Chapter 3

"No, officer, it really wasn't me. People wear the same clothes all the time, don't they? Besides, when and where was that photograph taken?"

I gave him the date and time.

Something had already struck me as odd: the instant he opened his mouth, he asked when and where.

Sure enough, it wasn't an idle question.

"I was at work that day. The company's time clock can prove it!"

Well, now.

Someone who didn't know what I was asking about wouldn't be so quick to establish his innocence.

I had only shown him a photograph. I hadn't even said what the person in it had done.

In fact, the man in the picture hadn't done anything at all. He was simply a lead.

This fellow was certainly hiding something.

So I asked another question.

"Good. I believe you. But I need your cooperation with something. Could you show me those clothes and that cap?"

He froze.

Several seconds passed before he stammered, "Oh... those clothes... they were old... I... I threw them all away..."

Watching him, I made up my mind.

He was getting nervous.

From his anxious manner on the phone, to the ready-made alibi, to this stunned confusion...

Something was definitely wrong.

After leaving, I immediately asked colleagues to check the property registered to Xie Jintao and Xu Xiaofeng.

As expected, there was a problem there too.

As I mentioned, Zhang Mingxiang and his wife had supposedly used the insurance payout from their "son's" death to buy a home. They still lived in the village because it hadn't been handed over.

But the checks found no commercial apartment registered to either spouse. Their village house stood on a rural residential plot.

Xie Jintao's apartment was in his own name.

He also seemed to have just put it up for sale.

Had I been a little slower, perhaps there would have been no property left in his name to find.

It all connected.

His work and income couldn't have paid for an apartment like that.

This apartment might well be that apartment.

Perhaps there had never been a home belonging to Zhang Mingxiang and Xu Xiaofeng.

Only Xie Jintao's.

Or perhaps...

Xie Jintao and Xu Xiaofeng's.

There was a strong possibility of a relationship they couldn't let anyone discover.

Even if he hadn't personally called the insurer, the caller must be his accomplice. That was no longer the most important point.

Xu Xiaofeng should be our way in.

Armed with the information about him, his apartment, and the other leads, I believed a little more pressure would make her confess.

I returned to the unit and asked her to come in a second time. It wasn't a formal criminal summons, but she was cooperative and said she'd come immediately.

First, I laid everything out for Captain Xu, including my theory.

Perhaps the insurance money Zhang Mingxiang had obtained by "killing his son" hadn't been in his hands at all.

Perhaps Xu Xiaofeng controlled it.

And perhaps it had become Xie Jintao's apartment, because the two of them had been involved for some time.

I even suspected that the "bastard" she had mentioned—the child's biological father—might be Xie Jintao.

Seen that way, perhaps Zhang Lijun's killer wasn't the driver, Zhang Mingxiang, but Xu Xiaofeng, who had placed him in the walker.

He had been only seven months old. Children ordinarily couldn't stand steadily until around nine months. Wasn't seven months too early for a walker?

If so, Zhang Mingxiang's crash might also have been a prearranged insurance scam.

I wanted Captain Xu to help me get the truth out of her.

He listened in silence, apparently considering something.

In the end, he agreed to interview her with me.

The result was nothing like what I'd hoped.

Xu Xiaofeng insisted she knew nothing.

Asked where Zhang Lijun's insurance money had gone, she said her husband handled all major spending. She trusted him and never asked.

She was even more surprised when I raised the apartment. He had arranged the purchase himself. She genuinely believed they owned a home.

She took out her phone and showed us the purchase contracts.

I sent them to colleagues for checking.

They soon found the problem.

The development existed. The building and apartment numbers did not.

It was a false contract. Neither spouse had any registered ownership.

She looked utterly bewildered. Such fine acting, as though she really knew nothing.

When she still wouldn't talk, I asked directly, "And Xie Jintao? What do you think of him?"

If they really were involved, that should have been a bombshell.

Once again, she disappointed me.

She barely registered the question. All her emotion was focused on the apartment.

"Impossible! He wouldn't lie to me! Officer, could you check again? Please check the apartment again. There must be a mistake. He said he'd give me a home..."

Still worrying about the apartment?

"Xie Jintao owns an apartment. Didn't you know?"

She looked even more confused.

"Xie Jintao... What does his apartment have to do with ours?"

What did it have to do with it?

I almost blurted out, Isn't his apartment yours too?

But Captain Xu, who had remained silent, suddenly stood, seized my shoulder, and said, "Come outside."

"What's wrong?"

He dragged me out. Once the interview-room door was closed, he glared at me.

"What the hell was that? Can't you tell something's wrong with you?"

"With me?"

"You haven't found a shred of evidence, but you're acting as though she's already the killer. What's your problem?"

"What?"

I was taken aback.

"Do you have a grudge against Xu Xiaofeng?"

I shook my head hastily.

"No. Absolutely not."

But wasn't my reasoning perfectly sound?

I had no hard evidence, granted, but I'd found all sorts of suspicious details.

"Didn't you start by unconsciously assuming she was having an affair? Then use that assumption to look for a lover, and arrive at Xie Jintao? Leave aside whether he's involved. Can't you see the serious flaw in your approach?"

I was more bewildered than ever.

Because I genuinely couldn't.

"For fuck's sake... I'm telling you seriously. In this work, you cannot let personal feelings or emotions interfere. Especially that thing of yours—extreme male chauvinism. Yes, Zhang Mingxiang's death is suspicious. That doesn't give you the right to turn around and pin it on his wife! How is that any different from the people who turn the police, prosecutors, and courts into 'agencies that only protect women'?"

I shrank back and kept quiet.

Perhaps, underneath it all, I had done exactly what he accused me of.

"Set your prejudice aside. Think about the biggest question we started with: Xu Xiaofeng identified her husband's body from a belt buckle. What's the likeliest explanation?"

"Insurance fraud."

"No. There's certainly insurance fraud. But someone had to help her stage the crash. Who is the likeliest person?"

That question had been there from the start.

My answer had been "her lover."

I didn't know her at all. I knew nothing about her character. Yet I had unconsciously decided she was unfaithful.

It was prejudice.

Putting it aside, I went carefully over the crash again.

A body so badly charred that DNA testing was impossible.

A manufacturer swearing their truck couldn't leak fuel and burn like that...

Suddenly, I understood.

"Zhang Mingxiang helped her? The body isn't his?"

"Isn't that another possibility supported by evidence, apart from 'Xu Xiaofeng has a lover'?"

I could only nod stupidly.

"I've already asked people to investigate. Calm down and think about yourself. I have more questions for her. Stay out."

He called another colleague and went back into the interview room.

I had to admit it: after his rebuke, many earlier clues suddenly fell into place.

If Zhang Mingxiang wasn't dead, if he had planned to fake his death for the insurance...

Perhaps the caller wasn't anyone else.

Perhaps it was Zhang Mingxiang himself.

Xie Jintao had offered proof that he'd been at work when the insurer received the call.

I had called his workplace to confirm it.

But why had Zhang Mingxiang worn his clothes?

Were all three of them involved?

I thought back over my meeting with Xie Jintao.

Nervous on the phone. An immediate alibi in person. Then one casual question had left him helplessly confused.

Perhaps he had consulted someone after hanging up. Perhaps that person had told him to offer the alibi.

Was that person Zhang Mingxiang?

No.

There was something more important.

If Zhang Mingxiang wasn't dead, who was?