by Gangxueyin
“Oh. So that was it.” Han Yin reflected for a moment. Then he took out his cell phone, checked the phone records, recited two dates, and asked Su Jin if she could remember where she was then and what she was doing.
“What does that matter? I thought you wanted to talk about Yin Aijun’s case. Why are you asking about me?” This had taken Su Jin by surprise. She looked baffled.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t go into case details with you. I realize asking these kinds of questions out of the blue is a little surprising. Please don’t take offense.”
“Of course I take offense, but I don’t have anything to hide, either.” Su Jin’s face darkened. “Those two days I was at my grandma’s home. Last month, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. My husband and I moved in with her to make taking care of her easier. We only go between work, home, and the hospital. We never went out in the evening or late at night. My husband, my grandpa, and the caretaker can all vouch for me.”
She was confident about her witnesses and looked exhausted from dealing with her grandmother’s illness. Han Yin put the subject aside for the time being and again expressed his deepest apologies. But he didn’t stop asking what she’d been doing around New Year’s.
Su Jin needed to think for a moment. “On New Year’s Eve, my hubby and I hosted a dinner party at the New Territory Gourmet Palace for our employees. After dinner, we all went to the Manhattan Bar to ring in the New Year. Then we wanted a change of scene and went to another bar called Night Colors. As for the other days, the first was the holiday, and we went back to work after that.”
Su Jin looked up at Han Yin with a trace of hostility in her eyes. “I just don’t understand. Why am I being dragged into your investigation? Why did you come looking for me?”
Han Yin had finally run out of patience and said, “Around New Year’s, another corpse dismemberment occurred. It has a number of similarities to the Yin Aijun case. You haven’t heard anything about it?”
“No.” Su Jin’s face went blank. “I really haven’t. I’ve been so consumed with taking care of my grandma and dealing with her illness. I’m not very connected to the outside world, you know?” Su Jin seemed a little more relaxed. “Did the killer strike again since?”
“I’m not allowed to talk about the case.” Han Yin paused. “I can’t divulge how we choose our suspects. But I can tell you that anyone who had contact with Yin Aijun is in a prime target for our investigation. So, again, please don’t be upset by my abruptness.”
“I understand.” Su Jin seemed less guarded now. She smiled and said, “I’ve explained where I was around New Year’s. Will this free me from suspicion?”
“Of course, but I’ll have to ask your staff to verify everything,” said Han Yin, also smiling.
“No problem. Ask anyone. That night they were all at the Manhattan Bar, going crazy.” Su Jin was clearly eager to prove her innocence.
“Wait a minute. Did you just say the Manhattan Bar?”
Su Jin vigorously nodded, and Han Yin silently cursed himself for almost letting out an important clue. Wasn’t the Manhattan Bar the last place Wang Li had been seen? So Wang Li and Su Jin were at the same bar that night. How could that be a mere coincidence?
“About what time did you leave the Manhattan Bar to go to the other place?”
“Just after the countdown. The old man said it wasn’t lively enough, so we left.” Su Jin frowned. “It was probably around one a.m.”
The exact time Wang Li had left the bar. Han Yin said, “You’re sure it was around one a.m.?”
“Yes. Why does that even matter?” She slowly nodded and said, “It would have been about that time. I remember glancing at my watch. I can check with my staff or my old man.” Su Jin took out her phone; then she stopped and sighed. “Ah, it’d be no use. They were all pretty drunk at the time.” Su Jin’s eyes lit up. “Wait! I remember that when we left the Manhattan, I bumped into one of the beauty parlor staff just outside. How about I give her a call and ask if she knows when it was?” She searched through her phone. “I don’t seem to have her number.” She picked up her desk phone, punched a button, and said, “Marketing department, this is Su Jin. Please get me the telephone number of an employee. Her name is Wang . . . right, Wang Li.”
What? Wang Li? How could this be? The Manhattan Bar? One a.m.? The same Wang Li who was the victim of the recent dismemberment case? Han Yin pulled out his cell phone and searched for the picture of her. He held up the phone for Su Jin. “Is this her?”
Su Jin glanced at the cell phone. “Yeah.”
Han Yin said, “You can put the phone down now. Wang Li’s the victim in our case.”
“Ah!” Su Jin opened her mouth and stared, wide-eyed. She couldn’t speak.
“Other than the killer, you may have been the last person to see Wang Li alive. Please tell me about your encounter with her that night. All the details. And try hard not to leave anything out.”
Su Jin was still in shock. She held tightly to the receiver and looked dazed. Han Yin repeated himself, and it brought her back.
She put down the phone and tried to smile. “I’m so embarrassed. I really never thought two terrible crimes like that could ever be linked to me.” Su Jin coughed, then said with a steady voice, “A bunch of us came out of the Manhattan, and I saw Wang Li standing by the side of the road, waiting for a cab. I went over to say hello and asked why she was leaving so early. She said she wasn’t feeling well and was heading home to rest. But she wasn’t signaling for a cab. I said it was too bad, because we were going to be having a lot of fun; otherwise, I’d get her home myself. She smiled and thanked me. After that, we parted, and that was it.”
