Chapter Text
The call came at 7:43 in the morning.
Maomao had a pipette in one hand, three labeled tubes in front of her, and the firm intention of spending the next four hours without speaking to anyone.
Her laboratory was on the seventh floor of the Metropolitan Police headquarters, in a wing shared by forensic toxicology and several other technical departments. Maomao headed the toxicology department.
Jinshi’s office was on the eleventh floor.
Far enough away to be tolerable.
Close enough for him to show up whenever he felt like it.
Her phone vibrated for the second time.
GAOSHUN.
She ignored it.
Stopped.
It vibrated again less than ten seconds later.
Maomao sighed.
“If I answer, are you going to ask me for something?”
“Good morning to you too,” Gaoshun replied.
“That didn’t answer the question.”
“The chief wants you on the ninth floor.”
Maomao closed her eyes.
“No.”
“Maomao.”
“I’m working.”
“There’s been a death.”
She looked at the tubes.
“There are lots of deaths.”
“Inside an evidence room.”
The pipette froze in midair.
Silence.
Gaoshun noticed.
“Jinshi said that part would get your attention.”
In the background, she heard:
“I told you.”
Maomao hung up.
The evidence room was on the ninth floor.
Maomao took the stairs.
Gaoshun was waiting for her in the hallway.
“You got here fast.”
“I was already in the building.”
“That helps.”
“It doesn’t mean I’m available.”
“Clearly.”
He handed her a pair of disposable shoe covers.
“The victim’s name was Meimei. Thirty-eight years old. She was the technician in charge of chain-of-custody control. She’d worked here for eleven years.”
“Who found her?”
“An employee from the morning shift. At six twenty.”
“The door?”
“Locked.”
“From the inside?”
“Yes.”
“Windows?”
“Two.”
“Do they open?”
“No. Fixed glass. They only let in light.”
“Ventilation?”
“Its own air-conditioning system.”
Maomao nodded.
“How long was she in there?”
“She entered at 10:17 p.m. She never came out.”
“Working that late?”
“Overtime.”
“Why?”
“Backlogged inventory.”
Maomao looked at him.
Gaoshun didn’t answer.
Ahead of them, two officers stood guard at the sealed door.
And beside them was Jinshi.
Even wearing gloves, a mask, and a blue forensic coat over his suit, he still looked irritatingly well put together.
Maomao decided it had to be a genetic defect.
Jinshi smiled when he saw her.
“You came.”
“Gaoshun said there was a corpse.”
“I’m glad to know which part was convincing.”
“It definitely wasn’t you.”
Gaoshun turned his face away.
Jinshi looked perfectly accustomed to it.
“The initial forensic examination found no obvious trauma. No signs of struggle, external injuries, or blood. Her bag, phone, and documents are all still here.”
“Cameras?”
“She’s seen entering alone.”
“Estimated time of death?”
“Between eleven p.m. and one a.m.”
Maomao held out her hand.
Jinshi looked at it.
“What?”
“Mask.”
He handed her a wrapped one.
“You could ask politely.”
“I could.”
She didn’t.
The first thing Maomao noticed was the smell.
She stopped as soon as she stepped inside.
Old paper.
Plastic.
Metal.
Dust.
Air conditioning.
And something else.
Sweet.
Almost floral.
Very faint.
She inhaled again.
Jinshi noticed.
“Smell something?”
“Maybe.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Surprisingly vague.”
Maomao turned toward him.
“Would you like me to make something up?”
“No.”
“Good.”
The room was perhaps six meters by four. Two windows occupied part of one wall, allowing in plenty of natural light. The glass was thick and completely fixed in place.
Metal shelving covered the rest of the walls.
In the center were a desk, a computer, a barcode reader, documents, and open boxes.
Meimei lay collapsed beside the desk.
Maomao crouched down.
She didn’t touch her.
She observed.
Legs.
Fingers.
Lips.
Eyelids.
Hands.
“Flashlight.”
Gaoshun handed it to her.
She shone it over the victim’s fingernails.
“Hmm.”
Jinshi leaned closer.
“What is it?”
“Could you not stand directly on top of me?”
“I’m a meter away.”
“Too close.”
He stepped back about twenty centimeters.
“Better?”
“No.”
There was a faint discoloration in the nail beds.
