Free Paper Daughter by Jeanette Ingold Page B

and over to myself until I have puzzled them into words.
    She has said, "I'llbe seeingyou.
"
    ***
    At first I suppose she meant that perhaps Li Dewei would send me to make another purchase for him, and I am impatient for him to need more herbs.
    Then one fall day, when I look up from my work, I see her walking by. Other girls are with her, and she does not slow her steps. But I see the quick glance she gives the sign above the door, and her quicker glance inside.
    After that, they go by on another day, and then another, until soon my days are measured against the time in the late afternoon when I might see her. She and her friends, in their school uniforms of dark blue with white collars, remind me of chattering magpies. She alone, though, looks for this place, glancing in, her eyes seeking me.
    And so, again, the shape of my life changes, and I gradually cease to think of the laundry and of my new name as things for now only. Because now I am knowing An, and to her I am Fai-yi Li, Li Dewei's son, who belongs.

CHAPTER 10
    Harrison and I were among the first arrivals in the newsroom on Tuesday morning.
    "Where do we start?" I asked. He was setting up a laptop for himself so that I could use the computer on his desk.
    "With the Department of Planning and Development postings," he answered. "I'd like to see what Landin worked on."
    He showed me how to navigate the city's website. The development review area was organized by neighborhood, and there were at least ten, maybe fifteen of those. You clicked on one, and that brought up pages that showed the names and locations of individual projects, along with who had proposed them. Details included each project's review or construction status and also contact information for the Planning Department employee the project had been assigned to.
    "There must be two or three dozen projects just in this first neighborhood," I said. "What are we looking for, besides Landin's name?"
    "Anything unusual."
    Harrison had the scroll button pressed down. "Here's Landin here, and here..." he said. "So it looks like that guy yesterday was right saying they haven't gotten around to reassigning Landin's work. Why don't you compile a list of everything with his name on it, and meanwhile I'm going to make some calls. I'd like to know why he quit his job."
    Harrison pulled out a phone book, but I could see him watching me until I'd selected the details of the first Landin project and copied them to a blank word-processing document.
    An hour later I handed him a printout.
    "Spot any patterns?" he asked.
    "No," I answered. "Except that, depending on the neighborhood, it's all either housing subdivisions or office buildings. How about you?"
    "I learned that Landin left without giving notice or a reason—just cleared out his desk and was gone the same day."
    Harrison skimmed the printout. "The big-money stuff looks like it's all being done by the same two or three construction outfits."
    He gave me time to think out the next step, nodding ap-81proval when I said, "So I should go through everything again, looking for their names instead of Landin's."
    "Right. I'll help this time."
    The next printout made Harrison exclaim, "Bingo!"
    "What?"
    "Look," he said, dragging a highlighter across one item and another and then two more. The applicant on each one was Galinger Construction, and Landin was listed as the staff contact for each.
    Puzzled, I said, "Yeah. I got those when I printed out Landin's list."
    "Exactly!" Harrison said. "And now, with this list of all the Galinger Construction projects in front of you, do you see any
not
assigned to Landin?"
    "No."
    "And do you see any other big construction and development outfits whose projects are confined to just one member of the Planning Department?" Harrison didn't wait for me to check. "The answer's no to that, too."
    "But how'd you spot it so fast?" I asked.
    "It's what I was looking for."
    He turned his monitor so I could see the display. "That's the