Disclaimer: Dynasty Warriors is property of KOEI-Tecmo. No copyright infringement is intended, this is simply a non-profit piece of fanfiction.

Summary: Dynasty Warriors AU set in 1939 America in the style of Film Noir. Sable Cicada is on the verge of becoming a star. However she is shot after the premiere of her latest play and everyone is a suspect. Private eye Sun Shang Xiang is hired to find out who did it.

The Murder of Sable Cicada

Chapter 1

The Fallen Star

May 2, 1939 Star Slain at Play Premiere

The newsprint headline was a harsh reminder that life and death were as simple as black and white, no matter how colorful and extravagant a life was. Another victim of popularity or perhaps jealousy, the beautiful actress was now nothing more than a corpse on a metal slab. Perhaps it was an act of mercy, saving the beauty from the inevitable fade from the limelight or worse…aging. Was it better to die or fade away into obscurity?

Sun Shang Xiang looked up from the newspaper as a knock on the office door interrupted her thoughts. She was comfortably sitting with her feet up on her desk and the swivel chair as far back as it could go without tipping. She sighed, knowing that her assistant was out to lunch and she couldn't pass up an opportunity to possibly pay him, the rent or even afford to buy the paper in her hand instead of digging it out of the trash. "Come on in!"

She threw the paper on the desk and swiveled to the left to get her feet back on the ground. By the time the chair had made a full turn and her feet were on the floor, the man was already standing in her office. She quickly assessed him: his meticulous beard and mustache were trimmed perfectly, his suit clean and tidy and his fedora not the least bit ragged. He was a rarity these days: a man with enough money to keep himself looking good. Not that a man like him could look anything but good.

She stood and adjusted the shoulder holster that held her trusty Colt New Service .45 revolver next to her breast. Unfortunately the only reason a man like this would end up in her office was if he was here to collect a debt. "You can get in line with the rest of them."

Zhang Liao cocked an eyebrow and took a step back to glance in the main portion of the office. It was empty. He looked back at the woman with round green eyes and queried, "Who? The waiting room is empty."

"The other bill collectors." Shang snorted and put her hands on her hips.

Liao admired the view. Her white blouse was unbuttoned and the shoulder holster was not made with a busty woman in mind. "I was actually here to see about hiring you."

She waved to the seat in front of the desk as if she hadn't just bitten his head off for coming into his office looking presentable. "Have a seat."

Liao took his hat off and put it on the hat rack next to the door. He unbuttoned his suit as he sat down in the uncomfortable wooden chair.

Shang sat down and reached for her notepad and a pencil. "What can I help you with, Mr….?"

"Zhang Liao." He responded and reached forward to tap the newspaper in front of her. "And I would like to hire you to find out who killed 'Sable Cicada' or as I knew her, Diao Chan."

Shang took a deep breathe. Of course he had to be an idiot, he was hot. They're always morons or bastards. "Mr. Zhang, I hate to be rude but I think you might find out in the next few days quite a few other men were part of her life…"

"Allow me to familiarize you with my situation. My boss, and best friend, is her fiancé. He's being framed for this despite damned near every man, and a few women, in this town wanting her dead. Unfortunately, I doubt the police are all too interested in letting the opportunity to put Lu Bu behind bars slip them by. I need to find out who killed her to do that."

"Then why aren't you doing just that, Mr. Zhang? You have more connections than me and more effective methods of finding answers as well." Shang couldn't believe her luck. If word got out that she was even meeting with a man affiliated with Lu Bu….

"Nothing I find will be considered legitimate evidence. You are a third party private investigator, whatever evidence you turn up would actually be admissible in court. Besides, Chan was murdered in your Father's casino. I imagine you have better access than anyone to…"

"I'm not exactly on the best terms with my father." She said dryly. "However I do see your point."

"Will you take the case?" He asked.

She looked at the paper and the photo of a white sheet covering a body on the dining room floor. About all she was really thinking about was the steak on the table in the foreground. Her stomach growled as she thought about it and her answer was quick to hide the gurgle "Yes."

"Then perhaps you'll have lunch with me so I can fill you in on the details." He watched her green eyes light up and a smile spread across her face.

"As long as I'm not going to end up like her, the victim of your girlfriend's jealous rage." She grinned and pulled her jacket off the chair.

