Free Blood Passage by Michael J. McCann

They stood side by side, eyes lowered. Although much younger than Tang, Billy was the one who was required to answer Peter’s question. He grimaced unhappily.
    “ We went to the hospital but he was already gone. So we went to the hotel to see if he was there, but the police showed up right away. In the room, just when we started to search it.”
    “ Was the student there?”
    “ No. Just the cop. I have no idea why he was there. We ran out of the room. I fired a shot into the ceiling to slow him down when he tried to chase us. No one was hurt, though. Him and another cop, a girl, chased us around. When we got down to the car we didn’t want them to follow us back here so we drove across the river and stayed at my cousin’s place in Wilmingford last night until things died down.”
    “ You couldn’t call? Let me know what was going on? Send a text?”
    “ I was going to but my cell battery’s dead. I can show you.” He reached into his jacket pocket.
    Peter shook his head sternly. “Was there anything in the room that would have been useful?”
    “ I think there was a laptop computer on the desk,” Billy said, glancing sideways at Tang. “We were searching the desk when the cop came in. We didn’t have a chance to grab the laptop.”
    “ I see.” Peter swallowed his disappointment and thought for a minute. “Who was the cop? Did you know him?”
    Tang shook his head. “No.”
    Peter did not acknowledge Tang, whom he felt was a burden around his neck. The son-in-law of someone important in Hong Kong, Tang had been here for just over a year. He needed a place to stay in America while some kind of trouble back home died down, and Peter had agreed to keep him for a while.
    Billy, on the other hand, had been with Peter for a very long time. Peter had recruited him into his street gang, the Biu Ji Boys, when Billy was still in grade school and Peter was a teenager making a name for himself. He brought him along slowly. When Peter accepted responsibilities from the society, leaving the Biu Ji gang behind for others to run, he brought Billy with him and gave him more important things to do than housebreaking and smashing store windows. He’d hoped that the young man was capable of living up to his expectations, but now Peter had serious doubts.
    “ I’ve seen him before,” Billy said. “He’s an older guy, brown fuzzy hair. Big guy. Can’t remember his name. I’m pretty sure he’s in homicide now but used to be in juvie. Been around a long time.”
    “ Homicide,” Peter repeated. He wasn’t sure which cop it might be, so he made a mental note to ask his police insider. It didn’t follow that a homicide detective would show up at the hotel room of the student just because of the beating. There must be a connection to Martin’s murder. Perhaps Martin’s case had been re-activated.
    Beating up the student had been a mistake, and Peter had already chastised Billy for it. He understood that Billy had acted with Peter’s welfare in mind, thinking the student belonged to the R Boyz gang and was looking to cause Peter trouble, but it was a mistake in judgment and Billy knew that now. Yesterday’s errand had been an opportunity to recover face, to bring the student back to Peter for a conversation. The student needed to explain why Peter’s name was written in the notebook taken from the knapsack, in addition to other things about his cousin Martin. The student also needed to explain his interest in Martin’s murder. Instead of recovering face, however, Billy had made things worse. He’d evidently been seen by a police detective and had fired a shot, then didn’t show up to explain to Peter what had happened. It was a fuck-up, and Peter was very unhappy about it.
    Peter made a small gesture with his hand. The two men bowed and withdrew to the bar, where Yi shook out his newspaper and stared at them. They sat on stools and began to badger Wu for something to drink. Wu looked flustered and hung up the