Now something more sinister was being done to Shanshan, and to the people related to her. And she was still in the dark. In the event of its being posted online prior to the release of the documentary, the latter would have been doomed.

So it was up to him, as a cop as well as a man, to thwart such a devious scheme.

But how?

After listening to the tape recorded at the neighborhood office in Zabei Park, Detective Yu began debating with himself whether he should get hold of Inspector Chen to discuss the latest information and development.

Yu was now pretty sure Lou was the one. That being the case, it was the order of the day to put him into custody before his next move.

But Yu was not absolutely sure, with neither evidence nor witness.

What if he turned out to be wrong?

In that case, why should he drag the inspector into the mess?

To his surprise, a phone call came in. It was from Detective Qin.

‘Anything new on your side?’

‘Well, that’s what I want to ask of you, Detective Qin.’ Yu added deliberately, ‘You have put your suspect in custody, I’ve heard.’

‘No, not officially yet.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Given the circumstances, I don’t think Internal Security is one hundred percent sure about Zhou being the one. It’s almost a week since Xiang’s death. If nothing has happened for another week or so, then we can conclude the investigation.’

‘I see.’

‘Now what has your chief inspector said to you about the latest development? He’s hardly been seen in the bureau for the last few days.’

‘He’s made a trip to Wuxi for Zhao, that’s about all I know.’

Chen had mentioned his getting a phone call from Li on the Shanghai-Wuxi train, so Qin must have heard about it, too.

But Yu wondered why Qin raised the question about Chen again.

In fact, he himself did not know what Chen had been up to. If it was something about which Chen chose not to talk to him, however, it could mean that the inspector knew he was in serious trouble.

After the talk on the phone with Detective Qin, Yu dialed Chen, but without success.

In the private room of the Small River restaurant, the contents of the video began to change, shifting to scenes from another location, a startlingly different one, which immediately grabbed Inspector Chen’s attention anew.

He watched on, holding his breath, as if under an inexplicable spell.

The new section of the video seemed to be of much lower resolution, rather blurred with dim light in the background. It had probably been taken in a shabby old building long out of repair.

First it presented a narrow corridor, almost like a decrepit hotel, lined with a considerable number of rooms on both sides, storing stacks of briquettes, coal stoves, piles of vegetables and other nondescript stuff outside, but otherwise a deserted corridor.

A man appeared from the landing of the stairs, heading stealthily to the middle of the corridor. What with his hat and glasses, with the poor light in the corridor, and with his moving along in a hurry, his face was practically unrecognizable.