S.C.I. (Volume I) - Case 5: Chapter 23

The Doppelganger Killer 23 - Gradually Becoming Clear

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao sat on the sofa in the barbershop, reading magazines. They had been waiting for nearly an hour. The owner of the barbershop was a friend of theirs, which made talking and doing things much more convenient.

"All done!" The barber pushed the newly groomed bearded man out in front of the two of them. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked up, both freezing in surprise.

Gone was the messy, overgrown facial hair, revealing a clean, tidy face in its place. Although he didn't look particularly young, his features were remarkably well-defined. Far from being ugly, he possessed a certain mature masculine handsomeness that had Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodding in continuous approval. Moreover, that face undeniably bore a striking resemblance to Luoyang; it would be impossible not to acknowledge them as father and son.

"Not bad!" Bai Yutang nodded, opening his mouth to speak before hesitating. With a smile, he said, "Pick a name for yourself. Calling you 'the bearded man' all the time feels weird."

The bearded man paused, looking somewhat awkward and troubled as he said, "I... I haven't read many books. You guys help me pick a name."

Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin in thought. "How about 'Lu'? Yangyang is called Luoyang, so you being called Lu has a nice, natural ring to it."

After hearing this, the bearded man softly pondered it a few times before nodding. "Alright."

With the grooming finished, the three of them got into the car and drove toward Chen Jie's villa. Along the way, Zhan Zhao asked the bearded man numerous questions—all of them sounding rather disjointed and out of left field. Although Bai Yutang didn't quite grasp Zhan Zhao's intent, he knew that this cat always had a reason for asking questions; perhaps another clue was about to surface.

At a spot not far from Chen Jie's villa, Lu suddenly spoke up. "Someone is following us."

Not a single trace of surprise showed on Bai Yutang's face as he coolly remarked, "They've been trailing us ever since we left the police station. Just ignore them."

Zhan Zhao blinked, looked back at the two cars executing an alternate-tracking pattern behind them, and asked Lu, "When did you first notice them?"

"Just now," Lu replied.

"What kind of feeling was it?" Zhan Zhao continued to probe.

"Well..." Lu thought for a moment. "It just makes my heart race with panic, a sense of impending danger. And it's always accurate."

Zhan Zhao glanced at Bai Yutang and said in a low voice, "Bai, they might make a move."

Bai Yutang nodded, tilting his chin toward the rearview mirror. "They've already left."

Zhan Zhao and Lu followed the line of sight indicated by Bai Yutang, only to see that the two cars previously tailing them closely were inexplicably slowing down, quickly vanishing from view altogether.

"What in the world are they playing at?" Bai Yutang knitted his brows slightly.

Lu suddenly asked with a hint of tension, "Will leaving Yangyang alone at the police station cause any trouble?"

"Don't worry," Zhan Zhao said. "Before I left, I told Jiang Ping to take Yangyang over to Chief Bao's office."

"Rest assured," Bai Yutang chuckled as well. "Being with Chief Bao is even safer than being with us." As they spoke, the car had already arrived at the crime scene.

The three of them stepped out of the car, crossed the yellow police line, and walked inward.

"Chief!" Ma Han and Bai Chi were discussing the case with Ouyang Chun. Seeing Bai Yutang and the others arrive, they hurried over to greet them.

"How does it look?" Bai Yutang asked.

"The work of a single person," Gongsun stated. "I've conducted a preliminary autopsy, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that the killer is the very same Shadow Killer from the previous cases."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao exchanged glances. That meant the killer wasn't Jie-Jie... Yet the entire affair revolved around centers like the bearded man and Luoyang. What kind of connection tied all of this together? Everything was gradually becoming clear, a thousand tangled threads twisting into one; as long as they grabbed the primary thread, the rest of the troubles would resolve themselves effortlessly. But where exactly was that primary thread?

"I want to inspect the scene first," Zhan Zhao said.

"We're just waiting for you guys to take a look before hauling the body away." Gongsun led Zhan Zhao upstairs. Bai Yutang didn't follow them; instead, he called over all of Chen Jie's subordinates, interrogating them one by one regarding the events of the previous night while meticulously examining the layout of the entire villa.

