Case Files 013

Chapter 140: Interesting Show

Ol' Xia used the rope which was used to tie me earlier, to apprehend Lee Danan. I hurried to the stove to get some heat. After I got some warmth back into my body, I asked, "Where are Chief Zhou and Gu Chen?"

Ol' Xia and Er Xiao shook their heads at the same time. "I say, Officer Wu, it's not that I want to critique you but your physique is really lacking. I sell some supplements here, you should consider taking them. But in any case, Chief Zhou and Gu Chen ran faster than we did." After a pause, he continued, "Lee Danan ran so fast that we failed to catch up to him. He lost both of us easily. Chief Zhou and Gu Chen chased him onto the highway and then we lost them. The road was too dark for us to see anything so we decided to turn back to the village. It was then that we realized the lights inside the convenience store were on." Er Xiao glanced at Lee Danan and hissed viciously, "I was sure I locked the door and closed the lights before I departed so I immediately knew something was wrong."

Then Er Xiao walked towards Lee Danan and gave him several slaps to the face until the man's face bled. Lee Danan glared at Er Xiao but didn't make a sound from pain. Er Xiao threatened, "Kid, you better tell us Chief Zhou and Gu Chen's locations now. Why are you here and where are they? We have the police with us, I'm telling you, you better be honest and you might be given a lighter punishment."

Lee Danan though turned to spit blood at Er Xia's face. "Well, you can go and look for them yourselves. I can't believe I managed to escape the police but have fallen into your hands."

"Stop playing with us!" Er Xiao raised his fist.

I chuckled and mediated, "Rest your arms. Stop and listen to a story I have to tell. Come, sit, Lee Danan is not going to go anywhere anyway." Er Xiao glanced at Lee Danan and said nothing. He returned to the side of the stove. Ol' Xia walked over to join us. As I stoked the fire, I said, "Once upon a time, there was a woman who fell into the grasp of a group of five. The woman placed her trust too easily on others and was kidnapped to this First Drain Village." While I told the story, I watched their expression, neither of them changed their expression. Er Xiao even looked at me with interest, wanting me to continue the story.

I grabbed a random bag of chips from the shelf. I munched on the chips and continued, "The group targeted this woman due to one simple goal, and it was because she has to die. But these people are just common villagers, they don't know how to murder a person. At that moment," I turned to Lee Danan and smiled, "A man suddenly remembered the article that he saw when he was using the toilet. The article featured 20 psychopathic killers. With that in mind, he hurried home to grab that newspaper."

Er Xiao glanced at Lee Danan, "Oh, you're talking about this motherfucker? So that was where he got the idea to dismember the body? I have no idea he's such a psycho. Normally he looks so obedient and cowardly, this shows that you really can't tell what a person is like just from his appearance." Lee Danan scoffed.

I continued to eat the chips. "Yes, this villager ran home and found the newspaper article in his toilet. But he didn't pull off the entire article. He's clever enough to know that if he did, there would be a glaring hole in his toilet."

"You've seen that article?" Er Xiao asked.

I nodded and put down the chips, "Yes, when we gathered at Lee Danan's place earlier, I accidentally stumbled into this article when I used the toilet. I pulled the other half down and searched for the article online. It's quite interesting. Actually, if you've read the article yourself, you'll notice a huge coincidence."

"What is the article about?" Er Xiao was curious.

Seeing his plain curiosity, I chuckled, "The article recorded the mo of 20 famous murderers. And among them, there were 3 that fitted the dismemberment methods of the killers at First Drain Village perfectly, a butcher, a hunter and a chef."

Er Xiao frowned. "Today's mass media sure is something else, I can't believe this is an actual published article."

"You're right." I sighed. "The paper wrote these to warn the public but they would never expect someone would mimic these killers to achieve their own goals. It was why my criminal profile first gave me a butcher and then a hunter."

"Criminal profile?" Er Xiao clearly didn't know what that meant. I shook my head with a smile, "It's an investigative skill, the main point is, could this killer be both a butcher and a hunter? After all, there is a close connection between these two occupations, a hunter would have to learn how to prepare his prey."

"Indeed." Er Xiao nodded, "I've seen something similar on National Geographic."

I shrugged. "But when we were served human dumplings, I knew something was wrong. Because based on my criminal profile, the person who made the dumplings must be a cautious person. The dumplings had thin skin and flawless folding technique. This proves that the person has to be a good cook and has good knife skills."

"So?" Er Xiao questioned.

"So that's weird." I picked up a bag of plums. I opened it, took one and continued, "A hunter and a butcher can still be tied together somewhat but a hunter, a butcher and a chef? That's just very improbable." My face scrunched up from the sour plum, "A person's habit is hard to change, if they have to pick a dismemberment method, they would subconsciously pick one which matched their personality the closest. For example, a man who never cooks would never be able to prepare such detailed dumplings."

Er Xiao nodded wordlessly.

"This plum candy is quite delicious." I chuckled and grabbed a bottle of soft drink, but I didn't open it. "So basically this group of people decided that they would pick a method each to cruelly murder the woman. And now we've seen 3 of the methods."

I hugged the bottle of soft drink and continued softly, "No, technically, we should have seen 4, we merely didn't have the time to examine the fourth method before we were led to this place. Sometimes, I really need to have more confidence in myself. I don't know why but I started to doubt myself."

"What do you mean?" Er Xiao scratched his head and looked at me.

I smiled, "Well, I have already guessed this possibility, but I was never confident about it because the possibility is too crazy, so crazy that I can't convince myself of its validity. In this world, it is extremely rare for multiple killers to participate in a murder as brutal as the one in this case."

"Really?" Er Xiao asked.

I nodded, "Yes, because suspicion and doubt among the killers would get in the way, but what if there is a way to eliminate those elements?"

"Then how do you think they managed it?" Er Xiao used the fire poker to nudge the coals inside the stove. I scratched my head and slowly revealed, "Well, I will tell you later, because now I wish to continue the story."

"Go ahead." Er Xiao nodded.

I obliged, "So this group of people initiated this strange case by dumping the body parts one by one. The more the parts are revealed, the safer the group will be. Because that would complicate the case further and further. In reality," I tapped the bottle lightly against the stove, "The members of this group have no idea what kind of method the others have chosen. Luo Sumei's body is like a doll, after a part of her is removed, she would be passed onto the next person. Because of that," I looked at the two. "Even the killers themselves have no idea when the next body dump would be and how the body part would look like, it made police investigation so much harder." I sighed, "This was such a perfect plan but unfortunately I saw that article. So these people got desperate." I said with a smile, "Because the group's motive was never to torture Luo Sumei. Sometimes, to kill someone is not necessarily to kill someone but to save someone."

Er Xiao shook his head, disagreeing with me, "That doesn't make sense."

I ignored him and continued, "The more I know, the closer I'd be to the truth, so the group decided to volunteer a scapegoat. The members of the group knew about this scapegoat and knew he would appear tonight but they have to act like they do not know him."

Er Xiao stared at the heated fire poker. "Officer Wu, what do you mean?"

I smiled, "Because once the case is closed, the incident will end here. To confuse me, this group has gone through great lengths. To sacrifice one to save many others. Lee Danan truly is a great man but you people are undeniably cruel to make use of his virtue like this." I took in the faces of the 3 men and uttered, "The whole show was quite amusing but it's not enough to fool my eyes."