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  “Little Bitch is dead,” Pupu said, once they were all together.

  “You’re sure?” Chaoyang was not sure whether he should be happy or not.

  “Oh, yeah, we could see everything from the window. They picked her up and the whole back of her head was crushed. As we came out the police were coming up the stairs to investigate,” Pupu said.

  “I’m dead meat. The police are definitely going to arrest me,” he wailed.

  “Don’t be afraid: nobody saw you except me and Ding Hao. I’m not telling. Ding Hao?”

  “Me?” Ding Hao straightened. “I would never sell out a brother! Not even if they tortured me.”

  Pupu glanced at him and suppressed a smile. “OK, Blabber Mouth.”

  “Have a little faith, I know when to shut up! We’re friends, Chaoyang, and I’ll be loyal to the end.” He clapped Chaoyang on the shoulder and puffed out his chest to make himself look more heroic.

  Their show of support made Chaoyang try to give them a smile. But he was still in shock at the way his emotions had consumed him. “Well, whatever happens, happens. Come on, let’s go home.” At these words, a thunderbolt cracked, and huge raindrops pelted down. People ran for cover and the whole area emptied in minutes. The three kids ran to the bus stop.

  Chaoyang stood on the crowded bus and looked out the window. Everything that happened today felt like a strange dream. He looked at Ding Hao, who was in his own world, and he understood then that Ding Hao made a big show of being loyal and generous, but really he was a timid mouse on the inside. Chaoyang could tell by looking at him that his heart was heavy and that he was a little afraid.

  Pupu had resumed her poker face. She noticed Chaoyang looking at Ding Hao and smiled quickly, as if nothing was wrong. Chaoyang struggled to return her smile.

  20

  CHILDREN’S PALACE

  The storm washed away the blood in the courtyard, and key evidence along with it.

  It was clear that not even a miracle would bring the little girl back. Emergency workers pronounced her dead at the scene. The police were left to deal with the body. Based on the extent of her injuries, the police deduced that the victim had fallen from one of the top two floors. They checked the toilets and were unable to find any evidence in the women’s toilets. That left the men’s toilets on the fifth floor, where they found some suggestions of a struggle.

  The officers on the scene had already been suspicious that this was not an accident, and what they found in that toilet was enough to call in the higher-ups. Captain Ye Jun arrived with several of the serious crime officers. He carried one of Jingjing’s shoes to the fifth-floor windowsill where some footprints had been found and it was a match. It was chilling corroboration.

  Dr Chen, the coroner, examined the body. Without bothering to take off his rain jacket, he sought out Captain Ye on the fifth floor and urgently pulled him aside. “Ye, the girl had four pubic hairs in her mouth.”

  “What?” Ye Jun’s eyes widened. “Are you suggesting she was sexually assaulted at the Children’s Palace?”

  “I know, it’s sickening. I have asked technicians from the District Public Security Bureau to drop what they’re doing and process everything as quickly as possible. I think this is the first sexual assault of a minor our team has ever dealt with.”

  Ye Jun was enraged. His own daughter was only thirteen and frequently came to the Children’s Palace. He wanted to make sure the case was solved quickly to protect the community and reassure the parents. Otherwise, no one would bring their kids here ever again. “I don’t care what resources we have to use. We have to catch this monster.”

  Dr Chen took off his raincoat and opened his toolkit. Captain Ye and the other officers put on gloves and shoe covers belatedly before gathering evidence. But too many people had passed through the toilet that day and it was difficult to identify what might be important. The floor was concrete and it was nearly impossible to get any impressions of footprints, and some were from overeager officers who arrived on the scene and neglected to secure it.

  The officers searched the urinal and all the stalls but found nothing. The massive shit found in one toilet was assumed to be irrelevant. They had a paltry amount of evidence, so placed their hopes on the windowsill. An officer had been holding an umbrella out of the window to protect the evidence from the relentless rain. Dr Chen took fingerprints from the sill and the window, working efficiently. The walls were untiled and there was no point trying to get prints from them. After one more careful sweep of the room, Dr Chen left.

