The Silent Girl

an endangered species. The database helps them identify which animal the fur comes from.” Erin opened a file folder and pulled out another sheet of keratin patterns. “Here’s what they compared our strands with. You’ll notice the protein bands line up almost perfectly with one particular specimen.”
    Jane glanced back and forth between the two pages. “Column number four,” she said.
    “Correct.”
    “So what is number four?”
    “It’s a nonhuman primate, as I guessed earlier. An Old World monkey, genus
Semnopithecus
. This particular species is known as the gray langur.”
    “Gray?” said Jane, glancing up.
    Erin nodded. “The same color as those hair strands from your Jane Doe. These monkeys are quite large, with black faces and gray or blond hair. Their range is South Asia, from China into India, both terrestrial and arboreal.” She paused. “Meaning, they live on the ground as well as in trees.” She turned to her computer and requested a Google Images search. “Here’s a photo. This is what the monkeys look like.”
    What Jane saw on the screen made her hands suddenly go cold.
Black face. Gray hair
. She felt the ache between her shoulder blades from the bullet slamming into her Kevlar vest. Remembered hot blood splashing her face, and the silhouette looming above her in thealley, its head crowned with silver hair. “How large are these monkeys?” she asked softly.
    “The males are about two and a half feet long.”
    “You’re certain they don’t grow taller?”
    “They’re not apes. They’re just monkeys.”
    Jane looked at Frost. Saw his pale face, his stunned eyes. “It’s what you saw, isn’t it?” she asked. “On the roof.”
    Erin frowned. “What did you see?”
    Frost shook his head. “It was way taller than two and a half feet.”
    Jane nodded. “I agree.”
    Erin looked back and forth between them. “You
both
saw this thing?”
    “It had that face,” said Frost. “And gray hair. But it couldn’t have been a monkey. And what monkey carries a sword?”
    “Now,
that
just sent a chill up my spine,” said Erin softly. “Considering what kind of monkey this is. In India, these are also known as the Hanuman langur. Hanuman is the Hindu god known as the Monkey Warrior.”
    The same chill that Erin had just felt suddenly whispered like an icy breath up the back of Jane’s neck. She thought of the creature in the alley. Remembered the gleam of its sword as it turned and slipped into the shadows.
    “Is that the same character as the Monkey King?” said Tam. “Because I know that legend. There’s a Chinese version of it, too. My grandmother used to tell me the stories.”
    “Who is the Monkey King?” asked Jane.
    “In China, his name is Sun Wukong. He’s born from a sacred rock and he starts off as just a stone monkey. Then he transforms to flesh and blood and gets crowned king of the monkeys. He becomes a warrior and travels to heaven to learn the wisdom of the gods. But up there, he gets into all sorts of trouble.”
    “So he’s a bad character?” asked Frost.
    “No, not evil. Just impulsive and mischievous, like a real monkey. There’s a whole book of stories about him. How he eats all thepeaches in the heavenly orchard. Drinks too much and steals a magic elixir. Gets into brawls with the Immortals, who don’t know how to deal with him. So they kick him out of heaven and temporarily lock him up inside a mountain prison.”
    Frost laughed. “He sounds like a few guys I went to high school with.”
    “So then what happens to him?” asked Jane.
    “Sun Wukong has a whole series of adventures on earth. Sometimes he causes trouble. Sometimes, he performs good deeds. I can’t remember all the stories, but I know there was a lot of magical fighting and river monsters and talking animals. Just your typical fairy tales.”
    “Fairy tales don’t spring to life,” said Jane. “They don’t shed real hair on real victims.”
    “I’m just telling you what the legends say about him. He’s a complex creature, sometimes helpful, sometimes destructive. But when faced with a choice between good and evil, the Monkey King almost always chooses to do the right thing.”
    Jane stared at the photo on Erin’s computer screen. At a face that, only a moment ago, had so chilled her. “So he’s not evil at all,” she said.
    “No,” said Tam. “Despite his flaws, despite the chaos he sometimes causes, the Monkey King stands on the side of justice.”

 
    T HE