122 Fly?

 

This had undoubtedly become slightly awkward. The main character of the tragedy was standing before us and he was silently weeping, and none of us knew how to comfort this man. Even though the tragedy happened more than decades ago, the scar on Ol’ Xia’s heart probably had never healed. Certain things wouldn’t be washed away by time and positive thinking, if it could, Ol’ Xia wouldn’t have chosen to move literally thousands of miles away to this village that no one had heard of. Ol’ Xia’s shoulders were shaking so badly that it was clear he was crying. This was an incomparable sadness, pure and unmitigated, like a child who tried to hold his tears in but could not. The wind carried the snow and melted on our faces, it made me feel even colder.

Chief Zhou didn’t expect this either. He looked at us and then at Ol’ Xia’s back. As if to console Ol’ Xia, he continued the story like nothing happened, “But the local police soon captured Ol’ An. One year later, he was given the death penalty due to arson and multiple homicides.” I knew what Chief Zhou was doing, he was trying to tell Ol’ Xia that Ol’ An had been punished by law, his crimes had been paid; but even if Ol’ An died 10 times, it wouldn’t have helped Ol’ Xia. Perhaps if Ol’ Xia had died in that big fire, he wouldn’t be in so much pain now. Living was pain but living also brought hope.

I was surprised that Chief Zhou managed to find out so many things in just one night; and similarly unexpected was the fact that Ol’ Xia used to be a butcher. Then could Ol’ Xia be the killer? To vent the anger and sadness within him, Ol’ Xia turned to murder? Based on the little interaction that I had with Ol’ Xia, I figured he was the kind of person who would not show his real feelings before others, unless the topics really hit his heart. He exploded in silence and vanished in silence.

But there was no concrete evidence to really give us any valid suspect for this dismemberment case, we had too little to work with. The brown fur and the red nail polish on the toe had been sent by Chief Zhou to the city lab to be tested, the results would return in weeks. This efficacy was too slow, but it couldn’t be helped. The interesting thing was, as if affected by this slow lifestyle, the killer was taking his murder slow as well.

Ol’ Xia stood like that before us for several minutes, then like nothing ever happened, he continued to move forward. He shuffled soundlessly through the snow like everything that we experienced earlier was just a mirage in the night. By then 40 minutes had passed, and we would soon arrive at First Drain Village. For the rest of the way, we stopped chatting and hurried to keep up with Ol’ Xia. 20 minutes later, we finally arrived at the village. Due to the snow, there were no people on the road. The surrounding was silent, there was no sound of chicken or dog, not even the mooing of cows.

We strode down the village road and every house that we passed was silent like a tomb. Taking in the exposed brick walls and rotten wooden beams, it felt like we were entering an abandoned village. Ol’ Xia pointed at the door of the village community centre and announced, “Go!” Before we could say anything, he turned and walked away. As we saw the man shuffle away, we felt quite melancholic.

Outside the office of the community centre, the village head came to welcome us. He was in a wheelchair and his legs were pulled unnaturally straight, he was also a handicapped member. He was an old man in his 60s, his face was wrinkled and whenever he smiled, his eyes disappeared into the folds of skin. He said with a smile, “Chief Zhou and these 3 must be the officials from Dong Xing City. My name is Wei Shengfeng, I’m the village head here only because I’m quite old.”

I quickly waved my hands and corrected, “Master Wei, we aren’t any government officials, we are just normal police officers. We’re here this time to investigate a case.”

Wei Shengfeng nodded. He turned the wheels to stop before us. He extended his hand for a handshake. I rushed forward to take it. He said, “Please come in, it’s too cold outside.” We nodded and filed into the office. The office was quite small but it had all the necessary tools. A black office table with graceful patterns sat facing the wall, it was rustic and functional. On the table sat writing equipment like paper, ink and brush. Next to them was a tea set which was releasing hot air. On the wall behind the table was a calligraphy by a Chinese historical figure—难得糊涂, or loosely translated as it is folly to be wise.

