Chapter 1150 - The Killer
Dr. Zhong wanted to go forward and comfort Cretia, but seeing her cradling Vestreling's head in her arms, tears streaming down her face, he couldn't find the words. After completing his prayers, Father De Mordt instructed several church attendants to carry Vestreling's body back to the church for a memorial service, and had Zhong Xiaoying accompany Cretia.
"Father De Mordt, are you alright?" Zhong Xiaoying had seen the killer stab the priest too, yet he appeared completely unharmed. She couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"God be praised..." The priest took out a small prayer book he carried on his person. A deep hole had been stabbed into it. But the book was quite thick and bound in sheepskin, which had effectively stopped the thrust.
The priest was still somewhat shaken, speaking incoherently—nothing like his smooth cadence when reading scripture. Xu Ke knew he wouldn't get anything useful from him for the time being and instructed someone to escort him back to the church.
"Post guards at the church entrance," Xu Ke ordered the police station chief. "Assign someone to protect Huygens around the clock. Tell him not to leave the commercial house these next few days."
His expression was grim. This incident had created a serious problem. Pulling on gloves, he silently examined the scene. The dagger used to stab Vestreling lay on the ground—a standard naval dagger issued to sailors, essentially a sailor's knife.
The dagger was covered in blood. After stabbing the priest, the killer had immediately dropped it and fled. Xu Ke produced a paper evidence bag and carefully collected the weapon.
Beyond this, the scene yielded no valuable clues. In the chaos following the attack, proper preservation had been impossible.
Xu Ke returned to his office to find Wei Bachi, Zhong Lishi, and several other Elders already there. Wei Bachi had been entertaining Huygens these past few days—Huygens hadn't come to the Far East merely to "broaden his horizons"; he had arrived with clear objectives.
Though Wei Bachi didn't know the diplomat's specific purpose, one thing was undoubtedly clear: Huygens's East Asian trip was aimed at gathering intelligence about the region. Since arriving in Kaohsiung, he hadn't missed any opportunity to converse with the Elders. Although his pitiable Chinese forced him to rely on translators, Wei Bachi's overall impression was that Huygens possessed an excess of curiosity—interested in everything and eager to exchange views on any topic.
Of course, diplomats had naturally served as their government's overseas eyes and ears since their inception—Wei Bachi had no issue with this. He even thought it a good opportunity to demonstrate their strength to the Dutch and develop more trade opportunities. If nothing else, it would keep them from getting any foolish ideas.
The moment Wei Bachi entered, he was trembling with rage. He slapped the table and demanded of Xu Ke: "Which unit does this bastard belong to? Execute him!"
Xu Ke shook his head: "The killer was an imposter."
"What?!"
Xu Ke briefed him on both cases—yesterday's and today's.
Wei Bachi flew into a rage and slapped the table again: "What were you even doing! Why didn't you assign people to protect the foreign guests? You just let a kid lead them around everywhere!"
Xu Ke was already at his wit's end, and Wei Bachi's outburst ignited his own temper. He retorted firmly: "Elder Wei, please watch your attitude. I don't report to the Kaohsiung Police Station—I'm under the leadership of the Navy and the External Intelligence Bureau, overseeing intelligence work for Operation Engine. Local security and protection falls under your jurisdiction."
Wei Bachi was stopped short by this rebuke, face flushing deep red like a fighting cock, unable to speak. Dr. Zhong quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
"Let's all calm down. What's done is done. Arguing here accomplishes nothing. Let's focus on getting to the bottom of this first."
The Kaohsiung side's failure was obvious: no security personnel had been assigned to someone as important as Vestreling. Whether it was Dr. Zhong or Wei Bachi, both had focused their attention entirely on Huygens, paying little heed to the personal safety of these two Dutch youths—and certainly never imagining someone would specifically target them.
This matter wasn't insignificant, but it wasn't catastrophic either. While the Dutch weren't much to fear, the mission the Senate had given Wei Bachi wasn't to wage war against them. If this blew up into a real incident, there would be no good outcome for him.
Wei Bachi deflated like a punctured balloon. He loosened his collar button and plopped onto the sofa: "Just tell me what to do." Suddenly he remembered something: "In a few days Tayouan will send a ship to pick them up, and now one of them is just... gone!" He shook his head and sighed repeatedly.
Dr. Zhong thought: Bancuijt had painstakingly brought his children all the way to East Asia for smallpox vaccination, hoping they would grow up safe and sound. Who could have imagined this trip to Kaohsiung would become a death sentence? He felt a rush of existential uncertainty at life's unpredictability, and couldn't help but heave a deep sigh.
"If Bancuijt finds out his son was murdered, and by an 'Elder's soldier' at that... he'll go to war with us!" Wei Bachi shook his head, sighing repeatedly.
