Margaret smiled. It was clear to see where Li’s influences lay. She moved her Horse into a position that would threaten Old Yifu’s King if he took her Soldier, and lose him his Bishop if he didn’t. “I read somewhere that in fifty years, as the West declines and the East develops, China will become the richest and most powerful country on earth.” He was still puzzling over his next move. “Do you think that’s true?”

He took her Soldier, effectively conceding defeat. “It is difficult to say. China has such a long history, and this period is such a small link in a chain that stretches back five thousand years. Only time will tell. Mao once said, when asked what he thought of the French Revolution, ‘It is too early to say.’ So who am I to predict the future for China?” He smiled as she moved her Castle.

“Checkmate,” she said.

He conceded defeat with a small shrug and a nod of his head, and his smile seemed full of genuine pleasure. “Congratulations. It is the first time I have been beaten in many years. One grows complacent. I look forward to more games with you.”

“It will be a pleasure.”

“If only my nephew could be such a worthy opponent.”

“Perhaps if I’d had a better teacher . . .” Li responded, stung by his uncle’s rebuke.

“You can teach anyone the rules,” Old Yifu said. “But the intelligence to use them you must be born with.” He started packing his chess pieces into their old cardboard box. “Anyway, I can’t afford to hang about here wasting time talking to you. I have a train to catch. And I’m going to be late.” He winked at Margaret.

IV

The uniformed officer unlocked the door and let them into Chao Heng’s apartment. There was that same, strange antiseptic smell as before, Li noticed. They walked around the bloodstain on the carpet, now ringed off by strips of white tape, and into the living room. “What is it you are looking for?” he asked Margaret.

She shook her head. “I don’t really know. Like you, I just get the feeling that this whole case is about Chao Heng. I don’t know where the other two tie in, but they seem . . . incidental, somehow. There’s got to be something we are missing. Something we already know, or should know about him. Something here in this apartment, maybe. Something in the weird nature of his killing.”

Li had offered to run Old Yifu back to their apartment, but he had had his bike with him and said he had already packed and only needed to collect his bag. He would get a taxi to the station, which was just around the corner anyway.

The two had embraced, a strangely touching moment after all the friction there had been between them. They hardly spoke. “Tell Xiao Ling I send my love,” Li had said.