The Killing Room Read Online Free PDF Page B

you can see why I was tempted to stay on.’
    He chuckled. ‘So why do you?’
    She shrugged. ‘I’ve got my reasons.’
    ‘Which you don’t want to share with me.’
    ‘Not particularly.’
    ‘Jeez, Mags,’ he leaned across the table and put his hand over hers, ‘what the hell are you thinking? You had a great job here. You could have ended up Medical Examiner in a few years.’
    She said very quietly, ‘Don’t do that, David.’
    He withdrew his hand like he’d had an electric shock. ‘I’m sorry.’
    She shook her head. ‘I mean, don’t call me Mags . It’s what Michael called me.’
    ‘Oh, shit, I’m sorry, Margaret. I never thought …’
    ‘Doesn’t matter.’ She wasn’t going to remind him that this is where she’d met Michael, that it was David who’d introduced them. A fact that had clearly not loomed large in his recollection, along with the termination of her pregnancy.
    ‘But, hey, you know, the question’s still relevant. I mean, why China? It’s a communist state for Christ’s sake.’
    ‘Oh, right.’ Margaret felt her hackles rise. ‘And you want to turn it overnight into a democracy? Like Russia?’
    ‘Hey, come on, Margaret, I’m just saying …’
    ‘Saying what? That you want to see people dying in the streets of cold and hunger, watch organised crime take the money out of honest people’s pockets, see a breakdown of government, a descent into civil war?’
    ‘Of course not!’ David was annoyed now. ‘I wouldn’t wish Russia on anyone, even the Russians. It’s this country, the USA, that sets the standard. People here have got rights.’
    ‘Yeah, the right to get shot because their democratically elected government isn’t strong enough to stand up to the vested interests of the gun lobby. The right to justice if they can afford to pay for a sharp lawyer.’
    David looked at her, uncomprehending. ‘Jeez, Margaret. What have they done to you over there?’
    ‘Nothing, David. Not a thing. I’ve just got a perspective now on the world that I never had before. I mean, what do you know about China? Have you ever been there?’
    ‘No, but––’
    ‘No, but what? That doesn’t make any difference? Is that what you were going to say?’
    ‘I was going to say,’ David said levelly, ‘that I read the papers and I watch the news. I know all about their record on human rights, what they do to dissidents. Like the clampdown on that religious sect … what is it? … Falun Gong .’
    ‘Oh, right,’ Margaret said. ‘ Falun Gong . They’re the ones whose leader claims to be an alien … someone from outer space. That sounds like someone worth following.’
    ‘That’s not the point. The point is that people should be allowed to follow whatever religion they want.’
    ‘Like here.’
    ‘Like here.’ He nodded, satisfied that he’d finally made his point.
    ‘Like the Branch Davidians?’
    ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Margaret!’
    But she wasn’t going to be deflected. ‘You remember the Branch Davidians, don’t you? They’re the ones the FBI massacred down at Waco. Women and children burned alive. I mean, I should know, I assisted on a fair number of the autopsies.’
    David breathed his irritation. ‘That’s not a fair comparison.’
    ‘That’s just the trouble.’ Margaret slapped the table, and heads turned in their direction. ‘Comparisons never are. The Chinese have no history of democracy in five thousand years of civilisation. So how can you compare it to the United States? And whatever hell that society’s been through in the last hundred years, it is changing, David. Slowly but surely. And regardless of what people here might like to think, the man in the street doesn’t harbour dreams of democracy. He doesn’t even think about politics. He thinks about how much he earns, about putting a roof over his head, about feeding his family, educating his kids. And you know what? Right now he’s better off than he’s ever been at any time in