Evidence, Part One

Three weeks after Chen Daipeng's arrest, detective Wu Xian sat in his office reading the evidence files. He had read them twice already. He was reading them a third time because the lawyer who had arrived at Chen's interview had come back with a strategy that Wu Xian found both infuriating and effective: every witness was dead. Every person who could corroborate the account in the mountain documents was gone — the teachers, the school staff, Uncle Du. The written account was detailed and consistent, but it was unsigned and its chain of custody was problematic. The anonymous tip that had directed police to the box made it potentially inadmissible, depending on which judge you drew.

The lawyer's name was Huo Bin. He was expensive and well-connected, and his argument was straightforward: Chen Daipeng had confessed under extreme psychological duress, in a state of shock, without counsel present for the first two hours. The confession should be set aside. The physical evidence was insufficient for conviction on the most serious charges. With the right judge, reasonable doubt was achievable.

Wu Xian closed the file and thought about this.

Chen Daipeng's wife had visited him twice in detention. The visits were recorded. On the first visit she said nothing and left after twelve minutes. On the second she said: "I knew." Those were the only two words she spoke. Then she left again and hadn't come back.

Wu Xian found the two words more devastating than anything in the written account. A person who had known for fifteen years and had chosen the life anyway.

He set that aside too. It wasn't relevant to the prosecution.

The issue was the weapon used on White Stone Mountain — the means by which the fire had been set that burned the figure on the mountain the night Hui Nan and Zhu Hua were there. Fei Qiang had admitted to burning something. He had given a partial statement and then stopped cooperating. He was a civilian now and his obligation to assist was limited.

What Fei Qiang had burned, Wu Xian was now fairly certain, had been a person. Not a ghost, not a supernatural apparition — a person. The girl in the school uniform who had appeared in the clearing had been a living human being, and Chen Daipeng had set that fire, and the person had died in it, and it was possible — depending on who she was — that this constituted murder.

If it did, then the evidence issues around the historical crimes became less pressing. A current murder with Chen Daipeng's prints on the accelerant would be simpler to prosecute.

Wu Xian picked up the phone and called the forensics lab.

"The ash samples from White Stone Mountain," he said. "Tell me what you found."