“Surely that’s impossible. Do you know how many would have to be involved in such a conspiracy? Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, judges, Party officials, not to mention people at the project.”

“Not as many as you would think. Only those who falsified the evidence. No more than a handful. I saw your husband’s file. He was shot for corruption.”

“Which is ridiculous. Our salaries are modest but they suffice.” She cast her gaze around the apartment. “I probably couldn’t afford to keep this place anyway. And I’ll never have enough on my own for my daughter’s education.” She stifled another sob.

“The case was based on a Hong Kong account with two hundred thousand American dollars in it.”

“Never! He never took a bribe. He never even went to Hong Kong!”

“The officer who signed the report about the bank account also signed a statement that he had seen Metok in Hong Kong. Then there would have been someone in Public Security here in Lhasa who assembled the file. Probably three or four people were likely involved in conspiring against your husband, no more.”

Lekshay wrung her hands then looked up at the altar in the middle of the central bookshelf, where a little ceramic Buddha sat beside a flickering battery-powered candle. “It’s impossible. No one could hope to punish such men.”

“I don’t think your husband was looking for revenge. Just the truth.”

She stood and went to the Buddha, as if consulting it. When she turned back to Shan, there was a glint of determination in her eyes. “I don’t know how I could possibly help, Constable.”

“Just talk with me,” Shan said. “I want to hear about Metok, about his job, about Director Ren and Deputy Director Jiao at the Five Claws.”

“And I would like to know about that message,” she said. “Maybe if I could meet with that messenger from the jail, if I could hear about my husband’s final hours, I think it would ease the pain somehow.”

“Just an old man who works at the jail. Did your husband ever speak about Director Ren and Deputy Director Jiao from the Five Claws?”

They spoke for nearly an hour about Metok and the hydro project. Metok had not been getting along with the director, who in fact had no experience building dams, but had been selected because he had been successful building new highways in Manchuria and, more importantly, had recently attained membership in the Party. Jiao, she had heard, had successfully completed an important project in Sichuan Province. The deputy director had been furious when he had discovered Metok had made a makeshift Buddhist altar in a supply shed where Tibetans could go in their time off and had threatened to report him to Religious Affairs.