The Chinatown Killer

The Chinatown Killer is the second chapter of Westbury Detectives, in which a Mexican gunman is hired by the Miyamoto Group to assassinate someone at a local Chinese bar, leaving the detectives to try and find the correct target in time.

Summary
Like Jack's flashback in Fragments of Manhattan, the story opens with the side of the story of the girl who carried him, revealing that being away to carry him potentially saved her and her siblings' lives from bounty hunters. In the present, she has become an extremely skilled hired gun named Cora Estallido at work in Queens. Pinhead is nearby in the middle of shooting a detective on patrol, and by chance Pinhead spots Cora and picks her up, to which the detective barely overhears a plan to shoot someone at the Shao Pai Long, a local bar. A New York City police officer named Roger Mezzini comes to visit Byrd and his team with news that Pinhead is sending an unknown female gunman to kill their Shao Pai Long informant, Meifun Yan, and Jack joins the case while Byrd barely hides an infatuation with Roger. Becky is elsewhere telling her class about the kidnapping incident when Pinhead Miyamoto shows up on school grounds, bribing the children with a large bag of candy if they can promise not to tell if he drives by. Becky records all of this for Byrd, whom later goes to the Sunset Grill with questions for Emma Bishop, who blocks the investigation and winds up making Byrd shout at her. At the same time, Mara sees Cora outside, yet doesn't know yet who she is.

That night, Mara is attempting to draw Cora's face while Jack is on assignment at the Shao Pai Long. Rachel Turner happens to be reporting on the scene, and panicking, Jack tries to hide in the bathroom but winds up in Meifun's dressing room. She winds up telling him that she can't possibly be Pinhead's true target since only members of the Hong Kong-based Huixing Clan have ever turned up in the bar, and Pinhead avoids the entire group for unclear reasons. Later while singing, Jack befriends a bartender named Pang Wei Xue, only for him to barely avoid being shot in the head. Pinhead is pleased the next morning that people are fawning over Meifun's security, rather than the "real target". A flashback shows Cora and Pinhead met when they were 10 and 16 respectively, with Cora being trained by Clay Emmett.

Jack tries to ask Becky's class if they've seen Cora, but Pinhead's bribe has won over most of the class, and Robin vaguely mentions Pinhead wanting to kill someone with a birthmark. Jack goes to relax at the Shao Pai Long, but notices Pang Wei mentions working for the Huixing Clan and has a birthmark on his cheekbone. Pang Wei reveals he used to work for Huixing-owned clubs in New York City, where a young Pinhead/Iwao barraged him with sexual harassment. In order to launch an attack on the Giuliante Family mafia, Iwao would have to be seperated from Carrie Giuliante, and Pang Wei was blackmailed into taking him on a date. Most of the Giuliante family died and Carrie isolated herself from Iwao which traumatized him. Jack decides to guard Pang Wei for the rest of the day, and at his apartment, Pang Wei decides to make drinks for all the officers on guard. Cora bursts through the ceiling with a machete; Cora and Jack wrangle until she's tazed by Officer Antonelli, which doesn't stop her from slashing Byrd across the chest and jumping out the window onto Pinhead's car. As it turns out, only Byrd's clothes are damaged.

Later, the Miyamoto Group is regrouping, and Robin turns up at Pinhead's loft asking for help with winning over Becky. Pinhead tells him in private that since the kidnapping, there's nothing Robin can do but it won't be the last girl in his life. Emma, having come by with food for the gang, overhears and thinks Pinhead is "kind-hearted" while his gang looks on in abhor. At the WDA the next morning, Jack is greeted by Pang Wei, whom brings him breakfast and credits him with changing his life, but calls Jack his new bodyguard.

Title
The Chinatown Killer, or "Chinatown no Satsujinji" is the third track on Miki Matsubara's 1984 album Cool Cut. The song features Matsubara singing a story about an actual killer, although Fauna was unable to find translations at the time and couldn't base the chapter around the story.

Background Information

 * The chapter was released in two pieces, as Fauna went on a trip across Canada in the summer. A special illustration with Jack and Pinhead having a water fight was left up for a month until updates could resume.
 * Meifun was originally going to be the target all along until Fauna decided that would be boring for readers. Most of his vacation was spent co-creating Pang Wei Xue.
 * The man Cora kills at the beginning of the chapter is actually a cameo of Dr. Xavier Marte from a reboot of Skipper the Robot Kid that Fauna was working on at the time.
 * Fauna applied for a job at Best Buy in June 2011, and upon mentioning he ran two webcomics (Westbury Detectives and Quinn) at the time, the interviewer asked to see one. Westbury Detectives had just been updated with the page where Pinhead mentions his parents' murder, which are depicted in graphic silhouettes. Fauna didn't get the job.
 * Fauna considered putting in a romantic element between Meifun and Roger, but since Roger had been originally conceived as gay, he dropped it after deciding it would be unfair for Roger.
 * Although never mentioned in-comic, the sex toy young Pinhead gives a horrified Pang Wei is "a battery-operated wheel lined with rubber tongues".

Original Concept
Like Fragments of Manhattan, The Chinatown Killer was planned to be the second of three chapters, as evidenced by "Part Two" on the original cover from May 2011. There were initially two ideas for plots; one where Pinhead hires a gunwoman (then named Zuno) to murder a drug dealer marketing to local children, only for her to fight with and wound Jack, bringing the two to realize they were the ones who met as kids. It was rejected for being "too depressing". An altered version of this, first having Meifun as Pinhead's target, was later picked up.

The second idea had Jack and Mara leaving to check out New York City's Chinatown after hearing a club owner was being targeted for his art collection (the owner later evolving into Lucas O'Hare). This was rejected for the fact that Mara and Jack would be isolated among a new cast, losing time to develop characters like Dr. Byrd who badly needed elaboration.