Liu Tingyu was at her desk at eight sharp. Last night she had gotten home after eleven, dragged herself into the shower and fell into bed.

She was working on her second cup of coffee with a shot of espresso in it.

'Blessing of the Gods.' she smiled to herself as the hot coffee warmed her belly. The smile disappeared as she glanced at the manilla envelope on her desk. It held the pictures she'd promised the Inspector yesterday. For once, the photographer seemed to realize how important her request was and the pictures were ready without a fight.

Another swallow of coffee and she grabbed the envelope. A knock on the inspector's door and she entered. No inspector. He hadn't been there either. No Coke cans on his desk. It was the first thing he did upon arriving. Open his first Coke of the day. He might leave the cans during the day but he always cleared his desk at night. No cans, no Inspector.

Concerned, she headed for the department secretary. That man knew every tidbit of gossip in the department and was more than willing to share.

"Excuse me but where's the Inspector?"

"Spent the night in the hospital."

"He what?!? Why? Is he okay? Why didn't you tell me when I came in, you ridiculous little man!" Liu Tingyu didn't get angry often but when she did, everyone knew to watch out.

"I'm sorry! I should have! I - " the secretary babbled.

"Stop groveling this instant. You are a police officer. Have some dignity. Now, what happened?"

"Sergeant?" Zheng Fan Xing spoke up. "I was with him last night. He's okay. He fell asleep while they were bandaging him and the doctor said she'd take care of him."

Liu Tingyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" she repeated calmer. "Why was he being bandaged?"

"There was a call. Three men forced a condo door and hauled out the owner. We caught two of them but it was after a chase. One of them jumped the Inspector." Zheng Fan Xing's eyes were shining as he recounted the events.

"Inspector Jiang fought with him and laid him out flat! The guy lost two teeth! Looks absolutely awful with bruises all over. The Inspector took him down hard! When he was done and handcuffed the perp, I took him  to the ER because I was worried the Inspector's nose was broken. It wasn't and he was just exhausted. Our Inspector is the best." The crowd that had gathered to hear the story nodded and smiled in agreement.

"Thank you, Fan Xing. Everyone, criminals aren't going to catch themselves. Do our Inspector proud and go back to work." the Sergeant announced.

As the crowd dispersed, she walked to her desk lost in thought. She was caught between being proud of him and worried about him. After the last two days, she wasn't sure which Diety Jiang Cheng had angered but she was definitely going to burn incense for him.

And make him a batch of honey cookies.
-----

Nie Huaisang was sitting in his car. He had walked by the river for a bit but the place was unnerving. He had retreated to his car to await the evidence team and the diver.

He sipped at the remains of his caramel latte and turned pieces of the puzzle in his mind. Looking for where pieces fit, patterns in the picture.

He would have to work on it this afternoon. Right after he got the kid out of the police station and somewhere safe.

Motion to his right caught his attention. It was Song Lan and his partner, Xiao Xingchen pulling in. Huaisang liked them. They worked well together. The times he had employed them, the information had been accurate and impeccably documented.

He joined the two men when they got out of their car. Each carried a coffee and Xiao Xingchen had a paper bag.

"Would you like a pastry, Inspector?" he offered.

"Please, call me Huaisang. I would love one, thank you." Huaisang bit into a swirl of cardamom and cinnamon. He sighed happily as he chewed.

'A'Bin would love these!' he thought.

"What are these and where do I get them? Delicious!!" he asked before taking another bite.

"Khaja. We live next to a bakery. It's called The Beastie Bakery and is run by two of our friends. They are trying out this recipe."

"I need a dozen. Please text me the address. Mmmm..." Huaisang said with his eyes closed in enjoyment.

He opened his eyes at the sound of their laughter. Sucking on a finger to remove the last of the sticky sweet, he smiled.

'Wonder if Yu Bin would let me do this to him?' he grinned to himself. 'Such an enticing thought... but now, time to be the Inspector again.'

"Thank you again for the pastry! You did an excellent job, gentlemen. I've already left a five star review of your services. Now, back to work. Can you show me where the suspect was looking?"

