“Have you guessed why I was removed as head of the Special Case Squad?”
“No.”
“There’s an old English proverb: ‘When the cat’s away, the mice will play.’”
“Now I see, Chief.”
“Now you see, Jiang. I was told about this case by an old comrade.” Which was a true statement. Who the “old comrade” might be, however, was up to the younger cop to decide. “Suffice it to say that things are complicated and sensitive. So, please, tell me what you know, in detail, about the dead American.”
“Fei is the one who can give you all the details, but he’s off in Wuxi now, helping the police out there. I can only tell you what I heard from him,” Jiang said, holding up a tile and then setting it down with a thud.
“Ours is a new police station for this rapidly developing area. Only two of us work out of this station, and there’s a lot of work for each of us. The case of the dead American came to us about ten days ago. Usually, Fei and I would get to the station around eight thirty, but that morning, I had a meeting in the city, so Fei was alone in the office. About nine thirty, I got a text message from him saying, “A dead foreigner was found in the Wugong Hotel. I’m going there.” With so many foreigners living and working in Shanghai, it wasn’t surprising that one of them got sick and dropped dead. If it’s a case of death from natural causes, the local hospital is in charge, not the police. But since it was a foreigner who died, and in an area hotel, Fei went over there to take a look. It sounded like a matter of formality, and I believed Fei could take care of it by himself. Shortly after ten thirty, I got another text from Fei. ‘As soon as the meeting is finished, hurry back. Come directly to the hotel.’ There was a suggestion of urgency in the message. The meeting wasn’t important, so I left before it was over. But there was an accident on the toll road to Sheshan that morning, and I got stuck in the traffic. Around noon, I sent him a text saying I was on the way, and he wrote back, ‘Internal Security is coming too.’
“Now, that was weird. The deceased was an American; if the higher authorities were called in, it would be the responsibility of the Foreign Liaison Office. So why was Internal Security coming to the hotel?
“When I finally got to the hotel around two, two Internal Security officers were already there in the hotel room with Fei. Judging by the way they were talking to Fei, they hadn’t been there very long.
“There was a body covered by a white sheet lying on the floor. According to Fei, there weren’t any obvious signs of a break-in or a struggle in the hotel room.
“One of the Internal Security officers turned to me and said, ‘As we’ve just explained to Fei, we’re taking over from here. You two may leave now, but let me repeat what we just told Fei: Not a word to anyone else about any of this.’
“So we left. I was in the hotel room for only ten minutes or so, without even a close look at the dead body. I’ve got nothing to say even if I wanted to. Which isn’t the case with Fei, of course.
“On the way back, Fei didn’t say anything for a long time, except to pose a question, ‘Why Internal Security?’
“That’s my question as well. And that’s about all I can tell you about that day.”
At the end of Jiang’s narration, Chen started shuffling the mahjong pieces, as if that helped him think.
“Did he say anything to Internal Security while you were there?”
“No, not I can recall.”
“Now, did you ask him any questions afterward?”
“Nothing specific. Back at the station, I asked him what he’d seen in the hotel, but he was evasive. He only said that he hadn’t contacted Internal Security.”
“Let me establish a timeline here,” Chen said. “Fei sent you the first message around nine thirty in the morning, and by the time you got to the hotel, it was two in the afternoon. You said that it sounded to you as if Internal Security got there shortly before you. That means Fei would have been alone with the dead body in the hotel room for at least four, maybe five hours. What would he have done during that period of time?”
“Normally, he’d take pictures of the scene, and then, if it was a natural death, he’d leave everything else to either the hospital or the mortuary. But if anything was amiss, he might have waited for the forensic team, or called the city bureau. According to Fei, he called the district police bureau and the Foreign Liaison Office. He mentioned that to me the following day…”
“Hold on. Fei must have had a reason for making these calls.”
“I agree, but Internal Security warned us not to speak about the case, and they might have told him earlier that that meant even me. He had something on his mind, that much I could see. But it’s possible that he was just upset with Internal Security for taking over the case like that. We had dealt with cases concerning foreigners before, and there was no need for Internal Security to be dispatched to Sheshan this time.”
“Anything else?”
“The next day or the day after, we learned that the American’s body had already been cremated. Fei looked very confused, though he didn’t say why to me. However, I happened to overhear him talking to somebody about it on the phone.”
“Yes. What did he say? If possible, tell me his words verbatim.”
“I’ll try, but I wasn’t paying that much attention at first. What I heard was mostly fragments. I might not be able to give you the exact words, but the basic meaning should be close. One thing he said was something about cremation without autopsy. ‘A suspicious death like that should have had an autopsy done.’ And another sentence, ‘He didn’t drink. How could he die of alcohol poisoning?’”
“So that’s what you were told about the American’s cause of death?”
“No one told us anything, but Fei made inquiries on his own. By the way, the American’s name is Daniel Martin. He was a businessman. At one point, Fei might have tried to contact his wife or something like that, I’m not sure. Fei did tell me that she’s Chinese and she has two daughters.”
“A different question. What kind of hotel was it?”
“Wugong is not exactly a fancy hotel. It was built at the early stage of Sheshan’s development. Later, in accordance with new regulations, Sheshan was designated as an area for high-end villas with natural scenery. After that, no more construction of commercial hotels was permitted. Because of its premium location, it’s expensive, and modern facilities were installed and then reinstalled into the hotel.”
“So it’s a hotel for tourists?”
“Well, there are tourists who come here for the National Park and for Sheshan Notre Dame Basilica, but most people chose not to stay in the hotels here. There are lots of fancier hotels in the city, and they’re less expensive. It’s only a fifteen-minute drive away on the toll road.”
“So why did the American choose to stay there?”
“Why? I’ve no idea.”
“Did Fei say anything about why he chose to stay at the hotel?”
“Fei could have said something, but I don’t remember. Oh, the American had an apartment in the city, so why stay at the hotel at all? If he was planning a rendezvous, then why not a fancier hotel at a more convenient location? Unless the rendezvous was with someone who lived nearby, I suppose.”
“About Fei, you said he’s not in Shanghai now, right?”
“Right. He’s in Wuxi, helping the local police with a case.”
“What kind of a case?” Chen said. “Fei’s just a local cop, isn’t he?”
“I don’t know the details. The criminal is apparently from this area, and Fei knows a thing or two about him. So Fei left for Wuxi four days ago.”
“Have you talked to him since he left?”
“I’ve called him a couple of times, but his phone was turned off.” Jiang added belatedly, “He must be really busy. I really don’t know.”