Bancuijt was a senior merchant of the Dutch East India Company, a figure on equal footing with the Governor in Batavia. No matter how you looked at it, this wouldn't promote cooperation or friendship between the two sides.
"Who cares what the Dutch think—if they don't like it, let them fight us!" Fang Jinghan said dismissively. "Might as well detain the little foreign girl, declare war immediately, take Tayouan and kill all the whites! We've already burned bridges!" Lately, Xiao Fang had been heavily influenced by Liu Zheng: he had no interest whatsoever in Huygens or Vestreling, considering them all "worthless white humanoid creatures." Only the little foreign girl Cretia had any value to the Senate.
"Wouldn't that be playing right into the enemy's hands?" Wei Bachi said. "They want us fighting the Dutch." He waved his arms excitedly: "Of course we're not afraid of the Dutch, but now isn't the time to deal with them. Besides, getting played like this and then docilely following the enemy's script—I can't swallow that either!"
Dr. Zhong said: "There's a conspiracy behind this."
"Most likely Zheng Zhilong's doing," Xu Ke said. This thought had occurred to him from the moment he arrived at the murder scene—the entire case was too purposeful, reeking of a frame-up from start to finish.
Following the logic of reasoning: whoever benefits most from the case is the prime suspect. Zheng Zhilong was clearly the most suspicious party.
"The Dutch shouldn't fall for this so easily. The methods are too crude," Wei Bachi said. "The intent is too obvious."
"Wrong—these methods are quite sophisticated," Xu Ke countered. "A street full of people all saw one of our sailors kill someone, and this sailor was drunk—or at least appeared to be drunk."
In other words, the frame-up took the form of a "crime of passion" rather than "premeditated murder." It would be utterly illogical to claim the Senate had deliberately murdered Vestreling, but a drunken sailor killing someone in the street was completely believable.
From the perspective of responsibility, Vestreling had been killed on Senate territory by a Senate official. This was the "fact" everyone now knew—at least several hundred people had witnessed this "fact."
For the Senate to clear its name, they would have to solve the case and find the real culprit—with evidence.
Given the management standards of this era's pirate organizations and even official governments, if something like this happened, even a hundred mouths couldn't explain it away. Even the nineteenth-century British Navy might not have been able to prevent such a scheme.
Xu Ke said regretfully: "Unfortunately, the killer is already dead."
Wei Bachi jumped up again and complained to Zhong Lishi: "Dr. Zhong, why did you teach your goddaughter to play with guns? Now she's shot the killer dead in one shot! Isn't that helping the enemy silence witnesses?"
"Xiaoying was just afraid he'd escape..." Zhong Lishi was somewhat at a loss for words—he really couldn't praise Xiaoying for this. But in that moment of urgency, there really hadn't been any good alternatives—their communication methods were still very primitive, making it impossible to notify the patrol boats at sea in time.
Of course, if Xiaoying hadn't fired that shot, the killer might have gotten away scot-free. If he had escaped, it would have been the same to them as if he'd been killed.
"I think you're perhaps a bit too indulgent with your goddaughter," Wei Bachi said irritably while fanning himself. "She needs proper discipline."
Zhong Lishi was full of silent complaints about Wei Bachi, but he really couldn't mount any defense on this matter.
Suddenly the telephone in the room rang. Xu Ke quickly answered it. The call was from Lei En—the killer's body had been brought to the medical station. Lei En planned to begin the autopsy in an hour and asked if Xu Ke and the others wanted to observe.
"I'll be right there!" Xu Ke said.
Dr. Zhong said: "I'll go too."
Wei Bachi shook his head: "I'll pass. I'll take care of the aftermath first, then go explain things to Huygens." He sighed wearily. "We'll discuss how to handle this later."
Fang Jinghan had no interest in autopsies either. Liu Zheng had recently found a native guide on Commercial Street and was preparing for a wilderness expedition. He had invited Fang Jinghan to discuss the plan, so Fang excused himself.
Zhong Lishi returned to the customs residence to gather the necessary equipment. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Zhong Xiaoying kneeling on the floor with tears in her eyes, giving him quite a start.
"What are you doing?"
"It's all my fault, Father. I carelessly shot the killer dead," Zhong Xiaoying said through tears. "Please forgive me."
"Don't cry. Get up." Zhong Lishi waved his hands. "How did you know the killer was dead?"
"I just escorted Cretia back to the commercial house. When I came out, I saw Uncle Lei En bringing people to collect the killer's body. He said my shot helped the bad guys 'silence a witness.' I know I was wrong. Please forgive me, Father!" Both regretful and grief-stricken, she prostrated herself on the floor and wept bitterly.
(End of Chapter)