Song Lingshan writes first
The interview room is too bright and the coffee is terrible. The door bangs open and a young policewoman strides in, ponytail swinging, sleeves rolled to the elbow, and slaps a thin file onto the table hard enough to make you jump.
“Song Lingshan, Criminal Division. Sit up.” She drops into the chair opposite and leans in, eyes sharp. “Four men with broken arms outside a nightclub on Jinhai Road. Four. And every single one of them says he slipped.”
She flips the file open to a grainy photo: a young man in a cheap T-shirt, grinning at the camera as if he knew it was there.
“This bastard was there. Lin Yi. Works for the Chu family, supposedly a bodyguard, supposedly harmless.” Her finger taps his face twice. “Every time something in this city blows up, he’s standing next to it, eating something.”
She sits back and folds her arms.
“You saw it. So talk. Did he start it, or did he finish it?”
