Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Prologue : 2

Lin Xiangming was probably deep in thought when he heard the call. He trembled slightly before looking up and meeting Li Ziyong’s gaze, both familiar and strange. Li Ziyong muttered, “It’s me. What? Don’t you recognize me?”

Lin Xiangming stood up from the bench and shook his hand.

“Aren’t you going to find somewhere to shelter from the rain?” Li Ziyong said, frowning. Looking around, he realized that there wasn’t even a pavilion in the entire Wangyue Garden. He had suggested meeting here beforehand without considering the rain and felt a little embarrassed.

“The rain isn’t heavy,” Lin Xiangming said with a smile.

“Come on, come on, there’s a place called Qingta Residential Area on the south side of the park. There’s a small restaurant inside; it doesn’t look big, but the food is really good. I’ll treat you to a meal there—don’t tell me you’ve already eaten dinner; even if you have, eat some more; a horse won’t get fat without night grazing!” Li Ziyong said as he walked down the steps, out of the park, kicked up his bicycle stand, and pushed it towards Qingta Residential Area.

Lin Xiangming followed beside him.

They walked for a while, initially in silence; only the rhythmic clatter of the bicycle chain on the sprocket could be heard. This atmosphere made Li Ziyong a little nervous, and he accidentally bumped his ankle on a pedal.

“Ouch!” he cried out in pain.

“Are you alright?” Lin Xiangming asked.

“It’s nothing!” Although he’d bumped into something, Li Ziyong was quite pleased that the silence between them had been broken. “That harmonica—was that you playing it?”

Lin Xiangming hummed in response.

“It sounded like the intro to some song…” Li Ziyong muttered, seemingly hoping for an answer from Lin Xiangming, but Lin Xiangming remained silent.

Li Ziyong couldn’t help but glance at him; his handsome face was expressionless.

This man was truly a mystery.

Li Ziyong remembered that the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” case was halfway through, with the number of victims increasing and the investigation stalled. Xu Ruilong, the Deputy Director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, called Du Jianping, the Head of the Special Task Force: “I have a third-year student from China Police University majoring in Criminal Psychology and Behavioral Science. I can send him to help you.”

Du Jianping was already overwhelmed by the case, his shingles had flared up, and he was impatient with his superior’s instructions: “This is a complete mess—don’t send any interns here!”

“What intern!” Xu Ruilong corrected him bluntly. “It’s support!”

On his first day as “support,” he went straight to the case analysis meeting. Lin Xiangming made a very good first impression on the entire Special Task Force team. Although the young man was as pretty as a girl, he was extremely humble. He had already opened his laptop, but upon seeing the detectives sitting around the long table with their blue notebooks open, he immediately put it away and took out paper and pen from his bag. Throughout the meeting, he didn’t drink a drop of water, nor did he show the slightest aversion to the puffs of smoke from the dozen or so heavy smokers in the room—even though he himself never smoked. He listened attentively to everyone’s remarks, his pen almost constantly scratching away at the paper, but he didn’t speak until the meeting ended. Du Jianping had almost forgotten about him, only remembering him just before the meeting ended: “Little Lin, do you have any ideas?”

Lin Xiangming shook his head.

“Don’t be silent! Case analysis meetings are for everyone to speak freely!” Du Jianping laughed. “You’re ‘support’ sent from above, so you should support us.”

Laughter filled the meeting room.

“I’m new here; I don’t have much experience. Everyone here is my mentor. I’ll learn from everyone and get to know them better,” Lin Xiangming said with a smile.

After the meeting, Du Jianping remarked to several detectives, “Little Lin is very sensible; you should mentor him.” He then jokingly said to Li Ziyong, “You should learn from Little Lin. Look at him, so much younger than you, yet he’s not impulsive at all, well-mannered, and perceptive.”

Li Ziyong remained silent, thinking to himself, “This time, I’m afraid you’ve misjudged him.”

Ten years ago, Li Ziyong was twenty-eight years old. He had spent six years working on the front lines of criminal investigation, enduring all kinds of hardships. In the detective team, he was in his prime, and should have been a key figure being groomed by the leadership. However, he had never quite caught Du Jianping’s eye, who even nicknamed him “Bear.” This wasn’t because he was particularly burly but for two reasons: first, he never washed his face or combed his hair, always looking slovenly, his head drooping, only knowing how to bury himself in his work and never looking up to see where he was going; second, he had an eccentric temper, usually quiet and reserved, but when discussing cases, he was incredibly stubborn; once he got stuck on a point, nothing could sway him, not even his superior, Du Jianping—he dared to contradict him to his face. Considering these two characteristics, even Li Ziyong himself didn’t reject the nickname “Bear”—after all, no one in the police force was without a nickname, and compared to some male officers nicknamed “Sister-in-Law,” his was much better.

However, Li Ziyong was a meticulous person beneath his rough exterior. He liked to use his brain when handling cases and occasionally read “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” consciously honing his observation skills. For example, at this case analysis meeting, he discovered that Little Lin, who seemed “calm and disciplined” despite being silent, was actually a very opinionated person.

To discuss a significant case, the lead investigator and pertinent police officers called a case analysis meeting. At such meetings, regardless of rank, position, or age, everyone must speak frankly and openly about their opinions related to the case. Because criminal investigation work itself involved reconstructing the truth through evidence and reasoning, no one possessed absolute truth before the case was solved. Therefore, freedom of speech and democracy must be upheld, and everyone must contribute their ideas. If one was always worried about “what if I offend my superiors?” then nothing worthwhile would be accomplished. Therefore, arguments over the reliability of evidence or the rationality of inferences often erupted in meetings, frequently resulting in heated exchanges, and no one held grudges afterward… Nevertheless, during the meetings, everyone would unconsciously nod at each speaker’s remarks. These nods didn’t necessarily represent agreement or support, but rather a matter of respect and habit.

