Free Flower Girl: A Burton Family Mystery by David Marshall Hunt Page B

rear screen-door, curled white tails wagging vigorously. They were excited to have a visitor but they showed no signs of suspicion that the visitor might be unwanted. Someone was standing quietly in the shadows on the back porch. Reddy stepped over to the porch, calming the dogs while he undid the latch and held the screen-door open.
    "Is it okay with you and Angie if a young lady I recently met down in the Caribbean comes here to live with us for a while. She's had a pretty rough life and she's made a remarkable adjustment, mostly on her own; however, she needs a safe place and some people she can trust while she rebuilds a sense of family."
    "It's the girl Sara-Clare was interviewing for her documentary," Angie blurted out. "What was her name?"
    "Dalisay," said a small soft voice from behind Reddy.
    While we demolished the chocolate and almond croissants she had brought with her, I brewed some more hojicha, and Reddy and Dalisay continued to tell us the details of her incredible tale.
    "I am Señor Burton's daughter." I couldn't help but think; here's the daughter the CIA missed altogether.
    Â "After carrying the pain of losing two wives and two unborn children, I chased empty clues about Maria Cruz and my daughter for years. I spent enough time in Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions to earn citizenship." Reddy continued.
    Â The people who live and work at the Mansions speak of the them as A, B, C, D, and E blocks, located on Nathan Road. Crowded, degenerating, and a mixture of buildings and people, they attract many and repel an equal number of the people to and from Hong Kong. Elevators and some escalators connect the first and second floors where the bazaar operates in a sort of foggy grey light. British expatriates call it Little London. People from nearly every country in the world flock to this labyrinth to exchange information, make deals, trade, dine, drink, pray, and fornicate, all in an environment of docile law enforcement and constant change. The Mansions consist of a virtual jungle of smells, sights, and sounds, a maze of shops that can easily befuddle a tourist, food stalls selling live snakes, and kiosks and dormitories stacked one upon the other in an impossible clutter. It stands fifteen stories high and spreads out over a part of the city from 36-44 Nathan Road.
    "Hamish told me before I first went to the Mansions that it resembled the Spaceport Cantina in the original ‘Star Wars.’ When I stood on Nathan Road at D block, I saw the similarity. However, there was no evidence that Maria Cruz had been there, or I had arrived too late. Hope was all that sustained me until a few months ago when I previewed the advance copy of Sara-Clare’s TV documentary.
    Â "The video contained interviews with three girls aged fifteen to twenty, one of whom was clearly Amir-Asian. Her name was Dalisay, and she bore a strikingly resemblance to Maria Cruz. My hopes rose a bit for the first time in years.
    Â "After calling Sara-Clare and obtaining Dalisay's whereabouts, I visited Dr. Dooley at his main clinic in Belize and enquired about the three girls that Sara-Clare had brought to him from the PI. He told me they had been transferred to Saba Island in the Lesser Antilles a month before.
    Â "While I was at the Belize City airstrip, I was thinking about how I was to fly  the entire Caribbean island hopping mission that I was about to undertake in search of lost girls. A for sale sign was hanging on the hangar wall next to an immaculate white and forest green Pilatus PC12. The sign read; contact Snuffy, hangar #1.
    "The PC12 is a fabulous single engine turboprop aircraft designed for short runway takeoffs and landings, perfect for island hopping. I talked to Snuffy, who constantly was blowing his nose into a red handkerchief then stuffing it into his coveralls. He was once an RCAF mechanic and the owner of the aircraft. I asked him about a short term lease with option to buy. Then I gave the Pilatus