Free A Lotus For Miss Quon by James Hadley Chase Page A

and he sat up, his mind suddenly awake and alarmed.

    "What's that?"

    "Someone is ringing the front door-bell," Ann Fai Wah said.

    "That's nothing to do with me," Wade said, but the persistent and continuous sound of the bell was alarming him. Had this girl a lover or a husband? Was this the first move of the Badger game? He cursed himself for having spent the night with her. It had been a damn flop anyway: she had been as passionate and as active as a sack of rice. "What's the time?"

    Ann Fai Wah told him as she slipped out of bed. She looked deceptively beautiful in her nakedness, but Wade was far too alarmed even to look at her.

    "It will wake up the whole block," she said as she put on a silk wrap. "Please come with me."
    "To hell with that," Wade said. "You stay right where you are!"

    But she had already crossed the room and, after a moment's hesitation, she disappeared into the sitting-room.

    Cursing, Wade scrambled out of bed and got into his trousers. He looked around wildly for something he could use for a weapon, but found nothing substantial enough. He was pulling on his shirt when the bell abruptly ceased ringing.

    Tucking in his shirt-tails, he tip-toed to the bedroom door to listen.

    He could hear a man's voice, then Ann Fai Wah said something, and there was a long pause.

    Judas Priest! he thought, she's let the punk in!

    He was dragging his shoes on as the bedroom door pushed open and Ann Fai Wah came in. Her face was frozen into an expression of such fury that Wade quailed.

    "What is it?" he said thickly, backing away from her.

    "It's the police!" she hissed at him and for a moment he thought she was going to scratch his eyes out. "They want you!"

    He couldn't believe he had heard aright.

    "The police?" he stammered, turning hot, then cold. "Me?"

    With a furious gesture, she waved him to the door.

    "Get out of here!"

    The police! he thought. They can't pinch me for sleeping with a Chink, can they? I must have been out of my mind to have come here! There'll be an awful stink!

    He went past her into the sitting-room and she slammed the door
    after him. He expected to find the room full of white-uniformed policemen, but the one small man who was standing apologetically in the middle of the room came as a ridiculous anti-climax.

    This man was very small and thin and shabbily dressed. His brownskinned face was typically Vietnamese. His black hair was cut in a bad imitation of a crew-cut. His shoes were dusty, his white shirt soiled and his wine-coloured tie frayed from constant knotting and re-knotting.

    Wade stared at him as he ran his sweating hand over his dishevelled hair. He knew he must look pretty awful. He never did look much until he had had a shower and a shave.

    "Mr. Wade?" the little man asked politely.

    "Yeah," Wade said. "Who are you? What do you want?"

    "I am Inspector Ngoc-Linh of Security police. Please excuse this visit. I would not have disturbed you, but the matter is very urgent."

    Security police! Wade thought. That jolted him. This could be serious. To cover up his agitation, he moved over to an occasional table and helped himself to one of Ann Fai Wah's cigarettes.

    "How the hell did you know I was here?" he demanded. The Inspector made an apologetic gesture.

    "One of my men saw you last night with the Chinese woman. Having tried to find you at your house, I came here."

    Damn yellow spies! Wade thought. You can't even blow your nose without them knowing!

    "Well, what do you want?" he asked, glaring at the Inspector.

    "Your car has been stolen."

    Wade felt a rush of blood to his head. He was suddenly so angry he could have taken the little man by his throat and thrown him out of the window.
    "Do you mean you came here and woke me up to tell me that?" he bellowed. "Hell! I'll report you, for this! "I'll . . . I'll . . ."

    "The car has been found wrecked on the Bien Hoa road," the Inspector said quietly.

    "My car?" Wade stared stupidly at the Inspector. His rage