Shanghai Redemption

TWENTY-ONE

DETECTIVE YU STARTED HIS day on a busy note.

It had begun with a routine phone call about a body discovered at a construction site in Fengxian. While there did happen to be an unsolved missing person case that the squad was working on, that didn’t necessarily mean that Yu had to go himself and check out the body. A couple of digital photos would be enough for an initial evaluation. He listened, barely catching all the details about the body: it had been found in nothing but boxers, in an advanced state of decay, with practically nothing to identify it with except for a tattoo on the lower belly, a blue dragon interwoven with someone’s name-

At the mention of the tattoo, Yu jumped back as if someone had cracked a knuckle on his forehead. After he took that detail in, Yu decided not to mention it to his young assistant but instead said, “Xiao Yang, let’s go and take a look.”

The description given to him over the phone reminded him of something he’d learned in a recent interview. It might be a long shot, but it wouldn’t hurt to follow up, especially since there were hardly any other steps for him to take in the case at that point.

So he found himself in a police department jeep, sitting beside Xiao Yang, who was excited to going to his first real crime scene. It was appropriate to Yu’s new position as head of the squad that he’d been assigned an assistant, but it had been arranged by Party Secretary Li.

Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the construction site in question. Fengxian, originally mainly farmland, had been recently upgraded to a district and was in the process of being transformed into an urban center. A number of college campuses had been moved to Fengxian from other areas of the city, and there were numerous housing development projects, like everywhere else in Shanghai. The construction site had been a rice paddy field just about a year ago. Yu thought he could still see a narrow stretch of rice paddy not too far away.

“This all happened because of an accident,” said the local cop on the scene. He’d come over to greet Yu and Xiao Yang. “The tower crane here collapsed, breaking its heavy arm in a dirt-covered pond. According to the development plan, the pond is to be completely drained, and a parking garage built on that site. When the workers were clearing away the broken crane, they found the body. It had been buried under a layer of dirt, and if it weren’t for the accident, it might not have been discovered for months, or even years.”

Had the body not been discovered, Yu reflected, soon there would be nothing left for anyone to identify the body with.

Before the local cop finished his report, Yu was fairly sure that this would not turn out to be a natural death or a suicide. At the very least, the deceased could not have buried himself under a layer of dirt.

The degree of the decay indicated that he had been dead for a while. In spite of the strong stench, Yu squatted down next to the body and examined it himself. The tattoo on the lower belly was blurry. The blue dragon was still recognizable, but the two characters intertwined in the figure, possibly someone’s name, were barely readable.

“The poor man, he must have been smitten with her,” Xiao Yang said, partially covering his nose with his hand. “Some women would have fled at the sight of a tattoo like that.”

“Well, if he was rich and high-ranking enough, tattoo or not, some women would have hung on to him-” Yu cut himself short, turning to the local cop. “Was anything else found at the scene?”

“No, nothing else was found. The preliminary examination of the body showed multiple fractures on the skull. Possibly inflicted by a blunt object.”

“So the body must have been moved here,” Xiao Yang chipped in. “The killer didn’t want the body to be discovered anytime soon.”

“That seems likely,” Yu said. “But let’s wait to hear what the autopsy turns up.”

Yu started taking pictures, including several close-ups of the tattoo. Xiao Yang looked on, rubbing his hands in excitement.

The forensic team showed up at the scene shortly thereafter. Yu told his assistant to stay with them. They wouldn’t have a detailed report ready anytime soon, but the young policeman might learn something from watching the team.

“I’m going to check on something else,” Yu added. “I’ll take the jeep and be back at the bureau later.”

It felt different being in charge of the squad and not merely Chief Inspector Chen’s partner. He’d been Chen’s second-in-command for so long, that he’d almost taken it for granted. Now he had to make his own calls.

This was a case assigned to the squad, and it was Yu’s decision whether or not to take the plunge. If the corpse was indeed Liang, it would stir up another storm on the Internet. A corrupt official exposed on the Internet had been murdered. Interpretations and speculations would inundate the Internet and the city in no time. That would probably put more pressure on the authorities. One result of the extra pressure on Shanghai authorities would be that Chen might be able to take a breath. In the Art of War, it was a stratagem called “Come to the rescue of the State of Zhao by surrounding the State of Wei.”

Whatever scenario unfolded, Yu saw nothing wrong with investigating further, except that he might have to face a backlash someday, just like Chen.

He set out to visit Wei without calling ahead. Her reaction, if he caught her off guard, could be revealing.

Wei lived in a Western-style condo on a quiet residential lane off Wulumuqi Road. A couple of blocks before the lane, he stopped at a convenience store that offered instant printing and had the pictures printed.

As luck would have it, Wei was at home and alone. She opened the door, surprised to see him. She led him to the living room and waved him over to the leather couch. The room itself was somber, with the curtains drawn over the windows, blocking out the light. Wei looked pale, even haggard, and her eyelids were slightly swollen. Despite the hour, she was still wearing a violet pajama top and pants.

As soon as she sat down in a chair opposite Yu, he got straight to the point by laying the pictures out on the coffee table.

“A body was found this morning, Wei. In Fengxian. Here are the pictures.”

She jumped up, snatched the photos, and looked at them closely. She reeled, lurching back a step or two. Her face bleached of color, and she reached out and grabbed the wall. One of her slippers fell off her foot. A vacant look rose in her eyes.

It was Liang. She didn’t have to confirm it with words.

Despite her reaction, Yu had a feeling that it hadn’t come as a total surprise to her.

“Was he murdered?” she asked, her teeth biting deep into the lower lip.

“His body was moved to a construction site and buried under a thick layer of dirt and construction waste. It took more than one man-along with tools-to do the job. It was probably murder, most likely premeditated.”

“Who?”

“As of yet, no clue.” He added tentatively, “It’s possible they were professionals working for someone high up.”

“But why? He had already been lynched on the Internet,” she said, slumping back into her chair. She didn’t bother trying to retrieve the lost slipper, her bare toes digging into the soft carpet.

“As for motive, my best guess is a coverup of some sort. A dead man can’t speak out.”

“You think so too?”

It was a rhetorical question, and it didn’t require him to respond. It was obviously an ending she’d contemplated, perhaps expected, even before she saw the pictures.

Were there details-a lot of them-that she hadn’t told him?

“It’s a coverup of something much larger than we know,” he said, sort of repeating himself.

There was no immediate response from her.

“Where is his body?” she asked instead. “I want to…”

“That can be arranged. I’ll call the forensic people, and I’ll let you know.” He added, “As you’ve seen in the pictures, the body is badly decayed. If it weren’t for the tattoo, I wouldn’t have guessed it was Liang.”

“The tattoo is still recognizable, right?”

It was another rhetorical question. There was a distinct tremor in her voice. Could it have been a crime of passion? Perhaps there was a secret rival for her affection-someone who had seized the opportunity to get rid of Liang while he was bogged down by the scandal. If it hadn’t been for the crane accident, Liang would have simply “disappeared” because of the scandal. If so, she might have known or guessed something.

That would explain the worry she had displayed during the previous interview.

“I’m so sorry about your loss, Wei. The detailed forensic report won’t come out until tomorrow,” Yu said, standing up. “If you want, I can arrange for you to see the body, but right now I’ve got to rush back to the bureau. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Yes, please do,” she said, walking him to the door.

“Just one more question,” he said, turning over his shoulder. “Has anybody contacted you about Liang?”

“Anybody? No, no one except some business associates who didn’t even know he was in trouble.”

To his surprise, she took out a business card and jotted something on the back of it. “Please call me on this cell number, Detective Yu.”

She was worried for some reason. What that reason might be, Detective Yu hadn’t the slightest idea.

On the way back to the bureau, he got a phone call from Peiqin.

“When are you coming home?”

“Probably around six thirty, as usual.”

“That’s fine. Be back as early as possible. I need to talk to you about something,” Peiqin said, hanging up.

From the way she spoke, it was probably something about Chen.

What had he done so far for the ex-chief inspector? Yu thought with a sinking heart.

He pulled off and stopped at the side of road to call a reporter for the Wenhui Daily who had contacted him earlier about the Liang case. Yu would reveal the latest news about the body-that it had now been positively identified as Liang-before reporting back to Party Secretary Li. Li might have vetoed releasing the information as not being in the best interests of the Party. This work-around was one of the things he’d learned from Chen.