9 Women

 

When Sister Mao saw the picture of the desecrated corpse, she did not even flinch. The expression remained unchanged like she was examining a painting. This reminded me of a story Brother Huang Er told me about Sister Mao. Sister Mao and Brother Huang Er were childhood neighbours. Out of boredom, the kids among the village decided they would elect a boss among themselves, and from then on everyone at the village would need to listen to his or her orders. How did they decide it? The kid who dared to sleep in the graveyard for the night would be the boss. None of the kids took up the challenge, only Sister Mao went towards the graveyard alone. Based on what his family told him, when Sister Mao’s parents went to find her, she was sleeping soundly hugging a gravestone. This proved that it wasn’t mere beauty that got Sister Mao to the height that she enjoyed today.

“She’s not one of my people.” Sister Mao said, “Leave me your phone number. I’ll call you when I know more.”

“Thank you, Sister Mao.” I replied politely.

After they left, Gu Chen regarded me with a frown. “Who are you exactly? It was clear that Sister Mao is not a simple character, she seems to be involved in some questionable business. How did you get to know people like her? Come, we should get back to the station and start an investigation on her immediately.”

I offered Gu Chen another cigarette and told him, “That does not fall within the scope of our case and if you want to build a strong case against her, it’ll take years. You’re still new to the force and you still have the belief that the world is black and white but is that really true? When I showed her the picture, she already knew who we were. In that case, why did she choose to help us?”

Gu Chen was shocked. “She knew that we work with the police? How?”

I shrugged and lit my own cigarette. “Because she is not dumb. Only a professional, and not a civilian, will be able to produce a clean shot of a crime scene like the one I showed her.”

“Then why did she choose to help us? Aren’t she afraid of straying too close to the fire?” I appeared like I have given Gu Chen too little credit for his intuition.

“Like I said, the world is not just black and white.” I puffed out a smoke ring. “We are all creatures of flesh and blood, who among us can really say that we harbour no evil thoughts, and at the same time have not done a single good thing in our lives? Even a prostitute and her client can fall in love, so what’s so strange about her helping us?”

Gu Chen took a long time thinking before he sighed, “This world sure is complicated.”

“No, the real complicated thing is the human heart.” I said, “In any case, there’s nothing else we can do now but wait. I believe we will have the news soon.”

Several hours later, Sister Mao gave me a call and the victim’s identity was finally confirmed. The woman was indeed an escort, she had a front working as a receptionist at a hotel called Royal Palace. She called herself Ye Zhi but of course that was a fake name. There were many reasons why one would choose to become an escort, some were forced into it, while others found it an easy way to earn money. In any case, like every other profession, there were rules to follow among the escorts. They had to be always ready with smiles and be kind to their sisters because the sisterhood was often the only source of support they had. The moment one of the ladies started to act high and mighty, it either meant that she had lost her mind or she had bagged a rich man.

According to what Sister Mao heard, this Ye Zhi suddenly had a personality change recently. In the past, she was always apprehensive and soft-spoken around others but recently she started to raise her voice more often. She came to work carrying real LV handbags, put on expensive cologne and splurge on Starbucks coffee during breaks. In the past, Yu Zhi would bring instant coffee mix to work. Her colleagues naturally assumed that Ye Zhi had become some rich dude’s mistress, and that caused some real jealousy among her sisters.

We continued our investigation with this clue and to our surprise, Ye Zhi had not bagged any rich dude but instead had been keeping a young man as her boytoy. When we found this man, the man was in the middle of ‘having fun’ with his girlfriend. Ye Zhi sponsored him and he went to sponsor someone else. After some questioning, we found out the man was actually Ye Zhi’s former boyfriend, when he found out Ye Zhi’s real identity as a prostitute, naturally he chose to break up with her. That was all he ever heard from Ye Zhi until she suddenly appeared before his eyes a few months ago. She threw 10000 RMB on his face and said, “If you want to keep these money, you better start kneeling and kiss my toes.”

The man challenged, “What kind of person do you take me for?” And right after that, he knelt down and sucked on her toes while picking up the money. For certain people, money was much more important than pride. From then on, they became a sweet couple again. After knowing about Ye Zhi’s death, the only thing the man said was, “Now who is going to take care of me?”

In any case, we still got something useful from the man. Ye Zhi would go out alone every Friday night and return the next day around 10 am. She never told him where she went but every time she returned, she would have an extra 10000 RMB in her bag. The man thought the visits were Ye Zhi going to see her rich sponsor. As long as the money kept flowing, he never questioned her movements.

