Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“The Devil Case, which is one of the five pending cases, is also called the serial suicide case!” Miao Ying took a document and introduced the basic information to the others.
She then added, “This case happened between August 2002 and February 2003 and lasted for about half a year. A total of nine victims appeared in Beiqian!”
She then said, “The nine victims all fell from uninhabited or abandoned buildings and died. Most of these deaths were classified as suicides because the police could not find any obvious evidence that would lead them to suspect that they were murders.”
Miao Ying then said, “Beiqian is not a city. Instead, it refers to the area of Yingping, Guang’an, Changfeng and Beiqian combined. The case was not submitted into the online crime records because there was no Internet connection at the police department at that time.”
She paused for a moment, then added, “Some people believed that these were all suicides. However, due to the outdated means of investigation and limited media, as well as the subsequent outbreak of the SARS during that time period, the case didn’t attract much attention.”
Miao Ying shook her head, then said, “A year later, when the police finally entered the case into the online system, a very observant and meticulous police officer was able to connect the nine victims’ deaths with one another!”
She added, “He found that the nine victims died in very similar ways and their crime scenes all shared many common features. Moreover, they all happened in a relatively short period of time. So, he believed that there must be some close connection.”
Miao Ying then said, “So, he wrote a report and turned it into the Criminal Division. As the Criminal Division attached great importance to this case, it assigned a specific investigation team to Beiqian, and Captain Jin Zhenbang, who wrote the case’s information in the yellow notebook, was one of the investigators at that time!”
At this point, Miao Ying paused for a second, then continued, “However, since the reopening of the case was not until a year ago, their investigation didn’t go too well. By that time, the crime scenes had been destroyed and the victims’ corpses had all been cremated or buried. So, they weren’t able to find any valuable clues!”
Miao Ying shook her head, then said, “They then had to turn their focus to the victims’ backgrounds, but they found that none of the nine victims shared the same gender, age, or background. Moreover, they didn’t even know each other at all!”
She added, “Through information gleaned from interviews, they learned that none of the nine victims had psychological problems, such as depression. Hence, their relatives and friends didn’t believe that these people would choose to commit suicide! Later, the investigation team found an important clue when they returned to the crimes scenes!”
Miao Ying then took out a picture from a folder and said to the others, “When they were investigating one of the scenes, they found an eyewitness, an old man who was living nearby at the time of the crime. He said that he had seen a ghost on the day that the death occurred!”
Miao Ying held up the picture in her hand as she said, “This picture is a mock composite sketch of the ghost, according to the witness’ description!”
As the other members already knew about the general information of the Devil Case before this, they were familiar with this so-called ghost. The ghost in the picture had two curved horns, bloody red eyes, sharp ears and terrible tusks!
Miao Ying pointed to the picture and said, “The witness said that when he came out of his room to use the bathroom that night, he suddenly saw a green light that was coming from the empty building across from his. He then claimed that he suddenly saw the fierce ghost within that green light. Apparently, he was so frightened that he rushed back into his room.”
Miao Ying pointed to the picture again, “Some experts recognized that this ghost in the picture was very similar to the devil that is described in a well-known Western myth! Thus, this case was called the Devil Case.”
Miao Ying took a breath, then said, “Because the case is full of many mysteries, it has received a lot of media coverage. There was even a film inspired by it. It is for these reasons that the Devil Case became one of the five major pending cases!”
After that, Miao Ying gave them all a meaningful smile and said, “Now, we have already cracked the Baishan Reservoir Dismembered Body Case and the Headless Female Corpses Case. If we can close the Devil Case, no one can ever look down on us again!”
“I hope that Han Kuan is really related to this case, so that we can find a clue from him…” Zeng Ke put his hands together in a gesture like he was praying.
“The year that the Devil Case happened was the last year that Han Kuan stayed in Yaoming,” Wu Xiumin said, while pointing to the whiteboard. “Yaoming is in the Tongjiang Province, which is thousands of miles away from Beiqian. So, how could Huan Kuan possibly be involved in the Devil Case?”
