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clothes, too, he noticed—an expensive-looking dark business suit, probably imported from the West somewhere. Sangajav had little aptitude for mathematics, but, at least in his own mind, he was highly experienced when it came to appraising women.
    â€œIs this the right place to report a crime?”
    Sangajav carefully gathered up his papers and looked up at her. “Well, no, not really. I think you want the police station.”
    â€œIsn’t this the police station?”
    Sangajav shook his head, as though dealing with a very elementary error. “No, this is police
headquarters.
”
    â€œAnd you’re not a police station as well?”
    â€œWell, no. This is mainly administration, and some specialist units—”
    â€œBut you are the police?”
    â€œYes, we are, but—”
    â€œSo why can’t I report a crime here?”
    â€œIt’s just that—well, you have to go to the police station.”
    â€œBut since I’m here, can’t you deal with it anyway?”
    â€œThat’s not really the way—”
    â€œBut why not? If you’re the police and I want to report a crime, why can’t I do so?”
    Sangajav sighed. Why did this sort of thing alwayshappen when he was around? This wasn’t even really supposed to be a reception. The building wasn’t strictly open to the public, so the desk was really just here for greeting official visitors. But visitors were so few that there was little point in employing a permanent receptionist, so the informal procedure was that one of the officers rostered for administrative duties would sit here just in case anyone turned up. As far as Sangajav could judge, this only ever happened on his watch and it was always people like this.
    â€œIt just doesn’t work like that,” he explained patiently. “We’re not an operational police station. That’s on the other side of the square. As I say, we’re mainly admin people here, and one or two specialist units like the Serious Crimes Team—”
    â€œThe Serious Crimes Team,” she interrupted. There was a faint hint of a smile around her mouth. “Well, what if I wanted to report a
serious
crime? Could I do that here?”
    Sangajav was beginning to suspect that, despite her impressive appearance, the woman was deeply insane. He wasn’t sure quite how to respond. “Do you want to report a serious crime?” he asked.
    â€œI’m not sure,” she said. “What constitutes a serious crime?”
    Sangajav shook his head, despairingly. His only thought now was how he might get rid of this woman. It didn’t seem appropriate simply to throw her out. “It’s difficult to say,” he said at last. “Perhaps if you tell me what the crime is, I can tell you whether it’s serious. But you’ll still have to report it at the police station.”
    She nodded as though carefully absorbing this information. “What about a threat of physical violence?” she said. “Would you consider that serious?”
    â€œWe might,” he said. “It would depend on the circumstances.”
    She nodded again. “What if the purpose of the threat was to intimidate a member of the judiciary?”
    â€œA member of the judiciary?”
    â€œYes,” she said. “A judge. A judge who generally deals with major criminal trials. That is, what you might call ‘serious crimes.’” She stared fixedly at Sangajav, and it was impossible to be sure whether she was being ironic.
    â€œI think that might count,” Sangajav said. “If that were the case.”
    â€œIt’s the case,” she said, slowly. “I’m a judge. And I’ve been threatened. It may just be nonsense. But it may not.”
    Sangajav still wasn’t entirely sure about her sanity. But if what she was saying was true, then it probably merited taking seriously. The Chief probably