The Poisoned Pen: A Guardian Story

Chapter Thirty: The Story Ends (final)

Despite his best intentions the night before, when Zhao Yunlan woke, he found that he actually felt quite refreshed from his rest.  Of course, the fact that it was almost midday may have had something to do with it.

Reaching for his phone while trying not to disturb the man sleeping peacefully next to him, he was surprised that to see that he only had one missed call, from Da Qing.  Nothing from Chu Shuzhi or Guo Changcheng.  It seemed that they had likely found a treasure trove of information at Gao Han's house and were still busy sorting through it.  It wasn't surprising.  A lot of stalkers turned their homes into shrines to their victims.

Slipping out from underneath the covers, Zhao Yunlan grabbed some fresh clothes then went to the bathroom to take a shower.  When he emerged, Shen Wei was still sleeping.  It was probably just as much due to emotional exhaustion as physical, and the detective had no intention of waking him.

He made his way through the silent house to the study, where he began to straighten the room and return the furniture and other items to their rightful place, knowing that in spite of what happened there, Shen Wei would want to return to his favourite room as soon as possible.  He tried to scrub the red wine stain out of the carpet, but it remained stubborn, so he repositioned a small table, hiding the mark from view.  Finally satisfied with his work, he headed for the kitchen and a well-earned glass of cold fruit juice.

No sooner had Zhao Yunlan taken a sip of the freshly squeezed orange than his phone rang, the sound harsh in the quiet of the almost empty building.  It was Chu Shuzhi.

"Well," he said, "our evidence room is now officially full of photos and tributes to Mr Shen.  I'm tempted to call it a shrine.  I won't offer to show it to you.  It will only piss you off.  Still, we have been able to confirm that Gao Han was behind the three murders, not that it was ever in much doubt.  We're in the process of reaching out to the victims' families."

"I see.  Find anything interesting?"

"More frustrating than anything else.  Turns out the newspaper Gao worked for is the same newspaper with offices in the building where the PO Box was.  You remember?  The place where the stationery was delivered.  We missed a pretty big clue there."

Zhao Yunlan sat down at the kitchen table and gave an exasperated sigh.

"That's ridiculous.  How could every single one of us miss that connection?"

"There's more.  Gao changed his car recently.  We found pictures of him standing next to his old vehicle."

"Don't tell me," Yunlan said, his voice heavy with resignation.  "A dark grey sedan with tinted windows."

"Got it in one."

"I'll admit, when the car stopped appearing outside the estate I pushed it to the back of my mind.  Other leads seemed more promising.  I suppose it makes sense now.  When Shen Ling started bringing Gao to the house with her, he didn't need to sit outside the gates hoping for a glimpse of Wei anymore.  He practically had an access all areas pass to him.  Also, if he was going to start driving in and out of the property, it made sense to change the car, in case one of the staff recognised it."

"You've deduced more than we could," Chu Shuzhi admitted.  "Don't beat yourself up too much about it, though.  We were all distracted by the murders, and there were a few other promising suspects, including that fan club president.  He was completely innocent by the way.  Just extremely annoying."

Zhao Yunlan grunted in acknowledgement, then turned as a sound from behind captured his attention.

"Chu, I've got to go.  Ring me later if you need anything else."