Uncle Bao said, “and on the whole lane, too. People cannot be too careful these days.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Chen said, noticing two phones ringing at the same time. “And it keeps you pretty busy.”
There were four phones on a wooden shelf behind the small windows. One phone was labeled “FOR INCOMING CALLS ONLY.” According to Uncle Bao, the public phone service had been originally put in for the convenience of the dorm residents only, but now people in the lane could also use the phones for just ten cents.
“When a call comes in, I write down the name and call-back number on a pad, tear off that page, and give the message to the intended recipient. If it happens to be a dorm resident, I just need to shout the name at the foot of the stairs with a loudspeaker.”
“What about the people who don’t live in the building?”
“I’ve got an assistant. She goes out to inform them, shouting with her loudspeaker under their windows.”
“So they come here to return the call, right?”
“Yes,” Uncle Bao said. “By the time everyone gets a phone at home, I will really be retired.”
“Uncle Bao.” A young girl burst into the cubicle with a gray loudspeaker in her hand.
“This is the assistant I’m talking about,” Uncle Bao said. “She’s responsible for delivering the messages to the lane residents.”
“I see.”
“Xiuxiu, this is Comrade Chief Inspector Chen,” Uncle Bao said. “Chief Inspector Chen and I need to talk about something. So take care of things here for a while, will you?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“It’s not much of a job for her,” Uncle Bao sighed, moving across the street to the table where Chen had been waiting. “But that’s all she can find nowadays.”
The fried buns had not arrived yet, but the soup was already cold. Chen ordered another bowl for Uncle Bao.
“So, any progress with your investigation?”
“Not much. Your help may be really important to us.”
“You’re welcome to whatever I know.”
“Since you’re here every day, you probably know who has a lot of visitors. What about Comrade Guan?”
“Some friends or colleagues might have visited, but not too many. On one or two occasions I noticed her with people. That’s about all I saw-during my three years here.”
“What kind of people were they?”
“I cannot really remember. Sorry.”
“Did she make a lot of calls?”
“Well, yes, more than other residents here.”
“And received a lot?”
“Yes, quite a lot, too, I would say,” Uncle Bao said reflectively. “But then it’s little wonder, for a national model worker, with her meetings and conferences.”
“Anything unusual about those phone calls?”
“No, nothing that I noticed. There’re so many calls, and I am always busy.”
“Anything you happened to have overheard?”
“It’s not proper and right, Comrade Chief Inspector,” Uncle Bao said, “for me to listen to what other people say.”
“You’re right, Uncle Bao. Forgive me for this improper question. It’s just because the case is so important to us.”
The arrival of the fried buns interrupted their discussion.
“But-as for anything unusual-now that you mention it, there might be something, I think,” Uncle Bao said, nibbling at a tiny bun. “The working hours for a public phone service station are, generally, from seven A.M. to seven P.M. For the benefit of the residents here, several of whom work the night shift, we extend our service hours- from seven A.M. to eleven P.M. Guan made quite a number of calls, I remember, after nine or ten P.M. Especially during the last half year.”
“Was that wrong?”
“Not wrong, but unusual. The First Department Store closes at eight o’clock.”
“Yes?”
“The people she called must have had private phones at home.”
“Well, she might have talked to her boss.”
“But I wouldn’t call my boss after ten o’clock. Would a young single woman?”
“Yes, you’re very observant.”
The R.C. member had ears, Chen nodded, and brains, too.
“It’s my responsibility.”
“So you think that she was seeing somebody before her death?”
“It’s possible,” Uncle Bao said after a pause. “As far as I can remember, it was a man who made most of the phone calls to her. He spoke with a strong Beijing accent.”
“Is there any way to trace the phone numbers, Uncle Bao?”
“Not with the phone calls she made. There’s no way of knowing the number she dialed out. But for the calls she got, we may recover some from our record stubs. You see, we put down the number both on the slip and the stub attached to it. So if people lose their slips, we can still recover the numbers.”
“Really! Have you kept all the stubs?”
“Not all of them. Most are useless after several days. But for the past few weeks, I may be able to dig out some for you. It will take some time.”
“That will be great,” Chen said. “Thank you so much, Uncle Bao. Your information is throwing new light on our investigation.”
“You’re most welcome, Comrade Chief Inspector.”
“Another thing. Did she get a phone call on May tenth? That is, the night she was murdered.”
“May tenth was-a Thursday, let me see. I’ll have to check the stubs. The phone station drawer’s too small, so I keep most of the stubs at home.”
“Call me immediately if you find anything,” Chen said. “I don’t know how to express our appreciation.”
“Don’t mention it, Comrade Chief Inspector,” Uncle Bao said. “What’s an R.C. member for?”
At the bus station, Chen turned back and glimpsed the old man busy working in the cubicle again, cradling a phone on his shoulder, nodding, writing on a piece of paper, his other hand holding another piece out the window. A conscientious R.C. member. Most likely a Party member, too.
It was an unexpected lead: Guan might have been seeing somebody before her death.
Why she should have made such a secret of it, he did not know yet. He no longer had any conviction about its being a political case. It was Wang, with the green jade charm dangling from a thin red string round her neck, who had inspired him to pursue this line of investigation. But the moment he squeezed into the bus, he ran out of luck. Wedged among the passengers at the door, he pressed forward only to be crushed against a middle-aged fat woman, her florid blouse soaked in sweat, wet, nearly transparent. He tried his best to keep some distance, but to no avail. What was even worse, with new construction under way everywhere, the condition of the road was not smooth. The incessant bumps made the ordeal almost unbearable. More than once the bus came to an emergency halt, and his fleshy neighbor was thrown off balance, colliding with him. It was no Tuishou. He heard her cursing under her breath, though it was not anybody’s fault.
Finally he gave up. Before the bus reached the bureau, he got off at Shandong Road.
The fresh breeze was heavenly.
Bus Number 71. Possibly the very bus Guan used to take to the department store, and back, day after day.
Not until Chief Inspector Chen returned home, took off his uniform, and lay down on his bed, did he think of something that could have been a cold comfort-for Guan. Though single, Guan had not been too lonely-at least not toward the end of her life. She had someone to call after 10 P.M. He had never tried to call Wang so late in the