  There was a briefing at Ningbo Jiangdong Public Security Bureau that evening. Chen laid out the facts: the victim fell from the fifth floor of the building. Her eyes were puffy, presumably from crying; she had pubic hairs in her mouth; and she had been slapped and punched. It suggested foul play, possibly a case of child molestation and murder. Fingerprints and fibres belonging to Jingjing were found on the windowsill. The two prevailing theories were that she was carried to the windowsill and pushed, or that when she was being attacked, she climbed on the windowsill and jumped or fell. They had also found fingerprints belonging to at least ten other people—it was unclear whether any of them were relevant. Evidence from the autopsy led the officers to assume that the perpetrator forced Jingjing to give him oral sex.

  The officers at the meeting were filled with righteous indignation—how could someone do that to a nine-year-old?

  “Was there semen in the victim’s mouth?” Captain Ye asked.

  “No,” Dr Chen answered.

  “Was that because… the perpetrator did not ejaculate?”

  “There should have been some kind of semen traces, even if he did not ejaculate. The expert I spoke to said Jingjing might have spat it out or swallowed it, but there should be traces somewhere at the crime scene. The other question that’s been niggling me is how anyone would have the nerve to molest a child in such a public place.”

  “Must be a pervert!” a policeman said.

  “Why didn’t he pull the girl into a stall instead of molesting her by the window? The lack of evidence in the stalls is surprising. If it happened in the open, anyone could have walked in on them. It was incredibly brazen.”

  The investigators were unable to reach any conclusions. Perhaps the killer liked to take risks.

  “Some blood and skin cells were found on Jingjing’s teeth. They almost certainly belong to the killer. Our initial analysis suggests skin cells from the hand, rather than genitalia. It’s possible that she bit the killer’s hand and he pushed her in anger or humiliation. Our lab staff are working on getting a DNA sample now.”

  The DNA of the blood in Jingjing’s mouth was a clue that could change the course of the investigation. Unfortunately, they would have to wait until they found a suspect to match it to.

  After Dr Chen finished his report, the other officers shared the evidence they had found.

  Zhu Jingjing was dropped off by her mother, Wang Yao, at about 9 a.m. The girl was used to going to the calligraphy class on her own. It was the only class on the fifth floor that day, and usually had about ten students. The calligraphy teacher remembered Jingjing asking to use the toilet and some of the students in the class had heard crying, but it was unclear if that was Jingjing or a student from another floor, because nobody had gone to check.

  Since the Children’s Palace was an old building, it only had one CCTV for the entrance and the main lobby. Surprisingly, nobody had witnessed her fall, meaning nobody would be able to identify the perpetrator.

  The police grimaced—the evidence was scant at best. They would be relying on that CCTV camera because the murderer would have passed it at some point. Still, it would be a nightmare to try and find him in the crowd—a lot of people came to the Children’s Palace in the summer.

  Ye Jun looked thoughtful. He then sent a few officers to contact students, parents and teachers who had been at the Children’s Palace to see if they could give any assistance. He would speak to his superior first thing
tomorrow to see if they could offer a reward for information that led to an arrest. Finally, he designated a few officers to sift through the surveillance footage for any suspicious males, especially a man on his own.

  21

  CHAOYANG’S HOME

  The rain that had started in the morning continued straight into the evening without any sign of stopping. The weather report said it would stop tomorrow. The sound of the raindrops hitting the window waxed and waned. Zhu Chaoyang watched television with a vacant expression on his face. Ding Hao had discovered that the old computer had a few games on it, despite not being connected to the internet, so stopped moping and became totally fixated on the games. He seemed to have forgotten what happened that morning and he ignored the pain in his palm. Pupu read a book.

  The three of them kept to themselves.

