by Song Ying
In retrospect, they realized that when Hong had asked to see the police three days before, he had already received the sheet of paper and sensed an imminent danger. What he hadn’t known was that when the killer delivered the paper, he may also have included two pieces of poisoned candy, as a random weapon that killed when the victim picked up one and put it in his mouth.
“Why did the killer doctor two pieces of candy?” Yao wondered out loud.
“Two bullets, to increase the probability,” Xiaochuan said.
“Not only that,” Cui said. “You see, two pieces would shorten the time of his death by half, so the killer’s point was to quicken Hong’s death.”
“How does that work?”
“If one piece is poisonous, the chance of Hong dying each time he ate a piece would be eighteen to one, but if there are two, the chance would eighteen to two, or nine to one.”
“I could have been a victim of that nine-to-one chance,” Yao Li muttered to herself.
“Thank God we didn’t accept it that day when he offered us the candy,” Xiaochuan said with visible apprehension and relief.
“Who would have imagined that the CEO’s office at Big East was a death trap.” Even Cui was stunned.
“Does this have anything to do with the land at Tiandongba?” Xiaochuan wondered aloud.
“You mean a competition for real estate profits?”
“Right.”
“But didn’t Zhou Zhengxing give up the bid for the land?”
“But he didn’t give up on Landmark’s dominant position.”
* * *
Hong’s sudden death rocked the security establishment, and sent a shock wave through the city. Before the police had determined the cause of Hu Guohao’s death, Hong Yiming was found dead in his office. Barely two weeks separated the two deaths, and both victims were real estate tycoons. And both had been recipients of a mysterious sheet of paper.
A meeting was held that afternoon at the Y District Public Security Office. Chief Wang of the Municipal Investigation Bureau (MIB) was in attendance, with instructions from the city government. A short man with a crew cut, his face reflected the somber mood. The meeting ended with a decision to tie the investigation of the two cases together, with Precinct Chief Wu in charge and Cui Dajun his deputy. MIB would send over some of its best investigative officers as reinforcements. It was to be an all-out effort; they had a month to solve the cases.
Cui was under the gun, with mounting public attention and the deadline set by his superior. There had been signs before Hong’s death, and his death could possibly have been avoided; Cui blamed himself for the oversight. Hong likely had held information back, which led to his death, but that was no excuse for the leader of the crime squad.
At the meeting, Chief Wu focused their discussion on material evidence they’d found at the crime scene.
First, technicians had confirmed that the sheet of paper in Hong’s drawer was of the same quality as the one found in Hu’s briefcase. The font and size of the string of numbers appeared to be the same. The symbol for “山” was handwritten and also closely resembled the earlier version (the police were already referring to it as “red tower mountain”). It was clear that both had come from the same person or group of killers, and that the reasons for the two men’s deaths were closely related. Knowing what the symbol and the numbers meant would be a key to solving the cases.
Secondly, the killer had planned everything meticulously. Using doctored candy was a clever method of “random killing,” meaning that the victim could die at an unspecified time, making it easy to have an alibi. And only Hong’s fingerprints were found on the paper and the candy wrapping.
But the police knew that killers always make a mistake. They needed to determine how the candy got into Hong’s office as another key to solving the case.
Cui, Xiaochuan, and Yao Li reported on the investigation. Preliminary questioning at the crime scene that morning had cleared Ms. Lin and the janitor who cleaned Hong’s office, both of whom were beyond suspicion. They had also talked to the night security guard, but had found nothing suspicious. Hence, the likely killer was a visitor Hong had seen in recent days.
Cui and his officers had met with Hong Monday afternoon, and since they believed that Hong had felt he might be in danger, Cui had asked Ms. Lin about Hong’s visitors between Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon.
She showed them the visitor’s logbook.
On Monday morning Hong had seen three visitors: two of them were friends from Master Trading Company (GM Qian and the marketing director), the third person was Landmark’s Zhong Tao, who had arrived at 10:00 and left at 10:45. Ms. Lin recalled that Hong had asked Zhong over to talk about payment of a loan Hong had made to Hu Guohao. During their meeting, Hong had taken a call from his daughter in Canada.
Monday afternoon, Hong met only with Cui and his officers, after which he kept his door shut and saw no one else that day.
Tuesday morning, Hong met with his production manager to discuss the bid for Tiandongba.
Tuesday afternoon, Hong went on a business trip to Zhuhai; he was away the whole day and his door remained locked.
“Did Zhou Zhengxing, Landmark’s CEO, come to see Mr. Hong?” Cui asked.
Miss Lin’s answer was negative.
“Can you show us what he did from Thursday to Saturday?”
She turned the page and read for them.
July 1, Saturday: Mr. Hong spent all day at the Southern Real Estate Elite Forum at the Mission Hills resort and did not come to the office.
June 30, Friday: Mr. Hong spent the day in Guangzhou at two business meetings. His door was locked the whole time.
June 29, Thursday: in the morning he was too busy to meet with the heads of two interior design firms. Around 10:30 Hu Guohao’s widow, Zhu Mei-feng, came to Big East and met with Mr. Hong in his office. Miss Lin had no idea what they had talked about.
