Fate (Death Notice Book 2)

by Zhou HaoHui

  Death Notice

  THE ACCUSED: Xie Guanlong (‘Curly’)

  CRIME: Humiliating a teacher

  DATE OF PUNISHMENT: 28 October

  EXECUTIONER: Eumenides

  ‘Is this a fucking joke?’ He crumpled the paper into a ball and flung it at the man.

  ‘It’s not a joke, no,’ the stranger replied icily. ‘You’re all guilty, as judged by your fellow citizens. My name is Eumenides and I’m your executioner.’

  Curly snorted. ‘Give me a fucking break. You think putting a ski mask on your head makes you some kind of superhero? Get the hell out of our suite!’

  Teacher Wu sprang up from the sofa. Something was very wrong here, he thought. ‘Wha… What’s going on?’ He rushed over to Red and peered at her sheet of paper.

  The printed characters quivered in her trembling fingers. Her face was as white as snow. ‘This is Eumenides! Don’t you know what that means?’ she said, her voice tense.

  Gold Earring and Curly stared at her, frowning in confusion.

  She grabbed Gold Earring by the shoulder. ‘He’s a murderer. A real live murderer. Last week he killed that woman who ran over a fruit seller in her BMW. It’s all over the internet!’

  Her panic was contagious. Both her classmates now looked equally stricken. They’d heard about the BMW woman’s murder, of course. Could her killer really be the man standing before them?

  ‘On the eleventh of last month, you humiliated your teacher, Mr Wu,’ the man said, his voice building from a low murmur to a booming shout. ‘Not only that, but you also filmed his humiliation and posted the footage online. Despite being widely condemned on the internet, you haven’t shown any contrition. What do you have to say for yourselves?’

  Gold Earring’s hands were shaking so violently that the piece of paper slid through his fingers. He sidled over to Curly. ‘What the hell do we do now?’

  ‘We get out of here,’ Curly answered through gritted teeth. ‘Screw this guy – let’s go.’ But there was a flaw in this plan. The exit was still blocked by the man in the chair. If they wanted to leave the room, they’d have to deal with the stranger.

  ‘Get out of my fucking way!’ Curly snarled.

  ‘Come here.’ The man’s soft, almost gentle voice sent shivers down Curly’s spine. His bravado disappeared like leaves in the wind.

  ‘No,’ Teacher Wu said, planting himself between Curly and their guest. ‘Don’t listen to him.’ He avoided looking the masked man in the eye as he spoke. ‘They’ve already apologised to me. Don’t give them any more trouble, I’m begging you.’

  The man’s face widened in an emotionless grin. ‘They’ve already apologised, you say? I was watching the four of you as you arrived here. I’ve seen the way they treat you. Can you honestly say that their apologies have changed anything?’

  Teacher Wu grimaced. The man was right, of course. The students would never respect him as their teacher. He knew that. What he did not know, however, was that the masked man was still reeling from the death of his own teacher.

  The man glared at each teenager in turn. ‘There will be no forgiveness for your crimes,’ he hissed.

  The three students shrank back in alarm.

  Wincing, Wu fought his own fear and tried again to mediate. ‘Actually, it’s not nearly as serious as you think. They’re just kids! They were only having fun when they recorded that video. Please, think about what you’re doing. I’m their teacher – I’m responsible for them.’

  The man shifted his gaze onto Wu. ‘You honestly still consider yourself their teacher?’ he said sharply. ‘Why didn’t you think of that when they were wreaking havoc in your classroom? Do you even know what it means to be a teacher?’

  Teacher Wu’s tongue hung useless in his mouth.

  ‘A teacher should pass on wisdom, impart knowledge and resolve doubts. Look at these students of yours. What have you done for them? Have you imparted anything? Resolved any of their confusion? Your role in your own humiliation is undeniable. I invited you here today because I wanted you to see what happens when you shirk your responsibilities towards your pupils.’

  Wu flinched at each rebuke and hung his head in shame. No response came to his lips.

  Curly jolted into action. Propelled not by courage but rather by desperation, he pulled out the hatchet he kept stashed in his coat. It was a dead ringer for the axes carried by the gangsters in the Hong Kong action movies so popular with his generation. ‘You gonna get out of my way or not?’ he yelled. ‘If you aren’t gonna move, you better get ready for some pain!’

