by Gangxueyin
“Does everyone clearly understand Professor Han’s instructions?” the bureau chief asked. “Ye Xi will be in charge of the search in the area around the victim’s home. Work the Internet cafés and arcades.”
As soon as the bureau chief gave the order, everyone snapped into action. Han Yin followed Ye Xi, Kang Xiaobei, and the others as they rushed to their search points.
There were about fifty huts within a radius of a hundred yards of the home of Liu Xiaohua, the first missing child. Eight dilapidated buildings. The renters were basically migrant workers. At this hour, most of them were out working, and there were very few people at home. The search group couldn’t just break in, so they climbed the walls to get into the yard and peered through windows. The landlords brought keys, and the search moved rather slowly.
For every hour that passed, the child’s situation grew more precarious. Worry was etched in everyone’s faces. Luckily, one team had described the killer’s profile to the Internet café managers and customers, and several of them thought of a man nicknamed Geezer. He had a northeastern accent. His real name and residence were unknown, but he probably lived in the neighborhood.
Han Yin, Ye Xi, and several others combed the area, asking people about Geezer, the man with a northeastern accent. The results came surprisingly easily. At the entrance to a narrow alley south of the girl’s home, there were several older men gathered around playing chess. They said that Geezer frequently hung out in the alley and would watch them play. One of the men pointed to where Geezer lived.
It was a gray and extremely run-down two-story building. In the middle of the courtyard, a brick wall separated the structure into east and west sides. Each side of the building had a doorway, and each had a courtyard with its own entrance. The door on the east courtyard was locked with a big padlock. The door on the west side was tightly shut. It couldn’t be opened and was locked from the inside. The heavy smell of distilling liquor wafted from the courtyard.
At Kang Xiaobei’s fierce knocking, the courtyard door on the west side opened a crack, exposing the head of a fat middle-aged woman. At first she was rather angry but panicked when she saw all the police officers surrounding the door.
“Who are you . . . looking for?”
“Is this your home?” asked Kang Xiaobei.
“I . . . I rent here,” she said with a tremble in her voice.
“Open the door! There’s a strong smell of booze coming from the courtyard,” said Kang Xiaobei.
The fat woman reluctantly opened the door, bowed her head, and rubbed the lapel of her blouse. “Me and my man have a bulk liquor business.”
Ye Xi glanced around the small courtyard on the west side. There was some equipment for making liquor. It was obvious this was an illegal setup.
“Who lives here?”
“The landlord and his wife. I live on the west side. A thirty-year-old man lives on the east side.”
Just then, a short man who looked to be in his midfifties came down the steps of the gray building along the east side of the outer wall. The fat woman looked as if her savior had just appeared and pointed to the short man. “He’s the landlord. Whatever you want to know, you can ask him.” With that, she quickly withdrew into her own little yard.
“Who lives here?” asked Ye Xi, indicating the small courtyard on the east side.
“Why?”
“Where’s he from? What does he do? What’s his name?”
“The Northeast, I think. Seems to do casual work. I don’t really know. We all go in and out through our own doors. I rent him a room, and we usually have no contact.”
“Do you have the key?” Kang Xiaobei motioned toward the east gate.
“Yes,” said the landlord. He unhitched a string of keys hanging from his belt and unlocked the gate.
They all went into the yard. It was about twenty square feet. Inside the house was a locked main room. It was divided into an outer and inner part. The outer part had a passageway and a kitchen. The inner part should have been used as a bedroom, but a curtain over the little window blocked the view inside. Ye Xi signaled the landlord to open the door.
He opened it. An odor like smelly feet. The landlord walked ahead of them through the passageway and turned into the inner room. They heard a piercing shriek, and the man slumped to the floor. Han Yin, Ye Xi, and Kang Xiaobei lunged into the room and froze in their tracks.
In the dismal twilight was a veritable hell. The gray walls were spattered with filth and blood. Under the window was a broad wooden bed with a sheet so threadbare that its color and patterns were indistinguishable. On the bed were four black corpses, completely desiccated and emanating a faintly rank stench. The corpses had been disemboweled, and their genitals were cut off. Some were missing parts of their faces—eyes gouged out, ears and nose sliced off—and some had their limbs mutilated.
What kind of devil was this?
It was like finding themselves in the land of the damned. And the murderer had slept with the bodies for days on end—was he vying for the lowest pit of human cruelty? And where was the boy who had gone missing this morning? What kind of savagery would he meet?
The four corpses had to be the missing boys. And now only Liu Xiaohua’s body was missing. Ye Xi and the others discovered a plastic bucket about three feet high, sealed with cement at the top. Liu Xiaohua’s body was probably trapped inside. After they broke through the cement, they discovered yet another boy’s body in an advanced stage of decomposition. It appeared that the actual number of the killer’s victims went beyond their expectations. So where was the little girl’s corpse? Did her disappearance not have anything to do with the crimes that followed?
This possibility was quickly vetoed. The search team found many pieces of children’s clothing and pairs of shoes. Among these were the blouse and pants Liu Xiaohua had been wearing when she disappeared. In addition, in the pocket of a Western-style shirt hanging on the wall, they found the killer’s ID. His name was Guan Bo, and he came from a city in the Northeast.
