S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 5: Chapter 2

The Doppelganger Killer 02 - The Bizarre Murder Case

Early the next morning, the members of the SI, having concluded their three-day holiday, returned to the police station. As soon as they stepped into the office, they saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sitting in the conference room with a large stack of documents spread across the table.

Gongsun strolled in with his hands tucked into the pockets of his white lab coat, casually picked up a document, and glanced at it. "A shooting?" He picked up another one with a puzzled look. "Is there any connection between these cases?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged. "Hard to say. Some are shootings, some are knife attacks... but the victims are all punks, and the time of death is always around midnight."

"So they're randomly selecting victims from a specific group of people..." Gongsun shook his head. "Cases like this get tangled up with a lot of accidental victims, making it very hard to pinpoint."

"Then what about that previous Midnight Punisher..." Zhan Zhao turned to look at Bai Yutang. "Why was it classified as a serial murder case?"

"There was a certain pattern to that one," Bai Yutang said, flipping through the old files. "Every other day, in the same neighborhood, at the exact same time... You couldn't avoid connecting them."

"It's a pity too much time has dragged on," Zhan Zhao said. "These current cases have unpredictable times and locations... It could be that the killer changed their modus operandi, or maybe there's no connection between them at all." He dropped the files back onto the table with a somewhat dejected look. "This way, it's impossible to establish a case or investigate."

"Gongsun," Bai Yutang suddenly looked up at him. "Why do you always insist on wearing a lab coat whenever you wander around the police station?"

Hearing this, Zhan Zhao also raised his head. "Yeah, I've been wanting to ask that for a long time too."

Gongsun adjusted his glasses to look at the two of them, smiling somewhat eerily as he lowered his voice. "Don't you have to wear them during autopsies?" As he spoke, he pulled a glistening scalpel from his pocket. "Wearing it all the time like this puts me in the right mood." With that, he turned around with a grin and walked away.

"Cat." Bai Yutang fell silent for a moment before turning back to Zhan Zhao. "Translate his 'mood' for me into plain Chinese?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged helplessly. Something seemed to flash through his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it. Just as he was feeling puzzled, the office door was pushed open, and Bao Zheng walked in carrying a few files.

The two of them exchanged a tacit glance—it seemed another incident had occurred.

Bao Zheng walked into the conference room, glanced at the files on the table, and frowned. "We have a case." With that, he handed the documents in his hand to Bai Yutang.

At that moment, the other members of the SI also walked in.

"Black Fish, Old Hong, Zheng Pei..." Bai Yutang glanced through the files. "The boss of the West District, the second-in-command of the East District, the boss of the South District... they've all been murdered!"

Everyone was left somewhat speechless, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Who even knows if this killer is committing crimes or doing a public service?"

"The method of death is the same in every case," Zhan Zhao picked up a few photographs. "Look, the gun is on the wall... but it wasn't nailed up by that police officer yesterday; it looks more like it was glued on."

"This killer has eliminated three gang bosses without a single person noticing," Bao Zheng said with a grim expression. "Things have been very unstable everywhere lately, with everyone either fighting for turf or going to war."

"Still, it's pretty strange that those mobsters actually came to the police to report it," Ma Han smiled. "Half the time, situations like this are settled privately."

"Probably out of fear," Zhan Zhao said softly. "Everyone's afraid of becoming the next victim. Besides, if the killer isn't caught, even if someone manages to grab the boss's seat, they won't be able to sit comfortably."

At that moment, Lu Fang rushed in in a flurry and announced, "Another one just died."

"What?" Everyone looked at him in shock.

"Wu Qiang, the boss of the North District, is dead too," Lu Fang said. "We just received the report."

Bai Yutang put away the documents. "Was the crime scene disturbed?"

"Shouldn't be."

"Let's go take a look," Bai Yutang instructed the team to mobilize.

Zhan Zhao followed everyone toward the exit while reading the files, asking Bai Yutang, who was walking beside him, "The other three districts had their bosses killed, but the East District lost its second-in-command... Why?"

