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Hulan felt a few drops of rain and looked around for shelter.
“What about the other deaths?” David asked as the drops became heavier.
Ma’s lips curled disapprovingly. “I’ve discussed these accidents with the Public Security Bureau. If they are of no concern to our local officials, why should they be of concern to a foreigner?”
“Because I was hired by your boss to inquire about them.”
Ma nodded curtly, then said, “You have to forgive me. In our country innocent people are often blamed for crimes or misdeeds where none have occurred.”
The sky finally opened up, and it began to pour. Ma grabbed Hulan’s arm and hastily pulled her away from the river’s edge. David scrambled after them. At the base of the cliff was an opening to a cave. The three ducked inside.
Ma shook the water off his hat and wiped his face. “It’s monsoon season, and we’ve been getting rain every afternoon, but this is supposed to be a big storm. It shouldn’t affect us too much up here, where the river will rise many meters but stay within its banks. Bad flooding is predicted below the dam site however. The land flattens down there, and the floodwaters sometimes spread out miles beyond the riverbanks.”
The day was so hot that the rain should have been a relief, but the heat had not subsided. Yet a cool breeze coming from the deep darkness of the cave began to envelop them, bringing with it an awful smell like mold or rotting fruit. Hulan thought for a moment she heard a baby’s cry, but then the sound was swallowed by the cave’s echoing silence. This place was creepy, but the two men didn’t seem to mind.
“It’s a long walk back to camp. Let’s stay here a bit and see if it lets up,” Ma suggested. He squatted peasant-style, his knees drawn up to his chest. He looked out at the rain and began answering David’s earlier question. “We’ve had other deaths out here. I can’t deny it, but I can’t take full responsibility for them either.”
He looked around, reached for a stick, and began to trace in the soft earth of the cave floor the route they’d taken from Bashan dock all the way to this little cove. “We’ve come about a kilometer east of Site 518, walking parallel to what’s known as the Unlocked Gates Gorge—two peaks on the other side of the river. That’s here,” he said, jabbing an x just across from where they were now. “It’s not one of the official Three Gorges because it doesn’t straddle the river and isn’t very long or dramatic, but technically it still qualifies as a gorge. On one side of the gorge about midway up the mountain is what’s known as the Beheading Dragon Platform. On the other side is the Binding Dragon Pillar. You can see them from the river.”
He drew another line extending north from the town. “Bashan sits on the banks of a stream that feeds into the Yangzi. We crossed the bridge over that stream today. By the end of next year, that bridge will be submerged in phase one of inundation, so a new one was built on higher ground but not very well, apparently. Peng, Dang, and Sun were day workers who lived in the hills. They were crossing the new bridge when it collapsed.”
Ma’s words seemed distant as he conjured up the accident. “Inspector, I’m sure you’ve heard Premier Zhu Rongji talk about the dangers of ‘tofu construction.’ And I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about the corruption that’s happening along the river in regard to the dam. Money’s been pocketed, and new roads, bridges, and buildings have failed. What I don’t understand, though, is your interest in the collapse of our bridge when there have been others with greater fatalities.” He lengthened the line for the Yangzi, then marked another spot much farther east. “A bridge gave way downstream from here, killing eleven people. And what about the collapse in Chongqing? Forty people dead. Eighteen of them police— your colleagues, Inspector. Who’s concerned about them?”
He cocked his head as if something had just occurred to him. “And our three workers weren’t the only ones to die on that bridge. Did you know that? Peng was walking with his wife, mother-in-law, and five-year-old son. There were also a couple of farmers from this side of the stream who were crossing into Bashan to sell their produce at the town market.”
“I assume the Public Security Bureau investigated the collapse,” Hulan said.
Ma jutted his chin dismissively. “Captain Hom is the contractor’s brother-in-law.”
David and Hulan exchanged looks. Village politics and connections were not so different from those in the capital.
“And the other accidents?” David inquired.
“A young man fell from a ladder and broke his neck. It could have happened to anyone, but it happened to another day worker, named Yun Re.”
“How? Where? When?” David asked.
“It happened during xiuxi about a month ago. Naps are especially important on a site like this, because the heat can be so oppressive in the afternoons. The caves give everyone a break. You feel it, don’t you? The coolness? We’re near the entrance, but if we went in farther, it would get even colder because a cave maintains its temperature based on the annual average between the internal and external temperatures. The average temperature in these caves is about sixteen degrees Centigrade.” Then he added for David’s benefit, “Or about sixty of your degrees. We’ve got tents, but who wants to sleep in them when you can escape the heat in the caves?”
“I don’t see where the ladder comes in,” Hulan said.
“We’ve got bunks. They’ve got ladders.”
“And this is just for your day workers,” Hulan clarified.
“I never said that. The vultures and students each have their own dormitory caves. Mine is private,” Ma confessed. After a moment, he went on. “The last death wasn’t at the dig. One of
our workers drowned.”
Again David asked the obvious questions, and Ma answered them. “On June twenty-eighth, Wu Huadong didn’t show up for work. Two days later, his body was found in a whirlpool about a li from here. That’s about an eighth of one of your miles.” Ma used his stick to mark the spot.
“How was the body found?” David asked.
“Someone on a ferry spotted it and reported it to the captain, who radioed to Captain Hom’s office. Hom must have sent someone out in a boat to retrieve the body.” After a moment, Ma added, “We think Wu Huadong fell in the river somewhere near here, probably from the path we came down.”
Again David and Hulan glanced at each other. It would be easy to slip off that path, even if you’d traversed it hundreds of times.
“Was Wu also from Bashan?” Hulan asked.
