Read Fortune Cookie (Culinary Mystery) for Free Online Page B

their own in three weeks, blended together to create a pit in the middle of Sadie’s stomach.
    As they continued past the high-rise buildings and crowded sidewalks that banked the narrow streets, Pete remained silent. Perhaps he was experiencing some uncomfortable feelings, too.
    There were restaurants and boutiques and cell phone stores on the ground level of the towering buildings all built side by side. Pete slowed down and pulled into the underground parking structure beneath Portsmouth Square, and they exited on foot a few minutes later to join the throngs of people enjoying the Chinatown district. The square itself had light posts painted red with lantern tops. Older Asian people and smatterings of tourists occupied the benches and checkerboard tables, relaxing and talking beneath the trees. Children laughed and squealed as they played on a slide and chased one another through the relatively small, grassless park.
    “I think Choy’s is just down here,” Pete said, pointing. He took Sadie’s hand; his touch went a long way to relieve her growing insecurities, though she worried that she held on a little tight. Whether it was some attempt to remind him that he was making new memories here with Sadie or because she was becoming increasingly anxious about meeting her nephew, she couldn’t be sure.
    Bright Chinese lanterns were strung across the streets, and Asians dressed in bright silk tunics handed out coupons and advertisements. Stone statues flanked doorways, and tables loaded with trinkets were set out in front of windows full of brightly colored shirts, flags, silk scarves, and jewelry. They passed a family speaking German, and a few seconds later Sadie heard someone yell at a child in what sounded like Italian. There were so many people.
    “There it is,” Pete said, increasing his pace as though they were at an amusement park and he was excited to get in line for the next ride. Sadie wasn’t in nearly that kind of hurry but kept in step with him. The sign for Choy’s was bright yellow with the Chinese characters to the side of the English translation written in contrasting red. In the window were posters of different foods with both the English and Chinese descriptions. The posters looked several years old, some of them more tattered and faded than others. Beside the glass front door was a green dragon statue, one paw resting on a ball. People had used the open mouth as an ashtray.
    “Did you know there are both male and female dragon statues?” Pete asked, nodding to the statue, his hand on the door handle.
    “I’m not sure I want to know how you can tell,” Sadie replied, eyeing the statue warily.
    Pete laughed. “The female dragon statues have baby dragons under their paw, and the male dragons have their paw on a ball.”
    “I get what baby dragons represent. What does the ball represent?”
    Pete gave her a half smile and pulled open the door for her. “Because men rule the world, of course.”
    Sadie gave him an unimpressed look as she walked past him through the doorway. “And apparently design all the dragon statues.”
    Pete laughed and stepped in behind her. The fluorescent lighting buzzed overhead and made the inside of the restaurant brighter than the sky outside. Sadie had to blink a few times before her eyes adjusted. The white-walled restaurant was small—only ten tables sat close together, each with four chairs. Two Chinese men occupied one table, drinking coffee out of teacups and reading newspapers.
    There was an artificial ficus tree in one corner that even from this distance Sadie could see was coated with dust, which was likely locked onto the plastic leaves by the cooking grease from the kitchen behind the red door on the far wall. Near the front door was a glass case upon which sat the cash register and what looked like a small Buddhist shrine—Sadie had seen a similar display at the nail salon where she got pedicures in Garrison.
    Brightly colored Chinese lanterns hung from