by Zijin Chen
“You calmly stood in the threshold and called your office to ask one of your best junior officers to bring a forensic toolkit to your house. Then you investigated every last inch of that apartment. You both went over every room several times, working through the night. You wrote a case file reporting a lack of evidence at the site. Someone had clearly put a lot of effort into making the floors spotless, because there were no footprints. Looking at the way the rag was pushed, you determined that the person must have been left-handed. But your wife was right-handed,” Yan said.
Luo was still.
“You also did blood-analysis tests, but you didn’t find anything. In the bathroom, underneath the sink, you found a small pile of ash. The lab test results indicated that it was cigarette ash. You bought and tested every cigarette brand at the supermarket and finally determined that it came from a Liqun cigarette. Finally, after looking all over the house, you found one perfect print. It wasn’t yours or your wife’s—it belonged to someone you didn’t know. All you had was the one fingerprint. I’m sure you remember all of this.”
“Yes, I remember,” Luo said.
“Thanks to your rank at the Ningbo PSB, your case was made a top priority. Someone discovered that a young garbage collector went missing soon after your family did. You went to the room that he rented in Ningbo and got more fingerprints, which matched the one you found in your house. You also confirmed that the garbage collector was left-handed and smoked Liqun cigarettes. Liqun is a mid-market brand, but people working in low-income jobs usually prefer cheap cigarettes. The garbage collector became the primary suspect.”
Yan continued without waiting for a response from Luo. “His landlord only remembered that he was about five feet six inches tall, rather slim, and came from west Hangzhou. Unfortunately he didn’t even have a number for his tenant. Otherwise you could have gotten his identification information very quickly. A lot of deaths would have been avoided.”
Luo remained silent.
“That’s when you asked the bureau to contact the police in Hangzhou to help track him down,” Yan continued. “But there weren’t enough clues: a man in his twenties living in west Hangzhou with average height and body type. The fact that he smoked Liqun cigarettes and was left-handed was not enough to narrow down the search. You had a perfect set of fingerprints and nothing else to work with. And since there was no sign of forced entry or blood, the case was labeled a missing-person case instead of a homicide.
Luo clenched his teeth harder.
“Your objective wasn’t to kill criminals, but to find the one suspect that mattered to you.”
When Luo didn’t react, Yan lost it. “I worked in the police force for most of my life. I’ve come across all kinds of motives. Sometimes it’s an accident. Some do it for money or revenge; some are blinded by love or jealousy. Some are trying to frame others. But I never would have dreamed of someone killing multiple innocent people just to mobilize the police!”
“You didn’t know the truth about what happened to your family, and you knew very little about the man who was inside your apartment that day,” Yan continued. “You wanted to do everything in your power to find him. So you moved to west Hangzhou to commit murders. Apart from leaving a few strange clues, you left your crime scenes totally clean. You knew that the police would be compelled to collect a huge amount of fingerprints to solve the murders. Unfortunately the garbage collector wasn’t found after the first murder, or the second. The scope of the search was too big, and the police were only checking residents close to the crime. So you kept changing the location in the hopes that the police would gradually collect fingerprints of people all over west Hangzhou.”
Luo didn’t even bother looking at Yan.
Yan continued. “You knew that after a number of years, the garbage collector’s weight could change drastically, so you made sure to remove any footprints from your crime scenes. Otherwise the police might narrow down the investigation to people of a certain height and weight and overlook the person you were after. After the fourth murder, you started to get nervous. You wanted to give the police another clue, so when you killed your fifth victim, Sun Hongyun, you dragged him all the way to the concrete just so you could write the word ‘local’ next to him. You wanted the police to know that the person you were looking for was from Hangzhou. But you didn’t want to leave footprints, so you wore your victim’s shoes and made it look like he struggled.”
Yan took a deep breath. “Actually I still saw a trace of goodness in your heart. You didn’t want to hurt others. You used to say that committing a crime was shameful, but you were desperate to know who broke into your apartment. You told yourself it would be better if you killed people who had committed crimes before. So you logged on to the internal database and identified ex-convicts living in west Hangzhou. I checked in Ningbo: you resigned three years ago, but your account was never deactivated.”
“I was just interested in keeping up to date with the latest developments at the Public Security Bureau. That’s not a crime, is it? You can deactivate my account at any time,” Luo said calmly.
“You’re still not admitting to what you’ve done?” Yan asked with a frown.
“I think your story is fascinating, but no part of it is true,” Luo said with a smile.
Someone knocked and the officer went to open the door.
It was Zhao. His gaze rested on Luo for a few seconds before he finally spoke to Yan. “Are you finished?”
“He’s admitted to almost everything,” Yan said loudly.
Zhao smiled and stepped aside so that two young people could get a closer look. It was Huiru and Guo Yu. Both were surprised to see Luo but covered up their shocked expressions very quickly.
“Professor Yan, your story is certainly interesting, but do you have any evidence to back it up?” Luo said quickly.
“Alright, you can have him for a little longer,” Zhao said through his teeth. He closed the door, taking Huiru and Guo Yu with him.
