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“You worked hard today,” she commended them

The young men beamed It wasn’t every day that someone from the Ministry of Public Security praised them, but their pleasure turned out to be short-lived

“I hope you’ll go hoood meal, but then I’d like you to come back—”

“To interview the night staff,” Su, the bright one, guessed

“It’s a er They were here last night If you find an eyewitness or suspect that so, please find me I’ll be out of the hotel for an hour or so, but I’ll be back”

She and David left the officers and went to the dining rooether at their custoela nor Catherine ith the the waitress to hurry The food caan to eat

“Do you think you’ll find anything pertinent?” David asked, pointing with his chopsticks to the stack of employee interviews that lay atop the manila envelope next to Hulan’s plate

“I’ll take a look later You never know”

“And Lo’s files?”

“I haven’t opened them either,” she said, “but they can wait I don’t think there’ll be any surprises”

After dinner, they swung by their room one more tiht clerk, who reported that he’d seen Miss Sinclair leave the hotel around 11:30 last night He also reone down to the dock to have dinner with her father Later she’d coone out again a few minutes after Miss Sinclair left the hotel

“Did Miss Sinclair say where she was going?” Hulan asked

“No, but she went for a walk alht clerk said “She didn’t care if it was raining I think she liked it So”

Hulan made a few ht He hadn’t seen any other foreigners leave or enter the hotel He hadn’t heard or seen anything that struck hi over the foreigners and reporting their behavior to the Public Security Bureau—he wanted to emphasize that she could trust his account

It would be about a twenty- David and Hulan put on borrowed plastic jackets, accepted a flashlight and a couple of uht clerk, then stepped outside It was still light, and families who’d finished their dinners sat in front of their ho the relative coolness of the early evening drizzle But despite the peaceful domesticity about hi that he’d felt going into Lily’s rooood idea Hulan wouldn’t handle thewith the consequences