I had been in the mental asylum for a long stint and met many interesting people. Some liked to be tied to the bed and tortured; some liked to eat their own feces; some liked to go out at night to scare people. So a story-writing killer was not that special.
In other words, the neighbourhood security cameras were probably sabotaged or the killer knew their blind spots. In any case, the killer must be good at anti-surveillance. But Xiao Lu still managed to encounter the killer or perhaps the encounter was on purpose.
I closed my eyes and a profile came to me. He had very dark eye circles from a lack of sleep. This was a cultured man, he liked to read, especially serious literature. He had a cactus as his best friend. He didn’t like mirrors even though he was tall and handsome. He was of mixed heritage, he had a cleanliness obsession, he won’t allow himself to get dirty.
But this kind of person was not rare in Dong Xing City.
Guan Zhenglin said, “In any case, we’ve not even seen the 2 bodies yet. Perhaps we’ll have more clues after doing that.”
Captain Zhao said, “There’s no need to, the autopsy report is already out. Both of the women had their throats slashed. The first victim’s name is Zhao Kaifang and the second victim is Luo Xiao Lu. Both of them lived in a neighbourhood called Dong Chang Apartments. They lived on the 5th block, Zhao Kaifang in Room 502 and Luo Xiao Lu, Room 402.” Then Captain Zhao looked at me. “Wu Meng’s hypothesis earlier is correct. Based on Captain Lee’s investigation, the killer has been into the victims’ room because they found semen belonging to the same man inside the two women’s rooms. The semen was evenly spread over their beds and it was already dried when found.”
Guan Zhenglin asked, “Have either of the victims shown signs of being raped?”
Captain Zhao studied the autopsy report and answered, “No, based on the coroner’s report, neither of the girls had sex before death. Luo Xiao Lu was a virgin. So the killer didn’t kill for sex but he did leave behind his semen on the girls’ beds…” Captain Zhao frowned. “We were unable to find the man’s DNA from our database, in other words, he has no criminal records. In my years of experience, 99 percent of psychopathic killers do not have a criminal past. They suddenly snap and will not stop until they are captured.”
Gu Chen asked curiously, “Really?”
I looked at Gu Chen and explained, “Because these serial killers are executed once they’re caught so there won’t be any repeat offenders. And this story-telling killer doesn’t fit any of the serial killers currently on the run. So he must be new to the scene.”
“What about the last 1 percent?” Gu Chen asked.
Captain Zhao tapped the table. “The 1 percent managed to escape before their execution or they were sent to the asylum. This killer will kill again and we can’t even guarantee he’ll stay in Dong Xing City. This city has 20000000 people, that is enough for 20000000 stories.”
Guan Zhenglin was anxious. “Then how can we tell who will be his next target? Many stories are released online daily, we can’t go through them one by one. Plus, we won’t even know we’re reading the killer’s story until after he commits the murders.”
“The killer suffers from premature ejaculation.” I said.
“Premature ejaculation?” Captain Zhao asked.
I nodded and analyzed, “This might have to do with why he only targeted single females. The thing that drives his libido is not the opposite sex but the murders. Like how lions would pee to mark their territory, this killer is doing the same. And his next target might be another young, single female.”
I concluded, “We better head to the crime scenes.”
Everyone nodded.
The case not only concerned the safety of all the single women at Dong Xing City but also our future so we had to give it our all. However, when we arrived at the crime scene, there were already a lot of police there and the leader of the unit was someone we were very familiar with.
We hadn’t seen Xiao Liu for months already and this was an awkward reunion. Gu Chen ignored Xiao Liu and walked past him while I greeted him and Xiao Liu smiled lightly at me.
“You guys should go upstairs to take a look.” Captain Zhao told us. I looked at Captain Zhao and then at Xiao Liu. Xiao Liu was basically Captain Zhao’s disciple, so I wondered how they felt with regards to this reunion. We knew better than to get involved so we hurried upstairs. Everyone had their own considerations and choices, plus his decision didn’t really hurt anyone so o well.
The officers from Xiao Liu’s team told us that since there hadn’t been any progress with the case, Captain Lee had Xiao Liu return to the crime scenes to see if they had missed anything. When they departed for the first time, they told the land owner to not move everything, so the rooms were preserved as they were on their owners’ day of death.
We first came to the first victim, Zhao Kaifang’s room. Based on what the officer told us, Zhao Kaifang and Luo Xiao Lu knew each other from work. They work from 9 to 5. Neither of them had boyfriends and stayed in the same building.
I nodded. From this, I knew that the killer must have scouted his victims for a long time. The killer was a meticulous planner because if one thing strayed from his written story, everything would fall apart. For example, if Luo Xiao Lu was staying with a roommate, then the killer might change his target.
This was something uncontrollable so the killer might only be using the story to tell us about his next target and he might not follow the story line perfectly. The stories might be a clue for the police. In other words, his story was far from over!
I stood inside the room and studied Zhao Kaifang’s décor. We put on shoe wrappings and the floor did creak when we paced around the room. One had to be barefooted for the sound not to be so loud.
The rooms at this apartment had the same layout so Zhao Kaifang’s bedroom was similar to Luo Xiao Lu’s bedroom. Closing the heavy curtains, the bedroom was instantly much dimmer. The officer switched on the UV light and we spotted twinkling spots on Zhao Kaifang’s bed. These were the killer’s semen.
Gu Chen frowned, “This might be premature ejaculation, but there are a whole lot of them.”
When he finished, the officer who held the light had his face turn pale and then he gasped, “Wait, this is not right!”
I turned to him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
He said, “During the initial investigation, there weren’t that many semen traces! How did it multiply by that much all of a sudden?!”
I frowned but said nothing. I took the UV light and came to Room 402. Similarly, the officer told us there was more semen on the bed Room 402 compared to the initial investigation.
Pulling open the curtain, I looked at the unmelted snow in the back garden and said, “When your unit left after the initial investigation, did you have someone change the locks on the windows and doors?” The officer shook his head.
An unassailable truth appeared in my mind. “The killer must have returned, perhaps to adore his handiwork. When he was back, he ejaculated further on the two beds. From the load that we saw, it is biologically impossible for them to have come from one or two day. The killer must have returned here often.”
“The killer often comes back here?” Gu Chen asked, “Doesn’t that mean we can catch him if we set up a trap here?”
I shook my head. “Not necessarily but we better assign people to guard this place. The killer has made use of our psychology. The police believed he would not be back after the murders but he did and left his traces behind. If we didn’t inspect the crime scenes a second time, we would not have discovered it at all.” I turned to ask, “What about the surveillance?”
The officer shook his head. “The system was hacked, all the footage has been deleted.”
I frowned and turned to look back out the window. In the snow I appeared to see a grinning face. This was the killer, he was excited to be playing with us. At the same time, he was back at his corner, writing his second story.
The killer would not stop here. We had met some pseudo-psychopathic killers in the past but this time, this was a real psychopath serial killer.
And he might be hiding among us.
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