Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

some
torture—by the Nationalists. Two of the interrogations I witnessed myself,
having been captured with her. She was a small woman, and very feminine, and
she cultivated an innocence that was most deceptive, so deceptive, in fact,
that it saved her life. She was like a rock that could not be moved.” He bowed
slightly. ”It has been uncanny for me to see in yourself this same quality, one
might say technique? My wife sustained it even when tortured. I think you
would, too.”
    Mrs. Pollifax sat very still and held her breath; she had been right to
know this man was dangerous.
    ”There has been, you see, an autopsy on Mr. Forbes’ body,” he told her
casually. ”He was not killed by the knife after all, as one might suppose from
appearances, but by a sharp blow of a hand to his temple, a blow so expertly
aimed as to cause instant death.” He said musingly, watching her, ”A most
vulnerable area... I would—myself—suspect that someone at that scene knew
karate.”
    ”I see,” said Mrs. Pollifax, feeling a chill run up her spine.
    ”Which you, of course, could not have known or seen,” he emphasized, ”having
fainted.”
    ”No,” she whispered.
    He bowed politely. ”Because you and I have been adversaries for these
past two days, Mrs. Pollifax, and because you and I are of the same generation,
I will tell you quite frankly of a small temptation that I have experienced.”
    ”Yes?” she said, feeling her throat grow increasingly dry.
    His smile was ironic. ”To move suddenly toward you with a front choke or
a middle knuckle punch and see if you would meet my action with a countering
karate stance before you had time to think.”
    Yes, very definitely a dangerous man, she realized, and forced herself
to say aloud, lightly, ”How very interesting, except what is a counterstance,
Mr. Chang?”
    He chuckled. ”I think you have cultivated an exquisite oriental
inscrutability that I should not care to see damaged, Mrs. Pollifax, which is
why I brought you here at this particularly early hour, for the sake of privacy
for us both. You see,” he added, ”the facts of the autopsy bring a certain
insoluble question to mind.”
    ”Oh?” she said.
    ”One must ask,” he said imperturbably, ”how Mr. Forbes could have been
killed by a strong karate blow when his opponent Peter Fox had already slipped
over the edge of the canyon and dropped into the rapids below.”
    Oh God, thought Mrs. Pollifax, and caught off guard, against
her will, she reacted with a start as she realized what had been overlooked
during those frenzied moments. Her eyes widened and then dropped. Recovering
quickly she forced herself to look at Mr. Chang.
    He met her gaze serenely and said nothing.
    She said, ”Of course it’s possible that—” She stopped, realizing that
what he said was unanswerable; there had been no thought of autopsies when
she’d arranged Forbes’ body and there was no longer any possible explanation
that could divert this man.
    He said gently, sympathetically, ”I am not a cat playing with a mouse,
Mrs. Pollifax, but I think we understand each other better now.”
    She could only stare at him. ”Maybe,” she said cautiously, ”but
what—how—” She stopped.
    ”I said that I am not a cat playing with a mouse,” he repeated, ”which
is why I brought you here at this hour, to say to you that you may go now.”
    Go, she thought wildly, what does he mean by go. ”Back to the hotel?” she asked, scarcely daring to hope.
    He said pleasantly, ”Mr. Forbes’ body is being flown to Beijing today, to your embassy there, on the
late morning plane. You will also be on that plane, land briefly in Beijing , and then be flown at once to Tokyo . All of you.”
    She gaped at him in astonishment.
    ”I am in charge of these interrogations,” he told her calmly, ”and I am
taking the responsibility of ending them.” He looked at her and said harshly,
”I do not know—I find that I do not want to know—what took place by the
river. Two Americans are dead, and I am satisfied with my verdict of Causes
Unknown. I feel—from my aforementioned study of character,” he added with a
faint smile, ”that whatever happened was done out of grave necessity. I
therefore have no interest in pursuing this investigation further—or even,” he
added, ”the stomach for it.”
    She had prepared herself for imprisonment at the very least; she had
actually expected worse. She stammered, ”I—I scarcely know what to