The truth, nothing but the truth, should be the sole prerequisite for delivery of justice in any particular case. So the first thing the police has to do in the investigation of a case is to get as much of the whole truth as possible.

That explains why the public security department in Badong county, Central China's Hubei province, is losing its credibility when the truth about the killing of a local official by a hotel waitress is becoming increasingly opaque.

It was reported that the waitress Deng Yujiao stabbed an official also surnamed Deng to death with a fruit knife when he asked her for "special service" and struck her on the head with a stack of cash after she turned down his request. Later, she turned herself in.