The student obviously didn’t have to be told which accident. His countenance twisted with pain, and he shook his head.

Shan was not sure how to take his reaction, so he stepped aside to fully reveal Cato Pike, standing behind him. “This is Natalie’s father.”

The young scholar’s face went pale. He looked up at Shan with something that might have been desperation. “I wouldn’t know what to say,” he said. “It was so horrible. And I don’t speak English,” he added.

Another of Pike’s sad smiles appeared on his countenance. “How about a ride to Lhasa?” he asked in his flawless Mandarin.

The student’s name was Cao Li, and while they drove Shan eased his reticence by speaking of the work at the Green Standard Army camp, then of his own father’s great interest in history. As they neared Lhasa, Cao opened up, reflecting on his great respect for Professor Gangfen, who had been his mentor for years, teaching him, in Cao’s words, “the proper approach for archaeology in China.” Cao seemed to evade questions about the accident but finally admitted that the professor and Pike’s daughter had not been seen for three days before the crash.

“So the professor was out doing interviews with some of the indigenous inhabitants?”

Cao hesitated, clearly worried about Shan’s prying. “The professor was deeply committed to the advancement of knowledge. He loved his work. ‘Science doesn’t lie,’ he would tell us.” Cao winced, as if again he had gone too far.

Pike and Shan exchanged a glance. Science doesn’t lie. The professor’s words could have been taken as a truism used in teaching or as a warning for those who participated in the Party’s particular form of science.

Pike broke the silence with a question Shan should have asked earlier in the day. “What happened to the car after the crash? I think it probably had some of my daughter’s belongings in it,” he added.

“Gone. They brought a new one the next day, a better one.”

“What kind was the one in the crash?” Shan asked as he checked his watch. Zhu was supposed to meet him again at the tea shop.

“One of those heavy utility vehicles with high suspension for travel on rough terrain, a white one, with a cargo rack on top. But I’m sorry, like I said, it is gone. They say the gas tank exploded.” He glanced awkwardly at the American. “They said that she died instantly.”

“They,” Shan stated. “The same ones who brought the replacement car?”

“Sure. Public Security out of Lhasa. They had to be involved, everyone said, because a foreigner was one of the victims.”

“Do you know the name of the officer? We’ll want to see if he found any belongings in the vehicle,” Shan said. “It would save me time if you had a name.”