“What about the trash? How often is it picked up?”

  “Usually once a day,” the detective said.

  “Shit. If it weren’t way too late, we could check the trash cans for a bottle containing ethanol. We found traces of it all over the victim’s room.”

  “There’s a garbage center nearby,” a district police officer chimed in. “If the container is relatively distinct, we might still be able to find it.”

  “Is it necessarily straight ethanol?” the detective said. “Could it be baijiu?”

  “I thought it was baijiu too,” Big Bao exclaimed at the mention of the potent liquor. “Ethanol just isn’t that fragrant.”

  I felt like a rat rescued from a maze, suddenly refreshed and sober. “Let’s get back to the site!”

  Aside from the bedroom, there were two more upstairs rooms in Ding’s house, but they were so neat and clean that we hadn’t paid them much attention before. One was an unused guest room without so much as a blanket on the bed. The other was a study full of all kinds of books, as well as a shelf displaying a wide selection of baijiu bottles in decorative boxes. Fang Xiangyu must not have been a very thorough maid, because the shelf was covered in dust.

  “Look down here.” I pointed my flashlight at the shelf. One box had been moved recently, exposing a dustless area underneath.

  Lin Tao put on gloves and carefully picked up the box. He turned to me and said, “Good eye, my friend. It’s empty.”

  We checked the other boxes, all of which still had bottles of booze inside.

  “Now we just need to confirm that the bottle of baijiu from this box was the one poured on the body. A chemical test could do that, right?” I asked.

  “I can tell you right now!” Lin Tao said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Look at these markings. Whoever picked up the box was wearing gloves like the ones I found fibers from on the tape used to bind the victim’s hands and feet.”

  “What?” I said. “Why would anyone wear gloves to get alcohol?”

  We ran to the master bedroom and lay down on the floor.

  “Oh!”

  Back at temporary project headquarters, Secretary Bao sat at a dining table in the center of the room. We sat across from her, and several police officers and government officials arranged themselves on a sofa off to the side.

  Having a task force meeting in an apartment felt pretty silly.

  “If I’m not mistaken,” I said, “Fang Xiangyu was cleaning other people’s houses too?”

  “Of course.” Secretary Bao seemed a bit disappointed at my opening remark. Maybe she’d expected me to tell her who the killers were right away. “She worked only part-time for Deputy Mayor Ding. Commissioner Wang, give us a report on her whole working situation.”

  Wang flipped the pages of his notebook with gusto. “According to our investigation, Fang Xiangyu usually went to each family’s house every other day for half the day. She worked for four families in total. That is to say, her schedule was relatively full. The four families, respectively, were Deputy Mayor Ding; Qian Yiran, who lives in one of the six-story buildings nearby; a family in another complex about a mile away called Scenic View—”

  “Okay,” I said, cutting him off. “What do we know about Qian Yiran?”

  “But I’m not finished.” Wang pointed to his notebook and looked at Secretary Bao. He was so used to reporting to this woman that he was anxious about not completely fulfilling her request.

  “Answer my question,” I said.

  “Oh, okay.” Maybe Wang had gotten a look of approval from Bao. “Qian Yiran is thirty-seven years old, previously ran a coal mine, but now he manages a restaurant in Qingxiang.”

  “Personal life?” I prompted.

  “Divorced one, two, three, four, five, six—divorced six times, no kids,” Wang said.

  “Is Fang Xiangyu still here?” I turned my head to ask the detective behind me.

  “We’re in the process of releasing her now.”

  “Invite her to stay a little longer.” I leaned closer and whispered a few words to him.

  The detective turned and left.

  Secretary Bao frowned, impatient for me to get to the point.

  I smiled and said, “Don’t worry, beautiful. I’ll explain it to you. First of all, we already hypothesized that the killers and Ding probably didn’t know one another, right?” I said.

  Secretary Bao said, “Right, you think they had Deputy Mayor Ding’s keys, broke in ahead of time, and waited for an opportunity to attack.”

