‘Near La Maison. I’ll be damned. Another central location indeed.’

‘And it’s pretty much like you have suspected.’

Detective Yu moved on with a hurried account of what had happened there earlier that morning, though some of the details seemed vague, particularly about how he had managed to forestall Lou’s move.

‘Did Lou put up a fight?’

‘Not really, but he insists he was just jogging here in the morning – jogging in the New World after taking two subway trains indeed.’

‘Where are you now, Yu?’

‘In a backroom of the Zhapu Neighborhood Police Station.’

‘That’s not far from the park on the Bund, right?’

‘That’s right. I happened to know a young cop named Teng at the station. He’s letting me keep Lou there temporarily, but Lou is refusing to say anything. So what shall we do now?’

‘You stopped him before he lashed out in the New World?’

‘Yes, it was too much of a risk. He moved so dangerously close to a white-haired man walking in front of him, plunging his hand into his pocket. Sure enough, he had a hammer hidden there.’

‘He must have cleaned the hammer thoroughly?’

‘I think so too. No blood or anything on it. But we can send it to the lab.’

‘You had to stop him before his delivering the blow. I too would have done so; best to stop a would-be-attempted crime, even with no witnesses or evidence.’ Chen went on without waiting for a response, ‘What did he say about the hammer?’

‘He said that after jogging, he was going to his old home for some odd jobs. It does not make any sense for him to jog along carrying a heavy hammer in his pocket.’

‘No, no sense at all.’

‘But he refused to say anything else with such a vacant look in his bloodshot eyes. Oh, when I first got hold of him, he murmured, “Just three more”.’

‘With three more victims, he would be able to complete the seven-seven rituals. That’s what he meant.’

‘Yes, I think so too. But I cannot take him back to the bureau right now. Imagine how Qin would react to the dramatic turn.’

‘You mean you have not told Detective Qin or Party Secretary Li about your work on Lou?’

‘No, not anything. I tried to talk to Qin, you know, about your point regarding the inexplicable presence of the masks in the crime scenes, but he hardly listened to a sentence before brushing it off as irrelevant. Our squad’s supposed to serve merely as consultant, and he’s unwilling to take us seriously, especially when he believes he himself is on the right track.’

‘So pushing the murderer in front of him, out of the blue, you’re literally pulling the carpet from under his feet. It’s difficult to tell how he would react to the surprising turn.’

‘Exactly. Detective Qin would take me as withholding the information from him. So would Party Secretary Li. But I cannot keep Lou here for too long, a couple of hours, maybe, but no more than that. Soon the bureau people will come to know about it one way or another.’