Killer Nights

Jiang Zhengkai parked his police cruiser in front of the Ju’an Road Police Station.  He didn’t know A-Shun’s home address, so in order to protect his family members, he needed to ask Zhang Nan or A-Shun himself.

“Zhang, quick!” an out-of-breath Jiang Zhengkai shouted as he charged into Zhang Nan’s office.  “A-Shun… A-Shun’s family is in danger!”

“What?”  When Zhang Nan saw Jiang Zhengkai barging into his office in such a hurry, his first reaction was to look at him in surprise, but he soon picked up on his sense of urgency as well.  “Alright, let’s go! I know where he lives!” Zhang Nan quickly swept the papers on his desk to one side, pausing to stare at one for a few seconds before running out of the police station with Jiang Zhengkai.  Clearly, the slip of paper listed A-Shun’s home address.

Out in the parking lot, Zhang Nan saw two officers who had just come back from lunch.  “Han Lei, Xu Yang, come with me right now!” He ordered them to join him inside Jiang Zhengkai’s police cruiser.  The car then peeled out of the station’s parking lot with sirens blaring.

Approximately ten minutes later, the police cruiser arrived at A-Shun’s home.  “You two stay down here and watch for anything suspicious! Zhang and I will go up to A-Shun’s apartment,” said Jiang Zhengkai.  As he looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary, Jiang Zhengkai’s concern began to abate. “Things seem to be alright. Anyway, let’s head up.”  As a career police officer, he was very sensitive to his surroundings. His experience and instincts told him that nothing bad had yet occurred in A-Shun’s home.

After ringing the doorbell, A-Shun’s wife A-Tao came and answered the door.  “You’re…” She had a slightly terrified look on her face as she greeted Jiang Zhengkai and Zhang Nan.  “A… A-Shun’s not home.”

“Eh?” Zhang Nan forced himself to smile.  “A-Shun? Who’s A-Shun? We’re here to verify your household registration.”

“Oh!”  Hearing Zhang Nan’s white lie made A-Tao feel slightly more at ease.  “In that case…”

“May we come in?”  Zhang Nan noticed something was off from A-Tao’s expression, and her body was positioned to block the doorway.  Clearly, she didn’t want them to enter her home. As a result, Zhang Nan decided to simply push her out of the way as soon as he finished asking for permission.  Seeing a temporary opening, Jiang Zhengkai immediately followed Zhang Nan into A-Shun’s home.

The place wasn’t very s.p.a.cious.  It was a small one-bedroom unit, so when Jiang Zhengkai walked in, he could see straight past the living room into the bedroom.  Inside sat two men. “Who are those two?”

“Oh!  They are… they are my child’s uncles.”  Since A-Tao hadn’t been able to prevent them from entering, she nervously tailed Jiang Zhengkai as he walked inside the apartment.

“Really?  Do they live here, or are they just visiting?” Jiang Zhengkai asked casually.  He sat down on the living room sofa. “Could I trouble you to take out your household registration book?  We need to verify it for our records,” he said to A-Tao in all seriousness.

“Oh, okay!”  A-Tao immediately went inside her bedroom to retrieve her household registration book.  Jiang Zhengkai took advantage of her absence to shoot Zhang Nan a look. Zhang Nan immediately picked up on the signal and dialed Han Lei’s cell phone.  They had previously planned it where if Han Lei received a call from Zhang Nan, he and Xu Yang would immediately enter the building. One of them would guard the hallway while the other would stand right outside the door to A-Shun’s apartment.  Since the apartment was on the fifth floor, they needn’t worry about anybody escaping through a window.

“Here you go, officer!” said A-Tao as she came out of her bedroom carrying her household registration book.  “Can I get you some water?”

“No, thank you,” said Jiang Zhengkai as he casually waved his hand.  “We’ll leave as soon as we’re done here, but thank you for your hospitality, ma’am.”  He raised his head to look at A-Tao and said, “Oh, could I take a look at your ID card as well?  And do you normally live here with your husband and child?”

“Yes… that’s right,” responded A-Tao with a hesitant nod as she handed her ID card over.

“Oh, and the two men…” continued Jiang Zhengkai as he turned his head towards the bedroom.  “Is one of them your husband?”

“Oh, no!” A-Tao immediately shook her head.  “They… they are my child’s uncles. They’re here to see my child.”

“I see.  So are they staying here right now?” asked Jiang Zhengkai as he looked down at the household registration book and casually glance through it.

“No!  They aren’t,” A-Tao nervously answered.  “They… they are just here for the day. They will leave soon.”

