30 Taste of Blood

 

A few days later, we got the news that Wu Jiajia was spared the needle and was instead sentenced to life imprisonment. The video inside the USB drive helped her case a lot. It was Headmaster Zhang’s rape that caused his death. We had reasons to believe that Wu Jiajia might still be under the influence of drug when she committed the murder. It wasn’t a premeditated homicide so she was spared the death penalty. To be fair, Gao Rui was, in the end, a kind person in his heart. The reason he said those things to Wu Jiajia was so that she would not fall into the same whirlpool as he did. After all, it was Gao Rui who provided the USB drive as evidence. He had kept the USB drive after he found it among Zhang Mingliang’s things.

There were still fair people in the world, that was the best we could do for Gao Rui. This was the best news we had heard recently.

“This is a good result considering.” I nodded.

Captain Zhao sighed. “Kid, don’t think I didn’t realize what you’ve done. You used some word games to buy pity for Wu Jiajia in your case report. Do you think the judge will fall for that? You have to change that habit of yours, remember where you stand.”

I shook my head. “But I was merely telling the truth. Does Wu Jiajia not deserve pity? Or am I supposed to pity Headmaster Zhang?” From the corner of my eye, I saw Guan Zhenglin give me a thumbs up. At least I had one supporter.

“Pity shouldn’t even have figured into your case report. What we want is the factual truth and nothing else.” Captain Zhao placed the cup on the table. “I know your history enables you to empathize with these people but that shall not mean we should excuse their crimes, understood?” I was about to say something else but Captain Zhao wasn’t finished, “Like the case with Lin Su, you knew that the money under his grandmother’s house is dirty money but you didn’t mention it at all in your report.”

“You knew about that too?” I scratched my head shyly.

Captain Zhao slammed his palm on the table. “I hope you’d use your brilliance on actual case solving instead of these tricks.”

“But what about Granny Lin’s life?” I pleaded. “We can’t expect her to pick trash forever, right? She’s now even missing a hand and…” Mary made a T with her hands. “Wu Meng, stop right there. Do you really think we’re that heartless? Captain Zhao has already considered that before you did. Dirty money is dirty money, they will be confiscated. But we can make personal donations. Do you not see a rich, pretty and young benefactor who might be helpful to Granny Lin’s case in this room?”

“I do see a rich woman, can’t say I agree with the pretty and young.” I chided but internally I was smiling. I couldn’t help but be impressed. No wonder Captain Zhao was the leader of this unit. I thought I had everything under control but turns out he already knew anything and had provided better solutions than I did. However, I was still in possession of a clue, one that I believed Captain Zhao had not noticed. There was a character which had been moving at the outskirts of this case. We had been focused on Zhang Mingliang and Headmaster Zhang’s deaths to pay him much attention. However, this man was definitely suspicious and he might lead us to another old case. Therefore, I didn’t do anything lest I raised his alarm. But now that the case with the headless body was over, it was time to turn our attention to him.

I already assigned someone to look after this suspect and he should still be on the job.

“There is someone very suspicious but we were so busy with Zhang Mingliang’s case so I didn’t bring it up until now.” While everyone was there, I decided to bring everyone up to speed.

“Who?” They asked.

I looked around and announced, “Ol’ Zhang.”

“Ol’ Zhang?” Guan Zhenglin was clearly expecting someone more impactful because she rolled her eyes and said, “What is so suspicious about an old guard of an abandoned building site? Is it because he eats dogs? That is not within our jurisdiction. Do you want me to call the animal control department?”

I sighed, “Of course, it’s not about that.”

“Then what is it about?”

I cleared my throat and said, “Do you remember how Ol’ Zhang described the scene for us? He said he righted the pail, carried it and left the crime scene. By then, Zhang Mingliang’s blood would have splattered inside it already. On his way down, he took a taste of the blood.”

“Yes, it was why he called us the next day.” Gu Chen continued, “Is there a problem there?”

I turned to Guan Zhenglin and asked, “How would you differentiate between human blood and dog blood.”

“Well, in terms of smell and appearance, they only have minute differences, so I will rely on my microscope. Human blood has hormones and antigens unique to humans.” Guan Zhenglin answered.