Song Lan watched as Nie Huaisang cycled through several facets of himself - food enthusiast (though the man never seemed to gain an ounce) to pleased client to The Spider. It never failed to fascinate him how quickly and completely Nie Huaisang shifted his mein. It made the man both interesting and unpredictable. A subtle combination.

Xiao Xingchen was already taking him to the dwarfed tree. Ready to show him the pictures and make a solid guesstimate on where Madame Yu had been looking.

Out on the river, a boat caught everyone's eye as it headed toward the broken playground. In a smooth motion that spoke of experience, it turned broadside and an anchor was dropped from the bow. Blazoned on the bow were the words Motor City** in a nod to Ryan's hometown.

The engine was cut and a man walked out on to the aft deck. At six foot three with blonde hair, it was fair to say Ryan stood out in Beijing. He looked more like a linebacker** than a diver.

In surprisingly good Chinese, he called to the shore. "Good morning! I'm looking for Inspector Nie Mingjue."

"Good morning! I'm Inspector Nie Huaisang. We met briefly last year. My brother asked me to come in his stead. He was up all night serving a search warrant."

"At court I believe on a murder case, wasn't it?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, it was! I don't know where the Evidence Team is yet but is there anything we need to do to help you with the dive?" Nie Huaisang responded.

"Nope. My partner's in the cabin and I have radio comms** in my mask. Do we have a location yet?"

Xiao Xingchen spoke up for the first time. "It's ten to fifteen feet into the water in a straight line from this tree."

"Got it! Let me get geared up and we'll see what we can find." Ryan flashed a smile as a small slender woman joined him. "Gentlemen, my wife and partner, Deng Jiaying."

"Good Morning!" she said with a slight bow.

As the group on shore bowed and called good morning in response, Ryan was pulling on his dry suit. The water was still icy cold. The dry suit would keep him dry and warm during the dive. He carefully checked his gear as he readied himself. Diving was serious business. Get sloppy and it could cost a life.

"Ready?" Jiayang asked.

Ryan pulled on a mask that covered his whole face instead of just his eyes.

"Test. Test. Can you hear me, sweetheart?" could be heard over the radio.

"Loud and clear." she responded on the handset.

Handing him a camera with a large light, she gave him a smile and a thumbs up. A smile, a thumbs up and Ryan fell backwards off the boat. In a few moments, he surfaced, gave his wife another thumbs up and then disappeared under the water.

Looking to the shore, she said, "Now we wait."

Under water, it's a different world. Sound is amplified. Colors are diminished. Kick your fins too close to the bottom and silt surrounds you blocking your vision. Ryan had been diving for so long, he didn't think about these things anymore. It was ingrained in him.

Turning on his light, he began to scan the bottom in slow arcs looking for anything that was out of the ordinary. Which made this kind of dive hard as hell because people threw or lost the stupidest shit in the river. He had found perfectly good bikes. Full coolers. Deck chairs. Add the trash and dives looking for unspecified items could take a while.

"How's it going?" crackled in Ryan's mask.

"I'm good. At fifteen feet. About ten feet visibility. Nothing suspicious yet."

"Roger that."

It had been close to thirty minutes. Ryan was inclined to believe there wasn't anything to be found. As he turned for another pass, he caught a glimpse of pink. Underwater, red usually appears pink. Curious and a little bored, he swam closer. It was a corner sticking out . The rest had been covered in silt and sand. Wafting his hand over it gently removed some of it without stirring up a vision-blocking cloud.

It was a suitcase. A few more slow passes of his hand revealed a fairly large suitcase with a black tree perhaps on it. The suitcase appeared to still be zippered shut.

"I don't know if this is what they're looking for but I've got a suitcase here. Still shut. I'll need the winch to haul it up. Taking pictures and I'm at twenty three feet."

"Roger that. Pop a marker so I know where you are and I'll get over you."

"Roger. Orange marker deployed."

In a few seconds, an orange tube broke the surface about thirty feet away. The men on shore were startled when the Motor City's engine started. Pressing the button, Jiayang  weighed anchor** and began creeping closer.

"Stay at twenty feet. I'll go slightly beyond your marker and use the stern winch. Roger?"

"Roger that."

Slowly, Jiayang reached the marker and turned off the engine just beyond it.

"Surface so I can drop the anchor and you can get the winch."

"Roger."

