SFTD -Chapter 194 A Severed Thumb (Part 24)

Zhou Hai pulled his mask down slightly and stepped into the room.

“You start with the bedroom. I’ll look around elsewhere.”

Xu Biao carried the case and was just about to enter the bedroom when one of his shoe covers slipped off. He quickly crouched down, and at that moment noticed two short strands of hair on the floor arranged in a V-shape. If he hadn’t bent down like that, they would never have been discovered.

It seemed this person had strong counter-surveillance awareness. This was the sort of trick often seen in foreign spy movies—used to detect whether someone had entered the room.

After photographing and collecting the hairs, Xu Biao began checking the wardrobe and the bed. None of the clothes were especially expensive, but everything was extremely neat. Every outfit was covered with its own dust-proof garment bag, while underwear and socks were sorted into different drawers and compartments. For a single man to organize things to this degree showed just how severe his obsession with cleanliness was.

The bed was covered with a white fitted sheet without a single wrinkle. The nightstand and nearby table were completely bare as well. However, when Xu Biao opened the drawer of the southernmost bedside cabinet, he found a monocular telescope lying quietly inside.

Picking it up, Xu Biao easily found several fingerprints on it. Inside the drawer he also discovered a tripod and a U-shaped clamp attached to something with a hollow cap-like structure underneath. The more he looked at it, the more it resembled a car-mounted phone holder. Realizing something, he shouted toward the doorway.

“Hai-zi, come here! I found a telescope!”

Zhou Hai hurried over. After examining it twice, he pulled out his phone, attached it to the U-shaped clamp, and opened the camera function. Sure enough, the phone’s camera image was magnified several times.

He lifted the telescope and looked out the window. This was the fifth floor of Building Five. Standing by the window and looking diagonally behind them, they could clearly see Building Seven to the north. After adjusting the focus, he aimed directly at the bathroom of Room 201 where Wang Yanming lived, as well as the southern bedroom and living room windows. In fact, every identical apartment position across six floors above and below was visible.

Zhou Hai lowered the telescope.

“Excellent angle. You can see every room in that old lady’s apartment across the way in Building Seven.”

After searching the two rooms and the living room, the pair headed toward the kitchen. A massive double-door refrigerator stood before them. For Zhu Mingtao, who lived alone, such a refrigerator was far too large.

Xu Biao reached out, then hesitated and withdrew his hand.

“Hai-zi, you open it.”

Zhou Hai rolled his eyes at him and pulled the refrigerator doors open with both hands. Instantly, all words failed them.

Two human heads sat inside the refrigerator.

Wang Yanming’s head was covered with a supermarket plastic bag, while Mu Ya’s head—below the occipital area and neck—had been carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and placed upright before them. The sudden discovery left both men completely stunned.

Xu Biao pulled open the frost-covered freezer drawer beneath. The missing internal organs were all stored inside.

“Hai-zi… does this count as conclusive evidence?”

Zhou Hai nodded, then shook his head.

“It counts as evidence. But it’s evidence so obvious that it makes no sense. It’s almost as if someone deliberately displayed it for us.”

Xu Biao nodded.

“I can’t connect Zhu Mingtao with this crime scene either. If he’s really as calculating as we previously analyzed, why would he keep evidence like this around for the police to find?”

Anything Xu Biao could think of, Zhou Hai had already considered. This entire case had kept him passive from the beginning. Every time he thought he had reconstructed the full picture, he realized he was being manipulated again.

But since the killer wanted the police to interrogate Zhu Mingtao, then they would do exactly that. Perhaps it would lower the killer’s guard. Victory had a way of clouding people’s judgment.

Just then, Zhou Hai’s phone rang. It was Chu Menghan.

“Zhou Hai, come over here for a second. The landlady recognizes Mu Ya. She says Mu Ya was the tenant renting the master bedroom in Room 201.”

“Didn’t Xiao Zeng already verify the tenant information?”

Chu Menghan sighed.

