‘The latest development is mainly about a sex video of Xiang and her husband Vice Mayor Geng posted online. That’s why Internal Security and Qin joined forces in a hurry. They’ve come under so much pressure.’

‘A sex video of the two! Give me some more details.’

‘Sorry, not that much from me. Qin talks like an old tooth already loose yet still hanging on in there. You have to shake it real hard, but it won’t come out totally. The video was taken before their marriage. She wasn’t a journalist at the time. That’s about all I’ve got from him.’

‘She’s new at Wenhui?’

‘Yes, Xiang came to Wenhui about a year ago. One day after her death, a sex video of her and Geng broke out online. Unbelievably graphic, it instantly turned into a sensational scandal. Geng passed out because of it.’

‘Not just because of her death, I see. But I don’t think I’ve met her at Wenhui before.’

‘Guess what Detective Qin said to me. “Chief Inspector Chen has so many good friends in the newspaper, he’s surely able to find out more about her.” ’

‘No, I’m not supposed to be involved in the investigation – whether through my connections in the newspaper or not,’ Chen said deliberately. ‘Incidentally, you or Peiqin may know someone there too.’

‘Who?’

‘Lianping, the Wenhui journalist who came to the Buddhist service for Peiqin’s parents.’

‘Yes, I remember, now you mention it. Peiqin met with her again for something else after that service.’

‘And Lianping went out of her way to help – through Peiqin.’ Chen added in spite of himself, ‘She’s now happily married with a baby on the way.’

‘I see.’ Yu abruptly changed the subject. ‘Xiang’s case has several things in common with the previous three. In the early morning. In the center of the city – the fourth one happened on the corner of Weihai and Shanxi Roads, which is still quite a central location. And a fatal hammer blow from behind. After the meeting, Qin spoke with Internal Security again.’

‘It would have been too much of a coincidence for Xiang not to be part of the serial murder case—’

At that point Yu saw two cops moving toward him. One of them knew Yu quite well.

‘Sorry, I’ll talk to you later, our number one loyal customer.’

Fifteen minutes later Inspector Chen got back to his apartment, still disturbed about the phone call from Detective Yu.

Yu must have had his reason to cut short the phone call. Chen was not worried about that, but the growing complications around the Xiang case would make it a tough one for Yu. In spite of his grumbling, Chen knew Yu would not hesitate to throw himself headlong into the investigation.

For the moment, however, there was nothing Chen could possibly do to help until he had more information – reliable information – available from the bureau.

But how was he going to really help while he also had the Shanshan investigation on his hands?