As soon as she saw Ryan clear the surface, she dropped anchor and headed for the swim platform.

At the stern of the boat, was a platform just above water level. On one side was a ladder to make it easier for the diver to get back on board. On the port** side was a winch. Jiayang swung the winch out over the water and pulled enough cable so the hook would hang down to the surface.

Ryan grabbed it, winked at his wife and disappeared again.

On the shore, the three men watching were distracted by the arrival of the Evidence Team. They were squabbling about directions as they got out of the van.

"I told you there was road construction there and you ignored me so now we're late and it's your fault!"

"It was scheduled to be done by last Tuesday!"

"When, in the history of humanity, has road construction been completed on time?"

The man fumed since he couldn't come up with a speedy retort.

The woman laughed. "Zero one. My favor!"

"For now." he growled.

Nie Huaisang rolled his eyes.

'This ought to be fun.' he thought sarcastically.

Back on the Motor City, Jiayag was responding to Ryan's message and pulling up the suitcase. Hanging mid-air, it streamed muddy water as it spun listlessly. They could tell it was red and there was something black on it but mud obscured too much to tell what it was.

As Ryan climbed up the ladder, Jiayang called to the shore. 

"There's a small pier about a half mile downstream. We'll meet you there."

"We'll be there!" Nie Huisang yelled back. He wouldn't be sad to leave the playground.

'Maybe we can do something about this place.' he thought as he ushered everyone else toward their vehicles.

In no time everyone was on the dock. The Evidence Team took over at this point. They sluiced the worst of the mud off revealing a bright red suitcase. On the suitcase a black tree was painted. At its base, defined by the red of the exposed suit case, was a seated man with long hair playing a flute. It appeared to have been covered with a thin layer of resin.

Nie Huaisang took a picture and sent it to Jiang Cheng with the caption 'Look familiar?'

While waiting for a reply, he continued to watch the Evidence Team carefully photograph the suitcase then begin to open it. It took several tries to get the zipper to move but a liberal dose of WD40** finally did the trick.

In jumps and starts, the zipper finally made it around the suitcase. Carefully, the suitcase was opened. The smell wafting up wasn't pleasant but the inside was packed meticulously even if everything was coated with a film of bottom silt.

On the left side, zipped into place by a mesh cover was what appeared to be clothes. In the center was a small square of possibly paper. It could have been anyone's suitcase.

The right side had everyone looking at each other in confusion. It was all toys. Apparently all broken toys to be exact. Model cars that looked like they had been stepped on. A flat soccer ball. What might be books cut in half. Laying on the top of all of it was what could be the only intact item.

It was a stuffed bunny. It was a sad little thing about a foot long. The original color was hard to tell except for a black patch over the left eye.

Nie Huaisang took more pictures and forwarded them to Jiang Cheng. 'This is first visual inspection of suitcase contents.' he added and sent it off.

"Please begin on the left side. I would like to see what the square piece is." he requested.

The process was slow as the technicians worked methodically to save as much evidence as possible. Peeling back the mesh layer, they gingerly used a painting palette knife's blunt edge to pry up the small square. Delicately, it was placed in a small tray with water. Using a brush, the mud was gently cleared away. It was a Chinese passport.

Nie Huaisang remembered Jiang Cheng saying Wei Ying's passport had been missing.

"Can we open it?" he asked quietly not wanting to disturb their concentration.

"I'll give it one try. It it doesn't work we'll have to wait until we're in the lab. Agreed?" the woman said.

"Agreed." the Inspector replied.

She began to tuck the edge of a different palette knife just under the open page side of the passport. A tiny up and down motion to hopefully allow water between the pages in an effort to separate them. A pair of tweezers with flat round ends were precisely run around the edges at an achingly slow pace.

Eventually, she used the palette knife and tweezers to flip the cover open revealing the smiling face of Wei Ying.
~♡~♡~♡~

Motor City is a nickname for Detroit, USA.

A linebacker is a position in American football and implies a larger man with lots of muscles.

Comms is short for communications.

Weighing anchor means to pull the anchor up.

Port is left on a boat.

WD40 is a common lubricant used on mechanical items.

Thank you for your patience everyone!

May Inspiration Whisper to All of Us ❣️❣️❣️

❤️🍫🫖❤️