The Demon and the City - By Liz Williams Page 0,11

was calm, concerned, neutral.

"I had a call from Giris Sardai," Jhai said. "He wants to see you—did he call?"

"This morning. He said he'd speak to you and that he'll send a car. Is that okay? I'm really sorry, Madam Tserai—Jhai. I didn't know how to refuse."

"It's all right, Robin. It's not your fault. I told him we'd be glad to help. I gather there's a problem? Their daughter's missing—your friend?" Robin nodded, dumbly. Jhai purred, "That's such a worry. But you mustn't let it upset you. I'm sure everything's going to be fine."

"I'm sorry I'm taking time off—" Robin began again.

"It isn't a problem. George Su can cover, it's just an afternoon and you've got the link if anything happens, haven't you? Anyway, I won't be able to see you again today; I'm flying to Beijing later. So don't worry. Go and get this sorted out. And obviously, Robin, there's no wage payback, or anything. I'll square it." She left in a flurry of silks, leaving Robin standing in suspicious gratitude behind her. Jhai had been very decent, really. Jhai was always so sweet, and yet—there was always something so calculating behind it. Perhaps Robin was just envious of her employer's wealth and beauty and talent, but still . . . Jhai never quite rang true. Anyway, Robin told herself, firmly, that wasn't her problem.

Six

The forensics lab had come through with a positive ID on the murdered girl. She was, scandalously, one Deveth Sardai: the daughter of a prominent socialite with links to half the city's aristocracy.

"Went a bit off the rails, if you ask me," Sergeant Ma said lugubriously.

"You knew her?" Zhu Irzh's elegant eyebrows crawled upward; he had not pictured Ma's social circle as being so elevated. Ma looked slightly abashed.

"Only from the papers."

"What papers?"

After some evasion, it turned out that Ma was a fan of the cheaper, glossier press: the sort of magazines that turned up in supermarket racks, their pages displaying film stars' lovely homes. Deveth Sardai, it seemed, along with her artfully Bohemian lifestyle, had featured regularly. Ma took an example from his desk drawer. Zhu Irzh stared down at a strong, willful face with heavy brows: Malaysian, he estimated, with a Westerner's blue eyes. Unless she had worn contacts.

"She isn't married, it says. Any mention of boyfriends?"

"No. Girlfriends, though."

"She was a lesbian?" Zhu Irzh asked, vaguely intrigued.

"Fashionably so," Ma told him. Zhu Irzh smiled; it wasn't the kind of comment he expected from Ma.

"Well, any of her contacts could prove helpful. Better start making a list. I suggest you ring the magazine. Meanwhile, I suppose I'd better ask the captain to break it to her parents. Though since they haven't reported her missing, I don't suppose they were that close, but even so . . .they'd probably like to know what happened to her."

In his office, Captain Sung regarded Zhu Irzh with his usual inexpressive gaze and the demon found himself fidgeting, like a child on the carpet of the principal's study. The captain made Zhu Irzh uncomfortable; he could not shake off the impression that Sung was thinking back to the days of his ancestors, who had ridden the Mongolian steppes, sweeping all before them. Including demons. With Chen, who was after all married to a former citizen of Hell, Zhu Irzh was allowed to feel almost human, or at least, not noxious. With Sung, he had no doubt as to where he stood in the hierarchy of lower lifeforms, but the captain never let his animosity show and that unnerved Zhu Irzh more than anything.

"Seneschal," Sung said formally.

"Captain. Good morning."

"So. We have an identity for the victim, I believe? Just as well."

"I'm sorry?" Zhu Irzh frowned. Of course it was "just as well." What a strange thing to say.

Sung's gaze grew colder and heavier. "You haven't heard? Word hasn't filtered back? I suppose that's encouraging. Usually I'm the last one to hear the rumors."

"Heard what?"

"It is just as well that the lab got a positive ID from the samples it took from the body, Seneschal Irzh, because now the body is gone."

The demon gaped at him. "Gone?"

Sung nodded. "It disappeared from the morgue last night. No signs of forced entry, no locks tampered with, nothing out of order except that the body of the unfortunate Ms Sardai is simply no longer there."

"Could it have walked by itself?" was the first thing that occurred to Zhu Irzh. "Let itself out?"

"You tell me."

"It is sometimes possible to raise a corpse," Zhu Irzh said, frowning.