Page 27 (2/2)

David’s nausea worsened Then, as his eyes traveled down, his stoain “Her nose—”

“Cut off What would do that so cleanly?” Hulan leaned in even closer until she was just inches fro Whatever was used was very sharp And, David, what do you make of this on her forehead?”

At first he saw only blood, and the truth was he didn’t want to look much closer But as he in to see so

“Is it a clot?”

“I don’t think so The blood is spread so evenly everywhere else Whyunder the blood It looks like a pattern of soist will need to be careful with that”

Hulan fanned out her hand a few inches above the body and used it as a guide as she traveled down from the neck

“She’s naked,” David observed

“Is that because the killer wanted to paint blood over the entire corpse? Painted in some way, don’t you think, not dunked?”

“She wasn’t dunked You can see the s A cloth, a brush, maybe even hands”

“Let’s hope it was hands We ht be able to pick up prints”

They’d almost reached Lily’s ankles when they heard the footsteps of several people running down the hallway The sound was a tremendous relief to David Lily’s sawed off stuue

Hulan swiftly moved to the door and let David out ahead of her Then she pulled the door shut, stood with her back against it, and waited for the clerk and three other men—presumably from the local Public Security Bureau—to coaccent to account for any ht be caused by differences in dialect

“I’nment for Vice Minister Zai of the Ministry of Public Security This is ner, but he’s here on official business frohest respect, as though he were a black-haired person” Her tone was authoritative and offered no roo this case”

She extended her hand The eldest of the lish “I aling fro and Ge Fei We handle our own cases in Bashan, even those dealing with foreigners”

Now Hulan switched to English “Not this time However, I welcome your advice”