Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“This is so strange!” Just as Zhao Yu and his team returned to the office that the Jinping Police Station had prepared for them, Ran Tao told Zhao Yu, “Team Lead, when they hand over the ransom, shouldn’t we follow them? What if they can’t deal with it?”
“If we did that, then what’s the use of us going?” Zhao Yu replied calmly. “That would only cause more trouble!”
“Yeah!” Wu Xiumin filed her nails as she spoke. “We are the special investigators, meaning that we are the higher ups! Hence, there is no need for us to do everything on our own!”
“I don’t understand, he killed three people!” Zeng Ke creased his eyebrows and said. “And only after that did he remember to ask for the ransom officially! Doesn’t that make the murderer seem a little crazy? Sis Wu, aren’t you a forensic psychologist? Analyze him for a bit.”
“Silly, it’s not a ransom exactly, but more like blackmail fees, okay?” Wu Xiumin stopped filing her nails, then said, “It could also be called quitting fees. You pay me the money, and I will quit killing!”
She continued. “If the three murders were committed by the same person, I could make some guesses as to who it was! But, if it was a crime, committed by an entire gang and I made some guesses, there might be a possibility of my misleading the investigation! After all, the three people died by very different methods. Hence, it is difficult to judge if they were killed by the same person.”
“Just be direct and say that you are not capable of figuring it out! Wouldn’t that be better?” Ran Tao suddenly teased Wu Xiumin.
“You?! Ran Tao, that’s enough!” Wu Xiumin was pissed off by his words. “You brainless refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina! Are you asking for trouble?”
“Bosnia and Herzegovina are merely geographical regions, not political parties!” Zeng Ke explained, then told Zhao Yu, “Team Lead! The blackmail letter that the murderer sent instructs them to put the money in the rubbish bin at the escalator on the nine floor at two in the afternoon in the Nebula Commercial Building!”
He pouted, as he continued. “What is the murderer thinking, putting money at such a place?! How would be collect it later on?”
“Exactly! What kind of a joke is this?” Wu Xinmin’s trail of throught was dragged back by Zeng Ke, as she replied, “Also, for someone to put five million in the rubbish bin, it must be able to fit!”
“Hey, could it be…” Ran Tao’s eyes beamed with joy, “That after they put the money there, the murderer would send another message, telling them to throw the money down from ninth floor, while they waited at the first floor? Hey! Team Lead, why not let me follow them?”
“You belittled the police in Jinping.” Zhao Yu shook his head, “If Li Luoyun couldn’t even think about things like this, how could he be a captain of the criminal police? Think about this… The municipal higher ups and us, acting as the special investigation team, are all here, so how could the Jinping police not pick the best to lead the case?”
“Oh, I see your point!” Ran Tao scratched his head. “That means that we should wait for them to arrest the murderer?”
“Don’t worry!” Zhao Yu said confidently. “Even if they give the ransom payment, they definitely won’t see any results!”
Once Zhao Yu said this, the three of them were shocked.
“Why?” Ran Tao asked.
“The murderer was obviously not after the money,” Zhao Yu said. “He planned everything so meticulously. How could he choose that as the location to pick up the money?”
Zeng Ke thought, as he quickly tapped on his keyboard. He then said, “Captain, I just found this. Today, the Nebula Commercial Building has a huge promotion event, so it must be very crowded there!”
“Don’t waste your efforts on this matter!” Zhao Yu told everyone. “We have other important tasks!”
“Huh?” The three of them were shocked, so they asked, “What tasks?”
“I suspect,” Zhao Yu declared, “Not only was the murderer unhappy with the pharmaceutical factory, but he also held grudges against the three victims! That’s why he killed them and asked for money after the fact!”
“Oh?” Wu Xiumin pondered. “You mean that the three victims provoked the murderer?”
“It seemed like Captain Li was right, then!” Ran Tao said. “The murderer likely had worked in the factory before, meaning that this is indeed a revenge killing spree!”
“But,” Wu Xiumin said again, “Pay attention to the third case. The murderer poisoned the water, so didn’t that signify that the murderer couldn’t care less about who he killed, as long as it is one of the staff members at the pharmaceutical factory?”
