Chapter 401: The Third Man

Wei Bachi looked at his watch. An hour had passed, and it was almost noon. Zhong Lishi said to Li Shun, “Look, a whole hour has gone by. Since you’re unwilling to talk, I assume you have your difficulties. It’s almost time for lunch. How about we eat first and then talk?”

Li Shun said to Wei Bachi, “Master Wei, I really just carry these tiles for my own amusement. We fishermen have a hard life. We can’t sleep at night because we have to watch the sea. Playing with these Pai Gow tiles is our only pastime.”

“Your Pai Gow set is incomplete. Why do you only have a few tiles? Where are the rest?” Wei Bachi had already inspected the personal belongings confiscated from him. There were only three or four bone tiles, not nearly enough to play a game of Pai Gow.

“I lost them while playing…” Li Shun blinked. “Your Lordship must understand! Our boat is rocking and rolling all day. It’s easy to lose a few tiles by accident.”

Wei Bachi shook his head. “If you’re just playing by yourself, why are there marks on the tiles? Two short and one long, which gambling den uses that mark?!”

“This…” Li Shun was stunned that the Australians knew about this. His face fell. “My lord, this is a shady business. If the boss of the gambling den finds out, he’ll have my head.”

Wei Bachi said, “Don’t worry! We’ll keep your secret. We won’t tell anyone. Besides, I’m not asking for your help for free…” As he spoke, he took a piece of silver from his pocket and placed it on the table.

Li Shun’s eyes lit up when he saw the silver. But after a moment’s thought, his face clouded over again. “I… I have a wife and children…”

Wei Bachi smiled faintly and took out another piece of silver. Seeing the two pieces of silver on the table, Li Shun hesitated, then sighed. “I also have an eighty-year-old mother at home…”

Wei Bachi smiled. “I didn’t expect you to be so filial.” He called out, “Someone, come in.”

A short, sleazy-looking naturalized citizen worker with a blue collar insignia immediately entered from outside.

“It’s lunchtime. Give our filial son Li a good reception.” He looked at his watch. “I’ll give you five minutes. Use the ‘truth’ to persuade him.” Wei Bachi smiled and walked out of the room.

Wei Bachi went out to the corridor. The short naturalized citizen closed the door from the inside. Soon, the crisp sound of dislocating joints could be heard, followed by squeals like a pig being slaughtered. Wei Bachi took out a cigar, lit it, and slowly blew smoke rings. Just then, Xu Ke returned. Seeing Wei Bachi smoking outside, he said:

“What? You’ve already resorted to the iron fist of the dictatorship so soon?”

Wei Bachi shrugged helplessly. “I must look too kind…”

A few moments later, the naturalized citizen worker came out. He clicked his heels and stood at attention. “Reporting, sir. He says he’s willing to say anything.”

Wei Bachi glanced at his watch. “Three minutes.” He said to Xu Ke, “Your people from the General Administration of Political Security are quite capable.”

“I’m from the Intelligence Bureau,” Xu Ke had to correct him. This particular naturalized citizen from Political Security was a former yamen runner from the Qiongzhou prefectural office, specializing in interrogation and torture. He was ruthless, unscrupulous, and a very effective enforcer.

According to Li Shun’s confession, the bone tiles he carried were for cheating at a gambling den in Jinjiang County, Quanzhou Prefecture. The owner of the den was named Lin Shimao. The murdered assassin was named Mori Hisakatsu, a Japanese man. He and Li Shun were old acquaintances, but not very close.

Mori Hisakatsu had killed someone in Japan and fled to China on a “Tang ship.” He had been living off shady dealings in the Quanzhou area. According to Li Shun, he had killed many people and was a ruthless assassin. Having been in the Quanzhou area for years, he could speak fluent Minnan dialect.

Li Shun had been caught cheating by Lin Shimao, who originally threatened to chop off one of his hands. Later, Lin Shimao said that if he accompanied Mori Hisakatsu on a trip to Taiwan, all would be forgiven—and he would even receive an extra twenty taels of silver.

He and Mori Hisakatsu boarded a large fishing boat heading to the waters around Taiwan by pretending to be hired as laborers, and that’s how they got to Kaohsiung.

After arriving in Kaohsiung, Li Shun’s job was to run errands for Mori Hisakatsu according to his instructions, which included stealing the uniform. Li Shun’s main profession was thievery. After stealing the uniform, he gave it to Mori Hisakatsu, and he didn’t know what happened after that.

As for why Mori Hisakatsu came to Kaohsiung, he had no idea. He only knew to follow Mori Hisakatsu’s orders. After Mori Hisakatsu was killed, he was terrified, but he couldn’t leave Kaohsiung, so he could only wait for the port to open to slip away.

“What? He doesn’t know about the killing of Zhang Qianniu?” Xu Ke asked.

