The Missing Daughter – CH 005

Chapter 5. Living Alone 3

My palms were slightly sweaty.

His gaze fell on my hand holding the phone.

My gaze fell on his hand holding the wrench.

We fell into a silence that was physically brief but mentally incredibly long.

I turned off my phone screen and forced a dry laugh. “A friend just messaged me saying he’s coming over to my house later; I’m replying.”

Mr. Zhao didn’t say anything, just narrowed his eyes, took a step back, and put the wrench behind his back. “Then come in.”

I confronted him; I had no chance of winning.

Even if I turned and ran, I’d only be exposing my back and the back of my head to him.

If Mr. Zhao really had a problem, that wrench could take me out instantly.

I wasn’t sure I could outrun him.

Besides, I didn’t want to make a scene and attract too many people.

My only chance of winning was my “husband” inside the house.

As I walked in, I said, “Could you please keep your voice down, Mr. Zhao? My husband is a boxing coach, and he gets angry whenever he’s woken up from a bad night’s rest.”

Mr. Zhao scoffed, “Being a boxing coach gives you the right to abuse cats?”

I gave an awkward laugh and went inside. Everything was exactly the same as when I left.

—Except for the opened package in the corner.

“Your husband…you’re not making this up, are you?”

Mr. Zhao suddenly asked.

Me: “Huh? What?”

“Your husband, a boxing coach, I have a feeling…”

He looked me over thoughtfully for a few moments: “You made this up to scare me, didn’t you?”

I pretended to be calm and replied, “How could that be? Besides, Mr. Zhao, you’re not a bad person. What good would it do me to scare you?”

Mr. Zhao chuckled twice: “You wouldn’t open the door for me before, didn’t you? You thought I was a bad guy?”

I looked away and instead looked at the open delivery box on the living room floor, where some things were sticking out. Mr. Zhao noticed my gaze and scoffed: “These are your husband’s ‘tools,’ aren’t they? The more respectable a person is, the more perverted they are. A boxing coach, someone like that, can be a coach? Really…”

I only glanced at it, but I could see that the box contained some large scissors, long sticks, and even a small flamethrower.

I quickly interrupted him, “Mr. Zhao, you’ve already taken the money; can we put this matter aside for now?”

Mr. Zhao: “I took the money; I only promised not to tell anyone, but I didn’t promise you I could continue doing this. When you went to throw things away earlier, why didn’t you throw these away too?”

I said helplessly, “I can’t bring it up.”

If this dragged on any longer, I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Seeing that Mr. Zhao seemed about to say something, I offered, “How about you take these with you and throw them away when you leave? That way you’ll believe in my determination, right?”

Mr. Zhao opened his toolbox, put the wrench inside, and took off his gloves. “Alright, I’ll help you with this. I doubt you can buy these things through normal channels, right?”

I stood in the living room, stiff as a board. I couldn’t relax for a moment as long as he was there. I changed the subject. “By the way, Mr. Zhao, how did you know I’d been standing at the door for so long?”

Mr. Zhao pointed to the monitor on the wall. “I heard some noise at the door, so I went to check.”

I said, “Oh,” and looked towards the bathroom. “You’re still working so late? By the way, is the waterproofing in the bathroom finished? If it’s done, why don’t you go ahead? I’m afraid I—”

This time it was Mr. Zhao’s turn to interrupt me: “No way can I fix it that quickly! You should have let me in to check earlier; otherwise, this would not have dragged on until now. I’ve looked at it, and the situation in your house is more serious than I thought. I’ll bring some materials tomorrow; it’ll probably take some time.”

I hesitated. “Tomorrow?”

Mr. Zhao took out his phone. “Yes, leave your number; I’ll call you when I come tomorrow.”

I hesitated. “Tell me your number; I’ll save it for you. By the way, how long will this take?”

“If I do it alone, a day or two should be enough, mainly because you’re rarely home.”

Seeing my troubled look, Mr. Zhao frowned, “Don’t you have security cameras at home? If it really doesn’t work, you can open the door for me and then go to work. I can finish it in a day, but it’ll take a morning and an afternoon. If you think that’s too slow, I can bring someone to help, but the labor cost will be a bit higher—”

I hesitated.

I haven’t even figured out if Mr. Zhao was okay yet. If he brought an assistant, maybe even my virtual husband wouldn’t be effective in making him cautious.

He hadn’t made a move all day; my bluff probably worked.

But the whole day…

After exchanging phone numbers, I looked up and said, “You should come alone. You know, my husband… well, it’s not exactly a good thing. Matters at home aren’t sorted out properly. If others find out, then all that two thousand yuan I spent will be wasted.”

Hearing me mention “two thousand yuan,” Mr. Zhao clearly looked a little uncomfortable, but he instantly understood: “Okay, I’ll do it all for you. I’m very efficient. These days, homeowners have increasingly demanding renovation requirements, wanting it done in the shortest possible time.” “Okay, as the saying goes, slow and steady wins the race. But with me, you can rest assured, I’ll deliver within the days I say I’ll finish.”

I tentatively asked, “How much?”

“We have a cooperative price with the property management; they’ll pay according to the number of orders. If you want to give a little extra for labor, that’s fine too,” he said, walking towards the door. “I have another client to work on. This one’s just like yours, very demanding, lots of requests, and they like to rush things. Luckily, it’ll be finished soon.”

I only breathed a sigh of relief after Mr. Zhao, still chattering, walked out and hurriedly closed the door.

Finally, it was quiet.

After a while, I remembered.

Mr. Zhao hadn’t explained why he came to work at night.