“This isn’t a police station. Most of the information people leave is fake. The tenant for the master bedroom registered under the name Liu Xin. I tried the number, but it’s unreachable. Did you find anything over there?”

“Yes. Did you ask the old landlady about Zhu Mingtao?”

“Oh right, I almost forgot. We did ask! Zhu Mingtao is from Xiguozhuang Village. He’s considered one of the more successful people there. His father raised him alone, but his father passed away last year. People say he brought a girl home for the New Year, though the old lady never saw her.”

Zhou Hai scanned the room once more. There truly were no signs that a second person had lived here. A suspect with obsessive cleanliness was troublesome in exactly this way—not even a single strand of hair would be left behind.

“Alright, come over. We found more evidence here too.”

After hanging up, Xu Biao held up the evidence bag containing the two hairs.

“These were found in front of the master bedroom door. At first I thought Zhu Mingtao placed them there to detect intruders, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Send them for testing with the rest later.”

As he spoke, Zhou Hai dialed Liu Da’s number.

“Liu Da, take Zhu Mingtao into custody. We found the heads of both victims and all the internal organs in his apartment.”

Liu Da paused for a moment, instantly sensing something off in Zhou Hai’s tone.

“What? You think something’s wrong?”

“A case this perfectly executed… yet the evidence is simply sitting in his home? Doesn’t that seem inconsistent?”

“Maybe he believed the police would never find him, so he confidently stored the victims’ heads and organs there.”

Even Liu Da didn’t believe his own explanation. It sounded far too forced.

“If we can’t determine it yet, that’s fine. Bring him in first and interrogate him slowly.”

Zhou Hai let out a long sigh.

“That’s all we can do for now. Since the killer wants us to treat Zhu Mingtao as the murderer, we’ll play along for him. Bring Pang Chuanhai back too. There are some details I want to verify.”

“Alright. We’ll release everyone else here first, then conduct another detailed search of the scene.”

Zhou Hai narrowed his eyes.

“That’s for the best. The phone the killer used to send instructions to Pang Chuanhai still hasn’t been found. Since the killer was at the scene, the phone can’t be far away. The area needs a thorough search.”

After hanging up, the sound of high heels approached as Chu Menghan entered. The moment she saw the contents of the refrigerator, her eyes widened in shock. For a long moment, she couldn’t speak.

“This… Zhu Mingtao…”

Zhou Hai shook his head and glanced at Xu Biao.

“We can’t draw conclusions yet. Pack everything up and bring it back for autopsy. Interrogate them carefully. Also, have Xiao Hu thoroughly analyze the killer’s WeChat account. We’ll compare everything later tonight.”

“You mean Zhu Mingtao isn’t the killer?”

Zhou Hai shook his head again.

“Let’s not discuss that for now. Have Mu Ya’s family still not been contacted? According to the landlady, she never went home for the New Year.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention that. Wang Man already contacted Mu Ya’s father. He remarried before New Year’s Day, and Mu Ya opposed it. The two argued badly, so she didn’t go home this year. Her older sister works overseas and is apparently already married with children. So nobody really cared where she spent the New Year or how she was doing.”

Xu Biao sighed.

“A child doesn’t come home for New Year and nobody even looks for her… that’s honestly unbelievable…”

Zhou Hai interrupted his lament.

“We need to identify the man who lived here with Mu Ya. If he came back every day, someone must have seen him. Bring in an artist to make a composite sketch. That’s an excellent breakthrough point.

Also investigate all of Mu Ya’s communication records—calls, text messages, QQ, WeChat, MSN, everything. As a student in Dongnan City, her social circle would be limited, especially at school. We need to understand her relationships.

Investigate her classmates as well. See whether anyone knows who her boyfriend was, or which men she was particularly close to. University students rarely move out of campus housing right from the start. There will definitely be clues.

And the landlady mentioned Zhu Mingtao had a girlfriend, so investigate that too.

Finally, it all depends on your interrogation. That can wait a little. After I finish the autopsy, I’ll join you. I want to observe Zhu Mingtao up close.”