  ‘What are you waiting for?’ the man asked with chilling calm.

  Curly clenched his jaw and charged at the intruder. He raised his right hand high and plunged the hatchet at the man’s neck.

  The man reached out with one hand, caught Curly’s wrist in mid-air and twisted his hand. Curly doubled over in pain and the hatchet fell to the floor. Pinching his index and middle fingers together, the stranger then gently drew his hand across Curly’s neck. The teenager’s cries ceased as his eyes widened and his lips trembled.

  There was a long, deep wound across the young student’s throat. Blood poured from the cut and splattered onto the suite’s luxurious carpet. Loath to let the blood stain his own clothing, the man released his left hand and Curly dropped to the floor. The teenager twitched several times and was then motionless.

  Red’s shriek was ear-piercingly loud, but the man didn’t seem worried about being discovered. After all, he’d chosen the suite specifically for its thick, soundproof walls.

  Teacher Wu stiffened. He shook himself, as though stirring from a dream. ‘You killed him! How could you? Why?’ The more he wailed, the frailer his voice became.

  The girl retreated to the corner of the room, but Gold Earring saw an opening and sprinted towards the door. To the stranger, however, his movements were laughably slow. Quick as a flash, his left arm shot out and Gold Earring was pressed tight against his chest, as helpless as a child. Slowly, the man raised his right hand in the air.

  Teacher Wu crumpled to his knees and began kowtowing on the floor. His forehead smacked the carpet with one sickening thump after another. ‘Please, I’m begging you! Don’t kill anyone else!’

  The man’s right hand froze. ‘You don’t want me to punish him?’

  Still on his knees, Wu crawled towards the man. His voice was choked with tears. ‘Please, stop punishing my students. It’s all my fault. I failed in my duty as their teacher.’ Tears streamed down his face.

  The man was silent for a moment. ‘Are you willing to amend for your mistakes?’

  ‘I am! I am! Just let my student go.’

  The man brushed the tip of his foot across the carpet and the hatchet slid across the floor, coming to a stop a few centimetres from Teacher Wu’s knees. ‘Cut off your left hand,’ the man said coolly.

  Wu looked up. ‘What?’

  ‘Cut off your left hand,’ the man repeated. ‘If you do that, I’ll let them go.’

  ‘But…’ Wu sputtered. A knee gave out and he dropped to the carpet.

  ‘Your choice. I won’t force you.’

  Gold Earring could see all too clearly the throat-cutting blade clasped between the man’s fingers. Terrified, he tried to wrench himself out of the man’s grip, but his body was too traumatised to manage it. He shot his teacher a pleading look and strained to speak through the vice-like pressure on his neck.

  ‘Please…’

  ‘Just give me a second.’ Teacher Wu raised his hand to quiet his pupil. Steeling himself with a few quick breaths, he picked the hatchet up off the floor. It looked as sharp as a butcher’s knife.

  The man’s eyes glittered with anticipation.

  The teacher let out a savage, wordless cry, raised the hatchet and held the blade over his left wrist.

  His cry faded to a crackling rasp. He gasped for breath and slowly lowered the hatchet to the floor. His wrist remained untouched.

  The stranger shook his he
ad in disappointment. His right hand glided across Gold Earring’s neck and the young man instantly met the same fate as Curly. His body fell to the floor, his startled eyes gaping at Wu. The teacher toppled back onto the carpet in a daze, as though someone had clubbed him over the head.

  Seconds later, Red’s scream tore Wu out of his nightmarish trance. He watched as the man approached the last remaining student in the room and yanked the girl up by her flame-coloured hair. She had all but lost the courage to fight back. Her voice was choked with sobs as she pleaded, ‘Please, Teacher Wu, help me.’

  Wu let out another wild cry. This time he was truly unhinged. The hatchet rose and came driving back down with the speed of a bullet. His strike was as precise as it was forceful: it severed his hand in one clean blow.

  The man let go of the girl. He stepped aside and she rushed over to her teacher. Her tears had ceased – she was too overwhelmed by the shock to even cry.

