‘Three weeks after Peng’s body was found,’ Chen said deliberately. ‘Three victims so far – or four?’

‘Yes, we’ve just learned about the fourth victim,’ Qin responded in a hurry. ‘For reasons beyond us, Internal Security took over the case – I mean the fourth victim – three days ago without discussing it with us.’

‘That was Friday.’

‘Yes, we heard from Internal Security that it’s a political case on Friday morning. So we did not see it as something related—’

‘So it was never reported to the bureau?’

‘It was, but they had already started looking into it. The victim was said to be a journalist with some sensitive information in her possession.’

‘You did not discuss it with them?’

‘Considering some similarities among the cases, I sent them the file about the first three murders.’

‘The file we have never had any access to,’ Yu cut in sarcastically.

Chen was about to say something when his cellphone started ringing in the meeting room. He took it out, looked at the number, and said apologetically to the others sitting at the long desk, ‘Sorry, it’s from Comrade Secretary Zhao in Beijing. I have to take it.’

Instead of rising to move out of the meeting room, Chen flipped open the phone there and then.

Party Secretary Li was watching intensely, frowning in spite of himself.

‘Oh Comrade Secretary Zhao,’ Chen started talking without trying to cover the phone. ‘You’re in Shanghai?’

‘Comrade Secretary Zhao, the retired first secretary of the Party Central Discipline Committee,’ Li echoed in a low voice, in response to the questioning looks from the others in the meeting room.

‘You mean at this moment?’ Chen went on with genuine surprise in his voice. ‘But I’m in the middle of a case discussion in the bureau—’

For the next couple of minutes, Chen listened attentively, without making a comment to Zhao at the other end of the line.

‘Fine, I’ll come over right now. The Hyatt Hotel in Pudong. I know where it is.’

Closing the phone, Chen turned to Li.

‘Comrade Secretary Zhao wants me to go over to the Hyatt Hotel in Pudong.’

‘Did he mention anything specific?’

‘Not on the phone. He just wants “a chitchat” with me, that’s what he said, and he insisted on my going there immediately. He’s just checked into the hotel this morning.’

‘To chitchat with our legendary chief inspector upon his arrival in Shanghai!’ Qin exclaimed.

‘Comrade Secretary Zhao has such a high opinion of Comrade Chief Inspector Chen,’ Li said, nodding at Chen again. ‘You have no choice but to go, even though Qin is telling us about a new victim. After all, Comrade Secretary Zhao has come all the way for you from Beijing.’

Chen detected a note of frustration in Li’s voice. The involvement of Internal Security seemed to shed some light on Li’s urgency for the meeting this morning.

And there might be another reason for it, Chen thought. As the opening session of National People’s Congress was drawing nearer, it would be a political disaster for the bureau if the case – more and more likely a serial murder case – remained unsolved, with more and more bodies piling up all the time.