"What about the machinery?"
"One machine, one injury. Maybe Xiao Yang didn't know how to use it properly. Maybe she was tired. No, it's not enough on its own. It's probably not even a crime. Anyway, Knight isn't using my services to do anything, and my client has no knowledge of the problems with the machinery. I could try and get Henry to admit he's injured, dismembered, and murdered employees. He's not a client, but even if he was, I'd be compelled to protect others. Besides, do you honestly believe he'd admit such a thing?"
David didn't wait for an answer. Instead he moved to a second option. "I can try to withdraw as counsel for Tartan and Sun, but I still wouldn't be able to say anything, because privilege goes with the firm. Finally, I have to remember that there's a financial transaction going on. Knight International is a publicly held company. The Securities and Exchange Commission expects the lawyers to sign off on the truth of the disclosures of a company in the event of a sale. Maybe I just won't be able to sign."
"What about Sun?"
"I don't know, but I think I need to find someone who really understands the subtleties of Chinese law." He sank back down on the bed. "It seems to me I can either let it all go, in which case I'd have abandoned any personal integrity that I ever had-"
"Or you could go to the press-"
"Pearl Jenner?" David asked, shocked.
"The New York Times. The Washington Post."
"That only happens in the movies. This is real. I can't go to the press. I'd lose all control of the situation, and it would be totally unethical. If this is something more and somehow Tartan or Sun is connected to the deaths of Miaoshan, Xiao Yang, or Keith-I'll lose my license to practice law, for I will have violated the law's most sacred trust." He seemed at a loss for words, then added, "And if any of this stuff is true, it's going to be dangerous. We'll be dealing with people who have no compunctions about killing."
"What should I do?"
"Are you asking as an investigator or as the woman I love?"
"I don't know," she admitted.
His first suggestion seemed banal given what was at stake. "Look up everyone's travel schedules. At least we'll know where everyone was on the crucial dates."
"Including Sun's?"
"I know you'll do that whether I ask you to or not. It's your job."
"Okay then, I'll do the travel inquiries as soon as we get back to Beijing."
"And Miles will arrive there tomorrow afternoon. He's nothing if not a good lawyer. He'll know what to do." His meaning was clear to both of them. David would be able to confide everything to Miles because Tartan and Sun were firm clients. He kept his gaze steady on her to gauge her reaction to his next question. "Can you go back to the factory tomorrow?"
"I'd already planned on it," she said.
"We need to know more about Miaoshan, about the way she was speaking to the women, about what she really had in mind with her inquiries. Did she love any of those men? Did one of them fit into her future plans? You can also watch and ask about Aaron Rodgers." He hesitated, then added, "If you smell anything…"
David saw his apprehension mirrored in Hulan's eyes as she put a hand protectively over her stomach. "I'll get out somehow." Her face made a subtle adjustment as she buried her feelings, then said, "I also want to see Suchee again. As soon as I'm free to leave, I'll go to the farm." Then she asked, "When's our flight?"
"Henry said we should all meet at the airport at five o'clock."
Thinking aloud, she said, "I'll have Lo pick me up at Suchee's at four; then he can drop us at the airport before driving back to Beijing. Wait! Can you even have me with you? Is that ethical?"
"I won't let you ask any questions."
"Agreed."
"How will you introduce me?"
"As my fiancee," he answered. "But I mean it, Hulan, no questions. No investigating in front of me."
She agreed to his terms, then asked, "Where will you be tomorrow?" He smiled grimly. "Randall Craig and others from Tartan are arriving tonight. Tomorrow there's some sort of celebration; then we have more meetings before flying to Beijing." He thought for a moment, then added, "I'll try to talk to Randall first thing in the morning. Later I'll try to see Sun. You never know. He may just tell me what's happening."
They had a plan, but they'd left much unsaid. For both of them there was no question that they should go forward no matter what the physical, psychological, or professional danger. But they were on separate tracks now, on opposite sides. The more they pursued their own investigations, the more obvious they would become. The more they asked questions, the more likely they would be targeted just as Keith and Miaoshan had been.
15
THE NEXT MORNING BEFORE DAWN, INVESTIGATOR LO drove Hulan out into the countryside and left her by the side of the road, where she found a rock on which to wait. Even before the pink streaks of dawn had faded into the dull white of day, the family that worked this tract of land emerged and began the long, slow process of watering the field. The mother, wearing a wide-brimmed, conical straw hat, carried a pole across her shoulders from which two buckets of water were suspended. The father and son each used a ladle to scoop out the water and carefully pour it on the roots of the individual plants.
The air stirred not at all this morning, and Hulan felt already that she was sitting in a steam room. Still, people went on with their lives, slowly but with increasing numbers appearing on the road's horizon. Some pushed wheelbarrows piled high with corn. Others pedaled past with baskets of produce strapped to the sides of their bicycles. But most carried their goods in large baskets lashed to their backs. One man was dwarfed by the load of hay he carried that rose a good five feet above his head and stretched out another couple of feet on either side of him. His back was bent double from the size if not the weight of his load, which bounced with each step.
At 6:30, as several unencumbered men walked past, Hulan stood and joined the parade. A few minutes later she reached the Knight compound. Each time she came here she marveled at how it rose up out of the landscape and stood starkly against the red soil and the hot white sky. Outside the gates over a hundred men milled about. As she had done yesterday evening, she drifted into the center of the crowd.
The gates opened and the men surged forward. Hulan felt herself pushed along. Once inside the compound, she stuck with the men as they walked to the warehouse. At the last moment she drifted apart to stand in the shadow of the Administration Building and take her bearings. Unlike the day before, this morning there was a lot of activity in the courtyard. Some of the men who'd entered the warehouse immediately reappeared with poles which they stuck into pre-set holes in the ground, while others began unrolling canvas for the canopy which would shade the hand-over celebration.
At quarter to seven the women began leaving the cafeteria. Seeing Peanut, Hulan swung into step with the young team leader. "I was scared you wouldn't come back," Peanut said. Then she took one of the two smocks that were draped over her arm, handed it to Hulan, and added, "Here, put this on quickly."