“I’ve checked, and unfortunately…” Zeng Ke shook his head and sighed, “the school that Han Kuan attended at that time no longer exists. As such, I cannot find any information about that school at all!”
After hearing this, Miao Ying said, “Well then… Ask his classmates! There must be a class group or something on social media. Regardless, we must find some way to find out more about Han Kuan’s school days!”
“Okay!” Zeng Ke nodded, then immediately went to work.
Suddenly, the office door opened and Ran Tao came in. He was carrying a computer case.
“Ran Tao, what are you doing with the computer?” Wu Xiumin asked him curiously.
“You are asking me? How should I know?” Ran Tao quickly came over to Zhao Yu and said, “Team Leader asked me to bring this here!”
“Um… Yes, I did!” At that moment, Zhao Yu was still carefully checking the files in the two boxes, so he wasn’t paying much attention to Miao Ying and the others.
In fact, he didn’t even raise his head as he said, “Just put the computer right there and let Zeng Ke check it.”
Ran Tao turned and put the computer on Zeng Ke’s desk as he was ordered, announcing, “Well, Zeng… I now give hand it over to you!”
Zeng Ke didn’t understand this, so he asked, “What do you want me to look for?”
“It’s Zhang Jingru’s office computer!” Ran Tao said.
He then explained, “I have checked with her manager, and apparently, after Zhang Jingru was killed, they didn’t use her computer at all. In light of this fact, Team Leader must have his own reasons to ask you to do this.”
After hearing this explanation, Zeng Ke looked at Zhao Yu and wondered… What exactly does he want to find?
Zhao Yu, while still looking carefully at the materials, said to Zeng Ke, “Focus on Zhang Jingru’s browser history, especially the period of time just before her death! Find out what websites Zhang Jingru visited…”
“Oh… Okay…” Zeng Ke said as he nodded. He then started clicking on the computer keyboard and started searching.
“Zhao Yu… You…” Miao Ying looked at Zhao Yu’s serious face and could not help but ask, “Do you really think that you can find new clues inside these two boxes?”
“Um… I’m not sure, but I at least want to give it a try!” Zhao Yu said.
His words made it sound like he was uncertain, when in fact, it was just the opposite. The reason for this was that the location of today’s side adventure had clearly indicated that there must be something important in these two boxes.
Since the side adventure was never haphazard when it came to picking its location, he believed that this case could make significant progress if he could find something within these two boxes!
Miao Ying looked at Zhao Yu and said, “Maybe we should read all of Han Kuan’s novels! After all, the saying ‘knowing your enemy is half the battle’ is quite true! So… We should…”
Before Miao Ying finished speaking, she suddenly saw that Zhao Yu’s eyes had suddenly become fixated on a particular piece of paper. It seemed that he had noticed something specific on that paper. He held the paper in front of his face so that the sunlight could shine on it and provide him with a better look at it.
“Is there any problem with it?” Miao Ying was curious about Zhao Yu’s behavior.
“This is someone’s loan approval that Zhang Jingru had helped prepare. But, a part of it is unclear because there was clearly not enough ink in the printer. So, this document must be considered invalid.” Zhao Yu stared at the paper, not even blinking.
“Hmm…” Miao Ying then asked quickly, “What does that mean?”
“There is a date on the document, which is ten days before Zhang Jingru’s death! Also, this document was originally a complete document, but look at the page number… It’s missing a page, which means that the previous one was taken by someone!” Zhao Yu replied excitedly.
Miao Ying then guessed, “The person who applied for the loan! Is there a problem with him?”
“No… It’s actually the paper!” At last, Zhao Yu raised his head, picked up a pencil from the table, then said to the others, his eyes shining, “Ladies and gentlemen, the time to witness a miracle has arrived!”
After saying that, he slanted the tip of the pencil on the piece of paper and quickly started scribbling randomly. When he had almost filled up the entire piece of paper with these scribbles, an amazing pattern appeared.
It was the ghost with two horns, sharp ears, and towering tusks. It was… A devil!
