by Zhou HaoHui
“Can you promise?”
She answered without hesitation.
“Yes, I promise.”
Mu’s heart raced as she awaited Huang’s next words.
“A month before the explosion at the warehouse, the Chengdu police made a major drug bust. Look into that before you take your investigation anywhere else.”
Mu was startled. She had been expecting Huang to tell her something he had seen during the explosion, yet now he was talking about a different case altogether.
Huang did not seem surprised at Mu’s reaction. “The 3/16 drug-trafficking case from 1984,” he added. “Remember that.”
“What does it have to do with the explosion?”
“Just look into it and you will find what you are looking for.” He squinted. “I can’t tell you everything now, because I can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to protect me. I have to know I can trust you.”
Mu looked at him without disgust. The man’s appearance was the same as it had been during her previous visits, yet there was something different about him. It was the way he was looking at her. Something about his gaze seemed familiar, as if she had known this man in another life. She couldn’t explain it, but she sensed there was more to him than she previously knew.
“Who are you really, Huang?” she asked.
Huang bared his teeth and snickered. “You already know who I am.”
Mu lowered her eyes. She was being too passive. She tried another approach.
“You’ve been hiding quite a bit of information from the police. Maybe I should bring you back to the investigative team and see what they think,” she threatened.
“Then you’d be reneging on the promise you just made. I’d only have myself to blame, for being a poor judge of character.” Huang shook his head as he trailed off. “I’ll take my secrets to the grave, lady. You’ll never have another chance at knowing what really happened eighteen years ago.”
Mu grimaced. He had called her bluff. “I gave you my word,” she said. “How can I be sure that you aren’t just toying with me?”
“You’ll understand once you look into that drug-trafficking case.”
“Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll look into it.”
“Don’t mention this to anyone else,” Huang stressed again. “You have no idea just how powerful a force you’ll be going up against. I’m already crippled. You wouldn’t have the heart to hurt me more, would you?”
Mu nodded her understanding. Though the situation was growing tenser, she could not help but ask one last question. “Why choose me, if you don’t trust the police?”
Huang looked at her with fearful eyes.
“Every story has to come to an end. The very first time I saw you, I knew that you were the one who could pen the final page to my own chapter.”
Mu frowned. What kind of an answer was this?
“Remember: 1984. Come back once you’ve made some findings of your own.” Huang waved his hand at the door.
“We’ll see.”
Mu rose from the stool. She checked her watch. It was already 9:40. None of the other team members had contacted her since her departure. It was possible that they hadn’t left yet. Or perhaps they had already received a signal, but had been in too much of a hurry to contact her. Either way, there was not much that she could do to help them. What she could do, however, was follow the lead that Huang had just given her. If she was lucky, it would move their investigation forward. And maybe, just maybe, it would tell her why this man was so interested in helping her.
She turned back toward Huang when she reached the doorway. “Thank you for trusting me,” she said, and left.
Huang watched her as she shut the door. He scratched thoughtfully at the old wounds on his arms, and he smiled.
* * *
Mu arrived at the police department shortly after 10:00 p.m. The four-man squad was still camped out in the conference room. Yin and Liu were getting some rest on a pair of cots set up in the corner. Xiong and Han sat at the table, their eyes glued to the signal detector as they anxiously awaited their cue from Eumenides. She thought about knocking on the door, but instead she turned away and walked toward the exit.
Zeng answered his door with a bleary look in his eyes. His face brightened when he noticed Mu.
“I knew you couldn’t stay away,” he said, beaming. “I’m still the one you trust the most, right?”
Mu sat on one of the room’s chairs without uttering a sound. Silence was the best way to handle Zeng.
“Come on and tell me—any progress with that lead of yours? Run into any problems? Let’s see if I can’t point you in the right direction.”
Mu wasted no time. “I need you to help me find some files.”
“And which files might those be?”
“The 3/16 drug-trafficking case from 1984. I need everything you can get.”
Zeng blinked at her, perplexed. “What in the hell for?”
“I’m interested,” she answered nonchalantly. “And I’d like to know more.”
“What the hell is going on today?” He gave a snort. “Everyone’s interested in ancient cases all of a sudden.”
Zeng’s comment stirred Mu. “Who else?”
“Pei, but not for this drug case of yours. He came here after dinner and had me look up the files for the police slaying at Mount Twin Deer Park. The three of us have too much free time, wouldn’t you say?”
Mu couldn’t help being curious. “Why did Pei want those files?”
“Who knows?” Zeng paused. “Maybe he’s trying to dig up some dirt on the captain for the sake of some old-fashioned schadenfreude?”
“I need you to focus.” Mu shook her head in exasperation. “Can you find the case files or not?”
Zeng got serious. “That might be a bit of a challenge. After all, it’s an eighteen-year-old case…But a talented guy like myself thrives under pressure. For a gorgeous woman like you, I could track down anything.”