  Teacher Wu had wrapped his sleeve tightly around his stump of a wrist to try and stem the bleeding. Whimpering, he fought through the pain. His gaze was fixed on the man and his eyes glowed with steely resolve.

  ‘Teacher Wu! Teacher Wu!’ The girl began sobbing again. She picked up his severed hand from the floor and held it close to her chest.

  Wu felt an emotion that was utterly unfamiliar to him, something he had never felt before. Pride.

  The man nodded approvingly at him. He glanced at the hatchet, his gaze lingering on its bloody blade, inhaled deeply, then narrowed his eyes at the young woman. ‘I’ve carried out each of your sentences,’ he said. ‘Even though you’re still alive, you have in a sense already died once today. From now on, you’ll have a quite different understanding of what it means to be alive.’

  He fixed his piercing eyes on Wu. ‘As for you, you’ve finally found the bravery and dedication required of a teacher.’

  *

  7:35 p.m.

  Chengdu railway station

  A newscaster’s voice blared out from the TV screen at the train station. ‘Following the initial investigation into the explosion on Xingcheng Road on Friday, we now have a basic understanding of what happened. This was an act of terrorism. The explosion resulted in the deaths of two people, but there were no further casualties. One of the individuals killed was Guo Meiran, the owner of the Jade Garden restaurant. The other was Yuan Zhibang, the perpetrator of the explosion. The police have revealed that Yuan was behind another fatal explosion in Chengdu eighteen years ago that killed two people. The police believe that Yuan is the serial killer known by the name Eumenides, the individual behind several murders here in Chengdu, including that of businesswoman Ye Shaohong, whose death has incited heated debate both online and in the media.’

  Captain Pei Tao let out a low sigh. Shaking his head, he removed himself from the crowd surrounding the television and made his way towards the ticket-inspection gate. Just as he was reaching for his ticket, he heard a voice behind him.

  ‘Just a moment, Captain Pei.’

  When he turned around, he was surprised to see the striking figure of the psychologist Ms Mu. She was several metres away but approaching quickly, and she had two police officers with her. The one on the left, sporting glasses and a tousled mess of hair, was the Chengdu police force’s top computer expert, Technical Surveillance Officer Zeng Rihua. His companion, Lieutenant Yin Jian – of average height and with a bookish air – had, until yesterday, been Captain Han Hao’s assistant. Together with Pei, these three officers comprised the April 18th Task Force, which had been convened with the explicit purpose of stopping Eumenides.

  ‘Captain Pei,’ said Ms Mu, ‘you can’t leave Chengdu.’

  ‘Why not?’ he snapped.

  ‘We haven’t completed our assignment,’ TSO Zeng said with a grimace. ‘Yuan Zhibang may be dead, but his apprentice is still out there. And the new Eumenides isn’t going to stop killing. I’d like to see how the news anchors explain themselves when his next murder comes to light.’

  Pei hesitated momentarily then shook his head. ‘I’m aware of all that, but I can’t stay here. I have to get back to Longzhou. I only requested one week’s leave before I came to Chengdu and there’s a lot of work waiting for me back there.’

  TSO Zeng snickered. ‘That’s already been taken care of.’

  Lieutenant Yin opened his messenger bag and removed a piece of paper that had been neatly folded into quarters. With a solemn expression, he handed it to Pei, who unfolded it.

  Two words were printed at the top of the paper in thick black ink: Transfer Order. Pei read on.

  Acting upon the urgent recommendation of the leadership of the Chengdu Criminal Police and the approval of the Provincial Department of Public Security, the Longzhou Police Department has agreed to transfer Captain Pei Tao to the Chengdu Criminal Police Force, where he will assume the roles of Captain of Criminal Police and full-time Leader of the April 18th Task Force until further notice. The Sichuan Provincial Department of Public Security will select a suitable candidate to temporarily fill the post of the above-mentioned officer from within the province.

  Pei’s eyebrows twitched. Lieutenant Yin, meanwhile, was already saluting him.

  ‘Captain!’

  Once he had refolded the transfer order, Pei rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. ‘This is… Well, it’s all a little sudden, isn’t it?’

