Chinese Whispers (The China Thrillers 6) by Peter May

Author:Peter May [May, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-11-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

I

Li arrived at the pathology centre off the Badaling Expressway shortly before eleven. He pulled in beside a Beijing Jeep from Section One, and saw Wu standing smoking in the doorway, waiting for him.

‘Hey, Chief.’ Wu pushed his shades back on his forehead, threw away his cigarette and followed him into the lobby and along the corridor to the changing rooms.

Li said, ‘Did you turn up anything at the Academy?’

‘Not a thing, Chief. I talked to all the students and staff who worked with her. No one had a bad word to say about her.’

I never knew anyone who wasn’t madly in love with her after five minutes.

‘And there just doesn’t seem any reason why anyone would want to steal those computers and files,’ Wu was saying. ‘The computer equipment wasn’t even new. You’d only get a handful of yuan for that stuff on the black market. And like the security guy said, it was a pro job. Why would they want to steal a lot of old junk?’

Li hung up his coat and slipped a green surgical gown over his shirt. ‘When we figure that out, we might know why she was killed.’ He pulled a shower cap over his head. ‘Someone broke into her apartment and took her laptop.’

Wu was sitting pulling elasticated covers over his shoes. He raised one eyebrow. ‘You still think she was killed by the Ripper? I mean, the same guy who killed those other women?’

‘I know it doesn’t make sense, Wu, but it’s hard to call it any other way. How else do we explain the letter promising to cut off the ears of the next victim, and then Pan turning up with her ears removed? And then there’s the trademark cutting of the throat. The Russian cheroot.’

He looked at Wu, who could only shrug an acknowledgement. ‘I don’t know, Chief. There’s so many inconsistencies. Maybe … maybe the other murders were just a smokescreen – to confuse us, to obscure the real reason for killing Professor Pan. Maybe she’s what it’s all really about.’

Li stopped to consider the idea. ‘It’s a hell of an elaborate smokescreen,’ he said. ‘But it’s a thought, Wu. It’s a thought.’

He pulled plastic covers over his shoes. Regulations in the new facility. Everyone attending an autopsy had to wear protective clothing. They took cotton masks from the locker and pocketed them for later use. It had been established that bone dust breathed in during the cutting of the skull with an oscillating saw, could carry viral particles, including AIDS. These days no one was taking any chances. Although Li thought it unlikely that a woman involved in a long-term relationship with another woman would have AIDS.

They went back out into the corridor and turned towards the autopsy room at the end. ‘So has the American pathologist turned up yet?’ Li asked.

‘Yeah.’

Li felt anger rising in him again, like mercury in a thermometer. ‘It’s madness, Wu. Absolutely fucking insane! Where’s Wang?’

‘In the autopsy suite, Chief. They’re doing the autopsy together.

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