The Message

by Mai Jia

  ‘From what we’ve seen in the last couple of days,’ Hihara said to Wang Tianxiang, ‘it’s obvious that Ghost is no ordinary member of the Communist Party – whoever it is may well be extremely high up. But with the fuss that Wu Zhiguo’s been making since he was arrested, he doesn’t seem very senior at all.’

  ‘But remember how he looked when he shot the concubine dead,’ Wang Tianxiang pointed out. ‘That’s not the way some entry-level guy behaves.’

  ‘I’m thinking,’ Hihara said, ‘that a really tough guy like him, who’s also supposed to be senior in the organization, ought not to make a simple mistake with his handwriting. You saw the samples he gave us the second time – they were quite good enough to fool people.’

  Wang Tianxiang seemed to have already given that plenty of thought. ‘But might he not have done that deliberately? First he intentionally falls into the trap and then he gets himself out of it again. His aim from start to finish has been to eliminate Li Ningyu.’

  Seeing that this line of argument had got Hihara’s attention, he quickly added, ‘And I’ve never believed what he said about the telegram, because Li Ningyu told us about that before any of us got here. At that point nobody knew what had happened yet, so why she would lie?’

  Also, he went on to argue, the best way for Ghost to hide their identity was to make someone else a scapegoat. Right up until Wu Zhiguo wrote the letter in blood to accuse Li Ningyu, Li Ningyu herself hadn’t made any accusations. Wu Zhiguo, on the other hand, had accused Li Ningyu right from the beginning. Again, making a silly mistake and then using that to get himself off the hook was an excellent plan. If it succeeded, he would find it easy to deceive people into believing him innocent and thus ignoring any later evidence against him.

  So what with one thing and another, Police Chief Wang Tianxiang created a Ghost for Colonel Hihara, and that Ghost was Chief of Staff Wu Zhiguo.

  ‘You’re really improving, Tianxiang,’ Hihara said when he’d finished. ‘The way you’ve thought this through shows that you’ve been paying attention. You’ve also explained it well. Logically, it all makes sense, and I accept what you’ve said. However, I’m not completely convinced, because I also accept what Wu Zhiguo said when he accused Li Ningyu. One: she could quite easily have practised forging other people’s handwriting. Two: if she is Ghost, she’s going to be on constant alert, so when Commander Zhang suddenly asks her, just after she’s passed the message on to her contact, if she’s told anyone else about the telegram, what’s she going to think? It would be pretty obvious that something must have gone wrong, so we shouldn’t be surprised that she decided to bring in a scapegoat. Three: having produced her scapegoat, she has nothing to worry about, because in cases like this, sooner or later someone is going to think of testing everyone’s handwriting. Then she can just sit back and enjoy the joke.’

  As Hihara looked up at the Police Chief, his mouth twitched in an almost imperceptible smile. ‘And there’s the problem: you and I both have a great story, but I can’t convince you to accept mine and you can’t convince me to believe yours. If you’re going to persuade me, then you need more evidence, and vice versa.’

  There was an unnerving silence. Then Hihara made his decision. ‘Therefore, we’re not going to try and come to any conclusion right now. We’re going to wait and see. We’re going to go and find the evidence that we need. I want you to go immediately and search Li Ningyu’s office back at ECCC headquarters. If you can find evidence that she has been practising Wu Zhiguo’s handwriting, that would be wonderful.’

  3

  No such luck.

  Half an hour later, Wang Tianxiang phoned Colonel Hihara from Li Ningyu’s office back at base. He hadn’t found a shred of evidence.

  Hihara rushed straight over to the western building and had Li Ningyu brought downstairs to the conference room. He came straight to the point. ‘Police Chief Wang has just been searching your office. Do you know what he found?’

  ‘I have no idea.’

  ‘Are you scared?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘No, that’s not right, you are scared – you were brought here to the Tan Estate without warning, so you didn’t have time to destroy the evidence. And Police Chief Wang tells me he found something. A really important secret. Do you know what it was?’

  ‘I haven’t a clue. But any secret in my office is going to be one of the Imperial Japanese Army’s secrets.’

