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“Oh, stop it! Just explain.”
“And here comes my second witness. Thesecond witness! You, my dear Watson!”
“I?”
“You and Victor. You run to the Patch-Fivein great hurry. All the way, Victor's sure his father is stubbed todeath. You open the door, and: bang! Victor suddenly changes hismind. As if there are fire letters hanging in the air. Victor Chen!Keep your mouth shut! Now, presumably somebody wants to write thesefire letters in such way that his Mandarin-literate addresseeunderstands them for sure, but a Korean police officer has no clue.What language should this person use? Arabic? English? Korean?”
“There is a leap of faith,Holmes. You automatically presume that the policeman can't readMandarin. We have plenty of Chinamericans in the PoliceForce.”
“One. The fact that youand Tan are both Koreamerican– is common knowledge in the GRS. On the Westside, everybody even knows that the Beat clerk is not an Amerasian.Yesterday, two 'Fill scavengers called me by name and offered me a ride. Two. TheChinese wisdom, especially if written in Chinese characters, allowsfor free translation. No need to write: keep your mouth shut! For asmart addressee, you could write something far lessobvious.”
“I'm sure you have already translated thescroll. Did you use the Internet?”
“Much simpler! If your cell phone does nothave Chinese installed, how to enter the Chinese characters? Andeven if you get yourself a Chinese keyboard, I am not thatproficient… To make the story short, at the market I found twoChinese dudes and asked them to translate the scroll for me. Thefirst said: ‘Careless words bite like poisonous snakes’.”
“And the second?”
“The second translation was not as poetic.‘Wrong words get relatives killed.’ But instead of ‘killed’ therecould be also ‘destroyed’ or ‘poisoned’. Mandarin is not likeKorean or Japanese. In Korean, you have a fifty-fifty mix ofphonetic symbols and abstract sino-characters, so the specificmeaning is usually more straight-forward.”
“Hey, look who is teaching me Korean! Butyour version is very nice. Let me summarize. After Tan leaves tocall you from China-Three, someone hangs this scroll. At the sametime, he or she wipes the blood from the floor. I've paid noattention to the scroll. After all, the Chinese hieroglyphs are toodifferent from Korean. But Victor Chen reads the scroll,understands it correctly, and demands himself the FifthAmendment.”
“Right! By the way, did he ask for theFifth?”
“Woxman told me so. Victor even refused thefree attorney.”
“Perfect. It all fits in with my deduction.The person who hung the scroll. He or she is either an ethnicChinese or knows Mandarin as a second-native language. He must bean enthusiast of Chinese Calligraphy, because he decided to use theChinese proverb as a method of clandestine communication, veryclever indeed. He is presumably from the GRS, because he knows thatthe local policemen are not very strong in Mandarin. Finally, he iswell-acquainted with Victor Chan.”
“How is the last one?”
“If you are not sure whether your recipientcan not only read, but also correctly understand the Chineseproverb, why take the risk and hang the scroll? And mostimportantly, this person must live somewhere in the vicinity, veryclose indeed.”
“To have time to run home and write thescroll?”
“Even if he was not trained in calligraphicwriting himself, he could have the scroll with the fitting proverbin his home collection. And if he had to write it from scratch, healso must run home. We are not in ancient China, and thecalligraphers don't wander the streets with ink and brushes. Evenmore to it. Our calligrapher must have the key for the Chen'sshack. So, our man is an immediate neighbor, a relative, or a veryclose friend. Who else would you trust the key from yourhouse?”
“Do you think this man came at night andsearched for something hidden in the books?”
“He scattered the books, but he didn'tsearch.”
“Why?”
“He just wanted his scroll back. He knewthat one police officer was at the scene before the scroll wasplaced at the wall. If you just take one thing, it will be obvious.So, he must make a big mess. Breaking stools and crashing plateswere not an option – the neighbors could hear. So he scattered thebooks.”
“But why did he want his scroll back? If notfor our Sherlock- -on-skate, Tan would not remember a thing!”
“I don't know why he wanted the scroll. Ihave no telepathic abilities, despite I'm so full with… What's thename again? Coypu? Most likely, our calligrapher is afraid thatsomebody may see the scroll later. Let say, someone from theCalligraphy Club. Imagine that some old Chinese man comes to youand says: do you know, Deputy? That scroll in Chen's shack! Itlooks like Mister Lee wrote it! Only him draws this hieroglyph insuch graceful stroke. And so you think to yourself: should I go tothe China-Five and talk to Mister Lee one more time?”
“Mister Lee? Is he just an example, or yoususpect him of murder?”
“Mister Lee is not amurderer. But after my visit to the Patch-Five, and with all theinfo you told me this evening, I don't just suspect. Iknow the murdereridentity and the location of the dead body.”
“You – know?”
“One hundred percent. “When you haveeliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable,must be the truth.” Again from my favorite book.”
“OK, Holmes! Enlighten you dumb Watson!”
“The body is presently with Mister Lee inhis shack. And by tomorrow morning it will be in the irrigationditch.”
“Explain why.”
“Remember, yesterday we had three optionshow the perps might get rid of the body?”
“Not three. Five! The number four was aboutsome magic mushrooms and hypnosis and the number five was aboutsome little green men with a flying saucer.”
“Stop teasing me. So today I went myself tothe China-Five and realized that yesterday I missed the fourthoption altogether. In one of the stories, Holmes was telling Watsonit's dangerous to make conclusions without knowing all the facts. Amental lock of sorts.”
“And what was your mental lock?”
“I placed myself in theperp's position. What would I do with a dead body if it was in thisshack. Our shack,in Korean Patch-One! But there is a huge difference. In our Patch,the paths between the shacks are wide and straight. We are an‘Obama’ slum, from right after the Meltdown. Back then, they left a lotof space, for the cars. We don't use cars, but the paths are stillstraight, and you can see everything, end-to-end. But theChina-Five was started just three or four years ago, and they knewthe cars would not be back. Their paths are narrow and all curved.In some places, even a wheelchair can barely pass.”
“I see what you are saying. So the fourthoption is to carry the body to the near-by shack, right?”
“Absolutely. In the Patch like ours thatwould be totally impossible during the day time, but in the newslums, if you act quickly, chances that the others see you arerather small. Two men can do it easy enough.”
“Why: two men?”
“Mister Lee and Mister Chen. Two men. Ofcourse, I may be wrong. Having three men is also possible. But lesslikely.”
“So, after all, Victor Chen killed hisfather?”
“But no! Did I say: Victor Chen killed?Listen… On the second thought, wait! First, make more coffee andbring the brownies. And promise me to wash the pot. I've cooked yourabbit, remember?”
“It's a shameless blackmail! If you continuethis way, we must report you to the Police,” I obey and start ourPrimus.
“Are you washing the pot, Deputy?”
“Yes, ma'am. The Deputy will be washing thepot.”
“Accepted. So it was like this, my dearWatson. Mister Chen- senior comes home and finds there hisdouble.”
I burst into maniacal laughter. The neighborshack window opens and an old lady sticks her head out in obviousdisapproval. The Slum Rule is to keep the things quiet, especiallyafter dark.