by Zhou HaoHui
Hua’s cheek twitched. ‘All of our people have already vacated the office. I know the rules. We called you, so now it’s your turn.’
In spite of Hua’s initial spurning of police involvement, Pei appreciated the way he’d handled things since. ‘Tell me exactly what happened, starting from when you received this death notice.’
Brother Hua clenched his jaw. The pain in his eyes melted away and was replaced by a steely expression. ‘Two days ago I received this note along with an anonymous letter. This was shortly after Mayor Deng’s death, which made me all the more wary. I immediately contacted Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng, at which point I discovered that they had also been trying to get in touch with me. Both of them had received death notices from Eumenides as well. The three of us met and discussed our next steps. They were both extremely anxious. Vice President Lin proposed alerting the police, but I rejected the idea out of hand.’
Pei held his tongue.
‘To be frank, my distrust of the police wasn’t the only reason I did that,’ Hua said, squinting at Pei. ‘Eumenides sent me that death notice as a blatant provocation and I accepted it. Ever since he orchestrated Mayor Deng’s death, I’ve dreamt of nothing else but squeezing his last breath out of him.’
Pei understood precisely what Brother Hua meant. Eumenides could strike fear into his enemies, but he was equally capable of inspiring obsessive thoughts of revenge. He’d felt it himself, many times during the investigation – the same temptation that now consumed former captain Han Hao.
‘Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng eventually saw things my way. They decided not to call the police but to rely on the Longyu Corporation’s own security for their protection. I summoned our best operatives and converted Mayor Deng’s former office into the vice presidents’ personal sanctuary.’
‘How many of these guards were your own subordinates?’
‘About half. The other half were Vice President Lin’s people. Even though we all came under the umbrella of the Longyu Corporation, some departments were directly under Vice President Lin’s control.’ Hua gestured towards the well-built man standing behind him. ‘This is Brother Long. He was Vice President Lin’s most trusted man. The two of us were charged with protecting Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng.’
Brother Long seemed distracted. Brother Hua cleared his throat and Long then looked at Pei and attempted an awkward handshake. As their eyes met, Pei saw the grief in his face.
‘Tell me exactly what happened,’ Pei said.
Hua’s face turned ashen. ‘The date on the death notice was the second of November, as you saw. We brought the two vice presidents to Mayor Deng’s old office at eight o’clock on the night of the first. The double doors were locked tight and Brother Long and I had the only keys. We set up layer after layer of protection in this hallway – especially here at the door, where we stationed more than a dozen guards. We also placed men at every entrance to the building. Brother Long and I each brought two of our most trusted colleagues with us and stood watch inside the security hub on the first floor. Our eyes didn’t leave the monitors that were relaying the live feed from inside the office.’
Pei had already noticed the multiple security measures throughout the building. His instincts told him that it should have been all but impossible to get past them, even for someone like Eumenides. But the killer had somehow done exactly that. He had murdered both of his targets, and all without leaving any signs of a struggle. Was there another way in?
As though reading his thoughts, Brother Hua said, ‘This office was designed according to Mayor Deng’s exact specifications. The only access is via the lift. There are no hidden passages inside the office, just this door and a window set into the southern wall. On the outside, the window is surrounded by ten metres of smooth reflective glass that not even a rock climber could scale. Above that, there are rows of sharp metal blades jutting out every five metres. Anyone who tried to climb down from the roof would be sliced to pieces.’
Pei grunted in frustration. ‘Then how did Eumenides get in?’
‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Hua said. ‘Brother Long and I have been watching the security monitors around the clock since the evening of the first. Everything was completely normal until around 11:35 p.m. when the building’s power cut out.’
‘Eumenides was trying to draw you out,’ Pei said.
‘Exactly. We didn’t fall for it though. Every floor of this building is equipped with spare flashlights, so the guards didn’t miss a beat. I sent two men to the basement to start the backup generator.’
Pei nodded approvingly. Had he been in Hua’s shoes, he might well have made those same decisions. ‘That was good thinking. But let me guess – the generator didn’t work?’
‘Someone must have tampered with it. It worked for no more than fifteen seconds and then shorted out.’
‘So Eumenides entered the building in total darkness?’
‘Well…’ Hua’s cool demeanour had been replaced by a rare look of vulnerability. ‘We caught a brief glimpse of Eumenides when the generator kicked in. He was standing inside the office. But none of my men on this floor were injured and I honestly have no idea how he got in.’
Pei was equally stumped. ‘And then?’
‘The building went dark again and the security monitors shut off. Brother Long and I sprinted all the way up the stairs to this floor. Both the doors were locked. Neither of us saw any signs of tampering. We unlocked the doors and ran inside, but it was too late. Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng were lying there motionless. Their throats had been cut and Eumenides had vanished.’
‘One thing’s for certain – there has to be another way into this office,’ Pei said.
Hua smiled bitterly. ‘I can assure you there isn’t. I’ve been in charge of Mayor Deng’s security here ever since the building was finished. If there was another way into this room, don’t you think I’d know about it?’
