by Zhou HaoHui
The time in the upper-left corners advanced second by second. When the timestamp read 23:35:12 the image jerked slightly. Pei noticed another change. The timestamp now read 23:39:21.
‘Pause it!’ he yelled.
Lieutenant Yin tapped a key and the timestamp froze.
There was a clear explanation for the five-minute interval: the first power outage.
The current image differed from the previous image in several ways. Firstly, Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng had both changed their positions. This struck Pei as particularly odd. Even if Brother Hua had given them relatively small doses of sleep medication, why had both men shifted simultaneously, especially after having stayed relatively still for the past several hours?
He also spotted two other changes. The curtain over the window had been pulled wide open. And, more obviously, a tall male figure was now standing on the west side of the room.
‘Eumenides!’ Lieutenant Yin said.
With his back to the cameras, the man approached the bed, taking slow, deliberate steps. Vice President Lin’s bed.
Pei recognised the figure instantly. He had studied it in security footage, surveillance footage and even in the videos that Eumenides himself had sent to the police. He was tall and athletic and wore tight-fitting clothes and a dark, wide-brimmed hat pulled low over his face. That silhouette, those precise, calculated steps – it certainly looked like the man who’d murdered businesswoman Ye Shaohong in front of the Deye Building.
Pei leant closer to the monitor. ‘He’s wearing gloves and shoe covers. We won’t find any trace evidence from Eumenides inside the office. Keep playing the footage.’
Yin tapped the keyboard and the male figure crept closer to the bed near the western wall. He stood over Vice President Lin’s sleeping figure like a tiger sizing up its prey. He was enjoying it.
Nausea roiled inside Pei’s stomach.
As the lights flashed back to life, the figure waved at the cameras. The blade in his hand glinted in the air.
‘He’s taunting us!’ Lieutenant Yin snarled.
The screen went dark. Clenching his teeth, Yin stabbed at the keyboard, but the recording had already reached its end. The timestamp was frozen at 23:39:32. Yin swivelled around in his seat and looked inquiringly at Pei.
‘How the hell did he get inside that room? Through the window?’
Pei shook his head. ‘He wants us to think that he came in via the window, but he didn’t. I examined the crime scene myself. There’s no way he could have got in through there.’
‘Then how did he do it? Is there another way into the office?’ Yin asked, scratching his head.
‘No, there isn’t.’
‘This just doesn’t make sense. The only way into the office was heavily guarded, and Brother Hua said that no one opened the doors. So how did he get in?’
‘Logically speaking, he shouldn’t have been able to get into the office,’ Pei murmured. Suddenly, his eyes gleamed. ‘Or maybe he didn’t enter or exit the office at all!’
Lieutenant Yin mulled this over for a moment. ‘You mean he was hiding inside the office all along? And then he slipped out into the dark… right when Brother Hua and Brother Long opened the doors?’
Pei stroked his chin. ‘From what I saw of the room, it would be tricky to hide someone in there. I doubt that an intruder was hidden inside the office before the doors were locked.’
‘But didn’t you just say that he didn’t go in or out of the room?’
‘I didn’t say that he was already inside. There’s another possibility – that he wasn’t inside the office at all.’
‘But…’ stuttered Yin, ‘there’s footage of him in there! He was there! We all just saw it.’
‘What we saw might not be what actually happened. Video recordings can be faked.’
‘You think someone doctored these recordings?’ Yin looked amazed. ‘Surely not. But then again, this is Eumenides we’re talking about.’
‘Indeed.’
‘Captain, you think he recorded the footage of himself entering the room beforehand? And that he was somehow able to digitally splice in the footage during the first power outage? That way, Brother Hua and Brother Long would assume that he’d just entered the office. So they’d run up to the office and open the door, and only then would Eumenides have used the cover of darkness to creep inside and assassinate the two vice presidents.’
Pei nodded and snapped his fingers. ‘We’ll have to test a few parts of that theory, but I think you’re on the right track.’
