Skinner's Box (Fang Mu (Eastern Crimes)) (35 page)

"Okay, okay, I won't go. Just let go of me first."

Her arms relaxed a little. "You promise?"

"Yeah. I promise."

Slowly, hesitantly, her fingers loosened and let go. Fang Mu turned, grimacing in pain, to find Liao Yafan already back on the bed, lying down with her back to him. For a second he thought about taking the chance to hurry out the door, but then he worried about how she might react, left alone in the apartment. Besides, he had promised. He returned to the chair and sat down glumly.

Sleep was impossible, so he rolled over to the desk, turned on his computer, opened up his case files, and got ready to work through the night. After staring at a couple of reports, he stole a glance toward the bed. The girl was still lying on her side, face to the wall, hugging her shoulders. Fang Mu stood and unfolded the comforter at the foot of the bed, then spread it gently across her body. She did not move an inch, but Fang Mu knew very well that she was not asleep. Smirking, he turned off the overhead light, turned on his desk lamp, and continued working.

Work was such a wonderful thing. It could make one forget an empty stomach, forget the cold, even forget that there was a young girl fast asleep on the bed. When Fang Mu next lifted his head and looked at the clock, it was already 2:30 in the morning. The girl was curled up beneath the comforter, sleeping soundly; he could hear soft snoring noises coming from her direction. He stood quietly, opened the window a crack, and leaned against the frame while he smoked a cigarette.

The smoke took on a bluish tinge against the dim light from the desk lamp. As he exhaled, a draft drew it under the window and dispersed it into the night. Frost was already creeping across the glass, refracting the red from the guardhouse's ceiling light and the yellow from the streetlights below and mixing them into eerie orange, feathery patterns that looked warm despite their icy substance. Fang Mu touched the glass and immediately felt its biting cold through his fingertips.

Behind him the girl started mumbling in her sleep. As he turned his head to look at her, she rolled over and kicked the comforter to the side. He quickly shut the window and went over to the bed. He had just bent to spread the comforter back on top of her when she reached and up and grabbed his arm.

"Mommy..."

Liao Yafan appeared to be fast asleep still. Her face was contorted into a dreamy pleading look. Fang Mu tried to pull his arm free, but the sleeping girl tightened her grip.

"Mommy..."

Deep down in the softest part of his heart, something stirred. He kicked off his shoes and sat on the bed with his back against the headboard, legs stretched out next to Liao Yafan. At almost the same time, the girl snuggled up to him and pressed her face against his chest. Her breathing slowed, and her features relaxed in contentment.

"Mommy," she mumbled one last time, and drifted back into a peaceful slumber.

Fang Mu's hands still hung motionless in the air in front of him. A full minute went by before he finally let them rest lightly on top of her back. Even through the fabric of the girl's sweatshirt, he could feel her bony shoulder blades protruding from her back. She was so skinny, he marveled. Far too skinny, and light as a feather. At the top of her head, the hair was thick but slightly brown from malnourishment. Fang Mu put his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

She was the oldest child living at Angel Hall. The other children there were too young to understand what was going on, but Liao Yafan probably knew very well what demolition and relocation would mean—yet again she would lose the only place she had to call home. And yet again, she would be unable to see what the future might bring.

And for Liao Yafan, such vague uncertainty was terrifying.

As the curtain of night lifted before the dawn's faint light and midnight silence gave way to the rising clamor of a city full of early morning routines, Fang Mu sat gazing through the bright frost on the window, unmoving, his hands still draped across Liao Yafan's delicate back. As he listened to the sounds of the waking city, he finally drifted off to sleep. After what felt like only a moment had passed, he suddenly awoke to find Liao Yafan no longer in his arms.

He scrambled to his feet and looked around the room, nearly tripping over Liao Yafan as he did so. She was sitting on the floor with her back to the bed, holding a foreign language book in her hands, and staring blankly out the window.

Feeling extremely awkward, Fang Mu turned to pick up his glasses where he had left them, next to the computer monitor. Only then did he notice that the entire desk had been organized; his chaotic pile of papers had been straightened, and the ash tray crammed full of cigarette butts had been emptied and cleaned. The same was true of the rest of the apartment; the place was neat and tidy wherever he looked. Apparently he had been out for more than just a moment.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the back of Liao Yafan's head. She was still engrossed in her book. After a while he got up and went to the toilet.

