The Interior (Red Princess 2)

Hulan felt another wave of dizziness, and she swayed as she waited for the blackness to fall away from her eyes. She didn’t think she had the strength for this. Then Investigator Lo came forward. With one hand he held out his credential, while the other rested on the grip of his weapon. A couple of the neighbors gasped. This was not a good place to be.

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; “I think,” Lo said in a menacing tone, “you will be wise to listen to what Inspector Liu has to say.”

Out of the corner of her eye Hulan saw David edge toward her. He may not have understood the words, but he couldn’t mistake the standoff that was taking place before him. Henry grabbed his shirtsleeve to hold him back. Captain Woo perhaps had not seen the foreigners. Their appearance could only complicate things.

“With great respect, I would like to ask you again.” Hulan spoke evenly, hoping to temper the situation. “What do you think happened here?”

“It is very clear,” Woo responded at last. “The boy must have fallen into the well. Either that or he committed suicide.” Woo now addressed the neighbors. “We all know that he was engaged to Ling Miaoshan. He must have been despondent at her death.”

“You did not look at the body,” Hulan said. “How can you know this?”

“The boy drowned. Of that I am certain.”

“What he says is true,” Suchee said. “You saw him. He was wet, and his body came out of the well.”

“That’s right,” Woo said. “You knew the boy. You knew the situation. Tell your nosy friend how it is.”

Hulan looked at Suchee sadly. Of course, Suchee—even knowing what she did about her daughter—still was hoping to paint a picture of true love between Miaoshan and Tsai Bing.

“Captain Woo, please, come with me,” Hulan said. She walked to the body and knelt at its side. Reluctantly Woo came to stand next to her. Hulan called out to Lo, “Keep the others away, but don’t let anyone leave.” Then she lowered her voice so that only Woo could hear. “I know you aren’t familiar with corpses. I’m sorry to put you through this, but please, take a look with me.” The policeman squatted beside her. She smelled his frightened sweat. Looking up from under her lashes, she saw that the color had drained from his face and she hoped that he wouldn’t vomit. Any further loss of face would make what had to come next even more difficult.

Keeping her voice low, she asked, already guessing the answer, “Did you examine the body of Ling Miaoshan?”

Woo almost imperceptibly shook his head. Hulan sighed. What might have been found on the dead girl’s body if only this policeman had had the courage and/or the experience?

“I will not go into the physiology of drowning, because Tsai Bing did not drown. Instead I will ask you to look at some other markers. Please note that his eyes are pricked with red. His chest and face too have broken capillaries. This is consistent with suffocation. Hanging, strangulation, garroting.”

“But wouldn’t that also be consistent with drowning? Don’t you suffocate that way too?”

Good, Hulan thought. He’s beginning to focus.

“I have already explained. Tsai Bing didn’t drown.”

“Then what?”

“Look at his hands, at his fingernails in particular,” Hulan ordered gently. It was important that this appear as though Woo had made the discovery. “What do you see?”

“His fingernails are broken and bloody. He must have struggled to get out of the well.”

“He was dead when he went in the well. I guarantee that,” Hulan said. “What else do you see?”

“The color under his nails is good. Pink.”

“Too good, wouldn’t you say?”

Captain Woo didn’t know. This was only the second body he’d ever had to deal with and only the first that he’d really looked at.

“Tsai Bing is cyanotic,” she said.

“Do you mean cyanide poisoning?”

“Do you smell almonds?” she asked gently.

Woo shook his head.

“Neither do I,” Hulan said. “But there is another possibility. Carbon monoxide poisoning mimics these symptoms. If we were somewhere else, I would say that Tsai Bing might have committed suicide by locking himself in his car and rigging the exhaust pipe to come back inside. He would have died quickly and nearly painlessly.”