Chinese Whispers

IV

Li sat with Procurator Meng, Deputy Commissioner Cao, Deputy Minister Wei Peng and Director General Yan Bo in a stilted silence in the reception room where they had first gathered. They had come in one by one from their MERMER tests flushed and fatigued and oddly self-conscious. Conversation had been desultory, and none of them had talked about the test. They were all, with the exception of Li, smoking. In exasperation, he had eventually gone to the window to draw the blinds and open it. He stood now gazing west, beyond Yuyuantan Park where he had sometimes played chess with his uncle, towards the distinctive minaret-shaped TV tower catching the mid-afternoon sun. It felt like they had been there all day. In fact it had been little more than two hours. But Li was growing impatient now, anxious to get back to his investigation.

He turned as the door behind him opened and Commissioner Zhu, the last of them to be tested, breezed in from the computer room. He was actually smiling and, like the others before him, faintly flushed. ‘Charming woman,’ he said, adjusting his frameless spectacles on the bridge of his nose.

‘Quit dreaming, Commissioner,’ his deputy said. Cao was draped languidly on his chair watching his boss with knowing eyes, smoke seeping from the corners of his mouth. ‘It’s your backing she’s after, not your body.’ And Li realised that she had probably been doing a number on them all, each of them convinced that her warmth and touch and eye contact meant that they had struck some special chord with her. Li smiled to himself. Whatever it was she had, or did, it worked. And as he glanced around the other faces in the room, he knew that the same thought was also going through their minds.

The door opened and Professor Pan came in briskly, clutching a sheaf of papers. The moment she entered the room, Li knew that something was wrong. Her whole demeanour had altered unmistakably. There was a droop in her shoulders, her face seemed pale suddenly, and drawn. She was still smiling, but the smile was fixed and false, and she seemed reluctant to make eye contact with any of them. ‘Gentlemen, I am so sorry to keep you,’ she said. Her eyes flickered briefly around the room, and Li saw something strange in them. Something like confusion. All the confidence in them had vanished, and yet she was working hard at maintaining the facade. He wondered if something had gone terribly wrong with the tests. If she was going to fail to identify the three ‘criminals’. But then she said, ‘The tests are quite conclusive. Commissioner Zhu, Procurator Meng, Section Chief Li. I think my findings would be sufficient to convict you all of murder in a court of law.’

There was a spontaneous burst of applause, and Li looked around his fellow guinea-pigs. If any of them was aware of the change in Miss Pan it did not show.

‘Congratulations, Professor,’ Procurator General Meng said. ‘I think we are all very impressed.’

And Li wondered for a moment if it was all just some kind of sophisticated parlour trick. If it was, it was a very good one. ‘How do we know you weren’t aware all along which of us was briefed?’ he asked.

She swung wounded eyes on him, and he saw the hurt in them. But before she had a chance to speak, Deputy Cao said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Li. If the thing didn’t work, she knows we’d find out soon enough.’ And although she said nothing, Pan held Li’s eyes for longer than she had to, and he saw something else in them. Something confounding. Something like fear and a plea for help.

‘I think,’ the Deputy Minister said, ‘I can speak for everyone here when I say that I believe you can count on our backing for your project.’ He looked around, as if defying anyone to contradict him.

Pan tore her eyes away from Li’s and forced the smile back to her lips. ‘That’s very gratifying, Deputy Minister Wei. I’m very grateful to you all for your patience. I know it’s been a long afternoon for you.’

‘Not at all, Professor,’ Commissioner Zhu said. ‘I think we’ve all enjoyed the experience. A welcome break from the routine of the office.’

She nodded, glancing at her watch. ‘Well, I don’t want to keep you any longer, gentlemen. Thank you so much for coming.’ She made a tiny bow, and turned and hurried out of the room. Li saw the smile wiping itself from her face as she disappeared through the door.

* * *

‘Well, how did it go?’ Bill Hart pressed him eagerly as they went down the stairs together.

‘Oh, I think she’ll get her funding okay,’ Li said.

Hart grinned. ‘I never doubted it. What did you think?’

Li had to acknowledge, ‘I was very impressed. If MERMER is as reliable as that in the field, then it could revolutionise criminal investigation.’

‘Of course, it has to be used very carefully,’ Hart said. ‘I mean, think about it. You’re the investigating officer. You make a detailed examination of the crime scene, so now you carry the same information in your brain as the killer. Can we always be sure we’ll know which is which, who is who?’

Li nodded. ‘A fair point. And I suppose an investigating officer would have to be very careful that he didn’t accidentally provide a suspect with information that might read like guilty knowledge in a MERMER test.’

‘Absolutely,’ Hart said. ‘If this thing really is going to work in the field, then the rules of engagement are going to have to be very tightly defined, and applied. Otherwise it could be open to abuse.’

‘Like corrupt officers deliberately contaminating a suspect’s mind with information from a crime scene so that it will show up on a MERMER?’

Hart smiled knowingly. ‘Not that an officer in the People’s Republic would dream of doing such a thing.’

‘Nor any in the United States,’ said Li.

‘God forbid.’ Hart threw up his hands in mock horror, and they shared a grin. Then Hart’s smile faded. ‘I guess if Lynn gets her funding, then there’s a good chance mine will get cancelled.’

‘Why?’

