2 I Had the B*tch

 

“Quick!” Captain Zhao ordered, “Search along the tracks on both sides, he might still be around!”

“Hmm, so this is really the first crime scene.” Mary considered, “In that case, how did the killer manage to kill the victim, dig out her internal organ, and both eyes and leave the scene without leaving behind any footprints when the crime scene is practically a mud plot?” Even though I hadn’t been to the police academy and hadn’t learned any theoretical knowledge but I grew up inside a prison and I was taught many criminal skills and the most important one was, a good criminal knows how to see things from the other perspective. The same could be applied for the police. Professionally, this was called crime scene simulation.

After I gave the suggestion, some of the officers were already itching to try it out. There were 2 keys to this simulation, 1, how was one able to traverse the muddy ground back and forth without leaving any trace; 2, how was one supposed to disembowel the body without leaving behind any trace. Blood could be washed away by the rain but not pieces of the internal organs.

Some of the officers started the simulations while the rest of us stood to the side to observe. The first to take the stage was a young police man. He gripped the fence by latching his fingers into the holes between the iron fence links and using his feet to find purchase along the same webbing. This meant that he had to put all of his weight onto the fence. This was harder than expected. The gaps between the iron links were small and applying force on them would cut painfully into one’s finger. And that was without carrying a human dead weight on the back. Furthermore, the gaps were also too small to allow any shoe to fit in. This was impossible for a normal person.

Furthermore, that did not explain how the culprit managed to disembowel the victim without leaving behind a mess. A second officer tried to lay the road with pebbles but that would leave the pebbles embedded in the mud. Others suggested that perhaps the disembowelment was done before the body was staged but that brought up further questions… In any case, the simulations were going nowhere.

“Stop trying.” I told them. “When we find the drifter, we’ll know how he did it.”

“Do you have an idea in mind?” Captain Zhao asked me.

“We wait.” I answered. Early the next morning, after breakfast, there was still no clue about the drifter. The police had spent the night scouring the area around the crime scene in their cruisers to find the drifter in the raining night but it was difficult because these people were creatures of darkness.

“Come, I’ll bring you to a place!” I announced.

“Where are we going?” Captain Zhao asked.

“The train station.” I said, “But I can only bring one person with me, preferably someone who knows how to fight.” In less than half an hour, Captain Zhao found me a partner. He was the same age as I was, about 20 plus. He was definitely muscular based on the muscles that bulged through his uniform. He saluted everyone present before turning towards me. “Reserved officer, Gu Chen reporting for duty, sir! What can I do for you, sir?”

I quickly waved my hands. “I’m not your sir, I’m just a mental patient... But you’ll do, we’ll depart immediately.” Birds of a feather flocks together, people of certain calibre would naturally gather together. Just like how people on the upper rung of society would mingle and socialize at high-end clubs, the bottomfeeders of the society had their usual haunts as well. And if there was a common haunt for drifters in a city, that would be the train stations. In a vast country like China, people travelled mostly through trains between districts and train stations had less security than airports. People from different walks of life could be found at this place, doctors, professors, businessmen, beggars, thieves and stray kids…

Standing in the middle of the station, the crowds passed me by. Most just ignored me and went on with their daily business. Suddenly, a child pulled on the corner of my shirt. I turned to smile at him and he smiled innocently back at me. I examined him further and realized that one of his elbows was twisted. He was handicapped.

“Please, sir, pity me and spare me some…” Before he could finish, I grabbed him harshly, “You’re the one!” The child was startled and then he started to scream. That instantly gathered the attention of the people around us. However, most of the normal people hurried away lest they got embroiled in our conflict. Instead, a few of the adults in tattered clothes turned inquisitively towards us. They cursed under their breath. “Someone help me!” I shouted, “I recognize this child as a missing person. I need help to call the police.”

As expected, no one came to my aid. Instead, the group of individuals in dirty clothes started to drag me away to prevent me from causing even more of a commotion. At most cities, of the 10 children who were begging on the streets, 8 of them were controlled by a crime ring, of the 8 of them, 6 would be handicapped. None of the 6 would be locals, they were instead shuttled there by human traffickers. This boy whom I had accosted was clearly an experienced beggar, his eyes belied a numbness that was beyond his age. Perhaps his arm was already snapped when he was 5 or younger. The beggar industry was no different from the modelling industry, they knew how to make use of their image to their biggest advantage. Clearly a child with a handicap would garner more pity than an adult, and for them, pity was money.

