Fu Wenye sprawled over his desk and said listlessly, "I'm so hungry I'm about to deflate."
Seeing his expression of utter despair, Lin Xiu pulled a long-treasured chocolate bar from his drawer and handed it to him.
Fu Wenye's eyes lit up. He was about to tear open the wrapper when his shrill ringtone suddenly blasted. A wildly catchy dance track exploded through the quiet office. Xu Xiaojing's eardrums nearly hurt from the shock. She complained, "Little bro, are you toxic? Can you change that ringtone next time?"
"Why are you yelling at me? Yell at whoever's calling. The phone doesn't ring itself. Who knows what kind of crazy fit the captain is having ag—huh? It's not him?" An unfamiliar number showed on the screen. Fu Wenye yawned and answered. "Hello?"
No one knew what was said on the other end, but Fu Wenye immediately sat upright and replied crisply, "All right. We'll send people over immediately."
Lin Xiu clearly watched Fu Wenye's face turn progressively ashen. He hung up. Before Lin Xiu had time to ask what had happened, Fu Wenye picked up the desk phone and called an internal line. "Brother Meng, Su Yang just called me. One of his friends disappeared half an hour ago. She's thirty-two and pregnant. He's currently at Ziwei Dessert Shop on South Street…"
The instant Fu Wenye said it, Xu Xiaojing nearly dropped the mirror in her hand.
Ordinary missing-person cases were normally accepted only after twenty-four hours. They had already received special instructions that any report involving a missing pregnant woman had to be escalated immediately, but following normal procedure still involved twists and turns that could waste several minutes. In a case like this, time ran backward: every second wasted meant another measure of danger to the missing person's life.
The best method Su Yang could think of was to call Fu Wenye directly.
Meng Xuecheng came out of his office. "A few of you come with me. Wenye, stay at the bureau. You'll handle the information work from here."
Meng Xuecheng had barely finished when Fu Wenye's phone chimed repeatedly with a string of incoming messages—Su Yang had sent him Li Susu's photograph, phone number, and home address. Fu Wenye raised the phone toward Meng Xuecheng to indicate the information had already arrived. "Didn't even need you to say it. Someone from a special task force really is different. He even saved you the trouble of questioning him." He opened his computer and began using software to trace Li Susu's phone. Without blinking, Fu Wenye said, "You go first. If I get anything, I'll tell you immediately. Keep in contact."
Xu Xiaojing was still pondering what Fu Wenye meant by someone from a special task force really being different when Meng Xuecheng suddenly roared at her, "If you want to daydream, go home and do it!"
Xu Xiaojing covered her ears and bent at the waist in apology. "Sorry, Brother Meng."
After the group got into the car, the clatter of a keyboard and Fu Wenye's clear voice came through Meng Xuecheng's earpiece. "Li Susu, thirty-two years old, twenty-one weeks pregnant. At eight this evening, she called her psychologist, who is also the person who reported her missing, Su Yang. They agreed to meet at 9:15 at Ziwei Dessert Shop on South Street. Su Yang drove there and waited ten minutes or so, but Li Susu never arrived, and she didn't reply to his messages. Starting at 9:25, he called her repeatedly, but no one answered. At 9:32, the phone began reporting that the number was unavailable. Someone probably switched it off and removed the SIM card."
Meng Xuecheng's phone chimed. Fu Wenye continued, "That's a photograph of Li Susu." Meng Xuecheng looked at the picture. She was a sweet-looking woman holding a cup of coffee and smiling at the camera.
"Su Yang already asked the dessert-shop staff. No one saw Li Susu."
Meng Xuecheng asked, "Can you trace the phone's location?"
"Only as far as 9:31. It was at 201 South Street."
"201 South Street?" Meng Xuecheng asked. "How far is 201 from the dessert shop? Any surveillance cameras?"
"About a twenty-minute walk from the dessert shop. As for cameras…" Fu Wenye searched quickly. "Mm. South Street is mostly old buildings. There aren't many cameras, and there are a lot of blind spots."
Meng Xuecheng said, "Contact Li Susu's family immediately."
Fu Wenye replied, "Can't reach anyone… Li Susu's parents are both gone. She has no local relatives, and we can't contact her husband either."
Meng Xuecheng frowned deeply. His upper right eyelid twitched repeatedly.
Several seconds later, Fu Wenye dropped another flashbang directly onto Meng Xuecheng's head. "Li Susu's husband is Chen Yang!!" Fu Wenye said excitedly. "That Sunshine Clinic Bai Yu visited before she disappeared? Chen Yang owns it!"
Fu Wenye shouted so loudly that everyone in the car heard him.
Not one person dared make a sound. Even Qin Gui, who had been hiccuping ever since he got into the car, miraculously stopped.
Tiny raindrops clung to the windows. Fine rain spread across the earth like a curtain, and its patter became the only sound they could hear.
The wife was missing. The husband was missing too. And the husband had been in contact with another victim. Were these scattered fragments finally beginning to stitch themselves together little by little? There was nothing to celebrate in that.
