Bamboo and blood

Chapter Four

"No one in the building knew her. There is no record of the file. It never existed."

"What did you see, then?" It was amazing how much heat one little heater could put out. The only problem was, in order to avoid overloading the wires, he had rearranged things in the wall socket; the lights had to be off. In the morning, there was probably enough daylight coming in the window to read by; now, in the afternoon, I could barely see his face, except when he moved into the glow of the heater.

"Must have been a phantom, a place holder. It wasn't for her. It was for her husband. That's a guess, and I'm not going beyond that."

"This is why I came out of my office, drove through the snow, and sit here in the dark? For you to tell me you're not going beyond telling me you don't have anything?" I reached in my back pocket and pulled out a pair of wire cutters.

"So, forget I told you," he said quickly. "Don't think about it. We'll find something else." Upstairs, Miss Ban walked across her office. For a lithe woman, she had a heavy tread. The liaison officer looked at the ceiling. "She's been restless the past few days. It's not like her. Usually she just sits."

"What does she do?

"Some sort of research."

"Right, research. How come she has her own office?"

"I guess someone doesn't want her disturbed." He poured a cup of hot water for himself. "You want some?"

I did, but I didn't want to give the impression that a cup of hot water was a substitute for what I really needed from him. "Let's get back to the file." I put the cutters into my jacket pocket, where they would be visible. He bit his lower lip, calculating how much room he had to wriggle.

"Nonfile," he said.

"Nonfile. You have many of those, or are they kept in a nonfile room?"

The liaison man looked up at the ceiling. I followed his gaze. "Maybe I'll pay a call on Miss Ban."