The information about the perpetrator was promptly relayed to the command post. Because the killer still held a boy, the bureau chief ordered a number of police officers to keep a low profile while searching the East Red Flag Street district. Ye Xi’s team was ordered to deploy around this location and wait for the killer. The bureau chief’s office also contacted the Public Security Bureau in the killer’s hometown and quickly passed on his information.
Guan Bo, born in 1979, had a junior high school education, was unmarried, and had previously worked in an auto parts factory. In June 2002, he was convicted of statutory rape for cohabiting with a fourteen-year-old girl and was sentenced to eight years in prison. The sentence was completed in 2010, and he was released. At the end of 2010, he left his hometown for an unknown destination.
About an hour later, a thin bald man came into view. The landlord identified him as Guan Bo. Ye Xi ordered Kang Xiaobei and three others to surround him, and they quickly subdued him.
Kang Xiaobei dragged Guan Bo into the police car, where he faced Han Yin, who was sitting next to him. Guan Bo snarled and said, “Just shoot me now! I was sick of life a long time ago!”
“Tell us about the little boy you kidnapped this morning,” Ye Xi said from the front.
“What little boy? I don’t know what you’re talking about!” A brief smile flitted across Guan Bo’s face.
It was the tiniest of movements, but Han Yin caught it. Ye Xi’s question seemed to have excited him. Guan Bo constantly needed control. Getting him to come out with the little boy’s whereabouts wouldn’t be easy. Han Yin pondered how to break through.
“This is your only chance. Now, come clean! Where’s the child?” Ye Xi asked.
“I really don’t know.” Guan Bo’s face turned innocent. “The child you’re looking for has nothing to do with me. I’m in enough trouble, so what would one more kid be to me?”
What Guan Bo said had some truth to it. For him, capital punishment was inevitabl
e, so one more victim didn’t make any difference. Ye Xi was very worried. She couldn’t get inside this kind of perverted killer’s mind. The killer lived for pursuit, domination, manipulation, and control. With this kind of mind, a detective couldn’t think using normal logic.
“So then what happened?” Han Yin asked Guan Bo. “What turned you into this?”
Guan Bo froze, then turned to look out the window. He sighed. “Just fate, I guess. In the beginning, I had very good prospects. The factory recommended me for admission to the university. When I graduated and returned to the factory, it went belly-up. I think if my luck had been a little better, I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“I can help you straighten things out.” Han Yin knew being recommended for entry into the university existed only in Guan Bo’s imagination. Guan Bo believed that when he needed to and would masquerade as a victim. Han Yin snorted. “The PSB in your hometown sent the information about you, so I have a pretty good idea about your past. So tell me, back when you went to prison for having sexual relations with an underage girl, what did you feel?”
“Bitter and cheated.” Guan Bo turned to look at Han Yin.
“And what did you feel about that girl?”
“Resentment.”
“Then later, what happened between you two?”
“Nothing. I went looking for her after I got out, but she and her family had moved away.”
“So you felt cheated? Did you especially hate the girl? You paid with eight years of your youth and got nothing for it. And you thought she had moved to get away from you, right?”
“Hmm,” Guan Bo said, nodding as a visible pain crossed his face.
“So, last year, when you saw the wide-eyed, innocent Liu Xiaohua carrying her backpack, you suddenly thought of the girl who’d sent you to prison. Like the devil you are, you fiendishly tricked her into coming into your home, then raped and killed her, yes?”
“Yes.” Guan Bo looked up. There was an indolence in his eyes, as if he were recalling a marvelously pleasant experience. “I said I was sick, feeling weak, and got her to help me to my door. Then I strangled her.”
“And the corpse?” Ye Xi asked.
“I burned her up in the furnace. Got rid of the bones and ashes in the Heavens Internet Café toilet.”
“So why did you kill the other children?” Ye Xi asked.
“Maybe it makes me a homosexual. I don’t know. After I had sex with them, I was afraid of being reported to the police, so I killed them.”
“No. That’s not it,” said Han Yin. “Years ago, you were convicted of having sexual relations with an underage girl and went to prison for it. No doubt the days there weren’t pleasant. You were anally raped, I suppose?”
“That’s crazy. Nothing like that happened at all!” Guan Bo scrunched up his nose and raised the pitch of his voice to a near roar.
“No need to get all excited. The movement of your nose expressed your extreme disgust. And that answers my question. At that moment, you felt total humiliation and disgrace. You felt your entire existence had been defiled. You felt a helplessness you had never experienced. After it was over, you thought of dying, but you lacked the guts to kill yourself. You were no longer the person you were before. After the rape, you inflicted your own carnage on new prisoners. As you hurt them, they uttered helpless and wretched moans that excited you. You couldn’t tell if that was your physical need or your psychological one. In short, when you tricked those boys into coming to your home, you inflicted intimidation and whippings, and under your abusive power, they showed panic and terror. They submitted to your manipulation, and that excited you even more. And once they started to fall apart mentally, they began to implore you over and over to let them go, even kneeling before you. Then you panicked because in them you saw yourself. That pain of total humiliation and helplessness started to tear your heart apart, and you couldn’t help wanting to kill them, in turn killing your own weak self.”
