Case Files Chapter 31: Angel of Death (11)

Translated by Vivian of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

 

When he got home, Guan Jin didn’t even look back as he rushed into his room and changed out of his dripping wet clothes, leaving Lu YunYang, the uninvited guest, whose clothes were also dripping wet, in the living room.

“Little Jin, I’m thirsty.”

“There are cups on the table, don’t you have hands?” His tone was very impatient.

Lu YunYang picked up a light cyan porcelain cup and looked at it closely with interest before going to the water dispenser to pour himself some water. 

After changing, Guan Jin walked out, and Lu YunYang had already put down the finished cup of water. “My clothes are also wet, so I’m afraid I’ll have to borrow a change of clothes from you.”

Guan Jin glanced at him and poured some water for himself as he gloated, “Sorry, but I’m very hygienic, so other people can’t wear my clothes.”

Lu YunYang said in surprise, “Hygienic? The way I see it, that’s not very true. Look, you’re using the cup I already drank from, and you don’t mind.”

Guan Jin silently took the cup away from his mouth, placed it on the table, and quickly walked towards the bathroom.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m brushing my teeth!”

In the end, Guan Jin still reluctantly found a night robe for his personal chauffeur to wear. However, he was even more depressed about the fact that the night robe that reached his calves when he wore it only reached Lu YunYang’s thighs. Guan Jin thought back to his previous body… He could only console himself by reminiscing about his past life, and the more he thought about it, the more pitiful he felt.

“Hey, you’re quite skilled, how do you train?” Guan Jin was a little aroused by his lean, muscular chest.

“It’s tradition for the children in my family to receive professional coaching at a young age so we can learn various self-defense skills. You know, personal safety and all, the pain of the rich.” Lu YunYang shook his head helplessly.

“I believe that if you shout that out loud in public, a lot of people would be willing to suffer for you, and there would also be a lot of people who would want to use you as a stepping stone.” Guan Jin rolled his eyes.

“Are you also willing to suffer for me?”

“I’ll always be on the stepping stone side.”

*****

Zhao MengQi, who had been called to the police station right after work, was sitting restlessly in the interrogation room. “Officers, what else do you want, I’ve already said everything, and I’m not that familiar with that patient. There’s going to be a typhoon tonight, so if I can’t go home earlier and something happens to me, will you bear responsibility?”

“Don’t worry, our colleagues are just verifying your testimony. This way, we won’t have to bother you ever again. Here, drink some tea.” Chen QiaoYu smiled as she placed a cup in front of Zhao MengQi.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Zheng Fei and Gu Xiang walked in. When Zhao MengQi saw this, he quickly asked, “Are you all done?”

“All done.”

“Then can I go?” Zhao MengQi hastened to stand up.

“Ah, ah, what’s the hurry, you should listen to the results of our investigation before leaving. Sit down.” Zheng Fei’s tone was gentle, but his movements were relatively ungentle as he pressed Zhao MengQi back into his seat.

“While the victim, Tao Fang, was alive, did she have anything to do with you?” asked Gu Xiang.

“I already told you, she only ever came in for checkups, nothing else.”

“According to our investigation, Tao Fang had a checkup at your hospital before, but there were no serious problems, so why would she keep going to you to get checkups?”

“She had illness anxiety disorder.”

“Is that so? But we found out that half a year ago, when Tao Fang first visited Hospital Three, she went to the gynecology department, but the next day, she went to the otorhinolaryngology department, which happened to be a day that you were on duty there. But the strange thing is, you didn’t prescribe her any medicine, nor did you jot any notes down on her medical records.” Gu Xiang took out Tao Fang’s medical records.

“It’s been so long, I can’t really remember…”

“Then let me jog your memory. The day after Tao Fang went for a checkup, someone sent ten thousand yuan to her bank account, and the sender happened to be you.” Gu Xiang tapped the remittance records.

Zhao MengQi began to grow pale. “I-I was——”

“And in the next six months, you practically sent an average of five to twenty thousand yuan to her account every month.”

“It was just so… she can help me make investments!”

“Is that so? How did the investments go?”

“I lost the money.”

Gu Xiang looked at him, but he didn’t continue to inquire about the matter.

Zheng Fei suddenly took out a small evidence bag and placed it on the table. “Look, do you recognize this?”

Zhao MengQi looked at it in confusion.

“This is an artificial nail.”

When Zhao MengQi heard this, he trembled slightly. “What does this have to do with me?”

“This fell from the victim’s finger. When she entered the parking lot, she still had it on, but after she died, this nail inexplicably vanished. Do you know where it went?” asked Zheng Fei.

Zhao MengQi wiped his forehead. “How would I know?”

“Zhao MengQi!” Chen QiaoYu suddenly slammed a fist down on the table. “You still want to conceal the truth?! We found this nail in the pocket of one of your shirts! How come the artificial nail that went missing during Tao Fang’s death was in your pocket?!”

Zhao MengQi looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

“You still don’t understand? Since Tao Fang struggled while you were covering her nose and mouth, her fingers scratched your shirt pocket, and the artificial nail fell in without you noticing. Moreover, there were a few white fibers hanging on the raised patterns on her other artificial nails. After comparing it with the material of your shirt, we concluded that they’re exactly the same. And, we discovered some residue of chondroitin in your white coat’s pocket. The infusion tube that was used to asphyxiate Tao Fang had the exact same drug composition in it! You’re an otorhinolaryngologist, so why would you have drugs used for treating arthritis on you?”

At this time, Zhao MengQi was already slumped back in his chair, his face ashen.

“You distracted the janitor, stole an infusion tube from their cart, and stuffed it into the pocket of your white coat. Then, some of the remaining fluids in the infusion tube leaked out, staining the inside of your pocket. So tell us, why did you kill Tao Fang?”

