Chapter 12 – Wanted
Grandma w.a.n.g looked at Qing Linglong, who descended the stairs, and signaled her subtly with a movement of the eyebrow. Qing Linglong approached Eyegla.s.ses and pretended to be reading the information on the monitor. Eyegla.s.ses's lips quirked and he pushed his gla.s.ses up; the three became quite light-hearted with the thought of everything progressing smoothly. However, their relaxed looks quickly changed into concern as Qing Qiaoqiao's voice came out of their earbuds, and, a second later, into consternation.
'No… That big of a problem… But… Why? How could this happen?'
The three exchanged glances of bafflement.'The camouflager killed Guo Xiang? What does this have to do with him?'
All three fully appreciated the gravity of the situation, because there was no reason for the camouflager to commit an unmotivated act: a problem must have existed elsewhere. 'But where?' None of them could think of anything.
"Leave, now." Qing Linglong showed her usual decisiveness, and the three left in a hurry, without even leaving time for Eyegla.s.ses to pack up the equipment he brought.
* * *
Ji Xiaoqin sat on the edge of a parterre across the street from the hotel, wrapped in a hospital blanket. A doctor was taking her pulse while three police officers, who, judging by their epaulettes, were highly ranked, stood right before her.
"Ms. Ji, May I ask about your relations.h.i.+p with the victim, Guo Xiang?" one of the officers asked her while taking her ID out of her wallet to match the picture.
"We're… Friends." Ji Xiaoqin eyes wandered around, pausing briefly on the patrol cars, the ambulances and the firefighter trucks across the street; the people dressed in different uniforms who were busy with their respective tasks, but could not focus on a single spot for longer than a few moments.
"How did Guo Xiang and you get into that room? There were no records of your arrival at the front desk of the hotel."
"I… I don't know…I was at the bar…"
"What do you mean, you don't know? You were in the same room as your friend, who had a blade through his skull, and there were twenty bullet holes in the wall, an M4 with the safe open!" One of the officers shook his arms agitatedly and pointed at the other side of the street. "Do you see that? That's a portable anti-tank rocket launcher, a rocket launcher! The kind that can blow up a tank!"
"Officer Zhang, the patient's mental state is very unstable, you…" The medical staff immediately intervened.
"Zhang, don't get too excited." The officer with the highest rank pulled on his colleague and asked Ji Xiaoqin in an affable voice. "Did you see someone kill him?"
Ji Xiaoqin's pupils finally constricted, and she threw a terrified look at the officer, but nodded through her trembling.
"Do you know the murderer?"
Ji Xiaoqin nodded again.
"Name?"
"Li… Li Yiming."
* * *
Guo Tai sat on his office chair and played around with a Lantian1 jade pendant. A thin layer of skin from his thumb had already peeled off from all the rubbing, but Guo Tai was oblivious to it and simply stared at a note on the desk, on which one word was written in a b.l.o.o.d.y crimson. Confession. He thought back on his entire life over the last few minutes, the schemes, all the efforts he made, the birth of his son, and the pa.s.sing away of his wife… Guo Tai hesitated.
He remained in a trance-like state until his thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone on his desk. He picked up the receiver. "What?" He jumped up and his finger joints whitened from the force with which he clasped the object.
"Li Yiming! Even if I shall be ruined, I'll shred your body into ten thousand pieces…" The piece of Lantian jade, worth millions, shattered and fragments of it punctured Guo Tai's left palm as he smashed the marble table.
* * *
Li Yiming leaned against the bed. After drinking Grandma w.a.n.g's medicine, aside from an overall soreness, he had mostly recovered.
"This is what happened…" Qing Qiaoqiao stood right next to the bed and narrated. Grandma w.a.n.g and Qing Linglong sat on the sofa facing her while Eyegla.s.ses browsed for news about the police investigation on his tablet.
