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墨書 Inktalez
As the first rays of morning sunlight spilled into the room, I woke from my slumber, rubbing my bleary eyes. After a quick wash to shake off the remnants of sleep, I made my way to the conference room, only to find that all the tables and chairs had been moved out. A group of people was hunched over, piecing together a human bone puzzle.
At a glance, they had already assembled nearly half of it. The upper left corner was complete, leaving only some scattered pieces. However, from this corner, it was still unclear what exactly it depicted, but it vaguely resembled a human body part.
If it weren't for their bloodshot eyes, one might think they were engaged in some amusing game. I clapped my hands and said to everyone, "Alright, take a break. You'll need to come back for your shift this afternoon. We'll take over from here."
After sending off the weary detectives with dark circles under their eyes, another team settled down on the floor to continue their labor. Captain Zhang looked at me with red-rimmed eyes and said, "Captain Shao, it's your turn now. I'm completely exhausted and need to catch some sleep." With that, he lay down in a corner of the conference room. Before long, his snoring filled the air. He hadn't closed his eyes since we went out to investigate yesterday afternoon; he was truly worn out.
I shook off my drowsiness and plunged into the intense and busy puzzle assembly process.
This continued from morning until noon. Just as I was getting dizzy from the puzzle pieces and feeling overwhelmed, my phone suddenly rang. Seizing the opportunity for a brief rest, I stretched and pulled out my phone to check the caller ID, which displayed a long string of numbers. It looked like a spoofed number—could it be a scam?
Despite my suspicions, I answered the call: "Hello? Who is this?"
A deep voice came through the line: "Captain Shao, I have something to tell you."
Hearing this, I furrowed my brow; something felt off. I quickly tapped Mary, who was still on the floor working on the puzzle, and pointed at my phone while mouthing "trace." She nodded and immediately pulled out her laptop, connecting my phone to it with a data cable.
As we prepared for this task, the voice on the other end continued: "I know you are currently investigating a serial murder case. I have valuable information regarding this case."
"And you are?" I deliberately slowed my speech. "How do you know I'm investigating? Are you the killer?"
"No, no," the person replied hastily. "Please don't misunderstand; I'm not the killer. I'm just someone who knows the inside story. But if I reveal what I know, both my life and my family's lives will be at risk. That's why I'm contacting you this way. I hope you can catch the killer while ensuring my family remains safe. Please understand my situation; I don't have much time—listen carefully."
Regardless of whether he was truly the killer or not, his words were enough to grab our attention. Thinking along those lines, I responded on the phone: "Alright, but you must provide useful clues for us to trust you."
"Okay," he said. "I believe you've received a human bone puzzle! That was made by that butcher who forced me to do it. I don’t know what the pattern looks like; my job was just cutting molds. The factory is in a small workshop at No. 23 Yunhua Street. Oh no, he’s coming back! I have to hang up now; good luck to you and blessings for me and my family. Goodbye!"
Without further ado, he hung up.
I glanced at Mary; she waved her hand dismissively and said to me, "The caller's phone has been traced back to a false base station—the location is random. In other words, even if we trace this number's location, it will only lead us to a fake address."
Our earlier conversation had already been recorded on the computer, and I asked Mary to play it back for everyone. After listening, I addressed the group, "What do you think? Do you believe what that person said?"
Mary replied, "From his words, it can be inferred that this person is likely being coerced. His hesitation may be to avoid detection by us, but at the same time, it could also be to prevent his captors from noticing. However, a single phone call doesn't clarify much. So regardless of which side he belongs to, we can verify it."
Dezi nodded and added, "Exactly, let's go verify it."
Number twenty-three on Yunhua Street seemed like a place we needed to check out. I told the group, "We have a new lead here. You all continue piecing together the human bone puzzle while we head to number twenty-three on Yunhua Street."
After bidding farewell to the others, we arrived at number twenty-three. The entire Yunhua Street was lined with small workshops—some selling fabric, others crafting furniture, and some milling flour. Upon reaching number twenty-three, we found the front door tightly shut, and it appeared no one was inside. After knocking and receiving no response, I peered through the crack in the door and saw that it was locked.
Glancing over at Dezi, I said, "Looks like it's your turn again."
