Inspector Zhang and the Disappearing Drugs Read Online Free Page B

her?"
    "Pleased at her rapid advancement. It is good to see a woman progressing through the ranks so quickly."
    Inspector Zhang looked across at her but couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. He folded his arms and they drove the rest of the way in silence.
    They walked into the building together and Inspector Kwok took them up to a meeting room on the second floor where there were several desktop computers and a large flat screen monitor on one wall. There was a technician waiting for them, a young woman in a pale green trouser suit, and she stood up as they walked in.
    The technician arranged three chairs so that they could sit facing the monitor and then she sat down at one of the computers.
    "What is it you would like to see, exactly?" asked Inspector Kwok. "We have seven days of surveillance video and in most of it nothing is happening."
    "When the drugs arrive, and then later when you and your team went inside," said Inspector Kwok.
    The technician nodded and tapped away on her computer keyboard. An image filled the monitor.   The corridor outside the apartment. The apartment number was clearly visible on the door.
    "You can't see the lift but you will see the men come into view," said Inspector Kwok. As she finished the sentence two men appeared on the screen, pushing trolleys. There were five boxes on each trolley. The older of the two was a Chinese man in his late fifties, grey haired and with a tired face. He was wearing blue overalls with the name of the company on his chest, as was his companion, a chubby Indian man in his early twenties.
    The Chinese man stood his trolley by the door and bent down to take the key from under the mat. Inspector Zhang read the time code on the bottom of the screen. It was just after ten-thirty in the morning. Sergeant Lee was scribbling in her notebook and as he looked across at her she nodded at him, letting him know that she was making a note of the time. The man unlocked the door and pushed in his trolley, followed by the Indian. Then the door closed.
    "They went inside and left the boxes in the sitting room, next to the sofa," said Inspector Kwok.
    The door remained closed for just under three minutes, then the two men reappeared with empty trolleys. The Chinese man relocked the door and put the key back under the mat, then the two men pushed their trolleys towards the lift.
    "The door then remained locked for seven days," said Inspector Kwok. "No one went in or out before me, seven days later."
    "And the room was under constant surveillance?"
    "I was there eighteen hours a day and there were always at least two detectives in the observation room," said Inspector Kwok. "And once we discovered that the apartment was empty I myself watched every second of the video, albeit speeded up, of course."
    Inspector Zhang rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "And the two men who delivered the drugs. Who are they?"
    "The owner of the company, Mr. Yin. It was Mr. Yin who opened the door. And one of his workers. A Mr. Chandra."
    "And was there anyone else from the company involved?"
    "There was a driver, but he stayed outside with the van."
    "Very well. Can we now jump ahead to when you and your team entered the apartment. "
    The technician tapped on her keyboard again and the picture jumped. According to the time code they had advanced almost seven days.   Inspector Kwok walked to the door, followed by two male detectives and two uniformed officers. She bent down, picked up the key and slotted it into the lock. She seemed to have trouble with the lock and she stepped aside to let one of the uniformed officers try. "I didn't realise it was a security lock," she said.   "It had to be turned twice."
    The uniformed officer also had trouble with the lock, but eventually he opened the door and stepped aside to allow Inspector Kwok to go in. "And that was it," said Inspector Kwok. "The drugs had gone. The apartment was empty. And during the seven days that we had the apartment under