The Interior (Red Princess 2)

“If all you say is true, then why have you stayed my friend?”

“I don’t know that I have,” Suchee answered truthfully.

“Then why did you write to me?”

“Because I needed to know what happened to my child. I thought that if you had any decency, you would come—”

“Hulan!” David cried out again. “Are you here? Is anyone here?”

Suchee stood. “He’s come for you,” she said. “This must mean he loves you very much. And I can tell you love him or else you wouldn’t be so tormented.” She crossed to the threshold, looked back at Hulan almost in sympathy, then stepped outside. A moment later Hulan heard Suchee greet David in almost incomprehensible English. “Hello. I am Ling Suchee. Hulan is inside house.”

Hulan covered her face with her hands, willed her heart to slow down, and tried to compose a look that would not betray her feelings. Suchee had distorted the facts, but that didn’t make them any less painful to hear. Hulan heard David say her name. She took a breath, uncovered her eyes, and looked up to see him standing in the doorway.

“Where’s Suchee?” she asked.

“Outside with Investigator Lo.”

Hulan let the implications of that sink in. Vice Minister Zai must have told Lo about this place. She said, “I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

Ignoring everything that Suchee had implied, Hulan said, “I’m not used to anyone telling me what to do. I reacted badly.”

David sat down opposite her. “What about me? The words I spoke came from someone else. I’m not like that, Hulan.”

“I know.”

“This is a big change for both of us. Can we just leave it at that? Put this behind us and start again?”

“I’d like to.” The relief Hulan heard in her voice embarrassed her. She eyed David to see if he’d noticed. He had. She watched him struggle with what to do next. Would they fight? Would they need to have an American-style discussion of feelings? Or would he stay true to his suggestion of “putting this behind them”? As for herself, she wondered if she’d be able to have a discussion of any sort. She had run away. Admitting that allowed the rest of Suchee’s words to skitter around in Hulan’s brain like free radicals. She needed time to give them form, to shove them out or accept them. She saw David studying her and realized that, as usual, he was calculating how much she could take before she shut down or ran away. Just as she felt another rise in panic, David seemed to come to a

conclusion of his own.

He cleared his throat and said, “Driving out here, I thought about what you said about the factory. If it’s true—”

“It is.” These words sounded weak, as though she’d lost a great battle.

Again Hulan saw the wariness in David’s eyes. “I have to trust what you saw,” he cautiously went on. “Still, what you’ve told me doesn’t jibe with how I experienced Henry Knight. He thinks he’s doing good for these people, paying them well, providing housing. Beyond that, he said several times that his employees haven’t had serious injuries. Have you seen anyone else get hurt?”

Apart from her own little scrapes, Hulan had to admit that she hadn’t.

“So Xiao Yang’s injury and suicide could have been a totally random thing.”

“Except that Peanut said that when women get hurt, they disappear.”

“For now let’s just say they’re fired, okay?” David said. Hulan could sense the emotions of the last hour falling away as he became caught up in Knight International’s problems. “That still leaves the alleged injuries. To me this suggests a flaw in the design or that some part of the manufacturing process is inherently dangerous.”

“Those machines are dangerous.”

“But you could say that about every piece of machinery on the planet,” he said. “The issue then changes from one about injuries to what happens if an employee gets hurt. And again, I have a hard time believing the Knights are irresponsible employers because I saw the way Henry reacted over that woman’s death. I don’t think he could have made that up. If he is, then he’s putting on an incredible act.”

“Maybe Henry doesn’t know,” Hulan offered.

“That’s not plausible. It’s his company. He built it. He takes pride in connecting to people, in knowing his products.”

“But, David, how often does he come out here?”

“Not as much as he’d like. He’s had heart problems…”