Chapter 16: House Cleaning (1)

4 Years Ago, DECEMBER 17 — 1982.

Li Xian, Sean Xiao, Zhang Xiaohua, Cao Feifei, and several of her children were driving to her mother's house in West Milford. They were going there to drop the kids off for the day. As they approached the house, they noticed a police car parked off the road, backed up into the woods.

Zhang Xiaohua was immediately suspicious. It wasn't the kind of road where the police would post a speed trap. When they got to Cao Feifei's mother's house, they saw that her car wasn't in the driveway. Zhang Xiaohua ordered Li Xian and Sean Xiao to get out and go hide in the woods behind the house. He figured that if the cops were up to something, having the gang all together would give them a reason to haul them in.

Zhang Xiaohua's instincts were right. When he and Cao Feifei backed out of the driveway and drove up to a stop sign at the top of the hill, police cars came out of nowhere and surrounded their station wagon. As the police emerged from their vehicles with guns drawn, shouting for Zhang Xiaohua and Cao Feifei to show their hands and not move, the frightened children wailed in the backseat. Zhang Xiaohua snapped at them and told them to shut up. This was all a lot of bullshit. He'd been through this before. These sons of bitches were just out to hassle him, he figured.

But Zhang Xiaohua was wrong about that. Passaic County had a seventy-nine-count indictment against him for an assortment of offenses, including theft and forgery of motor vehicle registrations. The cops weren't just out to hassle him this time. Their intention was to put him and his gang away. They had arrest warrants for Li Xian and Sean Xiao, too.

As the police leaned Zhang Xiaohua over the hood of the station wagon to handcuff him while they read him his rights, he looked over at pregnant Cao Feifei clutching her screaming baby. He didn't have to say a word. His sad, baggy eyes said it all. She knew right away what he wanted her to do. Call Shifu. She looked around at the faces of all the policemen. They were all focused on Zhang Xiaohua. She nodded to him that she understood.

Later that day she caught up with her cousin Li Xian and her ex-husband, Sean Xiao, at Li Xian's house. Veronica, Li Xian's wife, was hysterical. Detective Pat Kane of the state police had been there earlier with a search warrant. He was looking for Li Xian.

Sean Xiao and Li Xian were frantic. They were on foot, they didn't have much money, and they didn't want to get caught hanging around there, so Cao Feifei drove them to the Sussex Motel in Vernon, where she rented a room and they all spent the night. She had already gotten in touch with Shifu, right after Zhang Xiaohua was arrested.

Cao Feifei didn't have that much money herself, but Sean Xiao had just put down a security deposit on a house in Lake Hopatcong, so the next morning they drove there in the hope that Sean Xiao could get the deposit back. But the landlord wasn't around when they got there, and they didn't want to stick around. They all piled back into the station wagon and headed east on Route 80. Liu Shifu had instructed Cao Feifei to take Li Xian and Sean Xiao to some place called Paul's Diner on Route 3 somewhere in Hudson County.

Forty-five minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of Paul's Diner. A white Cadillac with a blue top was parked at the far end of the lot all by itself. Liu Shifu was sitting behind the wheel. Cao Feifei pulled the station wagon up alongside the Cadillac and rolled down her window. The Cadillac's power window glided down, and Shifu looked right through her, glaring at Sean Xiao and Li Xian.

"Follow me," he said.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

He narrowed his eyes, and his stare bore into her. She froze in place.

"Just follow me," he repeated. His window glided up, and the Cadillac's engine roared to life.

Cao Feifei followed him to the Liberty Motel in North Bergen, where Shifu gave Sean Xiao some money and he rented a room under the name Jack Bush. Relieved to have the fugitives out of her car, Cao Feifei headed straight back to her sister's place, where she'd left her children.

Zhang Xiaohua, in the meantime, was stuck in the Passaic County jail, being pressed for the whereabouts of his associates Li Xian and Sean Xiao. He repeatedly told the police that he didn't know where they were, but the cops kept hounding him.

