The Silent Girl

wife is abducted. Do you know this one?”
    Bella shrugged. “I’ve heard it.”
    “Then you know how it turns out. The wife gives birth to a son while in captivity and secretly places him on a wooden plank, with a letter explaining her plight. Just like baby Moses, the child’s set adrift on the river. He floats to the Temple of the Golden Mountain, where he’s raised by holy men. He grows to manhood and learns the truth about his parents. About his butchered father and his imprisoned mother.”
    “Is there a point to this?”
    “The point is right here, in the words spoken by the young man.” Jane looked down at the page and read the quote.
“He who fails to avenge the wrongs done to a parent is unworthy of the name of man.”
She looked at Bella. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? You’re like the son in this story. Haunted by the murder of your father.Honor-bound to avenge him.” Jane slid the book in front of Bella. “It’s exactly what the Monkey King would do, fight for justice. protect the innocent. Avenge a father. Oh, Monkey may wreak a bit of havoc in the process. He may break all the chinaware and set fire to the furniture. But in the end, justice is done. He always does the
right thing.
”
    Bella said nothing as she stared at the illustration of the warrior monkey brandishing his staff.
    “I understand completely, Bella,” said Jane. “You’re not the villain in this. You’re the daughter of a victim, a daughter who wants what the police can’t deliver. Justice.” She lowered her voice to a sympathetic murmur. “That’s what you and Iris were trying to do. Draw out the killer. Tempt him to strike.”
    Was that the hint of a nod she saw? Bella’s inadvertent acknowledgment of the truth?
    “But the plan didn’t work out so well,” said Jane. “When he did strike, he hired professionals to do the killing for him. So you still don’t know his identity. And now he’s taken Iris.”
    Bella looked up, fury burning in her eyes. “It went wrong because of
you
. I should have been there to watch over her.”
    “She was the bait.”
    “She was willing to take the risk.”
    “And you two were going to deliver justice all by yourselves?”
    “Who else is going to do it? The police?” Bella’s laugh was bitter. “All these years later, they don’t care.”
    “You’re wrong, Bella. I sure as hell do care.”
    “Then let me go, so I can find her.”
    “You have no idea where to start.”
    “Do you?” Bella spat back.
    “We’re looking at several suspects.”
    “While you keep me locked up for no reason.”
    “I’m investigating two homicides. That’s my reason.”
    “They were hired killers. That’s what you said.”
    “Their deaths are still homicides.”
    “And I have an alibi for the first one. You
know
I didn’t kill that woman on the roof.”
    “Then who did?”
    Bella looked at the book and her mouth twitched. “Maybe it was the Monkey King.”
    “I’m talking about real people.”
    “You say I’m a suspect, but you know I couldn’t have killed the woman. You might as well blame some mythical creature, because you have just as much of a chance of proving it.” Bella looked at Jane. “You do know how the folktale starts, don’t you? How Sun Wukong emerges from stone and transforms into a warrior? The night my father was killed, I emerged from that stone cellar just like Monkey. I was transformed, too. I became what I am now.”
    Jane stared into eyes as hard as any she had ever looked into. She tried to imagine Bella as a frightened five-year-old, but she could see no trace of that child in this fierce creature.
If I’d witnessed the murder of someone I loved, would I be any different?
    Jane stood up. “You’re right, Bella. I don’t have enough to hold you. Not yet.”
    “You mean—you’re letting me go?”
    “Yes, you can leave.”
    “And I won’t be followed? I’m free to do what I have to?”
    “What does that mean?”
    Bella rose from her chair, like a lioness uncoiling herself for the hunt, and the two women stared at each other across the table. “Whatever it takes,” she said.

I CAN HEAR HIM BREATHING IN THE DARKNESS, BEYOND THE BLINDING glare that shines in my eyes. He has not allowed me to see his face; all I know about him is that his voice is as smooth as cream. But I have not cooperated, and he is starting to grow angry because he realizes I am not easily broken.
    Now he is worried as well, because of the