Maybe nothing.
Maybe not.
“Did they find vomit?”
“No.”
“Seizure?”
“No one witnessed the death.”
“Incontinence?”
“No.”
“Bleeding?”
“No.”
She stood.
“Medical history?”
“We’re still gathering it,” Jinshi replied. “Nothing significant in her employment records.”
“Medication?”
“We don’t know.”
“Food?”
“A sandwich from the cafeteria.”
“Did anyone else eat there?”
“Probably a few hundred people.”
“Then it would be a poor method of murder.”
Jinshi folded his arms.
“You’re already treating this as homicide?”
“No.”
“You just said method.”
“It would also be a poor method of suicide.”
She began walking around the room.
The open boxes contained sealed envelopes, containers, and clear plastic bags.
Nothing seemed out of place.
Then Maomao stopped.
In the opposite corner, near one of the windows, a plant sat on a low cabinet.
Dark green leaves.
Or almost.
Some had drooped.
Limp.
Darkened at the tips.
Its position made sense.
It received natural light for much of the day.
She approached it.
“Was this here yesterday?”
Gaoshun checked with one of the officers.
“Yes.”
“Who took care of it?”
“Meimei herself.”
Maomao touched the soil with the tip of her glove.
Damp.
“It was watered.”
Jinshi came closer.
“And?”
“It’s dying.”
“Maybe she was bad with plants.”
Maomao looked at him.
“The soil is damp. It gets light. Some of the leaves are normal, while others show recent damage. It doesn’t look neglected.”
She smelled one of the leaves.
Nothing.
Then she looked up at the ceiling vent.
“Was the system running?”
“Yes.”
“All night?”
“Yes.”
“Shared circuit?”
Gaoshun checked.
“No. This section has its own system.”
Maomao smiled faintly.
Jinshi noticed.
“You like this.”
“Like what?”
“When something doesn’t make sense.”
“Things that make sense are boring.”
She returned to the body.
There was a fine powder on the right sleeve.
“Has this been collected?”
One of the forensic technicians approached.
“Not yet.”
“Looks like dust.”
Maomao looked at him.
“Then it should be very easy to confirm that it’s dust.”
The man began preparing the sample collection.
Jinshi hid a smile.
By 9:15, the room had officially become a problem.
Clean camera footage.
No entry.
No exit.
No one following Meimei.
At 10:17 p.m., she went in.
She never came out.
The electronic lock recorded her access.
At 6:20 a.m., they found the internal lock engaged.
Lihaku arrived carrying two coffees.
“The kind of story that makes people invent ghosts.”
Maomao took one of the cups.
“Thank you.”
“I brought that for Jinshi.”
She had already taken a sip.
“Now you brought it for me.”
Jinshi looked at the cup.
Then at Lihaku.
Maomao took another sip.
“It’s bad.”
“Then why are you still drinking it?”
“Caffeine.”
Lihaku looked at the footage.
“No unusual access. If someone killed this woman, they walked through a wall.”
“Or they didn’t need to be here when she died,” Maomao said.
Silence.
Jinshi looked at her.
“Explain.”
“Not yet.”
“Maomao.”
“I don’t like explaining incomplete hypotheses.”
“I like hearing them.”
“Your problem.”
She set the coffee down on the desk.
“I want to know everything that was inside the Seiran box Meimei had been working on.”
Gaoshun handed her a list.
Photographs.
Documents.
Two empty vials.
Packaging samples.
A sealed envelope.
A small container holding powdered material.
Maomao stopped.
“From which case?”
“Archived six years ago,” Jinshi said.
“Crime?”
“Investigation into medication tampering.”
“Company?”
Jinshi hesitated.
“Seiran Pharmaceuticals.”
Maomao went still for half a second.
“Ah.”
“You know them.”
“Everyone who works in pharmacology knows them.”
“Why?”
“Products pulled from the market, regulatory investigations, and a well-known case of cross-contamination.”
Jinshi nodded.
“It never resulted in criminal charges.”
“That doesn’t mean nothing happened.”
“It doesn’t mean something did, either.”
“True.”
She looked back at the plant.
At 10:40, the body was removed.
Maomao returned to the seventh floor.
Less than twenty minutes later, Jinshi walked in without knocking.
