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Killing Puppet
墨書 Inktalez
A strange murder case had emerged in the small town, where the victim's arms had been gruesomely severed, and two lifelike wooden prosthetic hands were found at the scene. The young detective delved into the investigation, only to discover that the townspeople harbored peculiar secrets, seemingly hiding a shocking truth behind it all.
Chapter One
I never imagined that a pair of wooden prosthetic hands would plunge me into such a terrifying nightmare.
It was a dreary, rainy morning, and I was buried in the cramped office of the police station, trying to shake off my drowsiness with a cup of undrinkable instant coffee. This was already the third night I had pulled an all-nighter this week; a surge of missing persons cases in our jurisdiction had left us frontline officers overwhelmed.
Suddenly, a rapid knocking at the door interrupted my thoughts.
“Captain Li, it’s bad! There’s been a murder!”
Young Officer Wang burst through the door, his face pale and his eyes filled with terror.
“Calm down, take your time. What happened?”
I furrowed my brow, an ominous feeling rising within me.
“There’s been a homicide at Pig Trotter Shop. The victims are the shop owner and his wife. The scene… the scene is rather unusual.”
Wang’s voice trembled, as if he was still haunted by what he had witnessed.
My heart sank. I knew the owners of Pig Trotter Shop, Lao Zhang and his wife; they were a kind-hearted couple who treated everyone well. How could they suddenly meet with such misfortune?
Without further thought, I grabbed my coat and rushed out.
“Let’s go to the scene!”
I drove to the crime scene.
It was a remote little town, usually as quiet as a still pond, and the old houses lining the streets appeared particularly eerie in the rain.
Pig Trotter Shop was located in a narrow alley, with police tape already strung up at the entrance. A few elderly neighbors were gathered outside the tape, discussing in hushed tones, their faces marked by fear and unease.
I pushed through the crowd and approached the entrance of Pig Trotter Shop.
"Captain Li, you finally made it," said Forensic Zhang, who was in charge of the scene. His expression was equally grim.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Just go in and see for yourself," Xiao Zhang sighed, stepping aside.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the creaking wooden door, and a heavy stench of blood hit me, mingled with an odd scent of wood that made me frown involuntarily.
The sight inside was horrifying.
The bodies of the shop owner and his wife lay behind the counter, their arms neatly severed. The cut surfaces were smooth as mirrors, with almost no bloodstains, resembling meticulously performed surgical incisions.
But what was most chilling was that beside the two bodies lay two pairs of wooden prosthetic hands, arranged neatly.
The fake hands were dark in color, glinting with an eerie sheen under the dim light.
"These fake hands... the craftsmanship is truly exquisite."
Forensic Zhang crouched beside the corpse, gently turning the fake hands with his gloved hands.
"Every joint can move, and even the fingerprints are clearly visible. This craftsmanship is incredible!"
I examined the fake hands closely.
The wood was smooth and delicate, with the joints connecting seamlessly; even the shape of the nails was lifelike.
These were no ordinary fake hands; they were practically a work of art.
"Captain Li, do you think this wood resembles high-quality Golden Silk Nanmu?"
Xiao Zhang seemed particularly interested in the material of the fake hands.
"Forget about the wood for now; let's talk about the cause of death," I interrupted him.
"The preliminary estimate for the time of death is between ten o'clock last night and two o'clock this morning," Xiao Zhang continued.
"The cause of death was excessive blood loss, but strangely, there are almost no bloodstains at the scene, as if someone had deliberately cleaned it up."
I looked around, the shop was neatly arranged, with no signs of a struggle, and the cash register on the counter remained untouched.
This did not seem like an ordinary case of burglary and murder; it felt more like... a premeditated killing.
"By the way," Xiao Zhang suddenly recalled something, "we found this in the victim's pocket."
He handed me a crumpled business card that read: "Carpenter's Workshop - Custom Prosthetics," with an address right in town.
"Carpenter's Workshop?"
I murmured to myself, feeling a twinge of unease at the name.
"Check into this Carpenter's Workshop," I instructed my team.
"Also, pull the surveillance footage from around here to see if there were any suspicious individuals last night."
"Yes, Captain Li!"
Several officers immediately sprang into action.
Just as I was about to leave the scene, I noticed a dusty ledger tucked away in the corner of the counter.
I picked it up casually, blew off the dust, and opened it. Inside were records of ordinary transactions, but the last page had a scrawled line: "The carpenter said he could cure my illness, but the price is too high..."
The words were written in pencil, the handwriting shaky, as if penned in a state of extreme fear or pain.
My heart sank suddenly; the message conveyed by those words was too eerie, sending chills down my spine.
“What about Lao Zhang's illness? What kind of illness?”
I asked Xiao Zhang.
“I heard it's Rheumatoid Arthritis, quite severe. His hands have become deformed,” Xiao Zhang recalled.
“What about the boss's wife?”
“The boss's wife has always been in good health; I haven't heard of her being sick.”
Closing the ledger, I gazed out the window.
The rain was pouring harder, droplets tapping against the glass, creating a fragmented sound like countless wooden fingers gently drumming, which was quite unsettling.
This case was likely not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
“Li, could it be a revenge killing? How do Lao Zhang and his wife usually get along with others?”
Xiao Zhang asked.
“The Lao Zhang couple are known to be exceptionally kind-hearted; I’ve never heard of them having any enemies,” I shook my head.
"That's strange. If it's not a vendetta or a robbery, then what could the killer's motive be?"
Xiao Zhang was puzzled.
"Motive..."
I pondered, and suddenly a thought flashed through my mind.
"Could it be related to that pair of fake hands?"
"Fake hands?"
Xiao Zhang was taken aback. "Are you suggesting that the killer murdered for those fake hands?"
"I can't rule out that possibility."
I nodded.
"But even though those fake hands are well-crafted, they shouldn't be worth killing over, right?"
Xiao Zhang still seemed skeptical.
"It's hard to say at this point. We'll know more once we track down that Carpenter's Workshop."
I replied.
Just then, my phone suddenly vibrated.
It was a call from another police station in town.
"Hello, this is Li Changeng."
I answered the phone.
"Captain Li, we've discovered another body. The situation is very similar to the Pig Trotter Shop case. The victim's hands have also been severed, and a pair of wooden prosthetic hands was left at the scene..."
On the other end, my colleague's voice was urgent and frantic.
My heart sank.
What terrible secrets were hidden beneath the calm facade of this small town?
I hung up the phone and said to Xiao Zhang, "Let's go to the next scene!"
The rain continued to fall, but my mood felt as heavy as this dreary weather.
I knew that a greater storm was approaching us.
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