Close to eleven at night, the heavily secured detention center suddenly opened. In the last room on the second floor, an officer called out, “Hu Hua, come out.”
Seconds later, a stubbled man walked out trembling and extended his hands of his own accord. The officer cuffed him.
Once a suspect is detained, interrogations must take place within the facility. So when Hu Hua entered the interrogation room, Chu Wanning and Nie Fanxin were already seated across from him.
Chu Wanning got straight to the point: “Hu Hua, where were you after 11 p.m. on December 26?”
The man hung his head, staring blankly at the concrete floor. “Home.”
Chu Wanning’s expression was stern. “Who can verify that?”
Hu Hua looked up slightly. “No one. I was home alone.”
Chu Wanning held up a photo. “This Toyota, plate Jiang B-ZU-723. Did you lend it to anyone that night?” She showed another. “Now look at this close-up. The person wearing glasses is you, isn’t it?”
Nie Fanxin laid out photo after photo, while Chu Wanning fired question after question. Hu Hua bit his lip at first, then said, “Oh, I remember now. Around 11:30, I went for a massage at a place on Bajiao Street.”
The woman asked at once: “Which place?”
“Forgot the name. You can check yourself.” This Hu Hua was nothing like the man who’d begged them to take him two days earlier. Now he was uncooperative and evasive.
Chu Wanning was patient. She could outlast him. She held up a photo of an evidence bag. “Why was Lu Zhenglin’s hair in your trunk?”
Hu Hua’s voice stayed level, but the corners of his mouth twitched. “Best friends. My clothes must’ve picked up his hair, and then I put them in the trunk. What’s so strange about that?”
Chu Wanning pressed: “What about sebum secretions?”
Hu Hua had a degree in biochemistry. Years away from the field hadn’t erased the basics. He knew sebum secretions couldn’t be tested for DNA. He replied with deliberate calm, “I got drunk a couple days ago and slept in the trunk. Is that a crime?”
Slippery. Nie Fanxin’s grip on her pen tightened so hard she punched a few holes in the paper. She asked without hesitation: “When did you get drunk? Who was with you?”
The next second, she received a WeChat message from Wan Yi, arriving at the same conclusion: “Fanxin, ask when he got drunk.”
Hu Hua recalled, “The day Old Lu died. I came out of the massage place, bought a bottle of baijiu on the side of the road, and drank by myself.”
A flicker of irritation crossed Chu Wanning’s face: “Didn’t go home?”
“I woke up and went home around four or five in the morning.”
Another message from Wan Yi: “You two go to the massage parlor. Take me with you.”
Nie Fanxin sent back, “Go home and rest,” along with a fierce emoji.
“It’ll help the case.”
Nie Fanxin sent back a helpless emoji.
Wan Yi replied, “Be good.”
Chu Wanning passed the detailed statement to Hu Hua for confirmation per procedure. After signing, the detention officer escorted him away, and the three drove to Bajiao Street.
Late at night, Nie Fanxin dozed in the back seat, her head dipping. Beside her, Wan Yi spoke: “Sister Wanning, send two more officers to Hu Hua’s place.”
Chu Wanning didn’t understand. “Why?”
Wan Yi’s expression was calm as she said, “Find out whether he used massage oil, and which kind.”
Chu Wanning kept her eyes on the road, glancing in the mirror. “Why does that matter?”
“The sebum in the trunk contains ylang-ylang oil.”
“On it.” Chu Wanning called Old Yang to dispatch two officers who lived nearby.
Streetlights went out one by one. The car fell silent. Nie Fanxin’s head tilted slowly to the left and came to rest on Wan Yi’s shoulder. In the darkness, Wan Yi lifted the thin blanket draped over Nie Fanxin’s legs and gently covered her with it.
Patrol officers had already identified the massage parlor on Bajiao Street. The three got out and an officer approached: “Captain Chu, there was indeed a Hu Hua who visited this massage parlor the night of the crime.”
Chu Wanning thanked him. “Lead the way.”
Weixin Massage Parlor occupied the second floor of an old building in Section Three of Bajiao Street, outside the demolition zone. Its reasonable prices drew customers from nearby streets.
The modestly decorated parlor had full safety facilities: one camera outside and another at the front desk. While Chu Wanning spoke with the owner, Wan Yi surveyed the room, her gaze landing on the oil cabinet by the massage table.
She asked, “Ma’am, do you use ylang-ylang oil here?”
The owner replied, “We used to, but too many customers had allergic reactions, so we stopped stocking it.”
Wan Yi followed up: “What oil did Hu Hua use that night?”
“Let me check.” The parlor kept records of oil usage. The owner pulled up the computer and said, “Geranium.”
Wan Yi thanked her as Chu Wanning took over the mouse and reviewed the surveillance footage. At 11:47 p.m., Hu Hua had knocked on the parlor door. It was after closing, but the owner had let him in.
Wan Yi called out, “Sister Wanning, pause.” She zoomed in on the image. The backs of Hu Hua’s hands and his wrists showed red patches and bumps. “He had an allergic reaction. Sister Wanning, have the officers at his house find this outfit.”
At 1 a.m., Wan Tong listened to the steady breathing beside her and slipped out of bed. Tiptoeing to the first-floor bathroom, she hesitated over Wan Yi’s number before calling Nie Fanxin instead.
“Fanxin, when are you coming home? How’s Xiaoyu?”
Nie Fanxin glanced at the woman in the white coat working with test tubes. She whispered, “Sister followed them back to the police station. We’re at the research institute now.”
“Did you two eat? Is she still unwell?”
Not wanting to disturb Wan Yi, Nie Fanxin stepped aside to reply. “We ate. She’s recovered. Seems full of energy.”
“Your aunt wouldn’t sleep until she couldn’t stay awake.”
“Old Wan, get some rest too. There’s been a breakthrough in the Lu Zhenglin case. We’ll be home very late.”
After a few more words from Wan Tong, Nie Fanxin hung up and turned to find Wan Yi smiling.
“Fanxin, Hu Hua’s shirt was coated with geranium oil, but the jacket had ylang-ylang.”
“Which means Hu Hua lied. I just got a message from Sister Wanning. There’s a 24-hour convenience store next to where Hu Hua parked. Cameras show him sleeping in the driver’s seat, not the trunk.”
Wan Yi nodded. Nie Fanxin waited for her to clean up the lab bench, hang her white coat, and then said, “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Home.”
Wan Yi asked, “What about you?”
Nie Fanxin turned off the lights for her. “I’ll drop you off and get back to work.”
“I…”
Nie Fanxin cut her off: “No. Your body can’t handle staying up.”
Wan Yi’s lips curved. “Fine. You drive, then.”
Nie Fanxin grumbled, “It’s your own fault you inherited Auntie’s terrible sense of direction. Luckily it’s not that bad.”
“One less car on the road, saving fuel and the environment.”
“Sure, sure. You always have a point.”
They bantered all the way from the lab to the parking lot. Once in the car, Wan Yi, likely exhausted, soon fell asleep.
Nie Fanxin waited until the lights came on at home before stepping on the accelerator toward the detention center. She arrived two minutes after Chu Wanning. Hu Hua had already been brought out of his cell and cuffed to the interrogation chair.
Chu Wanning stood outside the interrogation room, her tall silhouette reflected in the one-way glass. Nie Fanxin approached from behind and stared into the room with piercing focus. “How’s it going?”
Chu Wanning raised her right hand to her chin thoughtfully. “Not started yet.” She turned, her shadow falling over Nie Fanxin. “Let’s observe him first.”