However, he was not the one who killed Mori Hisakatsu. Li Shun didn’t know who killed him either—but he said Mori Hisakatsu should have other acquaintances here, as he often went out alone to meet people.

The most crucial part was that Li Shun didn’t even know the details of Zhang Qianniu’s murder—he only knew that Mori Hisakatsu had killed someone.

“So he’s just a small fry, an errand boy.” Wei Bachi was very disappointed with his testimony.

“At least we have a new lead.” Although Xu Ke said this, his brow was still furrowed. It seemed this mysterious third person was the key. The investigation had to continue.

The guards carried out the limp Li Shun. Wei Bachi shook his head and ordered, “Get a doctor to look at him. We are a society of law, we must be humane.” He flicked the ash from his cigar.

“What should we do next?” Wei Bachi asked.

“First, we must continue the screening to catch this third person—the key person,” Xu Ke said.

Li Shun was an errand boy, and Mori Hisakatsu was just an assassin. The real key figure was the person hiding behind the scenes, who directed the operation and then killed Mori Hisakatsu to silence him.

Catching him would solve the case.

Wei Bachi was a bit disappointed. “After all this, we still can’t figure out who wanted to assassinate Westerly.”

“It’s obvious. We just can’t prove it.”

“Yiguan.”

“He is the most likely suspect,” Xu Ke said. “Of course, there are other possibilities. But I believe that in this time and space, conspiracies won’t be overly complicated. And he benefits the most from stirring up trouble between us and the Dutch.”

“Why would Zheng Yiguan send a Japanese person?”

“Don’t forget Zheng Yiguan has significant influence in Japan. Yan Siqi operated in Japan for a long time and had connections with the shogunate. Zheng Zhilong inherited Yan Siqi’s organization, so he must have inherited some of those connections. Besides, Zheng Chenggong’s mother, Tagawa Matsu, was Japanese,” Xu Ke said. “There are Japanese people all over the coastal areas of East Asia. They are rootless people, perfect material for assassins and cannon fodder.”

“With what we have, we can at least give the Bangkuts, father and daughter, some explanation.”

“The investigation isn’t over. We might be clear on what happened, but to convince them completely, we need solid evidence,” Xu Ke said. “We must catch the third man!”

This third person was still in Kaohsiung, but there were no more leads—the only clue Xu Ke had was that this person could use a blowgun.

But a blowgun is easy to hide and even easier to dispose of. The search hadn’t turned up any suspicious tube-like objects, which suggested the culprit had likely already gotten rid of the weapon.

This opponent has some skill, Xu Ke thought. He decided to start by re-examining the suspects already in custody. Additionally, he could question Li Shun and the people on his fishing boat again; perhaps they could provide new leads.

While having his people continue interrogating the suspects, Xu Ke reviewed the case details once more. He also revisited Zhong Xiaoying, asking her to recall every detail of the pursuit of Mori Hisakatsu.

During her recollection, Zhong Xiaoying provided a clue: she roughly remembered where Mori Hisakatsu had jumped into the sea.

“You remember?” Xu Ke was overjoyed. “Let’s go to the scene!”

“But my memory might not be completely accurate…”

“It doesn’t matter, let’s go and see.”

He then took Zhong Xiaoying to the fishing boat dock where Mori Hisakatsu was killed. Although there was no surveillance equipment on the dock to pinpoint the exact location of the killing, they knew roughly how far from the dock he was when he was hit. According to Zhong Xiaoying’s recollection, the man had swum about 15 to 20 meters out.

“He should have jumped from around here,” Zhong Xiaoying pointed. There was a row of wooden posts for mooring ropes along the dock. “I don’t remember which specific one.” She looked at the posts carefully, trying hard to recall the details of that day.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember,” she said with some regret, then looked at the surrounding directions. “But it was somewhere between these three or four posts.”

The distance was about ten meters. Xu Ke sketched the terrain and bearings on his notepad. Then he marked the approximate area where Mori Hisakatsu was likely hit.

Xu Ke knew that even modern blowguns have a limited range. In this era, a handmade, portable blowgun would be crude and not very long, giving it an extremely short effective range, no more than 20 meters at best.

Based on the distance and the angle of the blow-dart, he quickly calculated the approximate location from which it was fired.

“Come on, let’s go to the port authority,” Xu Ke said, taking Zhong Xiaoying to the port office at the fishing boat dock.

The port director, a naturalized cadre and a retired navy man, quickly stood at attention and saluted when he saw a naval officer approaching.

“At ease!” Xu Ke said. “I need to check the berthing positions of the ships on the day of the incident.”

“Yes, sir,” the port director said. “The positions of the ships haven’t changed from that day to now. I’ll show you the berthing chart.”

Every civilian boat that entered the port had to dock at a location designated by the port authority. Each boat had a corresponding number marked on the port’s layout map, making it clear at a glance. Comparing it with his own sketch, Xu Ke quickly identified eight fishing boats from which the blow-dart could have been fired.