by Zhou HaoHui
‘You’re right. Maybe I’m being paranoid. I suppose it’s just in my blood. My father was a police officer, you know.’ When she said that, her face darkened.
‘Is something wrong?’ It took all his effort to control his surging emotions and maintain a natural tone of voice. ‘It’s late. You should be getting home.’
She fidgeted in her seat and he had to remind himself that regardless of how long he’d been watching her, she was still a stranger.
‘Yes, it’s late,’ she said, tugging at a dangling lock of hair. ‘Can you still take me home?’
‘Of course,’ he said. Even though it was their first actual meeting, he felt a deep connection that he couldn’t explain. Somehow he knew without question that he was responsible for her safety.
‘Thank you.’ She smiled again. ‘By the way, my name is Zheng Jia.’
*
9:30 p.m.
Criminal police headquarters
The doorbell rang. When Captain Pei opened the door, TSO Zeng was standing outside. He produced a scrap of paper from his pocket and handed it to Pei.
Huang Jieyuan
Male, 48
Current owner of the Black Magic Bar
Mobile number: 13020011590
‘Huang Jieyuan was Captain Ding Ke’s assistant during the January 30th hostage case. He understands the case better than anyone, after Captain Ding himself.’
‘Excellent work,’ Pei said. ‘What a relief.’
‘Unfortunately, he’s the only person we were able to track down,’ Zeng said. ‘I’m not very hopeful that we’ll succeed in finding Captain Ding. Like the commissioner told you, they’ve been looking for him for a decade already. As for the other names in the report, a few of them have actually passed away in the meantime. And then there’s Zhong Yun, the SPU marksman that took out Wen Hongbing. For some reason, we can’t find any information on him either.’
‘You mean he’s missing too?’
‘What I mean is that “Zhong Yun” doesn’t exist. I can’t find a single record on anyone with that name. It must be an alias.’
‘Interesting. Let’s focus on Huang Jieyuan first and see where that gets us. Maybe he’ll bring us closer to this “Zhong Yun”.’
‘Why don’t I give him a call right now?’
‘It’s late,’ Pei said, brushing TSO Zeng’s suggestion away with a wave. ‘Let’s wait until tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow?’ Zeng repeated in disbelief. ‘Chief, we’re up against Eumenides here.’
‘I’m very aware of that. Trust me.’ Pei stared pointedly at TSO Zeng.
The younger officer eventually nodded. ‘You’re the captain, Captain.’
5
SETTING THE TRAP
31 October, 8:33 a.m.
Back office, Black Magic Bar
‘Phone call for you, Mr Huang,’ the bar’s manager said softly.
‘Who is it?’ Huang Jieyuan mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
‘He says he’s with the public security bureau.’
‘What?’ The words sent a familiar jolt of adrenaline through his system. Now completely awake, he sat up and picked up the receiver. ‘This is Huang Jieyuan.’
‘Hello, I’m calling on behalf of the archives centre at the public security bureau,’ a male voice stated.
‘The PSB archives, huh?’ Huang said, trying to figure out what interest the bureau could possibly have in him.
‘That’s right. We have a few questions regarding a case from 1984. The January 30th hostage case, to be specific. Am I correct in saying that you were Captain Ding’s assistant at the time and that you were directly involved with this investigation?’
‘Er, yes. But why the sudden interest in the January 30th case?’
‘Oh, it’s nothing too serious. We’ve started doing spot-checks on old investigations and our last check revealed that the January 30th case files aren’t quite up to department standards. My superiors have asked me to fill in the gaps by interviewing the individuals involved and submitting a supplementary report.’
Huang chuckled. ‘I think your superiors are being rather optimistic. It’s been almost two decades. How much do you expect us to remember? Besides, I’ve been retired for years. I no longer report to any of you.’
‘I take your point,’ the caller said. ‘All we’re asking is that you assist us by giving us a little of your time. Nothing more.’