Guan Bo’s head sunk in visible defeat. Han Yin softened his tone and, in a pretense of sincerity, said, “Maybe a lot of people would think you were crazy, a pervert. It’s impossible for them to understand you. But I can. In a certain way, you’re a victim too. An unjust fate ruined your future, and a woman’s disloyalty destroyed you. Once a thief, always a thief. After you went to prison, everyone despised you. No one gave you a chance or a sliver of respect.” Han Yin paused. “You’d like to be respected? I’m willing to give that to you. I can give you the chance to correct your mistakes. You can win my respect. Just tell me where the boy is.”
Silence filled the car. Guan Bo kept rubbing his hands together. Han Yin and Ye Xi repressed their feelings of anxiety and tension as they waited.
A moment later, Guan Bo slowly raised his head and, heaving a deep sigh, softly said, “The child’s in the grill house beside the Heavens Internet Café. Last night at the Internet café, I heard a girl had been kidnapped on East Red Flag Street and felt an indescribable impulse. I waited all night at the café but didn’t find anyone worth taking. This morning, as I was walking home, I ran into that boy. I tricked him into going to the grill house next to the café. The restaurant had gone under recently, so no one was there. There was a broken refrigerator inside, so I tied the kid up and hid him in there. I was thinking I’d go back this evening and carry him home and really take care of him.”
“The child’s still alive?” Ye Xi anxiously asked.
“The fridge is broken,” he said, nodding.
Ye Xi picked up the walkie-talkie. “All teams, alert! The child’s in a refrigerator at the grill house next to the Heavens Internet Café. All teams, alert! The child’s in a refrigerator at the grill house next to the Heavens Internet Café.”
Five minutes later, a police officer’s voice came over the walkie-talkie. “The child’s been rescued, with indications of sexual violation and abuse. He’s being sent to the hospital for treatment.”
Ye Xi glanced at Han Yin and smiled. Then she glared at Guan Bo. Han Yin looked out the car window. His expression was unusually grim—though the little girl, Wang Hong, and the boy, Guo Xin, were successfully rescued, their traumatic experiences would leave a profound shadow inside of them. Only with the love and care of their parents and the counseling of a specialized psychiatrist could they emerge from under that shadow.
Many police officers were at the crime scene and had found more than twenty pairs of children’s shoes. Perhaps inside the building, in the yard, in that hell on earth, were the wronged spirits of the buried children.
10
A CASE WITHIN A CASE
Darkness. Darkness again. Always darkness.
Why lock me up in the dark room?
Uncle, why have you always been so bad to me?
Mama, I’ll be good! Please let me out!
Mama, I’m scared! I’m so scared!
Daddy, Daddy, come home! Save me.
Bedroom in darkness, the man suddenly sprang up from the bed and wildly ran to the light switch on the wall. He went from the bedroom, to the bathroom, to the office, to the kitchen, and finally to another bedroom, turning on all the lights in the house.
He slumped by the doorway of the other bedroom, breathing heavily through his wide-open mouth. The woman on the bed moved around, turning her head to stare icily at the man, then buried her head again in sleep.
“Sorry . . . had a nightmare,” the man said.
One could say that in the child abuse case, Han Yin’s performance was nothing short of godlike. Considering this, it was supposed that the task force would quickly approve his analysis report on the Wang Li case, but unexpectedly, Hu Zhiguo and Fu Changlin, among others, were obstinately opposed. Fortunately, PSB Chief Wu was there to mediate. After several rounds of intense debate, they finally achieved unanimity. Chief Wu particularly emphasized that the earlier Yin Aijun case file was still open. The objective was to find the killer in the Wang Li case, using the investigation records and not a related-case investigation.
The killers in the two cases were absolutely not the same person. He hoped all the team members would maintain rationality in the investigation, avoid confusion, and focus on the Wang Li case. To placate Hu Zhiguo and Fu Changlin and some of the other officers, Chief Wu made compromises. He agreed that if valuable clues turned up related to the Yin Aijun case, adequate man power could be used to trace the leads. The chief also pointed out that there were limitations in the criminal profiling report. If, during the investigation, any suspect was discovered outside the scope of the report, then this person should be thoroughly investigated. Also, at Fu Changlin’s suggestion, the cold case officers Du Jun and Yao Gang would augment the task force.
Han Yin’s analysis report clearly pointed out that the killer in the Wang Li case had been investigated at the time of the Yin Aijun case. Although, in the subsequent profile, he provided additional background features of the killer. The scope was still broad, and he suggested that the task force investigate them in three types, based on the level of suspicion: First, the greatest suspicion or the people who had the most intimate contact with Yin Aijun that year—all her professors, classmates, coworkers, and friends. Next, people who had contact with her on a superficial level, mainly acquaintances at Old Capital University and professors of courses she hadn’t taken. Lastly, they’d target the suspects the police had repeatedly investigated.