I pulled two slats of the blinds apart and looked out at the street. The old street stank from the slums and years of neglect. But that was also why few were willing to walk past this street and even fewer knew it existed. On the contrary, I knew this place like the back of my hand.

I’d moved away after I graduated from elementary school and more than 20 years had passed since then, but this street still looked exactly like how I remembered it. And because I had lived here before and knew it well, I became the operations chief for this kidnapping case the moment the kidnappers wanted the ransom to be exchanged along this street.

I was now standing at a window and looking out at the utility pole the kidnappers had decided on. It was only about seven or eight meters away from me. Even though one would be able to observe the entire transaction clearly from this place, it was hard to see anything else.

The best spot was probably the window on the third story of the building opposite the one I was in. I had stood there and looked out before. Not only could one see the transaction clearly, one could also see the entire street from one end to the other. In other words, one would be able to see if anything was happening along the street.

But when the police commissioner told us to plant our surveillance guys there, I said no. The reason was simple – just one day before the kidnappers told us where they wanted to meet, that particular unit was suddenly rented out to someone. The properties along this street were old and rundown, so they weren’t popular at all. But all of a sudden, someone decided to rent that place now? That definitely sounded suspicious.

Inspector Ji agreed with me. In his words, the one who rented that third story unit was probably the kidnappers. The kidnappers were afraid that the family of the hostage would call the police and were worried that the police would lay a trap near the agreed venue, so they rented that place in order to keep watch over the entire street in case anything went wrong.

Inspector Ji was young but he knew a lot. And he liked to play games more than crack cases. He was working with me on this kidnapping case and was the assistant chief for this operation. But he was too young after all and was a little too rash. When he suggested arresting the renter and bringing the renter back to be interrogated, the commissioner blew his top. “You don’t have any evidence and you’re going to arrest someone? Aren’t you afraid that you’d raise the alarm instead?!”

But it was hard to blame the commissioner for being in a bad mood. The kidnappers had kidnapped Wang Jianguo’s only son. And who was Wang Jianguo? He was a property mogul who was extremely rich and well-connected.

This case, however, was a strange one. If it were a normal kidnapping case, the family could have just paid some ransom in exchange for the boy, since the one thing the Wang family didn’t lack was money. Wang Jianguo’s assets were worth more a few hundred million, so paying a few million was a drop in the ocean.

However, the ransom amount was exactly what made this case different. The kidnappers had taken the risk of offending a powerful man and life imprisonment only to ask for a mere $30,000. What did that mean?

That meant that the kidnappers weren’t short of money. They were extorting this money purely for fun. Since the kidnappers weren’t doing it for the money, then why did they do this? Was there a bigger scheme beneath all of this?

After taking these points into consideration, Wang Jianguo eventually decided to call the police.

Money wasn’t a problem, the safety of his son was. That was why the commissioner was very afraid of raising the alarm unnecessarily.

After he was done reprimanding Inspector Ji, he asked me for suggestions.

I said, “The entire street has no forks and doesn’t lead to other streets either. If you don’t want to raise the alarm, you can’t have too many police officers along the street.”

The commissioner changed his perspective again, “But if we have too few police officers, then we might have trouble controlling the situation. It’s true that we won’t raise the alarm this way, but the criminals might be able to get away. That’s not good.”

I simply didn’t know what to say. Inspector Ji perked up and came up with another idea, “We could make use of the surveillance cameras.”

“Surveillance cameras?”

“The government should have installed some surveillance cameras in the area some years ago, since this neighborhood is quite old already. We can make use of those to watch the area.”

The commissioner sat up with a start and looked like he had been greatly enlightened. “That’s right! How could I have forgotten all about that? But the cameras in those areas haven’t been maintained in a long time. We need to tell the city management to fix them up as soon as possible.”

Inspector Ji added, “Don’t repair them in the day. It’s best to repair them in the middle of the night, so that we don’t raise the alarm.”

The commissioner nodded in agreement and pretended like he had thought of it too, “That’s what I was thinking as well.”

***

It was now less than ten minutes to the appointed time. Wang Jianguo was already waiting at the utility pole with a bag full of money. As time ticked by and everyone waited for the kidnapper to appear, the atmosphere also grew more and more tense.

I stood at the window and looked down, stealing glances at the window diagonally opposite from mine from time to time. The curtains were drawn and the window was shut fast, so it didn’t look like someone was hiding in there and watching what was going on downstairs.

Could I have guessed wrongly? If I had known it was going to be empty, I would have used that spot instead. That was the best spot to observe the happenings on this street.

I told Inspector Ji about this but he didn’t agree. “Yu, that’s not the right conclusion. A renter rented a house but didn’t start living in it. Isn’t that a problem in itself?”

Youngsters these days always spoke like they knew what they were talking about. I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, so I turned back to look out of the window.

