Dragon Bones (Red Princess 3)

“No, this is my first time to China. But before I leave, I’d like to go up the Lesser Three Gorges, maybe hike up in the hills. That would be great….”

Angela looked lost for a moment. Then, as Brian’s death came back to her, she shifted into something a little more technical.

“Anyway, you’re right about the lingzhi. It does have a reputation for giving long life, everlasting youth actually. In my opinion the medicinal properties are about as valid as those for those dragon bones the archaeologists keep talking about, but in my profession, as dragon bones are in theirs, the lingzhi has incredible value.”

“In terms of giving a key to the past?”

“Hardly. The lingzhi has great monetary value.”

“For traditional Chinese medicine?” Hulan had some experience with the lengths to which people would go to obtain the raw ingredients for traditional medicine.

“Also in jewelry,” Angela answered.

“A fungus in jewelry?”

“It was very popular during the Qing Dynasty in hair ornaments and pins.”

“And in a ruyi?”

“Especially a ruyi. Emperors have always prized the lingzhi. The largest lingzhi in the world is in the Forbidden City’s collection. It’s about three feet in diameter. It’s very beautiful to me—and to the emperor too, I guess—but to many people it just looks like a giant dried mushroom.”

“So you think Brian found a special version of this fungus. Maybe a ruyi—”

“I don’t care about artifacts, only live fungus,” Angela said haughtily. Then she shook off her professional pride and added, “I don’t know what I thought exactly. Maybe he’d found one even larger than the Forbidden City fungus, maybe it was a new variety, or maybe there was a special growth pattern. No one knows what causes the lingzhi to grow or why it’s found primarily in the Lesser Three Gorges.”

“Did the photos give you any hints that you were going to find anything like what you’re describing?”

Angela admitted that they hadn’t. “But there has to be something, otherwise he wouldn’t have been so persistent.”

“And have you found this fungus?”

“Mushrooms are springing up all over now that it’s raining, especially around Site 518. But I haven’t found the lingzhi or anything related to it.”

Throughout the conversation, Hulan had been checking out the room. Camping equipment was piled up under the window, dirty clothes were thrown in a corner, and the desk was strewn with papers and tools.

“Was this your brother’s room?”

“They let me have it when I got here. I’ve gone through everything, even his clothes pockets. I didn’t find anything.”

“May I look?”

“Go ahead.”

Typically Hulan would have searched the deceased’s belongings without a survivor present, but Angela made no move to leave nor did she feign some other activity. Instead, the young woman just sat on the bed, watching Hulan and commenting on what she was doing.

As Hulan unrolled Brian’s sleeping bag, Angela said, “I already checked and there’s nothing inside.” When Hulan held up a miner’s light, Angela said, “My brother was a caver, but I bet you knew that.” Brian had owned a good set of kneepads and a hard hat to go with his miner’s light. “Caving was a hobby. My brother loved China, because he had so many new places to explore.”

You could never tell how grief was going to settle on someone. Some people quickly got rid of all the deceased’s belongings; others kept entire rooms as they’d been in the deceased’s lifetime. But Angela was peculiar in the sense that she not only hadn’t disposed of her brother’s things but was living amid them. No wonder she acted so strangely. And yet there seemed to be nothing personal that belonged to the boy. No receipts, no matchbooks, no condoms in a pocket, and nothing related to Site 518.

“Have you thrown out anything—papers, anything like that?”

Angela shook her head, and Hulan believed her, which meant that someone had gone through this room between the time Brian disappeared and the time Angela arrived, taking away anything that might have helped re-create his actions in the days leading up to his death. Hom hadn’t mentioned searching the room, but given his laissez-faire attitude, she wouldn’t have expected him to. No one had reported that the room had been broken into, but then Lily’s room hadn’t been broken into either. Her killers had probably just used the room key she was carrying. The same undoubtedly held true for Brian.

Hulan asked to see Brian’s daypack, and Angela got it out of the closet. Again, Angela watched intently as Hulan went through Brian’s effects. The bottle of water was still there, along with the pencils and cap. Hulan looked up and said, “Captain Hom mentioned a notebook.”

“I didn’t find one.”

“Captain Hom says he returned it to you.”