Chapter 3 The locked room.

Locked room cases are the ultimate subject every detective author wants to explore. John Dickson in his work as one of the three tycoons of golden era, in his lectures of the locked room divided it into different categories. That could simply mean that the case has to fall in to one of the categories.

Just before he continued talking about the case, the detective readjusted himself on his seat and took another glass of wine, his sip seemed to have been dried off and the collection of the simultaneous deposition of the liquid down through his esophagus was disrupted because of the emptiness of his glass cup. He made sure he had more in his cup to facilitate easy sipping and to avoid dehydration as well.

China has been a socialist country between 1945 to 1949 or more than and, for nearly all of that time, the government has played a predominant role in the economy. In the industrial sector, for example, the state long owned outright nearly all of the firms producing China's manufacturing output. The proportion of overall industrial capacity controlled by the government has gradually declined, although heavy industries have remained largely state owned. In the urban sector the government has set the prices for key commodities, determined the level and general distribution of investment funds, prescribed output targets for major enterprises and branches, allocated energy resources, set wage levels and employment targets, run the wholesale and retail networks, and controlled financial policy and the banking system. The foreign trade system became a government monopoly in the early 1950s. In the countryside from the mid-1950s, the government prescribed cropping patterns, set the level of prices, and fixed output targets for all major crops.

By the early 21st century much of the above system was in the process of changing, as the role of the central government in managing the economy was reduced and the role of both private initiative and market forces increased. Nevertheless, the government continued to play a dominant role in the urban economy, and its policies on such issues as agricultural procurement still exerted a major influence on performance in the rural sector.

The effective exercise of control over the economy requires an army of bureaucrats and a highly complicated chain of command, stretching from the top down to the level of individual enterprise. The Chinese Communist Party reserves the right to make broad decisions on economic priorities and policies, but the government apparatus headed by the State Council assumes the major burden of running the economy. The State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance also are concerned with the functioning of virtually the entire economy.

There are three types of economic activity in China; those stipulated by mandatory planning, those done according to indicative planning (in which central planning of economic outcomes is indirectly implemented), and those governed by market forces. The second and third categories have grown at the expense of the first, but goods of national importance and almost all large-scale construction have remained under the mandatory planning system. The market economy generally involves small-scale or highly perishable items that circulate within local market areas only. Almost every year brings additional changes in the lists of goods that fall under each of the three categories.

The plan was for the government to hand out a rural project for a certain location they needed to improve it's quality of living and the conservation of the market areas. In addition to that, a new market was sketched out as a site of paramount importance for the development of the entire rural area of Yangzhen. It was a top most agenda because there were lots of individuals not ready to give in to that development for reasons best known to them. From the ministry, they already had someone in mind, the only person they trusted with the hope of giving them what they had desired and he was made to understand the reason for the project.

" I'm confused, what's the lecture all about....for goodness sake we are not in the classroom and probably, we don't have to learn Chinese history", Lorenzo who was already pissed off started to complain.

" You know I was thinking the same, I thought you wanted to tell us about the case,....erhh....the locked room case I guess", Miguel tried to remember.

" You can't know fully how the case started or what led to the case without knowing the history behind the case. It's very necessary you all know this now and you are privileged to be among the very ones I told. If you don't care to listen or know the wrapped package, you can as well have a goodnight rest..either ways, you are doing the right thing", the detective intervened.

With that, all of them kept quiet because they wanted to know what the case was actually all about and how it was successfully cracked. He continued to serve them the hot experience but just then, he needed to bring in the individuals involved and to do that, he continued from where he stopped.

Li Jun Feng worked with the Chairman of the central military commission of the people's republic of china whereas, Chun Kong works with the Premier of the state council of the people's republic of china. There was a little controversy, the contract was meant for Chun Kong of which should be hidden from every other person especially his ambitious negated colleague whom happened to be Li Jun. The sabotage was committed by a secret agent planted in Kong's ministry just to be updating him with all the necessary information he needed. He wasn't doing that on a hostile state, since among the both of them, the contract was to be awarded to just one person, there was no need to die over the matter and that was exactly what Kong thought.

From there phone discussion, Kong became aware that the news was definitely leaked by someone close to him of which he was close to finding out. Among what they discussed was the proposal for them to meet up just few days before the execution of the contract would commence. The meeting was scheduled to hold at night, seemed the both parties came with full security and that was because they never trusted each other, not even an aota.

