Chapter 2

I went to see the traffic officer who had handled that case. He promptly cleared up my doubts.

First, there had been nothing unusual at the crash scene. The subsequent investigation had found no sign of insurance fraud.

Second, the court had scrutinized the motor policy. Its final judgment was fair and lawful.

I hurried back to the criminal investigation unit and told Captain Xu everything.

"So it was him?" he said. "You hadn't joined us then. It was a famous case. I knew the broad outline, of course... But it doesn't seem to have much to do with this crash, does it?"

My thinking was different.

"The two incidents are so close together. That little household received 1.11 million yuan not long ago. What could cost so much that now they want to trade the husband's life for more money?"

He fell silent. He couldn't account for it either.

After some thought, he told me to keep tracing their finances. See whether drugs, gambling, or anything similar was involved.

The number used to call the insurer had been traced to a public telephone. Captain Xu planned to obtain the CCTV footage from the public security unit.

After thinking it over, I picked up my phone and asked Xu Xiaofeng to come in.

Some things had to be asked face-to-face.

In the interview room, I first adopted a sympathetic manner, gently reassuring her. Then I asked how she had met Zhang Mingxiang.

They had originally known each other online. Both played the same mobile game.

In May 2015, the game held a local offline gathering. They met there, quickly began dating, moved in together, and registered their marriage. They hadn't even held a wedding.

Three months from first meeting to marriage.

That was certainly unusual.

But she said he was exactly her type. He wasn't educated or wealthy, but he was funny, athletic, and knew how to make a girl happy.

I had obtained his file after the incident and seen his photograph. For a thirty-year-old truck driver, he was indeed quite handsome.

The second reason was that Xu Xiaofeng's own circumstances were poor.

She had been born into a family that valued sons over daughters and abandoned at birth. A distant aunt had fortunately adopted her.

But poverty had left her with little schooling.

When her aunt died, she had no one to rely on. Aside from casual work, she spent her days playing games on her phone.

Zhang Mingxiang had been a ray of light in that dull life.

At least, that was how she described him.

Finally, I raised an important point.

Their son.

Once we established that they had met only in May 2015, an obvious problem emerged. How could their son have been born in January 2016?

Clearly, he wasn't their child together. He was hers and another man's.

She tearfully explained that a terrible man had got her pregnant before. But Zhang Mingxiang had known.

That surprised me.

Precisely because he hadn't rejected her, she said, she used the word "light" to describe him.

I kept comforting her.

Once she was calmer, I brought up the tragedy a year earlier, when Zhang Mingxiang had run over her son.

She paused.

"It was... an accident."

But a faint, almost imperceptible light flickered in her eyes.

I thought I might have guessed something. I couldn't be sure.

I asked about their finances and expenditure. Her answers were rather offhand.

Now I knew where the compensation for Zhang Lijun's death had gone.

They had bought an apartment in the county town. It hadn't been handed over yet, so they still lived in the village.

No gambling, prostitution, or drugs. Zhang Mingxiang had simply gone and bought a home?

Strange.

I had no evidence. Calling her in gave me a chance to question her, nothing more.

Once I had asked what I could, I let her go.

Before watching the CCTV with Captain Xu, I told him how the interview had gone.

He didn't seem impressed.

"That's all? A few scraps of information, and a suspicion that she knows her son's death wasn't an accident?"

My point was this.

"If Xu Xiaofeng is a suspect because she benefits directly from this case, isn't it equally reasonable to suspect Zhang Mingxiang, who benefited from Zhang Lijun's death?"

He leaned back with a look that said, Go on.

"We've established that Zhang Lijun wasn't his biological son. In other words, he traded Xu Xiaofeng's own flesh and blood for a million yuan. Right?"

Captain Xu sat up, his eyes widening.

I continued my theory.

"What if that tragedy a year ago really wasn't an accident? What if Zhang Mingxiang caused it for the money? If she found out, wouldn't she hate him?"

Captain Xu slapped his thigh.

"Then it wasn't just money. She wanted revenge for her child!"

"Perhaps money was never her motive. She simply wanted him dead. But she needed help. She couldn't arrange a crash and burn the truck like that alone. My guess is that the caller is her accomplice. Once the insurance pays, she gives him a share. Like hiring a killer. He probably knows both of them. In plain terms, he's one of their mobile-gaming friends."

"I don't know about any little gaming group," Captain Xu said quickly. "But the caller was covered up, with a cap and mask. I've asked the technicians to check cameras along other roads and see if we can pick him up elsewhere..."

"No need. Just get me a still. I'll find him."

I took on the job with complete confidence.

If my theory was right, the case wasn't so astonishing.

Becoming a father to another man's child against one's will. Killing the child for insurance money. Killing a husband for revenge. All comprehensible enough.

Reality, however, had surprises no one could anticipate.

It was more disturbing than anything I could imagine.

I took the still to several men and women in the gaming group.

Although the caller's face was completely obscured, every one of them recognized something.

They had seen a friend named Xie Jintao wearing those clothes.

And that cap.

At last, we had a suspect.

They also confirmed that Xie Jintao was indeed friends with both spouses.

More than that: he had introduced them.

He was the matchmaker behind their marriage.

He was very close to the couple, especially Xu Xiaofeng. He practically treated her as his own sister.

That indirectly supported my theory.

He might well have helped her take revenge and defraud the insurer.

Perhaps even introducing them had served a purpose.

Finding a stand-in.

I went so far as to suspect that he was her lover.

This might be a major case involving a fraudulent marriage, adultery, the murder of a husband, and a huge insurance claim.

Why else would he call the insurer?

I was eager to meet him.

Then Captain Xu rang.

"Found anything? Xu Xiaofeng has called asking to arrange her husband's funeral as soon as possible. We're running out of time."

Only then did I remember that we hadn't even formally opened a criminal case.

There were signs of insurance fraud, but we had no actual evidence. Most of it was our own conjecture.

The manufacturer's opinions were also subjective. The proposed third-party examination had made no real progress.

Perhaps the manufacturer was merely refusing to admit fault. Perhaps an actual fuel leak had caused the fire, and they were delaying matters to keep reporters away.

We couldn't rely on them.

I told Captain Xu I had identified Xie Jintao. His only response was, "Then get moving. Get something out of him so we can proceed. Otherwise this will go nowhere."

I hung up and called Xie Jintao. Once I knew where he lived, I arranged to see him at once.

He sounded hesitant, as though he hadn't woken up properly. When he learned who I was, he grew even more flustered and tongue-tied.

That made me more suspicious.

He lived in a new apartment complex in the county town. It was a good development, reportedly selling for seven to eight thousand yuan per square meter. The best layouts approached ten thousand.

For a backwater county like ours, that was the very top of the market.

When I arrived, I found he lived alone in a three-bedroom apartment with a living room.

A man with money.

Without preamble, I showed him the photograph and asked whether he had made the call.

His face drained. He repeatedly denied it.

I told him that several friends could testify that these were clothes and a cap he often wore.

But he seemed to know how little that testimony was worth.

Because his answer was—