“There’s more. Think carefully. After you parted, were you still near the bar entrance?”
Su Jin thought for a moment. “Um, right. And I was the only one who stayed relatively clearheaded since I can’t drink. The rest of our group was pretty far gone. My old man was really drunk. We walked down a bit, and just before going into Night Colors, he squatted by the road and barfed. I stood beside him and rubbed his back. When I wiped his mouth with my handkerchief, I turned and saw Wang Li was now at the street corner. A car stopped. She looked into the car, then opened the door and got in. After that, I helped my husband into the bar.”
“What was the make of the car? Model? Color? Anything?” Han Yin asked.
She squinted and thought for a minute or two. “I didn’t see clearly. It was pretty far away, and the light was bad. It looked like a sedan.”
The moment he heard Su Jin’s story, Han Yin became extremely excited. Su Jin’s inability to provide more information on the car was a big letdown, but he’d learned where and how Wang Li had disappeared. If what Su Jin said was true, Wang Li had gotten into the car on her own. This meant that she and the killer knew each other and might have been friends. It also meant that Han Yin’s description of the relationship between killer and victim had been wrong. Han Yin had thought that although the object of the killer’s desire to seek revenge for himself or punish another had been a fixed image, the place and time of abduction clearly lacked premeditation and showed a certain opportunism and luck. That is to say, the two hadn’t known each other.
Now he was terribly torn between being overjoyed and being upset. Upset because of such a big discrepancy between what he’d just found out and his report. He didn’t know how he’d face his colleagues, especially Ye Xi, someone who’d given light to his recent life. He was overjoyed because if there had been some kind of social interaction between Wang Li and her killer, the range of suspects would shrink. Hope for catching the killer had greatly increased.
Of course, that was just Su Jin’s story. After leaving the beauty parlor, Han Yin located her husband and paid a visit to her grandfather and the caretaker. He was able to cross Su Jin off his list.
Han Yin left Su Jin’s grandmother’s house and strolled aimlessly along the main road. He was utterly confused. Granted, criminal profiling was a branch of a
cademia and not a science and could never be airtight or error-free, but still, this error had been substantial. It was impossible for him to forgive himself for making such a big mistake in his report. He was so ashamed to face Ye Xi. Aside from his strong feelings for her, he couldn’t bear the idea of her losing her unshakeable trust in him.
How could he face her now? How could he explain this? How would he repair it?
Too involved. That must have been it. A lecturer at a police academy or a full-time academic or a policeman—all these professions had to observe and use objective facts. This was a social responsibility and came from professional ethics. “Involvement” was a form of self-comforting, a word of self-reproach, self-pity. In the end, you had to keep to the bottom line: you couldn’t fix one mistake with another.
Han Yin knew he had to get back on the case. If the lives of the killer and the victim intersected, then he had to reexamine Wang Li’s social sphere. It was crucial to reread her entire case file and faithfully report the new clues to Ye Xi.
Han Yin pulled his phone from his pocket, and, looking defeated, called Ye Xi.
Ye Xi had been calmer than he’d expected. When they met, Han Yin was clearly embarrassed. Ye Xi consoled him, then asked if it was possible that the killer, since he’d been acquainted with Wang Li, also had a connection with Yin Aijun.
That was definitely a possibility. And if this was the case, even though the direction of the previous investigation had been skewed, it didn’t affect the outcome! Ye Xi’s words were like a shot of adrenaline. Everything suddenly brightened for Han Yin, and his spirits rallied.
After this, they reviewed the Wang Li file, starting with her social connections and screening for people whose lives may have intersected with her and the case itself. The results were disappointing. Next, they carefully studied the notes on every suspect who’d been investigated. But nothing raised suspicion. The files showed that every alibi related to the crime scene held water. But this didn’t mean there wasn’t a killer among these suspects. Maybe some of them had given false testimony. So, Han Yin and Ye Xi considered age, vehicles, residences, and so on. It was getting toward evening, and they had to pause their detailed search through the data and leave it for tomorrow.
They put away the files around eight o’clock, and Han Yin suggested going to Night Colors to do a little test. He wanted to verify whether, at night and from the entryway of the bar, it would have really been impossible to distinguish the color and make of a sedan parked at the end of the street. It wasn’t because he didn’t believe Su Jin. She had been focused on looking after her inebriated husband and hadn’t realized anything was amiss. The details of the car may have been within her range of vision but were ignored by her brain. If the results of this on-site test proved positive, Han Yin could apply “cognitive conversation” to possibly dig up that memory.
Han Yin and Ye Xi stood in the doorway of Night Colors, facing the street, looking north.
Bar Street was located just south of New Territory Plaza. The street was about five hundred yards. Night Colors was situated in the middle, about two hundred and fifty yards from the end. Such a distance would be clearly visible during the day. However, at night, the visibility would be substantially reduced. And despite the streetlights, the ginkgo trees that lined sidewalks were excessively dense, so either side of the street was heavily shadowed.