“You saw Zhu Huiru and Guo Yu, didn’t you? Now that they’ve seen you here, they’re going to have a hard time keeping it together. Zhao will get the truth out of them soon enough. It doesn’t matter if you won’t confess to the first five murders. Their confession is tantamount to yours.”
“Oh really?” Luo said, with a calm expression. “I know Ms. Zhu; she’s from the noodle restaurant I like to eat at. But who is that young man? I’ve seen him a few times, but I don’t know his name. What do those two have to do with me?”
“They killed Xu Tianding. You helped them remove evidence from the crime scene. You also taught them how to handle interrogations.”
“Oh? Am I supposed to be connected to that case too?” Luo said contemptuously.
“Yes. We found the same fingerprints at the scene of the crime,” Yan retorted.
“Are they my fingerprints?”
“Do you want me to go over what happened that night? I shouldn’t have to—you and I both know,” Yan said.
Luo pursed his lips. “Hmm. Are you sure I know those two young people? Why would I go out of my way to help strangers cover up a serious crime?”
“I asked myself that same question: Why would you take on such an enormous risk for two people you had just met? At first I thought you were in love with Ms. Zhu—”
Luo scoffed.
“But that wasn’t your style. I investigated the area by the canal many times. It was impossible to see the outdoor gym from the sidewalk. Otherwise someone would have noticed you. According to my timeline, you must have come across Ms. Zhu and Mr. Guo the moment after the crime was committed. The timing seemed too perfect to be a coincidence. On that night, I think you had planned to kill Xu Tianding. Otherwise why would you have carried the mold of Li Fengtian’s fingerprints in your bag? I don’t think you would be so brazen as to carry your special toolkit on your person at all times.”
Luo said nothing.
“You wanted to kill Mr. Xu for two reasons: first, because he was a
terror to the community, and second, because after the first four murders, the police worked too slowly for your liking,” Yan said. “You wanted this one to be more dramatic so you would get more resources allocated to finding the garbage collector. Sun Hongyun, your fifth victim, was killed a few days before. If you killed both Mr. Sun and Mr. Xu within the span of a week, the shock would resonate throughout the Zhejiang PSB. They would use as many resources as possible to collect fingerprints. Crucially you planned to attack Mr. Xu in a different area, so the scope of the project would cover all of west Hangzhou. But Ms. Zhu and Mr. Guo accidentally killed Mr. Xu before you could get to him. You thought the best plan was to help them cover it up. You thought that you could save their lives and carry out your own plan simultaneously. Unfortunately the crime scene was a total mess. So you left Li Fengtian’s fingerprints and didn’t use any of your other signature clues.”
“Your story is really interesting, but it still has nothing to do with me,” Luo said.
“I never imagined that an idealist like you could kill five people and not show the slightest bit of remorse!”
“The law cares about the evidence, not elaborate stories. I’m sure I could modify your script to fit anyone in Hangzhou,” Luo said.
“Why did you return to your apartment in the middle of the night on September 8?” Yan said vehemently.
“I often come home late,” Luo answered.
“Where did you go on September 8, and can anyone corroborate your story?”
“Let me think. Usually I just go for walks at night,” Luo said. “I go by myself; nobody can corroborate my story. I live by myself and sometimes I get bored stiff, so I go out to relax.”
“Why did you leave and then return to your apartment at 2:00 a.m. on September 9?”
“Let me think. Oh, I know, I was very hungry and I didn’t have anything to eat, so I went out. But everything was closed, so I went back home.”
“Then why did you leave again sometime around 3:00 a.m. on the same day?”
“I was so hungry I couldn’t stand it. I tried to look for a snack shop or something.”
“You didn’t leave your apartment to scatter tens of thousands of yuan onto the crime scene?”
“No, of course not,” Luo said with a laugh. “I would have to go to the bank to take out that much cash. The police can check my withdrawal records at the bank.”
“We found a lot of cash in your bedroom when we searched your apartment. You wouldn’t need to go to the bank,” Yan said coldly.
“So how am I supposed to prove my innocence then?” Luo asked with a sigh.
“Where did you have breakfast?” Yan asked tersely.
“I couldn’t find anything open in the morning, so I went for a hike. I just wanted to kill time. After my hike I drove to the closest KFC. Maybe that KFC has a surveillance camera.” Luo said.
“Nobody saw you hiking?”
“I saw some people but I didn’t know them. I don’t know if they’ll still remember me,” Luo said.
“In other words, the police have no way of checking if you’re telling the truth.”
“To put it another way, I have no way of proving that I’m innocent.”
“Why did you go to Li Fengtian’s apartment?” Yan asked.
“If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that I want to know who came into my apartment eight years ago. A few days ago you came to visit me and left a letter in the bathroom. I accidentally read the contents of that letter—it said the police had compared fingerprints and found the primary suspect for the case involving my family. But the suspect was released because there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. When I saw the fingerprint—by accident, mind you—I could tell it was the same one that I found eight years ago, because that fingerprint has left a very deep impression on me. I knew that Li Fengtian was the person I had been looking for over the past eight years.”
