Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
This trip to the crime scene was still beyond the expectations of Zhao Yu and the others. The provincial police received them and drove them directly to the dock once they got off of the plane in Quliang City.
However, the island was 27 kilometers away from the mainland, and even though the local police used the best speedboat to transport them there, it still it took more than an hour for them to reach the crime scene.
By the time the three arrived at Yongjin Island, it was completely dark. Waves rolled under the evening sky. In a faint light, Zhao Yu saw the general outline of Yongjin Island.
The island was much smaller than he had even imagined. In fact, Yongjin Island was about the size of 15 regular football fields put together. Moreover, it was not as barren like other isolated islands.
Instead, it had abundant vegetation and even several wooded areas. The island’s topography was also more complex, as it had hills, basins, reefs and cliffs.
Seeing Yongjin Island in front of him, Zhao Yu could not help but recall the incident in the Landing in New Zealand. He really didn’t know why he always had trouble with islands!
The Quliang local police attached great importance to such a horrific case, so they had sent most of their police force to deal with the crime scene. At this moment, the island was filled with uniformed policemen, who had erected tall lights, making this island as bright as day.
They had also sent special policemen to help. Ships with maritime police signs could be seen everywhere.
After receiving the news, several officers from the Provincial Office, the Bureau Chief of Quliang City, and the Criminal Investigation Captain in charge of the case all rushed over. But, the Special Investigation Group was still the highest ranked in command.
After a few words of greeting at the dock, they all went directly to the crime scene, while the captain started to report the latest update to Zhao Yu and the others. The captain’s name was Dou Zili, and he was a big man in his thirties. Although he was good-looking, he was careless about his dress.
Compared with Li Luoyun of Jinping and Captain Sun of Bailing City, Quliang’s Crime Investigation Captain was quite unique. His hair was messy, his beard was not trimmed, and his clothes were dirty.
If it wasn’t for his being introduced to them as an officer, they would have thought that he was just some vagrant from the streets. When speaking, Dou Zili always stooped his shoulders, while looking very nervous.
“Officers, we just checked the information. There are 10 people in this crew who were filming on Yongjin Island!” Dou Zili spoke with a strong local accent, but Zhao Yu and the others could still understand most of what he was saying.
He then said, “So far, we have found six deceased victims and one seriously injured person.There is also one missing person. Hence, only two survived. These two people are being detained on the police boat, while we interrogate them!”
After hearing Captain Dou’s words, Zhao Yu and the others could not help but stare at each other. The three men looked at each other for a few minutes, their eyes revealing their unspoken worries…
Did he just say 10 people?
This is really too coincidental!
There were 10 victims in “And Then There Were None!”
Is this really just a coincidence?
“We have checked,” Captain Dou continued, “The surviving woman’s neck was tied by a rope, and her hands were tied behind her back. But, the murderer deliberately put the rope across her two armpits, so that even if the ladder turned over, the woman would not really be hanged!”
Oh?
Zhao Yu was shocked and wondered how this could be…
So… The murderer didn’t want to kill the actress? But… Why did he do the extra thing… Tying her in the air like that?
“Also, the cook was buried alive,” Captain Dou said.
Suddenly, Zhao Yu’s phone rang. As he answered it, he heard a familiar voice, “Leader Zhao, have you arrived yet? This is Gao Facai!”
“Hey! Mr. Gao.” Zhao Yu had no idea that the forensic pathologist would be the one calling.
He answered him in a hurry, “We have just arrived! How about you?”
“I got here this morning,” Gao Facai said. “I’ll tell you one thing, the forensic facilities of the Quliang Police Station are too poor to meet my standards! So, I’m going to move all of the bodies and evidence to Caohai City! I’ve worked there in the past, and it’s the nearest and most suitable place to conduct my work now.”
Zhao Yu, of course, had no reason to refute this decision to relocate, so he agreed. “Of course, we are all counting on you! We are already on the island. If you receive any new information, please let me know as soon as possible!”
“Absolutely!” Gao Facai answered. He then hung up the phone.
Zhao Yu liked to deal with such cool and highly effective people. He had been very impressed by this man ever since he had worked with him on the Headless Female Corpses Case. This time, since his superiors had sent him over, it was really a high priority case.
After hanging up the phone, Zhao Yu suddenly realized something, so he asked, “Hey? How can there be a cell phone signal on this island?”
Captain Dou hurriedly pointed to the sea on his right and said, “There is an oil drilling platform 10 kilometers away that has a base station on it! Not only can we make phone calls, but we can also surf the internet!”
Zhao Yu frowned and asked, “Isn’t that strange? So many people were killed, yet no one called for help?”
Captain Dou replied quickly, “Yessir, that’s right. I’ll tell you the whole story. At 6:15 a.m., our operator received a call. The caller claimed that there had been a murder on Yongjin Island. We checked, and the caller appears to have been the actress who survived!”
“Wait a minute,” Wu Xiumin said. “How did the woman call the police when her hands were tied up?”
“I… I didn’t say that right, did I?” Captain Dou stuttered, then pointed to Zhao Yu and said with a laugh, “By the way, you just answered the phone. I was just talking about it, ha ha…”
He smiled awkwardly, took out a cigarette, then handed it to Zhao Yu. He then said, “That cook was the one that was buried alive…”
Knowing that Zhao Yu and the others did not smoke, Captain Dou had to hold the cigarette in his hand as he continued to explain, “Well… The man who was buried alive, though his hands were tied up, he was not buried too deep. He said that he had somehow been able to climb out. Then, he saved the actress, and that’s when the actress called the police! Um… And it was also him who told us about the rope that was under the actress’ armpits!”
“Right!” Captain Dou suddenly remembered something and said in a hurry, “When we arrived, the two survivors said that they had no idea how they they had been captured. They said that had just woken up to find that they were tied up!”
Hearing this, Wu Xiumin could not help blurt out her suspicions, “The murderer must have given these people sleeping pills!”