‘I don’t have a whole lot of time to give,’ Huang replied lazily. ‘I’ve got enough on my plate as it is.’
The line was silent for several seconds. When the caller spoke again, it was with a more amiable tone.
‘Actually, I think we can both help each other out here. What if I provided you with some newly uncovered files regarding a certain investigation. The Bagman Killing, for instance.’
Huang’s mouth fell open. ‘Now that is an interesting proposal.’
‘Does that mean you’re willing to tell me about the January 30th case?’
‘Fine. I’ll track down my old logbooks. You should find them useful.’
‘Oh? What logbooks?’
‘I used to keep personal records of every case I was involved in. I’d write down every detail, including some that didn’t make it into the official reports. I’d even go so far as to say that those logbooks are worth more than the records you have on file.’
‘How soon could you get us these logbooks?’
Huang detected a hint of desperation in the man’s voice.
‘That depends on when I start looking,’ he said with deliberate vagueness. ‘I keep all my logbooks in my garage. They’re mixed in with a lot of old papers, bills, random junk. It’s been years since I looked at them.’ He went quiet for a moment. ‘It’s actually been a decade since I was last in uniform. I didn’t expect to ever touch those logbooks again.’
‘Well, I hope to hear back from you as soon as possible.’
‘Don’t get too excited. I assume you’ll need some time to prepare the Bagman files.’
‘Yes, of course.’ A gruff laugh came from the other end. ‘You are a true businessman, Huang.’
Huang responded with a sly laugh of his own. ‘As long as we understand each other, then I think this could be the start of a long and fruitful friendship.’ They exchanged numbers and he hung up.
At that, Huang’s smile faded like sunlight on a cloudy day. He beckoned to the bar’s floor manager.
‘Yes, Mr Huang?’
‘I need to use your mobile.’
*
10:47 a.m.
Huang’s residence
A woman walked through the main gate of the Lai Yin Yuan housing development. She exchanged a wave and a nod with the guard at the entrance. In her right hand she held a plastic bag bulging with groceries.
A younger man followed behind, pedalling a three-wheeled pedicab. His sturdy physique and swarthy complexion identified him as one of the millions of migrant workers who moved to the cities to earn their living as manual labourers. In the back of his small vehicle was a hefty basket of ruby-red apples.
‘Those apples look delicious,’ the guard said, beaming.
‘That’s right,’ the woman said cheerfully. ‘Cheap, too. He offered to deliver them right to my door if I bought a few more. I’ll bring you some later.’
‘Only if it’s no trouble.’ The guard walked over to help the young fruit vendor.
‘Thank you, thank you,’ the vendor said hoarsely.
The woman led the vendor to her building’s garage, fished out her key and pointed to a gap between two bicycles near the door. The young man hoisted up the basket of apples and shuffled over with it, trying to maintain his balance. He set it down on the cement floor with a thud.
‘Thank you so much!’ She handed him a note from her purse.
He accepted it, but rather than leave immediately, he scanned the garage and let his gaze settle on a large stack of old magazines and newspapers in the corner.
‘Do you st
ill want all that paper, ma’am? I can take it off your hands and give you thirty yuan for it.’
The woman stared at the stack of papers in surprise. She’d never seen it before. Nor the two massive cardboard boxes to either side of it.
When a pair of men burst out of the cardboard boxes, she was even more surprised. One of the men rushed forward and shut the garage door. The other pounced on the fruit vendor and pinned him to the ground.
This all happened in seconds. The woman screamed in shock as the garage door slammed shut. One of the men was yelling something at her, but it took time for her to register what he was actually saying.
‘Don’t be afraid. We’re police officers!’
Still frozen in shock, Huang’s wife gaped at the man facing her. ‘Captain Pei…’ she said, reading aloud the name on his badge.
*
With Commissioner Song’s approval, Captain Pei had got in touch with Huang the previous evening, right after TSO Zeng had given him his contact details. Since it was possible that Eumenides was monitoring the other members of the task force, Pei and Commissioner Song decided to keep the rest of the team in the dark.
