“Showmanship, like the marble. Make the weight of the briefcase look right.”

“But the marble… If C.D. hired the White Eagles-”

“I think they both did. Wong Pan and C. D. Zhang. That’s why the meeting was in a public place. So the world would know they’d been robbed. The whole thing was a sting on Chen and Zhang.”

I didn’t like that, not at all. But there was the briefcase in front of me, full of no cash. “Wong Pan and C. D. Zhang were both the client? What do they say?”

“I told you! C. D. Zhang isn’t talking, and I can’t lean on him unless we charge him. My captain doesn’t want to do that right now, to avoid, you know, another stupid mistake.”

Brought about by your best friend, okay, I get it. “And Wong Pan?”

“Wong Pan. Now, Wong Pan is exactly the problem.”

Both cops regarded me evenly, as though Mary had said something I was supposed to do something about.

“What?” I demanded. “He killed Joel. And Sheng Yue, too, whatever he says.”

“Oh, he killed them both. He’s all but admitted it.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Well, for one thing, we didn’t exactly take him up neat and clean. We had guns, bullets, SWAT guys. Streets closed, tourists diving for cover. A wildly expensive operation and a public relations nightmare. Captain Mentzinger’s fielding hysterical calls from every civic group in Chinatown. And he’s expected at One PP in an hour to explain himself.” One Police Plaza, NYPD headquarters, where precinct commanders go to be chewed out by brass. Mary leaned forward. “For another thing, Wong Pan, on the verge of signing off on both homicides, has suddenly clammed up.”

“Why?”

She gave me a drama-department pregnant pause. Then she turned to Inspector Wei and cued her with a nod.

“Shanghai Police Bureau sends me here, bring back killer of Inspector Sheng Yue.” Wei spoke evenly, but her resolve was unmistakable. “Wong Pan doesn’t want coming back.”

I ventured, “I don’t blame him.”

“The State Department is pressuring the DA to send him back, though,” Mary said. “Closing two homicides means less to them than our relationship with a friendly foreign power. But the DA doesn’t want to, and Captain Mentzinger sure doesn’t, either. China gets the prize and we’re left empty-handed with a mess to clean up?” She gave me a look to remind me who made the mess. “And this is where you come in.”

“In the middle of a tug-of-war between the DA and the State Department?”

“I know, amazing, right? For someone who should be locked up in Brooklyn.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I would if I thought it would work. Anyway, keeping you locked up isn’t my problem. It’s the seven White Eagles we might have to cut loose.”

“Why would you?”

“What can we charge them on?”

“Attempted robbery?”

“What robbery? Grand theft marble? Receiving stolen newspaper?”

“Breaking and entering?”

“A public noodle shop?”

“Oh, come on! Kidnapping?”

“Their lawyers already told the press these misunderstood Samaritans got scared when they saw all the firepower outside, since they’ve been harassed by cops all their lives, and you and Bill had guns, and they didn’t have any guns, so they panicked and used you as shields to escape the police brutality they’d come to expect, which was bad judgment and they’re very sorry, and of course they were planning to let you go.”

“Are you-What was that thing Fishface had against my head if they had no guns? What about all the guns all over the street?”

“Every one we found had been filed rough. Not a usable print anywhere.”

“But-”

“Lydia! It’s not what it was, it’s how a lawyer can make it look. At the very least they’ll make bail. Then they’ll disappear.”

I let out a disgusted breath. “All right, I get it. I can’t believe it, but I get it.”

“Good. Now get this, too: Captain Mentzinger is very, very reluctant, under the circumstances, to let these guys walk.”

“I’m with him. But he thinks there’s something I can do? Armpit? I can try, but-”

“No, he’s useless. We picked those guys up, but we have nothing on them, so why would they roll?” She paused for effect again. It was effective. “But if there were a client? Someone to testify the White Eagles had been hired to knock over the meeting? That’s criminal conspiracy. And C.D. Zhang got shot in the course of it, which, according to the DA, makes the White Eagles responsible even if it turns out a cop shot him. Then we could put them all away. That would make the DA and Captain Mentzinger very happy.”

“But Wong Pan was a client. Can’t he testify?”

“He could. And he will-if, and only if, he gets a promise we won’t extradite.”

I looked at Inspector Wei. “And he’s not about to get that, is he?”

Wei smiled. “No.”

Mary said, “So we have to get the White Eagles another way. Then everyone has face and everyone’s happy.”

“You know how much I like for everyone to be happy. But how can I-”

“Alice Fairchild.”

“What?”

“She must be in on it.”

This is what your best friend can do: voice thoughts you were trying to pretend to yourself you weren’t having.

I said, “I can’t give her to you. I’m sorry. I really am. But until I’m sure she’s involved, I have to protect her.”

“I know what I’m asking,” Mary said in a softer voice. “I know she’s your client.”

“More than that. She was Joel’s client.”

Mary sat back and considered me. “For what it’s worth, Bill said the same thing.”

“I’m not surprised. Except that you’re telling me. Aren’t you supposed to be playing divide and conquer?”

“With anyone else, I would be.”

I nodded slowly.

“Okay, see if this persuades you,” she said. “This non-extradition deal wasn’t Wong Pan’s idea.”

“I’m assuming it was his lawyer’s.”

“No. By the time he got a lawyer, someone had already filled his head with ugly pictures of what would happen if he went home, and others of the relative delights of American prisons.”

“Who did that?”

“Mulgrew.”

“Mulgrew? Who asked him?”

“That’s where Wong Pan is. Up there.”

“At Midtown? Why?”

“They’re not happy with us. They’ve been two steps behind all along and it’s made them look bad.”

“So for being smarter than they are, you have to give them the prize?”

“Their captain made a grab. The second it was over. The homicides are theirs, remember, and we had nothing else to charge him with.”

“Nothing to-”

“Down here? He was minding his own business, having a meeting in a noodle shop, when gangsters broke in and kidnapped him. He wasn’t a criminal. He was a victim.”

“I-”

“Besides, Captain Mentzinger has his own troubles. Something about SWAT teams and bullets flying.”

“Okay, okay. So what’s Mulgrew up to?”

“Closing his homicides. Wong Pan confesses, pleads it out, saves the cost of a trial, Mulgrew’s a hero. And if Wong Pan gives him the White Eagles on a deal that makes me and Captain Mentzinger look stupid, that would ice his cake.”

“I’d like to ice his cake myself. What if Wong Pan doesn’t get his deal, gets sent back, and never gives up the White Eagles?”

“What does Mulgrew care? They’re our problem down here.”

“What a dirtbag.”

She leaned across the table. “So shut him down. Give me Alice.”

I bit my lip. “I don’t know, Mary.”

We looked at each other for a while, neither of us happy. Mary breathed a sigh. “Okay, you can go.” She stood and headed for the door.

“Mary, really! I don’t know where she is anyway. But I’ll see what I can do. Can I ask a question?”

“I can’t wait.”

“Do you have Armpit stashed around here somewhere?”

“No. We leaned on those losers, but all they’d tell us is Fishface said to go hang around that corner and stay there until he said otherwise. You know what’s scary?”

“What?”

“As long as we have Fishface and the All-Stars locked up, your idiot cousin and his homies are the White Eagles. I may take them up again so they don’t shoot their own feet off.”