Don’t Cry, Tai Lake

still young and capable of saving a considerable sum over the next few years. Then she could start a new life for herself somewhere else and with somebody else too.”
    “That might be true. But there are some others factors to take into consideration. To begin with, she might not be able to take her position for granted, what with Liu’s son joining the company—”
    “His son was starting at the company? I’d heard he’d had an internship there last summer.”
    “It was all in Liu’s plan. Eventually, the company would go to his son, so you can imagine what that could have meant to Mi. And then there was another indirect factor—the IPO, which affected Mi through a long complicated chain of links, particularly through one hidden link with Fu. Incidentally, your efforts to identify those who might suffer as a result of the IPO are what inspired me.”
    “I’m utterly confounded,” Huang said. “How did you bring Fu into the picture?”
    “Well, you focused on business rivals who might gain from Liu’s death. I moved along a similar line, only keeping my focus on the people inside, not outside, the company. With the IPO, the company’s general manager would get the largest number of shares. The high-level executives, too, would gain tremendously. What made the situation complicated was the restructuring plan to be put in place prior to the IPO. Liu was able to do anything, including fire anyone, in the name of restructuring. Those that were fired under the restructuring plan would suffer a huge loss—they would get no shares whatsoever.
    “I should have seen it much sooner, but I wasn’t paying attention to it until I stumbled upon the date issue in Mi’s statement, which I then realized was confirmed by none other than Fu. Now, it’s possible for one person to make a mistake, but not for two to make the same mistake. What’s more, according to my source, Jiang didn’t ever come to the company offices in the month of March.”
    “So both Mi and Fu lied about Jiang in their statements!”
    “Exactly. And they also supported each other’s alibi for the night of Liu’s murder. That was when the various pieces began to come together: the alibi, the statement, and then, of course, Fu’s effort to keep secret his fiancée in Shanghai. He had reason to do so.”
    “Yes, again it’s like those stories you translate. The clues are all there, but it takes a master to connect them,” Huang said, rubbing his hands in undisguised excitement. “Why wait any longer, Chief? Let’s arrest her. It will be easy to crack a woman like her.”
    “Let’s wait a little longer. There’s no hurry, Huang. As the old proverb says, we’ll flush out the snake by striking at the weeds around—”
    Chen’s cell phone rang. Flipping it open, he listened intently, saying only a few words now and then in response.
    Huang waited beside him, watching the dazzling white villa that stood on the hill like a castle in a fairy tale, wondering whether he himself was also in a story. The windows shimmered in the light.
    “That was about the phone call Mi has just made to Fu from the villa,” Chen said, closing the phone. “It’s all recorded.”
    “You had her cell phone bugged?”
    “Yes. I didn’t have time to discuss it with you. Sorry about that, Huang. It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that I pieced it all together, and I had to act at once. I had her cell phone tapped through a connection of mine—or a connection of a connection, you might say. Also, I had to have those pictures developed in a rush.”
    “You’ve moved fast, Chief.”
    It was true that Chen didn’t have the time. But more importantly, Chen didn’t say, he knew how Internal Security would have reacted if they had learned about his secret maneuvering.
    “Well, to briefly summarize her hysterical phone conversation, she accused Fu of deceiving her, of using her to get rid of Liu, and of landing her in trouble. She was shouting, cursing, and weeping at the same time. It was pretty much as I had guessed.”
    “What did he say?”
    “Not much. First he said she’s crazy, then he wanted her to calm down and not blabber anymore.”
    “But we should be able to tie things up now. That phone call, along with the perjury, is undeniable evidence.” Huang added, “I have just one question—how did the two of them get together?”
    “The phone call only proves their relationship; it doesn’t establish that they collaborated in murder. As