12. Closing the case

Just before they reached the village one of the guardsmen hurried to meet them. "We've apprehended the old lady and one of the men hiding in the warehouse." They lengthened the stride of their horses and followed the guardsman to the house of the old lady. Inside Liu was waiting with four guardsmen holding a man and the old lady. On a table nearby several swords and daggers were laid out. "Your Highness, we caught these two dealing these weapons. As several of the weapons bare your mark we thought it best to apprehend them." Pei looked at the weapons indicated and saw weapons from his soldiers, but also those belonging to the soldiers of general Zhang. Pei turned to the guardsman who had met them at the village edge: "Go to the warehouse and have the others arrest the men inside."

"Yes, sir."

Then Pei turned to the old lady. Su, knowing this had to do with the battle of Honggu, let her husband talk first. "Where did you find these weapons?" he asked the old lady. She turned her face away and remained silent. "Fei Yuan, please get the boss of the inn." Pei ordered.
"You signaled to the men in the warehouse when they could come and when they had to stay away, didn't you?" Su asked the old lady, who still didn't say anything. "You can deny it, but I saw you hang the blanket yesterday and shortly after you put it up, the men in the warehouse had gone." Su finished.
"There are no men in the warehouse." The man stated, Su turned to him. "We were in the tunnel listening to you before the sign was hung. We encountered madam after we had been in the tunnel and Pei and Xie were still in the tunnel when she signaled to you." She calmly stated, then she turned back to the old lady: "I suspect you helped them years ago to steal the gunpowder from master Li. Didn't you?" Still nothing, the old lady only scowled at Su. "We will have time to interrogate you in the capital. I suggest you speak now." Pei threatened, not impressed by the continued silence of the old lady.
"We know you had the key to the warehouse and you knew about the tunnel. From your room you have a clear view into the house of master Li, you could easily signal to the warehouse when it was safe to use the tunnel." Su continued.

"But why would she help them steal the gunpowder?" Rushuang asked.

"I suspect they gave her money, or someone ordered her. You see the boss of the inn told me she only came to live here a few months before the battle of Honggu. She has no relatives here and none visited her here, which suggests she has no family left." The man and old lady remained silent, looking away from all in the house. Su looked at Liu and ordered him to take the two in custody. "Transfer them to the capital tomorrow. I'm sure Prince Qi would like to know where these weapons came from."

"On whose authority are you arresting us?" the man sneered. Su calmly showed him her badge: "On the authority of the Mingjing Office." This seemed to give him a moment to pause. "Only because of some weapons?" the old lady said sourly. At that moment Fei Yuan returned with the boss of the inn. Pei didn't acknowledge them, as his attention was still on the old lady: "These weapons carry the marks of Prince Qi and general Zhang. General Zhang and all his men perished here. These weapons can only come from those that carried them in the battle of Honggu. Where did you find them?" he repeated the question.

"I found them on the battleground of Honggu, no one wanted them so I took them." The lady sneered. From the corner of his eye Pei saw the boss of the inn shake his head. "Tell me, didn't the men from the magistrate tell you to return the weapons?" Pei asked, turning to the boss, who nodded: "Yes, we collected them and then handed them to the magistrate. The few soldiers left here also told us we had to hand in the weapons. It's a crime to keep army weapons." Pei turned back to the old lady, but he was clearly still addressing the boss: "And did she help with the clean up?"

"Yes."

"Did she know about handing in the weapons?" Pei continued.

"She must have, on more occasions we were told to return the weapons." The boss replied, looking at the old lady.

"Was the site completely cleared? And you handed all the retrieved weapons in?" Pei asked.

"Yes." After the confirmation of the boss, Pei spoke to the old lady: "Then, why, madam, are these weapons buried in your garden?" While Pei had questioned the boss and the old lady Su wandered of, looking around the room, taking in the weapons on the table. There she spotted a military medal. It bore the same mark that they had seen before. Turning the medal around she saw a name, Su said it aloud: "Yue Shen." She looked up and saw the lady turn to her, shocked. "Whose mark is this?" Su held the medal up. Yue didn't respond. Su looked at the man noting the string around his neck. She held out her hand. "Can I have a look at your medal?" when the man didn't move or indicate he was going to follow the order, Xie moved forward, grasping the man. "She asked you to give your medal." The man still didn't move, so Xie grasped the chain and took the medal from the man. Holding the man still by his clothes with one hand, Xie handed the medal to Su. It was the same mark. "Yong Wang, whose mark is this?" Su read the name from the medal. The man remained silent. Su and Pei both looked unimpressed, Pei nodded to Liu: "Take them away, we'll deal with them in the capital." As Liu and his men push the two out of the house, the old lady started to laugh. "You'll never find them, and by the time you do, you'll be too late." This time Pei and Su didn't respond and just watched Prince Qi's men take them to a waiting carriage. As the carriage disappeared around a corner Su went back inside, Pei followed her. They all stood around the table with the weapons. Pei took some up, taking a close look. "I don't understand, what was going on?" The boss of the inn asked.

"Yue Shen helped the enemy to steal the gunpowder from master Li. The gunpowder was used by the back guard to blow up the bridge during the battle of Honggu. I think she signaled them when they could smuggle some into the village." Su explained.

"But why go through that trouble?" the boss asked.

"They needed gunpowder on both sides of the bridge to make sure it collapsed completely. But when master Li noticed the gunpowder was stolen, they needed to get rid of him. They couldn't risk being discovered. So, based on the old blood spatter we found in the cellar, I think they snuck up on master Li from the tunnel and struck him when his back was turned. Master Li could still walk to the stairs, where he was probably struck again. Then Yue Shen told everyone about the ghost of master Li. That way the odd sounds and the soldiers going through the village was explained. I think she told Rushuang and Xie about the ghost to scare them away from the village, so she could continue with this weapons deal But she miscalculated, instead of running you stayed and to her dismay asked your friends to join with an examination." Su watched Rushuang and Xie.

"And the weapons?" The boss asked.

"Most likely she took them from the battlefield and signaled to the others that she had them. Apparently they needed the weapons now."

"Why now?" Rushuang wondered. Su shrugged: "No idea, hopefully we can find some answers here or from them. Though if their behavior just now is an indication, they won't tell us much." Su looked at Pei, who had remained silent. "Are you sure these weapons are from the Honggu battlefield?" Nodding Pei said: "Yes, I'm sure, but I can take a look at the accounts of Zhang's army and my army. I know there was no occasion where weapons from my army were unaccounted for. Knowing Zhang the same will apply for him. I know weapons had gone missing after the Honggu battle, but that wasn't unexpected. We assumed they had fallen in the hands of the enemy. Let's go back to the capital, I need to check the records."
"Yes, tomorrow." Pei took Su's hand and indicated to the other to follow him. A few guardsman remained, they would take care of the weapons.

"Find out why those weapons haven't arrived and where they are!" The order was almost barked at the soldier kneeling in the open space in front of the raised bench were the figure had been seated when the message had been delivered by the same soldier. The figure had risen in anger when the message, that the weapons hadn't been delivered, had been read. The minimal light coming from the candles placed in the corners of the room, flickered. The black wooden floor and the dark night outside, gave the room a dark and ominous atmosphere. "Make sure the package from our Liang sister is received and she is taken care of. Have better news for me next time. Please leave me." The figure didn't look at the soldier, knowing the orders would be followed, they wouldn't dare disappoint again.