“No!” Zhao Yu said. “The case has an obvious objective! The murderer knew that the poisoned victim would work overtime that morning, meaning that he would be the first to arrive at the unit and would drink the water!”
“Yes, according to the case report, the deceased had a habit of drinking tea in the morning!” Zeng Ke said, as he held up the report. “It seems like the murderer definitely knew the deceased personally!”
“Captain,” Ran Tao said, “If the motive is so obvious, why didn’t Captain Li discover it? They only needed to discover who the three deceased victims offended, then they would be able to find the killer!”
“But they didn’t find him,” Zhao Yu nodded and replied. “That means that it must have been something unmentionable! The matters that offended the murderer must be some things that no outsider knew about!”
“Oh…” Ran Tao was astonished again, suddenly awakening to his senses. He spoke softly, “No wonder the higher ups wanted us to investigate this! Captain, we have to be careful! There are landmines everywhere in this case!”
“That’s why…” Zhao Yu crossed his arms and said, “There are three of you, so that you can each investigate one person. It’s also time for you to show me your capabilities! I am not going to pressure you. Whoever can’t help solve this case, can just leave!”
“That is not pressuring us?” Ran Tao swallowed his saliva nervously. He didn’t expect Team Lead Zhao to be so hard on them!
“I’ll check on the guy who got poisoned by drinking the water!” Zeng Ke didn’t refute their orders, but immediately carried his laptop to tell Zhao Yu, “Captain, I will work on it right now. Before tomorrow morning, I will have completed my mission!”
“The female who was burnt to death,” Wu Xiumen stood up with confidence as she spoke, “I will investigate that murder!”
When she walked past Ran Tao, she didn’t forget to tease him. “I told you that you were brainless! At such a crucial moment, you are stuttering.”
Then, Wu Xiumin rolled her eyes at him and walked off.
“Hey, what are you talking about?” Ran Tao looked at Zhao Yu, then immediately chased after her.
Once the three of them had left, Zhao Yu became immersed in his own thoughts once again. He thought about the entire case, starting from the very beginning. From what he could tell, the three cases didn’t look like a single person’s doing. It seemed more likely that such acts were beyond just one person’s capability.
After all, although it might not be difficult to kill one person a day, to meticulously plan a murderer every single time, without any flaws, wouldn’t be easy to accomplish alone! However, recalling Li Dan in the Hand Chopped Case and Qiu Xinyang in the Hidden Corpse Case from the past, they had both relied on their own skills to commit such magnificent crimes!
Then… What is the truth really?!
…
Just as Zhao Yu was pondering this seriously, Li Luoyun, leading a plain-clothed police force, arrived at the Jinping Nebula Commercial Building. At the beginning, they didn’t know how they could stuff five million dollars into a small rubbish bin. But, the moment they arrived at the ninth floor, they figured it out.
As it turned out, the escalator on the ninth floor was the gathering point of all of the rubbish for the entire building, so there was a plastic rubbish bin with wheels there! The rubbish bin was bigger than a normal rubbish bin, making it large enough for them to fit the five million within it!
After examining the scene, the plain-clothed police force and Li Luoyun arranged guards on every floor and outside of the building. The police force either disguised themselves as workers or tourists. They were all over the place! Once anyone collected the money, it would surely be impossible for them escape!
Just in case, they even put a mini tracker in with the cash. That way, if the murderer entrusted someone else to collect the funds, they could still follow the trail and find him!
When it was almost two in the afternoon, the two highest ranking people in the pharmaceutical factory brought the bag with the money to the ninth floor. According to the letter’s request, they used two huge black plastic bags to carry the money, then they put the bags into the bin carefully.
Just as the two people left the scene, a ragged looking hobo suddenly appeared next to the rubbish bin sneakily! Then, another shocking scene appeared! That hobo didn’t scavenge for things, but instead lit up a lighter and threw it into the rubbish bin!
There must have been something that aided the combustion, which had already been placed in the rubbish bin, as the moment the lighter was thrown in, a cloud of flames that came soaring up!!!