He had to admire her observation skills; she had scanned his hands for a wedding ring already. "No girlfriend, I'm a bit too dedicated to my work."

"Want to fill me in on what that is, just to satisfy my curiosity?" She asked as he stood and went to retrieve his hat.

Liao set his hat back on his head and smiled at her. "I have to retain some mystery about me; I doubt you'd be all that interested in having lunch with a man you could read like a book."

You have no idea the kind of man I fall for…"Just as long as you're prepared to be under my scrutiny as well…."

"I would expect no less, Miss Sun."

"Good. I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were paying for."

"Quite honestly I was more interested in playing cards than watching her perform." Liao stirred his coffee and thought about that night again. "I can't rule out anyone; damned near everyone was there that night."

"Start by telling me who you were playing with and who the dealer was." Shang looked up as she poised the pencil over her notebook.

"Planning on checking my alibi?"

"I don't rule anyone out." She watched him set his spoon on the table and raise the mug to his lips.

"What about you? This certainly can't be good for business and you've already admitted to having poor relations with your father."

She had to grin as he looked at her over the mug as he drank. "You might be in the wrong business; you're not so bad at being a detective."

"You still haven't figured out what my business is." He set the mug back down and leaned back in the booth. "Perhaps I should give you some advice before you begin this job. It will be beneficial to us both if I do."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Set aside your preconceived notions about who people are. It might surprise you who the bad guys are and what the good guys really do. Nobody is who you think they are."

"Even you?"

"Where's the fun in telling you now? I might not get to take you to dinner."

She didn't bother to hide her smile; she really did like his style. "What can you tell me about her murder then? I don't always trust what I read in the paper."

"Last night was the premier of her play, The Wizard of Oz, at the Imperial Seal's theatre. The play went well, a standing ovation from what I hear, and then they rolled down the movie screen and showed one of her films. The plan was to have her standing in the dining room when the show let out so that her adoring fans could see the hometown star. Quite the elaborate evening: Play, film, dinner and dancing with the beauty. A special send off, her manager said it was on to Hollywood from there. However, that is where things went wrong. There was a gunshot and when those theatre doors opened, Sable Cicada was face down in a puddle of her own blood."

"Where were you?"

"Playing cards."

"Did you investigate that gunshot?"

"Yes." He set his coffee down on the table as if it suddenly had a bitter taste to it. "I got there in time to see my best friend throw open the doors to the hall and run to the woman he loved. She was shot in the heart, the blood was just oozing out of her and he sat on the floor and held her until the police arrived."

"Where is he now?" She asked dreading the answer.

"They took him downtown for questioning. He spent the night at the precinct. I'm on my way to pick him up after we're done here."

"Can I talk with him?"

Liao smiled at the waitress as she delivered his lunch. "Not today."

"Mr. Zhang if I'm going to do my job…"

"Impatient, aren't you?" He cut her off and returned to drinking his coffee. "Give him a day to sort things out. Come out to see us tomorrow if you want to question him, I'll buy you lunch again to make up for the inconvenience."

She watched him wrap his sandwich in his handkerchief then reach for his wallet to pay the tab. She looked at her meal, still untouched. "Leaving me so soon?"

"Don't sound so sad to see me go." He tossed some money on the table and put his wallet away. "I need to get my friend home before he gives them a reason to keep him behind bars."

She looked at him as he stood. "Where exactly would you like me to meet you tomorrow?"

"Xia Pi." He watched her face wrinkle in disgust at the mention of it. "Home."

"Then you'll have to pick me up at the Pu Yang station, I'm not really big on the idea of hiking into the backwoods in these shoes."

"The train arrives at noon, I'll see you then." He set his hat on his head and touched the brim in a silent salute. Then he picked up the sandwich he bought for Lu Bu and headed to the car.

Shang returned to the office and looked at the clock. It was well after 3pm now and that meant her assistant was at his real job. An old classmate, Lu Xun had agreed to work with her when she started her very first investigation five years ago. He had a paying job as a newsboy and had access to the newsroom and archives that were out of reach to her. Besides, just like everyone else in these times, he needed any money he could get his hands on. In those days, she was still living off the money she had been given from her father. That dried up, along with any other prospects of income years ago.