Huang had phoned Pei again that morning, after which Pei and SPU Captain Liu had immediately gone to Huang’s home, taking a considerable amount of old paper and cardboard with them. Once they’d finished setting up, they waited inside the boxes.
The identity of the person who’d called Huang claiming to work for the PSB archives was clear enough. Eumenides was trying to track down information on the January 30th case, just as Pei had expected.
Pei and Liu had waited inside the garage for more than an hour before the door opened. The captain almost blew his cover when Huang’s wife entered, but that was before he noticed the young man who’d followed her inside. His appearance suggested that he was simply a migrant worker selling fruit, but Pei was well aware of Eumenides’ talent for disguise. He snapped into high-alert mode and when the vendor offered to buy the scrap paper for the outrageously high price of thirty yuan, his suspicions were confirmed. He sprang into action and Liu followed suit.
*
Once she realised that the two men were police officers, Huang’s wife began to recover her equilibrium. But she was still extremely confused. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.
‘Who is he?’ Pei said, pointing at the young man who was being held down by SPU Captain Liu.
‘What did I do?’ the man cried, his eyes huge with terror. ‘Please, I’m not a criminal!’
Mrs Huang blinked in bewilderment. ‘He’s just a fruit vendor! What’s going on here?’
Pei crossed his arms. ‘How much did you pay for those apples?’
‘Fifty yuan.’
‘Why were they so cheap?’
‘I don’t know. They were on sale, I suppose.’
‘Did you approach him first or did he approach you?’
‘He approached me. I was at the market and he ran over, saying that he wanted to give me a bargain on some apples. And he offered to deliver them straight to my home. That’s why I decided to buy them.’ She glared at the young man. ‘Hey, what sort of scam were you trying to pull?’ she asked.
Liu pressed on the young man’s wrists. ‘Come on, spit it out!’ he growled.
The vendor’s face contorted in pain and he let out a choked yell. ‘Okay, I’ll talk! I’ll talk!’ he said, panting for breath. ‘Someone told me to sell her those apples cheap. He paid me a lot of money. Two hundred yuan! How could I say no?’
Liu caught Pei’s eye and Pei nodded. Liu tightened his grip on the man’s wrists. ‘Who was it?’ he barked. ‘Where is he?’
The vendor’s words came out in guttural spurts punctuated by yelps of pain. ‘I don’t know, honest! I never saw him before today. I just assumed he was the woman’s husband or maybe a relative.’
‘Like we can believe a word he’s saying!’ Huang’s wife snapped.
‘The guy was pretty tall, but I can’t say for sure what he looked like. He was wearing a big hat, and he had a scarf around his face. He told me to deliver the apples to her garage and that there might be a stack of waste paper in there. If I collected the paper, he’d pay me five yuan per kilogram. I wasn’t going to turn down an offer like that.’
The young man looked over towards the stack of paper as he spoke.
‘That’s not ours,’ Huang’s wife said.
‘Where’s the man now?’ Pei asked. ‘How were you supposed to give him the scrap paper once you’d picked it up?’
‘He told me to wait outside the main gate. He said I’d able to find him right away.’
‘What do we do, Captain?’ Liu hissed. ‘This could be our chance to track Eumenides. Why don’t we let this guy take the scrap paper and we’ll follow him.’
‘It’s already too late,’ Pei said with a grimace. ‘Eumenides is most likely watching the house. It’s been a few minutes since we shut the door. He’ll know something’s up.’
‘Then what should we do?’
Pei squeezed his sweaty palms into a fist. He couldn’t afford to hesitate now.
A low thumping came from outside. Footsteps.
Pei looked over at Liu. ‘Open the door,’ he mouthed. He gave a signal with his hand, and the two of them wrenched the garage door open.
They recognised the man standing outside. It was the guard from the front gate. He did a double-take at the sight of two additional strangers inside the garage. Dazed, he held out an envelope to no one in particular.
