Chapter 398 - The Murderer

Dr. Zhong wanted to go and comfort Kretia, but seeing her holding Westerly’s head with tears in her eyes, he didn’t know what to say. After Father Dermot finished his prayers, he instructed a few church handymen to carry Westerly’s body back to the church for a memorial service, and asked Zhong Xiaoying to stay with Kretia.

“Father Dermot, are you alright?” Zhong Xiaoying saw that the murderer had also stabbed the priest, but he seemed completely unharmed, which she found strange.

“God bless…” The priest took out a small prayer book he carried with him. The knife had pierced a deep hole in the book. However, the book was very thick and bound in parchment, which had effectively blocked the stab.

The priest was still shaken, and his speech was a bit incoherent, not at all as smooth as when he was reciting scriptures. Xu Ke knew he wouldn’t get anything useful out of him for a while, so he ordered someone to escort him back to the church first.

“Post guards at the church entrance,” Xu Ke ordered the police chief. “Assign someone to protect Huygens twenty-four hours a day! Tell him not to leave the trading post for the next few days.”

His face was ashen. This was a big mess. He put on his gloves and silently examined the scene. The dagger used to kill Westerly was lying on the ground. It was a standard navy-issue dagger—actually, a sailor’s knife.

The dagger was covered in blood. The murderer had dropped the knife and fled immediately after stabbing the priest. Xu Ke took out a brown paper evidence bag and carefully collected the dagger.

Besides that, there were no other valuable clues left at the scene. In the chaos that followed the assassination, it was impossible to protect the scene well.

Xu Ke returned to his office and found Wei Bachi, Zhong Lishi, and several other Yuanlao there. Wei Bachi had been entertaining Huygens for the past few days—Huygens had not come to the Far East just to “increase his knowledge”; he had come with a clear purpose.

Although Wei Bachi didn’t know his specific purpose, there was no doubt that Huygens’s trip to East Asia was to gather specific intelligence. After arriving in Kaohsiung, he did not miss any opportunity to talk with the Yuanlao. Although his poor Chinese proficiency had to rely on a translator, the overall feeling Wei Bachi got was that Huygens was a person with an overly strong desire for knowledge—he was interested in everything and was willing to discuss anything with the Yuanlao.

Of course, diplomats had naturally served as the overseas eyes and ears of their governments since their inception, and Wei Bachi was not averse to this. He even felt it was a good opportunity—to fully display his strength to the Dutch, to open up more trade opportunities—and also to prevent them from getting any funny ideas.

As soon as Wei Bachi entered the room, he was trembling with anger. He slammed the table and asked Xu Ke, “Which bastard from which unit did this! Take him out and shoot him!”

Xu Ke shook his head and said, “The murderer was an impostor!”

“What?!”

Xu Ke then described the two cases that had occurred yesterday and today.

Wei Bachi was furious and slammed the table again. “What are you good for! Why didn’t you send someone to protect the foreign guests? You just let a kid run around with them all over the place!”

Xu Ke was already at his wit’s end. Hearing Wei Bachi’s roar, his own temper flared. He shot back without hesitation, “Elder Wei, please watch your attitude! I am not the head of the Kaohsiung police station. I am under the leadership of the navy and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau, in charge of intelligence work for Operation Engine. Local security is your responsibility.”

Wei Bachi was choked speechless by his retort, his face turning red like a fighting cock. Dr. Zhong quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

“Let’s not get angry, everyone. What’s done is done. Arguing here won’t help. Let’s think about how to solve this matter first.”

The mistake on the Kaohsiung side was obvious: no guards were assigned to an important person like Westerly. Both Dr. Zhong and Wei Bachi had focused their attention on Huygens and had not paid much attention to the personal safety of the two Dutch teenagers, let alone expected someone to specifically target them.

This matter was neither big nor small. Although the Dutch were not to be feared, the task the Yuanlao Senate had given Wei Bachi was not to go to war with the Dutch. If things really got out of hand, there would be no benefit for him.

Wei Bachi deflated like a punctured ball. He unbuttoned his collar and sat down on the sofa. “Tell me what you think we should do!” He suddenly remembered something. “In a few days, Dayuan will send a ship to pick them up. Now a living person is gone!” he said, shaking his head and sighing repeatedly.

Dr. Zhong thought to himself, “This Banckert brought his child all the way to East Asia to get vaccinated against smallpox, hoping he would grow up safe and sound. I never expected him to die like this—the trip to Kaohsiung turned out to be his death warrant.” He felt a sense of the unpredictable and illusory nature of life and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

“If Banckert finds out his son was murdered, and by a ‘Yuanlao Senate soldier’… he’ll go crazy on us!” Wei Bachi shook his head and sighed repeatedly.

