8 Who is She?

 

It was Xiao Liu’s responsibility to confirm the victim’s identity, the guilt weighed down on his shoulders. He almost wept. “Due to Zhang Chunzhuang’s story, I had the preconception that the victim had to be Zhang Xutong so I did not launch a more detailed investigation. Furthermore, everyone was so busy at the time…” Xiao Liu meant that since Captain Zhao had summoned everyone with him to the crime scene so Xiao Liu couldn’t do so many jobs on his own. Captain Zhao coughed twice and then said, “Well, we have enough manpower now. Go and investigate the real identity of the victim. Compare the notes with all the missing person reports, we have to find out who this woman is.” Now that the murderer had been captured, a lot of pressure was off even though there was now a gaping problem.

Xiao Liu did not return even after noon.

Captain Zhao, Mary and myself chatted while we ate at the canteen. To begin a conversation, I threw out a question, “Mary…”

“It’s Sister Mary or Senior Mary to you.” Mary picked a piece of braised meat and rolled her eyes.

“Erm, Mary.” I insisted, “How come I’ve not seen your husband at the station before? I heard he’s already a unit leader when he was just 25.” Hearing that, Mary bit on the meat with more force than necessary. After swallowing, she grumbled, “The man said he had to go on some kind of secret mission. I haven’t heard from him for weeks myself. But, kid, how did you know so much about us, my husband is not known to most of my colleagues as he keeps a low profile.”

I shrugged. “Well, your husband was responsible for sending a lot of people into the prison where I grew up…”

Xiao Liu finally returned in the late afternoon with a long face. “Boss, none of the missing person cases match our victim. She has been dead for 2 days already, normally speaking, someone should have called in her disappearance already but no one did. This is quite strange.” That was indeed strange but stranger was the fact that she went to that secluded spot so late at night while raining. As I scratched my head, I pondered this in my mind. Suddenly a detail jumped out at me. When we found Luo Zhongcheng, he had died from a heroin overdose. We found 3 bags of the drugs, that was not a small number. But more importantly, there were balls of tissue at the crime scene. It showed that Luo Zhongcheng had carefully wiped down the packaging of the drugs before he used them.

“Get me a time table of the train schedule.” I told Xiao Liu, “Especially the ones which have the old-fashioned coal-operated trains.” When we were at the crime scene, we witnessed many trains passing by us. There were a few older trains among the faster e-trains. Perhaps we could find some clues on these older trains. Even though Xiao Liu had no idea what I was up to, since I was someone his boss invited into the team, he did not dare to not listen to me.

“Xiao Liu, stay here.” Mary cleared the space before her table. “Let me.” Then, Mary took out an ultra-thin laptop, it was a model that I had not seen before, it was probably custom-made. Then I realized Mary was a hacker, a very good one at that. It was the reason why Captain Zhao valued her so greatly. According to rumors, there were only 5 people better than her in China. Soon a time table appeared before us. It even contained the name of the conductors and train drivers for each train.

The woman died around 2. 10 am. 10 minutes were used to rape and suffocate her and then 10 more minutes to deal with the crime scene. The speed, the departure time of each train, as well as the distance of the train station to the crime scene, after we got all these data, we could tell whether a train was passing by when the woman arrived at that fated spot two nights before. The witness Zhang Xutong took an express train, these kinds of trains would only stop at big city stations. In other words, it would not stop at a small city like ours. When Zhang Xutong saw the crime, the woman was already dead and Luo Zhongcheng was cleaning up the scene. Therefore, we did not need to concern ourselves with this train and the ones after it. We needed to focus on the trains that came before this one.

As I expected, an old-fashioned train passed by this stretch about 13 minutes before Zhang Xutong’s express train did. The woman had to be at the designated spot before the train arrived or else things would be hard to arrange.

I almost pulled out my hair from the amount of thinking. Rainy nights, women, slow-moving trains and bags of heroin. At this juncture, there was still a big question that was unanswered, why would these women come to this stretch of unattended track so late at night? This was already the 4th recorded one. So far, the law enforcement had deemed their deaths as pure accidents. But since they were already nothing more than meat pies, it was impossible to derive anything from their carcasses. Their actions were definitely anomalous.

Seeing the complicated emotions on my face, Captain Zhao walked towards me to whisper, “Did you discover anything?”

“Nightclubs, bars, KTVs.” I listed out 3 places. Mary rolled her eyes and said, “That is such a leap in thought. Earlier, you asked for the train schedules and now you’re talking about nightclubs. What is it that you are doing anyway?”

“I’m looking for something.”

“What?” Mary asked.

“The victims’ identity.” I answered.

…

At 12 midnight, most people had already gone to bed. Tonight, an officer came across a sneaking shadow with a haggard look. He shouted at the person, “List out 3 active metals!” The person was startled and stammered out the answer, “lithium, sodium, and rubidium!” The officer waved him away. “Truly, only criminals or students will still wander the streets so late at night.”