When they both had freshened up, he signaled for the girl to follow him out the door, and to keep as quiet as possible.

This particular apartment building served as a police dormitory of sorts for single cops like himself. It was still well before 7:00, so the chances that any of the resident bachelors or bachelorettes would be up already were close to nil. Fang Mu and Liao Yafan crept along the empty corridor and down the stairwell to the underground parking garage without incident. They stopped at the corner and waited. After a few minutes, they finally heard the old guard on duty get out of bed with a grunt, shuffle over, and unlock the front gate. As soon as he disappeared into the toilet, they made a dash for it, started the car, and were out on the street with no one the wiser.

Only when the jeep was out of sight from his apartment block did Fang Mu allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief. "What time do you have to be at school?" he asked Liao Yafan.

"I have early morning study hall at seven."

Fang Mu looked at his watch and stepped on the gas.

Spotting a KFC on the right, Fang Mu pulled over and hopped out to buy the girl some breakfast. As he handed it to her he told her to be sure and find time to eat it. Liao Yafan placed it carefully in her school bag, and then sat quietly the rest of the way to the school.

Streams of yawning children, dressed in the same blue and white sweatshirt and sweatpants as Liao Yafan, were filing through the school's front gate. Fang Mu glanced at his watch. It was five minutes 'til.

"Okay, off you go. After school go straight home to Angel Hall."

Liao Yafan hung her head and twirled the end of her school bag strap in agitation. "Can't you just take me with you?"

"What?"

Liao Yafan's face went scarlet from her cheeks to her ears. In a voice that was almost a whisper, she said, "I could be your girlfriend…"

"Uh, don't…ah, you sh-shouldn't..." Fang Mu stuttered, face suddenly white and breaking out in a cold sweat. "Look, you need to stop worrying about things so much; you've g-got yourself all con-confused. Now go on, hop out and go to class."

Liao Yafan's chin was on her chest now, her bottom lip sticking out even further, but now she spoke in a louder voice. "I could clean your place for you, and cook, and do the laundry… I can do anything; you name it… I promise I wouldn't be any trouble…"

Fang Mu reached across her and pushed her door open brusquely. "Get out!"

Suddenly frightened, she turned to stare at him.

In her eyes Fang Mu saw a mixture of humiliation and hatred.

She jumped out of the jeep, slammed the door behind her, and sprinted in through the school gate. As she passed the row of trash cans there, Fang Mu saw her pull something violently from her school bag and hurl it into one of them.

CHAPTER
30
Gun

C
lose surveillance of Jiang Dexian, Huang Runhua, Tan Ji, and Qu Rui continued. The task force believed this group of collaborating murderers was bound to kill again. In order not to arouse their suspicions, the task force continued to employ satellite positioning of the group’s cell phones and had detectives on the ground keep their distance. A few days later, the technical surveillance division finally reported some good news: at noon that day, Qu Rui had used her cell phone to call Jiang Dexian. Though there was no way of knowing what they might have discussed, the call had lasted two minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

This was exciting news. The task force judged that these two people might very well be contacts or recruiters for the organization. If they were planning a murder for that night, then the other members would likely reveal themselves, too. Because it was New Year's Eve, however, a significant portion of the city's police force was off duty, so the task force decided to consolidate their manpower and just keep tabs on Qu Rui and Jiang Dexian for the time being. It was everyone's hope that the two would lead the police to the rest of the organization, and then they would be able to arrest them all in one fell swoop. To this end, SWAT was standing by, ready to move at a moment's notice.

At around 6:30 that evening, Qu Rui exited her place of work and got into a taxi headed toward the city's northside. A team of plainclothes officers pulled away from the curb and followed at a distance. At almost the exact same time, another team of officers reported that Jiang Dexian had left his law firm and was also headed northside in his car. Half an hour later, Jiang Dexian and Qu Rui were observed meeting at a Hunan-style restaurant, where they went into a private dining room #210, and had not emerged since. The task force sent two of the officers undercover as customers into #213, the private dining room directly across the hall from #210, so that they could closely monitor the couple’s movements. At the same time, after communicating with the restaurant staff, another officer dressed up as a waitress and went in to bring Jiang Dexian and Qu Rui their food. When she reported back, she confirmed that the two suspects were alone in the private dining room.

