Death on Black Dragon River (A Case for Detective Inspector Bao Zheng Book Book 2) by Christopher West

Author:Christopher West [West, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: detective, international crime fiction, Chinese detective, crime story, murder mystery, police procedural
Publisher: Corazon Crime
Published: 2016-01-24T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

‘We haven’t got a key,’ said Station Chief Huang.

He and Bao were standing outside the old building. It was about two hours after Bao had left to walk back into the village and report what he had seen. During that time, someone had padlocked the door from the outside.

‘Who has keys?’ Bao asked.

‘Wang Shaobing should have one.’

‘Of course, your Head of Agriculture. Anyone else?’

‘Some of the local farmers – I’m not sure which ones, though.’

‘You put the pressure on, I’ll kick.’

‘This is state property!’

‘This is a police investigation.’

Station Chief Huang put all his weight on the door; his urban colleague aimed a wushu kick at the wood just by the padlock’s plate.

Smack! The door slewed open.

Silence followed.

‘Anyone there?’ said Huang.

The store had the sharp dry smell of dust. Bao began pulling at any uneven flagstones. None gave. He shone a torch round at the once-bright rafters, now grey with spiders’ webs. No hiding place up there. There was a set of iron rings along one wall – he gave a tug at each in turn. ‘What are these for?’ he asked.

‘Oh, they’re from the Cultural Revolution,’ Huang replied. ‘This was the cowshed.’

Bao felt a chill of horror. ‘They attached people to them, didn’t they?’

‘Only bad elements,’ said Huang. ‘Hmm – this sack has been moved recently.’

Bao nodded. ‘Well spotted.’ Perhaps Huang wasn’t such a useless policeman after all. The two men began heaving sacks away from the wall, to reveal a missing panel.

‘Bao Zheng, you’re a bit, er, thinner than I am. Do you think you could squeeze into that space?’

‘I could. But as the local officer, don’t you want the honour of going first?’

‘I, er, think as a guest, that should go to you.’

‘Very well.’

He didn’t need to go very far, anyway. Behind the panel was a gap, and a drop into a basement, where the torch illuminated a set of black rectangular shapes. Bao didn’t need to climb down into the basement, but he did, anyway. Just to be sure. And to prove to the local man that he was still fit and agile.

Each shape was a cloth. He removed the first one, and under it was a piece of electrical equipment.

Ma Kai stared out of the bus window as it pulled in to a halt. The usual crowd of vendors surrounded it – teasing one of their number, on whom a big-nose had thrown up a few days ago.

That’ll be me probably, Kai told himself. Scraping a living, selling crappy food or shit souvenirs; imploring people to buy them, like a cur.

He shook his head. If only that bloody Party boss hadn’t been killed, there wouldn’t have been all this heat on him.

A vendor shouted in his ear. Kai told him to fuck off. The guy didn’t even answer back. No, the young man said to himself, I won’t be like that. I’ll be tough. I’ll join a Triad — they’re real men. For a moment, a smile crossed his face: he’d have proper brothers, not like the crowd back in Nanping, none of whom had had the guts to join in his robberies.

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