Red Mandarin Dress

by Unknown

  Unearthing a buried body was considered the most horrendous act in traditional Chinese culture, but displaying a dead naked body could be far worse. That was why Comrade Fan had withheld the pictures all these years. Still, it was likely Chen’s last card.

  “If the reporters were to get hold of them, together with those in the garden taken by the old photographer, and with the pictures at the crime scenes of the red mandarin dress case—”

  “Stop, Chen. It’s so despicably low,” Jia struggled to say, his voice hissing, as if coming out of the pot too. “It’s beneath you.”

  “To solve this case, nothing is really beneath a cop,” Chen said. “Now, let me say something about ‘despicably low.’ Something despicably low I initially encountered while working on my literature paper, as I’ve told you, about the deconstructive turns in classical love stories. As I’ve discovered, it’s at least partially because of the projection of a despicable male fantasy about women and sex—a fantasy archetypal in the unconscious of Chinese culture, or the collective unconscious, which I call the demonization of women in sexual love. It’s not a moment for literary theories, I know, but I want to say that you were possessed of it.”

  He lifted the grass lid from the pot, ladling out the soup into a bowl for Jia, and another bowl for himself.

  “When you were locked up in the back room of the neighborhood committee, your mother went to Comrade Fan. She was so worried about you. In desperation, she told him she was willing to do anything for your sake. Comrade Fan understood what she meant, but he declined, saying that Tian alone had the power to release you. To his regret, she took his advice. Not for one moment did Fan doubt that her concern for you was the cause of her being with Tian that afternoon. She did all that for you.

  “You might have thought about such a possibility, but you couldn’t bring yourself to accept it. In that dark back room, what sustained you was the unsullied memory of her taking your hand in the garden—‘Mother, Let’s Go There.’ The world had collapsed around you, but she’s still yours, yours alone.

  “So upon your return, the scene at home was absolutely appalling, an immaculate goddess shattering into a shameless slut in the arms of your persecutor. An unforgivable betrayal of you in your mind. It pushed you over the edge.

  “But you’re wrong. According to my investigation, Tian had gone out of his way to assign himself to the institute. Like others, he probably watched her perform and became smitten with passion. The Cultural Revolution gave him the opportunity. He worked his way into the Mao Team to be close to her, but she tried her best to avoid his company in spite of his power. If she had succumbed to his pressure, he wouldn’t have come to your neighborhood and led the joint investigation. He didn’t get his opportunity until you got into trouble. She loved you more than anything else in the world. More than herself. Even under the circumstances, it was to Fan, not to Tian, that she first turned to for help.

  “Now, it was only a couple of days later that you were unexpectedly released. If there was anything going on between them, it must have happened during that short period—for your sake. How desperate and painful it must have been for her to give herself to Tian, you can imagine.”

  “But she didn’t have to. Nothing would have happened to—” Jia was unable to finish the sentence.

  “Nothing would have happened to you? I doubt it. In those years, you could have been sentenced to death for such a ‘political crime.’ An old man was executed in the People’s Square, I remember, for the crime of carrying a Mao statue on his back by wrapping a rope around its neck. It’s symbolic of hanging Chairman Mao, the revolutionary people ruled. She knew better. She understood that Tian was capable of anything.

  “But you kept imagining it from your perspective alone, never hers. The scene of her writhing and wallowing under another man crushed you. You were incapable of thinking rationally. That’s how you finally stumbled on an outlet in the serial killings, an outlet for both love and hate—”

  Again he was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the cell phone. This time, it was Detective Yu.

  “Sorry, I have to take another phone call,” Chen said, rising to move to the window. The garden outside was entirely submerged in darkness.

  “Nothing in the car, Chief,” Yu said. “I studied the parking spot. It’s true that he could move from there and in through the side door without being seen by others. The front is hidden from view by a grove of bamboo. So I got in with the key.”

  “Anything in his office?”

  “It’s a large suite. In addition to the office, a reception room, and a study, there is also a small bedroom with a bathroom.”

  “That’s not surprising. According to Xia, he often stays overnight there.”

  “But that made it possible for him to wash Jasmine’s body.”

  “That’s true.”

  “I haven’t seen any bloodstains or anything like that there. The carpet must have been cleaned of late. It still has a detergent smell, and I saw a steam vacuum cleaner. But that’s something. In those high-end offices, cleaning is usually taken care of by professional people. Why would an attorney have done the cleaning himself?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  “Then I noticed something else, Chief. The color of the carpet. It matched that of the fiber stuck on the foot of the third victim.”

  “Yes, he brought her in without being seen, but he failed to notice a fiber stuck between her toes.”

  “But any result from the fiber test won’t be available until tomorrow morning. Besides, fiber evidence may not be conclusive for a homicide case.”

  “It will be enough to hold him for a couple of days, and to justify a full search.” Chen added, “At least he can’t do anything during that period.”

  “Should we start tonight?”

  “Don’t rush. Wait for my call.”

  When Chen moved back to the table, the turtle was turned over with its belly upward, a ghastly white belly, motionless in the pot.