‘Shit, Li Yan, Margaret was right. Compared with something like MERMER the polygraph’s a dinosaur. And in untrained hands it’s just about useless. She put her finger on it when she said it’s the operator who’s the real lie detector. And it takes a lot of training and a lot of experience to be good at it.’ He sighed. ‘Your bosses at the Ministry are less than convinced by it. I think they see it as not much more than a very expensive psychological rubber hose with which to beat a suspect.’ He laughed. ‘Hell, a real rubber hose is a lot cheaper and probably just as effective.’

‘And just as inadmissible in court as a polygraph,’ Li said. ‘So what’ll happen if your funding gets cancelled?’

‘I’m going to have to go back to the States to look for work.’

‘And would Lyang be happy to do that?’

Hart pulled a face. ‘I haven’t told her yet, Li Yan. I figure there’s no point in worrying about it until it happens.’ He paused. ‘But, no, she wouldn’t be happy.’

They came down the final flight of steps into the entrance lobby. Hart shook Li’s hand. ‘Thanks for coming,’ he said. ‘And, hey, listen, why don’t you bring Margaret round for dinner some night? I get the feeling that she and Lyang might get on pretty well.’

‘I’ll mention it to her,’ Li said.

‘Well, what about tonight?’

Li shrugged apologetically. ‘I’ve got an appointment I can’t get out of.’ There was a hint of embarrassment in his smile.

Hart remembered suddenly. ‘Of course, it’s your award thing tonight at the Great Hall. I read about that in the paper the other day. You must be very proud.’

Li forced a smile. ‘Sure,’ he said.

As he pushed out through the swing door Hart called after him, ‘Don’t forget to ask Margaret about dinner?’

Li waved a hand and was gone, out into the cold afternoon air. He pulled up his coat collar and turned south towards Fuxingmenwai Avenue. A car horn blasting from across the street drew his attention, and he looked round as a large black Ministry limo made a u-turn and drew in at the kerb alongside him. A door opened, and as he leaned down, he saw Commissioner Zhu and Deputy Cao sitting in the back seat. ‘Get in, Li,’ the Commissioner told him. Li slipped into the front passenger seat beside the uniformed driver. ‘Do you have a car with you?’ asked the Commissioner. Li shook his head.

‘In the name of the sky, Li, you didn’t come on your bicycle?’ Deputy Cao regarded him with something akin to contempt.

‘No, I didn’t, Deputy Cao,’ Li said.

The Commissioner tapped the driver on the shoulder. ‘Section One,’ he said. And to Li, ‘We’ll give you a lift back, and you can brief us on the Beijing Ripper.’ Li’s surprise must have been evident in his face, because it made the Commissioner smile. A smug smile, Li thought. ‘Don’t be so shocked, Li. There isn’t much goes on in your Section that I don’t get to hear about.’

‘Why didn’t you mention it upstairs?’ Deputy Cao asked.

‘I didn’t think it was appropriate. Not in front of the Deputy Minister and the Procurator General,’ Li said.

‘So tell us,’ the Commissioner said, ‘what makes you think these killings are a copycat of the Jack the Ripper murders?’

Li pulled the book from his pocket and handed it into the back of the car. ‘Just published in China. A translation from the English original. It details all the killings attributed to the Ripper. The killings here in Beijing are like a carbon copy, even down to the smallest detail.’

‘Like?’ demanded Deputy Cao.

‘Like the contents of her purse being arranged around the feet of victim number three … the removal of her uterus and parts of her vagina and bladder. Like the missing left kidney and the womb in victim number four. And dozens of other small details, even down to the number of stab wounds in victim number one.’ The Commissioner was still examining the Ripper book. Li went on, ‘Then there’s the fact that our murderer only kills on the weekends, and that all the victims have been found within the same square mile of the city.’

The Commissioner passed the book to Deputy Cao. ‘It is him,’ he said.

Li frowned. ‘It is who?’

‘Thomas Dowman,’ said Deputy Cao. ‘The author of the book. We met him when he came to Beijing a couple of years ago.’

‘I heard he gave a lecture on the Ripper,’ Li said.

‘That’s right,’ said the Commissioner. ‘Deputy Cao and I were both there. Almost every senior officer at the Ministry was. A fascinating profile of an unfathomable murderer. Mister Dowman certainly knows his stuff.’

‘And so does someone else,’ said Li.

The Commissioner leaned forward, grasping the back of Li’s seat. ‘Let’s keep this within the department for the moment, Li. We don’t want the press getting wind of it.’

‘That’s hardly likely,’ Li said.

‘There are journalists in this city who don’t know where to draw the line any more,’ Deputy Cao said ominously. ‘With the Olympics coming in 2008, the government has been …’ he hesitated, searching for the right words, ‘… overkeen, shall we say, to show the world what an open society we have become. There are those in the media who are taking advantage.’

‘And it’s not just a matter of creating public panic,’ Commissioner Zhu said. ‘That would be bad enough. You only have to look at how press coverage of the Washington sniper last year just about paralysed the US capital.’

‘It’s a political matter, Li,’ Cao said. ‘You can imagine the coverage such a story would generate around the world. Not exactly the image of Beijing that the government wants to promote ahead of the Olympics.’

‘So let’s keep it nice and quiet, Section Chief,’ the Commissioner said. He lit a cigarette and blew smoke into the front of the limo. ‘I want detailed progress reports on my desk. Daily. I am not going to preside over a police department which permits some lunatic to rerun the Ripper murders from first to last.’ He paused. ‘Get him, Section Chief Li, before he kills again.’ As if Li needed to be told.