Inspector Zhang and the Disappearing Drugs Read Online Free PDF Page B

One trolley each."
    "And on each trolley there were five boxes?"
    "Yes."
    Inspector Kwok opened the door and they went through to reception and up to the eighth floor.
    "So you and your assistant arrived here and pushed the trolleys to the apartment?"
    Mr. Yin nodded. "I went through all this with Inspector Kwok."
    They walked to the door of the apartment. "Do you have the key, Inspector?" asked Inspector Zhang.   Inspector Kwok produced the brass key and Inspector Zhang nodded at the mat. "If you would be so good as to put it where it was that day."
    Inspector Kwok put the key under the mat and then stood up.
    "Now, proceed exactly as you did on that day, Mr. Yin."
    "But I don't have the trolley so it cannot be the same."
    "Please do as best you can," said Inspector Zhang. He stood back and folded his arms.
    Mr. Yin sighed, then bent down and retrieved the key. He inserted it into the lock and turned it twice antic-clockwise to open the door. He took out the key, pushed open the door and walked into the apartment.
    The three detectives followed him.
    "And then you closed the door?"
    "Yes. I did."
    "So please do that now."
    Mr. Yin closed the door.
    "And where did you leave the boxes?"
    Mr. Yin pointed at the side of the sofa.   "There," he said.
    "And then you left the apartment?"
    "Yes," said Mr. Yin. "Is that all you need from me?"
    "Just bear with me a little while longer, Mr. Yin," said Inspector Zhang. He walked around the sitting room, deep in thought.
    "Inspector Zhang, I really think we have imposed on Mr. Yin's public spiritedness quite enough," said Inspector Kwok. "He has a business to run."
    "Soon," said Inspector Zhang. "We are almost there."
    He walked into the bedroom and Sergeant Lee followed him. "Inspector Zhang, what are you looking for? We know that the drugs are not in the apartment."
    Inspector Zhang smiled. "I am not looking for the heroin, Sergeant Lee. I am looking for the boxes, and that is quite a different matter."
    "The boxes?"
    "Yes, the boxes. They are key to this." He smiled. "If you will forgive the pun."
    "Pun? What pun?" Sergeant Lee frowned in confusion.
    Inspector Zhang sighed as he looked around the bedroom. "The bed was examined, of course. That only leaves the wardrobe."
    "The wardrobe is empty, Inspector Zhang," said Sergeant Lee. She opened the doors to show him. "Coat hangers and dust, nothing else."
    "Mr. Yin, come in here please," called Inspector Zhang.
    Mr. Yin walked into the bedroom. He looked annoyed. ""I really must protest," he said. "I have a business to run."
    "Would you be so kind as to help me move the wardrobe," said Inspector Zhang.
    "You want me to do what?"
    "The wardrobe. Just help me move it."
    "Why?"
    "Because I suspect there is something beneath it." He smiled. "I can hardly ask the ladies, can I?"
    He took hold of the left side of the wardrobe and waited until a reluctant Mr. Yin took hold of the right hand side. They both lifted and moved the wardrobe forward a couple of feet. Sergeant Lee gasped when she saw what had been hidden by the wardrobe. Flattened cardboard boxes. She bent down and picked them up. There were ten of them. "The boxes," she said.
    "Yes," said Inspector Zhang. "The boxes."
    "But how can that be?" asked Inspector Kwok.
    Inspector Zhang let go of the wardrobe and looked over at Mr. Yin. "Why don't you explain, Mr. Yin?"
    "I don't know what you mean."
    "Yes you do, Mr. Yin. The drugs were never in the boxes. Not by the time you brought them up to the apartment. They might well have been in the boxes at the warehouse but at some point between there and here you and your assistant took the drugs out and it was empty boxes that you brought into the apartment."
    "Nonsense," said Mr. Yin.
    "There is no other explanation," said Inspector Zhang. "You and he were the only people to enter the apartment. It can only have been you."
    "You cannot prove anything," said Mr. Yin.
    "I think I can," said Inspector Zhang. He pointed at the collapsed boxes.