This was the 13th time the girl saw the group of stray cats wander past her. Whenever the group of cats walked past, she would stand on her tiptoes and hold onto the balcony rails, her eyes following the cats of varying colors.
She got down from the railing and stood on the balcony. She lived on the 3rd floor and the balcony wasn’t sealed off. However, even thieves wouldn’t come to old buildings like hers. Sometimes the girl wondered if she would die if she jumped down from the balcony. Perhaps she wouldn’t, like that cat she saw one time. The girl was so worried about the cat but it landed perfectly, shook its fur and left.
She turned around and was greeted by a large and imposing piano.
“What are you doing over there?” A woman with a heavy country accent demanded, “If you have the time to space out, why don’t you practice on the piano? Look at Wang Xiaoming next door. He’s already in Grade 8. Why are there so many flies lately? It's so annoying.”
A man’s voice said, “I hear Boss Wang from the nearest street has gone missing.”
“Which Boss Wang?” The woman asked.
The man dropped the clothes on the couch. “The female boss from the adult toy store.”
The woman rolled her eyes and huffed, “Good riddance, I say. She probably went off with some unknown man. Why, do you miss her? The bitch walks around like she doesn’t have enough fabric to make proper clothing for herself. And why are you still sitting there? Go and cook!” The woman went to close the window and chased away the flies.
Soon the sound of piano echoed inside the room, the music was melodious but no one knew the girl’s sadness behind it.
The girl stood beside the window and wished on the stray cats, ‘Dear kitties, can you please bring me away with you too?’
Every day she spent hours staring at the black hole in the wall. At night, she would dream that she had transformed into a cat and crawled away from the hole. The girl loved those strays but at night, she became afraid of them. The cats appeared to become more sinister at night. There were a few times when the moonlight shone just right, the girl could see something out on the balcony.
They were feline shadows. They hissed and howled. The girl then understood her balcony was filled with cats. Most of the time, they would fight on her balcony, making these horrible sounds. They sounded like girls screaming, or babies crying.
Every time she would bury her head under the cover. She would ponder to herself, why would such a cute creature make such horrible sounds. This was different from the meowing of pet cats, this was something more feral and terrifying. Before night came, the girl would lock the balcony door and try to force herself to not think about what was happening on her balcony.
Sometimes, the girl would think, where would these stray cats go in the day? Would people feed them? And if there was, who would this person be? Was it a boy or a girl, a child or an adult? Perhaps it might be a kind grandfather.
That day, her parents went to work. The girl didn’t practice her piano but waited on the balcony. That day, a large group of stray cats walked past her building. A man in black walked among the cats. The girl opened her eyes in shock, she had never seen this man before. The man was crawling on all fours, the girl had not seen anything like this. Her mouth fell wide open with shock.
When the man saw the girl, he smiled at her. Then with the strays following him, the man crawled through the hole in the wall and disappeared. She couldn’t see what was beyond the wall. She wondered who that man was and what was behind the wall.
Curiosity was the most special thing God had given to human beings. Everyone had it when they were young but as people grew older, some would lose that power, but some of them retained it. If the girl’s parents saw this man, they would think this man was crazy.
For the next few days, the girl saw the same thing. It felt like there was a big secret behind the wall.
One day, the man stopped and told the girl, “Come with us.”
The girl didn’t answer but she dreamt all about it. What was behind the wall, the girl desperately wanted to know.
That night, the girl saw a lot of shadows projected on her window curtain. The horrible howling came again. There were women’s shrill cries and screeching wails. The girl was reminded of a piano tune she had been practicing called Lamentation Concerto.
Her neighbours were used to this kind of life. Someone tried to chase away the strays before, but brute force and poison were ineffective. Perhaps this was the cats’ territory to begin with. This continued for half a month and everyone had gotten used to it.
The sounds finally stopped after late midnight.
The next morning, the girl learned with shock that her mother didn’t wake her up early in the morning for piano practice. The girl’s mother was nowhere to be seen at noon. The girl was hungry but she still climbed onto the balcony. She waited and waited but the cats didn’t show up. What happened?
The sky darkened and the girl’s parents still hadn’t returned home. The girl opened the front door and went out.
She squatted down before the dark hole. She looked into the hole and saw nothing. After giving it some thought, the girl decided to crawl through it.
…
The story ended there. After reading the story, everyone felt strangely oppressive and uncomfortable. Different from the previous story, this tale was written in the 3rd person perspective. It described the story of the girl and the group of stray cats from the perspective of an observer.
“The question is, who died?” Captain Zhao sat before the table and asked.
Everyone was silent when Captain Lee asked, “No, the question is where the location described in the story is.”
The two shared a look but didn’t say anything. One continued to turn his tea cup, the other kept on smoking. The subordinates like us didn’t know what to say so we kept quiet.
After a while, I decided I needed to say something, “Well, we should just assume every character mentioned in the story might be in danger. From the start of the story, we knew the boss of an adult toy store had gone missing, this woman might be dead. Then we found out the girl’s parents have gone missing, so they might be dead too.” The group turned to me and I continued, “Then there is a girl and a cat-like man dressed in black, one is the protagonist and the other the killer. If the killer really goes after the protagonist like the last case, then we should assume the girl is in danger too.”
Captain Zhao slammed on the table and said, “Since the boss has gone missing, then there will be a record. Search for the business records in Dong Xing City.”
Captain Lee took a puff of smoke and said, “But that will be such a huge workload. How many such stores are there and where are they normally distributed? Plus we can’t even tell if the boss has really gone missing, perhaps she merely has gone out on a holiday…”
“Look into this!” Captain Zhao told Mary, “If it’s a registered business, we’ll find traces of it.” Mary nodded and searched through the database on the business registry website. The list only stopped half an hour later. Mary counted the numbers, “Thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, I have no idea there are so many sex stores at Dong Xing City, just how sex-deprived are these people…”
Captain Lee shook his head. “Several hundred thousands? Even if we send out every officer, it’ll take days. In the previous story, the time between the story being posted and the actual murder is only 1 day apart. We won’t have enough time.”
I interrupted Captain Lee, “We won’t look through hundreds of thousands of them, the story did mention the girl’s house. It is in an old building. Dong Xing City is an expanding metropolis, the old houses are located at the western side of the city. And I doubt there are many buildings with open balconies.”
Captain Zhao turned to Mary. “Call all the stations in the city west now. Have them look for buildings with open balconies, the building shouldn’t be taller than 7 storeys.”
“Then what should we do in the meantime?” Xiao Liu asked.
Everyone turned to him but no one answered.
I said, “We analyze the story. What is the story trying to tell us and how did or would the people die?”
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