Eliot Pattison - The Skull Mantra

Colonel Tan eyed Shan suspiciously as he stood with the report in front of Tan's desk an hour later, then grabbed the papers and read.

The building seemed nearly empty. No, not just empty, Shan considered, but deserted, abandoned, the way small mammals abandon their roosts when a predator at the top of the food chain moves in. The wind rattled the windows. Outside, a crow appeared, mobbed by small birds.

Colonel Tan looked up. "You've given me the ancillary reports. But the form is incomplete."

"You have all of the direct investigation facts. And such conclusions as are available. It is all I can do. You will need to make some decisions."

Tan folded his hands over the pages. "It has been a very long time since anyone mocked my authority. In fact, I don't recall it happening since I took over the county. Not since I was given the black chop."

Shan stared at the floor. The black chop was the authority to sign death warrants.

"I had hoped for more, Comrade. I expected you would want to do a thorough job. Take time to embrace the opportunity I offered to you."

"On consideration," Shan said, "it seemed that certain things should be said quickly."

Tan picked up the report and read. "At 1600 hours on the fifteenth a body was discovered. Five hundred feet above the Dragon Throat Bridge. The unidentified victim was dressed expensively, in cashmere and Western denim. Black body hair. Two surgical scars on his abdomen. No other identifying marks. The victim walked up a dangerous ridge at night and suffered a sudden trauma to the neck. No direct evidence of third party involvement. Since no missing person reports have been filed locally, victim was likely a stranger to the area, possibly of foreign origin. Attachments of the medical report and security officer incident report."

He turned the page. "Possible explanations accounting for the trauma. Scenario one. Victim stumbled on rocks in darkness, fell upon razor-edge quartz known to be geologically present in the area. Two. Fell onto tool left by the construction brigade. Three. Unacclimated to high mountain atmosphere, suffered sudden attack of altitude sickness, passed out and incurred injuries as described in one or two." Tan paused. "No meteorite? I liked the meteorite. A certain Buddhist flavor. Predestination from another world."

He folded his hands over the report. "You have failed to give me conclusions. You have failed to identify the victim. You have failed to give me a report I can sign."

"Identify the victim?"

"It is awkward to have strangers in the morgue. It could be misinterpreted as carelessness."

"But that is precisely why the Ministry should not trouble you. You cannot be blamed if his family is negligent."

"A tentative identification would attract less attention. If not a name, a hat."

"A hat?"

"A job. A home. At least a reason for being here. Madame Ko called the American company on the business card. They sell X-ray equipment. Let's say he sold X-ray equipment."

Shan looked into his hands. "There can be nothing but speculation."

"One's man speculation may become another's judgment."

Shan gazed over the shadows that were beginning to cover the slopes of the Dragon Claws. "If I gave it to you, the perfect scenario," he said slowly, hating himself more with every word, "one the Ministry would embrace, would you release me back to my unit?"

"This is not a negotiation." Colonel Tan considered, then shrugged. "I had no idea breaking rocks was so addictive. I would be pleased to return you to the warden, Comrade Prisoner."

"The man was a capitalist from Taiwan."

"Not an American?"

Shan returned Tan's gaze. "How do you think the Public Security Bureau will react at the mention of the word American?"

Tan raised his brow and nodded, conceding the point.

"Taiwanese," Shan said. "It will explain his money and clothing, even why he could travel without being noticed. Say a former Kuomintang soldier who had served here, had sentimental ties. Came to Lhasa with a tour group, broke away on his own and traveled to Lhadrung illegally. The government could not be responsible for the safety of such a person."

Tan contemplated Shan's words. "Such things could be verified."

Shan shook his head. "Two groups from Taiwan visited Lhasa over the last three weeks. The report from China Travel Service is attached. If you wait three days to check, the groups will all be home. Officially, nothing can be done to verify anything in Taiwan. It is well known by Public Security that such groups are often used for illegal purposes."

Tan offered one of his knife-edge smiles. "Perhaps I judged you too hastily."

"It will be sufficient to complete a file," Shan explained. "After the inspection team leaves, your prosecutor will know what to do." As he spoke, he recalled Tan had another reason to close the matter soon. Before referring to the inspection team, he had mentioned Americans, on their way for a visit.

"What will the prosecutor know to do?"

"Convert it to a murder investigation."

Tan pursed his lips together as if he had bitten something bitter. "Only a Taiwanese tourist, after all. We must guard against overreaction."

Shan looked up and spoke to the photograph of Mao. "I said it was the perfect scenario. Do not confuse it with the truth."

"Truth, Comrade?" Tan asked with an air of disbelief.

"In the end, you will still have a killer to find."

"That will be a matter for the prosecutor and myself to decide."

"Not necessarily."

Tan raised an eyebrow in question.

"You can complete a file sufficient to divert the matter for a few weeks. Maybe even send the file without all the signatures. It might sit on a desk for months before someone notices."

"And why would I be so negligent as to send the file without signatures?"

"Because eventually the accident report will have to be signed by the doctor who performed the autopsy."

"Dr. Sung," Tan said in a low, sour voice, as though to himself.

"The medical report was rather thorough. The doctor noticed the head was missing."

"What are you saying?"

"The doctor has other authorities to whom she reports. They do their own audits. Without the head, I doubt your accident report will be signed by the medical officer. Without the report, the Ministry will eventually examine the case and classify it as a murder."

Tan shrugged. "Eventually Prosecutor Jao will return."

"But meanwhile a killer is out there. Your prosecutor should be considering the implications."

"Implications?"

"Like how this man was killed by someone he knew."

Tan lit one of his American cigarettes. "You don't know that."

"The body was unmarked. No evidence of a struggle. He smoked a cigarette with someone. He walked up the mountain voluntarily. His shoes were clean."

"His shoes?"

"If he was dragged, they would have been scuffed. If he had been carried, he would not have picked up the fragments of rock that were found on his soles. It's in the autopsy report."

"So a thief found a rich tourist. Forced him to walk up at gunpoint."

"No. He wasn't robbed- a thief would not have overlooked two hundred American dollars. And he didn't drive to the South Claw on a whim, or at the request of someone he did not know."

"Someone he knew," Tan considered. "But that would make it local. No one is missing."

"Or someone who knew someone here. An old feud rekindled by a sudden visitor. A conspiracy unraveled. An opportunity for settling a score presented itself. Have you tried to contact him?"

"Who?"

"The prosecutor. One of the troubling questions I didn't write down is why the murderer waited until the prosecutor left town. Why now?"

"I told you. I don't want to speak about this on the phone."