That murderer didn’t just pick his victims randomly.

He would scout the location beforehand, learning about the victim’s personal circumstances.

Perhaps he used this kind of work to choose his victims, and I didn’t meet his criteria.

Besides, I had “told” him that there were security cameras in the house. Of course, the home security camera had already been removed.

I couldn’t let him know about this, so before he left, I told Mr. Zhao that I would be resting at home all day tomorrow, and he could come over at nine in the morning.

Mr. Zhao assumed I was worried he would cut corners and wanted to keep an eye on him while he worked. He gave me a nonchalant look and didn’t say anything to “expose” me.

I still had my doubts about him.

He didn’t take any money, saying the property management would pay. Many residents thought they didn’t have to pay him themselves and let him come and go as he pleased.

As a handyman, his temper and attitude were terrible. However, I was not his direct contact; he was paid directly from the property management, so his lack of patience with me was understandable.

But so far, there was no evidence of whether he had any problems or not.

Generally, property management companies didn’t cover these expenses.

But this was a high-end community; theoretically, the bathroom waterproofing shouldn’t be faulty, so it was not impossible that they would cover the cost of secondary repairs. I wasn’t sure if it was true or not.

If it were false, then he would come back the next day to do the so-called waterproofing treatment, which meant he hadn’t given up on me.

If it were true, I couldn’t let my guard down.

Actually, verifying the truth was simple; just ask the property management.

But the property management would definitely question my identity.

I couldn’t take any risks.

Once I calmed down, I put the gloves I’d taken off back on and began cleaning off the fingerprints I’d left behind.

I could have just left, but this place was really nice. After losing my job, I was even less likely to be able to pay my already overdue rent; the landlord was about to kick me out. It was a good opportunity to find somewhere else to live.

My previous rent and living expenses were all borrowed. My three-month internship only paid a few hundred yuan, less than the tip I’d given the handyman.

I’d been hoping for a stable salary and benefits after getting a permanent position…

But now, everything had vanished.

Sha Xiaoxuan was a good person, not in terms of her personality, of course.

But in terms of her lifestyle.

She had friends, but they were all fair-weather friends who wouldn’t care much about her disappearance.

They only went out partying all night, and their most familiar places were the city’s various dining and entertainment venues, not her home address.

They drank at night and slept during the day.

If what Mr. Zhao said wasn’t false, then the previous times he came, it wasn’t that Sha Xiaoxuan wasn’t home but that she was asleep. Whether she didn’t hear the knocking or deliberately didn’t want to get up, it was all possible.

I also got her phone, computer, and payment passwords.

Her account had a loving mother constantly depositing money; even without deposits, the balance was enough for me to spend for a very, very long time.

Her parents’ call came from the capital, a hundred and eight thousand miles away.

I found the property certificate in the bedroom, so the landlord won’t be coming anymore.

Only one last problem remained, one that money couldn’t solve.

Disposing of the body.

I unlocked the master bedroom door and turned on the light.

Looking at the girl’s peaceful appearance on the bed, I couldn’t help but think that she looked much better asleep than awake.

Especially those eyes that would never open, even more pleasing to the eye.

The living room air conditioner was set low because I didn’t like the heat.

I picked up the remote and turned the master bedroom air conditioner down a few degrees, spraying perfume around the room several times. Then I closed the door again and started thinking about my next plan.

It was simply a matter of how to break down the target into easily portable trash as quickly and quietly as possible and then take it out for proper disposal.

Fortunately, I had already gone over the plan in my mind many times.

Leaving it at home wouldn’t work; it would rot and stink.

Of course, it was already like that when she was alive, but most people couldn’t smell the stench.

The only person she was close to was probably this Panpan.

Before Mr. Zhao came, I looked at all her chat history on social media with other people; they were all superficial friends, except for Panpan, with whom she frequently exchanged messages.

Panpan also knew Sha Xiaoxuan’s address.

But getting rid of a “friend” with secrets in my hands wasn’t difficult.

This couldn’t be rushed; we had to take it slow, so Panpan wouldn’t become suspicious.

Mr. Zhao was right. If it got posted online and others found out they were abusing cats, they were more afraid of social death than any weak punishment.

But until the very last step, I didn’t want to do anything that would only cause me trouble.

Understanding Sha Xiaoxuan was simple; just looking at the delivery boxes she threw away, the trash… and following her for a while.

Just like Panpan said, a stranger wanting to enter a target’s home usually had a few reasons: delivering takeout, delivering packages, and, in the past, even… Now, checking the fire extinguisher was also a good excuse.

My method for getting her to open the door was simple: I said there was a problem with something she bought a few days ago.

The delivery company, the last few digits of the tracking number, and the items she bought all matched, and this information could be obtained from the delivery boxes.

She wasn’t as vigilant as I was.

Probably because she wasn’t hiding a human corpse, but a cat’s corpse.

Even if I threw away the tools in the living room, it would easily cause trouble if someone found them, so I told Mr. Zhao to throw them far away.

The body on the master bedroom bed was already stiff and lifeless.

Her eyes were still open, showing an expression of terror and pain, her eyeballs bulging out like a dried-up, rotten fish that had died on the shore.

I sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to wipe the bloodstains from her face.

Unfortunately, the blood had dried; the scarlet spots clung to her pale skin like spilled black paint.

Panpan was right. Any premeditated murder case required careful investigation and planning beforehand to avoid immediate discovery.

Home invasion murder.

A person living alone was the best target.

Especially for a woman living alone, it was essential to be extra vigilant when home alone.