The Wind in my Heart

The Wind in my Heart

last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
Language: English
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Synopsis

Miles Landry is trying to put violence behind him when he takes up work as a private detective focused on humdrum adultery cases. But when a Tibetan monk hires him to find a missing person, things get weird fast. Charged with tracking down the reincarnation of a man possessed by a demonic guardian from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Miles is plunged into a world of fortune-tellers, gangsters, and tantric rituals. The year is 1991 and a series of grisly murders has rocked New York City in the run up to a visit from the Dalai Lama. The police attribute the killings to Chinatown gang warfare. Miles–skeptical of the supernatural–is inclined to agree. But what if the monster he's hunting is more than a myth? ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

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Kabanata 1

1

1

New York City, 1991

On my way back from the one hour photo with a satchel full of sins, I stand on the corner and wait for the dragon to pass before crossing the street. It’s my third Chinese New Year in the office on Mott Street where, in spite of spotty work, I haven’t been evicted yet, and that dragon is still as impressive as the first time I saw it. Wild-eyed, with curling horns and fierce paper jaws, the silk body winds down the street atop poles held by red and yellow clad dancers. I cross, trot up the steps to my building, and enter the lobby, dripping confetti from my shoes and shoulders. It’s a three-story walk-up, my office on the third floor, and by the time I get to the second landing I can hear my phone jangling. That’s the sound of thunder in the desert. I quicken my step.

My shoes squeak on the grimy tile floor as I make the turn at the head of the stairs. Dim sunlight filters in through a skylight dome the color of sour milk but doesn’t quite reach the end of the corridor where my office sits—the last of four. The fluorescent tubes are dead at my end of the hall. I slot my key into the doorknob by the scant illumination spilling through the frosted glass window in the door, stenciled with gold letters: INSIGHT DETECTIVE AGENCY—MILES LANDRY, PI.

The doors I passed on the way to mine were quiet except for a faint TV at the far end of the hall. I’m guessing my nearest neighbors, the tax accountant and the podiatrist, got out from under the parade while they could, knowing what kind of crimp it would put in business today. The sounds of the street swell up again as I open the door—loud enough that I half expect to see the curtains blowing in the wind from a wide open window to the fire escape. The sound is pouring in through the same gaps in the frame that let the heat out all winter, but the ringing phone is the loudest thing in the room, the hammer trilling on the bell hard enough to almost make it hop off my desk. It’s on the third ring when I get through the door and I’m afraid there won’t be a fourth.

I leave my keychain hanging from the doorknob, and I’m about to make a lunge for the phone when I get a little assistance from a kick in the ass that sends me sprawling face first on the red oriental carpet in front of my desk.

My valise lands under me, cushioning my fall, and I struggle to disentangle my head from the shoulder strap as I turn to face my attacker. The motion puts my forearm in range of the second kick—no doubt aimed at my jaw. My arm blocks the kick by dumb luck, but recoils, and I hit myself in the face with the back of my own hand.

Blinking through the stinging pain, I make out a female form settling gracefully into a ready stance.

Shit. Sophie Cheung. She looks a lot taller from down here.

I had trailed her for a couple of weeks on behalf of her husband before letting a wiretap on their home phone finish the job. You could say I verified Mr. Cheung’s hunch that the karate dojo in alphabet city wasn’t the only place where she was breaking a sweat with a fellow instructor. Sophie holds a third-degree black belt.

I wonder if my arm just fractured along the old fault lines.

“How does it feel?” she asks, and I think she means my arm until she says, “Finding out you’ve been stalked by someone you didn’t know was there?” She steps into the room and casually knocks a potted spider plant off an end table with a flick of her hand. The terra cotta pot smashes when it hits the floor, spilling black soil onto the carpet beside me. “How does it feel having your private space invaded?”

Okay, that pisses me off. The plant has sentimental value. I know I should be afraid of Sophie from this vulnerable vantage point, but the heat is already flushing my cheeks—a sure sign that I’m unlikely to act in my own best interest for the next little while.

Incredibly, the phone is still ringing. Seems like the answering machine should have clicked on by now, but I’ve lost count, what with getting my ass kicked and all. The machine is probably broken for good. I don’t hit women, but I think I might be tempted if I miss this phone call. Sophie’s husband paid me a decent sum, but not enough to compensate for the loss of the next job.Or a hospital bill.

“What’s in the bag, Landry?” Sophie asks, and sweeps a model airplane off the bookshelf before crunching it underfoot. “Pictures of your latest marks?”

