.”
“After you two left the shop the day we met, he told me that Tim Chin was turning himself into an old man, but he still had a young man’s good heart. He needed to find a reason to show it. And someone to show it to.”
“Grandfather Gao said that?” I asked as Mary stifled a snort.
“Oh,” Mel said. “There he is. See you later, you guys. And Mary? It really was all my fault.”
She turned and walked out of the park. I saw her greet my brother with a kiss and slip her arm through his.
“Wow,” said Bill. “Your mom’ll love that when she hears about it.”
“You think it’s not all over the Chinatown grapevine already? She said last night how nice it was that Tim had met a smart, charming young woman in his own profession. Of course, she made sure to add, with a deeply meaningful look at me, that in his profession, that was the kind of person it was possible to find.”
“Uh-oh,” Bill said. “Does that mean she doesn’t think I’m smart and charming?”
“I’m smart and charming,” said Chris.
This time Mary and I both rolled our eyes. I turned and watched Mel and Tim walk down the block, dodging pedestrians and swerving around sidewalk vendors, in the middle of the day in the middle of the week, in Chinatown.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Great thanks to:
My agent, Josh Getzler
Claiborne Hancock and the folks at Pegasus Books
Henry Chang, for local knowledge
Barb Shoup, for literary criticism
Patricia Chao, for froggy encouragement
Jonathan Santlofer, the Man of Steel
Elisabeth Avery, Jackie Freimor, Sharyn Kolberg, Margaret Ryan, Carrie Smith, Cynthia Swain, and Jane Young, for being, among other things, damn fine writers
Steve Blier, Hillary Brown, Susan Chin, Monty Freeman, Charles McKinney, and Jim Russell, for being, among other things, damn fine cooks
and
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Charles Chris Chiang for all those sanity-saving walks and coffees in the park
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
S. J. Rozan is the author of eighteen crime novels. She has won multiple awards for her fiction, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity, the Japanese Maltese Falcon, and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. S. J. was born and raised in the Bronx and now lives in lower Manhattan.
FAMILY BUSINESS
Pegasus Crime is an imprint of
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First Pegasus Books cloth edition December 2021
Interior design by Maria Fernandez
Front cover images courtesy of Shutterstock
Jacket design courtesy of Studio Gearbox
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN: 978-1-64313-829-9
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-64313-830-5
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