Chapter 15

Sitting at his desk, Yunlan was looking over some files.

Six days had gone by since he last met Wei, and neither of them had yet tried to contact the other.

He wasn't angry, but the uncertainty over what had happened distressed him. Was he really floating mid-air? How was that possible?

He never believed in ghosts and all those supernatural things, but he couldn't find any reasonable explanation either.

He tried not to think about it and focus solely on his work, but from time to time Wei's face appeared in front of his eyes.

He shrugged it off when he heard his boss shouting.

"Zhao Yunlan. They found one. Get your ass over there immediately."

They found one. Yunlan knew he had to be talking about one of the men recently disappeared. He got up and hurried out.

"Do you need help?" Hong asked.

Zhao rolled his eyes but he was too worn out to argue with her, so he turned and gestured for her to hurry up.

He drove to the hospital. The boss said the paramedics couldn't wait for the police and brought him straight there.

It was a long ride. The man had disappeared five minutes away from Yunlan's police station, but he had been found some sixty miles away.

Yunlan parked near the hospital entrance and quickly got in.

They asked immediately about the patient but the nurse they talked to stopped them from going further.

"The doctors are with him now, he can't have visitors."

Hong unzipped her jacket revealing the badge hanging from a steel chain around her neck.

"Police. We must talk to the doctors and see the patient under their care."

The nurse reluctantly told her that he would let the doctors know about her request.

He came back after a while and told Hong to follow him. Yunlan also went, but the nurse raised an arm.

"You must stay here unless you're also an officer."

The nurse shot him an inquisitive look.

Yunlan realised that he was waiting for him to show him his badge. He never used the chain, nor he ever pinned it anywhere, but it wasn't in the front pocket of his jacket where he usually kept it.

"Where the hell is it?" he murmured, checking all his other pockets.

Hong sighed ostentatiously. "Why don't you hang it around your neck like me? It's pretty handy."

"Necklaces are for girls," he said, checking the pocket at the front of his jacket again under the nurse's annoyed stare.

"I know you think everybody knows you, but sometimes even you need to show your badge."

Yunlan grunted something she didn't understand, then they heard a man's voice shouting.

"I'll be damned if that's not Zhao Yunlan! What brings you this far?"

Yunlan exhamined the man, quickly searching his brain for an indentity. Little man, round face, loud squeaking voice, he appeared to be of his same age. A younger version presented itself in the form of an old memory and he opened his arms.

"Zheng Yibo, you haven't changed a bit, how long has it been, twenty years?"

"Twenty-one since I lived in our old neighbourhood! I work here, you must call me doctor Zheng now."

The man laughed then asked, "And what is it that you're doing here?"

"I'm a policeman. I'm actually here for a case, but it appears I can't go in since I can't find my badge."

"A policeman? Are you for real? I would have never guessed, my word, I thought you'd be the one to cause troubles, not the one solving them."

He laughed again at his own joke while Yunlan pretended to be amused.

"I never heard of a policeman not finding his badge though, which quickly reconciles you with the old Zhao's image in my mind! I can see from the shiny trinket hanging from her pretty neck that this lovely creature is an officer as well. Want to arrest me, sugar? You're free to handcuff me whenever you want."

Yunlan rolled his eyes but said nothing. Hong certainly didn't need his help with someone like Zheng Yibo, and if the guy knew her better he'd be more careful.

"Believe me, you would not enjoy it."

Her cold voice caused his smile to vanish, and he turned serious.

"Well, if you two are really colleagues, why doesn't she vouch for you? We wouldn't doubt the word of an officer of the law, would we now?"

The question was directed at the nurse, and he agreed.

"Of course we wouldn't, but she hasn't yet said a word about that."

Yunlan growled, what a waste of time, he had been so surprised at the realisation that his badge was missing that he hadn't thought of that.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

He hissed the words but Hong just shrugged. "How could I know you had lost your badge, that's serious you know, you'll have to report it."

He was losing his patience. Hong finally vouched for him, so he bid his old friend goodbye and they followed the nurse to the right hospital ward.

After a minute a doctor came to talk to them. He told them that the man hadn't been physically hurt, but his body had been under extreme stress during the last hours.

"I can't tell you exactly what happened. He's in a coma now and it doesn't look too good, but there is brain activity so he might indeed wake up one day, though we don't know when."

"What caused this?"

"That's still to be determined, there doesn't seem to be any apparent cause, as if he exausted himself by practising way too much sport. His body should have sent him signals that it was time to stop, but he's the only one who could tell us why he didn't."

Yunlan and Hong talked a while more with the doctor, then Yunlan told her to go find the paramedics and whoever might know anything. There was such a shortage of information that any little thing could be important, he said.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked him.

"You go first, I want to take a look at this man. I'll get back later."

He tossed her the keys.

She caught them mid-air. "How will you come back without the car?"

"I'll find a way, you know I'm a lucky man."

She seemed hesitant, she didn't want to leave him behind, she clearly wished for him to join her for the rest of the investigation, but he waved her off.

"Go now. If I need help I'll call, but I'm sure I will be alright."

She reluctantly went away.

Once she was out of sight, he took his phone and wrote the name of the patient plus the name of the hospital and its address.

He added, "54 years old. Disappeared for three days and a half. Coma by exhaustion."

He pondered on the best way to put it, but he was never a man of fine words so he kept it simple.

"Can you help?"

He checked to be sure he got the right contact number then he pressed send.