Chapter 21

For the next two months Roger's life became a routine. He would get up and bath from a bucket that he kept on the wood stove, sit and think, walk down the road, come back and sit and think, fix supper from a can and sit an think until he went to bed. Every two to five days he would call Bart or his father and check on the company. Bart and his father seemed to be running the business fine without him.

On Roger's walks Lei's face would sometimes flash before his eyes. At first tears would come to his eyes but as time passed his insides would turn to stone and he would berate himself for not spending this time looking for Lei's murderer. He often sat thinking of the ways that he would make Lei's murderer suffer before he finally killed him.

On Mondays, Roger would let the cleaning lady in, pay her and then go down to the main road and do his shopping for the week. He would stop at a restaurant and get a steak before he returned to the cabin. The cleaning lady would be gone by the time he returned and she would have locked the door as she left.

It snowed several times but the snowfalls were light and the roads remained passable with his SUV. Roger began to enjoy the solitude and the occasional wildlife that he saw. On one of his walks he heard something behind him and when he turned there was a small bear walking behind him. The bear kept about a hundred feet behind him and every time that Roger stopped the bear stopped. This went on until Roger shouted and waved his arms. The bear turned and ran into the woods.

One morning Roger had just finished washing the morning's dishes and he heard a car coming up the gravel road. This was only the third car that had come up this far since he had come to the cabin road and the other two were just gawkers looking at the scenery. He watched as the Hummer slowly pulled in front of the cabin and stopped. There seemed to be a woman driving the large SUV but the sunlight on the windshield made it impossible to see who it was. Roger was sorry that he hadn't brought a gun with him.

Roger went to the door and watched as the woman got out of the car. As soon as she stood up straight Roger saw that it was Lee. He was surprised. He thought that he would never see her again after that night in the hotel.

"Damn, you're a hard man to find," she said as she stepped onto the porch, "Couldn't you find a place a little farther from civilization?"

"What are you doing in this neck of the woods?" Roger said.

"I just had to see your smiling face. Shit, you look terrible. When was the last time you shaved and got a haircut?"

Roger unconsciously ran his fingers through his hair. He hadn't shaved in about five days and he had only trimmed his hair once since he got to the cabin. He knew that it was getting long and he had figured that he would get a haircut one day when he went down to the main road.

"What brings you up here," he asked.

"Let's go inside," she said as she brushed past him.

When she sat her purse on the table he noticed that she didn't have a wedding ring on.

She saw that he was looking at her ring finger and shrugged, "My fiancé opened his mouth once too often. He's serving ten years in a Chinese jail. If he lives long enough to get out he'll never be allowed to leave China."

"What brings you up here?"

Lee rooted in her purse for something before finally turning to face him, "We've been trying to find you ever since you left. The Ah Kung wants to talk to you about something important."

"Who's the Ah Kung?"

Lee looked past him, "I don't know. Very few people know who he is. Chinese Triads are much different from your Mafia. They try to remain as invisible as possible."

Roger looked at her for a minute before speaking. He didn't believe that she didn't know the Ah Kung but he let it drop.

"We have to get you cleaned up." She said, "Did you bring a suit?"

Roger shook his head. Lee dialed her cell phone and talked to someone in Chinese. The little bit of Chinese that he knew let him know that she was saying something about his hair.

When she hung up she said, "Let's get you a haircut and a shave and a manicure. We have to get you a suit too. The Ah Kung wants to meet you tomorrow here at the cabin. We have to get you presentable."

Lee pushed him to the door. She went down the porch steps ahead of him and walked to her car. Lee turned and gave him a stern look because he was so slow. They didn't talk on the drive to the main road and Lee didn't offer any information as to where she was taking him.

They drove for about a half an hour before coming to a small town like many that dotted the mountain area of Northern California. Lee parked the car and stood as Roger got out and looked around. He saw that they were in front of a beauty shop.