Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Prologue : 5

5

Lin Xiangming’s words were like a miraculous prophecy; no one expected that it was precisely Gao Xiaoyan’s sacrifice that opened a major breakthrough in the entire case.

China Police University would send outstanding students to various police stations, branches, and detective teams every year to “assist in their work.” Unlike internships, this “assistance” was not a traditional master-apprentice relationship but rather an equal and complementary one. Experienced police officers passed on their valuable practical experience to fresh-faced, spirited police academy students, while the students, with their understanding and mastery of advanced global criminal investigation techniques, helped frontline police officers achieve “professionalization, refinement, a data-driven approach, and informatization” in their work.

One of the girls, a classmate of Lin Xiangming from a different department at the same university, heard that Lin Xiangming was busy with the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” and volunteered to assist him at the district police station’s criminal technology department, which was approved by the university. Because this girl was so beautiful, she caused a sensation on her first day at the station. Married and unmarried young men pretended to casually pass by the criminal technology department just to catch a glimpse of her. This led to a misunderstanding: that this girl named Liu Simiao might just be a pretty face with no substance.

They were utterly wrong.

Years later, Liu Simiao, who became a leading figure in Chinese forensic science, had demonstrated meticulousness and exceptional talent in her field since her university days. Her involvement with the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” was quickly proven to be the first ray of light piercing through the ironclad darkness.

The entire process of a criminal committing a crime was not a single, static, or fixed act, but a complex, dynamic, and unstable chain-like system. Taking a home invasion robbery and murder case as an example, it inevitably involved a series of actions: breaking down the door, fighting and killing the victim, searching for valuables, destroying physical evidence that might reveal personal information, and then leaving. In this process, the most valuable physical evidence was mostly left by the victim during the struggle with the criminal, especially by experienced criminals who wear gloves before committing the crime. The kick that opened the door would only leave a shoe print, and the ransacking wouldn’t leave fingerprints. Therefore, the only way to find the criminal’s DNA information, such as hair or blood, was through the gaps between the victim’s fingers and fingernails.

Unfortunately, almost all three victims of the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders” were knocked down from behind with a single blow, rendering them incapable of resistance, and were then raped and murdered. Only “Gao Xiaoyan” had a very brief period of lucidity, during which she broke a fish tank while fighting with the killer. Therefore, most criminal investigators and forensic technicians believed that the victims’ “interaction” with the “criminal” was also zero in this case.

Liu Simiao, however, disagreed.

Forensic work, like countless other jobs, was all about “details determining success or failure.” A forensic technician’s neglect of even a seemingly insignificant piece of evidence could allow a “criminal” to escape justice. Therefore, Liu Simiao’s investigation of the “crime scene” and examination of physical evidence were incredibly meticulous. For example, after getting involved in the investigation of the “Western Suburbs Serial Murders,” she insisted on restoring the shattered glass fish tank “because it was the only physical evidence of interaction between the victim and the murderer.”

Glass fragments, like fibrous materials, were one of the most common trace evidence in crime scenes. Because glass fragments may contain fingerprints, bloodstains, fibers, or other traces or substances, they must be handled with extreme care. It wasn’t like in many domestic dramas where you just scoop them up with a broom and “bring them back to the lab”—that was absurd. Large glass fragments should be handled directly by touching the broken surface of the glass while wearing medical rubber gloves. Smaller fragments or shards, like those from a broken fish tank, should be picked up directly with nonmetallic tweezers. The forensic technicians responsible for investigating the crime scene of Gao Xiaoyan strictly adhered to these evidence collection principles, and in subsequent examinations, no fingerprints or bloodstains of the suspect were found on the glass fragments. At this moment, Liu Simiao suddenly proposed to reconstruct the fish tank, which surprised everyone. Some even mocked her to her face, saying, “Can you really piece together words from a blank piece of paper?” Liu Simiao ignored them and spent a day and a night in the lab. When she emerged, she held a rectangular glass fish tank, almost completely restored, using crisscrossing transparent tape.

“You actually restored it?” a veteran forensic technician from the branch office asked in surprise. “Well, did you find any new evidence on this fish tank?”

Liu Simiao shook her head.

The veteran technician sighed, “I knew it would be a waste of time.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Liu Simiao pointed to a red plastic tray on the table.

The veteran technician walked over, bent down, and looked inside. There were two very small, colorless, transparent pieces of glass. The only difference between them and the broken pieces of glass from the fish tank was that they had a slight curvature, almost imperceptible unless you looked closely.

“This is…” The veteran technician straightened up, looking at Liu Simiao with a puzzled expression.

