Chapter 80: The Mysterious A (1/2)
Killer Nights
Chapter 80: The Mysterious A-Di
Right before lunchtime, Jiang Zhengkai left the narcotics division’s office. The division’s officer-in-charge Zou Chunjian saw Jiang Zhengkai out. The two chatted for a while in the hallway before each returned to his respective office.
After Jiang Zhengkai sat down at his desk, he took out his memo pad and went over in his head everything he had learned. The information provided by Zou Chunjian coupled with the various doc.u.ments collected during the two-year manhunt for the Bald Wolf and the subsequent crackdown on the Sui Dequan crime family made it seem like the prost.i.tute-run drug trafficking ring in the alley involved only Sui Dequan and not the Bald Wolf. This information corresponded with what Uncle Gao had already told Jiang Zhengkai the night before.
So was the fact that A-Jiao knew all of the prost.i.tutes involved in the drug ring a mere coincidence or was there another reason? Jiang Zhengkai’s train of thought returned to A-Jiao again, especially when it came to A-Di. How did A-Jiao know A-Di? As these thoughts coursed through his head, he looked up at the wall clock. It was exactly twelve noon. Was A-Jiao eating lunch right now? Jiang Zhengkai had already taken out his cell phone and placed it on the desk but then proceeded to tap his fingers on the desk all the way until 12:30 before finally deciding to call A-Jiao.
“h.e.l.lo? What is it?” A-Jiao said over the phone.
“How’s your afternoon looking?” asked Jiang Zhengkai as he rubbed his temples. He didn’t know what to say to A-Jiao as he couldn’t very well tell her that he suspected her of being involved in the murders. Of course, deep down inside, Jiang Zhengkai still believed A-Jiao wasn’t involved, but one couldn’t blame him for having some doubts in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“I don’t have any cla.s.ses in the afternoon,” A-Jiao happily replied, “What? You want to take me out?” She was always happy to receive Jiang Zhengkai’s phone calls. She would never have thought that Jiang Zhengkai was starting to suspect that she was involved in the serial murders.
“Oh, is that so?” Jiang Zhengkai heard the happiness in A-Jiao’s voice, which had somewhat infected his mood as well, “Where do you want to go? I’ll go with you!”
“Really?” Hearing Jiang Zhengkai agree to her request naturally made her very happy. “Alright then! Come find me in the preschool. I’ll be in my art studio.”
“Ok!” Jiang Zhengkai very crisply answered before hanging up the phone. He sat at his desk and went over his thoughts again before finally getting up to leave his office.
Jiang Zhengkai grabbed some food on the way to the preschool. One supposed that that was going to be his lunch. As a cop, he wasn’t a stranger to rough conditions, so it wasn’t a big deal to him. He parked his police cruiser near the preschool and quickly ate his lunch inside the car. He didn’t call A-Jiao to tell her to come out; rather, he went straight to the art studio to find her. He knew the art studio was A-Jiao’s favorite place in the preschool, her own slice of heaven.
“That was quick, Honey!” A-Jiao turned around and smiled at Jiang Zhengkai when she felt someone standing next to her, “Where do you want to take me?”
“You tell me!” said Jiang Zhengkai as he turned around and looked at the door. Seeing no one, he placed his arm around A-Jiao’s neck, “What are you drawing, Honey?”
“You’re so clingy!” Although that’s what A-Jiao’s mouth said, her body did quite the opposite as her head pressed up against Jiang Zhengkai’s body. “Oh, I’m just drawing whatever comes to my mind.” Indeed, her paintings today were quite random. They looked like visualizations of her vivid imagination.
“So where are we going?” Jiang Zhengkai asked A-Jiao quietly after he heard her explanation.
“Anywhere is fine with me,” A-Jiao warmly responded as she continued to lean against Jiang Zhengkai, “I’ll be happy to go anywhere as long as it’s with you.”
“Alright then, I’ll take you for a drive.” He then stood up and joyfully said to A-Jiao, “Today’s not the weekend, so there shouldn’t be too many people at the beach. How about let’s go to the beach?”
“Sounds good!” A-Jiao nodded in response. Even though this city sat on the sea, it wasn’t like A-Jiao had time to go to the beach everyday.
A-Jiao and Jiang Zhengkai walked hand-in-hand to where he parked his police car. He then let A-Jiao sit in the front pa.s.senger seat before starting the car and driving towards the direction of the beach.
“Honey, why do you have so much free time today? I can’t believe you’d take me to the beach on a weekday,” said A-Jiao as she sat in the car, pursed her lips, and looked at Jiang Zhengkai with slightly blus.h.i.+ng cheeks, “You’re going to ask me more questions, aren’t you?”