Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Back at the Police Department, the Forensic Expert had retrieved the USB drive from the woman's body. As we suspected, there was only one video on it. The two USB drives found so far had no labels, appearing to be homemade by the Killer, making it unlikely to gain any leads from them.
The video began in darkness, similar to the previous one, and we could only hear the voice of the Law Enforcer: "Hello everyone. Upholding Justice is our duty. I am the Law Enforcer, and I have arrived." Then, a masked Law Enforcer appeared before us, with a woman bound and suspended behind him.
The woman looked terrified, struggling incessantly but to no avail. Her mouth was tightly taped shut, preventing her from screaming. The Law Enforcer held a burning candle in his hand as he circled around her. He then touched her lower body with his finger and surprisingly put it in his mouth to suck on.
He said, "Surprise! Let's play a game. Do you see this dagger? It’s connected to a special device. If you push the dagger, you might be able to save yourself. As for what you should use to push it, I think you know very well, haha."
The woman's expression was one of sheer terror, but she couldn't utter a word. Ignoring her, the Law Enforcer walked over to a wall in the break room, writing on it with candle wax while saying, "When the time comes, I will use this candle to ignite the sulfur beside you. But don’t worry; with those damp mugworts added in, it won’t catch fire—just a lot of smoke."
The wax dripped down the wall, and the words looked as if they were written in blood, appearing gruesome. The Law Enforcer continued, "But too much smoke can be deadly! Although you've only graduated from Junior High School, you should know that smoke rises, right? You can calculate your height above ground and how fast this room will fill with smoke."
"Oh! My dear," the Law Enforcer said. "Why aren’t you speaking? Well then, let me tell you: you only have one hour. Alright." With that, he lifted a tablet computer as if connecting it to something.
Mary said, "He's remotely controlling the camera."
As he spoke, the Law Enforcer carefully placed the candle on a pile of laid-out sulfur and confirmed it was lit before quickly exiting through the door. Soon after, the door crack began to seal shut. The woman inside was panicking for about twenty minutes as she struggled desperately to free herself from the ropes.
However, the knot used was a pig's foot knot or double-loop knot. Its main characteristic is that the more one struggles, the tighter it binds—a common tying technique. Thick black smoke began to spread throughout the room; visibility in front of the camera became increasingly unclear.
Realizing that if she didn’t follow the Killer's instructions she would truly die, she attempted to thrust her lower body against the sharp dagger just once—blood gushed forth. She couldn’t speak, but we could all feel her pain. The smoke grew thicker; her intense struggles required more oxygen, but it was evident that oxygen in that room was dwindling.
Seemingly resolved, she began frantically thrusting her lower body against the sharp dagger; the mechanism started turning as wires were drawn in. We watched as blood poured down like rain from beneath her body, splattering onto the floor and blooming into crimson flowers.
The smoke thickened to such an extent that we could no longer see her movements; however, the sounds of machinery made it clear she was still fighting hard. Just as the wires were about to be completely drawn in and severed her bindings, the machine suddenly stopped.
At this point, she was on the brink of death; she had neither strength nor courage left to continue. The thick smoke quickly filled the entire house and began spreading outside. All we could hear was the sound of blood still dripping on-site. The video ended like that.
From what we saw in the video, it seemed that the Killer had entered this room early on to prepare; yet during such a long time frame, no one else had discovered him or sought out Su Min. I shared my thoughts aloud when Alley added: "We previously learned that these individuals usually sleep during the day and act at night; their schedule is opposite ours. At the time of the incident, everyone else was asleep and didn’t notice anyone entering Bathhouse."
"Based on timing analysis," Alley continued scratching his head, "the Killer must have infiltrated Bathhouse first and reached the surveillance room before it opened for business when there was no one inside. After tampering with the surveillance system, he likely slipped into Su Min's lounge area—perhaps drugging her before executing this series of actions."