After many shoves and pushes, I was led into a small alley. The boy about 8 spat at me and ordered, “Motherfucker, how dare you ruin our business?! Get him!” There might be honor among thieves but rarely any empathy among the victims of tragedy. They wished to drag others down into the hellhole with them so that they could feel better about themselves. Human nature was always selfish.

Just as they were about to pounce on me, I lifted a finger. “New fish to the forest, forgive my impunity.” This was the language of the underworld. I learned this when I was growing up. While I studied Chinese, I also picked up this unique system of language. It was codes  used by members of underworld. In this case, it meant that it was my fault for accidentally crossing into your territory.

The beggar who appeared to be the leader responded, “The birds have their forest and the fish have their water, each mind their own.” He meant, since you know this is not your territory, why create trouble in the first place? Since he knew the underworld language, this was not a common beggar, this was a beggar organization, one with a system. They might not look the party but this kind of professional beggars existed in every city and sometimes they might earn more than a normal working class.

“Get him.” This time it was me who spoke. Instantly a figure jumped out from the mouth of the alley. The well-trained officer took down the small group of beggars quite easily. Gu Chen held the lead beggar up by the back of his collar. “The rest of them got away before I could get them. This is the only haul I got. Is that okay?”

…

After drinking 3 glasses of water inside the interrogation room, the lead beggar couldn’t have looked more surprised. “Wait, so I suffered such a beating simply because you are looking for a drifter?” The beggar clearly thought we’ve made a mountain out of a molehill. I nodded. One’s worldview differed depending on one’s perspective. A piece of biscuit fallen to the ground would be trash for a wealthy kid but for a beggar child, that could be their lunch for the day. Similarly, now we needed someone who could see a forest not for a forest but for its individual trees to locate the drifter.

That afternoon itself, we found out about the drifter’s location. I was not ashamed to say that I was quite right. The drifter had one memorable property about him, he had very long and sharp fingernails. Furthermore, unlike most drifters, there was not much grime underneath his nails because they would have all gone into his mouth. Therefore, to be a good criminal, one had to have a commonplace face, you couldn’t be too ugly or too handsome, the worst would be the kind who would stand out in a crowd. Secondly you couldn’t be too unique, you mustn’t have a signature motion or slogan or else you’d be remembered too easily.

When we found this drifter, he was sleeping naked in a makeshift cardboard house. The man stink horribly. He had long hair, and unknown bugs crawled all over his body. He was like a living dumpster. The lower part of the man’s body suffered severe burns. He had wooden legs and his genital organ was shriveled.

“He’s not the killer.” Both Captain Zhao and myself announced at the same time. We looked at each other while Mary looked on in confusion. I explained, “He fits my description of the killer but there is one key difference.”

Captain Zhao added, “From the details, we can glean many things. His hair is still wet and his artificial legs have traces of mud so it is most likely that he has been to the crime scene yesterday night. He was naked because the clothes he wore were too wet and he had left them out to dry. However, the main reason why he’s not the killer is…” Captain Zhao pointed at the man’s lower body, “According to the coroner’s report, the victim has been sexually violated before she was killed, do you think he can manage that?”

Mary stared quite directly at the man’s sensitive parts, that interested me quite a bit. Mary seemed to notice my eyes on her so she chided, “I was already in the special crime unit when I was your age. I’ve seen crazier things than this. Also, mind I remind you that you got us the wrong killer?”

I shrugged. “What if I said that I still found you a killer who was simply too late to the scene? The only reason he isn’t the killer is because the woman was already killed before he arrived. Even though he is not the killer, he should be the one who desecrated the body. Also do you need to keep staring at that spot? What else are you checking for anyway?”

Mary gestured at my crotch and mocked, “Is someone feeling a little bit insecure there?”

Captain Zhao sighed helplessly. “Stop bickering, and focus on the case. We’ll bring him back for interrogation for now. If the actual killer murdered the woman and it was only after then that this man arrived to disembowel the body, wouldn’t that be too much of a coincidence? Furthermore, how did the killer and this drifter escape the crime scene without leaving behind any footprints?”

Next the officers shook the sleeping drifter awake.

The first thing the drifter said was, “Yes, you got me. I had the bitch.”