‘But that’s impossible!’ Brother Long interjected.
Pei and Yin both looked over at him.
‘When we entered the office, both Vice President Lin and Vice President Meng were dead,’ Long said, sitting up straighter in his chair. ‘There’s no way he got in after we opened the doors. I was the first inside. When I ran over to Vice President Lin, I stepped in a pool of blood next to his bed. One of my men came over with a flashlight and I saw that his throat had been cut. The situation you just described could not have happened.’
Pei tapped his knuckles against the armrest. ‘Play that last section of the recording again. Start from the first power outage.’
Lieutenant Yin started the video from 23:35:00.
Pei kept his eyes trained on the right-hand monitor, which displayed the western half of the room.
At 23:35:12 the image on the screen jumped to 23:39:21.
‘I guess we were wrong after all. This video is real,’ Pei muttered.
‘How can you tell?’
‘Look at the clock above the window.’
Lieutenant Yin did just that. There was an analogue clock above the window; it was displayed on the right-hand monitor, just like the intruder was. ‘The time’s correct!’ he said.
According to the times displayed on the monitors, the electricity was cut at 23:35:12, and the backup generators started at 23:39:21. A close look at the clock showed that the time displayed before the outage was 11:34 and that the second hand was at the forty-five-second mark. The time displayed after the power returned was 11:38 and fifty-four seconds. Despite the difference between the times displayed on the clock and the monitor, the gaps were identical.
‘Was there any delay between when Hua’s men tried to activate the generator and when the generator actually came on?’ Pei asked Brother Long.
‘No. They told us that the generator started up right away. Keeping it running was the issue.’
That confirmed it, Pei thought. The video had to be authentic. Even if Eumenides had been able to control the timing of the power outage to the very second, he couldn’t have known the exact time that Hua’s people would turn the generator on. Eumenides was good, but he wasn’t that good.
All the evidence pointed to one conclusion. A tall male had indeed entered the tightly guarded office at 23:39:21. He had a sharp blade with him, which he put to devastating use. But where had he come from, and how did he escape after committing the murders? These questions still perplexed Pei.
‘Tell TSO Zeng and Ms Mu to come over,’ he told Lieutenant Yin. ‘The task force will hold a meeting here at four.’
13
INVESTIGATING THE CRIME SCENE
4 a.m.
The Longyu Building
With the exception of SPU Captain Liu, who was busy watching over the journalist Du Mingqiang, all the members of the task force were at the meeting in the first-floor security hub. They were seated around a small rectangular table strewn with printouts of security footage.
Lieutenant Yin was explaining to Ms Mu and TSO Zeng what they’d learnt since their initial inspection of the office.
‘We’ve already determined the cause of the power outage. Someone planted a timed charge on the power line leading to the building’s primary power supply. It was a weak explosive, but the detonation was hot enough to melt the insulation coating the line and short out the power. The backup generator was tampered with as well. Three of the fo
ur lines leaving the generator had been cut, forcing the intact line to carry four times its normal load. The generator overheated and shorted out mere seconds after it was activated.’
‘That’s intriguing,’ Zeng said. ‘If he wanted to sabotage the generator, why didn’t he cut all four lines? Why leave one intact?’
‘He wanted us to see what the cameras recorded during those few seconds,’ Ms Mu said. Her mind was starting to put the pieces together. ‘But why? To show off? To provoke us?’
‘Lieutenant Yin and I did some brainstorming before you two arrived. Our conclusions were shaky at best,’ Captain Pei said. ‘But seeing as almost everyone is here, it wouldn’t hurt to do a recap. Our initial thoughts were that the video recorded after the first outage was a fake. In other words, that no one had entered the room after all. Eumenides’ reason for doing this would have been to trick Brother Hua, Brother Long and the others into opening the doors to the office, at which point he could sneak in and kill the two vice presidents under the cover of darkness.’
TSO Zeng slapped the table. ‘That would actually make a lot of sense!’