I’m on my feet now, steadying myself with a hand on the desk. It’s a cheap particle board jobbie. Fake oak laminate. Wide enough to put me out of range, but I doubt I can get behind it in time if she strikes again.

“I’ve been following you ever since Rick dropped this divorce crap on me. First thing I find out is that your friends at the bar call you Dirty Laundry. Nice.” She looks around the office like she’s trying to decide what to break next. She catches me looking at the answering machine. “You messed with my phone, maybe I mess with yours, yeah?”

“Hey,” I say, “I’ll press charges for assault and destruction of property.”

Her eyes lock on mine again and there’s new fire in them. I don’t know if it’s the thought of me adding to her mounting legal fees, but I can tell that with the deep breath she’s taking, she’s gearing up to close the distance between us.

My face is stinging and the phone is still ringing when I drop my ass onto the desk, swing my legs over, and roll off the other side, sending my office chair skittering away on its wheels. Sophie Cheung shuffles forward, throws her right leg up above her head, and with an inarticulate war cry brings her heel down in an ax kick that breaks the desk clean in half.

As the phone slides down the V toward the break, I snatch the handset out of the cradle. The bottom right drawer rolls open as the desk collapses, and I snatch my gun from it with my free hand, rise and point it at her. “Insight Detective Agency, Miles Landry speaking.”

At the sight of the weapon, Sophie slips out the door.

The man on the line has a strong accent. Not Chinese but in the neighborhood.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?” I say, trying not to breathe too hard into the mouthpiece while my galloping heart settles down.

“Mr. Landry? My name is Geshe Norbu. Am I reaching you at a good time?”

I catch my breath. “Just another day in paradise.”

“Good, good.”

“How can I help you, Mr. Norbu?”

“I’m calling from the Diamond Path Dharma Center in Union Square.”

“The what?”

“It’s a center for Buddhist studies.”

“A Buddhist temple?”

“Yes. We serve the immigrant community of Tibetan refugees and offer free meditation instruction for all.”

A religious fundraiser call for Asian refugees. I fought my way to the phone for this?

“I’m calling on behalf of my teacher, Jigme Rinpoche. He would like to consult with you regarding your services.”

“My services. As a private eye . . . ” I want to make sure this guy called the right number.

“Yes, of course. He is very eager to meet with you.”

“Okay, sure,” I say, crouching behind the wreckage of my desk with the phone in the crook of my neck, then setting my gun down on the floor to root around for a pen. My desk blotter with the giant calendar page is a shambles of ruffled paper, but I can still write on it if this doesn’t turn out to be a scam or a misunderstanding in the next two minutes.

“What kind of job are we talking about? I usually follow people around and catch them up to no good. I thought you guys were the trusting sort.”

The monk laughs. Even through a telephone, it sounds more genuine and delighted than most of the laughter I’ve heard since before boot camp. “Very good,” Norbu says. “You know something about Tibetan monks?”

“Not much. Saffron robes and baritone chants?”

“Maroon robes, but yes, deep chants. May I tell Rinpoche you will meet with him?”

I can’t exactly start turning down work, but I can’t shake the feeling they’ve got the wrong idea somehow. “Ah, again, I wouldn’t want to waste anyone’s time.” Including my own. “Can you give me a clue about what your teacher hopes I can do for him?” Best guess: one of the monks has been helping himself to the donation jar.

“He prefers to speak with you about it in person.”

“Understood. It’s just that I only handle certain kinds of cases.”

“Okay, so . . . this is about helping him find someone. Call it a missing persons case.”

“Someone?”

“A monk. A former student of Jigme Rinpoche.”

“He wander off and get lost in Manhattan? That sounds like a job for the police. I’m not a police detective. You know that, right?”

“Yes!” He says the word so emphatically, I wonder if he’s getting indignant with me. I’ve run into this with Chinese clients who thought I was talking down to them just because their English was rough. His is pretty polished. “Mr. Landry, there is more to the situation. You must meet with Rinpoche to understand, okay?”

“Sure.”

He asks if four o’clock works for me. I smooth out the calendar page and find my court mandated anger management meeting scrawled in the box for four-thirty. I ask if he can make it sooner or later than that, and we settle on sooner. Norbu gives me the address for the dharma center and tells me to leave my shoes at the door.

“Your office is in Chinatown, yes?” he asks as we wrap up the call.

“That’s right.”

“So you have followed the news about the recent murders?”

“I’m as familiar as anyone who reads the paper.”

“Good, good. I will tell Rinpoche to expect you at three.”

