Episode 6: Police
That day was the most unforgettable day in Li Ming's life. All his dreams were shattered on that day; all his years of hard work turned into nothing but a fleeting illusion. Li Ming lay in his empty home, with only bare walls left, as if time itself had stopped at this moment.
Episode 6: Police
"Is all of this written by you yourself?"
"Alright."
"Awesome, I didn't expect you to write so much, how many words is this?"
"About six hundred thousand."
"May I borrow it?"
"Alright."
This was not the first time Li Ming had lent his writing to others, and the endless praise he received no longer surprised him. What he was waiting for was publication, and then the moment of overnight fame would arrive. But now, when that moment was within reach, something he had never thought of happened. Lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling, Li Ming's mind went blank, as if a massive boulder was pressing down on his heart, making it hard to breathe.
Why did I have to go online yesterday? No, even if I stayed at home yesterday, the thief would still come. Maybe now... I'm already a corpse. Perhaps I shouldn't have put the book in my backpack. The thief took the backpack along with it, and must not have known what was inside. Maybe they just used the backpack to carry other stolen things, then found out there were several useless notebooks filled with writing inside, and casually threw them away somewhere.
What should I do?
Tears streamed down from the corners of his eyes. Li Ming regretted, but he didn't know what to regret. Maybe if he had scattered those five notebooks on the table, they wouldn't have been stolen away. Which thief would want those useless notebooks? Maybe his hundreds of yuan weren't tucked in the dictionary, but placed somewhere more easily discovered by people. The thief took the money and left; in the eyes of a thief, what could be more tempting than cash? Li Ming's mind was a mess, his gaze involuntarily darting towards the sofa to check if his backpack was still there, to see if those five notebooks were still there. Because he simply couldn't believe that everything happening before him was real. Li Ming's spirit had completely collapsed at this moment.
Such a thing, if it happened to anyone, he would probably collapse.
"Hello, is anyone there?" A man's voice suddenly came from the doorway.
Li Ming immediately wiped away his tears and got up to walk to the door. It was a policeman, one who had been called an hour ago after dialing 110. "What's going on?" The policeman walked into the house, looking around at the mess. "I've been robbed," Li Ming said helplessly. "I wasn't home last night, and when I came back this morning, it was like this." "They stole quite thoroughly, didn't they? It's a real mess." The policeman said with a hint of sarcasm. "How much money did they steal?" "No money was stolen, I hid it well. But a lot of things were stolen: the TV, phone, and a box containing my ID card, property deed, several bank deposit slips, and insurance cards." "Is that all?" The policeman asked while writing in his notebook. "And...a backpack with five books I wrote inside." "You wrote them? You can write? You're so young..." The policeman almost burst out laughing. Li Ming looked at the policeman in front of him, furrowed his brow, and said: "Yes, I started writing in middle school and continued until now. I just finished writing not long ago, and it's already ready for publication. There are no drafts." "I wouldn't have thought you were a writer!" The policeman didn't write this down in his notebook, probably thinking it wasn't important compared to the other stolen items. "Do we need to check for fingerprints on the things that were rummaged through?" Li Ming asked. "No need, no need, we know how to handle cases like this." The policeman put away his pen and notebook. "Sigh..." Li Ming let out a helpless sigh, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and lit one up. "You're smoking at such a young age?" The policeman asked, seemingly having finished what he needed to do and now asking unrelated questions. "Don't joke around with me, okay? I'm already frustrated to death." Li Ming finally expressed his true feelings. "Alright, you come to the police station tomorrow at 8:30 to make a statement." The policeman stood up, turned around, and walked to the door. "Can...can the thief be caught?" Li Ming asked. "I don't know about that, wait for news in a few days." The policeman left the house and walked down the stairs. Looking at the policeman's back, Li Ming felt empty inside. With such a policeman, could the thief really be caught? He wondered, but deep down, he still held onto a small glimmer of hope.
Even if there is a one in ten thousand chance of finding it back, Li Ming will have no regrets.
New York City Police Department - Manhattan
"This is Mr. Lusk, from today on, he will be joining us to investigate the recent serial murders." The director introduced Lusk to his colleagues. Lusk had a temporary pass hanging around his neck. "What? Is he from the branch office or...FBI?" an officer asked, looking at Lusk. "No, Mr. Lusk is...an intern, majoring in criminal psychology." "An intern? We're so busy with this case and now we have to teach a kid?" The officer said disdainfully. "I'm not here to learn," Lusk said, "I'm here to provide you with a plan to crack the case. If you adopt my plan, I guarantee that we can catch the killer by today." As soon as Lusk finished speaking, everyone in the office stopped working and turned their attention to him. The room was filled with laughter, except for the director. "Did I hear that right? We've been investigating this case for so many days and haven't found any leads, and you're saying we can crack it today?" "Director, did you bring a superhero here? Now we can all take a break!" "Quiet down, since we can't find any leads, let's listen to Mr. Lusk's plan." The director said. "Okay, intern, go ahead." "Ah...ahem," Lusk cleared his throat, "So far, there have been three cases, all in Manhattan, and the killer strikes at night. All three victims are young women, I've reviewed their files, and they don't have any connections with each other. So, we can rule out revenge or love triangles. There's no financial gain, no signs of rape, so we can also rule out robbery. Therefore, it's likely that these three cases are motiveless murders, and the killer is probably the same person. People who commit motiveless murders must have psychological problems or defects. Given that all the victims are young women, the killer likely has severe misogynistic tendencies. If he plans to continue killing, his future victims will also be young women." "Intern, could it be a copycat murder, like that British guy Jack the Ripper?" an officer asked. "It's possible, Jack the Ripper also had misogynistic tendencies and targeted prostitutes at night. This killer's methods are similar to Jack's, extremely brutal, but...," Lusk paused, "there are differences between them. Jack only took out organs from individual victims, whereas this killer not only opened up the victims' abdomens but also took out a specific organ from each victim in a very regular pattern. Perhaps, aside from misogynistic tendencies and violent inclinations, he also has necrophilia, collecting habits, or cannibalism." "You mean...he might have eaten those organs?" A female officer shuddered. "But, intestines and hearts are one thing, how could he eat ribs too?" Another officer asked. "Heh heh, people with eating disorders don't care about the texture of what they eat. There was a case where a 70-year-old woman ate rocks every night." At this point, the officers started to feel a bit horrified and also began to listen to Lusk seriously, some even taking notes.
