AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is not how we do things in Bashan, but I won’t interfere.”
“Good! David, who do you think I should talk to first?” Hulan asked.
David was startled to realize that she planned on doing the interviews without him. He answered, “Angela was the last person to see Lily alive.”
“Besides us.”
He heard the recrimination in her voice, but there was nothing that they could or would have done differently.
“You should go out to the site,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows. “While you’re still here?”
They’d always done these things together. She was not only cutting him out of what was happening in the hotel but getting him out of the way entirely.
“I wish you could hear what these people have to say,” she hastily explained, “but it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to be here.” Then, “But you could track down Dr. Ma for me.”
“He wasn’t outside?” David asked, though he smarted at being relegated to such an insignificant chore.
Hulan lifted her hands in puzzlement. “The Jeep was gone when I went to check.”
“I don’t think we should split up.”
“As I said, it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to stay.” She didn’t give him a chance to argue. Instead, she turned to Hom. “I’d like you to provide Attorney Stark with a car and a driver.”
Hom nodded morosely, his disapproval strong on his features.
“Arrange it now,” Hulan ordered, and Hom left them.
Hulan turned back to David. “You have the right to question whomever you want to out there.”
“Hulan—”
She put a hand on his sleeve. “I have some ideas about all this, but we’ll have to talk about them later.”
They walked to the lobby. David pulled a couple of chairs together around a low table, delaying in the hope that Hulan would change her mind, but she evaded any further discussion by disappearing behind the front desk to search for paper and pens. Hom came back inside. His jacket and hat were dripping wet. He took them off and offered them to David. “You’ll need these.”
David thanked Hom, then Hulan said, “I’ll come out to the site later, because we should still see the Wus. Will you wait for me?” She left no room for dissent, and he reluctantly agreed. She kissed his cheek. “Be careful.”
“You too.” Then David stepped out into the rain.
A FEW MINUTES LATER HOM RETURNED WITH SU ZHANGQING AND Ge Fei, the two officers who’d first arrived on the scene. They were pale, and Ge still reeked of vomit. Hulan thought their inexperience, as well as the horror of the crime, which only they had seen, might work in their favor when they interviewed the hotel’s employees. She didn’t want the officers pumped up. She didn’t want them intimidating anyone—as if they could, the poor kids. She handed them each a pad and a pen.
“Write this down exactly and ask only these questions,” she instructed. “What is your name? What are your hours in the hotel? If you were here last night, did you see or hear anything near Room 5? If you were not in the hotel, did you see the deceased in town? Did you see any of the foreigners in town? Have you ever seen the deceased in an argument? Are you a member of the All-Patriotic Society?” Both young men simultaneously raised their eyebrows at this last question, but she didn’t want to explain to them her reason for it yet. “This is the information I want. Nothing more. Nothing less. You will interview everyone. Each interview will get a separate piece of paper. Do you have any questions?”
The shy boy cleared his throat. “How will they know who we’re talking about?”
“Su, are you Su?”
The boy looked at the floor and nodded.
“You’ve asked a good question,” she said. The praise brought back a little color to the boy’s cheeks. “There were four foreign women in the guesthouse. Three of them are in the dining room. When you go back, have the workers look at the foreign women. The one who’s missing is dead. Any other questions? No? In that case, you’re dismissed. Captain Hom, please bring me Angela McCarthy.”
Once alone, Hulan tried to collect her thoughts. Yesterday she’d told these people to be careful, and now one of them was dead. Lily could now be added to the list of those Hulan had failed.
Angela and Hom stepped into the lobby. He motioned her to a chair opposite Hulan, then took a position against the wall. The young woman, who last night had been rather casual about her brother’s death, seemed devastated now, her eyes swollen and red from crying. “How could this happen?” she sobbed. “We were with her….”
r />
