Apparently, Uncle Wang had read too much into the thing between them. But had she said something about him to Uncle Wang after they parted at the ferry?
Other than the pressure at work, however, the old man was unable to tell him anything new or helpful. So what was Chief Inspector Chen going to do?
Under normal circumstances, he could try to contact the local police, who might have no objection, though an understandable reluctance, to his looking into the case. Wuxi being so close to Shanghai, there might be occasion for them to help each other, and Chen’s own rising status as one trusted in Beijing might be useful to the Wuxi police.
With Internal Security lurking in the background, however, it could be a different story.
He grabbed his cell phone and dialed Sergeant Huang.
“I need to talk to you, Huang.”
“Oh yes, Chief. Where?”
“Well,” he said, aware that Uncle Wang was watching him closely. It wouldn’t do to talk in the presence of the old man. Looking up, he saw a barbershop across the road, one sporting a conventional pole with a helix of red, blue, and white stripes spinning. “Come to a barbershop on Wuyou Road, south of the Bus 1 terminal. I’ll meet you there.”
He took his leave of Uncle Wang and walked across to the barbershop, which had the refined name of WuYu Hair Salon.
A young girl in a backless slip came trotting out, “Welcome, boss. My name is Green Jade.”
It was a mistake, he realized immediately, seeing her nipples imprinted on the thin material as she took his hand and practically dragged him in. A large number of so-called hair salons nowadays were simply a cover for sexual services. Having seen many of them in Shanghai, he should have known better
He saw several other girls in the salon. One of them wore a red silk
Green Jade led him to an inner room dimly lit with a solitary fluorescent light and started running down the available services the moment he sunk down into a leather recliner. “We provide all kinds of services, boss. Thai- style massage, foot washing, Japanese-style massage, oil back rubbing, oil body rubbing, hair washing … Whatever you want, you just name it.”
“I just want to have my hair cut.”
“No, we don’t cut hair, we only wash hair. Leisurely hair wash, luxurious, luscious. It’ll bring a relaxation to your every nerve, I guarantee it.”
“Go ahead,” he said resignedly. It was too late for him to back out. Huang must already be on his way.
The leather recliner designed for hair washing allowed him to practically lie on his back, with his head reaching out under the water. Green Jade spared no time applying shampoo to his hair, rubbing and massaging his scalp, pressing his temples with her fingers. She might have had some profession training, he mused as she stood, bending over him, her breasts almost bouncing out of her slip.
In the fluorescent light he noticed there was a deep-red rash on her bare arms and shoulders.
“Oh, you’re having allergy attack, are you?” he exclaimed with an involuntary shudder.
“Don’t worry. Many people are having the same problem here. For some, it’s much worse. It’s all because of the lake water, you know. There is so much industrial waste being dumped into it.”
It was further confirmation of the disastrous pollution problem, for which people were paying a terrible price.
“Let me rub your shoulders too, boss. They’re so tense. You must have worked hard. Relax,” she said, her hands beginning to work on him.
Before he could say anything, however, her fingers began brushing his groin.
“Let me rub your little brother too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll really enjoy it, and you can take pity on me at the same time. For washing your hair, I make only ten yuan, but for rubbing your little brother, I make sixty.”
He was going to protest as her hand started reaching for his belt, when Huang burst into the room. Without seeing Chen, whose hair was covered in lather and whose face was partially obscured by a towel, Huang started shouting for him.
“Chief Inspector Chen!”
The salon was thrown into consternation and all the girls were flabbergasted. Green Jade was transfixed at the sight of Huang in his police uniform, raising her two hands high as if in surrender.
“I’m here. Don’t worry, Sergeant Huang,” Chen said, rubbing his hair with a towel. “Let’s leave.”
He paid in accordance to the price listed on the menu on the wall. Green Jade kept thanking him, her face flushed, her hair disheveled. It was not as expensive as he had anticipated, but then perhaps the price charged was due to the presence of Sergeant Huang.
As they left the salon, Chen saw that Huang had come in a local police car.
Uncle Wang was serving a customer at an outside table, and there was no other place outside for them to sit and talk, so Chen followed Huang into the car and lost no time in asking about Shanshan.
“Your people have detained Shanshan, haven’t you?”
“You’re right on top of the latest developments, Chief,” Huang said, offering him a cigarette. “There’s a new focus in the investigation-on the people who had a grudge against Liu. She’s been detained because of her arguments with Liu. According to Mi, Liu had said something about firing her. So Shanshan has a possible motive. She was also heard threatening Liu about a week or so before his death in his office-saying that he would pay a terrible price. At least a couple of people in the company heard it.”
“I have reason to believe she was arguing with Liu about work, and she was warning him about the consequences of the industrial pollution. I strongly suspect she made no threat to Liu personally. So, who heard her make the threat?”
“Mi, and Zhou Qiang, the sales manager, who called her a bitchy busybody. It is true that some people in the company don’t like her.”
“What about her alibi?”
“She doesn’t have one. She said she was alone in her dorm room that evening, watching TV and reading, and she then went to bed around ten.”
“Most of the people in the dorm would have given you a similar answer. A considerable number of them are single, and Wuxi is not a city with a lot of entertainment at night.”
“Wuxi is not Shanghai, I know,” Huang said. “But the murderer is someone who was not a stranger to Liu. As we suspected from the very beginning, it’s someone who knew where Liu was spending the night.”
“But others in the company also know about Liu’s home office. It’s no secret. As you mentioned yesterday, Mi, the secretary, knew Liu’s whereabouts better than anybody else. And Mrs. Liu too.”
“That’s true.”
“It would make more sense for Liu to have told the people close to him about his plans for the night. With the rancor between Shanshan and Liu, how could she have possibly known where he would be?”
“How-I don’t have an answer to that.”
“Besides, with the problems between the two, it’s beyond me why Liu would have let her in, and then let her strike a fatal blow without struggling-even if she had paid him an unexpected visit that evening.” Chen paused before going on, “No, I don’t think she should be detained without any evidence or witnesses.”
“I see your point, Chief. As your friend, she may have told you things we don’t know.”
“Whether she’s my friend or not makes no difference. In fact, as I told you, I met her just two days ago,” he said, wondering whether Huang would take his word for it. “As cops, we have to tell ourselves what we can do, and what we can’t.”
“I couldn’t agree more. You’re a man of principle. I would not have detained her, but I’m the youngest one on the team; they wouldn’t listen to me. Not to mention that Internal Security is in the background, and they backed the decision.”
That was probably true, Chen thought, but he still hoped Huang would try to get her released. “There is something strange about this case, Huang. To begin with, the timing of the murder. It happened just as the IPO for