She walked into her office and prepared to get comfortable for a long night of work. Her eyes were immediately drawn back to the newspaper on her desk. It was also time to get to know Sable Cicada a little better than she did. She slipped out of her jacket and shoulder holster, then flopped down on the couch that served as her bed. One benefit to barely being able to afford the rent on an office was that you could also make it your home. How far she had come from her days as Sun Jian's spoiled daughter.

She closed her eyes. She wasn't that naïve girl anymore. She knew that her father was more than just a successful businessman who owned Chang An's only high class gambling establishment. He had earned enough running speakeasies during the prohibition to finance the grand building that was the Imperial Seal Casino. He bent the rules, paid men off and even tried to marry his daughter to his main liquor supplier to keep the bar stocked. Worse, she fell for the man. So she knew first hand that nothing happened in that casino that her father did not know about.

So it all came back to a pretty dead actress that was at the Imperial Seal for the debut of the play Wizard of Oz. With the rumors of Hollywood making a movie based on the novel, it was a perfect way to capitalize on the free publicity. Shang flipped to the obituary section where she knew a more objective article of the woman could be found. She knew she could count on the facts here, the Obits were written by her old professor from the Sun Tzu University. Lu Meng was now unemployed thanks to the Great Depression and found work as a freelance reporter for the paper.

Shang leaned her head back and began to read about the dead girl. Her stage name was Sable Cicada, but her real name was Diao Chan and she was the adopted daughter of her manager, Wang Yun. Shang could almost hear her old teacher griping about how her adoption leaves her actual age in question. She was born in 1919 which made her about four years younger than Shang. She looked at the publicity photo to see if it could betray whatever lies were told to make her more fitting to the public eye.

Her obituary went on to talk about minor details in her film and stage career. She was a beauty who could act, sing and dance and it was only a matter of time before she was the next 'It' girl. It was factual, concise and a fitting tribute. What it did not tell was who Diao Chan was before she took her stage name and stepped into the public eye. What she really wanted to know were the scandalous details; that's where her answers were going to be. That was something she would have to find out from either her fiancé or father, considering her client's connections it seemed more fathomable to get information from Lu Bu.

Perhaps she could fill in the missing details based upon what she already knew about Chang An. Cao Cao was the railroad baron and a notorious womanizer. His reputation was something legends were made of and if Sable Cicada was anyone than she had been with him at some point. Sima Yi made his fortune with oil and spent his spare time pissing off her father's head of security at the Imperial Seal. He didn't need the money, he just amused himself by aggravating Zhou Yu who insisted he was cheating but could not figure out how. She was always suspicious of anyone who made Zhou Yu edgy but she didn't know if he had motive. Unless he was interested in her father's casino.

She tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling. Where exactly did she draw the line? Could she honestly imagine Yuan Shao wanting to steal some actress away into his coal mine and seduce her? What about Zhen Ji, the former silent film star, or Cai Wengi who used to captivate audiences with their music before Sable Cicada showed up and played the part better? Starting tomorrow she was going to start asking everyone questions. Of course she was going to be meeting Zhang Liao again for lunch out in Xia Pi so he could provide her with more information, so that left her little time to chase men all over the city.

She scanned the front page again. She simply just didn't know where to start. Worse, she couldn't get her client off her mind. She had already been down that road and knew it simply lead here…to this horribly uncomfortable couch and an empty stomach.

"Mornin'!"

Shang groaned as the chipper voice of Lu Xun woke her. "What ungodly hour is it?"

"8 am." Xun glanced in her office, not wanting to step in and catch her indecent, but curious if anything was different. "I see you've been working."

"Yeah, we have a job."

"Really?" Xun forgot his earlier worries about her state of undress and darted in the room to see if it was the truth.

"Might as well be solving the question of 'Why are we here'?"

Xun's eyes scanned the newspaper and the pencil marks underlining key facts in the article. "Sable Cicada? The actress?"

"I've been hired to find out who killed her and clear Lu Bu's name."

"Lu Bu, came to you for help?"

"Not quite." Shang rubbed her neck. The first thing she was going to do after she got paid was burn this damned couch and buy a bed. "His best friend, Zhang Liao."

"Now that's what I call a good friend." Xun rubbed his hands together. "Where do we start?"

"With Zhang Liao."

"You want to make sure he can pay you? It's going to be a really sad state of affairs if even the Gangsters are broke." Xun sat down and reached for a piece of paper.