‘How difficult would it be to fake that footage?’ Pei asked him.
‘A piece of cake,’ Zeng said, waggling his eyebrows. ‘Think about it. Everything you see on these screens consists of electronic signals transmitted from a terminal point. If the point in question is a security camera, then what we see here are the signals sent by that device. If Eumenides wanted to fake the security footage, all he had to do was disconnect the camera’s transmission cable during the first power outage and connect it to a device of his own. When the power came back on, the security monitors would display the image he provided. Then, when the generator shorted out and the building went dark again, he’d simply have to reconnect the camera’s output and the video feed would return to normal without anyone knowing that it had changed.’
Pei wasn’t convinced. ‘What about the time displayed on the video? How would he have pulled that off?’
‘That’s an easy one. The time on the footage is generated by the security system, regardless of the source of the video. In other words, Eumenides could have played any video through the system and the time would have matched up with when it was played.’
Pei pointed at the still image currently displayed on the monitor. ‘But what about the time on that clock? It doesn’t match up exactly with the time on the display, but the length of the gaps between the power outages is consistent.’
‘Hmmm…’ Zeng winced. ‘Now that’s impressive. I have no idea how he could have done that, other than with an extreme case of good luck.’
‘We must have missed something.’ Pei frowned. ‘Some detail that’s staring us right in the face.’
A phone rang and Yin jumped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile. ‘This is Lieutenant Yin.’ He listened to the other end for about fifteen seconds, nodding intermittently. ‘I see,’ he said finally, then ended the call and placed his phone on the table.
The other team members looked on expectantly, but Yin turned directly to Captain Pei.
‘They’ve found Eumenides’ clothes, Captain! They’re covered in blood.’
Pei shot out of his chair. ‘Take me there.’
*
The Longyu Building boasted a luxurious lobby on its ground floor, behind which was a terrace that protruded out beyond the swooping curve that made up the building’s rear side. The terrace was planted with a lush garden, complete with hedges and trees, but despite its obvious attractions it was one of the building’s least frequented areas.
It was at the edge of the terrace that one of the police officers found an athletic backpack.
As Pei approached the unzipped backpack, he donned a pair of nitrile gloves. A rolled-up bundle of clothes lay on the ground beside the backpack, where the other officers had placed it. On top of the bundle was a pair of white gauze gloves stained with blood.
Pei dropped the gloves into a plastic evidence bag and unrolled the bundle. It contained a bloody shirt, a black hat and a pair of plastic shoe covers. As he examined each item, he compared them to his mental image of the figure in the security footage. Everything matched. When he opened the bag’s front pouch, he made an even more damning discovery: a razor blade smeared with partially congealed blood. The blade was sharp – it accidently sliced the index finger of his left glove as he placed it into an evidence bag.
‘This must have been Eumenides’ escape route,’ Lieutenant Yin said. ‘I’ll bet he prepared a clean set of clothes beforehand and stashed them here. Once he’d pulled off the murders, he changed out of his bloody clothes, hid his weapon and made his escape.’
‘It actually wouldn’t have been that difficult to escape from here,’ Ms Mu said, looking down from the edge of the terrace. ‘It’s only a few metres’ drop to the ground from here. I doubt that would have been much of a challenge for Eumenides. What we should be asking ourselves is how he got to the terrace from the eighteenth floor. I’m assuming he didn’t fly all the way down?’
Pei stood up and studied the trees that encircled the terrace. ‘Do another thorough check in these trees,’ he said, gesturing at them with a circular motion of his hand. Several officers obediently hurried into the greenery.
Just three minutes later, a cry came out from a clump of pine trees. ‘There’s a rope here!’
Pei and the other officers sprinted over. A long, messy coil of rope lay next to the tree. Bending over, Pei twisted a length of it between his fingers. The rope was barely as thick as his pinkie.
‘Whoever used this knows his stuff,’ one of the officers said. ‘That’s the kind of rope professional climbers use.’