I pick the cradle out of the broken particle board and hang up the phone. I had a bad feeling about today, but it turns out Sophie wasn’t the worst of it. This guy wants to get me involved with the Chinatown Monster.

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18 Kabanata
1
1New York City, 1991On my way back from the one hour photo with a satchel full of sins, I stand on the corner and wait for the dragon to pass before crossing the street. It’s my third Chinese New Year in the office on Mott Street where, in spite of spotty work, I haven’t been evicted yet, and that dragon is still as impressive as the first time I saw it. Wild-eyed, with curling horns and fierce paper jaws, the silk body winds down the street atop poles held by red and yellow clad dancers. I cross, trot up the steps to my building, and enter the lobby, dripping confetti from my shoes and shoulders. It’s a three-story walk-up, my office on the third floor, and by the time I get to the second landing I can hear my phone jangling. That’s the sound of thunder in the desert. I quicken my step.My shoes squeak on the grimy tile floor as I make the turn at the head of the stairs. Dim sunlight filters in through a skylight dome the color of sour milk but doesn’t quite reach the end of
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
Magbasa pa
2
2The first murder happened on New Year’s Eve—Gregorian calendar, not Chinese. The police wrote it off as gang violence, but even they knew it was too grisly for gangs. At least that was the word around the deli counters and bars of Little Italy. In Chinatown, nobody talks about the gangs. Certainly not with white guys who smell like pork. The underground gambling parlors in my neighborhood are all run by rival Chinese gangs overseen by the tongs, semi-legitimate Benevolent Associations. Above these groups are the international triads, organized crime syndicates that rival the Italian mafia with deep roots in Chinese secret societies and Southeast Asian drug cartels.What any of that has to do with Tibetan monks is anybody’s guess. Most of my clients are Caucasian. I don’t know much about Asia, despite my business address, but I’m old enough to remember when Tibet still looked like a separate country on the Rand McNally globe, and I’m pretty sure the only white powder they have there
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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3
3I meet Sgt. Joe Navarro at our favorite watering hole later that night. Joe and I served together in Panama. We were thick as thieves with two other grunts in our battalion: Steve Griebling and Larry Yang. Operation Just Cause. General Powell loved the name because even our worst critics would have to say the words. Of course, it didn’t take long for those of us who’d been there to put a different spin on it. Why did we invade Panama? Just ‘cause we fuckin felt like it. Steve was among the twenty-three who didn’t come home. Larry and I opened the agency in Chinatown together, and Joe became a cop in the Fifth Precinct.The place is quiet, like usual. That’s what Joe likes about it—he never has to break up a pair of assholes trying to tango while he’s off duty. Two guys and a girl are shooting pool on red felt and a couple of regulars are watching the Rangers on TV when I pull up next to Joe at the bar. I order a couple of beers and shots even though he’s hardly touched the bee
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
Magbasa pa
4
4In the morning, I drag my broken desk down the stairs to the curb before meeting a client at a coffee shop. I tell her what she’ll see in the photos I took of her husband, if she wants to look at them. She only asks to see the one that shows his face the best so she can’t kid herself that it isn’t him. I am relieved by this show of good sense. Denial is probably the biggest cause of contested invoices in my line of work, but I also don’t need her crying all over the prints in the coffee shop where we conduct our business.With that done, I make a few inquiries among the neighborhood kids I’ve cultivated as informants. Whenever I have a few bucks to spare, I toss a Spider Man comic or a Playboy their way and get a good return on investment. Today, I ask them about Sammy Fong. They don’t know much except that he found the chopped up body of a dai lo, a gang big brother, and they want to tell me all about it in gory detail until I tell them I already know about that, like everybody el
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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5
5Back at my office, I pour myself a bourbon and set it down on the folding card table I’m using as a temporary desk. I need to slow down and think things through. Maybe it was a suicide.My gut says no.I check my watch. I took the three blocks back to my office at a brisk walk and I’m not sure of exactly how much time has passed between the hanging and my discovery of the body. I reach for my glass and find myself picking up the phone instead. It’s just a hunch. I know it won’t prove anything. But before any more time can slip away, I’ve called the dharma center.An unfamiliar male voice answers: “Tashi delek! Diamond Path Dharma Center. How may I help you?”“Is Geshe Norbu available?”“He’s out on an errand. Would you like to leave a message?”I leave my name, then hang up and pull Gemma Ellison’s card from my wallet. I turn it over in my fingers and sip my drink, relaxing into the liquid heat and letting the impulse to keep making phone calls until I have some answ