“But why didn’t you tell me? Why did you go straight to his house?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t contact you, but I had to see the person for myself. The case file said that the police compared the fingerprints, and they matched the fingerprints of the serial killer. But he had plenty of alibis for each murder. So after you questioned him, you let him go. I just looked up Li’s address and went to his apartment,” Luo explained.
“Right. A few days ago you were walking on the street, and you threw away a chicken breast in a trash can. Then you picked it back up. Why?”
“I had a feeling that someone was following me. It’s just a little countersurveillance. I already told the other officer who was questioning me earlier. I didn’t know that you were following me because you suspected I was the killer,” Luo said.
“All of your answers are perfectly airtight!” Yan said, letting out a sigh of frustration.
“I’m just telling the truth.”
Yan fixed his gaze on Luo. “You’ve been searching for the truth about what happened to your family. Have you found it yet?”
Chapter 67
Luo’s eyes flickered. He leaned forward, speaking deliberately and locking eyes with Yan’s. “Tell me what happened.”
Yan spoke slowly. “Li Fengtian grew up in a village close to Hangzhou. His wife was from Jiangsu, so he lived there for many years. He had a business selling construction materials. When farmland owned by Li’s family was taken by the government, they compensated the family by giving them six houses in another area. So Li decided to move back to Zhejiang province. He moved his construction business with him. But do you know why he spent so many years in Jiangsu?”
Luo didn’t answer. He simply watched Yan.
Yan couldn’t bear to meet his gaze. “Eight years ago, Li Fengtian lost a lot of money gambling. He moved to Ningbo to avoid paying his debts. He didn’t have a job or the ambition to get one. He decided to see if he could make a quick buck robbing people if he dressed up as a garbage collector. On his third night in Ningbo, he stopped in front of Heavenly Apartments, 186 Pingkang Road.”
Yan hesitated, but he felt like Luo had a right to know and pushed himself to continue. “He saw that one of the windows next to the balcony of Apartment 201 was open. It was winter, and there weren’t many people on the street at night. Li sat and waited until everyone turned their lights off and climbed up to the second story along the water pipe, pushed the window open, and jumped into the room.”
The corners of Luo’s mouth twitched. He always knew that his worst fear might eventually be confirmed, but hearing the truth aloud was almost too much. He had a sudden desire to cover his ears.
“The balcony was connected to the master bedroom. Li, a burglary novice, assumed that the occupants of the house would all be asleep. But on that particular night, the little girl had wet the bed, and her mother got up to clean the mess. She was just going back to bed when Li slipped in the room. Their eyes locked and Li panicked. His first thought was to grab the mother and overpower her.”
Luo’s mind went blank. The world suddenly became hollow. He saw Yan’s lips moving, but the words felt like they were coming from another world.
“He throttled her to death.”
Luo felt like he had been bludgeoned in the head. The room was humming loudly. Over the years, he told himself not to lose hope. He banished the thought of her death because it was just too awful to think about. Now he finally knew the truth. It hurt much more than he ever dreamed it would.
His wife was dead.
He throttled her to death. The words clanged again and again, like a terrible bell.
He gazed blankly at the two faces in the interview room, now totally unfamiliar to him.
Yan watched Luo for a long time. Finally he continued. “The family owned a dog, and he barked loudly as his mistress struggled against the intruder. That woke up the daughter, who came to the master bedroom. The scene before her was so terrifying that she couldn’t speak or cry. She stood perfectly still. Once Li realized that he had killed the woman, he knew that
the situation was out of control. He couldn’t think of any other way out. He ruthlessly strangled the puppy. The girl . . . was killed in the same fashion.”
Luo slipped out of his chair and fell to the bare floor.
The other officer hurried to help him back into the chair. Luo stayed put.
Opening his mouth, Luo tried to speak, but no sound came out.
“You can probably guess how it ends,” Yan said, holding his head in his hands. “The killer put the mother in one bag and the dog and child in another. He carefully wiped down everything he touched. The only two things he missed were a bit of ash from a cigarette that he nervously smoked in the bathroom, and a single fingerprint that he forgot to wipe clean. He fled to Jiangsu province and only came back to Hangzhou when he thought the whole thing had blown over.”
Luo sat woodenly on the floor, not making a sound for five minutes. Then suddenly he spoke. “Where are my wife and daughter?” His voice was flat.
“According to Li’s statement, he put the bags in the back of a tricycle built to haul garbage. He then pedaled to an artificial lake about two hundred yards away from your apartment. He filled the bags with rocks and then tossed them in the lake.”
Suddenly Luo screamed twice as if in extreme pain. He opened his mouth a third time but no sound came out. Tears started streaming down his face.
Neither the officer nor Yan said anything.
When his tears finally dried, Luo spoke in a shaky voice. “That lake—that lake has already been filled. An apartment building was built on top of it. I’ll never . . . never see them again.”
It was hard enough knowing that he would never see them alive again. Now he had to cope with the reality that he would never even give them a proper burial.
Yan covered his eyes with his hand.
Almost half an hour later, Luo was still staring at the wall with a stony expression.
Yan sighed lightly. He tried to be delicate with Luo. “Now that you know the truth, can you give me the answers I’m looking for?”
Luo slowly turned to look at Yan. “What sentence is Li Fengtian going to get?”