Free Shadow Pavilion by Liz Williams Page B

him? Oh,” Chen said, realizing. “Security, of course. I’ll have a word with him.”
    Maybe it wasn’t anything to do with Jhai. Chen tapped his rosary, for luck. Maybe this individual was simply nuts. It happened. It would be nice to have an ordinary lunatic to deal with, for a change.
    Pauleng Go’s lunacy was not, however, obvious, apart from the fact that he was barefoot in winter. Coming into the interrogation room, Chen saw a slight, rather fey young man, the sort whom women would probably find appealing, although it was difficult for him to tell. Go had an alarmed air rather like a nervous horse, a sort of eye-rolling, about-to-bolt quality. But his clothes were clearly designer gear, even to Chen’s unsartorial eye.
    â€œDetective Chen?” A reasonably cultured voice.
    â€œThat’s me. Mr Go, I believe? And you’re having problems with a tiger demon.”
    â€œLet me start at the beginning,” Pauleng Go said.
    â€œGo ahead.” He had the feeling that this might take some time.
    Pauleng Go certainly knew how to tell a good, concise story, which Chen supposed to be an attribute that came in handy if one were a scriptwriter. His tale was unlikely, and yet to Chen’s experienced ear, it had the ring of truth. He had never seen one of Lara Chowdijharee’s films, but for a time her face had been plastered over every billboard and hoarding in the city and he thought he remembered seeing her on some late-night chat show or other. A tiger demon? Well, one of the city’s premier industrialists was, so why not a movie star? And it even had a warped kind of logic: the movies required glamour, and tiger demons certainly had that. Besides, it would be a simple matter to check Pauleng Go’s identity.
    â€œDo you have a background in magic, Mr Go?”
    â€œNo. Well, yes. In a manner of speaking. My father was a professional exorcist. I grew up in Kuala Lumpur and then we moved to Delhi when I was in my teens. I saw a lot of shit. But I didn’t really have the gift, you know? And I wanted to be a writer, so I told the old man that I wasn’t prepared to follow him. We were estranged for a while but he’s cool with it now. I picked up enough to be able to do a basic summoning. And my friend—the guy who Lara killed, Beni—he and I had a great idea for a film, but it needed a really great leading lady.”
    â€œSurely there are scores of young actresses just waiting for their big break?”
    â€œWe needed more than that. Certain qualities, you know?”
    Chen was not sure that he did, but Go seemed to have some kind of artistic principle in mind: he was making hand gestures which seemed too abstract to be a representation of the female form. “One night, we’d been drinking, and Beni and I thought it would be a cool idea to summon up a demon. Dad had to do it in Delhi—I saw a tiger demon once, only for a few seconds, but man! Impressive.”
    â€œThey are,” Chen agreed, thinking of Jhai. “And you were successful.”
    â€œYeah, until she started freaking out on us. Making demands, threats … ”
    â€œI can imagine,” Chen said. Unfortunately, he thought he could.
    â€œSo we decided to get rid of her. We actually summoned her up but something went wrong—I told you, I’m not that experienced. I know it was stupid.”
    â€œAlso,” Chen said quietly, thinking of Inari in the waiting room, cradling her cup of tea in both wan hands, “also somewhat unfair. Demons aren’t ciphers. It’s not a video game.”
    Go looked at him and he could see that the young man already knew. “I know. She had every right to be pissed off. I can’t blame her for what she did, but I need help now.”
    â€œWe’ll do what we can,” Chen said.
    Go’s head went up and, for a moment, Chen thought that the young man’s spirits had revived. Then he saw that the