The minutes and seconds ticked by. Two hours later, still no one else had joined them in room #210. At around 9:20 p.m., Jiang Dexian and Qu Rui paid their bill and left the restaurant. They got in the car together and drove over to the city's eastside, where they went into a teahouse.

Zheng Lin thought something was amiss. After ordering the other team of plainclothes officers to follow the couple in with the same cover – two as customers and one as a waiter – he contacted the technical surveillance division to find out if anything had changed. They reported that from what they could see, Tan Ji's and Huang Runhua's cell phones were still on, and judging by their positions, neither of them had left home. Zheng Lin thought about this a while, then sent the officer posing as a waiter back over to Jiang Dexian's and Qu Rui's table to give them a complimentary gift from the teahouse under the pretense of "to help celebrate the New Year." While he was there, he did his best to eavesdrop on their conversation. The effort yielded nothing; ever since they arrived, the two had been conversing in whispers, and as soon as the "waiter" came close they stopped until he had left again.

"What in the hell are they up to?" Bian Ping sat restlessly in the command car, frowning and chain-smoking cigarettes. It was already close to midnight, but the last few murders had been committed in the early hours of the morning, so the task force had no choice but to wait.

Fang Mu sat in the backseat, deep in thought. The more he thought about it the more he felt the two suspects in the teahouse were not planning on meeting up with anyone else there. He opened the car door and hopped out.

A few minutes later he came jogging back, chest heaving for breath, and got back in the car. "I think we might have been duped!"

He had just run to a sidewalk payphone and called Tan Ji's and Huang Runhua's cell phones; both had rung out without anyone answering. This meant that at some point the two men could have left their phones at home, guessing they were being monitored, and could now be anywhere. In other words, Tan Ji and Huang Runhua had slipped the net.

They'd been outmaneuvered.

The task force left a team to continue monitoring Jiang Dexian and Qu Rui; meanwhile, the rest of them started their vehicles. "Where to, Captain?" asked one of the officers.

"Westside!" Bian Ping shouted, jabbing a thick finger at the map. "They tricked us into coming eastside, so you can bet your ass that whatever they're planning will go down
westside.
"

Westside. Medical University Hospital, main entrance.

The white Jinbei van was parked 200 meters or so from the main gate. Mr. H had his hands on the steering wheel, heart pounding in anticipation. Mr. T sat in the passenger seat, occasionally glancing up and down the street.

"We good to go yet?"

"Not yet." Mr. T pointed his chin at the people still going in and out of the hospital's front doors. "On the phone just now, Q said the cops are still over there watching them. We've got plenty of time."

"She didn't use her own cell phone to call, did she?"

"No, dummy," Mr. T said with a snort. "You think Q's as careless as you are?"

Mr. H laughed sheepishly. His mood seemed to have improved. He took out a couple of cigarettes, handed one to Mr. T, and tossed one over his shoulder to Luo Jiahai in the backseat. Then he lit a third for himself and sat there smoking happily.

"H, what are your plans after all this is over?" Mr. T asked.

"Me?" Mr. H smiled. "I'm gonna get my wife to come back, and then we'll have a fat little baby and live a happy quiet life together. You?"

Mr. T chuckled, all smiles. "As for myself, I'm going to quit my job and go travel the country with Q."

"Aha, so you and Q really
do
have a thing together, you cheeky bastard!"

"Yep," Mr. T smiled, face red. "We've been through so much together, there's more understanding and trust between me and her than I could ever imagine having with someone else. When the time comes we'll do the same as you; get married and have a fat little baby! But," he hastily added, "you guys gotta promise me you'll keep it on the quiet, otherwise Mr. Z'll have my hide."

Mr. H reassured him that he would, but Luo Jiahai just sat there in the backseat, puffing wordlessly on his cigarette.

Seeming to sense Luo Jiahai's indifference, Mr. T asked him enthusiastically, "What about you, L? What're your plans after all this?"

Luo Jiahai's face was mostly hidden behind the down-turned bill of his baseball cap and the stiff collar of his shirt. Half a minute passed before he finally answered in a muffled voice. "No idea."

