Golden Lies - Barbara Freethy [137]
"What are you doing here, Grandfather?" she asked.
"I came to get my dragon back. Where is it?"
"I don't have your dragon. You steal it and keep it for yourself," Lee Chen said.
"You and Ned conspired against me. If he had one, you must have the other," Wallace replied.
"I do not," Lee said firmly, waving his hand in the air. "Get out of my house. You are not welcome here."
"Don't tell me where I'm not welcome. I'm the one who got you to this country, and how did you repay me? By stealing and burning down my store—"
"I thought you said my grandfather did that," Riley interrupted. "So you really don't know who did it, do you? Maybe you did it yourself. Maybe you wanted to cover something up, take the insurance money, start over."
"The person who burned down my store is the person who took the dragons out of the basement that night. That would be Ned or Lee," Wallace said. "I've known that all along."
"Why did you wait until now to come looking?" Riley asked, echoing the question in Paige's mind.
"Because I thought that the dragons had been destroyed in the fire. The store was a twenty-feet high pile of junk after that blaze. The cleanup wasn't as efficient as it would be today. I lost everything. When I saw your grandfather's dragon, I realized it had escaped the fire, and I suspected the other one had, too."
"And you knew my grandfather didn't have the other dragon because you had his house searched," Riley said. "You probably had my grandmother watched, too, didn't you? I knew someone was tailing us that very first day we went to the store."
Paige's eyes widened as Riley put together another piece of the puzzle that hadn't yet occurred to her. Wallace didn't confirm or deny the accusation, but Paige could see the truth in her grandfather's eyes. When he hadn't been able to get the dragon away from Riley and his grandmother, he'd had someone follow David until there was an opportunity to snatch the dragon back.
"Why did you wait until now to come here?" Riley asked.
"I don't have to explain anything to you. Where is the other dragon?" Wallace said turning his attention back to Lee. "I want it."
"I don't have it," Lee Chen stubbornly repeated. "I never had it. And I didn't set the fire."
"You were just the first one on the scene, is that it?"
"Yes. I was there. I tried to put the fire out. I tried to save the store. I never saw the dragons. I don't know where they are."
"You must know where one is," Jasmine said quietly. "It's here, somewhere in this apartment, isn't it?" Lee's face turned pale at his daughter's words. He started to shake his head, but Jasmine interrupted. "I saw it one night. A night like this."
Jasmine had barely finished speaking when a loud crack rocked the room. Fireworks! The parade must be over, for there was an explosion of noise, flashes of light coming through the windows. Jasmine jumped, putting a hand to her mouth. "It was just like this," she said. "I remember now."
"You remember nothing," An-Mei said fiercely. Suddenly the battle was between the two women and not the two men.
"I was frightened. I ran into your bedroom?" Jasmine's gaze darted to the door behind her mother, and she gasped.
Paige followed her gaze and saw the reason for the sudden horror on her face. Smoke was coming from under the door behind Mrs. Chen.
"Fire!" Alyssa cried.
An-Mei threw open the door to her bedroom, and they saw the curtains going up in flames. She ran into the room with a scream. Riley followed behind her, trying to pull her away from the fire. Paige rushed toward them both, while David, Jasmine, and Alyssa ran to the kitchen to get water to throw onto the fire.
"Get her out of here," Riley said. "Call 911." He tried to push An-Mei out of the room, but she was surprisingly strong for a small woman of her age. Paige tried to take her arm as well but she shrugged it off. Jasmine came into the room and begged her mother to leave it alone, to get out. An-Mei wouldn't