Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran interrogated him like that, back and forth, question after question, until it was time to clock out for the evening. The questioning almost broke Ma Xiaowei down, yet the teen didn’t leak anything else of use, just kept repeating his shoddy late-night ghost story over and over.
“I don’t think it was that kid,” Lang Qiao said as they left the district bureau. “He doesn’t have the mental fortitude. Scare him a little, and he spits everything out. I don’t think he’d have lasted that long under our questioning if anything really happened involving him… That ghost story’s pretty weird, though.”
Luo Wenzhou grunted.
“What?” asked Tao Ran.
“He’s not necessarily cleared,” said Luo Wenzhou. “Maybe he only told us part of the truth. He’s probably hiding something else. But let’s talk about it tomorrow. How are you two going back? Are you heading to the city bureau first, or—”
A whistle cut him off. The three supervising officers raised their heads as one and saw a six-foot-tall SUV parked by the road, a man leaning against it. “You’ve worked hard today, Officer Tao. Can I offer you a ride home?”
The man was tall, lean, and dressed in a black button-down shirt and a neat pair of slacks. He crossed his legs casually, his hands in his pockets. The ends of his long hair grazed his shoulders. At the first hint of eye contact, his eyes glowed with a smile offered generously to all like a free buffet.
In all her life, Lang Qiao had never seen a man come to a police station just to stand at the entrance flirtatiously. Stunned, she couldn’t help asking, “Deputy Tao, is this your friend?”
Tao Ran now appeared to be experiencing a toothache.
Lang Qiao’s keen senses instantly alerted her that something was wrong. “What is it?” she asked, confused.
Tao Ran was just about to go over and talk to the guy by the SUV when Luo Wenzhou reached out to grab Tao Ran’s elbow, then raised his chin at the man across from them and broke his silence: “What’re you doing here, Fei Du?”
Fei Du uncrossed his legs, tucking them back under him, and glanced up at Luo Wenzhou. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize this place had the name ‘Luo’ written on it.”
Luo Wenzhou narrowed his eyes, but otherwise, his poker face remained. Fei Du, who was still looking at him, gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Lang Qiao, still completely lost, sensed an inexplicable, lethal crackle of hostility in the air.
After a moment, Fei Du gave Luo Wenzhou an extremely punchable sneer and turned to Tao Ran instead. “Get in, Tao Ran. If we don’t hurry, Sergeant Luo will give me a ticket.”
“Did I say we were done with work?” Luo Wenzhou asked coldly before Tao Ran could reply. “You two, come back to the bureau with me. We need to give Director Gen Zhang a report on our progress. We also need to meet about the case.”
Lang Qiao was thunderstruck. Hadn’t he just said they’d talk about it tomorrow?!
Fei Du sighed lazily. “It’s such a tragedy to have a menopausal boss. Here’s an idea: I’ll drive Tao-ge and this lovely police-force beauty back to the bureau. They’ve been busy all day; they should sit in a more spacious car and stretch their legs.”
“The police car isn’t spacious enough? You really must avoid being taken into custody in one of our cars, Fei-zong, or you won’t even have elbow room,” Luo Wenzhou told him.
“Thanks for the reminder,” Fei Du replied, adopting a phony smile. “Tao-ge, I booked a table at the Western restaurant near your workplace. Even if you work late, you’ll have dinner, won’t you?”
“We’re servants of the people,” Luo Wenzhou put in. “We don’t eat. How could we stuff our faces when we haven’t caught the murderer yet?”
Lang Qiao couldn’t imagine what higher power she’d offended to deserve this. Having struggled all this time to get a word in edgewise, Tao Ran finally erupted. “Enough! Will you two quit it?!”
Luo Wenzhou sneered and turned, beginning to leave. “Come on, hurry up. And what are you staring at, Goggle-Eyes Lang? If you like checking out pretty boys, you can do that at home. Don’t waste work hours on it!”
Fei Du scoffed. “Would this lovely young lady consider changing jobs and joining my company?” He cocked his head at Lang Qiao like a stereotypical TV-drama CEO. “Police work is such a waste of your heavenly gifts. Come to work for me, and I’ll quintuple your salary and demand no work from you at all.”
Tao Ran turned to glare at him. “You too—enough!”
Fei Du met his gaze and nodded meekly but continued to fan the flames. “Okay. For your sake.”
“Tao Ran, what’s taking so long?!” Luo Wenzhou exclaimed.
Not wanting to upset either of these divas, Officer Tao simply rolled his eyes at the innocent night sky and then jogged after Luo Wenzhou. After a few steps, though, he turned back instinctively. Sure enough, Fei Du was still standing there motionlessly, watching him leave. He smiled at the sight of Tao Ran turning, as if he’d expected it. He raised two fingers to his lips, then flicked them gently toward Tao Ran.
Tao Ran didn’t know what to say. If the international community had awards for playboys, Lord Fei could’ve won a Nobel.
Luo Wenzhou drove the police car back to the bureau as fast as if it were the Chang’e 3 spacecraft. Despite its cumbersome size, Fei Du’s SUV tailed them closely. Lang Qiao’s control over her curiosity finally snapped. “Who’s that pretty boy? He’s good-looking and a good driver.”
Tao Ran gave her a warning look, trying to shut her up before she stepped on any toes, but it was too late. In the rearview mirror, Luo Wenzhou saw Fei Du pull over by the bureau’s front gate. He immediately called the sergeant of the traffic police next door. “There’s a car parked illegally outside our gate. Hurry up and ticket the owner. The steeper the fine the better, since the brat has money.”
After a while, a young traffic officer called Luo Wenzhou back and stammered, “Sergeant Luo, I gave him a ticket and told him, ‘The fine for illegal parking is two hundred yuan.’”
“And?”
“Um, he gave me a thousand and said he’ll stay parked there for another eight hundred yuan’s worth of time.”
Luo Wenzhou was speechless. Lang Qiao gave him a cautious look. “Are we still having that meeting, boss?”
“Obviously!” Luo Wenzhou snapped.