I shared a look with Captain Zhao. We said in unison, “You should be thinking the same thing as I do.” Indeed, if our supposition was correct, it would explain why Ye Zhi would go to that deserted track so late at night. According to the train schedule, there would be a train that passed by that stretch every Friday between 2 to 2.30 am. It was a coal-driven train. There was something unique about this train, it drove very slowly, offering the passengers a scenic view of the journey and its windows could be opened unlike most modern e-trains. The heroin came not from some unknown source but from the train itself. The women went there so late at night not for no other reason but to intercept the delivery.

Thus, a hypothesis could be made. Someone would take this train every Friday and bypass the security by consuming the drugs or through some other methods. They rode the train until they reached this spot. 2 am was the time when the human body would be at its most tired. However, instead of sleeping, the mule would use the toilet on the train to pass out the drugs. Then when the train passed the stretch of track where Luo Yongjun worked, the mule would toss the drugs out the window. At the same time, Ye Zhi would be waiting beyond the fence to wait for the dispatch. The fence was not that far from the tracks, considering the weight of 3 bags of heroin, a child could have easily tossed them beyond the fence. That would explain perfectly why Ye Zhi appeared at this secluded place that rainy, dark night.

However, Ye Zhi would never expect that this time, there was something else other than a drug deposit waiting for her in the darkness. Darkness was the best protection for Ye Zhi but it was also the reason for her death. The thing that was intercepted by Ye Zhi thus found its way to Luo Zhongcheng. We had no idea why Luo Zhongcheng decided to take a hit of heroin. Was it because he had killed someone? I personally did not think that was the case, after all, he had at least murdered 3 more women before Ye Zhi. Perhaps he was feeling the prick of conscience for the first time after killing his father? Or he was just searching for the high? We would never know because he was now a cold body in the morgue.

“Check the passenger list for someone who would take this train every Friday.” Captain Zhao ordered. Mary took out her laptop. This required some time, first she had to filter out the passengers who would take the train every Friday and then inspect which among them were suspicious. Even if Mary had the best equipment, sifting through the mountain load of data required time. Xiao Liu looked numbly at the screen as the numbers flew by, after a while, he felt his head spinning. He turned to pick up a book and flipped through it casually. Then he sat up and said, as if he was reminded of something, “By the way, Captain Zhao, we’ve confirmed the identity of the tipster. That Zhang Xutong was indeed the girl who was kidnapped and sold to the mountain village several years ago!”

“Things are really that coincidental?” Captain Zhao said as he took a sip from his china tea cup.

“I know right?!” Xiao Liu continued, “We looked into her background because we needed her for the testimony. We found out that she was a student from Jing Zhong Teacher’s Academy and she had a classmate called Zhang Hui. She and Zhang Hui took a taxi home one day after school, but the driver took them somewhere they did not recognize.” With a shrug, Xiao Liu continued, “When they noticed something was wrong, several big burly men already surrounded the car. Their phones were confiscated and they were gagged. 3 days later, they found themselves at the village and the rest was similar to what Lee Chunzhuang, the drifter said. During the night of their kidnapping, the moon was out. The taxi driver took small alleys so there were no cameras that picked up on their trace. The two girls were reported missing but no one could find out where they had gone.”

As I looked at Mary’s computer, I asked, “Even after she escaped, Zhang Xutong did not call the police?”

Xiao Liu nodded and said incredulously, “It has been years since Zhang Xutong escaped from the village but during this time, she did not even consider calling the police, knowing the kind of life she had condemned her friend, Zhang Hui to. She chose to selectively forget all about it. When asked about that specific period, Zhang Xutong would say she had gone overseas. When Zhang Hui’s parents came to ask her about their daughter’s location, she revealed nothing either.

“But this time Zhang Xutong was just a passenger on a train and she had gone through all that trouble reporting a crime done against a person she did not even know.” Xiao Liu shook his head. “I really cannot understand what is going through her mind.”

There was truly no answer to that question, after all, I was not Zhang Xutong. Zhang Xutong chose to keep silent when it was her friend who was in trouble; but for a random stranger, she was the one who called in to provide us with the damning evidence. This proved that perhaps we were often cruelest to the people we know.

“How did Zhang Xutong react to the news about Zhang Hui... in fact, was she even notified about Zhang Hui’s latest update?” Captain Zhao asked.

Xiao Liu shook his head. “Zhang Xutong did not know we have launched a background check into her and she also did not know we’ve already rescued Zhang Hui. Actually, that is why I brought this up. Captain Zhao, should we tell Zhang Xutong the truth?”

Captain Zhao was silent for quite some time before saying, “Perhaps human nature is sin. People are all selfish. Now that we know the whole truth, what can we do, should we arrest Zhang Xutong? I say just let it be. Let them live in their own bubbles, after all, not everyone can survive knowing the truth.”