I nodded; Alley’s deduction aligned closely with reality. However, these details were not central to our case at hand; what we needed to understand was how exactly the Killer operated and whether there were any specific patterns in his methods. To be honest, police investigations dread encountering indiscriminate murder cases like this one—it leaves one completely at a loss and merely reactive to being led by the Killer's whims.
After pondering for a moment, I said, "At the crime scene, I wonder if you noticed a particular issue."
"What issue?" Alley asked excitedly.
"The murder dagger!" I glanced around at everyone before continuing, "That dagger was used to carve words into Liu Sanxi's body."
Alley looked at me skeptically, but after Mary opened and carefully compared two video segments, she exclaimed in surprise, "It really is a dagger."
Alley remarked, "Team Leader, your observation skills are impressive."
I ignored Alley's flattery and continued, "From now on, pay more attention to details; you can achieve this too. But what I want to point out is why the Killer would use the dagger that carved words into Liu Sanxi on Su Min? I think this indicates that the Killer intentionally left us clues in the video!"
Alley and the other detectives nodded in agreement. Alley firmly stated, "This Law Enforcer has been portraying himself as the embodiment of justice since he first appeared. Whether it's the words carved on the Killer or the videos he leaves for us, it shows that the Law Enforcer is taunting our police force. In that case, it wouldn't be surprising for him to leave us clues!"
"This is a Murder Game he's playing with us!" I said while rubbing my temples.
"Now comes the question," I reopened the video and said, "What clues did the Killer leave us in this video? What method will he use to kill next? Let's examine this video closely; perhaps we can find useful information."
After watching the video several times, we listed the items that appeared in it. Excluding the dagger that had already appeared twice, the items included: candles, rope, iron wire, sulfur, mugwort, and tape.
These were the only potentially useful items. However, what would the Killer use next, and how could we protect ourselves? I said, "Let's brainstorm together. It seems that the Killer never plays by conventional rules; the more unbelievable his methods seem to us, the more likely he is to use them."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Alley said, "Looking at these items individually: for candles, our first thought is fire. But this time's murder method also resembles fire; we can probably rule that out. The second item is rope; our first thought is strangulation. The iron wire and tape follow a similar line of thinking."
As Alley spoke while scratching his head, he added, "Sulfur and mugwort—what's sulfur even used for? As for mugwort... if it's mugwort, I can't figure out how the Killer plans to use it! Damn it, what is the Killer trying to achieve with all this?"
Suddenly, I recalled a story from Batman.
Fox said: "A long time ago, when I was still in Myanmar, I worked with a few friends for the local government. They wanted to use some gems to win over tribal leaders. But in a forest north of Yangon, a robber stole those gems. So we were tasked with finding them. After six months of searching, we hadn't found anyone who had traded with him. Then one day, I saw a child playing with a ruby about the size of an orange. The robber had thrown all the gems away."
Batman asked: "Then why did he steal them?"
"Because he finds it amusing," Fox replied. "Some people are simply not interested in logical things, like money. For them, bribery, threats, reasoning, and negotiation are all useless. Some just want to see the world descend into chaos."
I looked at everyone and said, "The Killer we are facing might be one of those people. He is skilled in mechanical manufacturing and proficient in network and computer technology. Such a person is intelligent and wealthy, yet he wants to see the world in turmoil. You actually reminded me of something just now." I turned to Alley.
"Both sulfur and realgar are sulfides and can be used to drive away snakes," I pondered aloud. "In some places, mugwort is also used as a plant to repel snakes. Now, looking at the words written on the wall with candle tears, doesn't that substance flowing down the wall resemble winding snakes?"
"Exactly!" Alley said. "So you mean the next method of killing will involve snakes?"
I nodded and replied, "Based on the current situation, this combination of three elements seems to have the highest probability. If you have any good ideas, feel free to share."
Mary spoke up, "I think it's water!"
"Water?" Everyone looked at Mary in confusion.
"Here's how it goes..."
Comment 0 Comment Count