Liu Simiao coldly stated, “Although these two pieces of glass are mixed in with the broken glass on the ground, they don’t belong to the fish tank.”

Liu Simiao’s discovery both excited and perplexed the Special Task Force team. They were excited because further analysis revealed the two curved pieces of glass to be fragments of eyeglasses, and Gao Xiaoyan didn’t wear glasses, lived alone, and didn’t own any. This meant the two fragments were caused by the murderer’s glasses being knocked off during the struggle. They were perplexed because even with this conclusion, what could they do besides adding “nearsighted” to the murderer’s description? What else could it help in solving the case?

Just then, another figure who would play a decisive role in solving the case appeared.

Upon learning that Liu Simiao had discovered two fragments of glasses outside the restored glass fish tank, Li Ziyong was the most excited. However, like the other detectives, once the initial excitement wore off, he was completely bewildered, unsure of how this discovery would help solve the case. He asked Lin Xiangming, who pondered for a moment and said, “I haven’t figured it out yet…” Just then, a pleasant melody rang from his pocket. Lin Xiangming pulled out his black Motorola V3 phone, glanced at the caller ID, and a smile spread across his face. After answering and saying “okay” a few times, he said to Li Ziyong, “Let’s go see a friend; maybe he can give us some clues.”

It was already evening, and the streetlights were just coming on. The two rode their bicycles westward, the road strewn with fallen leaves carrying a strange scent of pine. After crossing the pedestrian overpass at the Xicui Road intersection, they pushed into a narrow north-south street. To the left was the International College of the Municipal Medical University, frequented mostly by people from South Asian countries. To the right was a row of shops linked together: a Weiduomei restaurant branch, a music store, Chiji skewers, and Old Gu Barbecue Restaurant. Interspersed among them were a few small eateries selling wild vegetable buns, spicy hot pot, and donkey meat sandwiches, all billowing with steam that seemed to melt the streetlights. A high-powered speaker outside the music store blared Michael Jackson’s rock music, but the clamor from the barbecue stalls drowned it out. At the far north end was an elementary school, where several students, just finished with tutoring, were walking out in small groups. Vendors selling candied hawthorns and stationery outside the school gate saw them and quickly called out, their voices stiff with the cold.

Lin Xiangming and Li Ziyong parked their bicycles in front of Old Gu Barbecue Restaurant. A waiter in a black uniform with yellow trim busied himself opening the door and ushering them inside. They went in, and the sounds of laughter, shouts, clinking glasses, and calls for waiters mingled together like a boiling pot of porridge. Waiters moved among the yellow wooden tables and chairs, serving various skewers of grilled meat on iron plates to customers. The restaurant was filled with smoke and haze, making everyone’s face appear as a blur. Lin Xiangming walked straight ahead and sat down at a seat already occupied. He gestured for Li Ziyong to sit opposite him and introduced the baby-faced young man who had taken the seat: “This is Hu Yanyun, my good friend.”

Hu Yanyun, who was twenty years old at the time, was the same age as Lin Xiangming, but he lacked Lin Xiangming’s composure and maturity. His lips and eyes were slightly upturned, making him look more like an arrogant, immature child. However, his small eyes shone brightly, seemingly able to see right through anyone.

Li Ziyong felt uncomfortable under his gaze and bowed slightly in greeting.

Lin Xiangming then introduced Li Ziyong, and Hu Yanyun nodded to him. He then poured Lin Xiangming a cup of hot water, placed it in his hand, and said, “It’s cold; drink some hot water first.” Next, he took out a printed magazine of fifty or sixty pages from his backpack, about the size of Sanlian Life Weekly, and began to introduce the magazine he and some classmates had started in university. “This is a sample copy, fresh out of the press; let me show you!” he said happily to Lin Xiangming, then flipped through the pages rapidly, explaining to Lin Xiangming one by one, from the inaugural address and editorial policy to the call for submissions and the column settings.

He introduced himself meticulously, though his hair was a mess, as if he had just woken up, his mouth brimming with grand plans, speaking with great enthusiasm… Hu Yanyun gave Li Ziyong a terrible first impression: arrogant, presumptuous, and unrealistic. Even ten years later, when the two met again, Li Ziyong still pictured him as a childish, immature figure. But at this moment, out of respect for Lin Xiangming’s friend, Li Ziyong couldn’t openly embarrass him. He could only sneer inwardly, grumbling to himself about why Lin Xiangming had introduced him to such a guy, wondering what “hints” he could offer.