Inspector Ji continued, “Yu, you were made the chief of this operation because you are familiar with this location. And you’re familiar with this location because you used to live here. Actually, I have some thoughts on this but I’m not sure if I should say them.”

“What thoughts do you have?”

“This street is secluded and relatively unknown to most people. Since the kidnapper wanted the exchange to happen here, it means that he’s very familiar with this place as well. Do you think he could have lived here before like you did?”

“It’s possible.”

Inspector Ji went on, “If that’s the case, you might actually know the kidnapper. For all you know, you two might have been neighbors.”

“That’s ridiculous. I moved away more than 20 years ago, so how could I have gotten to know the kidnapper? Besides, who remembers anything that happened when we were that young?”

But Inspector Ji wasn’t letting go of this. “You moved away when you were very young and you might not remember, but it doesn’t mean that your childhood friend doesn’t remember.”

“My childhood friend?” I began to feel a little uneasy.

My fears were quickly confirmed. Inspector Ji said in a slow voice, “Yu, over the past few years, you’ve been able to nab several thieves and robbers that have been very difficult to arrest. These results have helped you gain a promotion, but it’s actually all thanks to a secret informant you have.”

My expression was grim and I didn’t respond.

Inspector Ji boldly went ahead anyway. “I heard that informant is actually a childhood friend of yours who also used to live along this street.”

He was right. Two years ago, I was hunting down pickpockets in plain clothes and was reunited with my old friend, Sun Peiqi. At that time, he was looking for a chance to steal from a tiny old lady and kept following her around. The wonderful memories from my childhood made me let him off the hook. We met up, started talking, then went for drinks together. The only difference was that I knew right from the start that he was a pickpocket, but he never found out that I was a cop. This cat and mouse game went on for two whole years.

During these two years, I managed to uncover several theft syndicates and arrested many pickpockets. The credit I had claimed and the promotions I received were actually all thanks to him. But I never came clean with him about my identity. I didn’t want the pure and innocent friendship from our childhood to be tainted with these lies. At the same time, I didn’t think I was making use of him. Everybody in the police force knew that he was my informant. Sun Peiqi was the only person who didn’t know he was being an informant for the police.

This was an open secret in the force and Inspector Ji was bringing this up now. This young man was not very ordinary indeed.

So, I said to him, “What are you driving at?”

He laughed. “Yu, don’t let your imagination run wild. I just think that he might know the kidnapper.”

“That’s really ridiculous. He’s from a different circle altogether. How could a pickpocket possibly know a kidnapper?”

He grinned and defended himself, “If the kidnapper used to live here and your informant grew up here, it means they were all neighbors. You moved away very early on and you might not remember, but it doesn’t mean that your informant has no impression.”

He paused for a while, then went on, “If you call your informant over and ask him to identify the kidnapper, it might help us with the case.”

I looked like I didn’t hear him at all and didn’t say anything.

Inspector Ji waited for a response, and when I didn’t respond at all, he called out, “Yu? Yu! Inspector Yu!”

I snapped out of my daze and sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to call him, but calling him is useless.”

“What’s happened?”

“He’s turned off his phone! I’ve lost contact with him since the day before yesterday. His phone hasn’t been turned on since.”

I proceeded to dial Sun Peiqi’s number in front of Inspector Ji. The line rang once, then the automated voice took over, “Hi, the user you have just called has the phone turned off. Please try again later…”

Inspector Ji slammed the table with his hand and got up with a start as if he had an eureka moment. “The day before yesterday?! Isn’t that the day the kidnapper called?! He turned off his phone immediately after the kidnapping? He must have switched to a new number! That’s a common tactic used by kidnappers!”

I couldn’t stand listening to him falsely accuse someone like that. Worse still, he was falsely accusing one of my childhood friends! I yelled back, “He can’t be the kidnapper!”

Inspector Ji realized that he had said the wrong thing and tried to calm things down, “He must have been led astray by some bad people and ended up committing a grave crime without realizing it!”

I refused to back down. “He can’t be an accomplice either!”

“Then why did he turn his phone off?”

“Why? Maybe his phone got stolen!”

“A thief got his stuff stolen? What a joke!”

“That’s nothing! Don’t you know? Many of those who drown to death knew how to swim!”

Just as we were arguing, the sound of our colleague’s voice came through the walkie-talkie, “Everyone, stand by! The suspect has arrived!”

The suspect was of utmost importance to us, so we quickly stopped arguing, ran to the window and peeked out through the blinds.

Wang Jianguo was still standing at the utility pole in his business suit and was still carrying the bag of cash. A man was approaching him slowly.

That man had a large head, was overweight and seemed clumsy. He pulled his cap down low enough to hide his eyes and used a scarf to cover the rest of his face, but I immediately recognized him from his figure alone. That figure had been passed down to every generation of his family. That man was Sun Peiqi!

I spat furiously onto the floor.