Inspector Zhang Gets His Wish Read Online Free PDF

opened the closet? He found you?"
    Mercier nodded. "He shouldn’t have, but he did. All his clothes were in the suitcase and his robe was in the bathroom. I don’t know why he opened the closet, but he did and he saw me."
    "So you killed him?"
    Mercier shook his head. "It was an accident."
    "You stabbed him in the throat with your pen," said Inspector Zhang.
    "He attacked me," said Mercier. "He opened the closet door and saw me and attacked me. We struggled. I had to stop him."
    "By driving your pen into his throat?"
    Mercier looked at the floor.
    "I think not," said Inspector Zhang. "If you stabbed him at the closet, there would be blood there. The only place where there is blood is the bed. Therefore you stabbed him on the bed."
    "We were struggling. I pushed him back."
    "And then you stabbed him?"
    "My pen was in my top pocket. He grabbed it during the struggle and tried to force it into my eye. I pushed it away and it..." He fell silent, unable or unwilling to finish the sentence.
    "You stabbed him in the throat?"
    Mercier nodded.
    "And then rather than leaving the room, you hid in the closet again?"
    "I didn’t know what else to do. I knew that he had ordered room service so I couldn't risk being seen in the corridor."
    "So you waited until the room service waiter discovered the body and while he was phoning the front desk you slipped out of the closet?"
    Mercier nodded. "I went through to the next room but there was someone in the corridor so I couldn’t leave and I had to pretend that I’d just arrived. It was an accident, Inspector Zhang. I swear."
    "That’s for a judge to consider," said Inspector Zhang. "There is one more piece of evidence that I require from you, Mr. Mercier. Your handkerchief."
    "My handkerchief?"
    "I notice that unlike your colleagues you do not have a handkerchief in your pocket," said the inspector. "I therefore assume that you used it to wipe the blood from your hands after you killed Mr. Wilkinson."
    Mercier reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a blood-stained handkerchief. Sergeant Lee held out a plastic evidence bag and Mercier dropped the handkerchief into it.
    Inspector Zhang nodded at the two uniformed policemen. "Take him away, please."
    The officers handcuffed Mercier and led him out of the room. Inspector Zhang nodded at the two evidence bags that Sergeant Lee was holding, containing the pen and the handkerchief. "You can send them to your friends in Forensics," he said.
    "I will," she said.
    "I suppose it does prove one thing," said Inspector Zhang. He smiled slyly.
    "What is that, Inspector?" asked the Sergeant.
    "Why, that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword," he said. He grinned. "There is no need to write that down, Sergeant Lee."
     
     
    THE END
     
     
     
    There are three more Inspector Zhang short stories available on the Kindle – Inspector Zhang and the Falling Woman, Inspector Zhang and the Disappearing Drugs, and Inspector Zhang and the Dead Thai Gangster.   They are all traditional “locked room” mysteries, where the inscrutable Inspector Zhang and his assistant Sergeant Lee are faced with a seemingly impossible case to solve.  
    And if you would like to meet another detective based in Asia, why not try Bangkok Bob and the Missing Mormon?
     
    Long-term Bangkok resident and former New Orleans cop Bob Turtledove has the knack of getting people out of difficult situations. So when a young man from Utah goes missing in Bangkok, his parents are soon knocking on Bob’s door asking for help.
     
    But what starts out as a simple missing person case takes a deadly turn as Bangkok Bob’s search for the missing Mormon brings him up against Russian gangsters, hired killers, corrupt cops and kickboxing thugs. And he learns that even in the Land of Smiles, people can have murder on their minds.
     
    Bangkok Bob and The Missing Mormon is about 63,000 words, equivalent to about 250 pages, and you can find it on the Kindle at