  ‘Not true. Unless you’re trying to tell me that the Imperial Army has been secretly forging Wu Zhiguo’s handwriting?’

  At this, Li Ningyu broke into a smile for the first time. ‘I think Police Chief Wang must have gone to the wrong office.’

  Hihara harrumphed, then gave Li Ningyu a thumbs up. ‘I’m impressed! You’ve been doing really well. Should you manage to prove that you’re not Ghost, you’ll be an asset to the Imperial Army.’ His thumb disappeared. ‘But right now… I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can prove it. I just don’t believe your story.’

  Li Ningyu sat in silence for a while. Then, quite out of the blue, she said, ‘Colonel Hihara, I’d really like to know, is the letter written in Wu Zhiguo’s blood that you showed me this afternoon real?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Well, I hope it is real,’ she said, ‘because then he’s already proved that I am not Ghost.’

  ‘And if it’s fake?’

  ‘Then there’s something that you need to verify as soon as possible.’

  She explained that just now she’d heard Section Chief Jin Shenghuo mention that Secretary Bai had been present when he handed over the top-secret telegram to Commander Zhang. ‘Section Chief Jin said that Secretary Bai read the message as soon as he got it.’ Which meant that it was not merely four individuals who knew the contents of the telegram: there was a fifth, and that was Secretary Bai.

  ‘How do you know we haven’t been secretly investigating Secretary Bai all along?’ Hihara said.

  ‘When you asked him to draft our family letters,’ Li Ningyu replied, ‘I immediately realized that’s what you were doing. You wanted him to write it out too so that you could study his handwriting. But placing him under secret investigation is unlikely to elicit good results.’

  It seemed she had a lot to say about this. ‘It’s clear,’ she continued, ‘that, however you play this, you’re not going to be able to force Ghost into making a move. Any action on Ghost’s part would be like a moth flying into a flame, so they’re not going to risk it. If they’re not going to do anything, it’s pointless spying on them. Then again, it’s even more pointless if Ghost doesn’t even know they’re under suspicion, because they’ll think they have nothing to worry about and so they’ll just stay safe and sound where they are.’

  So much for her reasoning. Hihara now urged her to get to the point.

  ‘My point is: if Wu Zhiguo is still alive, then instead of wasting your time trying to trick me, you’d be better off trying to trick a confession out of Secretary Bai. I don’t know, Colonel Hihara, whether you’ve been trying to deceive Section Chief Jin and Gu Xiaomeng the same way you have me—’ Li Ningyu paused here, raised an eyebrow, waited for an acknowledgement, received none ‘—but I do know that Chief of Staff Wu would have been interrogated repeatedly, and eventually tortured. If Ghost really was one of us four, that alone would have forced them into the open long ago.’

  Again, Hihara studiously avoided reacting to this.

  Li Ningyu carried on. ‘Ghost already has one foot in prison – give it another couple of days and the other one will join it. They must know that it’s pretty much all over. Even if there’s no confession, you’ll see it in their face. They’ll want to live, they’ll be afraid of dying, and when they realize they’ve reached the end of the road, they’re going to be terrified.’

  ‘There are some people who look on death as the end of all their suffering,’ Hihara said. ‘I imagine you’re one of them.’

  ‘I have two young children,’ she replied. �
�Otherwise, I might well have killed myself over the way you’ve humiliated me.’

  ‘Bearing in mind those two small children,’ Hihara said, ‘you really shouldn’t hold out any longer. You’re provoking not only me but also Commander Zhang. I would highly recommend that you acknowledge the gravity of your situation and confess as soon as possible. Then we can treat this as an isolated offence, and your family won’t be involved. Otherwise,’ he said with a menacing smile, ‘they will all have to suffer the consequences of your actions as well.’

  ‘Colonel Hihara,’ Li Ningyu said, ‘I suggest that you go and repeat that message to Secretary Bai. If Wu Zhiguo is indeed still alive, you may get some most unexpected results by threatening Secretary Bai.’

  When Hihara heard this, he felt as if he’d been stabbed through the heart. But he wasn’t going to admit that. ‘Didn’t you tell me that you wouldn’t make any accusations without concrete evidence? Why have you changed your mind now?’

