Chapter 4

Dr. Zhong took out a file and handed it to us.

Her name was Xie Miaomiao. Born in 1987, reported missing in 2009.

She had been twenty-two when she disappeared, a senior at a university. There was even a photograph in the file.

The young woman in it looked sweet and innocent.

According to her family, the last thing she had told them was that she was going to an education company to interview for an internship.

But the company didn't exist.

Clearly, someone had lured her in with a fake job interview.

The sample used for the kinship test came from her mother's hair follicles.

But that left one question.

Who had provided all this?

Dr. Zhong insisted:

“Your criminal investigation unit sent it.”

Our unit?

Several officers were still working late. We asked them one by one, but none of them knew anything about it.

We were about to call the others too. This was genuinely strange.

And the strange things kept coming.

I'd only made a few calls when Xu suddenly slammed his hand on the desk again.

“Zhou Yongdong's been released?”

Under the law, we could hold him for no more than fourteen days to assist with the investigation.

We had never intended to let him go until we were absolutely certain he had nothing to do with it.

The body had been found in his own house, after all.

Even if he wasn't the killer, we still needed to know why the killer had hidden her there, and whether the two men were connected.

So when Xu found the release notification from the detention staff on his desk, he was immediately alarmed.

He grabbed the phone and called the detention center. I hurried over.

“Captain Li, it's Xu. Tell me something—has Zhou Yongdong been released?”

The voice on the other end dropped.

“Didn't you sign the release yourself?”

I knew at once that something was wrong and signaled to Xu.

He caught on, gave a quick laugh, and said:

“Of course I signed it. I only wanted to ask who brought the paperwork over. I had some other important documents in that file, and now I can't find them. I may need to ask whoever delivered it...”

The excuse was clumsy, but Captain Li understood enough not to pursue it.

“It was Zhao Jun. Ask him yourself, Xu. And ask him properly. I don't want to hear about anything else.”

“All right. Thank you.”

Xu hung up, frowning.

“Where is that little bastard?”

9

Zhao Jun was still working at the unit. He hadn't gone home.

The moment he heard Xu's angry voice, he knew he'd been found out.

I deliberately opened a meeting room, brought Xu inside, and called Zhao in.

Xu didn't waste any time.

“Talk! What's going on? Why did you release Zhou Yongdong? Do you realize how serious a breach of procedure this is?”

I'd started thinking as soon as I heard Zhao's name.

He wasn't one of the principal investigators on this case. He had other work on his hands.

But he had helped me take a statement from the man who had discovered the body in the jar.

Li Shihao.

That gave him a direct connection.

“Zhao Jun,” I asked quickly, “you supplied the information Dr. Zhong received too, didn't you?”

He nodded without speaking.

Li Shihao had given him those documents.

Li hadn't been traveling around taking photographs at all.

He had gone there specifically to find the body.

He might well be one of Xie Miaomiao's relatives.

If that was true, there could only be one reason for releasing Yongdong.

Revenge.

I jumped to my feet.

“Where is Zhou Yongdong now? Where's Li Shihao?”

Even Xu was startled by my reaction.

I was frantic.

Because I didn't think releasing Yongdong had been intended to help him.

It was intended to help Li.

To let Li kill him himself.

Zhao still wouldn't speak.

“Maybe you don't understand,” I urged. “Zhou Yongdong probably isn't the killer. He isn't the killer!”

At last, Zhao answered.

But not with agreement.

“Who says he isn't? I showed him Xie Miaomiao's photograph. He was scared stiff!”

I hadn't expected that.

But it wasn't the most urgent problem.

We had to stop Li from taking revenge.

“Even if he is the killer, you have to let us handle it! Otherwise, what are we here for?”

Zhao asked a question I couldn't answer.

“And if we can't find any evidence? What then? Tell me what we're supposed to do!”

Xu shouted:

“Evidence or no evidence, I'll find a way to deal with him! I promise you that! You can't drag someone else into this. Don't ruin his life!”

Zhao sighed.

He knew that was what he was doing.

Ruining Li Shihao's life.

“I told Zhou Yongdong to stay at the XX Hotel and not go anywhere.”

“Move!”

10

Xu and I rushed out with three other officers.

I drove while he kept calling Yongdong and Li.

Neither answered.

“Fuck. Don't tell me something's already happened.”

I pressed harder on the accelerator.

The town was small. We reached the XX Hotel in under ten minutes.

Xu took two officers inside to look for Yongdong. Another colleague and I checked the late-night food stalls downstairs.

If he wasn't answering, perhaps he was drinking.

There weren't many people on the street.

The stalls were scattered, so we had to check them one at a time.

Five minutes later, Xu called. Yongdong wasn't in the hotel. They were coming down to help us search.

I'd just hung up when I spotted a suspicious figure across the road, in the shadow of a streetlamp.

He wore black, with a mask and a baseball cap, even on a night this dark.

His eyes were fixed on the food stalls opposite.

I turned to look.

An overweight, middle-aged man was sitting at one of them.

Zhou Yongdong.

There were quite a few beer bottles on the table.

So he was drinking after all. Too drunk even to answer his phone.

That meant the man in black and the baseball cap had to be—

He suddenly ran.

I sprinted toward him on instinct, shouting:

“Stop! Li Shihao!”

He heard me.

He ran faster.

Faster than me, at least.

I was still several meters away when he reached Yongdong.

The dagger in his hand was already raised.

Only then did Yongdong look up.

At the sight of the blade, he screamed and threw himself backward.

“Ahhh!”

Li had been aiming for his throat.

But Yongdong's backward movement meant the dagger struck his shoulder instead.

Blood spattered.

He fell away from the stall.

At that instant, I lunged and brought Li down.

Yongdong clutched his shoulder, babbling in terror.

“Ah... it wasn't me! Don't kill me! It was Zhou Jianhua... him, it was him...”

Li and I hit the ground hard.

I scrambled up and pinned him down.

“Don't fucking move! Don't move!”

He really had meant to kill Yongdong.

Fortunately, he'd dropped the dagger when I tackled him.

Even so, he kept struggling.

I leaned close and spoke quietly but firmly.

“Stay still. Trust me. Don't destroy your life.”

Perhaps he only recognized my face then.

He stopped fighting.

His eyes went blank. Then, slowly, they filled with tears.

11

The others came running and took Yongdong to the emergency room to have his wound dressed.

Li came back to the unit with us.

Xu was furious. What the hell was wrong with this young man?

Why hadn't he given the police all his information from the start?

Why insist on acting alone?

Had he watched too many television dramas?

I told Xu to calm down and asked Li to tell us the whole truth.

It turned out he wasn't Xie Miaomiao's relative.