Don’t Cry, Tai Lake

“Sergeant Huang and I are going to have lunch at the center canteen. So you may take your time thinking things through. It wouldn’t be a good idea for you to leave, but if you want anything for lunch, I can bring it back for you.”
    “Our chief inspector is a very considerate man,” Huang said.
    “When I come back, I think we’ll have a good talk. I may be able to do something for you. I hate to see a beauty like you punished for what you haven’t done.”
    Chen picked up his business card and added a number on it. “It’s my cell number. Call me any time you think of something.”
    Pushing the card over to her, Chen stood up quickly and Huang followed suit. The sudden exit for lunch was just the latest in surprises for the young cop.
    Mi was already visibly shaken, and she might have collapsed if Chen had continued to build up the pressure.
    “But why, Chief Inspector Chen?” she repeated, unable to control an involuntary twitch at the corner of her mouth.
    “You are a clever woman, Mi,” Chen said, looking over his shoulder before he stepped out the door with Huang. “Use your brains. And you can find out for yourself whether what I’ve told you is true.”

TWENTY-TWO
    CHEN WALKED OUT OF the villa with Huang.
    Instead of to the center canteen as he had told Mi, however, he led Huang around to a small bamboo grove close to the foot of the wooded hill, where they had a partial view of the white villa through the green bamboo. They seated themselves on rocks, around which patches of new tender bamboo shoots appeared golden in the sunlight.
    “The center is a nice place, isn’t it?” Chen said, reading the question in Huang’s eyes. “Don’t worry, Huang. I don’t think she’ll attempt to sneak out. Nor will the guard let her.”
    “How did you come to suspect her, Chief Inspector Chen?”
    “Remember our discussion at the crime scene? That was the first time I started to have questions about her.”
    “Yes, you made several good points about the crime scene, but you didn’t mention her at all.”
    “I wasn’t sure about those questions. Internal Security then came up with their scenario, so I tried to fit Jiang into it, but without success. I was confounded by the lack of any sign of struggle at the crime scene. It appeared as though Liu had been killed, peacefully, in his sleep. Of course, there’s no ruling out the possibility that Liu was asleep, given the time of night. But according to the scenario put forward by Internal Security, Liu was supposed to have had a serious showdown with a blackmailer. How could Liu have fallen asleep? And if so, how could Jiang have gotten in?”
    “But for the sake of argument, what about Jiang sneaking in after Liu happened to leave the door open—” Huang didn’t finish the sentence, as it sounded like too many coincidences even to himself.
    “Even in that scenario, the killing would have happened after the argument—after they confronted each other, not before.”
    “No, not before.”
    “Then another related detail came to my attention. Mi mentioned that Liu had trouble falling asleep, so he took sleeping pills. This was confirmed by the autopsy report. I checked with Mrs. Liu, who said he took them occasionally. Then I looked more closely into it, and I found something else that was incomprehensible. According to the autopsy and the estimated time of Liu’s death, which was nine thirty to ten thirty in the evening, he had to have taken the pills before then. But I couldn’t imagine that he would have taken sleeping pills prior to Jiang’s arrival or while he was there.”
    “That’s a brilliant deduction, Chief.”
    “Now let’s leave these questions aside and go back and follow the scenario maintained by Internal Security a bit further. Liu didn’t have any evidence to prove that Jiang had tried to blackmail him—there was nothing in the folder provided by Internal Security. So it would have been his word against Jiang’s. On the other hand, Jiang had all the research to back up his claims, as well as his media connections. Was Liu going to take a risk by letting Jiang go public with his information? It was a critical moment for Liu and his IPO plan. Once word about the company’s disastrous pollution problem had spread, the local authorities would have been under pressure to investigate the accusations. And that would have totally ruined their business prospects.”
    “That’s true. Liu was too shrewd a