from Liu’s office, particularly not with a company car at his disposal.
Liu’s house was a three-story building located in a cul-de-sac of the complex, with a large yard in the back and a three-car garage at the side. There was a car parked in the driveway. It wasn’t a company car, Huang noted.
“It’s larger than the villa at the center,” Chen commented, walking up the stone steps.
“The center was built in the early fifties,” Huang said, as he pressed the doorbell, not sure about Chen’s point.
The woman who answered the door appeared to be in her early fifties. She was slender and quite nice- looking for her age, her hair slightly streaked with silver. She was wearing an elegant silk house robe and soft- heeled slippers, and beside her were several pairs of slippers spread out on a wool mat inside the door.
“Mrs. Liu, I’m Sergeant Huang of the Wuxi Police Bureau,” he said, showing his badge, “and this is a colleague of mine.”
“My name is Chen,” Chen introduced himself. “Shall we remove our shoes, Mrs. Liu?”
“I don’t think the police have to do that,” she said indifferently.
“Of course we want to do that,” Chen said, bending to untie his shoelace. “It’s such a magnificent house.”
She led them to an immense living room with tall windows overlooking a well-maintained meadow and flowerbeds in the back. There appeared to be something of a small pond in the distance, but Huang couldn’t see clearly. She motioned them to a beige sectional sofa and offered them tea, before she perched herself on a leather chair opposite them.
“Your people have come here before, officers. So what else do you want with me?”
“First, I want to express my sincere condolences,” Chen said. “General Manager Liu did a great job for the Party, for the people, and for the company. We will do our best to bring him justice, Mrs. Liu. At the present, however, our investigation has made little progress, so I would like to talk with you. Anything you can tell may be valuable to us-about him, about his work, or about the people close to him.”
“Liu was busy, working like crazy all the time. When he made it home at night, more often than not, he was beat. He had no energy left to talk to me about things that were happening at the company, or about the people working for him.”
“Well, what about that evening? Did he tell you that he was going to meet someone at his home office?”
“No, he didn’t. He didn’t discuss his work with me, as I’ve told you.”
“Did you notice anything unusual about him before that evening?”
“He was getting busier all the time. Other than that, no, nothing.”
“A different question: was he sleeping badly of late?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did he have trouble falling asleep and, as a result, was he taking sleeping pills?”
Chen must have read through the autopsy report closely, Huang observed without making a comment, but that’s something confirmed by Liu’s colleagues.
“Occasionally, I think, but he was a healthy man for his age.”
“So you knew that he wouldn’t be coming back that evening, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. He mentioned that he had to work on something important in the office that evening.”
“So he always told you his schedule, Mrs. Liu?”
“It really depended on his work. If it wasn’t too late, he’d try to come back home and he wouldn’t call. But I never knew.” She added wistfully, “When he first got his home office, he would always call with his plans for the evening. But then he got so busy, he didn’t-not every time.”
“You go back to Shanghai frequently-practically every weekend, I’ve heard.”
“Not every weekend.”
“But when you heard that Liu wouldn’t be coming home for the night, you left for Shanghai that afternoon. Was that Saturday or Sunday?”
“Sunday-” She looked a bit uneasy. “I got back to Wuxi Sunday afternoon, but I was disappointed with his ever-busy work arrangement, so I went back to Shanghai again the same day.”
“In other words, you made two trips to Shanghai that last weekend.”
“I didn’t like the idea of being all alone in this big house.”
“So you weren’t worried?” Huang cut in. “Leaving such a successful Big Buck all alone, if you know what I mean.”
“He was a family man. Our son is graduating from Beijing University this year where he is a literature major, but Liu arranged an internship for him at the company last year, and talked to me about his plan to get him a good position there.”
“He was a really good father,” Chen said, echoing her implied meaning.
The conversation seemed to be leading nowhere. She spoke cautiously, defending her late husband’s image. As a result, she gave up very little. Huang thought that Chen exchanged a glance with him.
“So, the evening of last Saturday, you were with some friends in Shanghai, weren’t you?”
“Yes, I was there with several friends.”
“Where were you the next morning?”
“I was at a church in Shanghai, also with a friend.”
“Which one?”
“Moore Memorial Church. Why are you asking?”
“Oh, the one at the intersection of Xizang and Hankou Road. I know it. I’ve been reading a book about the Protestant influence on the development of capitalism.”
Mrs. Liu looked confounded. So did Huang.
“Well, our church is Methodist.”
“Last Sunday evening, what were you doing?”
“I was also with my friends. I’ve told your colleagues about them.”
“Who else do you think might know about his schedule that evening?” Chen went on, unruffled.
“How would I know?”
“For instance, perhaps people who worked for him at the office?”
“What about Mi, the secretary?” Huang chipped in, picking up the cue from Chen.
“I don’t want to talk about her,” Mrs. Liu said, the lines hardening on her brow.
Chen didn’t push, waiting patiently, letting a silence build up in the living room.
“You should have talked to her,” she finally said.
“Oh, by the way,” Huang said, “Mi was named office chief today. That’s quite a promotion for her.”
“She’s a shameless slut, I’m telling you,” Mrs. Liu snapped. “She has only a middle school education. How could she possibly be qualified to be the head of the office staff?”
“Well, she’s been Liu’s confidential secretary for a long time,” Chen said. “He, too, must have trusted her.”
“She was nothing to him. She cares for nothing but money, he told me. How could she have been promoted so quickly? The whole world is turned upside down!”
It would have been hard for her to say anything more explicit. After all, it was Liu who made her a secretary in the first place. It was little wonder that Mrs. Liu got so upset with her being promoted so shortly after Liu’s death. It might be nothing but a gesture, however, on the part of Fu, the new general manager. Perhaps he was appeasing Liu’s staff, before he started building his own power base.
Huang’s cell phone rang, and he checked the number. It was the head of his team, and the call was marked urgent. He had to pick up. So he excused himself and left the living room. He hurried out of the house, closing the front door, but leaving it unlocked. It wouldn’t do for him to talk in Mrs. Liu’s presence.
The call was a long one about the latest developments in the investigation. Another move had been initiated under pressure from Internal Security. Huang frowned, listening, and said little in response.
When he made his way back to the living room, Chen was still conversing with Mrs. Liu. Huang had no idea what the two had talked about during his absence, but she looked cantankerous.
Presently, Chen rose and said that he had to leave. Huang echoed this without further ado.