  They stayed that way for hours, until Pupu looked up at the clock. It was eight. “Ding Hao, Brother Chaoyang, I’m going to make some noodles. You want some?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Ding Hao said without looking at her.

  “OK,” Chaoyang said absentmindedly.

  Pupu scoffed. “Brother Chaoyang, you need to stop thinking about it. If they know you did it, they will come and find you. If they don’t know, they won’t bother you. Worrying about it won’t change the outcome. So let’s just act like it didn’t happen. You’re a kid. Kids who commit crimes don’t get executed.”

  (The only thing Pupu was afraid of was being killed by a firing squad.)

  “Kids who commit crimes don’t get executed,” he repeated, his mind still wandering. Then he jumped up and sprinted to his bookshelf. He opened a textbook about government and flipped through to a page about serious crimes that he had read before. He read and reread the paragraph several times, then put down the book and hurried over to Pupu. “I’m not fourteen yet! I’m not fourteen yet!”

  “So?” she asked.

  “The age of criminal responsibility is fourteen, so I can’t be held criminally liable for certain crimes,” he said in a rush.

  Ding Hao looked at the two of them. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that even if the police figure out that I did it, it’s not a big deal, because I don’t turn fourteen until January. I won’t be punished that severely because I’m not fourteen!”

  Ding Hao shook his head. “I’m turning fourteen in a few months and Pupu’s not turning fourteen for ages. You’re saying we can just kill someone on the street and it’s no big deal?”

  “I mean, it’s still a big deal. But at least I won’t go to prison, just a juvenile rehabilitation centre.”

  “What’s the difference between prison and juvenile rehabilitation?” Ding Hao asked.

  “I don’t know, but at least I won’t go to prison. I assume I’d still go to school and then get out when I’m eighteen.”

  “So it’s like living at the orphanage?” Ding Hao asked.

  “I don’t know exactly, but anyway, I won’t be criminally liable.” Chaoyang looked relieved.

  Pupu smiled. “See? The worst thing that happens is you go to that juvie-whatever for a few years. You can relax.”

  “The only thing is, I still might get in trouble,” Chaoyang said.

  “What do you mean?” Ding Hao asked.

  “If my dad ever found out that I was the one that pushed Little Bitch, he would turn me in and I’d go straight to the juvenile rehabilitation centre. My dad would disown me and my mum would be all by herself, and she’d be really sad.”

  “Don’t worry. They won’t find out,” Ding Hao said. He turned his attention back to the computer.

  Pupu said a few more comforting words before going to make noodles. When they were ready, Ding Hao ate in front of the computer, while Pupu and Chaoyang sat in front of the television. For a brief period, the atmosphere was less oppressive.

  Then the phone rang. Everyone froze. It was already 8:40 p.m.: who would be calling at this hour? Chaoyang crept to the phone, his jaw set. Pupu stood close by and Ding Hao paused his game. The phone rang a second time.

  Chaoyang made fists and relaxed his hands, and finally plucked up his courage. “Hello?”

  “Chaoyang, I wanted to tell you something. You know the child that your father had with that witch? She fell to her death today.” It was his mother. He was appalled to hear a trace of delight in her voice.

  “Fell… to her death?” he said dumbly.

  “My colleague told me about it. She said the little girl fell from the fifth floor of the Children’s Palace and died. Your father never worried about you in the past and now that his daughter has died, he’s crying as if his own father died, that’s what everyone is saying,” Zhou Chunhong said. She felt that passing on the gossip was a little unseemly, because Zhu Yongping’s parents were actually quite nice to her and her son. Her father-in-law was unwell, and her words were a slight on him, so she added: “I mean, your grandfather is a good person; it’s just your father who is a good-for-nothing. I think now that the little girl is gone, your father will treat you better.”

  “Uh-huh,” Chaoyang said weakly.

  Zhou could sense that her son was acting strangely. “What’s wrong? Are your two friends still with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did you have an argument?”

  “No, everything’s fine.”