They stopped in front of Night Colors and looked out. Anything other than a bright color, like yellow or the red of Wang Li’s cashmere overcoat, would be hard to distinguish clearly, including car details. Su Jin hadn’t been wrong.
Han Yin and Ye Xi strolled up to the traffic circle in the plaza. Regrettably, Traffic Surveillance and Control had been set up at the next intersection. If the killer had turned right at that next crossing, he’d have escaped the surveillance camera. The next traffic surveillance camera was separated at the center of Bar Street by a side lane. If the killer had turned in and squeezed through there, he would have most likely evaded surveillance.
As they stood at the end of the street, discussing the traffic cameras, a car pulled up. The passenger window opened, and the driver strained to lean over. “Where you going?”
Han Yin and Ye Xi looked at each other.
“Get in. I run an honest business. I guarantee you won’t get ripped off.”
At that point, they understood. Of course! A pirate taxi! Ye Xi moved to wave him off, but Han Yin saw this and caught her arm, restraining his excitement and the pulse between them. He whispered into her ear, “I get it now. There was nothing wrong with my report, nor was there anything wrong with our investigation of Wang Li’s connections. The car she got into that night was a pirate taxi!”
“Or the killer pretended to be a pirate taxi and lured her in that way,” said Ye Xi.
They exchanged looks and nodded. Then they got into the car. Ye Xi sat next to the driver, and Han Yin got in the back. The driver put the car in gear and asked for a destination. Ye Xi scowled, pointed to the curb, and told him to pull over there.
The driver sensed something and stopped the car. “I beg your pardon, but you’re not plainclothes cops out busting fares, are you? Please let me go. I’ve got people at home who depend on me. I can’t afford to go to jail!”
Ye Xi showed him her badge. The driver let out a deep sigh.
“All right, we have questions,” Ye Xi said.
“Ask. Please. Anything. Whatever I know, I’ll tell it straight.”
“How many years have you driven pirate taxis? How’s business?”
“Two years. Business isn’t bad. This is our busiest street and the best area for nightlife. So lots of people take pirate taxis. There aren’t enough legit ones. Also, tons of people around here are working the night shift. Plus, young ladies and such. They all prefer to use us. Several of them share a car. A few bucks each, that’s all. In a real taxi, everyone’s got to pay full fare.”
“About how many pirate taxis work this street?”
“Hard to say. Everyone does their own thing.”
“When and where do people usually wait for fares?”
“Before midnight, basically at the street or where the road turns off, places like that. We don’t risk waiting for fares in front of the bars or the karaoke places because we’re afraid of being reported by the legit taxi drivers. After midnight, near where the hotel staff gets off work and goes through the tunnels. A lot of night shift employees carpool.”
“On New Year’s Eve, were you around here?”
“Yeah, but I never waited anywhere. That night, business exploded. The later it got, the harder it was to catch a cab. Right when someone got out, someone else got in. They’d pay whatever I’d ask.”
“That night, did you see any unfamiliar pirate drivers waiting for fares?”
“I didn’t really notice. I was focusing on getting fares.”
Ye Xi thought for a while, unsure of what else to ask. She turned around to look at Han Yin, who’d been sitting in silence. He shook his head. Ye Xi turned back and took out a business card and handed it to the driver. “If you ever see a driver you don’t recognize or feel is suspicious waiting to pick up passengers along this street, please call the police.”
“For sure, for sure.”
The driver took the card, an ingratiating smile on his face. After they got out of the car, he quickly sped away.
Ye Xi turned to Han Yin and said, “You’re thinking the killer was someone impersonating a pirate taxi driver to get Wang Li to let her guard down. Am I right?”
“You’re right.” Han Yin nodded. “Exactly that, just as I described in my earlier report. The killer has a normal job. His schedule is fixed. The first time he committed a crime, it went so perfectly it shows he should have a fairly high level of education and be involved in some kind of specialized technical profession, though not necessarily one dealing with knives or sharp instruments. He’s not conspicuous at work and doesn’t hold a high position of authority.”
“So if the killer pretends to be a pirate taxi, his car is probably a clunker, right?”
“Yes. A high-end car posing as a pirate taxi would arouse suspicion. It’s probably a domestic car or maybe a low-end Japanese or Korean model.” He paused. “Perhaps the killer isn’t as thorough as we think. Tomorrow, let’s get in touch with the traffic police and retrieve all the surveillance videos of the area around the plaza around the time Wang Li got in the car. We’ll look at them and see if we can spot a suspicious vehicle.”
Ye Xi was pleased to see Han Yin speaking with such ease and complete self-assurance. She patted him warmly on the shoulder, and he felt the energy between them. They looked at each other and smiled. Gazing into each other’s eyes, they realized silence felt so much better than words.
27
A DISASSOCIATED PERSONALITY
Midnight
Again that desperate phone call.
This time he heard labored breathing. Then . . .
“Help me. Help, help me . . .” A girl’s voice, cold and ghastly.
“All right, all right. How can I help you?” Han Yin forced himself to stay calm.