"I wouldn't put it past someone to hire a private investigator to disqualify themselves as a suspect. However I just want to know who I'm dealing with."

"Right." Xun scratched out a few notes. "What else?"

"See if you can find any records in city hall about her. Name change, adoption records, birth certificate. She wasn't just born a star; she had to come from somewhere."

"Who do you suspect?"

"Xun, I hope I can answer that for you tomorrow."

"Why? What are you up to?" He asked, knowing her style of investigating.

"I have lunch with Zhang Liao at noon out at Xia Pi. I hope I can meet with Lu Bu today to clarify who exactly Diao Chan was and why someone wanted her, or her alter ego, dead."

"Xia Pi?" Xun asked. "You're having lunch with a client in a Shantytown?"

"His choice." She shrugged and sniffed her shirt. She was going to have to put on her other shirt for today's adventures.

"Be careful." He said and wished he didn't have to be in town for his afternoon paper route or he would be accompanying her.

"Me?" She chuckled. "I'm the embodiment of caution."

"Sunny, the sinking of the Maine in San Juan harbor was subtle compared to your approach."

"Some men like forward women." She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a woman who had slept on a couch from hell in her clothes.

"Letting some guy you don't know, who you just ordered me to profile, take you to a secluded location for lunch is more along the lines of a suicidal woman. Especially after his best friend's girl turns up dead."

"It's a living." She said and gave him a look that said he needed to get out so she could try and clean up in the small water closet.

Sun Shang Xiang never really thought of herself as a lucky girl. However, today she felt a tingle down her spine as she stood on the railroad platform and watched Cao Cao board his private railway car. The plan had been to take the train from the Xu Chang station to Pu Yang, where she would meet Zhang Liao. However Cao Cao's appearance meant she could multi-task as he was among the men she wanted to question. She casually made her way to the stock car, slipped over the coupling onto the other track when the railroad employee was distracted helping an elderly woman onto the train. Shang ducked down low, ran alongside the box car and leapt up onto the last car on the train. When a startled man turned to look at her, she was already inside of the car.

Cao Cao was immediately surrounded by his bodyguards who drew their guns on the woman. He looked past them and to the girl in question. She looked familiar and that usually wasn't a good thing.

"Hands in the air, Miss."

Shang raised her hands and groaned as the jacket pulled back to show her revolver. "My name is Sun Shang Xiang, I'd like a private word with Mr. Cao."

"It's alright." Cao Cao gave the word for the men to stand down and looked her over. "I assume it's about the murder."

"Yes." She growled, he sounded a bit too hopeful about the prospect of it being something else. She watched him dismiss his bodyguards and remove his trench coat to reveal an expensive blue suit that had obviously been custom made for him. He had a few streaks of grey in his hair but it somehow made him look more dignified.

"I didn't kill her, if you were simply interested in a quick answer before the train departs."

"That almost sounds like an invitation to join you." She watched him settle into a plush seat and could see how some women might be lured in by him.

"Accept it as a token of my gratitude for showing me the weakness in the deployment of my bodyguards." He waved to the seat in front of him.

Shang was thankful she didn't get kicked off, the truth was she couldn't pay for a ticket to Pu Yang and was just planning to stow a way in the stock car. "Even though I plan to interrogate you about Sable Cicada's murder?"

"The irony of her death certainly isn't lost on me." Cao Cao sat back and watched her expression to see if she knew where he was going with this. It was evident that she wasn't quite up on her literary analogies as he was. "Have you read the Wizard of OZ by Baum?"

"Can't say I have." Shang wondered if he was just going to bore her to death with reciting his latest book club discussion as a punishment for her bold intrusion.

"You should, it's quite the interesting piece on many levels." He took a drink and continued. "I was referring to the character of Dorothy being symbolic of America's innocence and the Good witch of the West using her to eliminate her competition in her sisters. Do you know what the death toll was in the book, how many lives it cost for her to get to the Emerald City?"

"Death toll?" Shang put down her notebook. "Is this a trick question? You just said she was the symbol of American innocence."

"Innocence is often lost and bodies left in its wake." Cao Cao glanced up at a picture of himself and his cousins before they went to war. "The answer is 127."

"You expect me to believe that some farmer girl from Kansas went to a fantasy land and murdered over a hundred people?"