  I nodded. “Right. Next, after thorough investigation, we discovered that after the killers struck, they went to the study and got a bottle of baijiu and poured it over the body, then took the bottle away from the scene with them. Why do you think the killers would pour baijiu on the body?”

  I caught a flash of childishness in Bao’s eyes. “Dunno, a toast?”

  I smiled slightly and shook my head. “Wouldn’t use that much to memorialize. I think the killers wanted to burn the body.”

  “Okay. What’s that tell us?”

  “Well, why burn a body?”

  “To destroy evidence!” Bao’s eyes shone.

  “Yes, the primary motive would be to keep us from finding incriminating evidence,” I said. “But crime scenes with burned bodies are usually in rural areas where a fire wouldn’t immediately be seen by neighbors. Have you heard of anyone burning a body in an apartment complex?”

  Bao opened her mouth but didn’t speak.

  “Many killers will try to hide the body so they have time to flee,” I continued. “That’s especially important if the murder occurred in the victim’s home.”

  “But like you said, in an apartment, someone would notice before the killer could get away.”

  “Right.” I grinned, warming up to the twist. “Which tells us that the killers didn’t need time to run. After further surveying today, we found traces of alcohol leading to the door, and at the end there are slight burn marks. The killers made a line of baijiu and lit it before leaving, so that when the fire started, they’d be safe.”

  I looked right at Bao and said, “So now do you get it?”

  Bao avoided my gaze and recovered her arrogant expression. “Sure. At least one of the killers lives nearby, so they didn’t need to buy much time.”

  “Right, but the fire didn’t catch. Guess again.”

  Bao suppressed her anger. “If the killers had a car outside, couldn’t they just flee that way?”

  “Don’t be silly. The surveillance video shows no suspicious vehicles and few people leaving the complex.”

  “Are you saying Qian Yiran is a suspect?” Commissioner Wang asked.

  “Yup,” I said. “He didn’t have to leave the complex.”

  “But why would he want to kill Ding?” Secretary Bao asked.

  “Fang Xiangyu.”

  “We’ve got a lead!” A detective burst through the door with a bang. “Should I make the arrest, Boss?”

  “Excuse yourself!” Commissioner Wang’s eyes widened in fury. His men were embarrassing him in front of important city officials. “Now, back up. What did you find out?”

  The detective said, “Fang Xiangyu says Qian Yiran was pursuing her, but she refused.”

  “Refused?” I was a bit surprised. “Wouldn’t that woman do anything for money?”

  “Don’t judge her,” Secretary Bao said. “You don’t know her life.”

  The detective shook his head and said, “Qian Yiran is impotent.”

  Qian Yiran was issued a summons, and we went to search his home. Big Bao was wildly excited.

  “See, Boss? I was right, right?” Big Bao said. “That brand of alcohol is about three thousand bucks a bottle, limited edition. I bet a thousand is just for the bottle. It’s super pretty, with a concave bottom and old sailboat inside. The color of the sail changes with the temperature—it’s exquisite. Everyone loves it, so this guy probably kept it as a collector’s item.”

  Alcohol always brought out the eloquent side of Big Bao.

  Fang Xiangyu must have had her work cut out for her cleaning Qian Yiran’s place. She’d been gone only for a week, and it already looked like an outdoor market at closing time. There were empty beer cans all over the coffee table. The floor was covered in takeout wrappers, and the table was cluttered with food scraps and unwashed dishes.

  Big Bao caught sight of a vase of roses prominently displayed in a bay window. The vase had a concave bottom and a vivid sailboat inside.

  “Like I said!” Big Bao jumped three feet in the air. “See? Just call me Sherlock.”

  “Easy, big guy.” I squeezed Big Bao’s shoulder. “How do you know it’s the bottle from Deputy Mayor Ding’s house?”

  Big Bao smoothly pulled out the roses, dumped the water into a nearby plant, and pointed at the bottom of the bottle. “This is a limited-edition, high-quality luxury product. Each bottle has a serial number!”

  “And?” Lin Tao prompted, laughing at Bao’s exuberance.