No one called Lu any longer "intern", everyone was fully engaged in the analysis of the case.
China · Wuhan · A police station on a certain street ——
It's 8 o'clock in the morning, Li Ming arrived at the police station door half an hour early, he eagerly hopes to catch the thief as soon as possible. Li Ming was still wondering why the policeman didn't take him to make a record yesterday, but instead asked him to come today. Now, his doubts have been dispelled. The police station's gate is still locked, at 8 o'clock, no one has come to work yet. Ah, for some Chinese policemen, you don't need to ask them too much why, maybe they themselves don't know the reason for some strange things they do. Shouldn't the police station be on duty 24 hours a day? Why is it still closed? Li Ming didn't even bother to raise such doubts, he lit a cigarette and squatted at the police station door, waiting for the so-called "8:30" arrival.
Time passed very slowly, and the slower it went, the more torturous it was for Li Ming. He could still bear it, but he didn't know what his limit of endurance was. Half an hour felt like several days. However, although it was long, he finally waited until that moment. But when 8:40, 50, and 9 o'clock arrived, he still couldn't see the shadow of a police officer. The iron gate remained tightly closed. After finishing half a pack of cigarettes, Li Ming finally stood up impatiently, his legs almost numb from sitting for so long. At this time, the old man in charge of the police station's entrance hall got up and came out with a broom. "What are you doing here? Do you have business?" the old man asked. "My home was robbed yesterday, and the police told me to come here at 8:30 today. Do you know when they start work? It's already 9 o'clock and no one is here..." "Ah... probably no one will come this morning." The old man said with a smile. "Why? Does the police station have days off?" Li Ming was getting anxious. "It's not a day off, it's almost New Year's, and the police are busy with their own family matters. They don't always come on time. If no one has arrived at this hour... probably they won't open the door all morning. You'd better come back in the afternoon." The old man finished speaking and bent down to sweep up cigarette butts from the ground.
Li Ming stared blankly at the thick iron gate, his heart as if doused with a basin of icy water.
The flame can no longer be ignited...
New York City Police Department - Manhattan
"This killer is probably someone with multiple psychological disorders, a mind so twisted that I've never seen before." Russ continued his analysis of the case. "And this killer is extremely intelligent, leaving no evidence at the scene, as if deliberately challenging the police. He's indeed a very formidable guy."
"Wait, what do you think about those cards left next to the bodies every time an incident occurs?" a policeman asked.
"Hmm, those three Cupid cards were just ordinary cards after examination. The killer probably used them to taunt the police, as if saying 'come and catch me'."
"How despicable! He doesn't even put us in his eyes!" The director slammed his fist on the table. "Russ, quickly tell us your plan to catch him within today."
"It's actually simple. The killer only strikes at fixed time intervals. We just need to arrange for a female undercover police officer to be present on all streets in Manhattan from 11 am onwards, disguising herself as seductively as possible, and we can lure the killer out. Each female police officer will have five armed male police officers hiding around her, and we won't miss him."
"But... how do you know the killer will definitely come out to commit a crime today?" The director asked.
"The killer has not committed a crime for two days already. A patient with severe violent tendencies and feminine depreciation syndrome cannot restrain his bloody desires for a long time. He will come out to kill today, with a probability of over 90%!" Russ said confidently.
"But... if we spread the bait all over Manhattan, I'm afraid our manpower won't be enough."
"We don't need to spread it all over!" Russ took out a map from his pocket and unfolded it on the table for the police officers to see. "Firstly, we know the killer will not commit crimes in repeated locations, so the three previous crime scenes can be excluded. Moreover, the killer has committed crimes at those three locations and must think that the police will increase manpower at those locations. He also thinks that young women in the surrounding areas won't dare to go out at night. So, the areas within a 5-mile radius of those three locations can basically be excluded. Additionally, places with too many people gathering at night are also unlikely to be targeted. Therefore, the final area we need to hunt is only these streets I've circled on the map."
After listening to Russ's plan, the police officers looked at the map and couldn't help but look at this unassuming young man with newfound respect.
"Now, let's see how many policewomen are willing to participate in this operation." "I! I'm willing!" "All the policewomen in our bureau will participate, as long as we can catch the murderer, what's a little danger?" "Good! Then from 11 tonight until dawn, our dragnet will definitely catch this killer!" Everyone in the bureau was stirred up, as if Rus's appearance had brought them infinite confidence, as if they could already see the murderer kneeling down and begging for mercy.
Victory for the Manhattan police is within sight.
"Director! Line 3 is calling for you." The director's phone rang with the voice of a female operator. "Who is it?" The director was still immersed in the joy of his impending victory. "It's FBI Agent Paul."
“FBI？！”
The director's expression changed, as if the victory that had been within his grasp was suddenly snatched away from him.
Everyone in the room also put away their smiling faces and exchanged them for ones of astonishment.