“Mrs. Hu was here last Thursday?” Shocked, Cui snatched the log from the secretary to look at it himself. Zhu Mei-feng’s name and time of her visit were clearly recorded.
“When she left, Mr. Hong walked her to the elevator. I overheard him say something about his hope that Mr. Hu was looking down on them,” Ms. Lin offered.
What a remarkable coincidence. In the short space of three days, Zhu Mei-feng and Zhong Tao had both come to see Hong Yiming. It was entirely possible that one of them could be the killer, since they both had an opportunity to touch the crystal dish. Of course it was also quite reasonable for them to talk about issues remaining in the wake of Hu Guohao’s death. Besides, it would have been difficult to plant the doctored candy in front of Hong.
During the meeting at the station, one of the officers had mentioned another possible suspect: Zhou Zhengxing.
“Zhou’s alibi for Hu’s death is not strong enough. He had plenty of time in Nan’ao to dispose of his enemy, a whole hour, from midnight on the twenty-fourth to one o’clock.”
“This is something we can’t overlook,” Chief Wang said.
“But we haven’t found any clues in Nan’ao,” Cui said unhappily. “Our investigation of Zhou Zhengxing is going nowhere.”
Then Chief Wu posed an interesting question:
“What made Hu Guohao and Hong Yiming targets by the same killer?”
“They worked together in Hainan, each running a housing development and real estate business. Zhou Zhengxing would be the prime suspect if the murders were done for business profits,” Chief Wu said. “One of the victims was the man he wanted to replace as head of Landmark, the other one Landmark’s major competitors.”
“I agree that we should continue looking at Zhou,” Cui said.
“Hong Yiming told us that he and Hu came from the same place in Henan,” Yao Li offered, “so maybe they had some other connection.”
The comment made sense to Chief Wang. “Let’s look for that connection and put Nan’ao aside for now. We can always come back to it if there are new developments.�
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The meeting ended with a resolution to conduct an all-out investigation and surveillance of the prime suspects.
* * *
Nie Feng learned of Hong Yiming’s death when Xiaochuan called after the meeting at the station. The death came as no surprise and yet was totally unexpected. His apprehensive demeanor in the days shortly before his death indicated that he sensed that his life was in danger, but even the police had not expected it would actually happen and so soon.
Xiaochuan informed him of the weapon—poison-filled chocolate liqueur candy.
“Poisoned candy! Perfect for a random killing, or a distance murder, a clever and secretive means of carrying out a murder, since the killer would have an airtight alibi.”
“Hong Yiming actually offered us candy when we saw him Monday afternoon.”
“I’ll bet none of you took him up on his offer.”
“Of course not. If we had, it might not be him who was dead. There were eighteen pieces altogether, two of them were poisonous, which meant that each piece had a one-in-nine chance of killing someone.”
“Not if the killer laid those on top,” Nie corrected him. “Then the chance would have been one out of three, or even two.”
“My God, why didn’t I think of that?” Xiaochuan sounded like he was gasping.
“Why don’t we meet and talk about it?” Nie wanted to know more.
“Sure. Where would you like to meet?”
“How about the 110 Coffee Club?”
“110 Coffee Club?” Xiaochuan got the joke—the police hotline—and laughed. “OK.”
Nie then called his editor at Western Sunshine to update him on the latest developments.
“Mr. Wu, something big has come up. Another big shot has died.” Nie could hardly hide the excitement in his voice.
“Oh yeah? Who?”
“The CEO of Big East Real Estate, Hong Yiming.”
“Another real estate tycoon!”
“I was going to fly back tomorrow, but—”
“No, no way. You can’t keep delaying. There are important interviews waiting for you here.”
Nie Feng knew the editor was mainly concerned about expenses.
“Just give me a few more days. There’ll be a break in the case any day now.”
“Are you the lead detective now? Give me a break. You have to come back.”
“I think I’ve found traces of the murderer.”
“First you say something about finding clues and now it’s traces. All the speculation in the world won’t help you solve a case.” The editor was unconvinced.
“Then how am I supposed to write a follow-up article?” Nie was trying every angle.
“Three days,” Wu relented. “That’s all I can give you”
“Only three days?” Nie sounded unhappy.
“That’s right. After that, you’ll have to pay for things out of your own pocket.” Money was the editor’s best weapon.
“Yes, sir!”
— 2 —
Nanyuan’s Ming Tien Café.
Nie Feng was seated in the same window booth as before. The same ponytailed waitress brought him a glass of water.
“What would you like, sir?” she asked with a big smile.
Nie took a look at the menu. “Japanese rice with braised eel. Make that two.”
When Xiaochuan arrived, the waitress was bringing up the eel dish in red lacquered trays filled with fine little plates of side dishes, so typical of Japanese cuisine. There was also a small bowl of miso soup with purple seaweed for each. It smelled wonderful, so they began eating right away, while Xiaochuan filled Nie in on the “death notice.”
“Identical to the one Hu Guohao got?”