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
Magbasa pa
6
6After Norbu leaves, I lock up the office and climb the stairs to the roof for a smoke. I can’t see squat from the top of my building, just graffiti on red brick in every direction with the skyscrapers in the gray drizzly distance, but I still like it up here better than down on the street when I need some nicotine to help me think. The car and truck exhaust is a little thinner up here, and maybe it’s my imagination but I think it makes the tobacco taste better.I stand on the gravely tar paper—not too close to the edge because I have a thing about heights—and by the time I’m on my second smoke, I’ve almost decided to drop the case. It’s getting way too hot and I’m only one day into it. I don’t need to piss off Joe and his buddies in blue any more than I already have. But something is niggling at me. I’m trying to figure out how to get at least one payment for legwork out of the monks before I bail, but when I think about telling Jigme Rinpoche that I can’t help him, there’s this re
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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7
7I hit a bar near Columbus Park on my way home from the Dancing Crane. Not my usual, not my favorite. I’m one of three white guys in the place and the other two are already sloppy drunk. One of these clowns—short and sinewy with a tattoo of a four leaf clover poking out the sleeve of his white tee and a drooping eyelid that looks more like a birth defect than a sign of drunkenness—weaves into me on his way to the bathroom and nearly knocks me off my stool, sloshing whiskey and ice out of my glass before it can touch my lips for the first sip.I have time to register the clover and reflect that it’s not his lucky day before a familiar dark glee overtakes me. It’s like my mind just slipped from daylight into the Lincoln Tunnel, the echo of spinning tires off the tiles pulling me down through the pulsing lights into the dark place where nothing exists but this asshole’s face bouncing off the floor. I’m on top of him, pummeling him, shattering his cheekbone, ripping my knuckles raw
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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8
8I grab the coffee I’ve been craving and head to my office on foot. Chinatown is quiet today, still hung over from its New Year revels. I climb the ill-lit stairs with my ears pricked but find no ninja whores lurking in ambush today. Which doesn’t mean I’m lacking in female visitors; Gemma Ellison, the cute grad student from the teahouse, is waiting outside my door. My first thought is that she looks spooked, sweaty around the edges.“Ms. Ellison.”“Gemma, please.”“I’d say I’m pleased to see you, Gemma, but I get the feeling you’re not here to ask me out for another cup of tea.”“May I come in?”“Of course.” I unlock the office door and wave her through. She takes in the seedy but tidy environs, her eyes lingering on the card table serving as a desk.“You’ve caught me in the middle of some renovations,” I say.“No computer?” she asks.“Not in the budget. Maybe someday. Are you here for my services? If you need some kind of cyber spy, I’m afraid I’m not your man.”“Oh,
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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9
9The goon takes the subway uptown. On the train I get a better look at his face and clothes. He’s young but restrained, not playing up the gangster thing with jewelry, or the Chinese thing with the kind of tacky Kung Fu graphics I see the wannabes flaunting. This one looks like he’s on his way to lieutenant, so he’s probably on an assignment Tien won’t risk on some low rank gopher. His posture shifts as we roll into Union Square, spine straightening and shoulders rolling back. I’m not surprised this is our stop. He’s headed to the Diamond Path Dharma Center.On the street, he buys a couple of hot dogs with sauerkraut and a can of Coke from a cart, then settles on a concrete planter where he can eat his lunch with a view of the dharma center from an angle that also takes in most of the path to a side entrance. I hang back and pace the street, blending in with foot traffic, watching him watch the doors and hoping Norbu won’t pop out of one of them, spot me, and bring me to the go
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
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10
10Detectives Navarro and Chen march me down the block to the park. My stomach is growling and I’d prefer it if we could do this over lunch, but I’m too broke and it sure doesn’t look like they’re buying. There’s some ham, mustard, and bread I can pick the mold off back in the mini fridge in my office, but for now I’m gonna have to go hungry just like all the methadone heads wandering the park. Well, at least I don’t have to worry about hurling my lunch over the side of a building this time. Remembering that stunt Chen pulled on me, my palms get sweaty, and for a few heady seconds I’m overcome by the impulse to lay my hands on his shoulders and push him into traffic. The urge is bright and hot, but it passes, and now we’re moving away from traffic, cutting left onto Union Square West. It doesn’t take long for the bumpy brick road to make my feet ache in these shoes, but glancing up at the rooftops, I revel in the sensation of connection to the ground. Navarro at my elbow, I fol
last updateHuling Na-update : 2021-09-06
Magbasa pa
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