Enigma of China(17)

“What else did she say to you?” Jiang asked.

“She kept repeating that Zhou had worked so hard for the city, and it wasn’t fair for him to bear the responsibility alone.”

“How could she say that?” Jiang asked after a short pause. “The city government has asked us to reach a conclusion as soon as possible regarding Zhou’s death. So far, you haven’t found anything really suspicious about the circumstances of his death. I think it’s reasonable to presume suicide.”

“I understand the situation. It’s complicated. I’ll discuss it with Wei and report to you again.”

Putting down the phone, Chen decided he did need to have another talk with Detective Wei, but for a reason he wasn’t going to tell Jiang.





SEVEN


THE NEXT DAY AT lunch, Chen sought out Wei in the bureau canteen.

“How about a cup of coffee after lunch?” Chen said, holding a bowl of barbecue pork and rice.

“I’m not a coffee—” Wei broke off, leaving the sentence unfinished. After a brief pause, Wei said, “That would be great, Chief.”

Fifteen minutes later, they walked out of the police bureau together.

“We could go to Starbucks or any other place you like, Wei.”

“I know nothing about coffee,” Wei said, “but my son talks a lot about a place called Häagen-Dazs.”

“Yes, let’s go there. There is one on Nanjing Road, near the corner of Fujian Road, next to the Sofitel.”

It might not be such a good choice, Chen thought. Häagen-Dazs was a brand of ice cream, but in Shanghai, it was something fancy. It was a status symbol, and a number of the Häagen-Dazs specialty stores were marketed as luxurious spots for young people. There was even a popular TV commercial where a pretty girl declared: “If you love me, take me to Häagen-Dazs.”

But the Häagen-Dazs store on Nanjing Road also served coffee, which turned out to be quite decent, though Chen would still have preferred a regular café. They chose two seats on a sofa, facing the window looking out on an ever-bustling pedestrian street.

“Tell me how you’ve been progressing,” Chen said, taking a sip of the coffee.

“We have to conduct a thorough investigation before we are able to conclude it was suicide, right?”

“That’s right. You remember what Party Secretary Li said the first day we were assigned to the case: ‘Investigate and conclude it was suicide.’ But don’t worry about him. Let’s go over what you’ve done.”

Detective Wei gave him a quick look of surprise, having caught the sarcastic tone about Party Secretary Li, then addressed his question.

“It’s difficult because we know so little about the background. Zhou was shuangguied a week before his sudden death. Jiang is not sharing any information he got prior to our arrival at the scene. Why?”

That wasn’t a difficult question for Chen. From Jiang’s perspective, the details of Zhou’s shuanggui case had to be covered up to protect the image of a harmonious society, even at the expense of the police investigation.

“Now, for the sake of argument,” Wei continued, without waiting for Chen’s response. “Let’s suppose that it’s a murder case. Hypothetically. What could be the motive?”

“Have you found one?”

“Perhaps more than one. In our investigations, it’s common to focus on people who would directly benefit from the death, isn’t it?”

“That’s true. In this case, I don’t think such a list will be too long. It’s definitely worth checking out.”

“Also, I have a hunch that the list may be connected to the picture that started everything.”

“Explain that to me, Wei.”

“When the picture first appeared in the newspapers, no one paid any attention to it. Then it showed up in a Web forum where the original crowd-sourced search started. According to Jiang, the manager of the Web forum was sent an electronic file of the picture along with a note about the pack of cigarettes.”

“Who sent the photo?”

“We don’t know yet. The sender used a one-time, fake e-mail address and logged in from an Internet café.”

“So the sender applied for the e-mail address while he was at the café, and then never used it again.”

“Jiang checked into it with the Internet café, but he drew a blank. He concluded that the troublemaker must have calculated all the possible consequences of initiating the crowd-sourced search. That’s why Jiang has been focusing on that angle—”

“Hold on a moment, Wei. Does Jiang think the sender could be the murderer?”