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“Why aren’t these materials in the evidence locker?”

Fong gri in confidence “He’s a foreigner Special care, Inspector, special care”

Did he know so she didn’t? Probably Undoubtedly

She quickly sorted through the artifacts A driver’s license would have made her job easy, but she didn’t see one Various other papers—probably discount cards, old receipts, and business cards—had coh the arduous and wet journey, but whatever inforible She picked up another plastic sleeve Inside was a piece of lined paper about twelve by eighteen centimeters that had been torn from a notebook

“You found this in the wallet?”

“Wedged in his back pocket”

“What is it?”

“Notebook paper obviously Judging froht be easier to trace than if it were Chinese, but what are the odds?”

She turned it over in her hand, then held it under the light on Fong’s desk She could see so, who said, “I checked under a microscope, and it looks like symbols of some sort”

She exa wouldn’t be fah of thenize them But this definitely wasn’t shorthand She put the paper back on the desk Fong waited for her to speak, then when she didn’t he gestured to the plastic sleeves “Just because you don’t see the words doesn’t mean they aren’t there I have tests I can do to see what I can pull up”

For a ht, then she said, “Let me make a couple of calls first”

Anyone in the building could have done what Hulan did next, which was call the Aical step because Aners who entered China on tourist or work visas Although Hulan hadn’t been in contact with anyone at the e the call Those who’d been there during her last encounter were now dead, in jail, or long gone

The receptionist patched her through to a junior staffer, Charlie Freer, who seeether perfect for his job “Car accidents, heart attacks, that’s what I usually deal with,” Freer explained by way of introduction “We always get inforeet the deceased back ho persons cases per se Actually this isin China?”

What he said was true Most tourists traveled the country in tours and on set routes, while the people orked here atched in much the way the Chinese themselves atched

“But to answer your question,” Freer continued, “I do have a report of a et it The phone lines are iffy where this guy orking, but you kno that is”