“Is that so?” chuckled Jiang Zhengkai as he raised his head.  “Well, we are doing a full sweep this time to make sure there are no unauthorized persons living in the area, so I’m afraid I must ask your child’s uncles to show me their IDs as well.”

“Oh…”  A-Tao turned pale.  However, she wasn’t a woman who liked to make a scene; quite the contrary, she had a very agreeable personality.  Therefore, she wasn’t going to go off on Jiang Zhengkai in an effort to kick him out of her home. Perhaps she hoped in her heart that Jiang Zhengkai and Zhang Nan could stay.

“Is that too much trouble for you?  Well, allow me, if that’s alright with you,” said Jiang Zhengkai as he glanced at A-Tao.  He then shouted at the two men in the bedroom while still sitting on the living room couch, “Hey, uncles, come out please!  I need to check everyone’s IDs. We appreciate your cooperation.”

When the two men in the bedroom heard Jiang Zhengkai’s request, they looked at each other and then looked at the bed where the boy was napping.  Finally, the two decided to go out and deal with Jiang Zhengkai. They knew that if they didn’t leave the bedroom right this second, there was a good chance they might not make it out of this apartment alive today.

“h.e.l.lo, officer!” said the two men as one came out after the other from the bedroom.  “We… we are the child’s uncles. We are here to see our cousin and nephew.”

“Ah, okay, please sit!” said Jiang Zhengkai as he maintained his casual tone.  “Have a seat! This is your cousin’s house, isn’t it? I’m the one who’s an outsider here.”  As he spoke, he shot a glance at each of the two men in front of him. “Your IDs, please. I apologize, but we need to check all households for unauthorized residents.  This came straight from the top, so I’m afraid I can’t make any exceptions.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s fine!” the two men hastily replied.  One of them took out his driver’s license and handed it to Jiang Zhengkai.  “Officer, both us are truck drivers. I left my national ID card in my truck.  Can I show you my driver’s license instead?”

“Sure, no problem,” answered Jiang Zhengkai.  “And how about you?” he asked as he looked at the other man.

“Both my ID and driver’s license are in my truck,” the other man replied.

As Jiang Zhengkai talked to the two men in the living room, Zhang Nan discreetly stepped over to the bedroom door.  He looked inside and carefully surveyed the room. There didn’t appear to be anyone else hidden in it. “Is your child a boy?  How come he looks like a girl?” As he spoke, he focused his attention back on A-Tao. “Ma’am, does your child need to pee? He keeps squirming around.”

“Oh, let me take a look then!”  A-Tao ran straight into the bedroom to take care of her child.  As she ran past the two men, one of them wanted to prevent her from going inside the bedroom, but just then, Jiang Zhengkai raised his head and said, “Hey, gentlemen, do you mind writing down a brief statement explaining your situation?  That way I can tell my superiors that you are living here legally.”

“Okay, fine.”  The two men had no choice but to obey Jiang Zhengkai’s command as they walked over to pick up pen and paper.  Meanwhile, A-Tao used the opportunity to enter her bedroom.

“Alright, gentlemen.”  Once Jiang Zhengkai saw that A-Tao had safely left the living room, he forcefully grabbed the wrist of the man who reached out his hand for pen and paper and then coldly said, “Let’s drop this charade, shall we?  Tell me who you are and why you’re here!”

“We–”  The other man wasn’t about to give in so easily, but when he saw Jiang Zhengkai reaching behind his back for what appeared to be his sidearm, he immediately took off running.  Unfortunately, he ran straight into Han Lei as soon as he ran out the door, and a split second later, he felt the barrel of Zhang Nan’s pistol pointed straight at the back of his head.

“It looks like the two of you still don’t get it, do you?” scoffed Jiang Zhengkai as he took out his handcuffs and cuffed the man whom he had caught.  The other one was of course cuffed by Zhang Nan.

“We… we’re just here to visit our relatives!” the two men loudly protested.  “Ask her if you don’t believe us!” they said as they turned around and glared at the bedroom.

“Hehe, no need to ask her,” remarked Jiang Zhengkai, as he forcefully pressed down on the man’s shoulder while holding his arm behind his back.  The man writhed in pain and fell to the ground. “We’re all old-timers here, so why don’t we just cut the bulls.h.i.+t, okay? I imagine the two of you were quite busy this morning.”

“You…”  When the man in Jiang Zhengkai’s custody heard what he said, he gave him a startled look before he fell silent again.  As for Jiang Zhengkai, that one startled look was all that he needed. The man needn’t have said anything more, since Jiang Zhengkai was now quite certain these two men had partic.i.p.ated in the attack on A-Tie that very morning.