Peter May - The Fourth Sacrifice

I have spent long hours going through the scraps of our lives before it all began. There is not much of it that has survived. A few photographs, some treasured letters that my husband and I exchanged in the months before we were married, a letter from Tao that, miraculously, reached us not long after he arrived in the United States. And this. It is the diary I kept for Tao after he left. It was meant to be a record for him of the things he missed and could catch up on when he returned.

I could not bring myself to continue with it after his father died. But I would like him to have it. He should know what happened to his family. I entrust it to you, because I know that you will keep it safe and see that Tao gets it when future circumstances allow.

Please tell him I love him. I am sorry for the trouble.

Your loving sister,

Ping Zhen.

Li looked up and found Yang watching him, that sense of shame returned to his eyes. ‘It was a crime back then,’ Yang said. ‘Chairman Mao described it as “alienating oneself from the people”.’ A tiny explosion of air escaped from his pursed lips. ‘Quite a euphemism. In reality what it meant was that we were not allowed a private room at the crematorium, we could not wear mourning armbands, or play funeral music. The whole family was made to feel the shame.’ And Li saw that he still felt it, even after all these years.

‘What happened?’ Li asked.

Yang shook his head. He could barely bring himself to recall the horror of it. ‘She threw herself out of the window and was impaled on the railings below. No one would go near her. Apparently she took hours to die.’ He met Li’s eye. ‘Tao never knew.’

Margaret’s ambivalence was more emotional than consciously thought out. And it wasn’t so much ambivalence as a sense of pleasure edged with guilt. But it was a serrated edge that made its presence felt disproportionate to its size. The net effect had been to cloud her pleasures of the night before with embarrassment the morning after.

She was annoyed, because she still felt warm and satisfied by a sexual encounter that had been all she could have hoped for. Michael had been a caring and sensitive lover, and she had surrendered herself completely to his ministrations. They had lain for a long time afterwards in each other’s arms and talked. About themselves, about their lives, although Margaret had still avoided the subject of the other Michael in her past. But he had not pressed her, and she had felt comfortable and relaxed with him, until she drifted off to sleep, aware as she did so of the myriad tiny kisses with which he was peppering her face and neck and breasts.

The difference a few short hours can make. Awakened from a deep sleep by their early alarm, she had been awkward and embarrassed with him. It was extraordinary how the day could cast such a different light upon events. Michael, on the other hand, had been attentive and affectionate, and if he was aware of her awkwardness, gave no sign of it.

Now, as their plane circled to land at Beijing Capital Airport after the seventy-minute flight, the embarrassment was passing, and in its place Margaret felt a growing apprehension. For thirty-six hours she had escaped from her life, had been able to pretend she was another person in another place. Now reality was racing up to meet her at several hundred miles an hour. She heard the squeal of tyres and the heavy jolt and swing of their China Northern aircraft as it touched down clumsily on the tarmac. Thoughts of Li, of the four murders and the continuing investigation, flooded back, and she wondered if she could achieve a less bumpy landing in life.

All hopes of a smooth transition, however, were quickly swept away as Margaret and Michael passed into the arrivals hall and saw Sophie’s anxious face scanning the crowds. Instinctively, Margaret withdrew her hand from Michael’s, like a schoolgirl caught in an indiscretion. Michael smiled. ‘Ashamed to be seen with me?’

Margaret was annoyed with herself. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘What self-respecting girl wouldn’t be?’

Sophie caught sight of them and pushed her way through the crowds. Her face was flushed. ‘I’ve got a car waiting for you,’ she said to Margaret. She flicked a look at Michael. ‘There have been developments.’ And she steered Margaret a discreet distance away and lowered her voice. ‘Your friend Deputy Section Chief Li now seems to think that Yuan Tao committed the first three murders.’

‘What?’ Margaret was caught completely off balance. And as she recovered a little, she said, ‘I suppose they think he cut his own head off.’

‘I doubt it very much,’ Sophie said with a tone. ‘The point is, an American citizen now stands accused of the murder of three Chinese nationals.’

‘He must be shaking in his grave,’ Margaret said. ‘What do you want me to do about it?’

‘The Chinese police have set up a briefing meeting at Municipal Headquarters in …’ she checked her watch, … forty-five minutes. We can’t afford to hang around.’

‘You can give me one minute,’ Margaret said, and she headed back towards Michael.

He was engaged in conversation on his mobile phone and looking at his watch. ‘Yeah, OK, Charles, I should be on location by ten thirty at the latest …’ He saw Margaret approaching. ‘Hang on,’ he said and put his hand over the receiver.

‘Michael, I’m sorry, I’ve got to go straight to a police briefing. I won’t be able to make it out to location after all.’

He shrugged and smiled ruefully. ‘Can’t be helped, I suppose.’ He paused. ‘What’s happened?’

Margaret gasped her frustration. ‘Apparently they seem to think that victim number four killed the other three.’ He frowned. She laughed. ‘Don’t even think about it. Will you give me a call?’

‘Tonight,’ he said, and to her surprise he lowered his head and gave her a long, soft kiss. ‘We must do that again sometime,’ he said ambiguously.

She nodded, aware of Sophie’s eyes watching them from somewhere behind her. ‘Soon.’

*

In the car, Margaret found Sophie looking at her curiously. She turned to meet her gaze.

Sophie said, ‘So you slept with him.’ It was a statement, not a question.

‘None of your business,’ Margaret said.

Sophie shook her head ruefully. ‘You lucky bitch. You know you’ll be the envy of half the women in America? And to think I introduced you.’

‘Well, you were right about one thing,’ Margaret said.

‘What’s that?’

She grinned. ‘He has got a great ass.’

Commissioner Hu Yisheng rose to shake Margaret’s hand across his desk. The divisional head of CID was dressed formally in a dark green jacket with two gold stripes on the sleeves above gold cuff buttons, and a pale green shirt with dark blue tie. The Ministry of Public Security police badge at the top of his left sleeve seemed disproportionately large, as did his head on a small body. But he was a handsome man for his age, she thought, with his dark-streaked grey hair swept back from a smooth, unlined forehead. His smile, however, was strained as he waved Margaret to a chair.

‘I would like to offer, Dr Campbell, my sincere thanks for your most excellent work on behalf of the Chinese people,’ he said stiffly.

Margaret was about to tell him the only reason she was here was because of her loyalty to the American people. But Sophie, sensing an imminent breach of etiquette, said quickly, ‘Dr Campbell is more than happy to help, Commissioner.’ Margaret could almost see the Commissioner wondering why she had not been able to say so for herself.

Jonathan Dakers was already there, as was Section Chief Chen Anming. There was a distinct chill in the air as he and Margaret were reacquainted. It was Chen, she recalled, who had first involved her in a Chinese police investigation back in June. He had asked her to perform an autopsy. A perfect example of the Chinese phenomenon of guanxi in action. He had presented her with a lavish gift while a pupil on a course in criminal investigation in Chicago, where she had been lecturing the previous year. A favour was owed, and he had called it in. But as that investigation had escalated beyond anything either of them could have imagined, she knew he had begun to regret involving her. Now it was clear from his manner that he did not want her anywhere near this new investigation. But the decision had not been his to make. She wondered if it was Chen who had ordered Li to stay away from her.