‘He would take that day’s date, put her age at the end of it, then reverse it — so that it would be easy for her to remember. So he wrote down the date, and when she told him her age, he could not believe it. Looking at her in astonishment he said, “In all my sixty-six years this has never occurred before. And to think that it has happened on my birthday. This is a most auspicious day for both of us.”’
Mei Yuan paused and looked at them both. ‘Why did he say this?’
Li and Sun looked at her blankly, to her great delight.
Sun said, ‘I think I prefer your riddles, Chief. They’re a lot easier.’
Li was lost in thought. ‘Obviously something to do with the numbers,’ he said.
‘Think about it,’ Mei Yuan told him, ‘and you can tell me tomorrow when I make you another jian bing.’
Li nodded. ‘Did you see Margaret this morning?’
‘Yes.’ She smiled ruefully. ‘I am doing my best, Li Yan, to educate her in the niceties of the traditional Chinese wedding. But she seems a little…distracted.’ She paused. ‘She said to say hi, I’m not sure why, because she’ll see you at the autopsy.’
Li knew immediately from her tone that she disapproved. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, Mei Yuan,’ he said pointedly, clearly drawing a line that he did not want her to cross. He dropped a ten yuan note in her tin.
‘And your young friend?’
‘Try keeping me away,’ Sun grinned. ‘You don’t mind if I bring my wife sometime? She always complains I keep her tied to the kitchen and never take her out for a meal.’
Li cuffed him playfully around the head. ‘Cheapskate,’ he said.
When they got on to the ring road heading north, Sun said, ‘So you’re going ahead with it then?’
Li looked at him, but Sun kept his eyes on the road. ‘With what?’
‘The wedding.’
Li guessed that everyone in the section must know by now. Tao, too. He would no doubt be waiting in the wings to fill his shoes. ‘Yes,’ he said simply.
Sun refrained from comment. Instead, he asked, ‘When do your parents arrive for it?’
‘My father gets here from Sichuan tomorrow,’ Li said. ‘Margaret’s mother flies in from America the day after.’ He grimaced and blew air through clenched teeth. ‘I’m not looking forward to it. Two people from opposite ends of the world, and from either end of the social spectrum. I can’t see how they’re going to get on.’
Sun said, ‘Didn’t they meet at the betrothal meeting?’
Li glanced at him self-consciously. ‘We haven’t had the betrothal meeting yet.’ The betrothal meeting would normally have taken place six months before the wedding. In this case it would be only a matter of days. ‘Thank heaven we have Mei Yuan to bridge the gap.’
‘She’s an unusual woman,’ Sun said. ‘How does someone with a degree from Beida end up selling pancakes on a street corner?’
‘The Cultural Revolution,’ Li said. ‘She was an intellectual, and suffered particularly badly. They took away her baby boy and sent her to work in the countryside. She never saw him again, and never recovered.’ He knew that in many ways he had filled the hole in her life left by the son she had lost and never had the chance to raise. He turned to Sun, a sudden recollection returning. ‘Who do you know in Beijing who has English books?’
Sun shrugged. ‘No one,’ he said. ‘I thought maybe I could buy her some books at the English Language Bookstore. She wouldn’t ever have to know, would she?’
Li looked at him, moved by his thoughtfulness. ‘No,’ he said. ‘She wouldn’t.’
Chapter Three
I
The national team swimming coach was a small man in his middle fifties, wiry and nervous, with close-cropped greying hair and black darting eyes. He didn’t look as if he would have the strength to swim a length of the Olympic-sized pool below them, never mind train a gold medal winner. Even beneath his thick sweatshirt and track suit bottoms, Li could see that he did not have the build of a swimmer. He was slight, almost puny. Perhaps he had reached his current position because of his motivational qualities.
They sat up amongst the tiered rows of blue seats with a grandstand view of the swimming pool. The air was warm and damp. Both Li and Sun had unbuttoned their coats, and Li loosened the scarf at his neck. Away to their right, forensics officers had taped off the diving area and were painstakingly searching every square inch of tile. The diving pool itself was being drained through large filters that would catch any evidence traces that might be suspended in the water. The diving platform and the steps leading up to it had been tape-lifted. But so far all their efforts had been unrewarded.
Coach Zhang could not sit still. ‘It’s outrageous,’ he said. ‘My team are in competition this afternoon and they have nowhere to train, nowhere to warm up.’
Sun said, ‘Aren’t there two pools up at Olympic Green?’
‘They are both in use,’ Zhang said irritably. ‘One for swimming, one for diving. We don’t have access to either.’
Li said, ‘You seem more concerned about training facilities than the death of your star swimmer.’
Zhang flicked him a wounded look. ‘Of course, I am shocked by Sui’s death,’ he said. ‘But the competition is going ahead. I can’t bring him back, and we still have to compete.’
Li smiled cynically. ‘The show must go on. How very American.’
‘Oh, I’d be happy to cancel,’ Zhang said quickly. ‘But we’re not even allowed to say why Sui’s name has been withdrawn. It’s your people who have forced that upon us.’
Li had no reply to that. Instead, he asked about Sui. ‘When was the last time you saw him?’
‘At training, the night before last.’
‘And how did he seem then?’
‘Morose. But he always was. Not one of the more gregarious members of our team.’
‘Did he ever discuss with you the idea of shaving his head?’
Zhang frowned. ‘No. No, he didn’t. And I would not have approved. The naked head is such an ugly thing, and I don’t believe it makes a centimeter of a difference.’ He scratched his chin thoughtfully. ‘But it doesn’t surprise me. Sui was a very single-minded young man. He had a bout of flu about ten days ago. Knocked the stuffing out of him. We thought he wasn’t going to be able to compete this week. But he worked so hard in training…’ Zhang lost himself for a moment in some distant, private thought, and then he looked at Li and Sun. ‘He was determined he was going to make it. Absolutely determined. I just can’t believe he committed suicide.’
Nor could his team-mates. Li and Sun found them gathered in one of the changing rooms downstairs, sitting around the slatted benches with sports bags at their feet waiting for the mini-bus to collect them and take them across town to Olympic Green. In contrast to the high spirits of the previous evening, their mood was sombre and silent. Not exactly conducive to successful competition.
Although they had been questioned last night by Sun and Qian, they were still eager to help in any way they could. But none of them had had contact with Sui on the day of his death, so nobody had seen his shaven head until they found him dangling above the diving pool.