Blue Dragon

inspector said. ‘We found the body of a young European woman in a dumpster in Kowloon City. Sorry to be blunt about it, but the corpse was quite badly mutilated, and when we compared the face to the ID card records it seemed to match you.’ He turned to John. ‘I don’t think you’ll need to come with us now, sir.’
    ‘You have my details; please feel free to call me any time,’ John said, very calm. ‘I’d be happy to help you any way I can.’
    ‘Both of you were hospitalised recently,’ the Chinese sergeant said. He held a thick manila folder with papersinside. Damn; there was a file on us. The policeman looked at John. ‘You were kidnapped January last year.’ He flipped through the papers and glanced at me. ‘You were attacked last October, and hospitalised with head injuries.’
    John and I were both speechless. Think quickly, Emma.
    ‘I’m sure the police are doing their best to keep the streets of Hong Kong safe,’ I said mildly, turning the problem back to them. ‘Fortunately, neither of us was badly injured when we were attacked. John…’ I glanced quickly at him. ‘Mr Chen was kidnapped, but we paid the ransom and got him back. And the guy who attacked me last October was after my handbag. When I wouldn’t give it to him he laid into me.’
    The sergeant flipped through the file. ‘At the time you said you couldn’t remember anything.’
    I tried to stay calm. ‘No, that’s not correct. I said that I was attacked by a young man, thirty-ish, well-dressed, good-looking. I even sat with the identikit policeman and we did a sketch of the guy.’
    And they’d never picked Simon Wong up, even though they had to know he was the head of all the underworld activity in the Territory. I wondered if it was incompetence, or they didn’t have enough on him, or it was something more sinister.
    ‘Maybe you should be looking for those who attacked us, instead of interrogating us,’ John said, matching my mild tone.
    ‘What happened to the woman in Kowloon City?’ I said, deliberately changing the subject.
    ‘There wasn’t enough left of her to work out exactly what happened to her,’ the inspector said. ‘But she appeared to have been poisoned.’
    Demon. The essence comes up as poison. Wonder why it didn’t disintegrate? May have been a hybrid.
    I tried to control my face. ‘Anything else?’
    The inspector rose. The sergeant hesitated, unhappy, then rose too.
    ‘Nothing else. Sorry to take up your time. But the body in Kowloon City did look a lot like you. You don’t have any relatives here, by any chance?’ the inspector said.
    ‘No,’ I said. ‘Must just be a coincidence. That poor woman. I wonder what happened to her.’
    The inspector smiled, suddenly paternal. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll track them down.’ He sobered. ‘Next time somebody tries to grab your handbag, just give it to them, okay?’
    I shrugged and rose to show them out. ‘Sure. I don’t know what I was thinking, refusing to give it to him. Just overconfident, I guess.’
    ‘Some of these young thugs are trained in martial arts,’ the inspector said. ‘Kung fu, you know? Be careful. Some of them look small and harmless, but can kill you with their bare hands.’
    ‘Really?’ I said, feigning astonishment. ‘I thought that was all movie stuff.’
    The inspector grinned. ‘Don’t worry, we keep a close eye on their activities. If they’re learning martial arts, then we know about it. We know the location of every school in the Territory and watch them closely.’
    ‘That’s reassuring,’ I said, carefully controlling my expression. ‘I’m glad you’re on top of it.’
    ‘Sorry to take up your time,’ the inspector said to John, who nodded.
    I guided them out, closed the door behind them, and sagged.
    I was so worried about you, love. I’m too weak to sense anything. I had no idea.
    ‘If Wong had a copy of me then why did he kill it?’ I said as I fell onto one of the sofas.
    ‘Maybe it died,’ John said. ‘But I don’t like the concept of him copying you at all. I’ve never seen that done before. Shapeshifters, yes. But not copies.’
    ‘We should get together and work out a set of identifying codewords,’ I said. ‘We need to do it right away.’
    John’s eyes unfocused, and then he rose to guide me into the dining room.
    ‘Oh, and next time, try to remember. I can’t sit next to you on the couch,’ I said wearily, ‘it’s too close. That looked really bad, me standing