  “Then what is it?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Did you go anywhere fun today?” Zhou persisted.

  Chaoyang hesitated before answering. “We went to the Children’s Palace in the morning and we played games at home in the afternoon.”

  “You were at the Children’s Palace? Did you see the accident?”

  “We saw that somebody fell, but we didn’t know it was her. We came straight home.”

  “Oh, that must have been upsetting for you,” his mother said, quickly finding an excuse for her beloved son.

  “Yeah… a little.”

  “It’s OK. You’re not alone tonight so you’ll be OK. Chin up.”

  “We’re going to play some games.”

  “I feel better knowing you’re all together. I’ll come back in a couple days. Be good.”

  “I will,” he said. He hung up and exhaled loudly.

  22

  5 JULY

  Professor Yan Liang had bought a new phone to replace the stolen one, but it took a day to load his contacts. He thought of the text messages Xu Jing had sent and called her. “Xu Jing, dear, I lost my phone two days ago. Is something wrong?”

  “Oh, everything’s fine, everything’s fine. Yeah, I’ll call you later,” she replied and immediately hung up.

  Yan Liang frowned. That wasn’t like her at all. Half an hour later, his niece called back. Her voice sounded panicked. “Uncle Yan, I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you just then. I needed to find a private place because I want to tell you that my mother and my father had an accident.”

  “What kind of an accident?”

  “They… they passed away.”

  “They passed away? But they were both healthy,” Yan said.

  “Dongsheng took them to Sanmingshan. They fell off the mountain and died.” Xu Jing sounded like she was about to cry.

  “Oh, my poor Xu Jing. Tell me when the funeral service is, I want to be there,” Yan Liang said.

  “Uncle Yan?” Xu Jing asked hesitantly. “Would you come and visit me as soon as you can? I know it’s a big favour.”

  “What can I do for you?” Yan thought it was a little strange because he was only a cousin and usually closer family members would be expected to deal with funeral arrangements. Also he didn’t consider himself qualified for such a task.

  “I don’t think that their deaths were an accident.”

  Yan spoke carefully. “What do you think happened?”

  “They were murdered,” Xu Jing whispered.

  “Murdered? Who would want to kill your parents?”

  “Zhang Dongsheng!”

  “Zhang Dongshen
g?” Yan coughed. “Have the two of you been fighting? I know when something so unexpected happens, your imagination tends to run wild. But you can’t go around saying things like that; if Dongsheng found out, he would be really hurt. You’re married, you still have to make things work.”

  “I don’t have to make things work any more. I’ve already told him I want a divorce. He hates me for not wanting to stay together and I’m sure that he killed my parents!”

  Yan had no idea that the marriage was at breaking point. He clearly remembered how they were determined to get married, despite the disapproval of her parents. Zhang Dongsheng was born in the countryside and he didn’t have a great job—Xu Jing’s parents thought their daughter could do better. But even though her parents thought they were in different leagues, the two had loved each other. Xu Jing was obstinate and quickly decided that Dongsheng was the one; she’d ask for forgiveness instead of permission. How had everything changed so drastically in just four years?

  No matter what Xu Jing said, Yan could not believe that Zhang Dongsheng would kill his parents-in-law. “Xu Jing, what did the police say?”

  “The police have already filed an accident report. But we’re only hearing his version of events.”

  Yan grimaced. “You don’t believe the police report? You only believe your flights of fancy?”

  “Uncle Yan, I am afraid for my safety! I think Dongsheng is going to kill me next. I couldn’t tell you all this on the phone earlier because he was sitting right next to me. You’re the only one I can turn to. Can you meet me somewhere? Please? I’ll drive to Hangzhou if you want.” Xu Jing’s voice quavered as she held back a sob.

  “What can I possibly do?”

  “You’re the only one who could investigate what really happened at Sanmingshan.”

  “Xu Jing, you know I’m not a cop any more. You should trust the official investigators; they know what they’re doing,” he said awkwardly.