  ‘I’m not accusing him of anything. I’m merely helping you analyse the situation. However, I want to make it clear that my recommendations only apply if Wu Zhiguo is still alive. If he really is dead, then I stick by my original theory: you don’t need to waste any more of your time, Colonel Hihara, for he is Ghost, no doubt about it.’

  Hihara was cursing inwardly: what do you mean, I don’t need to waste any more of my time? You two bastards have already wasted plenty of my time, and now you’re trying to drag Secretary Bai into it.

  For all his cursing, Hihara was prepared to admit that Li Ningyu might have a point. But he couldn’t decide how he felt about her performance. Was he now more sceptical of her story or the other way round? It was infuriating – there was no other word for it.

  *

  That evening, Hihara didn’t go to the officers’ club to find a prostitute. He wasn’t feeling very cheerful and he couldn’t summon the enthusiasm. Since he was irritable, he didn’t sleep very well either, and his sleep was disturbed by dreams. Everything that he’d experienced during the day reappeared in his dreams: the questioning of Turtle, the drunkenness of Gu Xiaomeng, the deafening sound of a gunshot, the corpse of the concubine, Li Ningyu’s logical exposition, Wu Zhiguo’s letter written in blood. Images drifted in on the breeze and were then carried away into the darkness. Dreaming is the twin brother of thinking. He was inspired by his dreams; now he knew exactly how he would play his next card.

  The next morning, the first thing he did after getting out of bed was to hand Wu Zhiguo’s blood letter over to Police Chief Wang. ‘Go and tell Secretary Bai,’ he instructed him, ‘that there’s to be a meeting immediately after breakfast. At the meeting he will show everyone this letter. Then he is to talk to them one at a time and see what they have to say.’

  Wang Tianxiang wasn’t sure what kind of trick his boss was trying to play. He thought it very unlikely that anything would come of it, since Li Ningyu already knew the letter was a fake.

  Hihara was more sanguine. ‘I never told her that Wu Zhiguo is still alive; it was just her guess.’ Having thought some more, he added, ‘Besides which, it doesn’t matter if she does know it’s a fake, because I’m not trying to deceive her this time. I want to see how she responds and whether or not she’s mentioned it to anyone else.’

  ‘What does it matter if she has?’

  ‘It matters exactly how she explained it,’ Hihara said darkly. ‘If she has decided that Wu Zhiguo is actually dead, and that’s what she’s told the others, then that proves that she was just trying to cause trouble yesterday when she made allegations against Secretary Bai.’

  ‘And if she hasn’t said anything?’

  ‘Then we can see how everyone else reacts.’ Here Hihara spoke with conviction. ‘There may be someone who has suspicions about Li Ningyu but hasn’t dared voice them – because they’re intangible, perhaps, and if they turn out to be wrong, that person will have made a serious enemy. How could they possibly work together after that? But once everyone sees this letter, they’ll have the confidence to speak up. And if Li Ningyu isn’t Ghost, the real Ghost will see that we’re focusing on the wrong person, so they’ll be delighted. They’ll be right there trying to throw oil on the flames.’

  Clearly, Hihara was trying to play a complicated game in which he would bring down two birds with one stone.

  Equally clearly, Hihara had no idea who to suspect any more – but he was still hoping this might prove to be the darkness before the dawn.

  The investigation was now well past its midway point. The suspects had been held at the estate for three full days already, and the Gathering of Heroes was due to take place tomorrow night – less than forty-eight hours away! But still Hihara was without his result. And Heaven seemed now to be piling on the pressure, by sending down a shower of drenching rain.

  4

  Police Chief Wang Tianxiang ran through the rain to the western building and arrived soaked to the skin. Fortunately, however, the blood letter remained unscathed. He handed it to Secretary Bai.

  Secretary Bai had seen the handwriting samples for himself and had thought it obvious that Wu Zhiguo was the guilty party – it had been there in black and white, after all. But on reading the blood letter, he now concluded that Colonel Hihara and Police Chief Wang must have somehow mixed up the samples so that Li Ningyu’s writing ended up being confused with Chief of Staff Wu’s. Really, it was too bad of them. He felt very sorry for Chief of Staff Wu.

