The Interior (Red Princess 2)

“I assumed you knew. I figured that’s why you were so upset.”

Hulan ignored his last comment and said, “Tell me everything.”

“We were in a meeting. Sandy Newheart got a call. He said we should break for coffee. He and the Knights left. When they didn’t come back, I went outside and found them with the body.”

“And?”

“And nothing. A security guard wrapped her up and took her away. We went back to the conference room. The old man was pretty shaken up, but he’s tough, focused. We continued our meeting.”

“David,” Hulan said, leaning forward intently, “tell me about the body. Where was it in relation to the building? How did it look exactly?”

“Oh, Hulan—”

“David, please.”

“Okay.” He sighed, then began to conjure up the picture in his mind. “She was on the ground, obviously.”

“Right next to the building?” she inquired. “On the steps? Up against the wall?”

“No, she was on the dirt. I’d say seven to ten feet from the building.”

“And how did she look?”

“How do you think?” he asked impatiently. “Her head was flat. There was lots of blood.”

Hulan closed her eyes and slouched back in the chair. “On her side? Face up?”

“Face up.”

Her eyes still closed, Hulan nodded grimly as if she’d seen the body herself. “Do you know what Peanut said?” she asked. “She said that Xiao Yang—Little Yang, that’s the dead woman—wouldn’t be coming back. I thought she was joking. At the time I thought she meant that Xiao Yang’s injuries were so bad she’d have to go home. But now I see Peanut meant something quite different.”

“Don’t read anything into this, Hulan.”

Hulan slowly opened her eyes and stared at David. “I’m only responding to what you saw.”

“I saw a woman who jumped from a building and died.”

“Look at it with me: A woman gets her arm half torn off. She loses a lot of blood. She’s probably in shock. She can’t walk off the factory floor—”

“Aaron Rodgers said he carried her to his office, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t walk.”

“I’m telling you she couldn’t walk.” Hulan waited for David to challenge her again. When he didn’t, she continued, “He takes her somewhere—”

“His office…”

“And goes for help.” David nodded, and Hulan went on. “Now, you’re suggesting that Xiao Yang gets up, climbs a set of stairs, somehow finds her way onto the roof, goes to the edge of the building, and jumps?”

“That’s what happened.”

“David, think about that building. If you were on the second-floor roof and you jumped, do you think you would die?”

“Probably not, might break an ankle, though.” He smiled, but Hulan would have none of it.

“So you’d go feet first?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“Then how do you explain the fact that Xiao Yang landed ten feet from the building, with her head crushed?”