Pei peered into the office, which was now well lit, as the power had come back on. He saw a massive desk and behind it a window that was wide open. Bloody footprints tracked across the floor.
‘How many of you went into the office?’ he asked.
‘Four of us. Brother Long and I went first, and we brought one man each.’
Pei quietly pictured the scene: the office would have been pitch black and Eumenides’ location unknown as the four men entered the room. ‘Lieutenant Yin,’ he called out, ‘tell the SPU to come in and perform a thorough search of every floor. I want them to scour every centimetre of this building.’
‘Yes, sir!’
He turned back to Hua. ‘Our search will proceed much more smoothly with the help of someone who’s familiar with the building’s layout.’
‘Of course. I’ll assist as needed,’ Hua said.
‘Brother Long, please take your people down to the lobby. Our officers would like to ask you all some questions.’
Long nodded. ‘Of course,’ he said, his deep voice cracking.
Finally Pei addressed the team of officers and forensic investigators who’d been waiting patiently behind him. ‘Let’s start by examining the office.’
As they stepped inside, Pei remembered how Ms Mu had described the office to him as a ‘hall of mirrors’. That wasn’t a metaphor: every centimetre of wall had been covered with reflective glass. But now the mirrors had been stripped away and the walls were bare.
As the team set to work, Pei studied the floor. Several thin trails of blood led to the window. But the new hypothesis that had been forming in his mind vanished as soon as he reached the window. Hua’s earlier assertion was clearly correct – it was impossible for anyone to get in that way.
The building had been designed with extraordinary attention to detail. Despite its location in Chengdu’s busy downtown area, its southern side faced away from the taller buildings surrounding it, giving the occupants an unobstructed view of the older, less congested surroundings near
Wuhou Temple. That vast, open panorama must have made Mayor Deng feel like an emperor surveying his dominion, Pei mused.
Not only was the south side faced with smooth glass and windows that were widely spaced at intervals of up to ten metres, but it was also concave in its profile, so that its upper levels sloped inwards. As far as Pei could tell, it would be impossible to climb up to the windows from the lower levels.
Poking his head outside, Pei peered upwards. Rows of glittering metal tongues shone against the night sky. Though they appeared to be decorative, he could see that they were actually sharp blades, just as Hua had described.
Unless he’d sprouted wings, Eumenides couldn’t have exited the Longyu Building from that window. But perhaps he had considered it, which would explain the bloody trail leading up to it. The largest splotches of blood were right in front of the window, as if Eumenides had paused there. But he must have decided to escape some other way.
As Pei considered this theory, he realised that it was completely out of character. Eumenides would have familiarised himself with the Longyu Building inside and out before even setting foot in it. Desperation wasn’t his style.
There was another explanation for the blood below the window: Eumenides had planted it there in an attempt to mislead investigators. But that still left the question of his actual escape route. How had he done it?
Pei turned around and began studying the office’s interior.
Most of the forensics team were crowded around the beds of the deceased, on the east and west sides of the room. The trail of blood from the bed on the west side quickly diverged. The sparser of the two trails, consisting mostly of round drops, led south to the window. Presumably the victims’ blood had spurted over Eumenides and dripped onto the floor as he moved. The other trail consisted of a haphazard line of bloody footprints leading to the door. These had most likely been left by Brother Hua and his men after they’d inadvertently stepped in the blood from the two corpses.
Pei walked over to the bed on the west side. Lying on the bloodstained mattress was the bloated corpse of Vice President Lin, the Longyu Corporation’s second most powerful executive. A long, fierce gash across his throat gleamed dark red with congealed blood. The cut appeared to be deep and surgically precise. It was clearly the work of a sharp blade, a weapon that was no stranger to Eumenides.
The torso had rolled towards the edge of the bed and the left arm was dangling over it. The blood from the wound had travelled along the arm and dripped onto the floor, creating a pool beside the bed.
The lead forensic investigator looked up from the puddle of blood and noticed Pei. ‘There are no signs of a struggle,’ he said quietly. ‘This man was probably dead as soon as the killer cut his throat. The guy was experienced, that’s for sure.’
Pei studied the corpse again, then went over to the bed on the opposite side of the office.
The body lying on this bed was tall and slender – Vice President Meng, erstwhile holder of the top position in the Longyu Corporation. The wound across his throat was nearly identical to Vice President Lin’s. But Meng was curled up and had presumably been lying in that position when the killer struck. As a result, the adjacent wall was spattered with blood while the floor was relatively unmarked.
Pei observed the shape of the spatter on the wall near the head of the bed. He reached out with his right hand and lightly punched the wall. Then he punched it again.
The investigator standing next to him glanced up from the blood samples she was collecting and gave him an incredulous look. ‘What are you doing, Captain?’ she asked.
Pei shook his head and said nothing. He took several steps parallel to the wall and struck it again. The wall issued a firm thud with each hit. Pei shook his head again and moved on.
The investigator nearly dropped the samples as she realised what he was doing. ‘You think there’s a hidden passageway built into the wall?’
‘If there isn’t, then we’re dealing with a ghost,’ Pei muttered.
