Abracadaver (Esther Diamond Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page B

But the two men had known each other all their lives, and despite how little they might have in common in terms of education, lifestyle, and career choices, they were bound by friendship and trust.
    “Miss Diamond.” Nathan nodded to me, then he turned to Max. “Dr. Zadok. I am grateful to you both for coming here on such short notice. John says you are knowledgeable in matters such as our . . . our . . . what happened here.”
    “Please call me Max.”
    “And call me Esther,” I added.
    Max started to ask, “What exactly
has
happ—”
    “Esther! Uncle Lucky!” John entered the elegant reception hall via the door that led to the offices and workrooms—the portion of the building where the Chens prepared bodies for visitation and burial. That area of the mortuary was contemporary and utilitarian, in contrast to the elegant visitation rooms. “Dr. Zadok, I’m so glad you’re here.”
    “Max,” said the old mage. “I insist.”
    John was a tall, handsome, American-born Chinese man, a year or two younger than my twenty-seven years, with thick, shiny hair, broad shoulders, and an appealing smile. He was also bright, sensible, kind, and had a dry sense of humor. I enjoyed John’s company—and wished I didn’t feel so self-conscious now that I knew he wanted to date me.
    What am I going to do about that?
    The moment to nip this in the bud by signaling that I wasn’t interested had already passed me by. I thought John was someone who would notice such signals, but since
I
was too dense to notice he was flirting with me, I hadn’t sent them. So he had brought up the subject of asking me out, and my distracted cluelessness had evidently come across as reciprocal interest.
    The fact that I liked John ensured that I felt terrible about that now. And the fact that I found him attractive and probably would have been interested in him if I had never met Lopez made me feel as if I had led him on—which guilt made me feel annoyed with John for being attracted to me in the first place. If he had just had the sense not to notice me, I thought grumpily, then I wouldn’t now be stuck with feeling bad about accidentally letting him think I wanted to go out with him.
    However, rather than gazing at me with fervent longing now, John was clearly stressed and distracted this evening—and no wonder. He’d nearly been murdered today, and he’d apparently also had a disturbingly weird experience here a little while ago.
    Pouring the tea he had offered us, Nathan asked Lucky where he had gone after leaving the crime scene. Lucky caught my eye and then, keeping the story simple, said we’d gone looking for Max, from whom I had gotten separated. Still keeping it simple, Lucky also told John and Nathan about the fire we’d witnessed at Yee & Sons Trading Company. Father and son commented on the dark fate of the Yees, who only days ago had been a respected Chinatown family with a successful business, much like the Chens themselves.
    We were all silent for a moment of somber reflection, though I doubted that John and Nathan were thinking the same things that I was thinking about the misfortunes of the Yee family.
    Then Lucky said, “I know Sam’s with his wife and kids today. Big holiday, and all that. So I guess this is everyone, huh? I think we should get down to business.”
    John let out a slow breath and nodded. “Yeah, we should talk about this. If I can explain it without sounding crazier than Susan Yee sounded today. I have no idea what to think about what happened here a little while ago. Or what to do—if anything.” He paused, seemed to give himself a mental shake, and said, “I’m going to make a concerted effort not to babble. I swear.”
    “That’s perfectly all right, John. Something has obviously distressed you,” said Max. “What has happened here?”
    Nathan and John exchanged a look, and the father said to the son, “You tell them.”
    “Are you sure? You’re the one who saw—”
    “You