Cao Cao smiled and stood, then went to his bookcase. "I'll loan you the book."

"If I wanted to borrow a book, I'd go to the library. Instead I'm in your private train car looking for answers about a dead actress that you admittedly had relations with."

"You're your father's daughter." Cao Cao pulled the book from the shelf. "No patience and no interest in broadening your intellect."

"This isn't about me." Shang growled. "Do I need to remind you that I have a gun?"

"Just like your father." Cao Cao mumbled under his breath as he returned with the promised book. "Prove me wrong. Read it."

Shang took the book and set it on her lap as a makeshift desk for her notebook. "I should just pawn if, I'm sure it's a first edition signed copy…"

"The Emerald City was a symbol of the greenback, the glimmering hope of money at the end of a road paved in gold. Perhaps it was the perfect role for Chan, she herself was used by her father and manager Wang Yun to cause strife amongst the powerful men of this city. That, my dear, is ironic."

She looked at her notepad and stared at the empty page. "I think I'd rather hear scandalous details about your sexual exploits with her, I think it will be worth more money than publishing your book review in the paper for you."

"There is another aspect of this you might find a bit more personal. There are some that feel this is a metaphor for the political movements at the turn of the century."

"I seriously doubt that."

"It's actually quite the well-thought out metaphor…"

"I meant that I would find it interesting."

Cao Cao could recall more than one instance when he had heard the same statement from her father. "The Populist Party was formed by poor farmers who intensely despised financial institutions, railroads and societal elite."

"Oh, so they must have hated you."

He ignored her. It was just like trying to teach his own children, there were always snide remarks to try and rattle him. Unfortunately for her, he was immune to those comments and this train wasn't going to be at the next station for another half an hour. "It was short lived, however they did manage to support a man for President. William Jennings Bryan, one of the greatest speakers of the day, and he is known in the book as the Wizard of Oz."

"So who is he supposed to be in Chang An?"

"Liu Bei."

She ground her teeth and stared at him. "I'm not so naïve to think you don't know about me, considering that my father is a business rival, however I thought you better than a catty remark about…my past."

"I think the gloves were off the minute you asked me intimate details about my relationship with Chan." He shrugged. "Not so much fun when the tables are turned, now is it?"

"I did enough investigating into his past to determine I was engaged to the wrong man. I don't need you linking him to some ornate fairy tale about Witches, Actresses and a tower of Gold."

Cao Cao sighed. "Yellow brick road, not Tower. Do you always listen this well? I'm beginning to think I should highly recommend a refund to whoever hired you."

"This has nothing to do with me, so why don't we get back to my original line of questioning about the dead girl before you start telling me more nursery rhymes."

"You didn't dig far enough." Cao Cao said quietly. "You just found some ugly truth from his recent past. Perhaps you should go back further, before the war and find out what he really decided to stand up for. These Populists no longer have a political party, but the roots of dissention grow deep. Let me tell you another story."

"I want off this train."

"Then jump." Cao Cao poured her some whiskey and put the bottle back. "The Vice Presidential candidate during Bryan's Presidential bid was a man named Tom Watson. He would later use his newspaper to fire up the public and railroad a man for a murder."

"What is the moral of this story?" She asked before reaching for the drink. She felt a little uneasy about him profiling her so well, he didn't even ask if she drank.

"Do some research into the Leo Frank case in Georgia in 1913. The evidence was pitiful, but a man was simply convicted because he was a Jew. Sensationalism at it's best."

"Your point?"

"Your ex has some very poor heroes to model himself after."

"That was thirty years ago."

"I'll leave you to research it on your own. However think about how well he moves the public with his speeches, his campaign against rule by the rich and championing of the poor. Most of all, take a look at the man who is prime suspect for this murder and how little evidence there is to support that. A man the public is predisposed to hating, how easy it is to prosecute him for killing a beautiful and innocent damsel. Do some research into who has borrowed the most from Lu Bu and who would benefit the most from his execution for this crime. Lu Bu is not the monster that the public has been lead to believe. It has a ring of déjà vu, when I recall how the murder of that innocent little girl in Georgia was handled. Besides, Diao Chan is hardly an innocent, she is quite good at playing that part but her manager deserves the performance award. He's the one who pulls the strings and covers for her frequent trips south of the border for abortions."

