Chapter 12: Back from the Dead

Lu Xiujuan said nothing. She knew that handing over the evidence would mean reopening the investigation into Gao Lan’s death. But Gao’s body had been cremated, and all Lu had was a paper report. How could she prove it was authentic, or that she wasn’t lying?

Without solid evidence, they might turn the accusation against her. She would fail to win justice for Chief Gao and sacrifice herself as well.

Lin Ying didn’t hurry her. She looked out the window, wondering whether Duan Fei’s mission was going smoothly. Taking the old woman from more than a dozen police officers wouldn’t be easy, though Duan should be capable of it.

“How many people did they send to abduct your mother?” she asked.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Do you know who they are?”

Lu’s eyes flickered. She didn’t dare voice her suspicion. She didn’t know whether the new female chief had really come because of Gao Lan.

“You can trust us,” Xu Pang said. “Director Lin came because of what happened to the three previous county chiefs. They won’t have died for nothing. The higher-ups have ordered her to investigate everything and get justice for them.”

Lu’s heart raced, but she still said nothing.

“I’ve read Gao Lan’s case file. She didn’t kill herself. Someone broke in and murdered her, didn’t they?”

Lu stared at Lin in disbelief, trembling. She hadn’t seen the case file, but she was sure it said suicide: Liu Yixiong had forced her to sign and stamp a postmortem examination report saying as much.

She lowered her head. She had wronged Chief Gao and violated her own conscience, but if she had refused to sign, she might never have walked out of the examiner’s office. She had yielded to survive.

She hadn’t expected Lin to reach that conclusion. How had she known?

“I examined the records from Gao Lan’s time in office. It’s extremely unlikely she took bribes. Her family was well-off; she had no need to. And it makes no sense that she would be tormented by guilt over a mere million yuan. There must be more to her death.”

Lu shifted in her seat. The flaws were obvious enough that anyone willing to investigate could find leads. But Gao’s body had been cremated and the evidence destroyed. Finding anything useful would be almost impossible.

Xu grew anxious when she still didn’t speak, but Lin signaled him to be patient. She didn’t press Lu, merely gazed out at the darkening sky.

“Once you get your mother back, where will you go? Will you leave Gaoshan County?” she asked casually.

“Yes. I plan to take her far away.” Lu spoke honestly.

“You’re a medical examiner. If I’m not mistaken, what you have is Gao Lan’s postmortem examination report—the truthful one. Am I right?”

Lu jolted and looked at her in surprise. Lin had guessed accurately. Lu felt uneasy.

Elsewhere, another person was just as uneasy.

Ma Guoliang stared at the information in his hands, fixing his eyes on the photograph as though he could force it to reveal something. But it was only a photograph.

Still, a chill ran through him. How was this possible?

He took out a photograph of the dead county chief, Gao Lan, and compared the two. A stampede of curses ran through his mind. The women in the pictures looked almost identical.

Ma was dumbstruck. The face before him was practically Gao Lan returned to life. Had she come back from the dead?

But only days ago he had ordered her body cremated. How could this be?

His hands shook so badly that his phone slipped several times. Fortunately it landed on the sofa. He picked it up and called Liu Yixiong. “Lao Liu, are you sure Gao Lan’s body was cremated?”

“Yes. I watched them push it into the furnace myself.” Liu was puzzled. What was Ma getting at?

Ma let out a long breath, but still couldn’t put his mind at ease. He photographed the picture in his hand, sent it to Liu and wrote: Lao Liu, look at her. Who does she remind you of?

Liu found it baffling. Why was Secretary Ma sending him a dead woman’s picture?

“Secretary Ma, isn’t this that woman? What’s wrong?” Ma had been acting mysterious for days. Was something the matter with him?

The reply nearly made Liu wet himself.

“That’s Lin Ying, the new police chief and acting county chief.”

“What?” Liu sprang to his feet, staring at the screen as though he had seen a ghost. A chill ran down his back. The new Director Lin? How could it be?

He trembled, staring at the picture. Could Gao Lan still be alive? Impossible. He had watched her go into the furnace. She had burned, nothing left of her. How could she be alive?

Ma felt Lin Ying might become the greatest upheaval of his life. He was vaguely afraid. She was too strange, and she looked far too much like Gao Lan. Was there some connection between them?

At the hotel, Lu Xiujuan finally made up her mind. She looked at Lin oddly. “Director Lin, do you know you look very much like someone?”

Xu glanced at her in confusion, but Lin nodded slowly. “I know. I’ve seen Chief Gao Lan’s photograph. We do look alike, but so far I haven’t found any relationship between us.”

“What?” Xu sprang up, staring at Lin in disbelief. Director Lin resembled the dead Chief Gao? How was that possible? He hadn’t seen Gao’s photograph and knew nothing of it.

“Perhaps it was destined,” Lu said. “Chief Gao didn’t commit suicide. She was murdered, and you’ve come back to avenge her and clear her name.”

Lin looked at her but didn’t answer. She didn’t know whether she was related to Gao Lan. Her mother hadn’t come back yet. Could it be that Lin was not her real surname? Had she originally been Gao Ying?

So many years had passed. Could what those people had said back then, and what her father had said, really be true?

If it was, why had her mother never admitted it? Why had she kept it from her for so long?