“So you panicked,” said Sihot, taking up the reins. “You drugged my beer, dragged me here, and chained me up to give yourself time to make a plan.”

“But what else do you know?” said Phosy. “Two more policemen turn up with the same questions. And we get the same treatment. Because frankly you don’t know what else to do. You’re not a killer and you’re smart enough to know that more and more policemen will come looking for us. You can’t kill the entire police force.”

“So you’re in quite a pickle,” said Sihot. “And you know why that is? It’s because you didn’t give us a chance to tell you why we’re here.”

“You’re here to take my girl,” said Ouan.

“We’re here to explain why we know she’s innocent,” said Phosy.

“Liar,” said Ouan. “That’s a policeman trick.”

“I agree this would be a good moment to introduce a trick,” said Phosy. “In fact we’d do or say anything to get out of here. But in this case the truth works even better than a lie for all of us. You see? In Vientiane we have a doctor friend who’s very smart. He can look at dead bodies and tell how they died. And do you know what he found in the hair of the Vietnamese?”

Phosy left a gap for an answer but didn’t expect one.

“He found a feather,” he said. “It was the feather of an owl. And there were deep scratches on the scalp of the victim and we did some research. There are a lot of eagle owls nesting in the karsts at this time of year. And there’s nothing a female owl wouldn’t do to protect her young. And she’d be mighty pissed off if anyone invaded her territory. I can’t imagine anything more frightening than having a five-kilogram bird dig its talons into your scalp.”

“She was scared to death,” said Ouan.

“I know she was,” said Phosy.

“She’s only seventeen,” said Ouan.

“And suddenly there she is on a cliff and this guy’s staggering around trying to fight his way free,” said Sihot. “He tries to cover his head with his hands. He knocks over the bottles and screams for your girl to help him but what can she do? She’s out of her depth.”

“She ran,” said Ouan.

“Anyone would have,” said Phosy.

“She watched him fall,” said Ouan. “The bird let go and the man screamed all the way down. It’s something she’ll never get out of her head. She hasn’t slept since it happened.”

There was a long, dark silence in the concrete room.

“So, what happens next?” said Jiep.