Inspector Zhang and the Disappearing Drugs Read Free Page A

second floor with the Drugs Squad team. They arrived on this floor and one of the men moved the mat to get the key, and unlocked the door."
    "And how were they carrying the boxes. There were ten cardboard boxes, were there not?"
    Inspector Zhang nodded. "Ten boxes, each containing ten kilos. Each kilo was wrapped in plastic. So there were ten packages in each box, and ten boxes. The men had five boxes each, stacked on a trolley. One of the two-wheeled trolleys that porters use."
    "And they drove the boxes here from where?"
    "From the company's bonded warehouse, inside the container port."
    "And of course you examined the drugs in the warehouse?"
    "Of course."
    "So the men brought the drugs up to the eighth floor. What happened then?"
    "They unlocked the door and took the trolley's inside.   They put the drugs in the middle of the room and then left."
    "Did you see them do that?"
    "What do you mean?" she asked.
    Inspector Zhang pointed at the smoke detector. "The camera allows for coverage of the hallway, but if the door is closed you would not be able to see inside the apartment.   Did they close the door when they went inside or leave it open."
    "They closed it," she said.
    "And there is no surveillance camera inside the apartment?"
    "No, Inspector Zhang. There is not."
    "That is a pity," said Inspector Zhang. "So what happened next?"
    "The two men were inside for two minutes. They reappeared with their trolleys and went back downstairs. We then waited for the drugs to be collected. But no one came."
    "You waited for a week, I gather?"
    "Yes. A week. And then I spoke to the Senior Assistant Commissioner who said that we should go in and check and when we went in, the drugs had gone."
    Inspector Zhang waved at the door. "If you would be so good as to open the door," he said. "Exactly as you did then."
    Inspector Kwok nodded, bent down and retrieved the key and inserted it into the lock. "The lock and the key are new," she said. "It is a security lock and has to be turned twice to lock and unlock."   She turned the key twice and opened the door, then pointed to a metal strip that ran around the doorframe. "You can see that the door has been reinforced, too."
    Inspector Zhang studied the metal reinforcing and nodded. "They wanted to make sure that the apartment was secure," he said. "Not surprising when you think about the value of a hundred kilos of heroin."
    Inspector Kwok stood to the side to allow Inspector Zhang in first. He stepped over the threshold. It was a small apartment, a square room about fifteen feet by twelve feet, with a sliding window that led out onto a small balcony that overlooked another apartment block. There were two doors to his left, and one to the right.   There was an old Toshiba television set on a black sideboard, a plastic sofa and a wooden coffee table with circular stains dotted over it and cigarette burn marks around the edge.
    Between the two doors to his left was a teak veneer storage unit with Chinese figurines on one shelf and Chinese books on another. There were two glass doors in the unit, behind one was a collection of earthenware teapots and behind the other was a half-empty bottle of Chivas Regal whisky.
    One of the doors led to a small kitchen with an old rattling refrigerator and a grease-encrusted stove. Inspector Zhang opened the refrigerator. It was empty. A cockroach scuttled from underneath the stove, got half way across the toiled floor, then turned around and went back the way it had come.
    The other door led to a small shower room with a washbasin and toilet. There was no toilet paper, Inspector Zhang noticed, and no soap or shampoo.
    The door on the other side of the sitting room led to a bedroom with a double bed with a white-painted headboard, a matching side table and a large wooden wardrobe. Inspector Zhang opened the wardrobe, but there were only half a dozen wire coat hangers inside.
    "The apartment was just like this when you entered?" he asked.
    "Exactly," said