Dezi stepped back a few paces and then leaped forward with a kick. With a loud "crack," the lock fell away. When it came to this kind of thing, Dezi was undoubtedly the most skilled. Dusting off his pants, he entered first, followed closely by me. Inside was silent; it seemed the machines had already stopped.
As we stepped in for a closer look, we discovered that this was actually three rooms combined into one. The walls had been knocked down to create a larger space—a clear violation of regulations. Examining the machinery closely revealed that it was indeed designed for cutting molds. Juan Juan opened her case and stepped forward to inspect; within the molds, she could faintly see white powder.
Juan Juan gently brushed some of it and placed it into a white cavity in her case. I couldn't quite understand her testing process and instead looked around the room. In one corner, I spotted a small barrel. Inside was a dark, slightly viscous liquid; I couldn't tell what it was. Upon closer inspection, there was a foul odor emanating from it. It looked like it had been sitting there for some time—likely something related to human remains.
"This white powder should be leftover material from grinding the Human Bone Puzzle," Juan Juan said. "It's not from Sun Shouwang; it must belong to another victim."
I turned to Juan Juan and asked, "Can you check what’s in that barrel?"
Aside from that barrel, there didn't seem to be anything else of interest in the room. It appeared that this barrel and its contents were our only clues. Juan Juan examined the barrel carefully while wearing gloves and lifted a small amount for observation. "I can't determine what this is right now; we'll need to take it back to the Police Department's lab."
After thoroughly inspecting the room again and confirming there was nothing useful left behind, we drove back to the Police Department.
On the way back, I pondered one question: who exactly was the person who made that phone call, and what was their purpose? From what he said, everything seemed completely accurate—there wasn't a hint of falsehood in his words. Yet such genuine information wasn't particularly useful for us.
Was the Killer deliberately throwing out a small clue to confuse us? Or was there indeed a hostage being held by the Killer? Both scenarios were plausible. The former suggested that the Killer was cunning; if he wanted to play games with us, he would revel in making things more complicated. Analyzing from the latter perspective, considering such extensive work would be impractical for just one person unless they were working tirelessly without sleep.
The challenge now lay in determining which of these two possibilities was true; after all, this was an utter psychopath who couldn't be judged by ordinary standards.
An hour later, Juan Juan finally figured out what was in that barrel. Inside the barrel, there were hair, muscle, blood, and internal organs. Juan Juan looked at us with an incredulous expression and said, "If you ask me, Killer has completely removed all the bones from the corpse, leaving not a single fragment. Then, Killer turned everything except the bones into juice! After that, he poured the liquefied remains into the barrel."
Killer's method of handling corpses was indeed incredibly brutal; he sliced the human skeleton into thin pieces to create a human puzzle while turning the muscle and internal organs into liquid. The cruelty of his methods sent chills down our spines. Especially since Killer casually left the juice lying around the house, it showed his utter disregard for such things, a lack of respect for the deceased, and a provocation and contempt for the living.
At that moment, a member of Puzzle Set informed us that the puzzle was completed! Puzzles are often difficult and slow at first, but once a large section is put together, it becomes much easier to continue assembling. It seemed that after yesterday's overnight efforts from the first team, they had indeed made quick progress.
We immediately headed to the conference room to see the assembled Human Bone Puzzle. This puzzle consisted of over a thousand pieces and surprisingly formed the shape of a buttocks. Everyone was puzzled after seeing it. They couldn't understand why Killer would leave behind such a puzzle—was he just toying with us?
Captain was standing on the table, looking down at the image with frustration. After a long pause, he exclaimed in exasperation, "Damn it! Is Killer deliberately messing with us? We spent an entire day and night with dozens of people in our precinct just to end up with this?"
I didn't say anything, but I felt equally furious inside. From the image, it was clearly a woman's buttocks; her slim waist and thighs were distinctly visible without any nudity. There were even small black dots on her buttocks that looked like moles.
"Killer is mocking us on purpose?" Dezi asked.
"Yes and no," I replied. "While Killer is mocking us through this image, there must be something he wants to tell us."
A senior high school student had been kidnapped along with Leggy School Beauty and Busty Third-Tier Celebrity. They were trapped in an abandoned cabin and mistakenly ate unknown wild fruit, causing them to feel feverish in the middle of the night.
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