“Then shut up and get to work.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Zeng saluted. He sauntered over to the desk and turned on his personal laptop. His capacity as head technical supervisor of the provincial capital’s online security team granted him full access to the department’s database from any terminal.
The 3/16 drug-trafficking case was closed but unclassified, so Zeng was able to quickly look up all relevant files. His fingers danced over the keyboard like those of a master pianist performing a concerto. After a minute or so, he smiled at Mu.
“And that’s all she wrote.”
“That was quick,” Mu said, surprised.
“You better hurry up. The files are already being printed out at the front desk.”
Mu found the front desk, where the late-shift secretary was frantically trying to keep track of the stream of pages suddenly spitting out of the machine. “Those are mine. Would you mind stapling them for me?” she asked.
The woman shook her head in frustration. “I told the other lecturers that they couldn’t print their notes here, and I’m going to tell you the same thing. You’ll have to go to one of the print shops outside.”
Clearing her throat, Mu showed the woman her police credentials and room card. The secretary’s eyes widened slightly, and she stacked the pages into a neat pile without any further questions. She did, however, pause when she saw the last page.
“Do you want me to staple this one too?”
It was a color printout of a rose, glistening with fresh scarlet ink. As Mu took the printout, she felt a quick rush of delight at this unexpected surprise. Quickly regaining her professionalism, she handed the printed flower to the secretary. “This one doesn’t need to be stapled with the rest. Think of it as a token of appreciation for your help.”
She smiled warmly.
Mu couldn’t help but bury her
nose in the file as she walked back to her own room. On at least one occasion, she came inches from walking into a wall.
The head of the task force assigned to the 3/16 drug-trafficking case was none other than Xue Dalin. The former vice commissioner of the Chengdu police force and Eumenides’s first victim, killed hours before the deaths of Meng and Yuan.
Pei Tao’s presence had focused the team’s attention on the warehouse explosion, but it had also distracted them from investigating the truth behind Xue’s murder. The 4/18 Task Force of 1984 had also failed to link the two events. Somehow, Huang knew something none of the investigators did.
Resisting the growing urge to sit down in the middle of the empty hallway and read, Mu quickened her pace. She thought about going back to Zeng’s room, but decided against it. She needed peace and quiet to digest these documents, and Zeng was not a person who would give it to her.
Once she was back inside her room, she spread the 3/16 files out on the desk. Over the next two hours, she studied every single page for the smoking gun that would crack the Eumenides murders. Her search was fruitless. She had hoped to find mention of Yuan Zhibang or Meng Yun, but there was nothing. Vice Commissioner Xue Dalin was the only clear connection. He had led the special investigation for the 3/16 drug-trafficking case, and one month later, on April eighteenth, he became Eumenides’s first victim.
As vice commissioner of the city’s police, Xue would have been in charge of many different investigations. How could his involvement as head of the investigation team in the 3/16 case be linked to his own death? Why would Huang have singled out this case in particular? And how would he have even known about it in the first place?
Mu’s head was spinning as the deeper truth slipped further out of sight. She pulled herself out of her chair and approached the window. Pulling the curtains aside, she took a deep breath of the fresh autumn air drifting in. She shut her eyes and let her thoughts meld with the soft hum of traffic outside.
Just as the case designation indicated, the drug bust had occurred a month prior to Xue’s murder on the eighteenth of April. 3/16 was merely the date the case had been closed. In fact, the investigation had begun many weeks before.
During the 1980s, Interpol had cracked down hard against transnational drug trafficking. As Asia’s international drug cartels lost one hideout after another, they were left with no choice but to find new avenues for conducting business. It was precisely at this time that China, currently expanding its economy to make room for international business and trade, became a primary target for these cartels.
As a transportation hub and financial center, Chengdu was one of China’s most dynamic trade cities. And now the ashes of the city’s drug trade rose back to life. This boom soon became a major focus of the local police force. Xue Dalin, then Chengdu’s police vice commissioner, was in charge of the city’s efforts to fight back.
In 1984, Xue’s anti-narcotics team obtained an invaluable piece of intelligence. A Southeast Asian drug ring was planning to make a major transaction with a domestic group inside Chengdu. The deal was planned for the sixteenth of March. In turn, the 3/16 Task Force was established.
The information came from an informant named Deng Yulong. According to the personnel data included in the case files, Deng was twenty-five years old at the time but he had already been a police informant for seven years.
Before beginning his association with the police, the clever young man was typical of the dropout hoodlums found stirring up trouble on the streets. He was already making a name for himself among the local gangs. On his eighteenth birthday, after a few too many drinks, Deng stabbed another gang member and was arrested. While his chances of avoiding jail time appeared slim to none, one man stepped in to save him from this fate: Xue Dalin. Not yet vice commissioner at the time, Xue was merely the leader of the city’s public security squad.
Xue instantly changed the course of Deng’s life. He modified the police dispatch records so that the recorded time of Deng’s offense was four minutes before midnight on the twenty-third of that month, rather than six minutes after midnight on the twenty-fourth. It was only a difference of ten minutes, but it meant that Deng would be tried as a minor rather than an adult. As a result, the court’s punishment was much lighter, and he was only sentenced to two years of probation.
