The Chinese Woman: Mystery Assassin: A Spy Mystery Thriller: Li Mei Spy Action Series (The Chinese Woman: Li Mei Spy Action Series Book 3)

by Brian N. Cox

  Gary was dressed, as usual, like a fashion model while Sean wore a Harris tweed sports jacket and a non-descript brown tie. Although not handsome in a movie-star way, attractive women had always been attracted to Sean, despite his ‘comfortable’ clothes and his weather-beaten appearance.

  Sean and Gary had been driven to the motel by Diane Swanson and her partner, Luke Dibotsky, and they waited in the FBI car at the curb about a half block from the motel.

  “You’ve been Mirandized and you have your legal counsel, Mr. Vince Marino, present,” said Sean. “Are you ready to proceed?”

  “My client won’t be saying anything other than that he is outraged at being subjected to this interrogation and these outrageous and false allegations. We intend to sue you, the Special Agent in Charge, Jim Bridges, who obviously authorized this, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Vince Marino played to the video camera in the same way he played to juries in the courtroom. He loved showing off his oratory skills, which were considerable.

  “His outrage and his intentions are duly noted, Mr. Marino,” said Sean, as Gordon Paquette sat smirking during the exchange.

  “Since you are not going to answer questions, Mr. Paquette, I will lay out our case and you can comment or not, whichever you wish.”

  “Go ahead,” said Marino.

  Sean proceeded to provide the evidence, piece by piece, from the photos of Paquette picking the lock at the back door of the Newbury Apartments, his purchase of the same type of rope found at the crime scenes and his attack on Li Mei.

  “Let me comment on behalf of my client,” said Marino. “You have my client buying his anchor line, you have an unclear photo of someone at the back door of a building…it could be anyone and any building at any time…a time and date stamp won’t hold up in court. Then you have an allegation by a woman with no corroboration whatsoever. I happen to know this woman is a Chinese spy. Do you think the court is going to take the word of a foreign spy over a dedicated FBI agent who has received numerous commendations?”

  “How do you know this woman is a spy?” asked Sean.

  “My client is the Supervisory Agent in Charge of Counterintelligence for Washington State. It’s his job to identify spies and he’s quite good at his job. Counterintelligence has quite a thick file on this spy, and why she hasn’t been expelled from the country, I will endeavour to find out, even if I have to get the news media involved.

  “Whoever the rat bastard is that has been committing these crimes,” said Paquette, “he must be a genius. According to all reports, he hasn’t left an iota of evidence at any crime scene. Of course I’m just going by news reports. You would know better than me since you are the investigators.”

  This was the first time Paquette had said anything since entering the room. Sean could see Marino giving him a severe look and shaking his head. He obviously had instructed Paquette not to say anything.

  “I’ll have to admit you are a genius, Mr. Paquette,” said Sean, continuing to address him in a formal manner.

  “It seems to me that this entire ridiculous case relies on the word of a lying Chinese spy who will be easily discredited and probably expelled from the country if she isn’t jailed for perjury,” said Marino.

  “I’ll admit our case is not strong,” said Sean. “If you gentlemen would just stay here for a few minutes longer, Gary and I will retire to another room to discuss our options. We’ll be back within five minutes.”

  “OK, but make it fast. If you’re not back in five minutes, we’ll be out of here,” replied Marino.

  Sean and Gary, got up and left the room. They would not be back. They walked to the curb where Diane Swanson and Luke Dibotsky were waiting in a car to drive them back to the FBI Field Office. Before doing so, however, Sean told Swanson and her partner to go to Room 122, open the door, and look in. There will be two men sitting there. Just say, ‘excuse me, wrong room’, and come back to the car. I don’t want those men to come back later and claim they were assaulted or that we returned and interviewed them further with no video recording.

  Swanson and Dibotsky did as instructed, returned to the car, and all four drove to the FBI Field Office. Swanson had recognized Gordon Paquette but said nothing to Dibotsky.

  After three minutes, Li Mei entered the room with two large, sinister looking men, both of whom were Second Bureau agents with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.

  “Please remain seated gentlemen,” said Li Mei, as she sat in the chair that had been occupied by Sean.

  “What’s this?” said Marino. “Who are you?”

  “This is Li Mei, the State Security agent we have been talking about,” said Paquette to his lawyer, and then to Li Mei. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

  “Relax Mr. Paquette; don’t forget you are in our employ. We are all friends here for now.”

