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“He agreed to come up here on his lunch break,” Rafe was saying as he glanced at his watch. “Should be any minute now. I told him we’d make it worth his—” He was interrupted by the suite’s doorbell ringing. When Rafe quickly opened the door, he welcomed a Chinese man in his early sixties wearing a doorman’s livery.
“Thanks for coming, Mr. Lin,” Rafe said, leading the other man from the foyer into the living room. “We really appreciate this.” He turned to Dirk. “Mr. DeWinter, Ms. Moore, this is Mr. KamPor Lin. He’s one of the doormen on duty outside the lobby. He was working yesterday, and I think you need to hear what he has to say.”
Mei-li had already reached for her purse. She took a red Hong Kong banknote from her wallet, dexterously folded it and slipped it into the doorman’s palm as she shook his hand. The bill disappeared, and she murmured a few words in Cantonese, then stepped back and let Dirk shake the man’s hand, too.
Dirk glanced at Rafe, raising a brow in question, and Rafe said, “Mr. Lin was telling me earlier what he saw yesterday afternoon.” He started to say something more, then checked and said, “Probably better if you hear it from him directly.”
“Shall we be seated?” Mei-li asked, courteously indicating the sofa and chairs in the living room. When everyone was seated, she fixed her gaze on the doorman and asked a question in Cantonese. He nodded enthusiastically, breaking into a smile that revealed a gap between his two front teeth. He spoke for more than a minute, almost without pause. His face gleamed with pride, and Mei-li appeared enthralled by whatever he was saying.
She waited politely for the man to finish before turning to Dirk and murmuring, “I asked Mr. Lin if he is a father. He was telling me about his two sons and one daughter, who have all graduated from college. One son is a pharmacist, the other a chartered accountant. And his daughter is a teacher.”
Her eyes delivered a message Dirk had no trouble reading, and he reined in his impatience. “You must be very proud of your children, Mr. Lin.”
“Yes,” the doorman replied in English. He beamed. “Heaven has smiled upon my family. And my oldest son’s wife will soon present me with my first grandchild.”
Mei-li nodded and smiled. “You are indeed a fortunate man.” Then her face turned serious. “As a father yourself—soon to be a grandfather—you understand a father’s feelings toward his children,” she said gravely. “His link to immortality.”
“But of course.”
“Something priceless was stolen from Mr. DeWinter yesterday,” she continued, still in that grave tone. “His twin daughters. Little girls not even two years old.”
Shocked that Mei-li would reveal the kidnapping to a stranger, Dirk shot her a sharp glance. But she wasn’t looking at him; her eyes were glued to the doorman. “You can understand better than most why we need your help so desperately.”
The change that came over the man was immediate. “Stolen?” His face darkened. Then he nodded to himself as if a puzzle had been explained. “Ahhh, I knew there was something wrong with those two men. But I never dreamed—”
“What two men?” Dirk interjected.
“Yesterday afternoon, when everyone else was worried about the typhoon, when most people were taking shelter inside the hotel, two men came rushing out. It wasn’t raining yet, but still... And they did not look like guests. I said to myself, ‘Something is wrong here.’”
“What made you think they weren’t guests?” Mei-li asked.
“They were each carrying a large duffel bag...military,” he answered vaguely. “The color, you understand.”
“Khaki,” she supplied.
“Yes. We do not get many military guests. And the duffel bags were the worse for wear, too—not the baggage guests of the Peninsula Hotel normally carry.” He almost sniffed his disdain. “But it was not just that,” he added. “One of the men was also carrying one of those...” He searched for the word.
“Diaper bags?”
“Yes! A briefcase or a computer bag—that would be expected. Not a diaper bag. Not what a man normally carries. They appeared to be in a hurry, and one of them asked me to call a cab for them.”
“Which you did.”
“Yes, but that was another thing that made me sure they were not guests of the Peninsula Hotel.”
Mei-li smiled her understanding. “The tip, of course.”