Of course, there was a catch. Once Deng was freed, he may have appeared to be an unreformed thug, but in reality he was a police informant. Specifically, he was Xue Dalin’s informant.
Deng’s combination of natural talent and early experience made him more than qualified for his new line of work, and his close cooperation with Xue was mutually beneficial. Conviction rates skyrocketed in Xue’s jurisdiction and his career grew more promising with each passing day. Likewise, by tipping Deng off about imminent police raids and movements, Xue gave the ambitious Deng the tools to establish his reputation among the city’s underbelly and win favor among the bosses of the criminal underworld.
As Chengdu’s economy began to boom, the nimble thinking and brute strength of a local crime kingpin named Liu Hong allowed him to quickly establish and develop his own brand in the region. Liu Hong had amassed a considerable fortune through his extortion schemes and protection rackets. He was hungry, and he began recruiting skilled criminals to further his empire.
It was at this time that Liu Hong noticed Deng. Hong was in need of an assistant in the organized crime scene, and he took Deng under his wing. Deng’s entry into the inner ranks was a godsend to the police, who had been waiting for an opening to infiltrate Liu Hong’s crime ring. Even better news was still to follow.
When Southeast Asian drug traffickers looked to extend their channels of distribution to Sichuan Province, they needed to go through Liu Hong. Now, tempted by the promise of massive profits, Liu Hong added narcotics trafficking to his repertoire, and in no time he had established a monopoly on Chengdu’s opiate trade. After the successful completion of several smaller-scale transactions, both parties agreed on a date for their first truly large-scale collaboration: March 16, 1984.
The police were ecstatic. Now that their own informant had infiltrated Liu Hong’s group, the possibility of a successful operation against the crime ring had increased astronomically—with a year’s worth of outstanding service under Liu Hong, Deng had already become one of the crime lord’s most trusted men. His presence at any deal involving overseas groups would be guaranteed.
On March sixteenth, Liu Hong—accompanied by Deng—met with three seasoned foreign narcotics traffickers at a designated location. Xue and his officers, all dressed in plainclothes, were already lying in wait nearby. As soon as Deng gave the signal, they would spring into action and surround the criminals.
And then, chaos.
When one of the Southeast Asian gangsters saw through a nearby plainclothes officer’s disguise, all six suspects scattered. When they found that more police officers had blocked their escape, the criminals opened fire.
It was the first time the Chengdu police force faced the ferocity of a foreign drug gang firsthand, but they were prepared. Within a minute, they managed to surround the suspects. The criminals, on the other hand, knew that their chances of survival were slim at best, and they fought with the savagery of cornered wolves.
Two officers were shot during the firefight, and then the young informant Deng Yulong turned the tide. Suddenly turning against Liu Hong, he dealt a critical blow to both groups of gangsters. When the firefight ended, Liu Hong and four other suspects lay dead on the ground.
The operation resulted in the seizure of 500 kilograms of heroin and over 2.5 million U.S. dollars in drug money. Liu Hong’s criminal empire had been crushed in a single day.
With the successful closure of this case, the members of the 3/16 Task Force received a collective Second-Class Meritorious Service Medal. Xue Dalin was awarded a First-Class Meritorious Service Medal, and his
bright future in the police force was all but assured.
One month later, the law enforcement community was stunned by Xue’s brutal murder…as well as by the accusations of corruption that began bubbling up from among the ranks of Chengdu’s police.
* * *
Mu pushed the documents to the edges of her desk and pressed her hands against her head. Apart from Xue Dalin, the 3/16 file indicated that this was an entirely separate case from the Eumenides murders. What was the connection?
The ringing doorbell interrupted her thoughts. She checked her watch. It was nearly an hour after midnight. “Who is it?” she called out.
“It’s me,” answered Zeng. What was he doing here at this hour?
Despite some hesitation, she got up and opened the door.
“I figured you were still awake.” Zeng stood in the doorway hugging his elbows.
She let out a deep breath. “Is there something you wanted to see me about?” Despite her polite smile, Mu made no indication that Zeng was welcome. If he had simply come here to crack jokes, she wasn’t in the mood.
As if reading her thoughts, Zeng laughed and said, “I see my little gift at the front desk didn’t exactly cheer you up. No worries. I’m here to solve the puzzle that’s been bugging you.”
“What puzzle might that be?”
“There’s no need to play coy with me.” He casually strolled into the room and plopped down on the sofa. “Or do you expect me to believe that you made all that fuss over a two-decade-old drug bust because you were just curious? Do I look like an idiot to you?”
“What did you come here so late to tell me?”
Zeng held out two fingers and tapped them gleefully against the coffee table. “I know how the drug bust and the warehouse murders are linked.”
Mu tried to read Zeng’s face but his expression was impenetrable.
“There’s a connection between the two cases?”