Excerpt from Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendker, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"I'm afraid. I'm so afraid. Can you understand that?" she whispered, and started crying.

Richard Owen sat by her side on the couch and shifted from side to side, uneasily. He was clearly uncomfortable with his wife's tears. He went to put an arm around her shoulders, but she shook herself briefly and he withdrew his arm. He cast Paul a look as if to draw him into a male complicity. Paul looked away.

"I think you're worrying too much, honey."

Paul had not heard so much helplessness in someone's voice in a long time.

"Michael is thirty years old. He's a grown man. I'm sure he'll call us in the next few hours and explain everything."

That didn't sound very convincing, Paul thought, and he wondered how he could help. He had no contacts in the Hong Kong police force any longer. The two British police inspectors he used to know had more or less voluntarily taken early retirement and gone back to England when the colony was returned to China. That left only Detective Superintendent Zhang Lin at the homicide division in Shenzhen. If something had happened to a foreigner there he would know about it.

"I have a friend who's in the police force in Shenzhen. I'll give him a call and get in touch with you this afternoon or tomorrow morning," Paul said. "I can't do much more for you right now." Elizabeth nodded thankfully, and her husband drained his whiskey glass in one gulp. They sat silently for a moment before they took their leave. The Owens walked slowly to the elevators with their heads bowed. Paul had the impression that Richard Owen's left leg dragged a little and for an instant this big man seemed very small to him.

———

"Paul?" Christine must have recognized his number on her phone. The surprise and pleasure in her voice were unmistakable.

"Yes, it's me. Is it a bad time? Should I call back later?" What stupid questions, he immediately thought. He knew from what she told him that her travel agency, World Wide Travel, consisted of a tiny office that she shared with two employees, and that their phones rang from morning to night. He heard a few female voices in the background, punctuated by phones ringing almost nonstop.

"It's no problem. Can you wait a minute, please?" She asked the customer on the other line for his number and promised to call him back in a few minutes.

"Where are you? On Lamma? It's noisy where you are."

"No. I'm standing in front of the InterContinental."

"What are you doing there? I thought you wanted to be on your own."

Christine had asked him out to dinner that night. She thought distraction was good for him. Paul disagreed, and thought her invitation was a sign of her lack of sensitivity. He did not want to be distracted; that was the whole point. He did not want to be occupied so that time would pass more quickly. The more quickly time passed, the more destructive it was to memory. Time faded memories.

"Shall we meet?" Christine offered, instead. "I have time for a coffee."

"Where?"

"Here in Wan Chai. I'll meet you at the MTR so you don't get lost in the crowds."

"I don't know." The more they talked, the worse he felt. It was always the same. She couldn't help him. Why had he called her in the first place?

"Or we could meet later and . . ."



"No," he interrupted her. "I think I'd better go back to Lamma." She didn't say anything for a moment. The sound of phones ringing, women's voices, someone calling her name. "I could come to Lamma this evening, and we could have dinner at Sampan on the harbor."

"No," he repeated, "absolutely not," as if there was a risk that she might come secretly, against his wishes.

"Paul, you don't make it easy for me sometimes."

"I know, Christine. I'm sorry. I'll be in touch later."

Excerpted from Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendker. Copyright © 2015 by Jan-Philipp Sendker. Excerpted by permission of 37 Ink/Atria Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.