“There’s no telling what people are capable of-” Chen paused emphatically, looking directly at Qian.

“Indeed, there’s no telling what people are capable of doing.” Li quickly joined in and shook his head sadly. “Imagine Wen getting involved in such a murderous scheme!”

“I want to say something on behalf of Wen-in the light of the revelation made by Chief Inspector Chen.” Catherine spoke with a passion surprising to herself. “The Flying Axes had left her no choice. So she started applying for her passport, but I don’t think she was necessarily going to carry out their plan. When she arrived in the United States, she might have tried to seek help from the American police.”

“That’s what I think, too,” Yu said, nodding.

“But when Feng telephoned to warn her to run for her life, she was panic-stricken. Who were the ‘people’ referred to in the message? The Flying Axes? If so, had Feng discovered the plot? She fled, but after ten days in Liu’s company, she was resurrected-as a woman.”

“Resurrected! That’s the very word Liu used,” Chen said.

Catherine said, “After all those wasted years, she suddenly had hopes. She looked so changed from the woman in that passport picture. Alive, I mean. I could hardly recognize her in Suzhou. When she realized that she had to leave Liu, she could not bear the thought of living with Feng anymore. The realization of how Feng had ruined her life filled her with hatred. And a desire for vengeance, too. That was why she insisted on going back to Changle Village. She wanted to get the poison she had left there. This time she was determined.”

“I agree,” Yu said. “This also proves that she did not want to carry out the gang’s plan at first. She did not take the poison with her when she left the village on April fifth. Thank you, Inspector Rohn.”

“Inspector Rohn has summed up that part well. And the rest of it,” Chen said, taking a drink of his water, “you learned when Wen was in the room.”

“A wonderful job, Chief Inspector Chen!” Li clapped his hands. “The American Consul has called the city government, expressing thanks, but he did not know what a great job you have done.”

“I could have done nothing without your firm support throughout the investigation, Party Secretary Li.”

She could see Chen was more than willing to let Li share the laurels. After conducting such an unorthodox investigation, the chief inspector had to be diplomatic.

“If we were not already at the airport, we would have a grand banquet to celebrate this successful conclusion,” Li said with warmth. “Indeed, all’s well that ends well.”

“I’ll make a report to our government, Party Secretary Li, about the outstanding work of the Shanghai Police Bureau,” she said before turning to Chen. “In the meantime, I would like to ask you a few more questions, Chief Inspector Chen, over a cup of coffee. Last night, I worked quite late writing up my case summary. You must also be worn out after spending the night traveling.”

“Now that you mention it,” Chen said.

“Yes, you two go to the airport cafe. It’s the bureau’s farewell treat.” Li was all smiles. “We will keep an eye on Wen.”

Chapter 38

It was not exactly a café, but a corner partitioned off from the waiting area by metal posts and plastic cords. There were several tables and chairs, and a counter sporting an array of imported coffees. A waitress stood near the tall window framing the airplanes on the runway.

“Black coffee?” Catherine asked.

“Tea for me today,” Chen said.

“Can we have tea?” she said in Chinese to the waitress.

“Lipton?” The waitress said in English.

“No. Chinese green tea. With the tea leaves in the cup.”

“Sure.” The waitress gave them a stainless thermos bottle with two cups and a small bag of tea leaves.

As they moved toward a table, Chen cast a glance in the direction of the meeting room. His colleagues sat behind the glass door, watching over Wen and Liu. There were a number of plainclothes men stationed around the area. He was not concerned with the airport’s security.

He experienced a deflation of mood as he seated himself at the table. In the meeting room, he had had to persuade Wen, and then to explain his decisions to others. He’d had to worry about the reaction of Party Secretary Li-with Internal Security prowling in the background. To his relief, Li had reacted positively, though Chen knew that this reaction in the presence of Inspector Rohn was not something to be relied upon.

Now, sitting with her, he did not feel the satisfaction of a detective in a mystery story at the successful conclusion of a case. He might have done his job-a “wonderful job”-according to Party Secretary Li. Yet was it wonderful for Wen? Her life in China was coming to an end, a chapter closing with a tragic climax. And her life in the United States was nothing to look forward to.

What role had he played in bringing about this result? Chief Inspector Chen could make all the convenient excuses for himself, of course, that ‘Eight or nine out of ten times, things go wrong in this world,’ or that ‘It’s nothing but the ironic causality of misplaced yin and yang.’ There was no denying the fact, however, that he had done his part in sending a helpless woman to live with the rogue who had ruined her life.

And what could he do about the gangs? Any major move against an international organization like the Green Bamboo had to be decided upon, in Party Secretary Li’s words, after careful review of political considerations. The body in the park had been identified, but what then? The information from Gu about the power of the triads and their operation would be easily dismissed. Li had said that they should celebrate the successful conclusion of the matter. ‘All’s well that ends well.’ The message was clear: there would be no further investigation of the gangs. Chen was in no position to do anything about it.

Nor was Chen in a position to be elated about his remaining work.

There was something never to be done, like a probe into corruption in the Fujian police or an inquiry into the source of Qian’s cell phone. There was something to be done, but never mentioned, like the parking lot deal for the karaoke club. And there was something perhaps never to be thought of, like the higher authorities’ possible involvement.

And he wondered whether Internal Security would choose to disappear at the conclusion of the case.

Inspector Rohn was carefully putting green tea leaves into the white cups, pinchful by pinchful, like a Chinese, as if concentrating on something far more important than the questions she was going to ask.

As on the day when she first arrived, sitting in the car, so on the day she was going to leave, sitting in the cafe, he did not know what she was thinking.

She picked up the thermos bottle, poured an arc of water into a cup for him, and then prepared another cup for herself.

“I like the Chinese way of drinking tea, watching the leaves leisurely unfolding, so green, so tender in the white cup.”

He gazed at her as she sipped her tea. For a second, she was merging into another woman, one who had accompanied him in another teahouse, in Beijing. She, too, had looked pale, with black circles under her eyes revealed in a flood of sunlight, with a green tea leaf in her white teeth.

The tenderness of the tea leaf between her lips, / Everything’s possible, but not pardonable…

“Li is not behaving like a Party Secretary today,” she said, meeting his gaze. “To encourage his hand-picked successor to have a tête-à-tête with an American officer!”

“I don’t know how you get your information, but that is just like Party Secretary Li-politically correct, but not to a fault.”

“So you will be like him one of those days?”

“No one can tell, you know that.”