you really should demand your money back from the source. Out of curiosity, what is the rest of the fable? Who was in the tree, trying to kill me?”

“I believe they are about to close your gate, Inspector. Au revoir.”

“Just tell me this, what happened to him, the Man with Three Fingers? Jenö said he was dead.”

M. Beret paused for a fraction longer than he should have. “We have an unidentified Mexican in the morgue, if that’s what you mean. Now hurry, please. If you miss your plane I will be inconsolable.”

“I will miss you, too.” I kissed him on both cheeks, which I figured was a photo he might like for the files.

PART V

Chapter One

“He’s dead.” I was in Pak’s office, squinting against the sun that bounced off the windows of the Operations Building across the way. The gingkoes in the courtyard were useless, weeks away from getting leaves that could soften the light. Worst of all, three months into the New Year, their branches had all the charm of dinosaur limbs. March is bad enough, my grandfather would say, without having to look at gingko trees.

“Really?” Shock registered in Pak’s eyes. “What happened?” He wasn’t feigning ignorance. I could see that he really didn’t know, which meant the news hadn’t gotten back here yet. Pak might be only a chief inspector, but no one had more lines out than he did. If Sohn’s death had been reported, no matter in what channel, Pak would have known. Even if the news were closely held deep in the Center, Pak would find it.

“The Swiss are classifying it as an accident.”

“By which I take it, you don’t think so.”

“I think he was murdered. That’s what they suspect, too, only it would cause them too much trouble to say so.”

“And why would you think this was murder?”

“For one thing, his neck was broken. That doesn’t just happen. You can fall through a gallows’ trapdoor, or off a horse, or out of a car, or down the stairs, but generally it isn’t easy to break your neck all by yourself. If he fell, there would have been bruises. He didn’t have any. None.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw the body in the morgue.”

“Why, the question will be asked, did Inspector O go to the Geneva morgue?”

“The mission doesn’t want anything to do with bodies of any description. They said no one was missing from their roster, and they weren’t going to the morgue to stare at an unidentified foreigner. In fact, they complained it was an insult, suggesting something had happened to one of the staff. The Swiss threw up their hands and asked me. I thought I owed it to Sohn. Someone did, anyway.”

“So, just for the sake of argument, we’ll assume you are right.” I expected Pak to ask a lot of things, but not what came next. “Does that bother you, his being murdered?”

“Strange, the Swiss put the same question to me.”

“And what did you reply?”

“I said I’d have to think about it. I’m still thinking, but I’m not sure I like having so many people interested in my personal reaction. What if I asked you the same thing?”

“I’d say I am bothered by it. I’d say Sohn was a good man. He grunted and barked at times, his ears were too small and the back of his head too pointed, but he was good to his people and he knew what needed to be done.”

Nicely vague, that phrase—needed to be done.

“So, you knew him from before you joined the Ministry. I figured you did. There was something about the way you spoke to each other.”

“It’s been a while, but I don’t think he had changed much.”

“From what I could tell, he had a lot of enemies.”

“These days, that’s not hard to do. Even back then, he had the knack for it.”

“The Swiss told me they saw him meeting Jenö last year.”

“Good for them.” Pak stood up. This time there was nothing special in his eyes. Maybe he wasn’t surprised. “I feel like going for a long walk. Come along?”

As soon as we were out the gate and past the guards, it was clear Pak didn’t want to talk. Silence was fine by me. I was disoriented, and it wasn’t just lack of sleep. I couldn’t place where I was. I’d only been away for a month, but the city had a strange feel. Everything about it was unfamiliar—the buildings, the air, the sounds. It was as if I hadn’t really