The Man With No Time by Timothy Hallinan Read Free Book Online Page A

choice.”
    “Don't sound so Chinese, Horace. Murder and kidnapping are what the police are for. ” Pansy moaned in the bedroom, and I heard Mrs. Chan whisper something urgent, a sound as taut as a rope snapping.
    “No Chinese remarks, Simeon,” Eleanor said severely. She had herself under control, except that the hand that wasn't thrown around Horace's shoulders was balled into a white-knuckled fist. She rolled the fist back and forth, knuckle over knuckle, across the bedsheet as she talked. “This is a Chinese situation.”
    I felt like I'd just walked through a pane of glass I hadn't known was there. “Chinese?” I asked. “What about Julia and Eadweard? They're babies. They don't even know they're Chinese.” Horace made a noise like a hiccup, his eyes still fixed on the blank screen.
    “What good will it do Julia and Eadweard to lose their entire family?” Eleanor asked. “Anyway, we don't think the twins are in danger.”
    That made me sit back. “Who's 'we'?”
    “Uncle Lo will take care of them,” Eleanor said.
    “I really seriously don't understand,” I said.
    “He's our benefactor,” Horace said automatically. “Even if he did take Julia and Eadweard, he took them because he needs something. He took them to make sure he'd get it. That's all.” It was the longest speech he'd made since we got home.
    “He's in danger, obviously,” Eleanor said. “He's running away from something. Maybe he thinks that having Julia and Eadweard will protect him.”
    “From what?”
    “We don't know,” Eleanor said, after waiting for Horace to respond.
    “Our little buggers,” I said, “would shoot right through the kids to get dear old Uncle Lo.”
    “They won't,” Eleanor said, sounding a touch shaky about it. “They promised.”
    I looked at her as I listened again to what she'd said. I thought I knew her, had thought I knew her for years, but now she was like a face on an exotic stamp, small and far away and foreign. “They promised?” I finally asked.
    “In Cantonese,” she said, “as they left. They said if we'd tell them when we found Uncle Lo, they'd make sure the kids got home.”
    It sounded like a wan hope at best, but it wasn't one I was going to contradict. “And how are we going to find Uncle Lo?”
    “We're not,” Horace said. “He's going to come to us.”
    There were a million possible questions, and all of them seemed wrong; all of them seemed like they'd rip Horace apart. I chose the least harmful. “What does he want?”
    “God knows,” Horace said.
    “Does your mother?”
    Horace tore his eyes from the television, and he and Eleanor exchanged glances. “Perhaps,” she said.
    “Let's ask her.”
    “No,” brother and sister said in unison.
    “Well, for Christ's sake,” I said, suddenly angry, “why not?”
    “We'll ask her,” Eleanor said quietly. “Not you, we. You want to do something, Simeon, and we're grateful to you for it.” Horace reached over and patted my knee, awkwardly but feelingly. “But we can't let you. Those guys who were here? The one you tickled already wants to kill you. You cost him a lot of face. You should have just gone ahead and kicked him.”
    “You know me,” I said, deciding not to remind her that she'd been horrified at the idea. “Could I kick someone in the head?”
    “He'd hate you less if you had. But he's not going to go after you unless you do something. And they'll kill all four of us, and then come after you, the minute they learn you're trying to do something. Anything. And they would learn. You just have to believe that.”
    “If all I did was talk to the cops, how would they know?”
    “They'd know if the cops did anything in the Chinese community after you talked to them. Anything at all.”
    “Where are we?” I demanded. “Albania?”
    “We're in China,” Eleanor said. “Right now, we're in China.”
    “This is Willis Street,” I said stubbornly.
    “No,” she said. “Three or four hours ago, this was