By the time Bai Yutang finished his tasks, Zhan Zhao came back down wearing a puzzled expression.

"What is it, Cat?"

"The modus operandi matches the other cases. The only difference is that Chen Jie's study shows clear signs of having been thoroughly rummaged through."

"You mean after killing her, the killer was looking for something?"

Zhan Zhao nodded. "Those books had been carefully flipped through, one by one."

Bai Yutang thought for a moment and asked, "Cat, how did you guess that the deceased was Chen Jie?"

Instead of answering, Zhan Zhao countered with a question, "Bai, don't you think this case is extremely complicated?"

Bai Yutang shrugged noncommittally. "Not necessarily complicated, just feels like there's no clear starting point."

"How so?"

"Actually, there are two cases running concurrently—the Midnight Punisher and the Shadow Killer. It's just that some kind of connection exists between them." Bai Yutang said as he walked over to the flower bed and sat down.

"Chen Jie's death should have been outside the original plan," Zhan Zhao said, sitting down beside him.

"Moreover, the Shadow Killer altered his habits during this crime," Bai Yutang noted. "He used to spare women, but this time he killed one. He used to leave cleanly and swiftly after a kill, but this time he went searching for items."

"The timing of Chen Jie's death is also very interesting," Zhan Zhao continued. "It happened right after Jie-Jie was arrested."

Bai Yutang paused, then nodded. "We saw Jie-Jie at Chen Jie's club, and right after Jie-Jie's arrest, Chen Jie turns up dead... And Wei Yong died for no apparent reason too."

"Do you remember Wei Yong telling us that Jie-Jie was Lu Wen's friend, meaning Lu?" Zhan Zhao said. "He deliberately mistook his identity, and then he died. Furthermore, if Yangyang hadn't sought us out and told us about Lu, we wouldn't have known that Lu and Jie-Jie are actually two different people."

"Chen Jie's role was to conceal Jie-Jie's existence... using Lu Wen's bearded friend as a smoke screen." Bai Yutang frowned. "Why would she hide such a dangerous murder weapon?"

"Three possibilities," Zhan Zhao nodded. "Either she was keeping watch over him for someone else, or she kept him for her own use, or she kept him for her own use while supposedly watching him for someone else."

K

"Ah~~" Bai Yutang caught on immediately. "That's why she had to be silenced. Chen Jie was just a link in the chain; there's someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes. Killing her and taking the items severed her connection to the mastermind."

Just as the two of them were analyzing the situation, Bai Chi came running over in a flurry of activity. "Older Brother, we found something!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances, stood up, and followed Bai Chi into Chen Jie's study.

When Bai Chi reached the desk, they saw a golden fishbowl sitting on top. Inside swam a purple long-tailed goldfish, while the bottom of the bowl was paved with colorful pebbles alongside a few aquatic plants.

Zhan Zhao stared at the fishbowl for a moment before letting out an abrupt gasp. "Chichi, you're a genius!"

"There's something inside!" Bai Yutang also pointed at a black object nestled among the colorful stones at the bottom. Blending in with the multitude of colored rocks, it was virtually impossible to spot at a casual glance.

Zhan Zhao reached out, picked up a pair of long tweezers from a nearby pen holder, and plunged them into the pebbles at the bottom of the fishbowl. He quickly clamped onto a dark object and lifted it out. Only then did everyone clearly see that it wasn't a pebble at all, but rather a cylindrical plastic capsule roughly the size of a bullet.

Placing the retrieved item onto the desk, Zhan Zhao pinched both ends and gave them a gentle twist. The capsule split into two halves, revealing a hollow interior that held a miniature USB flash drive no bigger than a fingernail.

Delight registered on everyone's faces. Zhan Zhao ran downstairs to fetch his laptop, booted it up, and plugged the USB drive in.

The drive contained a single video file and a few text documents. Zhan Zhao clicked on the video first.

The footage looked somewhat familiar—it was a dimly lit alleyway.

"It's the exact same video Lu Wen gave us!" Bai Yutang said.

Sure enough, the screen showed the gunned-down hoodlum and Lan Chenglin roaring with laughter. Everyone couldn't help feeling a tinge of disappointment; they had originally expected some major breakthrough, not something they already had.

