Then Chen recalled something else that afternoon. The office assistant Meiling came in with a printout to Qiang during their talk, upon which Qiang stopped in the middle of a sentence and suggested that they had tea down in the café instead.

Meiling, the designated successor to Qiang, must have been screened and trained by Internal Security. Qiang was aware of the potential complications, so he wanted to continue the talk somewhere else. It nevertheless stirred up suspicions.

All of these could turn out to be wild speculations on the part of the panic-stricken inspector. Nothing but a coincidence with Qiang’s disappearance shortly after their talk. But Chen had a hard time bringing himself to believe in the coincidence.

And it could also point toward a different scenario, an even more sinister set-up threatening to engulf both Shanshan and him, which was not that inconceivable, he realized, with pieces already adding up for a disparate picture of the puzzle.

The piece of Zhao choosing him for this job after having made a study of his poem in connection to the once relationship between him and Shanshan; the piece of Zhao and others opting not to do anything directly about her documentary project; the piece of his having ruffled high feathers with his earlier investigations, and with his articles about judicial independence; the piece of her scantily clothed pictures mysteriously surfacing in a net cop’s computer …

These pieces, when put together, suggested a devilish trap had been set for him in the investigation of Shanshan’s project. Considering the past between the two, it was to be expected that they would come to discuss among themselves some things of which she might not have spoken to others. After all, they found themselves in the same boat, so to speak, once in Tai Lake, and now by Huangpu River. She had no reason not to trust him. So the hitherto unknown information would then be uncovered.

In the midst of all this, the piece of Qiang’s disappearance could have been designed to make the devious trap infallible.

But he ended up with only one certainty: whoever had orchestrated the disappearance of Qiang must have done so from a really powerful position.

Detective Yu was increasingly disturbed with Qin’s direction of the investigation.

Then a phone call came in from Peiqin. After recounting Lianping’s message, she added, ‘Lianping could not talk in her office, so she texted me, and I texted back. When we were finished, the plum flower cake for brunch was cold.’

‘You are the most extraordinary wife for a cop, as Chen has said.’

It was obvious that Internal Security was moving fast in accordance to their set course of action, and so was Detective Qin, following them.

So what else could Detective Yu do?

As a consultant, he had made himself clear enough to Detective Qin who was the one in charge of the investigation, though they all still thought differently.

Lighting a cigarette, Yu decided to study the case report and pictures just one more time.