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墨書 Inktalez
Captain Gao glanced at me with a half-smile, his eyes seeming to pierce through to my very soul, as if he could see into my pores. He said, "I told you, I'm a good family man. How could I not handle something so simple? I see you and the forensic expert in your group are quite close. Once you get married, you'll learn everything."
I scoffed softly and replied, "Oh really? Captain Gao, do you remember the condition of the third body?"
"I do." Captain Gao pondered for a moment before continuing, "Of course I remember; I was there with you at the crime scene. The Killer used Elastic Rope to tie the corpse to the rooftop of the Department Store, making it look like someone was about to jump. How could I forget that?"
"Then do you remember how the Killer tied the knots?" I fixed my gaze on Captain Gao's eyes and said earnestly, "Don't you think the way the Killer tied those knots is strikingly similar to how you helped me secure the bones? It seems too coincidental."
I continued, "We've analyzed before that the Killer had two choices for disposing of bodies: one in remote areas where no one would notice, and another in crowded places, seemingly to attract attention. In the first case, the Killer accidentally left behind a piece of High-Quality Suit Fabric; in the second case, they left a Footprint. I've never understood why someone would wear such inconvenient clothing while disposing of a body."
"So what’s your hypothesis?" Captain Gao countered.
"From that moment on, I suspected that the Killer isn't just one person; there are at least two involved. One of them wants to expose the other!" I shifted slightly and added, "They deliberately left clues for us to find another person, which would lead us to overlook them and allow them to hide in the shadows."
"And then?" Captain Gao pressed further.
"But regardless, our primary goal is still to follow the clues left by this Killer and find direction. Sure enough, those clues narrowed down our search significantly. Then during the third body incident, the person who disposed of it intentionally appeared on surveillance..."
Suddenly, snow began to fall from the sky. We both paused for a moment before I continued, "It's not easy for a fat person to disguise themselves as a thin one, but in winter, it's quite easy for a thin person to pretend to be fat. We circulated Wang Kang's image throughout the city. The reason he hasn't been caught is that he has never shown his face; Wang Kang wasn't involved in the disposal at all!"
Captain Gao seemed deep in thought as I continued, "The other person is truly skilled; they appear to take risks themselves while actually forcing their counterpart into a dead end. We've always had one question: what is the Killer's purpose in disposing of these bodies? Those individuals were all fugitives; if the Killer had simply discarded them in the forest, we might never have discovered anything. So why did they choose this method?"
After saying this, I looked at Captain Gao, hoping he would say something insightful. However, he didn't take the bait and instead asked me, "Isn't the second person Zhao Wei? Perhaps Zhao Wei wanted to collaborate with us to eliminate Wang Kang..."
I felt a bit disappointed and replied, "Zhao Wei is merely a pawn in this game. To be honest, Zhao Wei was likely controlled by Wang Kang; he should be the most unaware participant in this case. As our investigation deepened, Wang Kang came into focus while Zhao Wei became increasingly anxious about being implicated. So if I were Zhao Wei and had committed murder, I certainly wouldn't dispose of it this way or leave behind clues intentionally. The only explanation is that someone gave Wang Kang orders that forced Zhao Wei into hiding."
"Are you saying Zhao Wei's disappearance was out of coercion?" Captain Gao asked.
"That's right. When Zhao Wei went missing, he once told the team that I was the one who asked him to leave." I organized the clues in my mind clearly and said, "This lie is the easiest to expose. Even if he claimed there was an urgent matter at home, it wouldn't lead us to confront him on the spot. He chose the most easily debunked excuse because he wanted us to focus our attention on him. This way, with two people and two methods of disposing of bodies, everything can be explained."
Captain Gao nodded and asked, "Then why didn't you explain it this way?"
"Because I can't let any Killer go," I replied seriously. "When Zhao Wei went missing, although I had my doubts, I could still explain the case from the beginning, so I had to follow this lead. Moreover, some details—like how the Killer obtained the planning map for the sewer or how the Killer knew about the maintenance of the surveillance cameras on the day of disposal—indirectly confirmed that the second Killer must be someone from within our ranks."
"So after learning about Zhao Wei's disappearance, my first thought was that Zhao Wei intended to silence Wang Kang. As long as Wang Kang's mouth was shut, no one else would know about this matter. But this contradicts my initial assumption that the Killer left clues intentionally to expose another person."
Snowflakes began to fall slowly, gradually growing larger. I looked around; there was still no movement. It seemed that the Police Department hadn't arrived in this area yet. Enduring the increasing pain, I continued, "This is strange. Zhao Wei wanted to expose Wang Kang but also wanted to silence him. Logically, it doesn't make sense unless this person is mentally unstable. Gradually, I realized that the situation might be more complicated than I imagined. If we assume there is one more person involved, then perhaps it could make sense."