“You have a serious problem with doors,” she said.
“They keep opening for me.”
“You’re in charge of the whole building. That doesn’t mean you should walk into every room without knocking.”
“Technically, it means I can.”
“That’s why people in charge are a problem.”
He placed a folder on the lab bench.
“Medical history.”
Maomao opened it.
Nothing that explained sudden death.
“Autopsy?”
“Underway.”
“Conventional toxicology?”
“Initially negative.”
Maomao scanned the results.
“Blood color?”
“Darker than expected.”
She looked up.
“Interesting.”
“Finally.”
“Respiratory irritation?”
“Mild.”
“Pulmonary edema?”
“Minor.”
“Nothing specific yet.”
“Yet.”
Maomao shuffled through the papers.
“I need a leaf from the plant.”
“It’s been isolated.”
“I know.”
“You can’t simply tear off evidence.”
“I can if it’s properly documented and collected.”
“So you admit the plant is evidence.”
“I consider everything evidence until proven to be decoration.”
Jinshi smiled.
“And I need samples from the air-conditioning filter.”
“I already requested them.”
She stopped.
“You did?”
“When you kept staring at the ventilation.”
Maomao stared at him.
Perhaps he wasn’t entirely ornamental.
“Good.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“Don’t get carried away.”
A little after two, Gaoshun gathered everyone in a conference room on the eleventh floor.
A photograph appeared on the screen.
Archive box.
SEIRAN PHARMACEUTICALS.
“Meimei requested this box three days ago,” Gaoshun said. “It was transferred to the ninth-floor evidence room earlier yesterday afternoon, where she intended to finish the inventory after hours.”
Jinshi frowned.
Gaoshun changed the screen.
“Later, someone canceled the request in the system.”
“By her?” Jinshi asked.
“No.”
“Then why cancel it after the box had already been transferred?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
“Credentials?”
“Administrative.”
“Name?”
“We’re still checking.”
Jinshi’s expression hardened.
Someone had tried to erase the trail.
“What was in the box?” Lihaku asked.
“Old documentation, packaging samples, and residue from an industrial compound.”
Maomao stood.
“Which one?”
Gaoshun displayed it.
She read the name.
Her expression changed.
“Ah.”
“Is that a bad ‘ah’?” Jinshi asked.
“Depends on how much you all enjoy breathing.”
Lihaku stopped chewing.
“Quite a lot.”
Maomao picked up a pen.
“This compound alone doesn’t explain the death. But it can react with certain agents and release volatile byproducts.”
Jinshi understood.
“Gas.”
“Possibly.”
“Enough to kill?”
“In a small sealed room, with windows that don’t open and ventilation continuously recirculating the air? Yes.”
Lihaku frowned.
“Someone would have had to mix them.”
“Not necessarily at the time of death.”
Jinshi finished the thought.
“They prepared it beforehand.”
Maomao nodded.
“Most likely, someone opened or deliberately damaged the preservation envelope after the box was transferred to the room. If the altered material inside came into contact with the residue stored with the evidence, the reaction could have started slowly.”
“So the room was already becoming contaminated before Meimei arrived,” Jinshi said.
“Yes.”
“And whoever did it didn’t need to be there when she entered.”
“Exactly.”
Maomao looked toward the photograph of the evidence room.
“The concentration would have increased over time. The plant was exposed first. Then Meimei entered at 10:17 p.m. By then, the air may already have contained enough of the volatile compound to cause irritation, dizziness, and confusion. As the reaction continued, the concentration would only have increased.”
Lihaku leaned back.
“So whoever opened the envelope knew she was planning to work there that night.”
“Probably,” Maomao said. “Or at least knew someone would.”
“And she locked the door from the inside out of habit,” Jinshi said.
“Exactly.”
Maomao continued.
“That would also explain the plant.”
“The plant,” Jinshi repeated.
“It had been exposed for hours before Meimei even entered the room.”
“You noticed before the results came back.”
“I noticed that something in the environment had affected it.”
Jinshi looked at the photograph.
“So which one of them was poisoned first?”
Maomao pointed at the image.
“The plant.”
Lihaku frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“It was already there before Meimei entered. If the agent began being released before 10:17 p.m., the leaves were exposed first.”
She looked at them.
“The plant died first.”