Don’t Cry, Tai Lake

though, I’ve no idea. I told Internal Security about all that.”
    “Can you give us any more details?” Huang cut in. “Particularly, anything in connection with the night Liu was murdered.”
    “Jiang called two or three days before the night Liu died, I think, but other than insisting on speaking to Liu, he didn’t say anything to me. That’s about all I know. And—” She cleared her voice before going on. “And as I told the police, Liu mentioned that morning he was going to see someone on some unpleasant business.”
    “Did he say when or where?”
    “No, not that I remember.”
    “And who?”
    “No, no names were mentioned either.” She added, “Oh, but two or three months ago, I saw Jiang arguing with Liu in his office.”
    “His office here at the plant?”
    “Yes, the inside office.”
    “What were they arguing about?”
    “They stopped talking the moment I stepped in, but I caught a word or two. It was, I think, about pollution.”
    “Do you remember the date?”
    “It was March, early March,” she said. “It was the day before the Women’s Day. Yes, now I recall…”
    At that moment, a tall man burst into the outer office, greeting Huang in a loud voice.
    “Hello, Comrade Officer Huang. What wind brings you over here again today?”
    “Hello, General Manager Fu.”
    “It’s only Acting General Manager for the moment. Please just call me Fu. And this is…”
    “Chen, my colleague,” Huang said.
    “Welcome. Come into my office.”
    “Thank you, General Manager Fu,” Chen said. He then turned back to Mi. “We might come back to you if we have more questions. If you think of anything, please call us—or rather, call Sergeant Huang.”
    Huang and Chen then turned and followed Fu into the inner office. Fu motioned for them to sit on two leather chairs opposite his oak desk. The wall behind the desk exhibited a striking array of framed awards, with Liu’s name on most of them, but under the glass on the desk, Huang saw several pictures of Fu.
    “Is that Bund Park?” Chen asked unexpectedly, indicating a picture of Fu standing in front of the park, his hand pointing proudly to the river.
    “Yes, I came from Shanghai.”
    “So, do you go back there frequently?”
    “I went back last Saturday, and I’m going there again this weekend. Nowadays, it’s so convenient to go back and visit. It’s only one hour by the new high-speed train. That is a picture I took two weeks ago.”
    “You know what we’re here for, General Manager Fu,” Chen said, moving on to the heart of the matter.
    “Yes. We need to get justice for Liu. He worked really hard and did a great job turning around the company. We owe our success to him, and we will never change the course that Liu charted out for us. We will, of course, cooperate with your investigation in every way possible.”
    Fu spoke about Liu in a respectful and quite grateful way, as a young successor should, though his words were fulsome and couched in official language.
    “We were just talking to Mi about Jiang,” Chen said, coming straight to the point. “Can you tell us something about him?”
    “Not much, I’m afraid. Jiang talked to Liu, not to me.”
    “So you knew about his contacts with Liu.”
    “Well, I saw him talking with Liu in the office one day, but as a matter of fact, I didn’t even know at the time that his name was Jiang. Mi filled me in afterward.”
    “Did Liu tell you anything about Jiang’s threat to expose the company’s industrial pollution problem?”
    “Now, let me first say something about this so-called pollution, Officer Chen. There is a city environmental protection office in Wuxi. They have checked and double-checked our production procedure. Our samples have always proven to be up to the state standard,” Fu said with a serious look on his face. “Liu’s job was an extremely difficult one. In today’s market, it’s not easy for a state-run factory to survive, let alone to succeed. But Liu was successful, and it was no real surprise that he became a target for cold-blooded criminals like Jiang and other irresponsible critics who know nothing about our industry.”
    “We understand all this, Comrade Acting General Manager Fu,” Chen said. “And we’ve spoken to Mrs. Liu too.”
    “Really! That’s good. Considering Liu’s contribution to the company, we’re going to offer his family an adequate sum. In addition, there will be a position for Mrs. Liu—that is, if she wants to