Wiping his mouth, Li Weidong turned to Tai Wei. "You keep eating. I'll be back in a little bit."
Li Weidong was gone for more than an hour. When he returned, it was with Fang Mu.
When they entered the room, Fang Mu continued to ask Li Weidong his most-pressing questions. "Did you find the letter? What was written on the window?"
Ignoring him, Li Weidong turned to Tai Wei and said, "Everything's been pretty much straightened out. In a moment I'll need you to sign a few forms and then you can take him back."
Fang Mu's dissatisfaction with the matter was still evident on his face, but Tai Wei gave him a glance that told him not to say anything else. He tossed Fang Mu a cigarette. Fang Mu caught it, looked over at Li Weidong, and then sat reluctantly in one of the chairs and lit the cigarette..
"So there's no problem?" Tai Wei asked Li Weidong.
"Nope. Our medical examiners worked through the night to make an autopsy of the corpse, which confirmed that the woman died of a heart-attack," Li Weidong said. "As it turned out, the old lady had a serious case of rheumatic heart disease. We found a number of rats while investigating the apartment and believe that one of them probably scared her to death. Also," he said, pointing at Fang Mu, who was sullenly smoking, "we found a train ticket and taxi cab receipt in one of his pockets. We contacted the cab driver and he remembered Fang Mu well because he had given three renminbi more than the fare. The driver confirmed the time he had dropped him off, which was over an hour after Dong Guizhi had died."
Not seeming to care that he had just been freed of suspicion, Fang Mu asked again: "What about the letter? And the marks on the window?"
Li Weidong looked at him. "We couldn't find the letter you were talking about, and as for that window, there were no marks when we checked. Take a look at this picture if you don't believe me." He took a picture out of the folder he was holding and handed it to Fang Mu.
Fang Mu studied the picture for a long time, turning it in every direction. At last, without saying a word, he placed it on the table and stared unhappily at the floor.
"Although we still don't understand why you were at the crime scene, we have determined that this was merely a coincidence," Li Weidong said. "Therefore, once we take care of a few formalities, you'll be free to go."
"It wasn't a coincidence!" Fang Mu suddenly yelled in agitation.
"Keep quiet!" Tai Wei roared. He turned to Li Weidong. "In that case, let's take care of this stuff so I can take him back."
Li Weidong nodded and left the office.
Tai Wei looked back to Fang Mu. "You want them to keep you locked up in here? If not, then the less you say, the better!"
Fang Mu didn't reply, just took a deep drag on his cigarette.
After the paperwork was finished, Tai Wei and Fang Mu were allowed to leave. While retrieving his personal belongings, Fang Mu discovered that his dagger was no longer there, and when he asked the policeman in charge, he was told that the knife had been confiscated. Finding this unacceptable, Fang Mu demanded that they return it to him, refusing to leave if they did not.
Seeing no other choice, Tai Wei went to find Li Weidong again, and at last they got the dagger back.
After politely refusing Li Weidong's invitation to get something to eat, Tai Wei took Fang Mu to the jeep and they headed back to JiangbinCity. As soon as Fang Mu was inside, he lay down in the back and fell into a gloomy sleep.
Seeing the exhausted expression on Fang Mu's face, Tai Wei sighed and turned up the heat in the jeep.
After driving for over an hour, Tai Wei saw in the rear-view mirror that Fang Mu had sat up and was drowsily licking his cracked lips.
"You're awake?" Tai Wei noted. He passed Fang Mu a half-full bottle of water.
Fang Mu emptied the bottle in one gulp. He leaned silently against the seat back and stared out the window, still dazed.
"Talk to me," Tai Wei insisted. "Why did you go to Meng Fanzhe's home?"
Fang Mu didn't immediately respond. After a while he said slowly, "Meng Fanzhe's mother called me and said that before her son's incident, he had sent her a letter. In it he mentioned my name, and said that if anything ever happened to him, she should give the letter to me."
"Oh? And what did the letter say?"
"I don't know. You heard him yourself; they didn't find it at the scene."
"Then what were those marks you were talking about?"
"When the police arrested me," Fang Mu said wearily, "I saw what appeared to be symbols written onto the window glass. But now they're gone."
"Symbols? What did they look like?"
Fang Mu thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. They didn't look Chinese. It was almost like…eh…" He thumped his head. "I just can't remember."
"Forget it; don't think too much about this," said Tai Wei as they passed a truck. "And make sure you take it easy when you get back. You're lucky the old lady's death was just an accident or I never would have gotten you out of there so fast."
"It was not an accident!"
"How is a heart-attack not an accident? Or are you saying someone killed her?"
"When I entered the apartment, the door was unlocked. Does that sound normal to you?"
"She was probably just careless, accidentally let in a few rats and then was so startled that she had a heart-attack."
"Not only was the door unlocked, the lights were all off…"
"Maybe she was about to go to sleep?" It sounded more like a question than a statement as Tai Wei said it.
"Are you wearing your daytime clothes when you turn off the lights to go to sleep?"
For a moment Tai Wei was tongue-tied. Then after thinking for a while, he said, "The old lady probably just got back and forgot to shut the door. Maybe she was feeling really tired, so she lay down on the sofa to take a nap. After sleeping for a little while, she suddenly felt something crawl across her body. So, she reached out to see what it was, discovered it was a rat, and then had a heart-attack and died." He looked back at Fang Mu in the rear-view mirror. "Well, what do you think?"
Fang Mu snorted in disbelief at the scenario. "If you don't want to believe me, fine, but don't act like I'm an idiot!"
Insulted, Tai Wei glared angrily at him in the mirror. He continued driving, not saying a word.
After the jeep traveled in silence for a while, Fang Mu suddenly asked, "While going through Meng Fanzhe's things, did you find any hospital receipts or medical records or things like that?"
"No, why do you ask?"
"Meng Fanzhe's mother said that in his letter he mentioned a doctor."
"A doctor?" Tai Wei's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "How can there be another doctor?"
"What do you mean another?" asked Fang Mu immediately.
"Um… Do you still remember the letter that Ma Kai wrote you?" He avoided Fang Mu's eyes. "In it he also mentioned a doctor."
Fang Mu lunged forward. "You read the letter?"
"I just glanced over it," Tai Wei quickly explained, shrugging. "When he gave it to me, I honestly couldn't resist taking a look at it, but before I could actually read it I was ordered to go take care of something else."
"What did it say?"
"Like I said, I only read a few sentences, but basically he was saying that he was not a bad person, and that he had previously gone to a doctor for treatment, but unfortunately this had not gotten rid of his illness."
When Fang Mu didn't say anything for a long time, Tai Wei looked at him hovering at the seat back. "What? Are you thinking that these doctors are the same person?"
Fang Mu shook his head. "I don't know."
For a moment Tai Wei was lost in thought, attention back on the road. "You shouldn't think about this stuff anymore," he said at last. "Meng Fanzhe's case is already closed. Get some rest when you get back and you'll feel a lot better."