Chapter 14

The Peking Empressmaterialized through the fog drifting on the canals of the West River district. I boarded the giant red barge and stepped into the smoke-veiled belly of that floating opium den, walking through the swirling, lingering shroud of mystic mist. The moment I saw Madame Chang, she sensed my presence and turned to face me with her completely white, blind eyes.

She smiled. "Why if it isn't Buck Baxter, I can see your light the minute you walk into the room."

The scent of the barge and the smoke in the den were already sending me into a transcendental state. My eyelids were feeling heavy, yet every step I took was like walking on clouds as I made my way towards her through the haze.

"Come," she said, floating down to her knees, the sleeves of her ethereal white gown like the fins of a fish as it settles on a riverbed. She rearranged the cushions on the floor in front of her. "Come and relax."

Before I knew it, I had discarded my clothes and was lying naked on the cushions before Madame Chang, my head in her lap. Every pore in my body had opened to release the sweat and drink in the poisonous pleasure of the opium that filled the room.

"What's troubling you, Mr. Baxter?" she asked, slowly waving her hands over my face and ears as though conjuring up some phantom inside my head. "You are like a person who has lost a key. Something bothers you."

"I'm working on a case. I feel like I'm so close to solving it, and yet—"

"Yet something else is clouding your sense of clarity."

I said nothing. She knew she was right.

"The clues you need to solve the case are all in your head, Mr. Baxter. I can see what you've seen. I can hear what you've heard. I already know who the killer is… and so do you."

"No, I don't. Tell me, who is it? Tell me why I can't figure it out. I just can't put the pieces together."

"That's because your heart is confused, and the head is just a shadow puppet of the heart. It dances when the heart finds happiness, but collapses upon an empty stage when the heart is lost."

"What does that mean?"

Madame Chang smiled and touched her fingers to my temples, massaging them gently. "You are my favorite box of curiosities, Mr. Baxter. However, you are not the only box of curiosities in this city. If you've found one… be warned not to open it, until it's ready to be opened."

I left The Peking Empress with a pouch of pot and a head full of riddles. Dawn was breaking over the city and the shadows from the skyscrapers were like the claws of night slowly retracting as the sun rose.

I had to rest.

I had to sleep.

When I got back to the office, there was no sign of Stella. I figured she was still out getting the dirt on the snake that almost sent us both to an early grave. I hit the sofa and fell asleep almost immediately.

When I woke, the afternoon light was dying and those shadowy claws were stretching across the city once more. It was time to get ready for the opening night performance of The Snake Charmer's Slave.