Mr. H looked in the direction of Luo Jiahai's sullen face, and said somewhat apologetically, "Sorry, L. Everyone's helping me, even though it was your turn originally. If I could've controlled myself your thing would be finished by now."

"It's all good." Luo Jiahai lifted his face and forced a smile. "If it weren't for you I would have been shot dead by a firing squad by now."

The three of them continued to smoke while they chatted, and soon air in the little van was thick with smoke.

"Open your window a bit, L. It's too stuffy in here." Mr. H coughed, and then turned to Mr. T. "What do you think? We ready yet?"

Mr. T stared at the main entrance to the hospital for several seconds. A sickly yellow circle of light illuminated the pathway directly beneath the solitary lamp post. There was not a soul in sight.

"Okay, let's do it," Mr. T said, and turned to address Luo Jiahai. "L, slide that bag over closer to the car door so we can get to it faster."

Luo Jiahai grunted in concurrence, and was just reaching to shove the bag over when there came a loud knock on the driver's side window.

The noise was not loud, but it came so suddenly that to the three of them, nerves already stretched taut as wire, it sounded like gunfire. No one moved.

Outside stood two uniformed police officers. One of them rapped his knuckles impatiently on Mr. H's window, while the other raised a flashlight and shined it into the vehicle.

"Police; open up."

Mr. T winked at Mr. H. Mr. H slowly rolled his window halfway down. "Something the matter, officers?"

The cop with the flashlight shined it right into Mr. T's eyes. "What's your business here?"

"We're waiting for someone."

"Waiting for someone?" the one that seemed to be in charge said, knitting his brow. "Waiting for who?"

"My cousin's in the hospital, about to get discharged. I'm here to pick her up." Mr. H nodded toward the hospital.

"Discharged? At this time of night?" Suspicion clouded the cop's face. He was about to ask another question when the cop with the flashlight, who had just shined it into the backseat, pulled his arm, took a step back, and pulled his gun.

"Everyone get out of the car,
now!
" he yelled, holding his pistol and pointing at Luo Jiahai as his partner fumbled with his own holster. "Quickly!"

No sooner had the word escaped the cop's lips than Mr. H's left hand suddenly extended out the window and aimed a gun right at him.

A shot rang out in the night.

Lu Xu was on duty at the precinct that night, finishing up putting the day's police reports in order. He was just about to take them over to archives to file them away when he heard the sound of a bunch of people running around upstairs. He hurried to the corridor in time to see the guys in SWAT come racing down the stairs, fully geared and armed. One of them had a radio on his shoulder that was transmitting a tinny voice: "
…repeat, attention all units, the suspects are headed north on Yongtai Avenue… Attention, suspects should be considered armed and dangerous…
"

Lu Xu hailed him. "What's up?"

The SWAT team member, in a hurry to follow orders, blurted something that sounded like, "A couple of officers found Luo Jiahai over near Medical University Hospital!" He then charged out the door.

Lu Xu stood rooted in place for a few seconds before springing into motion leopard-like, and raced toward the parking lot.

When Zheng Lin put down the radio, he had a look of maniacal glee in his eyes. "They found Luo Jiahai in the western suburbs, over near the Medical University Hospital!"

"What?" Bian Ping and Fang Mu both exclaimed at once. They leaned toward the front seat. "How many of them are there? How was he found?" they both clamored.

"Two uniforms discovered him. Three of them, including Luo Jiahai." Zheng Lin immediately called the team left in charge of watching Jiang Dexian and Qu Rui. "Don't let them out of your sight! They cannot get away, you hear me?"

After he hung up, Zheng Lin barked at the driver to step on it, and then narrowed his eyes, a smug look on his face. "Now we've got 'em for sure. There's nowhere they can run!"

The white van barreled along the avenue, a police car racing 300 meters behind it with sirens blaring.

Mr. H's face was ashen as he focused every ounce of his concentration on the road in front of them. Next to him, Mr. T was staring at him, mouth gaping wide in shock. His tone held astonishment. "How'd you get a gun?"

Mr. H did not answer. He mashed the accelerator to the floor, revving the van's engine to its limits.

Seeing the scary expression on Mr. H's face, Mr. T did not dare ask anything else. He smacked his forehead with his palms a few times to force himself to calm down. "We should head to the countryside."