Just as they were feeling discouraged, Zhan Zhao spoke up, "There's more!"

The video Lu Wen had provided stopped right after Lan Chenglin's booming laughter, but this one kept playing. They watched as Lan Chenglin suddenly whipped his head around after laughing, staring toward the other end of the alley. A short while later, a figure emerged from that end, stepped into the frame, and lowered his head to gaze at the corpse on the ground.

It was an adult male dressed in a black suit. Because he kept his head bowed, his features were obscured, but judging by his curly brown hair and build, he was a foreigner.

"It's him." Lu, standing far back to watch, suddenly spoke up.

"Who?" Bai Yutang turned back to ask him.

Lu swept his gaze across the group and muttered, "Minus-1-11."

"He certainly cleans up well," Bai Yutang raised an eyebrow. "Without the beard and wearing proper attire."

"I feel like I've seen him somewhere before," Zhan Zhao remarked out of nowhere.

"Yeah," Bai Chi nodded as well. "I feel like I have some impression of him too."

Everyone held their breath as they looked at the two of them. The brains of these two operated like photocopiers; what they saw was guaranteed to be remembered. The only question was under what circumstances they could both have laid eyes on the same person once, and the fact that their impression wasn't deep suggested they had only crossed paths a single time...

"I remember!" Zhan Zhao said. "That time at the scrapyard when we captured Taber—one of his underlings."

"Right!" Bai Chi slapped his own forehead. "That's him!"

"That settles it!" Ouyang Chun declared. "Lan Chenglin acted as an inside man for Taber, and this guy is one of Taber's subordinates. The two of them had dealings with each other."

Bai Yutang froze the frame, summoned Chen Jie's subordinates over, and asked if they had ever seen this man.

After taking a few looks, the subordinates confirmed they had. This person frequently fought in the matches at the Dark Empire, possessed formidable martial arts skills, and was utterly ruthless. Many bosses had wanted to recruit him.

Upon hearing this, Zhan Zhao understood immediately and turned to ask Bai Yutang, "Bai, those deceased bosses all shared a common trait—they went to the Dark Empire to watch combat matches... What was the purpose of watching those fights?"

"To find someone powerful," Bai Yutang sneered. "To find a final safeguard to protect their own safety... Hiding a bodyguard where absolutely no one knew of his existence, taking orders solely from themselves! They thought he could protect them, never imagining that the person they hid away was actually the one who would take their lives!"

Bai Yutang immediately placed phone calls to the previous victims. The responses he received were unanimous: every single one of those bosses had gone through a period of extreme anxiety prior to their deaths, trusting no one around them, only for their behavior to return to normal in the final days before they died.

"He found a bodyguard he could trust!" Zhan Zhao stated. "It was impossible for anyone to infiltrate the victims' villas from the outside, but what if the killer was already on the inside from the very beginning?"

"But he's a newcomer," Bai Yutang seemed a bit perplexed. "Even if he moves around internally, how could he do so without being noticed, let alone without arousing the suspicion of others?"

"It's possible," Lu said from behind. "If he is Minus-1-11, he can definitely pull it off."

Everyone exchanged bewildered glances as they watched the bearded man tilt his head back to inspect the internal structure of the room, climb onto a chair, and gently tap against the ceiling panels.

The room was equipped with central air conditioning, meaning it featured a false ceiling complete with ventilation ducts connecting the various rooms.

"A hole that small?" Bai Yutang frowned. "How could an adult fit through?"

Lu stared at the opening before finally nodding. "If it's him, he can... and I can too."

Everyone gasped in shock. Bai Yutang gestured for him to demonstrate, and they watched as Lu limbered up his shoulders, effortlessly dislocating his joints. Like a flexible serpent, he wriggled right into the opening.

Bai Yutang suddenly recalled the night he caught Jie-Jie, when the guy's arm had been unusually pliable as if devoid of bones.

Everyone in the room winced with sympathetic aches watching his actions; truly, this was something only someone devoid of pain could pull off.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged glances. No wonder Jie-Jie had vanished into thin air at the parking lot that day—it turned out they didn't just use underground tunnels; they also utilized the interior... ventilation ducts of the buildings.