Chapter 12

Dean Lifante

7:00 AM

Barbie yanked open the doors to the Shujing Hotel and led Dean inside. It was seven in the morning, but the noise was still the same as two nights ago. Some people were playing the slots. Dean could have sworn a few of them were the same people he saw when he found Barbie's body.

Ignoring them, they went to the front desk. The late-night clerk was still sitting there reading a book.

In college, Dean had worked a night job at a different hotel. It had been a great way to make money and learn how to deal with the freaks that hung around.

The clerk heard them coming, moved the bell away from the top of the desk, and returned to his book.

"Excuse me. We need to speak to the owner," Dean said.

The clerk ignored him.

Tapping his fingers on the countertop, Dean tried again. "That's the new Jan Dark mystery, isn't it?" He smiled. "You wouldn't like me to spoil the ending now, would you?"

The clerk frowned, stuck his finger in the book to mark his place and stood up. "How can I help you, sir?"

"I need to speak to the owner," Dean said again. He crossed his arms and stared across the desk at the clerk.

"What is your name?" the clerk asked.

"Dean Lifante."

The clerk flipped through the notes at his desk. "You were supposed to be here last night. He was very upset you didn't come. I have a note from the owner not to let you in if you come back." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave."

Barbie pounded the countertop with her left fist, spiderwebbing the tiles there and grabbed the man with her right. "You let that owner know we're coming up, or I will have to tell everyone here how he felt up my tushy." She dropped the man and stalked to the doors. Slamming them open, she went to the private elevator and pushed the up button. The doors opened, and Dean got inside behind her. Barbie pushed the button for the penthouse, and the doors closed.

"He touched your butt?" Dean asked.

Barbie stared out the window. "Yes. Sorry, I used such harsh words there, but I was ready to break his neck. Then I remembered my Handler's instructions not to make waves and turned down my butt-kicking mode setting. It was making me crazy." She turned away and didn't look at him.

"No problem," Dean said. He turned away and started rubbing his eyes. This day was getting stranger and stranger.

✦

The doors to the penthouse opened. Dean and Barbie stepped out. They faced two bodyguards, each about the size of a mini-truck. Rumour had it that Yichen hired several former football players to act as his muscle. Dean wouldn't have been surprised to see one at Bobby's place before it exploded. Yichen had known where to find the window washer before Dean even went to the company.

"I'm here to see Yichen," Barbie said, crossing her arms and staring them down.

"We know Mr. Lifante. He's been expecting you. Your friend may join you," the one on the right said. The one on the left was silent and opened the door.

The inside of the penthouse was a vast open plan and big enough to fit five of Dean's houses. There was one small set of walls in the back, probably to hide the toilet and bedroom. A series of smooth pillars held up the rest of the ceiling. Each pillar was circled by a shelf holding a series of pictures and knick-knacks. They gave the room a Grecian feel with a sense of the Forbidden City.

Dean found his eyes searching for Ming in the pictures and thought he recognized her a few times. Along the walls were more pictures. A grand piano sat against the left side, taking up most of the open area. There was a small stage with guitars and a sax resting against the wall.

"Come in, come in." Yichen was sitting at the piano. He was in his silk robe, wearing fuzzy pink slippers.

Yichen's Secretary was sitting on a chair in the corner. The suit looked the same as the one she was wearing yesterday.

"Don't you ever go home?" he said to the woman. The secretary adjusted her half

moon glasses and started typing on the pad in front of her.

Dean shook his head and sat down in front of Yichen. Barbie approached the secretary, stuck her head directly in front of the secretary, and sniffed.

"Could the pink lady please leave Wu alone? It's not polite to sniff other people."

"Barbie, come here." Dean went over and led the woman to the couch. "What were you doing? You can't just sniff people."

"I liked her smell. It was a mix of roses and candy, much subtler than mine. My Handler says I need to experiment. I was going to ask her where she got it. The Maker might like it."

Yichen sat forward at Barbie's words and glanced at the men standing by the door. Dean watched one of them leave the room and close the door behind him. "I know you, don't I?" he asked Barbie.

"She's the woman who died in the hotel two days ago," Dean said, testing the water. "She said you grabbed her ass."

Yichen just nodded. "You've done well, detective. Very quick. Where is Ming? I expected her to come with you and apologize for standing me up last night."

"She's busy at the moment," Dean said. Why hadn't he reacted? "Barbie here tells me you know something about Slazney." He needed to keep him away from the subject of Ming. Besides, they didn't have any time to waste.

