Read Online The First Excellence: Fa-Ling's Map by Donna Carrick - Free Book Online

the foyer, touching nothing. Not that he anticipated much help from the forensics team, who would arrive in the morning. He knew Yong-qi was carrying his digital camera. Between Cheng’s memory and Wang’s photos, the evidence would tell its story.
    Wang Yong-qi followed Cheng, snapping shots of the bathroom, hot water dispenser and the closed closet door. He opened the closet and took more photos of the victim’s clothes where they hung neatly on the right side of the rack. Cheng pointed at the candle, which lay on the bed. Wang took a picture of it before Cheng used a pair of tongs to pick it up.
    “ The wax is still soft,” he said. “Still warm.”
    Wang looked at the little metal plate beside the tape deck. Droplets of yellow wax marked its edges. It must have been used to hold the candle. He took a picture of the plate.
    Wang photographed the curtains. They had been pulled apart, creating an opening of about one metre. The edge of the curtain panel on the right was discoloured. The fire-retardant fabric had melted slightly as the flame brushed past it.
    Wang wrinkled his nose as he neared the kerosene container. If he were to assume this was murder, then the plastic jug might still carry the killer’s prints. There was one small black spot on the carpet near the window where a drop of accelerant had combusted and been extinguished before it could spread. The room held no other visible signs of fire. The residual odour, though, was faint but unmistakable.
    Wang returned to the bathroom. If someone other than the victim had handled the kerosene, he would almost certainly have washed his hands before fleeing the scene. Wang Yong-qi stood in the doorway trying to imagine a perpetrator bent over the water faucet. The stainless steel taps glistened, denying the possibility they might have been used. There were no visible signs, no telltale black streaks of burnt kerosene.
    Cheng joined his partner, peering past him into the bathroom.
    “ Look,” he said, pointing at a tissue dispenser that hung from the front of the counter.
    Wang nodded. He photographed the dispenser. In a bathroom that appeared to be immaculate, as if it had not been used since the last time the hotel staff had cleaned it, only the tissue box seemed to have been touched. Someone had carelessly pulled a handful of tissues from the dispenser, leaving several dangling, and one had fallen to the floor. Hotel staff would surely never leave such a mess.
    Water droplets had damaged the tissue on the floor, as if someone had reached for the dispenser with wet hands.
    He used the tissue to dry his hands, Wang thought, so he wouldn’t have to use the towel. That was clever. It eliminated one possible source of evidence – hair and skin cells could attach themselves to a towel.
    Cheng used the toe of his shoe to slide the wastebasket from under the counter.
    “ Empty,” he said.
    “ Too bad. But look at this,” Detective Wang said, pointing at the toilet.
    “ I don’t see anything.”
    “ It’s there.” Wang reached his right hand into the sparkling bowl and groped for a moment in the water. “Here,” he said. He held his open hand out to Cheng.
    Cheng took the small metal ornament from Wang.
    “ Interesting,” he said.
    “ Yes. It adds an uncomfortable possibility to the situation.”
    Cheng grunted. “Those military goons are real bastards.”
    He handed the pin back to Wang, who studied the gold stars set into the brilliant red background before slipping it into a baggie and tucking it away in his pocket. Wang wanted desperately to wash his hands, but did not want to disturb the surfaces. One never knew. The military was certainly arrogant enough to be sloppy. After all, it considered itself to be above the law. One print could well be enough to crack the case.
    The detectives returned to the main room. Cheng paced from the untouched bed to the broken picture window, and from there to the glass dressing table. Tucked under the glass table