  “And?” Big Bao pushed the glasses up on his nose. “And what? . . . Oh yeah, it matches the number on the box you found. I wrote it down so I could go online and check its authenticity.”

  “You’re really committed to your baijiu.” I laughed. “Okay, boys. That’s a wrap, case closed!”

  10

  Qian Yiran was a romantic, but he’d been cursed with an uncooperative body.

  As the boss of a coal mine, he’d been an important man. He had a luxury car and designer clothes. But he couldn’t make it happen with women.

  Whenever he got into a new relationship, it was a whirlwind of romance and promises. They’d get married fast, but then Qian Yiran’s impotence, and his anger about it, led swiftly to divorce. Ashamed, Qian Yiran gave each of his ex-wives some of his property if they’d agree to keep things out of court. Eventually, all he had left was one small restaurant.

  Fang Xiangyu had come to work for him a year before. She was no great beauty, but her honest temperament moved him. He thought he’d finally found true love, but, of course, he’d thought that with all six of his marriages.

  Fang Xiangyu was not a shy girl, and soon made it clear that she shared his interest. Qian Yiran tried to sweep her off her feet, but his body let him down yet again. In a flash, Fang Xiangyu’s interest evaporated.

  Do women really care about sex that much? Qian Yiran wondered. Xiangyu can’t be so vulgar! She’s a pure girl—she looks so innocent. I bet it’s just that her family wants her to have children. Rural people are so traditional. It must be that. I’m sure she still cares for me anyway.

  He didn’t give up, believing his passion would make up for his bodily defect.

  But one day he noticed with alarm that Fang Xiangyu was wearing new clothes and carrying a new handbag. She was in a suspiciously good mood. He started to track her every move and riffled through her cell phone while she was cleaning.

  He found a text message she’d written to someone called “Ding”: If you want to, I’ll come tonight.

  Qian Yiran spun with jealousy. Doesn’t she work for someone named Ding? He lives just over in one of those town houses. A dirty old man sullying the young girl I love! He must have seduced her with sweet talk, with lies. That’s why she hasn’t wanted to be with me!

  When Qian Yiran confronted her, Fang Xiangyu snatched her phone away. “What I do with my time and my body is none of your business.”

  After that, Qian Yiran couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. He needed to know if another man was tarnishing his girl.

  You can’t run a coal mine without knowing some thugs. Qian Yiran called up three he knew were still loyal.

  The thugs couldn’t pick locks, so Qian Yiran secretly copied Fang Xiangyu’s keys.

  That night, his body trembled as he tested the keys one by one. But when the front door gave way, he suddenly wasn’t nervous at all. He and the men hid in a closet, waiting for Ding to come home.

  Qian Yiran had learned about Fortune Paste from TV shows, and he knew it’d be just the thing for his little interrogation. First, he’d find out if this Ding had defiled his goddess. Second, he’d teach the old bastard a lesson.

  But he blew it.

  He’d only just started plastering toilet paper on Ding’s face when the man stopped moving. Qian Yiran shook him. What the hell? How’d he die so fast?

  The thugs started to panic and looked to their former boss. That reverence calmed him, took him back to the heyday of the coal mine when he’d felt powerful, manly. “It is what it is, boys. Let’s burn the body, hide out at home for a while, and everything’ll be all right.”

  The roses were to be a surprise for Fang Xiangyu, a little gift to ease the pain of her mother’s death. With his rival out of the way, Qian Yiran was sure the innocent girl would finally be won over by the lovely flowers in their strangely beautiful vase.

  11

  “How’s it going, Chief Hu?” I was panting, having raced up to the forensic pathology lab on the fifth floor of Dragon City’s municipal public security bureau. When I heard they’d ID’d the corpse in the Eleventh Finger case, I’d asked our driver, Han Liang, to floor it.

  “That was fast. Didn’t you guys just leave?” Chief Hu said with surprise.

  I picked up Chief Hu’s cup of tea and downed it. “I’ve been dying to know—any developments in the Eleventh Finger case?”

  “Heh, not a bad project name,” Chief Hu said. “Eleventh Finger.”

