“No. For Jiang, it’s suicide. A foregone conclusion. So the reason for his focus is beyond me.”
“What about you?”
“I’m not saying that the sender is necessarily the murderer—we don’t know if the person benefited from the death of Zhou. But it’s not that difficult to see that some people did benefit from it, Deputy Party Secretary Chen.”
The Party title sounded extremely awkward coming from Detective Wei. In fact, it was the first time Wei had chosen to address Chen as such, and Chen didn’t miss the implication. What Wei was implying was that the people after Zhou’s position would be on the top of the list of suspects.
“Have you been to Zhou’s office?” Chen asked, ignoring Wei’s statement.
“Yes. The day Zhou was marched away from his office, a team headed by Jiang did a thorough search. There was nothing of value left behind. I talked to the deputy head, Dang Hao, for more than an hour, but didn’t learn much that was useful. You know how a Party cadre can talk on and on in politically correct language. Dang simply kept on denouncing Zhou, just like an editorial in Wenhui Daily.”
“When a wall is shaky, people will all push. Especially the one next in the line for the position,” Chen started, then cut himself short, realizing that he too was a Deputy Party Secretary. “What else did he say?”
“While Dang was critical of Zhou, he defended the work of the office. He admitted that Zhou’s job was a complicated, difficult one, considering how much the Shanghai economy relies on the booming housing market.”
“In other words, Zhou wouldn’t have delivered that speech without the approval of the city government?”
“On that, your guess is as good as mine” Wei said. “Dang did confirm that the photo was approved by Zhou himself, then given to his secretary, Fang, to send out to the media.”
“Interesting. Usually providing photos would be the job of a newspaper photographer.”
“Zhou cared about his public image and made a point of personally selecting which picture would be given to the media.”
“But someone had to take the pictures. For instance, a journalist.”
“That’s what confused me. According to Jiang, he checked through Zhou’s e-mail files but didn’t find one that indicated from whom Zhou had received that picture.”
“He might have deleted the e-mail and the file. But Jiang’s people are pros. If it was on his computer, they would have found out one way or another.”
“I think so too,” Wei said. “Of course, looking at possible motives could point us in a different direction. In that speech, Zhou mentioned a particular company that was trying to bring down real estate prices in an irresponsible way. Zhou didn’t name any names, but people knew which company he was referring to. It was Green Earth. Before the 95 Supreme Majesty scandal broke, Teng Jialiang, the general manager of Green Earth, was under a lot of pressure.”
“That might be something, Detective Wei. Did you check him out?”
“I did. Teng was cooperative, and he gave me quite a few details on the background of Zhou’s speech. Since last year, the Beijing authorities have been talking about needing to curb the housing prices for the sake of harmony in our socialist society. Teng thought reducing prices a little would be seen as a well-meant gesture and, at the same time, increase his company’s market share. But out of the blue, Zhou targeted Green Earth as a troublemaker who was damaging market stability. Teng was in a tight spot. While other developers saw him as a greedy suck-up looking to curry favor with the Beijing authorities, the city government actually pressured him to back off.”
“Well, I remember reading in the People’s Daily just last week that it’s a top priority to ensure that ordinary people are able to buy property.”
“Teng put it well. The People’s Daily is in Beijing, but Zhou represented the interests of the Shanghai government. What’s more, there’s also a personal reason Zhou had for targeting him.”
“A personal reason?”
“Teng’s project is located not far from one being developed by Zhou’s cousin, or under his cousin’s name. So Teng’s proposal to reduce prices posed a threat to the profitability of Zhou’s or his family’s project.”
“Does Teng have an alibi?”
“He wasn’t in Shanghai that night, but he’s well connected, both in the white way and the black way.”
“I see,” Chen said. The white way referred to the aboveground—or legal—connections, and the black way to the criminal, such as triads or gangsters. Chen understood why Wei brought up the two ways here. “But Zhou was already shuangguied. Do you think Teng would take such a risk as to kill him at the hotel?”