The Week of January 24 - E. D. James

The bird did not bring an immediate conclusion to her search. Sai scanned the faces on the streetcars and in the streets with renewed intensity for a few days after that morning omen. She went home each night and worked with the face morphing software she’d purchased the year before to try and take the picture from the locket and use it to help her recognize the young woman that baby would have become. She used pictures of herself to meld with that of the baby. She had no pictures of the father. An older boy who had promised to protect her. They loved one another but were torn apart by the tumult of the times and her family’s escape. The software image never quite matched the picture she carried in her head of her daughter’s face.

The cellphone buzzing on her desk startled her. She looked up from the documents she was working on and looked out her window to see if any one in the office noticed as she hurriedly reached to pick it up.
“Hello.”
“Ms. Liu?”
“Yes, who is this? How did you get this number?”
“You submitted it when you queried our website. My name is Markus Wick. I’m with the Chinese birth family association.”
“Do you have some information for me?”
“I believe that we can help you in your search.”
“Do you have records from the orphanages in Shanhai?”
“We do. I would like to meet with you to discuss how we can move the process forward. Would you have time this evening?”
“What time?”
“Say eight o’clock? I can come to your house.”

The man sitting in front of her did not fit Sai’s image of what a person working to trace Chinese orphans would look like. He was young, for one thing, in his early thirties. His hair was big and looked like he used something to hold it in place. His glasses were distracting, obviously expensive, the metal rims with a tortise shell cover. His business card and the information regarding his company were printed in a businesslike fashion. He leaned forward as he spoke and handed her piece of paper.
“We have found this record of a girl given up for adoption on fifteen September nineteen ninety five.”
The page felt heavy in Sai’s hands. Her fingertips and palms were moist and seemed to stick to the paper. The words swam in front of her eyes for a moment. She saw her own name and that of her father.
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“Not yet. But we can trace her from this record.”
“Have you had business with this orphanage before?”
“We have had good luck with similar institutions.”
“What is the next step?”
“We will need a deposit of ten thousand dollars to begin the work. If we establish a connection we will have to travel to Shanghai to meet at the orphanage. We will need additional funds at that time for expenses.”
Sai looked the man in the eyes, “Do you have an agreement you would like me to sign?”
He picked up the portfolio from the couch beside him, “This will spell out all the terms of the engagement.” He pulled the first three pages back and folded them over, “You just need to sign here.”
Sai took the pages and folded them back to the beginning, “I am going to need to review this, then we can meet again to finalize the engagement.”

As she sat that night in front of the altar Sai couldn’t keep her mind from racing. She felt guilty for not just signing the contract and writing the check. She wondered if the instinct that had made her suspect the man was true.