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“I did,” I admitted, “That book on thefloor, about alloys. I was holding it.”
Python gave me a ravenous look. He is going to squash me to deathand eat me in one piece, as per the pythons' habit, Ithought.
“And that do they do with all these books?”Woxman asked, “To be honest, I don't even understand thetitles.”
“About the titles, you are not alone,” Tomsaid, “I don't understand them too. Not my specialty.”
“Are they about Physics?” I suggested thefirst thing that came to my mind.
“Not quite,” Tom said, “They look to me likeEngineering and Material Science, but very advanced.”
“Very advanced – are you judging by thetitles?”
“Not only. These books cover a diverse rangeof knowledge. For example, at home I keep a little library oncriminology, programming and lab procedures. But I only have onlytwo dozen titles. Of these, only three books I use frequently. Andwith all this, I call myself an expert. But here! At least twohundred volumes, and it looks like all were used a lot. Someoneneeded all kinds of material properties: specific resistivity, ionpolarization, density, compressive strength, you name it. Must bevery advanced stuff, what else?”
“Victor Chen works in electronics repairs,”Woxman pointed.
“Not this type of books,”Tom said. “From the stuff the 'tronics guys use - there are onlytwo. See, here: the MicrocontrollersBonanza. Also, I've seen another onesomewhere, like a thick catalog, Semiconductor Devices and IntegratedCircuits. For an electronics man, this ishardly enough. If Victor has more books about electronics, hesurely keeps them at his shop. The rest of the books is some kindof super-technologies.”
“Who in our Slum would need suchsuper-technologies?” I asked.
“Who in the whole UnitedStates would need such super-technologies today?” Tom smiled.
“Maybe – the Pentagon?” Woxman asked.
“The Pentagon? I guess,” Tom said.
“What shall we do now?” I asked.
“Good question,”Python scratched hishead, “I will change into my coverall and spend few hours talkingto my fingerprint kit and my flashlight. I don't see thealternatives. And you gents, it would be very nice if you carefullywent around the shack and check every square foot one more time.The probability is thin, but you may stumble on something… unusual.Any more suggestions?”
No suggestions followed. We kept searchinguntil the sunset, nearly nose to the ground, like thosebloodhounds. I would not mind working some more, but only Tom had aflashlight.
Woxman kept complainingand grew angry by the minute: for his bad luck, for such a puzzlingcase, for the absence of clues, for his pants being shit-dirtiedonce again (“Why did you put them on, man, what was wrong with yourkilt?” Tom teased him). The Deputy Investigator cursed ourAmerasian Slums. As if his own obamaville at the west outskirts ofthe stinky Landfill, leached to the roofs with by-products ofgarbage recycling, was a bloody palace!
***
Tired and hungry, I arrive home. Kate sitsin front of the house, stirring something in the pot. I feelintrigued and a bit scared: today it's not her usual Primus, butthe rare-occasion coal briquettes. It will be either a majorculinary break-through, or a miserable culinary failure.
“Hi, Ru
“A rabbit stew! With bok choy and potatoes!History in the making! Even Ma approved.”
“Rabbit? Wow! I can't wait for such aluxury.”
“I can't wait too. From down here, it smellsso nice. Wash your hands. If you're not ready in three minutes,I'll gulp it all myself.”
I follow the advice, and exactly threeminutes later we dine.
“How was your search today?” Kate askswielding her serving spoon.
“No good. Found nothing,” I mumble through amouthful of hot stew. The major culinary break-through it is: mywife has surpassed all expectations. Although, I suspect my Mom hassomething to do with this.
“Can I guess?”
“OK, guess!”
She raises the servingspoon. “OK. My magic spoon is telling me… Telling me… One. Thismorning, Woxman fell into a ditch. Down to his waist. The localpopulation found it to be exceptionally fu
I quietly choke on the rabbit. Almost todeath.
“Ouch! Sorry. Want me to whack you on theback?” Kate says overseeing my recovery.
“But… But how did you know?” I finallyregain my breath.
“Wrong. You must say: but how did you know,Holmes?”
“Fine! But how did you know, Holmes?”
“Dear Watson, I wrote a monograph on thedevelopment of telepathic abilities by eating rabbit stew with bokchoy and potatoes…”
“Stop being silly.”
“You should read the monograph, Watson! Therabbit stew does not develop telepathic abilities whatsoever. Thebest result is obtained by substituting the rabbit with a riverrat.”
I choke on the ‘rabbit’ once again. Katepromptly saves me from a terrible death by delivering the promisedwhack to my back. For a girl of her size, she has a formidablewhack. The continuous practice with skateboard works that way.
“OK, I will not torture you any longer.Today I went to the China-Five myself. Spied for half a day andbought this rabbit.”
“No offense. Is it a rabbit? Or acoypu?”
“How do you call it? Co-oypu-u? Texans arefu
“No, Ru
“Your Mom is a chef. I am not even asou-chef. A mere scullion.”
“Put me more of your rabbit, scullion… Butwait… How come we did not see you in the China Patch?”
“Kha-kha-ah… Twice a day – no suchRule!”
“What did you say? Oh, shit! That beggar!Wait, wait. The guy was not like you. He had knees!”
“Our two Korean pillows fulfilled the role.Two below-knee stumps – two pillows.”
“And where did you get the wheelchair?”
“Went to the local market and asked themilitary vets to help the Police. Being without legs myself, Ididn't even need to do much convincing. In ten minutes the fellowvets provided everything: the uniform, the medals, the sun-glasses.Easy…”
“And the girl who pushed thewheelchair?”
“You didn't recognize her? Good I convincedthe little beauty to dress in rags and smear herself with ash.”
“So who is she?”
“Our neighbor. From the Korean-Two.Remember, how I pulled her on our raft? During the hurricane? Shekept asking me where her Teddy Bear was.”
“Oh! Right. I even thought: why did she lookso familiar?”
“You have natural observation skills,Watson.”
“OK, stop being sillyagain. Better tell me why you needed all this masquerade. For sure,you unearthed something Python, Woxman and I didn't even look at.”
“Let's do it this way. First, I am going toask you two or three questions, and then I will tell you mytheory.”
“It's a deal, partner.”
“Are we finishing the rabbit stew?”
“Is this your first question?”
“No, this is my proposal.”
I pass Kate my plate.
“OK, my first question. In your search team,you had four adults, is that right?”
“No. I had five. One man left a littleearlier, you probably had not seen him.”
“Can you describe these five adults,briefly?”
“You know, the people in the China-Five, Idon't know them that well. OK, listen in. Mister Duong-senior. Heis the elected Patch Representative, so must help the Police. Aboutsixty-five, but very active little man.”