‘I can see that using that to climb down from the office is theoretically feasible – but to get all the way down to the terrace in that time?’ Ms Mu muttered. ‘To avoid being caught by the security cameras outside, he’d have had to start climbing as soon as the power was lost. Could he have made it down eighteen floors in four minutes? Where would he have anchored the rope and how would he have retrieved it once he landed?’ She paced the scene, shaking her head as she pondered.
‘Due to the building’s steep concave curve, anyone climbing out of the eighteenth-floor window would almost immediately find themselves suspended in mid-air,’ Pei said as he gazed straight up. ‘It would be relatively easy to slide down, but to climb up from below would require extraordinary strength and endurance.’
‘Now that we’ve found this rope, we can assume that he probably entered and exited via the window,’ Lieutenant Yin concluded. ‘And we have a fair idea as to Eumenides’ skills. As for how he accomplished such a feat, I’d like to ask our friends in the SPU.’
At that moment, SPU Captain Liu emerged from the staircase and quickly jogged over to the others.
‘What are you doing here?’ Pei asked, concerned. ‘You’re supposed to be guarding Du Mingqiang.’
‘I brought him with me. He’s in the building right now, as a matter of fact. My people are watching him. He couldn’t be safer if we locked him inside a bank vault.’
‘Fine.’
‘What’s the situation here?’ Liu asked eagerly.
‘You see the office window?’ Lieutenant Yin said, pointing upwards.
Liu squinted up at the building. ‘The one that’s dark except for that single light?’
‘That’s the one.’ Yin gestured down at his feet. ‘Take a close look at this rope. Could it have been used to climb down from that window?’
‘From that high? You’d have to hang in mid-air. I definitely wouldn’t be able to pull that off.’
‘Then how would someone have managed it?’ Pei asked.
Liu registered the grim expressions on the faces of Captain Pei, Lieutenant Yin and the others on the terrace. They needed answers. ‘Everyone in the SPU has to renew their climbing certification every year. That includes a vertical rope climb. The highest we attempt is about twenty metres. Any higher and the
line starts to swing out of control. Not to mention the physical strain required to maintain your grip for that length of time.’
Rubbing his jaw, Pei ruminated on his colleague’s words. Liu was one of the SPU’s best officers; Pei was even willing to bet that he would stand a decent chance against Eumenides in a one-on-one fight. If even SPU Captain Liu thought such a task was difficult, would Eumenides have been able to manage it in only four minutes?
A voice from the greenery interrupted Pei’s thoughts. ‘Have a look over here, Captain! We’ve found something.’
Pei sprinted to the terrace’s western side and the other officers followed. A white piece of styrofoam lay among the trees. Stray pieces of styrofoam were nothing unusual in Chengdu, but this one had a small patch of blood on it, which instantly drew Pei’s interest. He picked it up with his gloved hands and examined it. Its thin, curved shape reminded him of the distinctive roof tiles found in traditional Chinese architecture.
Ms Mu edged to the front of the group. ‘What’s that doing here?’ she asked, inclining her head at the chunk of styrofoam.
‘No idea,’ Yin said. ‘Looks like it might have come from a box or something.’
An idea came to Pei and he eyeballed a couple of his officers. ‘Go to the main entrance, step outside and continue walking west for about twenty metres. You should see an identical piece of styrofoam on the street. Bring it back here.’
The men immediately jogged to the entrance. Noting the confused expressions around him, Pei explained. ‘I saw a piece of styrofoam out on the street when I first arrived, but I didn’t think anything of it until I saw this one. There’s something odd about the shape of these two pieces, but I’m not quite sure what yet.’
Lieutenant Yin inspected it closely. ‘It looks like Eumenides grabbed this piece before he changed out of his clothes. When he did that, the blood on his gloves rubbed onto it.’ He held his hand up against the styrofoam as if he was about to grab it. The shape between his thumb and forefinger was a close match for the stain.