But that hypothesis appeared more and more likely the longer Pei continued with his tests. Each section was just as solid as the last. Scowling in frustration, he crouched down and began to study the floor. No matter where he crawled, all he found was a smooth concrete surface and not so much as a single join.
He stood up at the centre of the room, his head spinning with questions. How had Eumenides done it? Pei even considered climbing up to inspect the ceiling but quickly dismissed the idea. Even disregarding the chandeliers, the ceiling’s height, which was at least four metres, made a vertical escape impossible.
Pei left the office and rode the lift down to the security hub on the first floor. Lieutenant Yin and several officers from the criminal police were sitting in front of the monitors, gazing intently at the footage recorded earlier that night.
‘Where’s Brother Hua?’ Pei asked.
Yin turned his head at the sound of the captain’s voice. ‘He’s helping the SPU officers search the building.’
‘What about Brother Long and his team?’
‘The others are interviewing them in the lobby.’
Pei spoke into his radio. ‘Bring Brother Long to the security hub.’
Pei met Brother Long at the entrance. ‘Take a seat,’ he said, moving one of the chairs towards him.
The man sat, but the distant look in his eyes told Pei that his thoughts were elsewhere.
‘You’re probably familiar with Mayor Deng’s office, aren’t you?’ he asked, keeping his tone conversational.
Brother Long stiffened. ‘No, not really,’ he answered haltingly.
Pei grimaced. Strike one, he thought.
‘But Brother Hua is,’ Long blurted out, as if something had jogged his memory. ‘I only visited the office occasionally with Vice President Lin.’
‘The point is you’ve been inside. There used to be a red carpet on the floor, and the walls were covered with crystal glass, correct?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why are the carpet and glass gone now?’
‘That was Brother Hua’s decision. He had the carpet torn off the floor and the glass on the walls smashed.’
‘Why did he do that?’
‘Well, since Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng were both going to hide out there, Brother Hua said that the plainer the room, the better. The carpet could be used to camouflage a person or a weapon, and the mirrors would throw off anyone watching the security cameras. So we got rid of them and set up two beds in there.’
Pei nodded and a new thought came to him. What if Brother Hua had actually been searching for a hidden passageway into the office?
‘Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng both moved into the office at eight o’clock on the evening of the first. Is that correct?’
Brother Long nodded.
‘What made you choose that time?’
‘It was Brother Hua’s idea. The death notice was supposed to be carried out the next day, so he wanted to make sure that they were both settled in by then.’
Pei noticed that Long had intentionally attributed every decision to Hua. He could guess why. They had failed to alert the police, and two lives had been lost. Long might have been anxious and distracted, but he wasn’t so stupid as to accidentally incriminate himself.
‘How thoroughly did you search the office on the night of the first?’
‘Very thoroughly. We even checked all the compartments inside the desk.’
Pei recalled the unusual size of Mayor Deng’s desk. Some of the drawers were indeed large enough to conceal a person. ‘Are you sure you checked every single one?’
Brother Long paused for a moment. ‘Well, all except one. Only Mayor Deng had the key to that drawer. But it’s small. Not even a child could fit inside.’
‘And you locked the doors when you left?’
‘That’s right. There are two sets of doors at the entrance. Brother Hua and I split the keys, so that way only the two of us together could open them.’
‘Not until we saw the intruder on the monitor.’
‘You didn’t go back into the room at all before then?’
‘No. We left food and water in the room, and we even put chamber pots under each bed. Brother Hua repeatedly stressed that no one was permitted to open the door under any circumstances. Unless, that is, the killer was actually in there.’
‘So the two of you were watching the security monitors the entire time?’
‘That’s correct. We only left the room to go to the bathroom, and we did that in turns. There were also four of our most trusted men in the security hub with us.’
‘Did anything unusual happen before the power cut out?’
‘No. Nothing at all.’
That was not the answer Pei had been hoping for. ‘Think about it for a minute,’ he prompted.
Brother Long frowned and after a moment he shook his head. ‘No, nothing out of the ordinary happened before the power shut off.’
Pei went over to the monitors displaying the footage recorded in the office. Lieutenant Yin was still watching it intently.
‘Any luck finding anything?’ he asked.
‘Nothing yet,’ Yin said, unable to hide his disappointment. ‘This recording’s just too long.’
Pei waved a hand dismissively. ‘You don’t need to watch the earlier footage. Just skip to 11:13 p.m. last night.’
Yin immediately slid the playback notch nearly all the way to the right until the timestamps in the corner read 23:13:00. The monitors showed Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng both fast asleep in their respective beds.
‘Heavy sleepers, aren’t they?’ Pei said curiously.
‘They both took sleeping medication that afternoon,’ Brother Long said. ‘It was—’
‘— Brother Hua’s idea?’ Pei interrupted.
Long avoided his gaze for a moment. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘Brother Hua said that if they didn’t take sleeping pills, there was no chance they’d be able to sleep. Even if nothing happened to them over the next twenty or thirty hours, the long wait would wreak havoc on their bodies.’