If the only way they could gather clues was to wait for the killer to expose a weakness, how many more people would have to die? Fu Wenye heard nothing through his earpiece and swallowed nervously. Captain Meng normally had an odd temper, but when he was genuinely furious, he became exactly like this—silent. Fu Wenye gulped some cola for courage and continued reading from the information Su Yang had sent. "Li Susu's husband was having an affair. The other woman is a nurse at their clinic named Qin Yue."
Meng Xuecheng asked, "Su Yang is the person who reported her missing?"
Fu Wenye apparently had not expected the question and assumed Meng Xuecheng had forgotten who Su Yang was. "Yes. We only met him this morning."
Su Yang's face instantly appeared in Meng Xuecheng's mind. He looked almost exactly as he had in the past. Meng Xuecheng had thought they would never get another chance to meet. Who knew whether heaven had simply grown bored and wanted entertainment, arranging for them to see each other again under circumstances like these?
Meng Xuecheng got out of the car and opened a black umbrella. The moment he looked up, he saw Su Yang standing outside the dessert shop with worry on his face, half a cigarette between his fingers. A thousand emotions churned inside Meng Xuecheng. In the past, every time he saw Su Yang, the man had been full of confidence and vigor, unfailingly polite to Meng Xuecheng's father and friendly to Meng Xuecheng himself, even if he frequently forgot his name…
Su Yang seemed to notice Meng Xuecheng too. He stubbed out the cigarette in the trash can beside him.
Meng Xuecheng was still wondering whether to greet him when Su Yang walked through the rain and came straight to the point. "I'm the reporting party, Su Yang, Li Susu's psychologist. Unless something unexpected happened, I was the last person she contacted before she disappeared. I've already sent Mr. Fu the information you'll need."
Meng Xuecheng hesitated and took two steps toward him, only to find Lin Xiu had already directly offered Su Yang an umbrella.
Other than Meng Xuecheng, no one reacted immediately. Their small heads were filled with enormous questions. Zhang Xiaowen squeezed beneath Qin Gui's umbrella, covered his mouth, and whispered, "Who is this guy? He doesn't look like someone making a report at all." Zhang Xiaowen had met if not a thousand reporting parties, then at least five hundred. Most answered only when asked. This was the first time he had seen someone with such composure who organized everything in advance and obediently handed it all over to the police.
Qin Gui looked wooden. He had not listened to Zhang Xiaowen at all. Instead, he asked, "Wh-what was the reporting party's name again?"
Zhang Xiaowen answered, "Su Yang? Su… something? I think that's it."
The corner of Qin Gui's mouth twitched. "It's Su Yang. Yang as in 'look upward.'"
"Su Yang…" Zhang Xiaowen looked as though lightning had struck him. "The June 20 explosion?"
Xu Xiaojing finally caught up. "No wonder Wenye said the reporting party used to be on a special task force…"
What police officer would not like a reporting party who identified himself clearly and willingly cooperated with the investigation? Everyone present now knew Su Yang had once been one of them. There was no need to spell out familiar procedure among professionals.
Meng Xuecheng stopped wasting words and threw aside all his tangled thoughts. "We traced the phone's last location to 201 South Street." He pointed to the right. "That was the final location before it was switched off."
He looked at Su Yang. "Get in the car first. We'll go take a look."
Su Yang nodded weakly. Meng Xuecheng glanced at the silver-white private car parked outside and added, "Leave your car here for now. Xiaojing, let Traffic know so they don't have this car moved."
"Yes."
Lin Xiu frowned and walked over to Meng Xuecheng. In a low voice, he asked, "Captain Meng, is it appropriate to let Su Yang get involved? We can't casually disclose details of a case. Even family members don't have the right to know the investigation's progress, and Su Yang is only the person who reported her missing."
Meng Xuecheng nodded. "It's fine. Director He approved it."
Lin Xiu was doubtful, but since Meng Xuecheng had said so, he did not argue.
Su Yang climbed directly into the back seat. Meng Xuecheng sat beside him, with Lin Xiu driving.
Xu Xiaojing took out her phone to contact colleagues in Traffic and stole glances at Su Yang from time to time. Naturally, Su Yang noticed those curious looks, but his head felt heavy and muddled and he had no energy to care.
His voice was cold. "I'm going to call home."
Meng Xuecheng nodded and gestured for him to go ahead.
Once the call connected, Su Yang switched to his usual gentle tone. "Sally, I may be home very late. Go to bed early."
There was a long silence on the other end before the girl's voice slowly came through. "Where are you going?"
Su Yang gave a weary smile. "To look for a classmate. Be good and go to sleep by yourself. I'll bring you some snacks when I come home."
"Okay."
Su Yang hung up and leaned back against the seat with his eyes closed.
The car was quiet. Everyone had heard the conversation between him and Sally clearly. Meng Xuecheng was even more surprised. He had not expected Su Yang to already have a child. Pale-yellow streetlight fell across Su Yang's profile, making his features appear sharper—and somehow lonelier.