Chen put back the phone, frowning again. It had been a shot in the dark. What he had just learned, however, confirmed his suspicion. People had been checking out his work, and not because of their appreciation of literature.

He knew better.

What’s more, he was checked by two different groups of people in Beijing. If one inquiry was made by Zhao’s office, what about the other?

Inspector Chen was ready to get out of the booth, pushing open the door, when the big clock on top of the custom house across the river began striking the hour.

As if in an inexplicable correspondence with the chime, another thought struck him. So he stepped back into the booth and picked up the phone again.

This time he dialed the number of Little Huang, a young cop he had met in Wuxi during his vacation there.

Detective Huang, a passionate fan of Sherlock Holmes, and perhaps even more so of ‘Master Chief Inspector Chen’, had his imagination too much enriched with the mystery novels he devoured, and in his eyes, what the Shanghai inspector had done during the Tai Lake murder investigation simply put him on the same par as any fictional ‘Master’.

As requested, Huang immediately called back to the number of the Shanghai public phone booth from a public phone booth in Wuxi. The young cop started with undisguised excitement in his voice,

‘Another confidential case, Chief Inspector Chen?’

‘Confidential, yes. It’s so confidential I can hardly give you any details, except that it’s directly from Beijing. That’s about all I can say at the moment. But it’s not exactly a case; not yet, at this moment. To start with, I want to know what has happened to Shanshan in Wuxi. You know whom I’m talking about, don’t you?’

‘Oh, Shanshan. Of course I know.’ Huang began to sound even more excited. ‘Since you left Wuxi at the end of that investigation, I have made a point of inquiring about her from time to time. Not that directly, as you may imagine. More than two years ago, or perhaps even earlier, it was said that she was going to study for a PhD degree in the UK. Sure enough, she came to the local police bureau to apply for the passport for that purpose. With her name still on the governmental blacklist, it could have been extremely difficult for her to obtain the passport, so I helped to smooth her application process without her knowledge.’

‘Good job, Little Huang. I appreciate it. But she did not leave for the UK as she had planned. Right?’

‘No. She did not. Shortly after she obtained the passport, she married a local businessman surnamed Yao.’

‘She married—’

Chen checked himself from finishing the sentence. For an attractive, intelligent young woman like Shanshan, that was nothing to be surprised about.

‘Sorry, I thought about calling you at the time, Chief Inspector Chen, but things happened to get so busy here with a political case.’