"So why don't you expose her if you know so much? Certainly public outrage would disappear if she stops being the innocent and becomes just another dead whore."

"Death will still remain revered and nothing that comes to light now will have the impact it would have when she was alive. No, her character will remain untarnished until the endearment fades and the curiosity begins. A scandalous death has a way of creating a legend more than any accomplishment on a battlefield."

The train's whistle squelched out a blast as the engineer announced the pending arrival at the next station. Shang remained quiet, she could digest the gruesome details of a death but somehow this story about a man she once loved shook her to the core. It wasn't because she had tried to forget her feelings for him; it was because there was truth in everything Cao Cao said.

"You came here looking for a reason to suspect me. I suppose I can accommodate that now. Look to your left, you'll see the Xu Province reservoir that I helped create using the funding from a Tennessee Valley Authority grant."

"Yes, everyone knows the story. Your father was killed in a highway robbery when traveling home one night. You had been looking for a reason to run this very track thorough Xu and empowered by vengeance you found a New Deal program you could exploit. The grant money would allow you to flood the valley, create a reservoir and save Chang An by providing a water source we desperately needed. Time ran short on the project and you flooded the valley before the residents had time to evacuate. I've seen the pictures of the houses and bodies floating in the reservoir."

"Do you know what happens to a town without water? Civilizations have disappeared overnight when water sources have dried up. Ghost towns are scattered around the west, victims of ore that has dried up. Without that reservoir the water that this city demanded to grow would have been unavailable. The coal industry, steel…everyone needs water as a part of their industrial process. Yes, I needed the land this track is on, but more importantly I needed a city to be here to support this railway. I gave them 30 days to move and they refused. If I didn't complete the project by the government set date the funding would have been taken away. They made their stand and paid for it."

"You flooded an occupied town."

"Something I will pay for eventually." Cao Cao set his eyes on the lake that they were talking about. "I'll gladly pay the price if it saves this city from vanishing into the dust. War is once again on the horizon, a war that will take this country out of a horrible depression and into a new age of technology and prosperity. With the variety of industry, our dependable rail system and expansive farmland I should expect Chang An to become the boom town in the next decade."

"Don't drink the water, do you?" She asked, noticing there wasn't a single drink in his bar that wasn't imported.

"No." He answered honestly. "This is as close as I ever come since the day we opened the dam."

She watched the scenery pass as the train began to slow approaching its next stop, Pu Yang.

"I'll leave you with a little history lesson. Back in the early 1800's St. Louis was also in danger of becoming a ghost town. The city was a harbor on the Mississippi, but the river was beginning to take a new path away from the town. To save the city, the Army Corp of Engineers rerouted the river. Do you know who was responsible for that achievement?"

"No."

"A young Lieutenant, by the name of Robert E. Lee. Of course that victory would be overshadowed by his career later in life, but in more ways than one he helped make this country what it is today."

"He's still one of the most revered Generals in the history of this country."

"How envious I am of him. That even now people can forgive his mistakes, like at Gettysburg, and still see him as a hero."

"I hardly think you're on the same playing field."

"I hope that the atrocities….aren't all that is recorded under my name. I do hope that history won't erase my achievements in order to highlight the black marks in my career. I certainly have played the part of the villain, but I've had moments where I have tried to be a hero."

"A hero of chaos." She muttered sarcastically.

He turned and smiled at her, seeing it as a compliment. "It has been a pleasure, Miss Sun. Good luck with your investigation."

Shang dusted off her trousers as she walked toward the train station after getting off the train. She looked at herself in the window and tried to ensure her hair was still looking decent. That conversation with Cao Cao did little to rule out suspects and simply muddied the waters more. The last time she had gone looking for answers about Liu Bei she ended up with with a broken heart, an estranged father and a new career.

"I hope you haven't changed your mind." Zhang Liao said as he found her on the platform scrutinizing herself in the window.

She looked at him as he leaned against the window next to her with a charming smile on his handsome face. Perhaps the discussion with Cao Cao did provide her with something, even if it was just a reminder that romance was simply a fantasy like the land of Oz. She had to keep reminding herself of that, especially when in the company of a man like Liao. "No, just trying to make sense of a conversation I just had."

"For a girl who insists that I pick her up at the train station, you certainly did arrive in style." Liao watched the train pull away from the station and wondered how she managed to get an audience with Cao Cao on his private car.

