shovels, no digging—I heard a little voice repeating. The sooner I start, I told myself, the sooner it’s done.

First on the list was the woman’s father, the old general. “I’ve got to ask you a few questions, that’s all.”

“The hell you do. You tell me who you are first, then we’ll decide what comes next.”

“Inspector O, Ministry of Public Security. I’m sorry about your daughter, but I have to ask you some questions, General.”

He frowned. “You alone?”

“I am.”

“Come in. Keep your coat buttoned, it’s cold as hell in here.” He stood aside, and I walked past him into a dark room.

“Should I open the curtains?” I bumped into a low table. “It will give us some light.”

“I don’t want any damned light, what do you think about that? I want it dark. I want to sit in the dark and think. That meet with your approval, Inspector?”

“Fine. Mind if I sit?”

“Ask your questions, why don’t you?”

I sat down and tried to figure out how to deal with the man. The air in the room was so laden with grief, it was hard to think. I wasn’t going to get much out of him, no matter what tack I took, and he wasn’t going to give me much time. Since he wouldn’t tell me what I needed to know, even if he knew it, I might as well not even bother to ask him directly. Just take it easy, I told myself. Stay in control. “About your daughter. Did you have any communication with her in the last few months?”

“The last few months? No.”

“Few means many, several, something more than two but less than six. Does that help?”

“We spoke once or twice.”

“On the phone?”

“Stupid question. Yes, on the phone. How else would we speak? Once, she was in an embassy; she called my office. The other time”—he said this very softly—“was from New York. She was real excited. She didn’t say much, but I could tell by her voice. She said she was happy. I told her to be careful, to listen to the security people.”

An embassy. Well, it was a start. Curious, that hadn’t been in any file on her I’d seen so far. No mention of being attached to the Foreign Ministry. “At the embassy, she was happy with the surroundings? Weather was okay, food alright, and so forth?” I didn’t want him to realize I had no idea where the embassy was. Maybe it was Pakistan, maybe it wasn’t. If he sensed I was guessing, he certainly wouldn’t tell me. If he smelled a hunch, he’d smile grimly and sit back, as I imagined he used to do in a roomful of generals—each one suspicious of the next and all of them scared of him. He’d go silent all of a sudden. Nothing would make him open up then. I softened my tone a little. “Did she mention anything that caught your attention? Insects, trees, trouble sleeping? Anything?”

“Pretty fine-grained questions for a cop. You sure you’re not one of those security snakes?” I shook my head and pulled out my ID. He didn’t bother to look. That wasn’t what generals did. Other people, guards at the gate, checked IDs.

“We didn’t talk long.” He was changing the subject. “She just wanted to know if I would send her something.”

“What was that?”

“Got your attention now, don’t I?” He went silent, so I waited. I could wait as long as he could. We stared at each other for a couple of long minutes. Finally, he walked into the next room and emerged with a book. “She wanted one of these. One of her books.” He held it out for me to see. “Something about music. By the time I found someone to carry it out to her, she was dead.” He felt bad about that, I could tell, but he wasn’t going to say to me that this or anything else on earth bothered him. “Dead,” he said again. “I don’t remember where I put the damned book, if that’s what you’re going to ask me next.”

“That’s not the book?” I pointed to the one he was holding.

“I told you, I can’t find that one now. I put it somewhere when I heard she was dead. I have this one, that’s all. It was hers. I look at it sometimes.”

Time to change the subject. If he sank any deeper into melancholy, I’d never get him back on dry land. I should have seen it coming as soon as he said he’d