“Yes. Another red tower mountain, according to Yao Li,” Xiaochuan said.
“Yes, I see that. The symbol does look like a red tower mountain. I hadn’t noticed that before.”
“Yao Li is an admirer of yours. She asked me to give you her best.”
“She did?” Nie asked jokingly.
Scratching his head, Xiaochuan smiled and changed the subject.
“Do you think that sheet of paper means something?”
“At the very least, it means that the same person killed Hu Guohao and Hong Yiming, and the pair of murders were meticulously planned and carried out. The killer is very smart.”
Xiaochuan was pleased that things were starting to become clear, even though there were still too many puzzles, too many questions.
“Also, the death notice was clearly meant to frighten the victims and make them feel like they were being hunted down. This fits the profile of revenge killings.”
“Revenge killings,” Xiaochuan repeated.
“Yes, but only if my analysis is correct.” Nie paused and, with a look at Xiaochuan, continued, “And if so, the key to cracking the case is to decipher the motive for revenge.”
“Decipher?”
“Yes. Not to find actual clues, but to figure out what the red tower mountain symbol and the string of numbers mean. Oh, and that strange wreath. They’re all there in front of our eyes, and we have to find out what message they were intended to convey, what secrets lay behind them. I’m pretty sure the victims knew before they died.”
“So how do we go about deciphering them?”
“I have to leave in three days, so I won’t be much help.”
“Will you still follow the case after you return to Sichuan?” Xiaochuan was obviously disappointed Nie had to leave.
“Of course,” Nie said. “I’ll follow up, so we’ll know what happened, and I have to write a story about it. So don’t forget to share any new information with me.”
“No problem.” Xiaochuan knew that Nie wanted an exclusive, a trait shared by every reporter worth his salt.
“Did you drive here?” Nie asked.
“I did.”
“Then come with me.”
“Where to?”
“You’ll see. You want to decipher the symbols, don’t you?”
They climbed into Xiaochuan’s blue-and-white patrol car and headed for Shennan Road. It wasn’t far, Nie told him, and they were there in no time—Shenzhen Book City. It was getting late, but the place was crowded with book buyers and browsers.
Xiaochuan parked behind the building and they rode the elevator to the second floor, where they passed stands for new books and bestsellers, before reaching the Economics section.
“We need to look for books on the study of Chinese characters, so why don’t we spread out?” Nie said.
“Under what category?”
“Cultural education or ancient books.”
Xiaochuan nodded and disappeared around a corner.
Nie searched through half the section, but all he saw were books on economics and business management, in addition to history and biographies. Finally, he asked a salesclerk, and learned that books about language and Chinese characters were on the fourth floor, while the third floor housed literature, children’s books, and educational material.
He went up to the fourth floor, which was packed; cookbooks and books on cosmetics and fashion had been given the choice spots, next to special shelves for books on technology and computer science. Medical books were in the back. Surrounded by people and books, he felt lost, until he spotted “Language and Chinese Characters” in a neglected corner, where he picked up a copy of On the Origin of Chinese Characters, a second-century treatise on the Chinese writing system by Xu Shen.
Since it was quiet there, he sat down and patiently flipped through the pages, eventually finding the character he was looking for—“山,” for “mountain”—in a style that looked a bit like the symbol on the sheets of paper. The annotation read: “Vent means to vent the qi / myriads of objects and creatures are born / there is a tall rock.” Old Mr. Xu should have been annotating the meaning of “山” but Nie was confused; what did venting the qi have to do with the mountains?
The writing style, or font, to use modern lingo, Small Li, was
promulgated by the First Emperor of China after uniting the country. Nie recalled a class in classical Chinese in college, in which the teacher had told them about the origin of the Small Li style and its counterpart, Big Li. The two were similar, though Small Li was less ornate and more picturelike; he assumed that an earlier style would have an even greater pictorial look, so what came before the Small Li? It must have been the writings on oracle bones, ancient writing carved on tortoise shells and the shoulder bones of oxen.
So off to look up oracle bones. At the information desk the staff located a book entitled A History of Chinese Oracle Bone Studies. In the chapter “Common Examples of Oracle Bones” was a list of frequently used characters. And that was where Nie Feng found a listing for the character for fire, “火,” in three different styles. The first had a rising middle that made it resemble a tower, while the second, Nie was shocked to see, was nearly identical to the symbol on the sheets of paper.
Just to be sure, he took out his copy of the paper from Hu’s case file. They were virtually identical. So, that’s it! The symbol was not “mountain,” but “fire.”
After wearing out all that shoe leather, figuratively speaking, to decipher the meaning of the symbol, suddenly there it was, right in front of him.
“I’ve found it!” he yelled out happily.
He quickly clammed up when he noticed the curious looks from shoppers around him.
Naturally cautious, he was struggling to find corroborative or contradictory examples when his cell rang. It was Xiaochuan.
“Hey, Mr. Nie, which floor are you on?” The young officer sounded excited.
“The fourth. By the shelves on language and Chinese characters.”
“I think I’ve found the book you’re looking for. It’s called The Story of Chinese Characters.”
“Is it good?”