Zhao MengQi cradled his head on the table, completely fallen apart. “I didn’t want to kill her, but I really couldn’t help it! When she came for a checkup, she overheard me discussing the red envelope for a surgery ¹ with the patient’s family, and she even recorded it with her phone. 

“The next day, she strutted into my office and blackmailed me, saying that she was going to send the recording to our hospital’s director and everyone else, too. At the time, there was a very strict regulation against accepting private red envelopes, and I was competing for the position of deputy director. Thus, I was very scared about getting exposed, so I agreed to give her money. Who knew, she didn’t intend on deleting the recording at all, and she got even worse. She would frequently come to ask me for money, and it was practically like a bottomless pit! 

“I really couldn’t help it, since I couldn’t let her ruin my career of many years, nor did I have much money to keep her mouth shut. Then, a murder case happened to occur recently, and I heard that the killer seemed to use infusion tubes to strangle people. Thus, I decided to imitate them so no one could suspect me… I really didn’t w-want to… The moment I closed my eyes last night, I dreamt of her face swaying before my eyes, she won’t let me go, even in death…”

*****

“I didn’t expect that it would be this easy to get a confession from him.” Guan Jin frowned and hung up on Zheng Fei.

“How come you don’t seem to be happy?”

“This has nothing to do with the serial killer, so we still haven’t made any progress. Hm? What are you listening to?”

“I asked Gu Xiang to send me the recording from the interrogation.” Lu YunYang turned on his iPad and played the recording.

Guan Jin also listened quietly. After hearing it for the third time, he leaned over and turned off the volume. “Enough, I can practically recite it backwards already.”

Lu YunYang said thoughtfully, “I keep thinking that something’s off…” He found some photos of the crime scenes and looked at them. Guan Jin glanced at them. Bleh, looking at that type of thing right before bed made his stomach churn.

Lu YunYang placed the three victim’s portraits side by side, and his gaze trailed across them. He suddenly said, “It turns out to be this, no wonder I kept feeling that Li Ling’s death was very strange.”

“How?” Guan Jin carefully looked at the pictures, but he couldn’t see anything wrong with them.

“Look, when Li Ling died, her long hair was in a disarray and covering her face. Actually, no matter how she struggled, there’s no way her hair could cover her face like that. At the crime scene of the first victim, Fang XiuQin, there was a decorative bandana from her purse that was hanging on a nearby tree branch. Usually, those types of bandanas are fastened on purses with a very, very tight knot, so they wouldn’t be able to fall, unless someone purposely took them off. Thus begging the question, who took it off, and why did they take it off? As for the second victim, Du XiaoYue, her face was very dirty, and there were traces of leaves and dirt. Why?” Lu YunYang paused.

Guan Jin felt that he had a faint inkling of what he was getting at, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Stop keeping me in suspense! Don’t say it at all then!”

“My apologies, I’ve gotten used to asking heuristic questions. I think that the hair, bandana, and leaves were all arranged by the murderer. There is only one goal: to cover up.”

“Cover up? You mean, cover up the victims’ faces?” Guan Jin understood.

“Correct. The killer took off the decorative bandana and used it to cover the victim’s face. The bandana was very light, so it was blown away during the night. Du XiaoYue had short hair, and there was nothing to cover her nearby, so the killer grabbed a lot of leaves and dirt from a nearby bush and sprinkled them on her face. It was winter at the time, so the heavy winds also scattered them, only leaving behind bits of them. As for Li Ling, the killer used her long hair to cover up her face, and wind couldn’t get to the place where she died. Moreover, it’s early summer right now, so there’s dew at night, which was why her hair stuck to her face.”

“That makes a little sense. But how did you think of it?” Guan Jin asked sourly.

“When I heard that last sentence, ‘her face kept swaying in front of me’, I made the connection.”

“He actually said, ‘I dreamt of her face swaying before my eyes.’”

“Same difference.”

“Is it really that hard to admit you have a bad memory?”

“Yes, yes, in this aspect, you’re unparalleled.” Lu YunYang admitted defeat.

Guan Jin felt a little better at this. “Then tell me, why did he do this?”

“The killer wasn’t really trying to disguise the victims, and the method he used to cover their faces was very crude, so it evidently wasn’t out of guilt. I think that it might be a type of ritual or signature that he uses to signal the end of a kill. Perhaps there’s also a little fear of the victim involved.”

“It sounds like psychic ramblings to me.” Guan Jin was a little doubtful.

“I’m a sham of a psychic, so of course what I say are all psychic ramblings,” said Lu YunYang as he dialed Wen JingHan’s number.

Before Lu YunYang could even say hello, they heard some strange sounds: “Mm… Get lost! … Hnnng, ah…” Then, with a beep, the call disconnected.

Guan Jin and Lu YunYang were speechless.

Guan Jin stood up. “I’m going to go get a drink of water.” Then, he forgetfully picked up the cup that he had sworn to disinfect three times before using again, filled it with water, and gulped it down.

The voice from just then sounded a lot like Wen JingHan; Guan Jin hadn’t expected him to be so sultry. Wen JingHan’s beautiful face emerged in Guan Jin’s mind, and his imagination began running wild like an escaped horse. Ahhh! What am I thinking? It seemed that he really had been abstinent for too long, and now there was something wrong with his brain. Was it time for him to go out and find some fun to take care of this problem?

Glug, glug, glug. Guan Jin gulped down another cup of cold water.

Lu YunYang was still sitting silently on the sofa, staring at Guan Jin’s ‘majestic posture’ as he drank the water, and an inscrutable emotion flitted past his gaze.