Li squatted on the steps, looking south, over the symmetrical patchwork of roofs that was the Forbidden City, to the vast open expanse of Tiananmen Square. He liked to come here, he told her, in the late evening, when it was quiet and he could watch the city come to life as darkness fell around him. It was the most peaceful place in Beijing, he said, and it released him to think freely and clearly. She sat down beside him, their arms touching, and she felt the heat of his body and breathed in the musky, earthy smell of him.

For a long time neither of them spoke. Swallows darted and dived around them in the dying light, and below, among the trees, the screech of cicadas rose, pulsing, into the night air.

Eventually he said, “I’m scared, Margaret.”

She inclined her head towards him and examined his profile, bold and strongly defined. “Scared of what?” she asked softly.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t be scared,” he said. “I have a sick feeling in my stomach. I think we are both in danger.”

“In danger of what?”

“Of knowing too much.”

Margaret released a tiny gasp of frustration. “But we know hardly anything. What do we know?”

“We know that someone with power and privilege and something to hide had Chao Heng killed. We know that a professional hit-man was employed to do it, and that he killed two other, perfectly innocent, people for no other reason than to confuse the investigation. We know, or think we know, that there is a conspiracy to pervert the course of that investigation, involving one of the highest law officers in the land. And we know that the killer is out there, somewhere, watching us getting closer and closer.” He paused. “We know far too much.”

She shivered, in spite of the heat. For the first time she tasted his fear, and she knew it was real. “What do you think they will do? Will they try to kill us?” It seemed shocking, somehow, that she was even suggesting such a thing. It had not occurred to her before that they could be in any real danger.

“I don’t know,” Li said. “They will be scared of us, because of what we know, or because of what they think we will find out. And we know they are ruthless people. Whatever they are hiding, they have killed three people to protect it. If it is worth three lives, it is worth three more, or thirty more, or three hundred more. How can you draw a line you have already crossed?”