"From a logical standpoint, I can only come up with one hypothesis: three people are involved in this case. Let's call them Xiang Ri, Zhao Wei, and Wang Kang." When I mentioned Xiang Ri, Captain Gao's gaze showed signs of evasion. I continued, "Following my hypothesis, from the beginning of this case, Xiang Ri committed murder and dismemberment and then notified Wang Kang to immediately hide away from the chemical plant. From that point on, while disposing of the body, Xiang Ri would always find ways to leave clues pointing to Wang Kang without Wang Kang being aware of it."
"Later on, Xiang Ri directed Wang Kang to dispose of the bodies in very remote locations. Wang Kang had already hidden away and had no idea what was happening outside." I continued, "We followed the clues provided by Xiang Ri and found Wang Kang. Then we began investigating Wang Kang's social connections. At this point, Zhao Wei mistakenly believed that Wang Kang was indeed responsible for this case. He wanted nothing more than to find Wang Kang and kill him to cover up his own bribery issues; thus he was more eager than anyone else to clarify this case."
I extended my left hand and felt the cold snowflakes melting in my palm. After a pause, I said, "Unfortunately for him, he hadn't found Wang Kang yet; at that moment, Wang Kang found him instead. Wang Kang used Zhao Wei's bribery situation to blackmail him into joining this body disposal case. Zhao Wei had no choice but to follow Wang Kang's instructions and staged his own disappearance."
"Then they threw out a fourth body in the field; Zhao Wei took an Oath of Loyalty. Finally, under Xiang Ri's direction, they successfully disposed of the Fifth Body through the sewer network. This way, Xiang Ri's alibi could be established while all our attention shifted onto Zhao Wei and Wang Kang." At this point, I couldn't help but exclaim, "What a clever scheme! Truly a brilliant tactic! It's worth mentioning that since they only disposed of the last two bodies themselves, they had no idea about any Pentagram disposal plan. Therefore, they never considered that police would follow this lead into the forest and find their cabin. But the true mastermind had already planned everything out; Potassium Cyanide mixed with Sodium Nitrite would explode."
"And Sodium Nitrite looks very similar to Sodium Chloride; those two inside mistakenly thought what was in the jar was table salt and added it to their cooking food. But they never suspected it wasn't salt." I said: "We were blown away by the shockwave outside; let alone those two inside—their bodies probably wouldn't even remain intact. Thus this case would come to a standstill; we could only close it as a happy ending for everyone involved—don't you think so too, Mr. Xiang Ri?"
I made my point clear as I spoke to Captain Gao.
"Xiang Ri is a dream," Captain Gao continued my line of thought: "It is said that Emperor Ming of Han dreamed of a divine being with sunlight radiating from its body flying before his palace; he was delighted by it. The next day he asked his ministers what kind of deity it was. A knowledgeable man named Fu Yi said: 'I have heard there are enlightened beings in Tianzhu called Buddhas who fly through space with sunlight emanating from their bodies; perhaps that is what you saw.' Thus he understood and sent envoys like Zhang Qian to Da Yuezhi to write down forty-two chapters of Buddhist scriptures and built a temple outside Yongmen in Luoyang."
"So you also gained insight from a dream?" I stared at Captain Gao and asked.
Captain Gao shrugged and replied: "Yeah, sometimes people can only gain insight in dreams; dark times last too long. Sometimes I'd rather be a reaper in darkness. But there's one thing I'm puzzled about: how did you know I'm Xiang Ri?"
"Xiang Ri, which actually should be Sun, and Sun can be broken down into a high character," I said, tracing the ground with my finger. "A high character is represented by a single stroke. Perhaps, Captain Gao, you would agree?"
"Haha, are all the members of the Special Investigation Team this clever?" Captain Gao leaned back slightly, then continued, "Are you suggesting that these are merely your subjective assumptions? No one in this world would suspect me based solely on a name; that would be rather absurd. Unless you are an all-knowing deity."
I chuckled and replied, "Of course, I'm not a god. If there were gods in this world, how could so many murders occur? In fact, I truly realized you were behind it all just seconds before the explosion." As I spoke, I struggled to unclench my right fist, revealing a cigarette butt.
"How can you be so sure it's mine?" Captain Gao asked. "What if it's not?"
I shook my head with a smile and said, "I can certainly be sure. You always smoke this brand of cigarettes; I know that. However, that's not the evidence that proves you smoked this one. Look here—there's a little smiling face drawn on the filter. Isn't it cute?"
"Even if you could control everyone and eliminate all evidence, you still can't escape from a small smiling face." The cigarette butt bore a simple doodle of a little face—perhaps drawn by Captain Gao's daughter; who knows?
"Who would have thought?" Captain Gao chuckled and shook his head. "Look at you now; you can barely stand. Why not return to the police station to discuss this? Aren't you afraid I might silence you?"
"If you were going to silence me, you wouldn't have saved me just now."
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