  “We have a concern, that possibly you can address,” Li Mei continued. “If you are charged with these serial killings, we are concerned you may drag the government of China into the trial saying you were blackmailed and forced under threat to work with the Chinese but were actually gathering evidence on behalf of the FBI. If you are convicted as a serial killer, if would be very embarrassing for us. You may say that the stress of being threatened by Chinese spies caused you to be mentally unbalanced when committing your crimes.”

  “You don’t have a thing to worry about. I know you won’t be testifying, and Sean must think I’m an idiot to infer that you would be a witness against me. There is not a shred of evidence at any crime scene linking me to the rapes and murders.”

  “Are you sure you know of all the evidence against you? The FBI is very efficient. They wouldn’t arrest and charge you if they didn’t believe they could get a conviction,” said Li Mei.

  “Let me interrupt,” said Vince Marino. “Gordon has not been arrested and he won’t be charged. Even if they arrested him and put him on trial to show they took action, they couldn’t possibly win. They don’t have the evidence and they open themselves up to lawsuits.”

  “I follow legal proceedings here,” Mr. Marino, “and it seems the US Attorney has a very good track record in murder cases.”

  “Let me put you at ease, Ms. Li. When I represent a client, they don’t get convicted. Key witnesses always fail to show up, if you know what I mean. You must be a student of human nature, Ms. Li, considering your employment. You know that everyone has skeletons in their closet…and that includes members of juries, prosecutors and judges. They can all be intimidated…and when they learn the only other option for them is to disappear. Which do you think they choose?”

  “Thank you for the lesson in the reality of trials here in the US. Now please let me tell you about the penal system in China,” said Li Mei. “You will wonder why I am telling you this, but just bear with me for a few minutes and you will understand.”

  “In China, our recidivism rate is close to zero,” said Li Mei. “People who go to jail in China don’t want to go back. The judicial system seldom encounters them again. Our prison sentences are not long, about half the length of time of a prison sentence in the USA. Our civilization is almost five-thousand years old and we have learned how to rehabilitate criminals, something you have not discovered here, probably due to your country being so young.”

  “You will eventually learn that your therapy and counselling for convicts doesn’t result in rehabilitation. In fact, I am very surprised it is taking you so long to realize that considering your sky high recidivism rates here in the west. You probably assume we use torture and beatings but you would be wrong. Such practices are used in unsophisticated countries but they don’t work. Look at all the countries that beat and torture their prisoners. They have the highest crime rates in the world and no one is safe. Beatings and torture just result in hatred, resentment and rebellion; prisoners leave prison filled with rage and more violent than when they were first sentenced.”

  “I will admit this is very interesting Ms. Li,” said Marino
, “but I don’t see the point.”

  “You will understand in a minute,” replied Li Mei as she continued. “In China, a prisoner is sentenced to receive a certain amount of food depending upon the severity of their crime. For example a pedophile will receive less food than someone who committed a few minor frauds. Then you enter the system. You get up in the morning and you go to work. If the guards deem that you have worked hard enough, you will get lunch. Then you go back to work. If you work hard enough, you will get dinner. No work or not working hard enough results in no food that day. This is your life…no days off, no visitors, no recreation, no entertainment and no relaxation time except for sleeping at night. A prisoner doesn’t want to get sick, because there is no free medical. The government doesn’t provide free medical services for the honest members of the general public, so why would they provide free medical to criminals? Besides, if you are sick and can’t work, the result is no food.”

  “As you can see,” continued Li Mei, “this is not a pleasant life. There is no need for long sentences as criminals are rehabilitated very quickly.”

  “Now I will tell you why I have told you this. Mr. Paquette, the fact that you are a traitor to your country has, I must admit, been advantageous to us. However, you are also a rapist, a serial killer and a wife beater. You are a despicable human being, so bad in fact, that being executed would be too kind…you do not deserve it. You will be taken to China to a remote prison in the northeastern mountain region where you will spend the rest of your life working hard in order to be fed.”

  Both Paquette and his lawyer, Vince Marino, were dumbfounded. It took them a full minute to respond.

  “Are you crazy, you can’t do this,” exclaimed Paquette.

  “How do you expect to get away with this?” said Marino. “The minute I leave here I will be contacting the authorities.” He didn’t say this with quite the confidence he had earlier as he was wondering if he would ever leave the room alive.

