The Poisoned Pen: A Guardian Story

Chapter Six: One Truth Admitted

Shen Wei closed his study door behind him and let out a large sigh.  All in all, he supposed, that had gone rather well.  At least his new employee was still speaking to him.  He leaned back against the cold, hard wood behind him and closed his eyes as he suddenly remembered the sensation of having his assistant's arms around him back at the pier.  He had not realised until that moment how much he had missed the reassuring feeling that close physical contact with another human being could bring.  That's all it was, he told himself.  It was nothing to do with Zhao Yunlan himself.  Steadying himself, he strode over to the sideboard and poured a glass of red wine from a crystal decanter.

Shen Wei was not much of a drinker, but he did like a glass of wine in the evening.  He enjoyed the complex combination of flavours and aromas that a good quality vintage could bring.  This particular wine was an excellent pinot noir from eleven years back.   A good year for French reds.  He savoured the rich, velvety liquid as it slipped down his throat and, just for a moment, he felt himself relax.

***

Zhao Yunlan fired up his laptop and focussed intently on the screen in front of him while he waited for the machine to connect to the internet.  It was fortunate that the house's wi-fi was good, and it was only seconds until he was opening up his email inbox.

Just one new message, but it was the one he had been waiting for.  That morning he had asked his business partner to get in touch with a few of their old contacts in the Dragon City police force and ask whether there had been any arrests or reports in the last few years for stalking or threats against celebrities.  There had not been any mention of it during their call earlier, but it looked like Da Qing had now gotten around to acting on his request.

He scanned the text on the screen.  Other than a few obsessed fangirls getting a bit overly enthusiastic about their favourite idols, there was nothing that resembled this case.  All the other stalking reports were about domestic matters.  Ex-husbands and the like.

Zhao Yunlan sat back in his chair.  It would have been easy to become frustrated, but he was still feeling relatively upbeat.  After all, even a negative outcome could help narrow the field of inquiry.  In this case, it was looking more likely that the stalker was after Shen Wei specifically, rather than targeting a number of celebrities as part of a wider poison pen campaign.  Of course, that was not a particularly nice thing to contemplate.  It made it more likely that the person would actually follow through on their threats.

Leaning forward, he began to type a response, asking Da Qing to check the Dragon City bookstores to see if anyone had purchased unusually high numbers of Shen Wei's books in the last few months.  He was not much of a bookworm himself, but some of his former colleagues in the police force had been, and he knew that if they really liked a novel, they would often have several copies of it, including hardback, paperback, travel editions and special editions.  It was a bit of a longshot but, at the moment, it was all that he could think of.

Zhao Yunlan glanced at the clock.  It was coming up to dinner time.  He wondered if Shen Wei ever got lonely eating in his study by himself every night.  Suddenly he didn't feel like dining with the rest of the staff.  As far as he could tell, there was nothing even remotely suspicious about them, and they had not provided any insights as to who might have an unhealthy interest in their employer.  All in all, they were pleasant people but, ultimately, added nothing to his investigation.  On that basis, therefore, there was no need to force himself to interact with them at mealtimes if he would rather be by himself pursuing other leads online.  Mind made up, he made his way downstairs to collect a tray.

***

Several hours later, as the clock struck midnight, Zhao Yunlan was fed up with staring at the computer screen.  Rubbing his tired eyes, he decided to call it a day and head to the kitchen to grab a cold bottle of water from the staff fridge.