  He immediately summoned everyone to a meeting. When they saw the letter written in blood, they were naturally appalled. Section Chief Jin let out a series of shocked wails. He seemed enormously moved by Chief of Staff Wu’s heroism and loyalty. His eyes were full of tears, and he glared angrily at Li Ningyu.

  Li Ningyu should by now have realized that her head was on the block. She ought to have been frightened by the turn of events, but she seemed amazingly calm. That was not surprising, given that she’d already seen the letter. But Secretary Bai was clearly disgusted by her lack of response, and he made no attempt to conceal this.

  Gu Xiaomeng’s reaction was quite different. She didn’t seem interested in the contents of the letter at all, nor did she show any anger towards Li Ningyu; instead, she focused on the circumstances of Chief of Staff Wu’s death.

  ‘So you think he was murdered?’ Section Chief Jin asked, his voice hoarse, his bottom lip still quivering.

  ‘Of course,’ Gu Xiaomeng muttered dismissively. ‘If he didn’t commit suicide, then obviously it was murder.’

  ‘So who killed him?’ Jin Shenghuo asked.

  ‘God knows.’ Gu Xiaomeng pointed at something outside the window, and then in a quiet voice added, ‘And so do I.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I’ll tell you, but not right now.’

  Jin Shenghuo wanted to ask more, but Secretary Bai waved him away irritably. ‘Section Chief Jin, don’t pay any attention to the silly things she says.’

  The point of the meeting was to find out whether Li Ningyu had mentioned the letter to anybody and it seemed she hadn’t, so proceedings were wrapped up quite swiftly. There was one other thing to say, and that concerned Li Ningyu’s sleeping arrangements. She was to be moved out of the room she shared with Gu Xiaomeng and into the large bedroom formerly occupied by Wu Zhiguo. This was what the letter written in blood had bought her, and it was necessary to keep up the deception; they needed the others to see this.

  After the meeting, Secretary Bai made Li Ningyu stay behind. With a cold, unpleasant smile, he began the interrogation, following the script that Police Chief Wang had prepared.

  ‘Li Ningyu,’ he said, ‘I’m sure your feelings right now must be hard to describe. Chief of Staff Wu has informed us that you are the Communist agent. What have you to say for yourself?’

  Li Ningyu was silent for a long time. Then she raised her head, glared at Secretary Bai, snapped, ‘Go and ask Colonel Hihara,’ and walked out, leaving Secretary Bai cursing furiously.

  Over in the eastern b
uilding, Hihara listened to Secretary Bai swearing and the sound of Li Ningyu’s retreating footsteps, and said to Wang Tianxiang, ‘She must be on very good terms with Commander Zhang. When she’s in the room, your Secretary Bai looks like an absolute clown.’

  Next it was the turn of Section Chief Jin Shenghuo. This time he was completely open; there was none of the crying and wailing that he’d produced last time. He was in no doubt that Li Ningyu was Ghost.

  Jin Shenghuo: I would never have guessed… Who could have imagined…? I’ve worked with her for years and it turns out she’s a Red!

  Secretary Bai: Can you provide any evidence?

  Jin Shenghuo: Evidence? Oh, there’s plenty of that…

  He began disgorging a welter of pointless speculations and baseless suspicions. Listening to him, Hihara quickly concluded that he was kicking Li Ningyu simply because she was down. He joked to Wang Tianxiang, ‘I really cannot understand why Commander Zhang has such a fool in charge of the most important section in the entire army. If Section Chief Jin turns out to be Ghost and I have to arrest him, I’m going to get no satisfaction out of that at all – the man is completely useless.’

  ‘He is useless,’ Wang Tianxiang said. ‘It’s an absolute embarrassment. I’ve seen him running round the base with his wife in pursuit, trying to give him a beating.’

  ‘If that’s the best kind of agent the Communist Party can get,’ Hihara said, ‘they’re going to have to spend the rest of their lives hiding in those caves.’

  Next it was Gu Xiaomeng’s turn. Here, Secretary Bai made a mistake, and their conversation took a most unwelcome turn: