The Fourth Sacrifice by Peter May

blank. Margaret smiled. ‘I did an autopsy on an assisted Hara Kiri suicide, where once the victim had disembowelled himself, his Tameshi Giri assistant beheaded him.’
    ‘Eugh!’ Sophie shivered. ‘You mean people actually choose to die by having their heads cut off?’
    Margaret nodded. ‘It saves you from too much suffering once you’ve slit your belly open. It’s not exactly common, but there have been several cases. I had to make a small study of them for mine.’ She turned to Li. ‘The cutter stands behind the victim and to his left if he is right-handed. And on the right if he is left-handed.’ She passed him the photograph. ‘As you can see, the cast-off pattern is on Yuan Tao’s right. So his killer was left-handed.’
    Li looked at the picture for a long time. ‘Are you saying this killer is some kind of Tameshi Giri expert?’
    ‘No. I’d say he wasn’t a novice. He certainly knows how to handle a sword. But the cut is not very clean. There was a marked abrasion at the entry edge, and quite a large, irregular flap of skin at the exit edge. So he wasn’t an expert.’
    ‘Pathologist Wang thought perhaps the blade was getting blunt,’ Li said drily, and Margaret smiled at the pathologist’s implied criticism of the investigation.
    ‘All the more reason to think this was no expert,’ she said. ‘An expert would keep his blade well honed.’
    ‘The first three … mm … victims were much more cleanly cut,’ Wang offered.
    ‘Were they?’ Margaret frowned, computing several possibilities in her mind. At length she asked, ‘Are the photographs from the other crime scenes available?’ Wang nodded and sent one of his assistants to get them. ‘I’d also like copies of the autopsy reports on the other victims. Translated, please. And access to all the other evidence.’
    Li bridled. ‘This is a Chinese police investigation,’ he said.
    ‘Of an American citizen,’ Margaret fired back. ‘And we don’t have two years to wait for a result.’
    ‘Two years?’ Sophie said. ‘What do you mean?’
    Margaret turned a syrupy smile on her. ‘Deputy Section Chief Li once told me that it took him two years to clear up a murder here. Par for the course for the Chinese police, I think.’
    ‘That was one case,’ Li retorted, barely containing his fury. ‘And at least we broke it. If it had been in America, it would still be languishing in an unsolved cases file.’
    The assistant returned with three large brown envelopes, and Margaret held them for a moment. ‘And am I allowed to look?’ she asked Li pointedly. He kept his lips pressed together in a grim line and nodded curtly. She smiled sweetly. ‘Thank you.’ And she spread the photographs from each envelope out on the table. Immediately she gasped with frustration. ‘I thought you said this was a serial killer?’
    ‘It’s what we believe,’ Li said more confidently than he felt.
    ‘Well, victim number three’s been moved from the murder scene. There’s not nearly enough blood here.’
    ‘We are aware of that.’ There were echoes in this for Li of that morning’s meeting. Fresh eyes casting a sceptical look at the evidence.
    ‘Another break in the pattern,’ Margaret said. And she started examining the blood spatter patterns in the photographs of the first two murders. ‘And yet another.’ She dropped the photographs back on the table. ‘Victims one and two were killed by a right-handed bladesman. You can see for yourself. The cast-off patterns are on the left side of the bodies.’
    Li examined the photographs. ‘Well, there’s no way of making that comparison with victim number three. And, anyway, it’s perfectly possible that the killer is equally good with left or right hand.’ He was getting defensive now.
    But Margaret was dismissive. ‘Unlikely.’ She picked up and began studying the photographs of the bound wrists of each of the victims in the order of their killing. ‘Pass me the silk cord we took from the