" So what happened next, from the way I'm seeing it, seems someone will die", Miguel tried to predict.

" And I can bet it's Kong", Alicia confidently contributed.

The detective smiled and looked closely at the trio and advised them to patiently wait till the end before concluding, they might be right about who died but yet, there were plenty things to add up to it. He made it known to them that the place they met wasn't an open place, it was a closed venue which definitely had just one entrance and no one was allowed to get in or out. Roman's cottage was the perfect location they chose to meet. And if you must know, the cottage was a government owned property which was named after the late father of the former minister of interior who happened to also come from that district. They also dimmed the location fit and safer for their meeting because it was just a lone building which had just one space inside and one entrance, only the nobles normally entered there for secret meetings or secret deliberations.

" So, what happened later on?" Lorenzo asked hurriedly.

They were all eager to know what happened and who died. The detective knew very well how to suspend stories and make someone thrust for more. You can't help it but to rather pay attention till the very last piece of the message was dropped, maybe that was among the things that made him what he was. He would always admonish them to keep calm and follow the story little by little, he would always put them through even when everything seemed to have gone all bad.

" You will be the ones to determine the crime by the end of the day, let's see how critical and fast your minds can detect stuffs and judge correctly without having to be at the crime scene".

With that, they became more eager to hear the best part of the story and no one begged them to trade their attention for the story.

After a while, like few minutes later, a loud voice was heard from inside and clearly, it was Li Jun's. The voice was followed by an unforeseen gunshot and the whole gang heard everything so well. The next thing was the news that Li Jun was dead and since the police weren't able to make a good case out of it, the knowledge of the detective was implored to help them solve the case since they couldn't do anything or arrest anyone without proper evidence. The best part of it was left for the detective to crack and that was exactly what he did.

" Ok, I had time to meet up with Kong to hear his own part of the story. Before then, news were everywhere that he killed Jun but he just needed someone that would look into the case and vindicate him from all the accusations of being a murderer. He sent for me because he had already heard about me and my dominations. I went with my assistant and directly, we met with him for further questioning. I asked him what really happened and then, he stated his own view".

He said that after they arrived the cottage, both of them submitted their private weapons to their secretary before stepping inside. He also mentioned that it was just one lady that was inside and she poured tea for them before leaving. They were alone till after a while, his secretary entered and the two of them discussed something which he didn't put interest to. It was few minutes after the secretary left that he started feeling dizzy, like he was fainting. He thought his tea could have been poisoned and because of that, he staggered to where Jun was and accustomed him. They had a little fight which led to Kong raising the tea port and smashing it on his head. That was when the loud voice came and Kong fainted afterwards. When he finally work up, he started hearing the news of the death and how he was rushed to the hospital.

The question then was whether the detective believed him and was ready to go with his own side of the story. Some things he said were actually correct because he also reviewed the camera footage and saw when they submitted the gun, the time the lady came out and also the time Jun's secretary entered inside. Those things happened separately and a quite different minute.

" So what happened next, how were you able to get the murderer?" Alicia asked.

" I was already getting close to the revelation my dear but before then, who do you think that killed him and why?" the detective asked.

The reason why he asked the question was because a suspect can not be trusted with the judgement and from what he said, he just made himself an Alibi. And from what forensics showed, the gun found at the crime scene was the exact gun that he submitted before stepping in and that could only mean one thing.

" Then it's very simple, since the secretary was the only person that entered the room, he must have remitted the gun back to him", Lorenzo replied.

" You are correct, that could have been the only way".

" And probably they got into a fight and since there was a struggle, I believe that Kong should be the only person that would take that shot", Alicia contributed.

The question then was what could have made Kong take a shot at Jun, could it had been self-defense or will. Since they discussed over the period, Miguel kept quiet and seemed not to be following. The quietness had hit different when the detective looked upon him and asked if he had something to say or contribute. The only he ended up saying, according to his own understanding was that Kong must have killed Jun and nothing to be added. Then, the detective knowing full well that they had made their choice of answer, he tried to clear them that if there had been a treat from Jun, that would have been a perfect reason why Kong took the shot but apart from that, the principal of the application of the categories of locked room cases would be examined and of which he did. It could have been easier to give them the final checkmate but still, he needed to put them through those stages because that might help them at one point or the other.