"Chen Jie, the boss of the East District, is a woman," Bai Yutang replied, closing the car door.

"In other words, the killer doesn't kill women," Zhan Zhao nodded. "Quite the gentleman."

Adjusting the angle of the rearview mirror, Bai Yutang suddenly let out an "Huh?" and turned to look behind them.

"What is it?" Putting down the documents, Zhan Zhao also turned back to look in the direction he was staring. "Did you see something?"

"A person..." Bai Yutang frowned slightly. "Just flashed by." With that, he pushed open the car door and stepped out.

Curious, Zhan Zhao got out as well, and the two of them walked toward the depths of the parking lot. Reaching a pillar at the very end of the lot, Bai Yutang reached out to stop Zhan Zhao. He quickly swung around the pillar, only to find the space behind it completely empty, save for a single photograph lying on the ground.

Bending down to pick up the photograph, both of them froze—the background of the photo was a nighttime street, on which stood two people, both dressed in white. They were none other than Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang attending the concert the previous night, and the location was unmistakably the alley where the punk had been murdered last night.

"Bai?" Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang. "Who did you see just now?"

Bai Yutang was somewhat disoriented. "It just flashed past... Cat, do you remember that strange guy we bumped into outside the stadium last night?"

"Him?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.

"I'm not sure, but his clothing and build looked similar..." Bai Yutang surveyed his surroundings. The interior of the parking lot was enclosed, with no obvious hiding spots. "Cat, he just darted behind this pillar... but now he's gone."

Zhan Zhao also scanned the surroundings. "Gone? The real question is, this is the police station parking lot, with guards and security cameras at the entrance. How did he even get in?"

Shaking his head in puzzlement, Bai Yutang picked up the photo again to take another look. "Is this a prank or something else?"

"Bai, there seems to be writing on the back!" Zhan Zhao reached out and flipped the photo over—on the back, written in a red marker, were a few words: The Midnight Punisher.

The two of them dropped their jaws, momentarily speechless.

"Boss!" The rest of the team had already gotten into their vehicles in the distance, and Zhao Hu poked his head out to shout at the two of them. "What's going on?"

Exchanging a glance, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "What do you think?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly. "Someone might just be playing a joke on us. Don't worry about it; let's go handle the case first."

Nodding, Bai Yutang tucked the photo into his breast pocket, walked back to the car with Zhan Zhao, started the engine, and drove toward the crime scene.

As soon as their car drove far away, a head poked out from among the crisscrossing metal pipes near the ceiling of the parking lot, wide eyes staring intently in the direction of the exit.

……………………

The police car drove into the North District and pulled up in front of a luxury villa. A woman of noble bearing dressed in black walked out, followed by a large entourage.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao stepped out of the car. The woman had already approached them, nodding slightly as a greeting before speaking first: "My name is Qin Meng. Wu Qiang, the man who was murdered, was my husband."

"Lead us to the scene first," Bai Yutang nodded, signaling for Qin Meng to take the lead as everyone headed upstairs.

Wu Qiang had been killed in his study on the second floor of the villa. True to the modus operandi of the previous victims, he was seated in a chair with a gunshot wound to the head, and a handgun was glued to the wall behind him.

Gongsun walked over to conduct a preliminary autopsy on Wu Qiang. "Time of death is estimated to be between last night and early this morning. Shot to the head at extremely close range, with burns around the skin... It looks like the gun was held right against his head when fired."

Bai Yutang walked over to the wall to inspect the handgun. It was fixed to the wall using a transparent substance similar to silicone glue, with the barrel pointing downward at roughly a sixty-degree angle from the ground.

Meanwhile, Zhan Zhao stood by the victim's desk, lost in thought. After a long while, he turned back to ask Qin Meng, "This desk lamp... it clashes severely with the style of the surrounding furniture."

Qin Meng looked at the desk lamp Zhan Zhao was pointing at and shook her head. "That's not ours."