However, Lin Xiangming didn’t. Li Ziyong noticed that throughout the meeting, while he listened very attentively, he rarely nodded at the speakers—the only time being when he spoke to himself, and that was merely a sudden, immature thought of his.

“As the Forensic Pathologist and the Criminal Investigation Team have already summarized, the modus operandi in criminal cases is the same: the victim is struck unexpectedly on the back of the head with a hammer the instant they unlock the security door and bedroom door, rendering them unconscious, before being carried into the room to be raped and murdered. But everyone seems to have overlooked one issue, which is the ‘criminal window’—”

Du Jianping interrupted him, “As mentioned before, criminal window attacks mostly occur after 10 p.m., targeting women living alone who are returning home late.”

“The ‘crime window’ I’m referring to is the time from when the ‘criminal’ appears behind the victim to when they pull out the weapon and commit the crime,” said Li Ziyong, flipping through the slides on the projector to the ones he wanted to demonstrate. “Look, everyone, these three ‘crime scenes’ all happened in these old-style apartment buildings with six floors or less. One was on the third floor, and two were on the fourth. I’ve personally investigated these buildings; they’re all brick and concrete structures, and the hallway lights are those highly sensitive motion sensor lights. So, when the victim returned home around 10 p.m., walked up the stairs step by step, and arrived at their apartment door, the motion sensor light must have been on, right?”

The comrades nodded, their eyes filled with confusion, not understanding what he was trying to say.

Only Lin Xiangming’s eyes lit up.

Li Ziyong saw it but pretended not to: “Since the motion sensor lights were on, the hallway should have been very bright. In this situation, why didn’t the victims even have an instinctive resistance when the criminal launched the attack?” He picked up the autopsy report and pointed to a line of text, saying, “Look, the autopsy report clearly states that the victims’ first wounds were all located on the back of their heads, with star shaped lacerations on the scalp, surrounded by circular contusions that gradually lightened from the periphery to the center. The skull showed depressed fractures with radiating fractures… But none of the three victims had any defensive injuries on their hands, arms, or shoulders—not a single one! Why is that?”

“Perhaps it happened too suddenly; they were startled and instantly lost their ability to resist?” Du Jianping guessed.

“If it were the first victim, such a guess would be reasonable. The problem is, after the first victim appeared, we immediately issued warnings to residents through the neighborhood committees in various streets and communities. Moreover, the investigation revealed that the second victim, because she lived alone, even received a visit from the neighborhood committee director. As for the third victim, needless to say… So, why were they completely unprepared?” Li Ziyong flipped the slide back to the crime scene. “Let’s look at the stairwell where the incident occurred. These older buildings have many steps in the stairwells, and the corners are often cluttered with jars and bicycles, offering little opportunity for concealment. Even if a surprise attack were launched, whether from a lower floor or a higher floor, the victim would have time to defend themselves. This is what I meant by the overlooked ‘crime window.'”

One detective raised the question, “Motion sensor lights have a limited time limit. What if the criminal took advantage of the light being off, removed their shoes, and went up and down the stairs in socks to attack the victim?”

“Not to mention that the security doors and apartment doors in these older buildings are often quite noisy when opened and closed due to warped door frames, enough to ‘wake up’ the motion sensor lights. Furthermore, when we open a door and the hallway suddenly goes dark, we instinctively stomp our feet to turn the lights back on, ensuring the key can be inserted. Of course, most importantly, the shoe prints left by the suspect in the hallway, as extracted by the forensic technicians, are continuous, making it impossible for them to have taken off their shoes and gone up and down in socks to attack,” said Li Ziyong.

A forensic technician nearby added, “These shoe prints prove that the criminal mostly followed the victims upstairs from outside the building before committing the crimes. Furthermore, we observed that the criminal’s footprints didn’t suddenly become sharper or narrower, nor did they become heavier or longer as he approached the victim. This indicates that he didn’t rush up to attack the victim but rather walked upstairs normally—”

“This further suggests that the victim likely saw the criminal, and that criminal was a familiar person who made her feel safe, which is why she lowered her guard,” said Li Ziyong.

Just then, Li Ziyong saw Lin Xiangming nod slightly.

For some reason, this nod filled Li Ziyong with a sense of surprise.

“At 10 p.m., in the hallway illuminated by motion sensor lights, the criminal approached the victim. The victim saw him but wasn’t wary because it was a familiar person they felt safe with… This might be why the victim was killed; not silencing her would risk being identified.” Du Jianping muttered to himself for a few moments, then looked up at Li Ziyong, “According to your reasoning, has the investigation direction changed at all?”

Li Ziyong said, “I think the killer likely has some kind of secret close relationship with these victims, like relatives, lovers, old classmates, etc. So, if we start investigating from the acquaintances of the three victims, I believe we’ll find something soon!”

Just then, Li Ziyong suddenly noticed a barely perceptible hint of disappointment on Lin Xiangming.

“Did I say something wrong?” His heart sank instantly. Even after drinking a full cup of hot tea back in his seat, he couldn’t warm up. So when Du Jianping told him after the meeting to “learn from Little Lin,” his first thought was, “I should ask him where I went wrong.”