  “As a cop,” Jia said, “you have written a compassionate story.”

  Chen wondered whether it was a sarcastic comment or if it indicated a subtle change on the part of Jia.

  “Compassionate characterization is essential for any story,” Chen said, facing Jia. “You may think no one understands you, informed by all the absurdities and atrocities you suffered during the Cultural Revolution. You are like software written by all these events, and as a result, you can operate only one way; it’s beyond your own comprehension. But let me say that I tried to understand. Learning about all of your experiences, I kept saying to myself: but for luck, what happened to Jia could have happened to me.

  “I couldn’t help identifying with the boy in the picture. How happy, holding her hand like the world, how unprepared for the disaster already drawing close to the horizon. I tried to think from your perspective. I felt like I was going mad.

  “In the days after her death, whenever your neighbors looked at you, you thought they were seeing her running out after you in her nakedness. It was like a demon eating you up. So you moved out, tried to leave everything behind you. Later you even changed your name. But as in a poem by Su Dongpo, you were ‘trying not to think, but forgetting not.’

  “Cop or not, I don’t want to condemn you for taking justice into your own hands—at least in the beginning, delivering those relentless blows to Tian. What a blinding force revenge can be, I understand. I, too, was beside myself over the death of a young colleague of mine. In the Jing’an temple, I swore I would do anything to avenge her.

  “But things were getting out of your control. You discovered your sexual problem, the cause of which you must have guessed. As a celebrated attorney, known for politically controversial cases, it was too much of a risk for you to go to a shrink. So you had to hang on, like you did in the black back room of the neighborhood committee, except then you still had hope, with her waiting outside for you.

  “Then you collapsed with the crisis
over Jasmine. Panic turned you into a killer. When you put your hand on her, the repressions or suppressions built up in you all these years erupted. As for the rest, I don’t think I need to repeat any more.

  “I’ve come here not as a judge, Mr. Jia, but I can’t help being a cop. That’s why I have made special arrangements, hoping we may be able to find a different way—”

  “A different way? What difference will it make to a man who, as you’ve said, sees no light at the end of the tunnel?” Jia said slowly, deliberately. “Now what do you want?”

  “What I want, as a cop, is for the killing of innocent people to stop.”

  “Well, if tomorrow’s trial goes on as scheduled. If nothing happens to it—”

  “That’s what I hope. Nothing happens to it,” Chen said, glancing at his watch. “Nothing out of the way.”

  “Oh, it’s Friday already. You don’t have to worry about it,” Jia said, as if reading his thoughts. “And those pictures have to be destroyed.”

  “They will be destroyed. All the negatives too. I give you my word on it.”

  “Are you still going to write your story, Chief Inspector Chen?”

  “No, not as long as I can help it; not that nonfiction, I mean.”

  “Not that nonfiction, and not that particularly or personally, but so far, there isn’t a single good book written about the Cultural Revolution.”

  “I know,” Chen said. “What a shame.”

  “And I have a personal request.”

  “A personal request?”

  “Don’t quit. This may sound condescending coming from me. But you are quite unusual for a cop, and you know stories are not simply black and white. Not too many cops share your understanding.”

  “Thank you for telling me that, Mr. Jia.”

  “Thank you for having told me the story, Chief Inspector Chen. Now, it’s time for me to go back and prepare for the trial tomorrow—today,” Jia said, rising. “After the trial, you may do whatever you want, and I’ll try my best to comply.”

  When they walked out, they saw White Cloud still staying outside. She must have fallen asleep while waiting there, curled up on the leather sofa, her mandarin dress rumpled, and her feet bare. She wore nothing under the dress.

  Jia recoiled. It was the weird hour of the night when fantasies suddenly flipped like bats, and a vision like that startled him.

  THIRTY-ONE

  THE TRIAL FOR THE West-Nine-Block housing development case appeared to be proceeding smoothly Friday morning.

  It was in the court of Jin’an district, in which the West-Nine-Block was located. The building was a Catholic school in the twenties. In the early sixties, it was turned into a Children’s Palace, Chen remembered. Only two or three stained-glass windows in the courtroom reminded people of the earlier days.

  According to the inside information Chen had just received, Peng was to be sentenced to three years. An assuring message to the people in a time when the gap between rich and poor was widening like an approaching earthquake. It was in the best interest of the government to bring the case to a quick and smooth conclusion, highlighting Peng’s punishment for his improper use of the state fund and for his gross negligence in the business operation.

  Such a conclusion appeared to be understandable, and supposedly acceptable, to most of the public. It wouldn’t touch the corrupt Party officials involved behind the scene. At the same time, it would be an opportunity for the government to show its solidarity with the ordinary people. With the state fund reassigned for residential relocation and possibly some other remedies, the residents would be satisfied, and some of them might also choose to move back into the area. As for Peng, he should know better than to protest about three years. With his connections, he would be able to get out in a couple of months.

  For all Chen knew, a sort of compromise had been reached between Shanghai and Beijing, and between Jia and the city government. Such a result seemed to be the best Jia could possibly strive for on the residents’ behalf.