Barbie stood behind him, glaring at the old man. He hoped she wouldn't cause a scene here. The longer it took to find Bobby's computer, the harder it would be to get Ming back into her body. "This is the time to tell us everything." He got out a notebook and a pencil. "Did you take Bobby's computer?"

"What are you talking about?" Yichen leaned back and sipped his drink.

Dean flipped through his notes to give the impression he had a lot of information. "Last night I talked with Bobby Miladev. He told me about the arrangement he had with you to clean the Shujing." He looked over his book to watch Yichen's next reaction. "He said he had proof as to who killed the woman in the room, but there was an incident at the precinct, and his computer was stolen." He closed his book. "Do you have it or did Slazney take it?"

"Shit!" Yichen stood up, walked to the bar and poured himself a whiskey. Breathing out through clenched teeth, he turned to Dean. "Did Ming ever tell you why she's searching for Slazney?"

"It started as a story. A mysterious person behind Vegas's best-known spots. I don't know much more than that. Knowing her, she got hold of a story and couldn't let it go."

Dean watched Yichen's hands. Most people knew enough to stop their emotions from appearing on their faces, but forgot to control their hands. He'd cracked a few cases by watching what people do with them.

Yichen took another drink. "Yes, it is." He put his drink down. "Slazney has made it his mission to control most of Vegas. If you weren't with him, he'd make sure you couldn't stay in the town." Yichen started pacing.

"Why?" Dean asked. He wished Ming were here. This was what she had wanted to hear for so long. He checked that his recorder was working. It should have enough power for this.

"I don't know, but ..." Yichen took another sip. "Thirty years ago, I was with the crew when they were building this hotel. They didn't want to include the pink windows then. Slazney came here with some plans and suggestions. He even offered to provide the windows for free."

"I knew there was something. Those evil things couldn't just appear by accident." Barbie smacked her palm. "When I see that piece of doo-doo, I'm going to rip his head off."

Yichen raised an eyebrow. "Anyway, the owners had him tossed into the garbage." Yichen continued to pace back and forth, ignoring Barbie and spilling his drink onto the carpet. "The next day their men started dying."

"I remember that case," Dean said. "I had just started junior high school, and it made all the news. Twenty men were found dead. They said it was a drive-by shooting from a rival gang."

"No shooting. They were all staked to the ground. Spelling out the word Pink Glass." He took another sip. "There was a contract put out on the man after that."

"Are you confessing to hiring a murderer?" Dean raised an eyebrow. "In front of a Police Officer?"

"Give me a break, Detective Lifante. I'm telling you what you want to know. The man came back the next day, returned the money and joined a monastery in Italy. He hasn't been seen since." Yichen sat down. "Every other person sent after Slazney joined the first man. Soon, Slazney and the owners came to an agreement. They installed the pink windows at his cost."

Dean wrote all of this down in his notebook, cursing when the pencil broke. "Why did this Slazney do that?"

"I don't know. When the Triad opened the Red Dragon, they had no more problems with the man, and they found that the windows were a hit. The tourists flocked to the hotel." He took a sip of his drink. "However, the spectre of the deaths continued to haunt the place, and some people complained of headaches. Eventually, the Chinese members refused to come and started staying at the Jade Emperor across town. I bought the place and renamed it. The locals loved it, and the regular Chinese tourists didn't know about the murders."

"Is that it?" Dean asked. There had to be a connection to Bobby. Something to explain why he could read the code Ming had found in the windows. "Surely there's more?"

"Almost two years ago, Slazney reached out to me. At first, I had forgotten the man, but when he reminded me about the pink windows, my bowels turned to water."

Barbie scrunched her nose and waved her hand under it. "Is this going anywhere? I want to find the Maker."

Yichen put his empty glass down on the table. "He called me up and had me hire a window washing company, specifically one man, Bobby. He never told me why." He got up and pushed a button. Three men came into the room from a side door. "That's all I know. Now it's time for you to leave."

"Why did he have you hire Bobby?" Dean asked, standing up. The bodyguards had their hands on their weapons and were moving toward them.

"When I find him. I'll ask him." He turned back to his bedroom. "Goodnight."

"It's morning, silly," Barbie yelled out.

Dean stared at the closed door and snapped the pencil in his hand. Yichen was lying about something. His gut was telling him the old man probably had the computer or knew where it was, but there was no proof. This wasn't over.