Whether or not his particular predilections were known, they had not affected his career. He had been influential in the setting up of Beijing Agricultural University’s National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Biotechnology, under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, and spent the next ten years directing field projects in Beijing, at the Changping Experiment Station in Hui Long Guan District, Changping County, and then at the agro hi-technology development region in Zhuozhou. He had spent nearly four years working on some unspecified research project near Guilin, then in 1996 he had been brought back to Beijing and appointed senior technical adviser to the Minister of Agriculture before being forced to retire through ill health six months ago.

Li shut the folder. A life summed up in a few scant paragraphs. But it told him nothing about the man, what had driven his ambition, what had led him to heroin and the destruction of his health, what had motivated someone to kill him. Tomorrow, he hoped, he would glean much, much more when he paid a visit to Chao’s danwei at the Ministry of Agriculture. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Everything was tomorrow! He reached for the file Wu had left for him on The Needle. Somewhere in the drugs connection, he felt sure, he could establish the first concrete link between two of the murders at least.

There was a soft knock at the door and Section Chief Chen came in. He closed the door behind him. “Chaos out there.” And he took in the piles of statements gathering under the window. “This could keep us busy for weeks.”

“Or months,” Li said gloomily.

“How is it going?”

“Slowly. I’ll be in a better position to brief you on progress tomorrow when we get some tests back from forensics. Until then, we are still sifting through the jigsaw for the first piece.”

Chen nodded. “Well, I have some good news. In view of the success of the autopsy carried out this morning by Dr. Campbell, Professor Jiang has offered us her services for the duration of her stay in Beijing. Provided, of course, that it does not interfere with her lectures.”

Li drew a deep, slow breath. “That’s very good of the professor, Chief, but it’s really not necessary.”

“Oh, but I’ve already accepted on your behalf. I told the professor she could carry out the other two autopsies in the morning.”

Li clenched his jaw, trying to stay calm. “Well, you shouldn’t have done that, Chief. I’ve already asked Professor Xie to do the autopsies. This is a Chinese investigation, about which Dr. Campbell knows nothing. I have no need of her.”