Banckert was a senior commercial officer of the East India Company, on equal footing with the governor in Batavia. No matter how you looked at it, this incident would not promote cooperation and friendship between the two sides.

“Who gives a damn about what the Dutch think? If they’re not happy, let them come and fight!” Fang Jinghan said nonchalantly. “Let’s just detain the little foreign filly, declare war immediately, conquer Dayuan, and kill all the white skins! We’ve already fallen out anyway!” Xiao Fang had been deeply influenced by Liu Zheng recently: he had no interest in Huygens or Westerly, considering them all “worthless white-skinned humanoids.” Only the little foreign filly Kretia had some value to the Yuanlao Senate.

“Isn’t that just playing into the enemy’s hands?” Wei Bachi said. “They’re just waiting for us to fight the Dutch.” He waved his arms excitedly. “Of course we’re not afraid of the Dutch, but now is not the time to deal with them. Besides, to be played like this and then follow their script, I can’t swallow this!”

Dr. Zhong said, “There’s a conspiracy in this matter!”

“It’s very likely Zheng Zhilong’s doing,” Xu Ke said. This thought had occurred to him as soon as he arrived at the crime scene—the purpose of the whole case was too strong, reeking of a frame-up from beginning to end.

According to the principle of deduction, whoever benefits most from a case is the biggest suspect. Zheng Zhilong was clearly the biggest suspect.

“The Dutch shouldn’t be so easily fooled. The methods in this case are too crude,” Wei Bachi said. “The purpose is very obvious.”

“Wrong, the methods are very sophisticated,” Xu Ke said. “Everyone on the street saw it. One of our sailors killed someone, and this sailor was drunk—or at least, he appeared to be drunk.”

In other words, the frame-up was in the form of a “crime of passion,” not “premeditated murder.” It was illogical for the Yuanlao Senate to premeditate the murder of Westerly, but a drunken sailor killing someone on the street was perfectly plausible.

From a responsibility perspective, Westerly was on the Yuanlao Senate’s territory and was killed by a public official of the Yuanlao Senate. This was a “fact” known to all at the moment, with at least several hundred people witnessing it.

For the Yuanlao Senate to clear its name, it had to solve the case and find the real culprit—and have evidence.

Given the management level of pirate gangs and even the government in this era, it would be impossible to clear their name if they were caught in this situation. Even the British Royal Navy in the 19th century might not have been able to defend against this move.

Xu Ke said with regret, “Unfortunately, the murderer is already dead!”

Wei Bachi jumped up again and complained to Zhong Lishi, “Dr. Zhong, why did you have to teach your adopted daughter how to play with guns? Now she’s shot the murderer dead! Isn’t that just silencing a witness for the enemy!”

“Xiaoying was just afraid he would get away…” Zhong Lishi was at a loss for words—he really couldn’t praise Xiaoying for this. But in the heat of the moment, there really wasn’t a better option—their communication methods were still very backward, and they couldn’t notify the patrol boats at sea in the first instance.

Of course, if Xiaoying hadn’t fired that shot, the murderer might have escaped unscathed. If he had really gotten away, it would be the same as being shot dead for them.

“I think you’re a bit too indulgent with your adopted daughter,” Wei Bachi said angrily, fanning himself. “She needs to be properly educated!”

Zhong Lishi was full of unspoken complaints against Wei Bachi, but he really couldn’t argue his way out of this one.

The phone in the room suddenly rang. Xu Ke quickly picked it up. It was Lei En calling. The murderer’s body had been transported to the health center. Lei En planned to start the autopsy in an hour and asked if Xu Ke and the others wanted to come and see.

“I’ll be right there!” Xu Ke said.

Dr. Zhong said, “I’ll go too!”

Wei Bachi shook his head, “I won’t go. I’ll take care of the aftermath first, and then go and explain to Huygens.” He shook his head wearily. “We’ll discuss how to handle this later.”

Fang Jinghan had no interest in dissecting bodies. Coincidentally, Liu Zheng had recently found a collaborator on the commercial street and was preparing to go on a field investigation. He invited Fang Jinghan to discuss the investigation plan first, so he took his leave.

Zhong Lishi returned to his residence at the customs house to pack the necessary equipment. As soon as he opened the door, he was surprised to see Zhong Xiaoying kneeling on the floor with tears in her eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s all my fault. I was careless and shot the murderer dead,” Zhong Xiaoying said, crying. “Please forgive me, Father.”

“Don’t cry, get up,” Zhong Lishi waved his hand. “How do you know the murderer is dead?”

“I just sent Kretia back to the trading post. When I came out, I saw Uncle Lei En and his men collecting the murderer’s body. He said I had helped the bad guys by ‘silencing a witness.’ I know I was wrong. Please forgive me, Father!” She was both regretful and sad, and as she spoke, she couldn’t help but fall to the ground and weep bitterly.