  “These two gentlemen will escort Mr. Paquette to a boat that is awaiting his arrival,” said Li Mei. “Although you too are a despicable human being, Mr. Marino, you are free to go. Of course if you do contact the authorities, you will be abducted and meet the same fate as your client but you will be sent to a different prison as it is important that Mr. Paquette spends the rest of his life with no one who understands his language.”

  Marino grabbed his hat and rushed towards the door without a word.

  “Vince, Vince, call the police! Call the FBI! Don’t let them do this!” cried Gordon Paquette.

  The two husky Second Bureau agents approached Paquette and rendered him unconscious by pressing a vital point on his neck. They then put a piece of duct tape over his mouth, and took him out the door and into a waiting vehicle right outside the door.

  Li Mei then followed them out and watched Marino get into his rental car and speed away. She then dialled her cellphone.

  “Wen Tai. He has just left. He is driving southbound in a gold Mercedes. He is wearing a grey suit, pink tie and a black hat with a wide brim.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “Sean, I don’t know if I should ask you this, but what happened to Paquette? Neither him nor his lawyer, Marino, have been seen for the past three days.”

  “I wish I knew, Jim. After the interrogation, Gary and I left and were driven back to the office by Diane Swanson and Dibotsky, the rookie. They will confirm we left Paquette and Marino sitting in the room when we left. You already have the video of the interrogation. Everything was conducted according to protocol.”

  “I’m not going to ask you, but I am thinking to myself that your friend, Li Mei, and/or her State Security friends killed them and they are now shark food.”

  “I can assure you that neither Li Mei nor her friends killed them. Although she won’t come in and subject herself to a polygraph, I guarantee you she would pass.”

  “Well, I don’t know what in the hell happened or how you worked this miracle, but I am a very happy man right now. Grab Gary at lunch time and I’ll buy you both a steak. In fact, if Li Mei is available, ask her to join us. It’s about time I met her anyway since she seems to spend a great deal of her time solving FBI problems,” said Jim with a smile that grew into a hearty laugh.

  “I have good and bad news for you,” said Sean. “The Portland Killer investigation may have come to an end.”

  “I don’t understand,” said Rick Gonzalez, while the others members of the Portland Killer Joint Task Force looked shocked at Sean’s statement.

  “I was contacted by a confidential informant, a high level organized crime figure, who told me that the serial killer has been terminated,” said Sean. “Unfortunately, he wouldn’t give me the killer’s name or any further details, but guaranteed me there would not be another attack.

  Since we have no evidence to confirm this, we will maintain the JTF and try to solve these murders, but I am ninety percent sure that the serial killer is dead since this informant has always been totally reliable.”

  “It’s sort of a crappy way to end a case,” said Detective Tessier, “but if there will be no more rape-murders by this guy, I guess we can’t complain.”

  “Yah,” added Luke Dibotsky, “since that is the whole purpose of the investigation anyway.”

  “I have to say you all did a great job,” said Sean. “I can’t think of anything that could have been done to advance the Portland Killer investigation that you didn’t do. It was a pleasure and an honour working with all of you and I look forward to forming another JTF in the future with you as its members.”

  “I’d still like to know who the killer was,” said Diane Swanson. “We really can’t stop trying, at least until we accept the fact he is out of action.”

  “Good attitude Diane; My guess is that one of his victims was related in some way to an important mob boss, which pretty well sealed his fate. But right now, I think we deserve a bit of celebration nevertheless. We usually wrap up JTFs with beer and pizza, so keep your schedule open after five o’clock,” said Sean. “I’m buying.”

  By the way, Sir,” said Gonzalez, “congratulations on the arrest of the ‘Mystery Assassin’. Every LEO in the country was looking for her. Are you going to tell us how you did it?”

  “Well it was Supervisory Special Agent Webster also, not just me. We also had a lot of help from a confidential informant. It’s still ‘Classified’ but when it becomes ‘Unclassified’ we’ll get together and I‘ll tell you all about it,” said Sean. This would give him lots of time, he thought, to think up a good story to tell. The truth will always remain ‘Classified Top Secret’ as far as he was concerned.

  Sean couldn’t help laughing to himself as he thought that bullshitting was always a big part of his job.

  The End

  Hope you enjoyed “Mystery Assassin”

  More “The Chinese Woman” series books are in the works