  Big Bao, Lin Tao, and I sat down at the chief’s desk, staring expectantly.

  “No rush, no rush, let me tell you the whole story. The victim is a male named Zuo Fangjiang, thirty years old. Five years ago, he committed telecom fraud and used the capital from that to start the Tongtong Internet Company in Nanjiang City.”

  I wasn’t too interested in this scumbag’s history. “What’s someone from Nanjiang doing in Dragon City?”

  “He traveled alone by train to Dragon City on June second for business,” Chief Hu said. “That night, after eating with a business partner at his hotel bar, he went back to his room by himself. Zuo Fangjiang’s wife said she called him at midnight, and he didn’t answer. When he didn’t come home the next day as scheduled, she called again, but the phone was turned off.”

  “The hotel he stayed at, has it been searched yet?” I asked.

  “The hotel realized two days ago that he still hadn’t checked out, so they sent someone in to look. Everything was neat and tidy, nothing suspicious. So they moved his luggage to the front desk and called us.”

  “Now that we’ve ID’d the victim, the case should be easy to solve, right?” I stroked my stubble.

  “I think not.”

  “No?” I said. “Dismembering a body is usually done to hide it. And hiding a body is usually done by acquaintances. So once you ID the victim, you’re halfway there. Don’t you think so?”

  Chief Hu said, “Yeah, in general, but every case is different, Qin. As far as we can tell, this is the first time Zuo Fangjiang has visited Dragon City, so how could he know anyone?”

  “He could have an enemy in Dragon City,” Lin Tao said, “or one that followed him here.”

  Chief Hu shook his head. “I think we can rule out both those possibilities. Besides his partner, he hasn’t contacted anyone since arriving in Dragon City. And if an enemy followed him, why would he bother to dismember the body instead of just getting out of town?”

  “Good point,” I said. “Then there’s only one possibility—the business partner killed him.”

  “That’s what we thought at first too, but the Security Ministry conducted a secret investigation of the business partner and was able to determine that he is definitely not the killer.”

  “So . . . no suspects, no motive? What’s with this case?” Big Bao whined.

  Lin Tao thought a moment. “If the killer was just a casual business contact, he wouldn’t be too bothered by disemboweling and dismembering Zuo Fangjiang.”

  “Right. Did we find the victim’s organs?” I said.

  Chief Hu nodded. “We enlisted local firefighters to drain a nearby pond and found the organs there.”

  “It’d take a forensic scientist to remove all the internal organs in one go, right?” Lin Tao said. “I mean, I sure couldn’t do it.”

  “You’re right,” Chief Hu said. “Based on their appearance, the organs were removed using forensic techniques.”

  “So our killer studied forensics?” I asked.

  “Well, that’s complicated,” Chief Hu said. “The disembowelment shows strong familiarity with anatomy, but the dismemberment doesn’t. My personal hunch is that the killer is actually a professional forensic scientist who deliberately messed up the dismemberment just to throw us off.”

  “So why would the killer take out the organs if he was just going to dump them?” I asked.

  “To attract attention,” Chief Hu said emphatically.

  “Attract attention?” Big Bao said, puzzled. “Maybe the killer’s insane?”

  Chief Hu shook his head. “The key characteristic of crimes committed by the insane is that they ignore consequences; they’re sloppy. But the body was dismembered with care, disemboweled with skill, special grooves were made for the ropes—all of it shows purposeful action. And talent.”

  “Okay, so what’s the point of trying to attract attention?” I asked Hu.

  “To make sure we’d find it,” Chief Hu said, lowering his eyes. “Provoke the police.”

  I nodded. “Oh God. Dismembering the body wasn’t to hide it. It was to make it easier for us to find, and more ghastly. Our opponent is directly challenging us.”

  “And he has some real anatomical knowledge,” Chief Hu said. “I’d hate to imagine it could be one of our own. Can you guys think of anyone in forensics who might be a suspect?”

  “Chief Hu,” Forensic Scientist Han interrupted, looking surprised to see us. “You guys are back already? Didn’t you go to work on that murdered politician case?”