Chapter Four: The Driver in the Mirror

Minglan looked as if she had been slapped. She did not argue. She simply left. Shen Yan found her in the conservatory among dead white roses. She held the badge with its thirteen grooves. "Xingyao is right to distrust me," she said. "When my mother was dying, I removed her respirator." Shen Yan said nothing. "You don't want to ask why?" "You want me to ask." He watched her. "The first thing the Nightingale teaches is how to turn confession into bait." Anger crossed her face before exhaustion replaced it. "Do you suspect me?" "I suspect every truth this house forces out of someone." She slapped the badge into his palm. The thirteen grooves were not ornamental. A narrow strip of magnetic tape had been pressed into the seventh.