"I'm very thorough. I don't like to waste time." She responded.

"I appreciate that." He held out his arm for her, trying to be the gentleman and hoping to not offend her.

She took the offered arm and walked with him into the station. It was going to be hard to keep things professional with him, especially with his overwhelming charisma. Perhaps she would be lucky again and Xun would stubble upon his demons while doing a background check. "What is your take on the stories about the Xu Reservoir?"

"Stories?" Liao shook his head. "There is only the truth; hundreds of people are still at the bottom of that lake with all their earthly belongings. If the government was as interested in saving lives as they were in destroying booze, I think things would have been different. However, I suppose you can ask the people of Xia Pi when we get there. They're the ones who survived. These people had nothing, lost everything and are forgotten by the people of Chang An."

"If you have nothing, how can you lose everything?" She asked curiously as he walked with her down the stairs ad to his waiting car.

"You'll see."

"These are the pictures of what used to be where the Lake is." Liao pointed to the photos on the wall. "They are all that remains."

She looked at the people, the buildings and a picture of the volunteer firemen.

Liao took off his coat and hat and threw it on the hat rack. He adjusted his suspenders and loosened his tie. "The real end to the town of Xu came years before the water submerged it. The obituary reads just like any other old western ghost town. Coal was found, a town sprang up and people flooded in. As the ore became harder to find people began to leave, some opted to stay. One man lost his mind and went on a killing spree, shot everyone in the hotel before he was killed in the street by the Sheriff. Just about any reason to live here was gone after that, but a few families stayed to try and use the land to farm. It would have faded into oblivion had Cao Cao not decided he needed it as a water supply for his railway. Suddenly people flooded in, holding land titles that they thought were worth something. It was a huge scam, but worth the effort to get even a penny for the property."

Shang looked at the picture of the hotel and a man in a pine box displayed outside. It was from 1925, not 1885. It was hard to believe that things like this happened here, not the old west. In her lifetime, no less!

"Anyhow, the county had already assessed the property to be worthless. They seized it for back taxes and sold it for next to nothing to the government. Those fools that flooded the valley had dreams of striking it rich, not by mining, but by simply being in the right place at the right time. Who knows who sold them on the scam, but they believed in it. Enough to think they could wait for the press to sensationalize the issue and pay them their due."

"Is this one of the titles?" Shang asked as she noticed a water damaged piece of paper framed on the wall.

"Yes. Lu Bu and I fished that out of the water after the town floated to the top."

"It's evidence." She said emphatically.

"Of what? Stuipdity? Gullibility?" Liao sat down at the desk and began to pull out files. "If you ask me that town was damned. The fact that it wouldn't stay buried under the water is a testament to that."

"Those people died because someone sold them on an idea that they were entitled to a profit from that land sale."

"They were desperate for a glimmer of hope." Liao said sadly. "After starving and living out of the trash they desperately clung to the idea that they could have something. Like I said, they had nothing in those scraps of paper and lost everything because of it."

"What exactly is it that you do?" She said incredulously. She knew that a man like him could easily have sat in that railcar with Cao Cao and intelligently bantered with him no matter what cultural or historical reference he chose to dwell on. "Town historian? Tour guide?"

He smiled at her, wishing he could provide her with that simple answer. However, some truths were best to be discovered. "You're standing in Xia Pi's city hall. This little town is separated from Chang An by the reservoir and as you can attest to, the roads here are not maintained or even traveled. When the dam was flooded, one of the rivers was diverted through this town. When the waters subsided, the town still remained. Without money, they scavenged below the dam for materials to repair and rebuild. Xiao Pi and Xu are now very much the same. Families relocated here and once again a town sprang to life. This time without the economic boom that created them originally."

"So, Mr. Mayor, exactly what is it that this town has other than broken promises and ghosts?" She spun around and put her hand on her revolver as the door was swung open and a huge man pointed his pistol at her.

"We have, Lu Bu." Liao said and rolled his eyes. "Who needs to stop being so dramatic with his entrances."

"Save your jokes, Liao. Do you know who she is? Do you?"

"Yes. I hired her."

"Oh." Lu Bu said quietly. "I didn't realize she was…"

"A private eye." Liao finished the sentence before his best friend could ruin the only hope for clearing his name.