  So the trial was nothing but a formality.

  Present in the courtroom was a group of residents from the West-Nine-Block. And an equally large group of journalists, including foreign ones, who must have obtained special permission from the city government to attend.

  Jia sat among the residents in the front row, still in his black suit, his face taut and pale in the light of the courtroom.

  Chen seated himself near the back of the room, rubbing his temples, which were throbbing like they did during acupuncture. He hadn’t even had time to change his clothes after the night-long dinner in the Old Mansion. It might be just as well. Wearing a pair of amber-tinted glasses, he hoped that people wouldn’t recognize him.

  Yu sat beside him, also in plainclothes. He had likewise had a sleepless night. Having obtained the result of the fiber test earlier in the morning, Yu hurried through all the routine preparations for immediate action, but Chen wanted him to wait.

  At Chen’s suggestion, the cops stationed both inside and outside were also in plainclothes. He insisted they take no action until his order. Yu hadn’t told them anything about the other case—the red mandarin dress case.

  And Chen did not know what to tell Yu, either. He decided not to worry about it until after the trial was over. Even then, the practicability of immediate action was still debatable. It would be too dramatic. A possible storm of speculation about political retaliation wouldn’t be in the interest of the Party authorities.

  He started wondering whether he should have come here. In spite of the horrendous crimes, he couldn’t help seeing things from Jia’s perspective. Justice could be a matter of perspectives, as discussed last night. Whatever wrongs Jia had suffered during the Cultural Revolution, however, the killing of the innocent today must be stopped.

  Gang Hua, the defense lawyer for Peng, was standing up for closing statement.

  Gang argued for leniency on the grounds of Peng’s cooperation with the government, his return of the fund, and his ignorance of his employees’ improper behavior. Specifically, Gang made a point about what he defined as the “historical circumstances.”

  “It’s true that Peng got the land at a lower price and planned to sell the apartments at a higher one. But the value of real estate in Shanghai has since jumped. It didn’t happen in his project alone. As for the regulation about the land use, it wasn’t specified at the beginning of the development, nor was the compensation for the residents exactly formulated—there was only a range from the lower to the higher end. To ensure the timely completion of the project, Peng hired a relocation company, whose employees, perhaps too eager to do the job, pushed along without Peng’s knowledge.

  “We understand that some of the residents in the West-Nine-Block suffered inconvenience, even injuries, but in the long run, the housing project is in the interest of the people. How can people live any longer like in the play Seventy-Two Families Living in a Two-Storied Shikumen House? China has been making tremendous progress in a reform unprecedented in its history. It’s new to everybody. So I am not saying that Peng shouldn’t be responsible for his mistakes in the housing development project, but we have to take into consideration the historical circumstances. In a larger perspective, you have to say that Peng’s business activity contributed to the prosperity of the city. If you go to the West-Nine-Block next year, you will see rows upon rows of new buildings.”

  It was a clever speech, saying what could be said to represent Peng as a businessman who made mistakes, some of them well-meant mistakes, because of “historical circumstances.” The speech didn’t say, of course, what couldn’t be said: that all the corrupt practices occurred through Peng’s connections with Party officials.

  The audience’s reaction seemed to be mixed. Some were whispering among themselves. Not all the residents were interested in anything more than the monetary compensation due them.

  Then Jia rose, moving up to the front to make his closing statement.

  As he took the stand
, he let his glance sweep across the courtroom before acknowledging Chen in the back. Jia nodded almost imperceptibly, taking a drink from a plastic water bottle. He appeared to be full of confidence and conviction, his face taking on a strange transparency, as if another self were breaking out for the occasion.

  But it could be a trick of the morning light streaming through the stained-glass windows, Chen thought.

  “From my learned colleague’s speech, the result of the trial seems to be already predictable,” Jia started. “Peng will be punished for his business mismanagement, and the residents in the West-Nine-Block will receive compensation for their relocation. So I am visualizing the newspaper headlines, ‘The City Government Upholds Justice for the People.’ Or, ‘Number One Shanghai Big Buck Peng Punished.’ So that’s the end of it. Some will be satisfied with the compensation due them, some will move into the new apartment complex, some will talk about the downfall of the upstart, and some will be pleased to hear the last of the case.

  “Still, such a ‘satisfactory’ outcome of the trial may leave a lot of things unexplained.

  “How could Peng, a dumpling peddler along Chapu Road five or six years ago, have turned into Number One Shanghai Big Buck? He’s no magician, with no golden touch, but as we know, he has his connections. How could Peng have secured the land for the housing development project when there were several more qualified developers bidding for it? He has only his elementary school education, but as we know, he has his connections. How could Peng, having obtained the state approval for ‘housing improvement,’ have denied the original residents the right to move back? That was black and white in his business proposal, but as we know, he has his connections. How could Peng have secured government authorization to force out the residents ‘by whatever means necessary’? In spite of residential relocation being new to the city, people understood ‘whatever means necessary,’ but as we know, he has his connections.