I snapped my fingers. “And that’s the problem. Ol’ Zhang only tasted it once and he already knew there was human blood in the mixture. But he called the police only the next day…”

Guan Zhenglin widened her eyes and gasped, “In other words, Ol’ Zhang must have already tasted human blood in the past to tell what human blood tasted like! Furthermore, he must have tasted it often to be able to pick up the taste from a mixture of dog and human blood!”

“Bingo!” I patted Guan Zhenglin’s shoulders. “Even if the mixture didn’t taste like dog blood anymore, there was no reason for him to directly jump to the conclusion that it contained  human blood… unless he had prior knowledge of how human blood tasted like. Based on what he said, when he knew it was human blood, it was already too late at night. He didn’t want to trouble the police so he only called in the morning. Don’t you find that suspicious?”

“Then why haven’t we sent people out to bring him in for questioning?” Mary asked.

I shook my head. “I’ve already sent people to watch his movements, at least, I’m sure that he still hasn’t escaped from the city.”

“You’ve already sent someone to stake him out?” Captain Zhao frowned. “How come I didn’t know anything about that?”

“Because it’s not someone from the force, it’s a thief.” I called the thief and told him to send everything he had collected over the weeks to the station and then I had Xiao Liu take over the stakeout from the thief.

…

One hour later. “Someone left this for Wu Meng.” An officer knocked on the door and walked in. “The person looks very fidgety and he left after leaving this. Should we send someone to go after him?” Looks like this thief was still afraid of this place. Since the inmates at the prison came and left in batches, I made many friends when I was there. They came in useful now…

“There’s no need.” I waved my hands. It was a folder with several documents and an ID card. The name on the ID was Zhang Xueyou and the picture attached was that of a middle-aged man. Based on the facial features, we could confirm that this was Ol’ Zhang. The thief had gone beyond my expectation, he had gotten us Ol’ Zhang’s IC. “Zhang Xueyou, like the famous singer. Good name.” I commented.

Then I turned to the documents. Ol’ Zhang was not a local. He had only been here for a few months. Based on the documents, Zhang Xueyou had spent most of last year at Qing Cheng. This was a bit of coincidence, the drug mule case of Lin Su happened at Qing Cheng. According to the documents, Ol’ Zhang had no son or daughter. He came from a small town called Ba Gu. This town was literally thousands of miles away from a big city like Qing Cheng. One couldn’t help but wonder why Ol’ Zhang had gone there.

When he was at Qing Cheng, Ol’ Zhang operated a small recycling centre. However, since he provided a lesser profit margin to collect recyclables than the other centres, basically no one frequented him. However, Ol’ Zhang never seemed to be worried about that. Even without customers, the centre remained in operation for a whole year. Based on the cigarettes he smoked in the pictures, Ol’ Zhang was enjoying the good life. It was unknown where he got those luxury items. However, 2 months ago, the recycling centre suddenly closed. People said finally the deficit did him in.

Ol’ Zhang then moved to this city. He found the job at the building site a month ago. The salary was low but he hadn’t caused any trouble. The documents came with pictures, it was quite detailed. On the last page, there was a note, ‘I asked Sister Mao for help to compile these’.

Looks like I’ve owed Sister Mao another favor. However, I did know why Sister Mao was so willing to help, she hoped I could have some influence over the prison master to treat Brother Huang Er better. I shared the files with the rest. After reading through them, Captain Zhao asked me, “What do you think?”

“There’s clearly something wrong here. How can a business operate without profit for a whole year? A normal business wouldn’t stand even a month. There must be some kind of hidden business done at this recycling centre, so we need to investigate it.” Just as I finished, my phone rang. It was from Xiao Liu.

“Hey, Wu Meng.” Xiao Liu’s voice came out. “I don’t see anyone here, your informant probably lied to us.”

“No one’s there?” I asked with confusion.

Xiao Liu repeated. “Yes, there’s not even a dog here, much less a person.”

Seeing the deep frown on my face, Mary asked, “Wu Meng, what’s wrong? Did your period come?”

I was not in the mood to bicker with her, I hurriedly told the rest. “Looks like this Ol’ Zhang is more cunning than I thought. In the short window after the thief left and before Xiao Liu arrived, he disappeared. Seems like he already knew someone was watching him and he was waiting for this opening. This is my fault.”

“Go after him.” Captain Zhao announced, “Since he has gone on the run, that proves that there is something suspicious about him.”