"Oh…" Lu Bu put away his pistol and chuckled. "I get it. She's 'investigating' your privates. Funny."

Shang pulled out her revolver. "Give me one reason not to put a 45 in your head!"

Liao closed his eyes and groaned. "I'm serious, Fengxian. I hired her to investigate Chan's death."

"Oh." He gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

"To answer your earlier question, I do know who she is. That is why I hired her. Who else is going to be able to get answers out of Sun Jian's employees?" Liao frowned when he realized Shang had yet to put her weapon away. "It should go without saying that you don't get paid if you kill the client."

"You're my client. He is the bastard who called me a whore!"

"You two make a cute couple." Lu Bu said with a smile and sat down on the sofa by the wall unaffected by the girl pointing a gun at him.

Shang reluctantly put her weapon away. "Perhaps you can answer a question for me."

"Shoot." Lu Bu said and realized it was a poor choice of words at the moment. He gave her an innocent smile.

"What is it that you do?" She watched him shuffle uncomfortably on the Victorian era sofa with water stained velvet. He was nothing like the papers made him seem, this was a man who just struck her as being honest. She noticed a ladies handkerchief in his pocket and wondered if she could get her hands on it. Her assumption was that it was Diao Chan's, but she wanted to know for sure. A murderer didn't usually keep mementos of the dead so close to his heart. She sniffed the air and detected a hint of perfume, expensive imported perfume. No, this was a man desperately clinging to the smell and touch of a woman who was no longer of this world. Serial killers took trophies for their private collection; Lu Bu was literally keeping her close to his heart. She felt bad for him; the woman he loved was probably just using him. He startled her when he answered her question.

"I think the official name for it is 'protection racketeering' however I prefer the more romantic version. We rob from the rich and give to the poor."

"You expect me to believe that you're Robin Hood and this is Sherwood Forest?" She asked skeptically and looked at Zhang Liao to see the look on his face. "So that makes you Little John?"

"I guess you haven't slept with her yet then." Lu Bu chuckled. "Unless she has some outrageous standards."

Liao threw a paperweight at him. "You're not being very endearing. Your life is on the line here, Fengxian."

"My life's over, no matter what you do." Lu Bu toyed with the paperweight and looked at his chest pocket. He took a deep breath before continuing. "I want whoever did this to pay. How good are you at your job, Miss Sun?"

"Damned good." She replied.

"Then when you find who did this you tell me…"

"So you can earn your execution?" Liao slammed his hand on the desk. "No! We do this the right way!"

"Really? The cops are crooked; the Feds are corrupt…who is going to do the right thing? They've got an excuse to railroad me right to the gallows and any truth they find is going to just get in the way. Who would believe the truth anyway? The papers all but have me convicted."

Shang bit her lip. It had a familiarity to it, something like the little fairy tale Cao Cao had spun on the train.

"I need you to stop acting like you're guilty. It's not helping." Liao growled.

"I'm afraid that they'll destroy the truth and whoever did this will get away. You need to act fast if you're going to get to it before them." Lu Bu said sincerely.

"Who is 'them'?" She asked.

Lu Bu shrugged and pulled the handkerchief from his pocket. "I wish I knew."

Shang's eyes darted to the embroidered letters on the silk, 'S.C'. Diao Chan's stage name, Sable Cicada. She wondered what kind of woman would give her fiancé some handout from a publicity stunt. Perhaps he preferred to love the innocent girl that she portrayed instead of the femme fatale that Cao Cao hinted she was. The more she learned about her the more she wondered if she should thank her murderer when she found him. "Will you answer my questions, Mr. Lu?"

"Of course." He said without hesitation. "As long as you promise you'll find who killed her."

"We need to find you a lawyer." Liao grumbled.

"Are you prepared for the truth?" She asked. "Sometimes the truth hurts more than anything."

Liao looked up at her face as her features softened momentarily while the two locked eyes and shared some moment of understanding. It was a painful expression, one of betrayal. As quickly as he saw it, it was gone. Apparently he was going to have to find someone to investigate his private eye. He needed to know more about her if he was going to allow her near his vulnerable best friend.

"Yeah." He put the handkerchief to his nose and took a deep breathe before pulling it away to look at it again. "I want to know. I don't want to be surprised when my life flashes in front of my eyes and it's too late to do anything about it.