But in reality, at places like nightclubs, KTVs and bars, life was just beginning. Gu Chen and I were standing in front of a nightclub called Black Forest. We could see all sorts of activities around us. There were young men and women vomiting by the streets, some even laid flat out drunk on the ground. Of course, what was not lacking were the kissing couples.

This was also the place for a rising phenomenon called, drunk rape. Drunk rape meant bringing back home vulnerable individuals who were too inebriated and then have sex with them. Of course, the offenders were mostly males. Due to intoxication, most females had no idea where they were brought and when they awakened, only then they realized they were assaulted and they had no idea whom their assaulter was. Facing this kind of criminal, the victims normally would keep mum about it. With a low cost in crime and a low risk in capture, it was a non-shocker that drunk rape had become more common. In fact, there were 3 youngsters with spiked hair sitting across from us in a darkened alley, watching the people who came out from the nightclubs.

Going to nightclubs was not a male privilege but females should reconsider before coming here alone. Alas this was not the reason I was here, I was here to look for someone.

It was just a door but it was two different worlds inside and outside the door. Outside the door, there were the occasional vomits but mostly it was silent. Inside the door, it was as noisy as a market. Shouting, bottles clinking, banging music created a hypnotizing cacophony. The smell of cocktails, sweat, perfumes, colognes created a mist that was intoxicating. You’d feel instantly relaxed once you stepped through the door. Those who burnt the midnight oil often were those who did not have the courage to see the sun rise another day. Captivated by the neon lights and possibility of sin, most of the people here lived on the edge of reality and dream. They lost themselves in alcohol, money, lust and power.

“Sir…” A server came over when he saw me enter the place. I looked around and picked up a nearby bottle. Before the owners of the bottle could get angry at me, I slammed the bottle on the table. The waiter instantly understood the real reason I was there. He spoke into the mic attached to his lapel. “Brother Lee, I need you here.” Soon a bald man and his group appeared before me and Gu Chen.

“Kid, was it you who came looking for trouble?” The big baldie demanded.

“Would you believe me if I say I come in peace?” I said sincerely. “I’m here for Sister Mao but I know I won’t get her attention without using this method.”

“Sister Mao?!” The baldie undid his shirt to show off the dragon tattoo on his chest and a blade scar on his back. “Who are you to see Sister Mao? If I don’t beat the crap out of you, my name is not Baldie Biao!” I sighed helplessly, sometimes people just refused to believe the truth.

“Please go easy with the aggression.” I warned.

“It’s too late to beg for mercy now.” Baldie Biao growled.

I shrugged. 1 cigarette later, Baldie Biao and his lackeys were all groaning on the ground. I passed a cig to Gu Chen and then said, “Job well done, brother. Leave the rest to me.” Gu Chen accepted the cigarette and added, “These people are easier to handle than the beggars at the train station, they are all bark and no bite.” Beggars might not really be beggars and bouncers might not really be bouncers. Actually most bouncers were just street ruffians, what they had was the advantage in number. When they ran into actual fighters, they were like children fighting an unfair war. This Baldie Biao before us was one of those.

“Well, have you had enough? Do you want more?” I asked. The baldie shook his head. “Then you better call Sister Mao.” The baldie nodded.

An hour later, Sister Mao finally appeared before me. I studied this woman carefully. Just like what Brother Huang Er told me in prison, this woman over 30 oozed sexiness. She wore an extremely tight-fitting dress, had long curls and the garter belts poked out from her slitted dress. She carried a small purse and had a small cigar dangling on her lips. The smoke dissipated in the neon light and covered the group of people behind her.

“Sister Mao?” I asked politely.

“So you’re behind this clutter?” Sister Mao began, “Even though Black Forest is not my main territory, I wouldn’t let any random kid come here to create problems for me. Go and teach these two young children a lesson, make it a lesson they won’t forget.”

I raised my hands in surrender and then quickly added, “I’m not here for trouble, I'm here to ask Sister Mao for help.”

Sister Mao dropped the cigarette on the ground and squashed it under her heels. She asked lazily. “You want me to help you?”

I nodded. “Brother Huang Er told me that, should I find life difficult in this city, I can always come to Sister Mao for help.”

“Ol’ Huang Er?” Sister Mao looked at me with shock. “Who is he to you? What can I help you with?”

Ol’ Huang Er was a prison inmate, he was sentenced due to organizing a sexual crime ring.

“I guess you can call him my big brother.” I explained, “I came to Sister Mao because I need your help to look at a picture for me.” Then I took the dead woman’s picture. I walked forward to show her. “Sister Mao, is this girl a prostitute?”

 

Due to the nature of the story and ease for my editing, the chapters will be released in episodic manner (several chapters at once) instead of daily chapters.