Bai Yutang turned back around. "You mean the desk lamp wasn't here originally?"

Qin Meng answered with certainty, "That's right! My husband was very particular about his taste. He would never use a cheap plastic lamp like this, even if it killed him."

Zhan Zhao stared at the desk lamp for a moment, then pulled out the crime scene photos from the other cases to compare them.

Bai Chi curiously leaned in. "It looks like the previous cases had desk lamps too."

"That's right!" Zhan Zhao nodded, pointing out the photos to Bai Chi. "Even though the styles are different, they're all cheap stuff... left behind by the killer."

"Huh? That's strange!" Gongsun, who had been engrossed in his autopsy, suddenly frowned.

"What is it?" Zhan Zhao walked over to Gongsun's side and asked.

"Look!" Gongsun pointed at the victim's hand hanging by his side. "His fingers are very strange... The index finger is extended into a hooked shape, while the other four fingers are curled up into a gripping posture~~ it's like..."

"A gun-gripping stance," Bai Yutang walked back over, finishing Gongsun's thought.

Everyone fell silent. After a long moment, Gongsun said, "The victim's fingers are rigid and cannot be pried open. If this had formed after death, they could easily be forced back into a relaxed state, which means it happened before death."

"In other words, Wu Qiang pulled the trigger himself?" Qin Meng shook her head. "It couldn't be suicide! He was terrified of dying, why would he ever commit suicide?!"

"Gripping a gun by himself doesn't necessarily mean suicide," Zhan Zhao surveyed the room, pointing toward the curtains by the wall. "When you all came in, were those curtains drawn open or closed?"

Qin Meng replied, "They were open."

"Why are the curtains so thick?" Bai Yutang walked over to the window to check the exterior view.

"He usually met with his subordinates here, so he needed heavy curtains," Qin Meng smiled bitterly. "Wu Qiang was very cowardly, and the room's design placed a huge emphasis on safety to prevent anyone from plotting against him. I don't think anyone could have sneaked in without a sound."

"Could everyone step outside for a moment?" Zhan Zhao suddenly requested.

Though the others were slightly confused by his intention, Bai Yutang nodded at them and turned to head toward the door as well, prompting Zhan Zhao to call out, "Bai, close the curtains!"

Bai Yutang paused briefly before turning back to draw the curtains shut. Afterward, everyone stepped out into the hallway, and Zhan Zhao called out once more, "Turn off all the lights!" Ma Han and Zhao Hu switched off the lights in both the hallway and the study, plunging the surroundings into immediate, near-total darkness inside the study.

Zhan Zhao reached out, plugged the desk lamp's cord into the outlet beside the desk, and switched the lamp on...

As a beam of yellow light spewed forth, everyone involuntarily let out a gasp of astonishment. The lamp's beam projected onto the opposite wall, forming a yellow circle of light. Most bizarrely of all, due to the angle and illumination, Wu Qiang's corpse cast a humanoid shadow against that wall, and the shadow of his hand hanging by his side aligned perfectly to grip the handgun glued to the wall... with even his fingers positioned right over the trigger.

After a long silence, Qin Meng suddenly burst out laughing wildly, "How utterly absurd—it was my husband's own shadow that shot and killed him!"

…………………………

Bai Jintang sat in his office looking over a few business reports when, with a loud "bang," the twins burst into the room.

Rubbing his temples, Bai Jintang sighed helplessly. "Do you two mind knocking before you come in next time?"

The usual mischievous expressions on the twins' faces were replaced by a rare and solemn seriousness. "Eldest brother, they're here."

"What's here?" Bai Jintang asked, caught off guard.

"We received word today," Ding said with some urgency. "Eugene entered the country last night."

Looking somewhat surprised, Bai Jintang put down the documents in his hand. "What is Eugene doing here?"

"Boss, should we..."

"Wait." Bai Jintang waved a hand with a faint smile. "It might not have anything to do with us. Pay him no mind!"