  ‘The order wouldn’t have been issued so quickly if Commissioner Song hadn’t pushed for it,’ Lieutenant Yin explained. ‘The commissioner wants to see you as soon as possible. He wants to keep the investigation moving.’

  *

  8:47 p.m.

  Interrogation room, Chengdu criminal police headquarters

  Lieutenant Yin’s stomach churned as he entered the interrogation room. Without a doubt, this was going to be the most difficult interrogation he had ever conducted.

  The officer on duty strode over to him. ‘You took your time,’ he whispered. ‘Go ahead and take over for me. I’m not cut out for this kind of work.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ hissed Lieutenant Yin.

  ‘He won’t say anything except that he’s waiting for you.’

  Lieutenant Yin nodded. ‘I see. Consider yourself relieved.’

  The officer exhaled loudly and left. Lieutenant Yin sat down in the newly vacated chair. The man on the other side of the table watched him with bloodshot eyes.

  ‘Captain…’ Lieutenant Yin said hesitantly, at a loss as to how to begin.

  ‘Why are you still calling me “captain”?’ sneered Han Hao, disgraced former leader of the April 18th Task Force. ‘Have you forgotten what I taught you? When conducting an interrogation, do everything you can to remind the suspect of your power and authority and their lack of it. Otherwise you can forget about getting any results.’

  ‘Captain… Han…’ No matter how hard he tried, Lieutenant Yin couldn’t bring himself to call his erstwhile superior officer by any other name. Casting aside all pretences of authority, he began to plead. ‘Stop making this so hard for us. Tell us the truth about what happened.’

  Han tensed at Lieutenant Yin’s sudden change in attitude. After a pause, he asked, ‘What took you so long?’

  ‘We’ve had some internal adjustments…’ Lieutenant Yin took a breath, then decided that there would be no harm in telling the truth. ‘There’s been a change in personnel. Pei Tao has been made the acting captain of the criminal police and the head of the task force.’

  Just days earlier, Pei Tao had been one of Han’s prime suspects. Now Pei had taken his old job and it was Han himself who was behind bars. The irony was not lost on him. He gave the lieutenant a bitter smile. ‘When does it become official?’

  ‘The transfer order has already been issued. I presume he’ll officially become acting captain tomorrow.’

  ‘Excellent.’ Han shut his eyes and sighed. ‘Just in time for him to interrogate me. And settle a few scores, no doubt.’

  ‘Don’t drag this out until then, Captain. Just tell us w
hat we want to know. You’re still a cop, regardless of which side of the table you’re on. When it comes down to it, we all want the same thing.’

  They both fell silent. Finally, Han shook his head. ‘Not today. I’m too exhausted. I need some time to rest.’

  ‘All right.’ Lieutenant Yin glanced at the two officers flanking him. ‘Take Captain Han back to his cell.’

  As the younger officer handcuffed Han, he paused. ‘We still need to, um, check the items on your person.’

  Han stood up and raised his arms, allowing the officer to remove his keys, ID card, wallet, mobile phone and other miscellaneous items from his pockets. But when the officer reached for the pendant around his neck, Han shook his head.

  ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t take that. There’s a photo of my son inside,’ he explained.

  The officer shot Lieutenant Yin an inquiring look.

  ‘Open it,’ the lieutenant said, eyeing the copper pendant.

  The officer did as he was told. There was nothing unusual about the pendant’s appearance or weight. When opened, it revealed a photograph framed behind a thin layer of Plexiglas. The picture showed the beaming face of a boy who appeared to be seven or eight years old. Lieutenant Yin felt a pang of sympathy for Han. It was a face that would make any father smile.

  ‘Let him keep it,’ he said.

  *

  9:03 p.m.

  The Green Spring

  He sat by himself, his features shielded by a cap pulled low over his face.

  Every time he fulfilled one of his notices, he treated himself to a delicious meal. It was a tradition that he’d started last month and one he planned to continue. Lately he’d become rather fond of Huaiyang cooking, the famously refined cuisine of eastern China. Its emphasis on subtly sweet flavours and its avoidance of the spiciness of Sichuan cooking appealed to his sensibilities. In his view, it truly deserved its status as one of the Four Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine.