A Case of Two Cities

Xing and his associates in China, particularly in the last few days, that Yu could tell. Many calls had been made, only most of the details were couched in triad jargon. There were names he had seen or heard before, some of them Chen had given him earlier, including Jiang and Dong. The context surrounding their names remained far from clear, except that they still had contact with Xing one way or another.
     
    Then Yu got the call from China Airline. Jiang’s name didn’t appear on the list. It wasn’t exactly high season yet; people could get a ticket one or two days beforehand.
     
    Lighting a cigarette, he read the transcript more closely. All of a sudden, he alighted on a name: Weici.
     
    Weici was an extremely rare family name. Yu had heard of it only once, in a Tang dynasty story. He had not met anyone with such a family name. But at Apricot Blossom Village, the club to which An’s phone calls had led him, the general manager was surnamed Weici. So he reread the part containing the name, which happened to be in connection with Ming. He found the name of Weici was mentioned on three occasions.
     
    “I have just learned, Xing. Weici is a man. Your little brother should be fine there,” someone said to Xing, possibly in response to his inquiry about the whereabouts of the “little boy.”
     
    “If you persist on going with me,” Yu said reluctantly, “you have to let me do the talking there.”
     
    “That will be fine. In a Suzhou opera, one plays the red face, and the other plays the white face. I am quite content with a white face role. It’s settled. Let us go.”
     
    “I’ll call Little Zhou first. He’s reliable,” Yu said. “In the meantime, let’s finish the tea and discuss our tactics.”
     
    Little Zhou, a driver at the Shanghai police bureau, soon came over to the teahouse, leaving his car parked outside.
     
    “Both you and I are Chief Inspector Chen’s men,” Little Zhou declared at once. “You have never used my car. You say it’s for Chen this afternoon. And you don’t have to say more. It is a Mercedes, the best car of our bureau. No one knows I am here.”
     
    They arrived at the club around three o’clock.
     
    A hostess walked over to them. Yu recognized her as the one he had met. Handing his business card to her, he said, “Take us to your general manager Weici.”
     
    They were led into a spacious office. Weici was a stout man in his mid-fifties, with success and confidence written on his face in spite of the heavy bags sagging under his eyes. He was taken aback by Detective Yu’s visit.
     
    “So tell us where Ming is,” Yu said, having made clear the purpose of the visit, and produced the authorization on the Party Discipline Committee letterhead. “As you can clearly see, it is an investigation under the committee.”
     
    “I don’t know what you are talking about, Officer Yu,” Weici said, taking a glance at the document. “I don’t know anything about Xing’s smuggling business, nor anything about Ming. It’s the first time that I’ve heard that he is Xing’s half brother. Before their sudden disappearance, they had a couple of parties at my club. At the time, however, they were ordinary customers like so many others. I wish I knew the whereabouts of Ming. They still owe me a large amount.”
     
    “You are a clever man, Mr. Weici. It’s a highly sensitive case and there’s no point in getting negative publicity for your club because of an official investigation,” Yu said, producing the phone transcript. “Now, let me show you something else. The dates and the contents are all underlined in the transcript. The calls are from Xing in the United States. Undeniable evidence. Chief Inspector Chen is coming back with more.”
     
    “What’s that?” Wei studied the lines in the transcript. “You call that evidence, Officer Yu? You must be kidding. Xing has many little brothers, if that is what “little boy” means. One of them might have visited the club. As for the calls to my office, for all I know, it could be about the money he owes me.”
     
    “You can go on talking like that, Mr. Weici, but then we’ll have to move you to our bureau to continue the conversation,” Yu said. “It will be reported in newspapers tomorrow, I’ll make sure of it. I don’t think too many people will come to a place involved in China’s number-one corruption case. It’s going to be a long and thorough investigation under the Party Discipline