Based on the brush strokes, this was the work of a master calligrapher. When I looked closer, I saw the stamp, it was written by Wei Shengfeng himself. Next to the table was a bookshelf. I frowned as I moved to examine the books. The layer on my eye level was a row of books about economics. One of them even had a bookmark in it. This meant that the books weren’t for decoration, the old village head did study them. Beyond that were a few couches, a coffee table and a water heater. The office table didn’t come with a chair, probably because the village head didn’t need one. The village head picked up the tea set and used his free hand to roll to the coffee table. He placed the tea set down and then turned to pull out some tea cups from the drawer.

“I have nothing to offer you but some tea to warm your bodies.” The old village head washed the tea cups as he explained, “I’ve asked Ol’ Xia to bring you here because I’ve ordered Lee Danan, the first person who found the dead body, to meet us here.” We nodded. The village head poured the tea for us. As the warm liquid flowed into our bodies, it brought life back to our fingers. Then a familiar voice said, “Go!”

The door opened and a tanned man walked in with the chilly wind. This must be Lee Danan. He looked about 40 and regarded us cautiously. I saw his arms and realized this man had lost both hands. The places where one’s palms should be were two Gu Duos, a kind of ancient Chinese stick-weapon weapon.

“Village head.” He greeted. Ol’ Xia closed the door from outside and then left to who knows where.

“Lee Danan, sit. Just answer the questions the officers have, don’t be nervous.” The village head signalled for Lee Danan to sit before us. Lee Danan sat and flashed a shy smile. I nodded at them and asked, “Lee Danan, what time did you see that foot yesterday?”

Lee Danan answered, “Yesterday, between 5 to 6 pm. I don’t have a watch so I couldn’t really tell for us. But the sky was already darkening.”

“The dead body that you saw was lying beside the road?”

“Yes, yes!” Lee Danan confirmed, “I saw it at the roadside. At the time, I was coming back to the village from outside. As I was about to enter the village, I saw the foot peeking out. I thought it might be someone who was too drunk and passed out by the road.” Lee Danan paused before continuing, “When I came back to the village, the snow had just stopped but the person was already buried under the snow. I didn’t know whether she was still alive or not so I hurried to go take a look. It should be a woman because I saw her painted toe nails. When I tried to nudge her foot, I realized it was already frozen, that was when I knew she was dead…” Then Lee Danan looked at us with fear. He probably thought we would take him as the murderer. The chance of that was low because Lee Danan had no hands, he couldn’t wield the murder weapon.

“Please continue.” I told Lee Danan. He nodded and resumed, “At the time, there was no one around, I was afraid so I left after I called the police. I immediately rushed to come find the village head. He told me that the police would come to interview me today and told me to stay put.”

I took a sip of the tea. “Do you remember seeing other footprints when you found the body?”

Lee Danan thought about it. “No. When I saw the foot, I looked around, there was no one and no footprint. There was only me on the road, I have never encountered anything like this before…” By then, the snow had stopped. Looks like the killer had long departed when Lee Danan discovered the foot. I continued to ask, “Did you find anything like a shoe or stocking around the foot?”

“No!” Lee Danan shook his head. “I would remember if there was.”

I nodded at the man and said, “Okay, I’m done asking the questions. If you can remember any new clues, you can tell the village head.” Chief Zhou added, “Lee Danan, you can go back now.” Lee Danan nodded, stood up and left.

Chief Zhou turned around to tell me, “That clarified some things. The killer probably dumped the leg between 4 to 5 pm.”

I shook my head and countered, “No, it should be earlier than that. One hour of snow wouldn’t be enough to cover up a person’s footprints.”

“But that cannot be.” Chief Zhou scratched his head, “Based on the coroner’s report, the time of dismemberment is between 8.30 pm to 5.30 pm. Unless the killer knows how to fly, they would leave behind their footprints. Their arriving footprints might be buried under the snow but definitely not their leaving footprints. So where did they go? Is it possible that the killer had walked towards the village after dumping the leg to confuse us? After all, it wouldn’t be that suspicious for a trail of footprints to head into the village. In contrast, it would be too suspicious if a single trail of footprints was found moving towards the mountains.” Chief Zhou suggested, “Or maybe the killer walked away from the village using the main road. But Lee Danan would have found the footprints if they were moving the opposite direction from him.”

I frowned. Chief Zhou was right, be it entering or leaving the village, or crossing through the wilderness, we definitely would have found the killer’s footprints, but we did not.