Actually Zhang Xiaohua wanted to know where they were and what they were doing himself, particularly Li Xian. He didn't trust Li Xian anymore, hadn't trusted him since Thanksgiving. Li Xian still had it in his head that he could reform himself, and Zhang Xiaohua feared that if the cops got to him, he'd want to cooperate just to show them what a real good citizen he was now.

Li Xian would turn on them, sure as shit. He was a time bomb waiting to go off. Sitting in his cell, Zhang Xiaohua got the sweats just thinking about it. He'd done time before, but he'd never gotten used to the feeling of being locked up. The thought of doing another long stretch was making him short of breath. He couldn't do it, he just couldn't. He'd go crazy. He needed to know where the hell Li Xian was, but the goddamn cops weren't letting him make any calls. For three days he waited, barely containing his panic until finally they let him have a visitor, Cao Feifei.

Sitting across the table from Zhang Xiaohua in a room with guards within earshot, Cao Feifei told him not to worry because the big guy was baby-sitting the boys. Zhang Xiaohua was still uneasy. He leaned forward, smiling sweetly for the guards' benefit, and growled in her face. "Tell Shifu to send Li Xian to Florida."

A chill ran through Cao Feifei's veins. She knew exactly what he meant. Send Li Xian to Florida. Send him away. Have him killed. Li Xian was her cousin, but Zhang Xiaohua had been ranting and raving for months about how dangerous Li Xian had become to them. To her, too. She could be charged as an accomplice. She could go to jail, too. The thought terrified her. Who would watch all her kids. And what would happen to the one she was carrying now. Would she have to deliver the baby in jail, then give it up immediately. No. She wasn't about to let that happen. Li Xian was her cousin, but Zhang Xiaohua was right. Li Xian was dangerous.

The next day she drove down to the Liberty Motel, where Li Xian and Sean Xiao were hiding, to deliver Zhang Xiaohua's message. Sean Xiao was in the room with Shifu when she arrived. Li Xian had gone out to get a soda.

She spoke quickly, fearing that Li Xian would walk in on them. "Zhang Xiaohua says you should send Li Xian to Florida."

Shifu was sitting in the one armchair in the room, seemingly lost in thought. She started to repeat it, but he cut her off. "I heard what you said."

A few minutes later Li Xian returned with a couple of cans of Coke. She was startled to see his bruised face. He kept his eyes down, barely saying hello to her. Shifu explained to her that Li Xian had been a bad boy last night. First he had gotten caught shoplifting at the convenience store across the street, and the manager had almost called the cops on him. Then he'd hitchhiked home so he could see his wife and daughter. Sean Xiao whittled his index fingers at Li Xian, shame-shame. Then he balled his fist and nodded toward Shifu. "A little attitude adjustment," Sean Xiao whispered.

Shifu was staring at Li Xian sitting on the bed.

Cao Feifei's heart started to pound.

.....

The next day, December 23, 1982, Shifu moved the fugitives again, to another motel in North Bergen, the York Motel, a two-story green stucco building perched on the edge of the rocky palisades on Route 3, five minutes from the Lincoln Tunnel. Again, Shifu gave Sean Xiao some cash and sent him into the office to rent a room. Under the blinking glare of multicolored Christmas lights strung around the plate glass window, Sean Xiao signed the register as Jack Bush and took the key to Room 31, a first-floor room that faced the narrow parking lot and a wall of gray jagged rock beyond.

At five o'clock that afternoon Cao Feifei arrived at the York Motel at Liu Shifu's request. She had her baby daughter, Jennifer, with her. When Shifu had called her, he didn't say why he wanted her there, but she knew better than to question him. He was obviously unhappy with the whole situation, and she prayed he wouldn't take it out on her.

When she knocked on the door to Room 31, Sean Xiao answered. Through the doorway she could see Li Xian moping on the bed. Shifu wasn't there. Sean Xiao told her to go over to the coffee shop at the Holiday Inn down the hill. He'd meet her there in a little while.

Over an hour later Sean Xiao finally showed up. Sounding as desperate as Zhang Xiaohua had sounded in jail, he told her 'the plan'." They were going to kill Li Xian tonight. They had to. He'd hitchhiked home again, and Shifu was pissed as shit. Li Xian was gonna rat on them. He had to go.

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