‘Someone asked me to give you this letter.’
‘And where is that person now?’ Pei asked, taking the envelope.
‘He ran off after he gave it to me. All he said was to come to this garage and hand it to whoever was inside.’
‘Was he tall? Wearing a hat and with a scarf covering most of his face?’
‘As a matter of fact, yes.’
Pei glanced at Liu, who nodded. ‘He saw us.’
Captain Pei removed two items from the envelope: a slip of paper and a jade pendant of Guan Yin, the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Mercy. A short note was written on the paper in immaculate print.
2 p.m., Mad World internet café
Huang’s wife let out a sudden cry.
‘What’s wrong?’ Pei asked.
‘That looks like the Guan Yin pendant my son wears.’ She took the jade image and held it in her hands. ‘Yes, it’s definitely his! But what’s it doing here?’
Pei didn’t answer. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
*
11:23 a.m.
Conference room, criminal police headquarters
All the members of the task force were present in the conference room. They’d been joined by a plump middle-aged man with a resolute but anxious air about him.
Pei introduced him. ‘This is Huang Jieyuan, former lieutenant in the Chengdu criminal police. Ten years ago, a certain incident caused him to leave the world of law enforcement and try his hand at business. He currently owns the Black Magic Bar.’
‘That’s all well and good,’ TSO Zeng said, ‘but how’s it going to help our investigation?’
Pei scowled at him. ‘Huang was Captain Ding Ke’s assistant on the January 30th hostage case. He was there when Eumenides’ biological father was killed and that’s why I’ve asked him to sit in on the task force’s operations as an external consultant.’
‘There’s also the matter of my son,’ Huang said impatiently.
Pei nodded and briefed the others.
‘Huang Deyang is fourteen years old and in his second year at Chengdu Number 3 Junior High School. An athletics meet was scheduled to take place there today. According to his fellow students, Deyang left the track just after 9 a.m. to buy a drink but did not return. Our attempted ambush at Huang’s garage took place two hours after the boy went missing.’
TSO Zeng turned to Captain Pei. ‘Last night, you told me to wait before getting in touch with him,’ he said, nodding at Huang. ‘Looks l
ike you and Liu had other plans.’
‘It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you. We were concerned that Eumenides might be monitoring the team.’
‘But you trusted Liu,’ Ms Mu interjected. ‘The real reason, Captain Pei, is your need for control.’
Pei did not reply.
‘His need to control what?’ Zeng asked. ‘Us?’
‘Everything. The captain doesn’t want a single thing to be outside his control. But, Captain Pei,’ Ms Mu said, her tone now one of gentle reprimand, ‘you’re the head of this task force. It’s your job to trust us.’
‘You’re right,’ Pei said. ‘And I should have coordinated with the team to ensure that we had eyes on Huang’s entire family. You have my sincere apologies for that, Huang.’
Huang shook his head. ‘As it happens, I think you were right to try and keep this under wraps. It’s precisely because someone didn’t keep this operation secret that my son’s life is now in danger.’
Pei inhaled sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s a reason why Eumenides is being so brazen. To begin with, he was trying to be low key, hence his attempt to masquerade as an employee of the PSB archives centre. But when he realised that I’d seen through him and had alerted Captain Pei, he resorted to more extreme measures.’
‘Eumenides called you at eight thirty,’ Lieutenant Yin said. ‘He got to your son a little after nine o’clock. It was almost eleven when Captain Pei and SPU Captain Liu received that envelope in your garage. Does that mean he saw through your bluff when he was talking to you?’
Huang let out a long breath. ‘I suppose it does,’ he said, hanging his head. ‘But what I still can’t figure out is how he knew. I was extremely cautious about how I communicated with Captain Pei. I didn’t even use my own phone to call him.’
This was precisely what Pei had been puzzling over since he’d received Eumenides’ note. ‘Let’s focus, people. We don’t have time to sort out all the answers right now. We’ve only got two hours until Eumenides’ deadline. What’s our next step?’