The Line of Fire

Wang Dali saw that I was talking with Huang Xiaotao but ignoring him, and said indignantly, "Damn, I asked you so many questions but you didn't answer any of them. Sister Xiaotao said one thing and you agreed to it immediately. Are your ears programmed to automatically filter out my words?"

I said, "Alright alright, I'll answer your questions later!" Then I said to Huang Xiaotao, "Fingerprints and palm prints look very similar in shape. I'm wondering if it's possible that the murderer and the person who abandoned the corpse are the same person."

"The same person?" Huang Xiaotao raised an eyebrow. "One was careful and cautious, the other was rash and careless. Could they be the same person?"

I took off my gloves and took out a pair of digital calipers from my handbag. I compared the fingerprints on the bag one by one with the fingerprints left on the corpse. The fingerprints on the bag were very blurred. I could only find three complete fingerprints to compare. The comparison showed that the length of these three fingerprints was the same as the three fingers that left positive imprints on the corpse!

This was very suspicious. The murderer was calm and careful, wearing gloves when killing, but left many fingerprints on the plastic surface of the bag, which is prone to fingerprints. And when abandoning the corpse, he seemed to be in a panic.

Huang Xiaotao's doubt was exactly what I couldn't figure out. But I felt this loophole was the key to everything. It was like a window paper that hadn't been pierced, giving me a very uncomfortable feeling like a fish bone stuck in my throat.

"Do you want to continue checking?" Huang Xiaotao asked.

"No need to check anymore," I said.

I then took out a stack of yellow paper, burned it, and chanted a Rebirth Chant. A yin wind suddenly blew up in the underpass, carrying the ashes of paper away on the river surface. Many police officers were dumbfounded by this scene.

Huang Xiaotao seemed to have become accustomed to this kind of thing already. "Song Yang, why don't you go back first? I'll stay and clean up the scene. There's nothing much that needs investigating for now. Let's gather all the clues tomorrow morning."

I was about to say I would stay and help, but there was nothing I could really help with here. Also, working continuously from 4am this morning had really tired me out. I felt my stamina was far from Huang Xiaotao's. So I agreed to her suggestion.

After returning to school, I skipped the afternoon classes and spent the whole time in the library looking up information until the library closed at night before returning to the dormitory.

Back in the dorm, I lay in bed thinking about the case while Wang Dali leaned on the bed and asked, "Yangzi, you're still thinking about the case? If you keep this up you won't be able to take it. Go to sleep early. Don't we have to go to the police station for a meeting tomorrow morning?"

"Alright alright, I'll stop thinking about it," I replied.

"Oh right, you didn't go to the boiler room for hot water right? I helped you boil a pot already. I also have some instant noodles in my drawer. If you're hungry, help yourself." Wang Dali said.

I felt a warmth in my heart. Wang Dali was definitely not nice to me just because of the reward money. He had been taking good care of me since freshman year. When I get obsessed with something, I completely forget about eating and sleeping. Wang Dali often helps me boil water and brings me food. I'm really lucky to have such a good buddy in college.

I said thanks to him, and Wang Dali replied, "Don't be so polite, we're brothers."

I lay in bed thinking about the case until 3am before falling asleep. I had all kinds of chaotic dreams and overall had a bad night's sleep.

Early next morning, Wang Dali and I arrived at the police station ahead of time. The police gradually arrived, and as usual Huang Xiaotao treated everyone to breakfast. I noticed Wang Yuanchao wasn't here. I asked Xiao Zhou and he said Wang Yuanchao had left early this morning to investigate the case at Jinhuo Ma's hometown.

At 8 o'clock sharp, Huang Xiaotao arrived and started the meeting to discuss the case.

First she talked about the progress of the case, then summarized all the clues everyone had investigated. The rope used to tie the bag had been identified as produced by a certain manufacturer, but there were dozens of distribution points for this kind of rope in Nanjiang City. It would take some time to eliminate them one by one.

Also, regarding the laughing gas clue, no hospitals in Nanjiang City used this drug anymore, not even pet hospitals. No domestic manufacturers produced it anymore either. The most likely conjecture was that the murderer synthesized it himself from raw materials.

Someone raised a question - with only a junior high education, could Jinhuo Ma really synthesize laughing gas?

Another police officer said that nowadays you can find anything online, and TV shows contain a huge amount of crime knowledge. Ill-intentioned people can definitely learn any criminal methods. There had been cases before of completely illiterate elderly farmers making explosives based on TV crime shows to rob armored cars.

Xiao Zhou explained, "Laughing gas is a simple inorganic compound. It can be obtained by thermally decomposing ammonium nitrate in fertilizer. Anyone who knows how to use the internet and has some basic chemistry knowledge can make it."

Huang Xiaotao interrupted their debate and moved on. Mainly I talked about some of the clues I found on the corpse, and some situations we learned about the missing persons when visiting their homes. Hearing that a new victim would appear in the next few days caused an uproar in the room. Everyone probably felt the urgency of time.

The case was currently in an anxious state. Jinhuo Ma's whereabouts were unknown. There was no connection between the deceased. How to investigate?

Huang Xiaotao said to extract all surveillance videos near the rope distribution points and have everyone watch videos to look for clues today instead of doing anything else.

Then she asked me if I had any suggestions. I thought about it and said, "The murderer must have used a car to kidnap people. This car should have appeared near the homes of all three missing persons. Checking surveillance cameras at intersections and residential areas may be helpful."

"Good!"

Huang Xiaotao immediately asked several police officers to retrieve footage from the traffic department and residential areas where the missing persons lived.

After the meeting, Huang Xiaotao said to me, "Song Yang, the third victim hasn't been found yet. Why don't you go back first?"

"No, Wang Dali and I will help you watch the videos," I said.

"Alright then!"

We spent the whole morning watching various surveillance footage at the police station. Huang Xiaotao had TVs and video players moved to the conference room. More were borrowed from nearby appliance stores because the police station didn't have enough. Everyone occupied a corner, staring at the screens intently, occasionally stopping to apply eye drops or smoke a cigarette. The room had the curtains drawn with cigarette smoke lingering, making it look like a video screening room to anyone walking in suddenly.

The total length of the videos was several thousand hours, all watched at double speed. After staring for a while, Wang Dali and I felt it was extremely tedious and boring, almost falling asleep.

Wang Dali finally couldn't stand watching anymore. He slumped in his chair with a hopeless look, "This is so damn boring. I could watch Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf with great interest right now."

"Police investigation is like this. Even tiny clues can't be overlooked. Hang in there!"

Under my urging, he sighed and continued watching.

Our efforts paid off. A police officer discovered a white van in the residential area surveillance that had also appeared near the homes of the other two missing persons, at times coinciding with their disappearance.

Huang Xiaotao immediately dispatched people to the traffic department to investigate the license plate of the van!