Lin Xiangming, on the other hand, remained calm and composed, smiling as he poured Li Ziyong a glass of water and ordered food and drinks, all while listening to Hu Yanyun, his spittle flying everywhere, without wasting a single moment. Only after Hu Yanyun finished speaking did Lin Xiangming gently offer a few words of advice: “Don’t start with too much, don’t rush in too aggressively, and don’t oversimplify things.”

Hu Yanyun poured himself a full glass of beer, gulped it down, and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to preach any grand principles to anyone; I just can’t stand their cynical behavior.”

Lin Xiangming nodded: “Some will revel, some will keep watch; everyone should just do their job.”

In Li Ziyong’s view, these two were talking past each other, their conversations completely unrelated, yet surprisingly, neither of them seemed annoyed by their disagreement—a rather strange situation. Somehow, the conversation suddenly turned to “Western Suburbs Serial Murders,” and Lin Xiangming recounted in detail how Liu Simiao discovered the broken glasses.

Although the noise in the shop grew louder and louder, Lin Xiangming didn’t raise his voice, and Hu Yanyun didn’t frown at the noise, listening intently. Li Ziyong assumed he was just like any other college student who enjoyed listening to crime stories. When Lin Xiangming mentioned some classified information held by the police, he wanted to interrupt but held back, keeping his head down as he ate edamame and drank beer.

Lin Xiangming finished speaking, and just then, the grilled skewers and stir-fries were served. Hu Yanyun grabbed a skewer of grilled yellow croaker and started gnawing on it. Lin Xiangming served three bowls of fried rice, placing one in front of each of them, then took one for himself and ate slowly with a white porcelain spoon.

Sitting face to face, Li Ziyong could tell that although Hu Yanyun’s mouth was constantly chewing, his gaze was calm, like a Go player sitting in a Japanese tea room, intently contemplating something, except that his fingers were fiddling with bamboo skewers instead of black and white stones. After eating two skewers of grilled yellow croaker, he pulled two tissues from the plastic napkin pack on the table, wiped his mouth, and said to Lin Xiangming, “This murderer must be a mystery novel enthusiast.”

Li Ziyong was startled and exclaimed before Lin Xiangming could speak, “Huh? How did you know?”

Hu Yanyun ignored him and continued, “Assuming the fish tank and glasses were broken during a struggle between Gao Xiaoyan and the murderer, Liu Simiao should have reconstructed more than just the fish tank from the shards of glass; she should have also restored at least one complete piece of the glasses. But she didn’t. What does that mean?”

“It means that the murderer very carefully searched for and picked up the broken piece of the glasses while cleaning up the scene,” Lin Xiangming said.

“Yes! So I’m more inclined to believe that the killer’s glasses were indeed knocked off by Gao Xiaoyan during the struggle, and the fish tank was deliberately broken by the killer later,” Hu Yanyun said. “The killer originally intended to pick up all the glasses shards on the ground and take them away, but because his glasses were broken, he couldn’t see the ground clearly and wasn’t sure he could find and collect all the shards. To cover up one tree, he had to plant a forest, so he broke the fish tank, letting the remaining glasses shards mix with the glass shards of the fish tank so the police would overlook the presence of the glasses shards.”

Li Ziyong slammed his hand on the table: “Yes! Yes! Yes! That’s exactly it!”

Lin Xiangming nodded as well: “Then, why would the killer do that?”

“Because the glasses shards might expose his personal information, right?” Li Ziyong couldn’t help but interject.

Hu Yanyun smiled and glanced at him.

“I’ll have Liu Simiao measure and examine those two pieces of eyeglasses again immediately.” Lin Xiangming had just taken out his phone when Hu Yanyun stopped him: “Xiangming, no need. There’s an easier way to find the murderer. Didn’t I tell you, he’s a mystery novel enthusiast?”

“Right, you haven’t explained how you came to that conclusion,” Li Ziyong said.

Hu Yanyun said, “The method the murderer used to conceal evidence comes from a famous Japanese mystery manga, but it’s relatively niche in China, so you police probably have very few people who know about it. Since he can imitate the methods of a niche manga, it’s not an absurd guess to say he’s a mystery fan or even a mystery novel enthusiast.”

“Oh, I see!” Li Ziyong exclaimed, suddenly understanding. “But you said there’s an easier way to find him…”

Hu Yanyun gave him a look that said, “I’ve explained it so clearly; how come you still don’t understand?” He picked up a skewer of grilled yellow croaker and said, “Judging from the murderer’s clothing and living environment, his family isn’t wealthy, so he wouldn’t buy Japanese manga online, and there are very few physical bookstores in the western suburbs… Have Dangdang and Amazon China assist the police in the investigation to see how many people living in the western suburbs have bought that manga online, and then check them one by one…”