Blood Passage by Michael J. McCann

because she wasn’t Chinese.”
    “ When you were Martin?” Grace Chan repeated, sounding upset. “You’re Taylor, not Martin. You’re Taylor, sweetheart.”
    The boy looked up at her, his expression serious. “When I was Martin you didn’t like my mama because her name was Merry and she had blue eyes. And I had green eyes.”
    The video abruptly ended.
    Hank straightened and put his hands in his pockets. “That was interesting.”
    Josh nodded. “Yeah. Martin Liu’s mother’s name is Meredith. She’s a Caucasian with blue eyes. Martin’s father was Chinese, of course, but Martin did have green eyes.”
    Hank gestured at the laptop. “How reliable is the video? Did you consider that it might be a fake?”
    “ We had a low level analysis done and we can’t find any evidence that the clip was fabricated or tampered with. No breaks, no audio dubbing.”
    “ The kid might have been following a script.”
    Josh shrugged. “Maybe. Bear in mind that we don’t see it as proof of anything definitive at this point. It’s simply a piece of evidence to be considered.”
    “ All right,” Hank relented. “So what happened next?”
    Josh returned to his notes. “So after the video was taken, the next incident was, uh, well, the same day. Mrs. Chan’s cousin Peter visited Taylor. She said that he only comes around on Taylor’s birthday to give him a present. It’s the only time they see him. According to Mrs. Chan, she was still upset about Taylor’s statements on the video at breakfast and she mentioned it to her cousin. She played the video for him and according to her, her cousin became quite concerned.”
    “ Concerned how?”
    “ I’m not quite sure,” Josh admitted. “Mrs. Chan said her cousin began to question Taylor about what he had said that morning. Usually he gives Taylor his present and leaves. Dr. Chan doesn’t like him. But this time her cousin asked for tea and sat down with Taylor. After a few minutes, according to Mrs. Chan, the conversation got a little strange.”
    “ How so?”
    Josh pointed to the screen. “This is a clip from our interview with Mrs. Chan. I excerpted it from the complete video so I could reference it easily. It’s her recollection of Taylor’s statements to her cousin Peter.” He tapped on an icon and the video began to play.
    A young, well-dressed Asian couple was sitting on a sofa in a living room, presumably in the Chan residence. Mrs. Chan was speaking.
    “ Peter asked Taylor if he liked to play video games and Taylor said that he did,” Grace Chan said. “He has an Xbox. He’s quite advanced for his age, and he already can use a computer. He learned his ABCs from a computer program over the winter. Anyway, then Taylor said to Peter that he was sorry he didn’t tell Peter about the secret bad thing he found out about.”
    A female voice off-camera said, “He said this to Peter?”
    “ That’s Dr. Walsh,” Josh said.
    “ Yes,” Grace Chan said. “He said, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the secret.’ I said, ‘What secret?’ Taylor said, ‘something bad.’”
    Off-camera, Dr. Walsh asked: “How did Peter react to this?”
    “ He said, ‘Who, Taylor? Who was doing it?’ Then Taylor said, ‘My friend. He played a game where he took people’s money but he gave it to these men. They hurt me when I found out. They wanted to know if I told anybody about it and they wouldn’t believe me when I said no. I wanted to tell you about it but I didn’t have time.’”
    “ A game taking people’s money,” Dr. Walsh repeated, obviously puzzled.
    Grace Chan nodded. “That’s what he said. Peter asked him again who the friend was but Taylor wouldn’t say a name. Then Peter got a very strange look on his face and said, ‘Ah, that’s all right. I’ll find those people and make sure they don’t bother you any more.’ Taylor said, ‘Okay,’ and then didn’t say anything else about it.”
    “ Was there anything else that Taylor said