Chapter 12
Office of the Special Case Investigation Team of Jinshi Public Security Bureau.
Guo Zhen, who had just come in from outside, walked over to Pang Guang, who was enjoying a bowl of instant noodles, and pointed curiously towards the sofa: "No, what's going on? Even if we haven't been in class for two days, no one will chase us back to our lair, right?"
"This is a long story..." Pang Guang's expression suddenly became meaningful. He pulled the man to a corner and muttered to himself for a long time, slurping noodles to moisten his throat.
After understanding the whole story, Guo Zhen's eyes glared at Lao Yuan uncontrollably at first, but he quickly regained his composure. "Tricking a physical trainer into contacting the suspects is something only our Captain Lin could do. We mustn't let the leaders find out, or he won't be able to stop without a dozen or so inspections!"
Some things are legal but against the rules. Looking across the country, there are not many police officers who dare to act like Lin Jiafan.
I have to say that habit is a very scary thing. When they first entered the special case investigation team, they were terrified every day watching Lin Jiafan dancing wildly across the leader's bottom line. The first thing they did when they opened their eyes in the morning was to pray that they would not be implicated by the man.
Later, as time went by, they gradually became familiar with this exciting pace of life and became much more indifferent.
Because they know that Lin Jiafan has a sense of propriety and always adheres to three bottom lines: not violating laws and regulations, not violating human nature, and not violating moral credibility.
As for those useless rules and regulations, in his words: Only by breaking them occasionally can the people who make the rules find the meaning of their existence.
"Well, but the bureau has approved Coach Luo's teaching hours for this business trip. Doesn't that mean they tacitly approve of Captain Lin's reckless behavior? The funds for the related operations should be reimbursed by the bureau, right?" Guo Zhen calmed himself down and asked with a frown.
Pang Guang responded with an increasingly obvious gloating expression on his face: "Although we acquiesce, this kind of thing is not something that can be discussed openly. The Bureau's attitude has always been this way. Sometimes we can turn a blind eye, but we don't have the money or the people."
"Oh my goodness!" Guo Zhen counted on his fingers, "The three of you spent nearly four thousand. Captain Lin will have to eat dirt this month, right?"
"But then again, I've never seen two people in all these years who could make Captain Lin lose face and just accept it with a pinch of his nose. Coach Luo really has some skills."
Pang Guang nodded in agreement with this evaluation.
"It's definitely worth it! If Coach Luo hadn't put in so much effort today, how would we have caught Wang Guifen? Last night, we were still worrying about how to figure out the connection between Wang Guifen and these two recent copycat crimes, and today we can openly go to her residence to collect evidence."
As they spoke, the two of them turned their heads together in tacit understanding and looked at the woman who was currently fidgeting on the sofa.
Their gazes were so unconcealedly hot that Luo Jingyao couldn't pretend not to notice and could only force an awkward smile.
Just as the three of them looked at each other, not knowing how to break this situation, the office door was pushed open from the outside.
The ones who came in were Lin Jiafan and the only thin female member of the group, Pan Chang, who still had some of the hot air unique to the autumn heat.
Walking to a desk, the man tossed the bulging evidence bag in his hand and raised his chin towards Guo Zhen in the corner: "Brother Guo, tell me about your latest discovery first."
"Yes, Captain Lin."
Guo Zhen responded without hesitation and walked to the conference table first. Several documents had already been prepared on the table. After turning the first page, two photos came into everyone's sight.
"The identity of the victim in the first case was confirmed two days ago. Her name is Zhuo Meiling, she is 29 years old, unmarried, and not registered in Jinshi. She is from Hebei Province. She worked as a clerk in a foreign trade company in this city. Three days ago, the HR department discovered that she had not been at work and contacted her unsuccessfully, so they called the police."
"Zhuo Meiling has been living in a company-provided dormitory since arriving in Jinshi three years ago. Her DNA matches the hair samples provided by her colleagues. After receiving notification from the police, her family arrived yesterday to identify the body."
At this point, a trace of pity flashed across his face. Even though he was used to seeing separations and deaths, this case was still too cruel for the victim's family.
The forensic doctor in charge of this case had tried his best to restore the victim's body after completing the autopsy, but he was ultimately helpless when faced with the flesh and skin that had been forcibly separated by the murderer.
Barely coming back to his senses from the crying of Zhuo Meiling's family, Guo Zhen took a deep breath and gestured for everyone to look at the second photo.
"The second victim is Gong Lingling, 27 years old, also unmarried, and a native of Jinshi. Her identity was confirmed so quickly because her DNA was already in the system. Gong Lingling lived in the Sun Red Children's Welfare Institute in Songshan District until she graduated from high school, moving out after she was admitted to university. Currently, she has no stable income and supports her daily life with a part-time customer service job."
"Because she has no relatives, colleagues, or close friends, we contacted the director of the Sun Red Welfare Home to see if they could cooperate with the relevant procedures."
"Yeah." Lin Jiafan nodded, his expression calm and devoid of any personal emotion. "Aside from age and gender, the two victims don't have much in common. One has long, curly blond hair, the other has pure black, medium-length hair that just reaches past their shoulders. One is fatter, the other thinner. There's even a six-centimeter height difference between them."
"Also, both victims were low-risk individuals. Compared to Huang Guojun's predation two years ago, when he specifically targeted high-risk individuals involved in the sex trade, this copycat appears to be even more daring."
"From the information we have so far, there is no chance that Zhuo Meiling and Gong Lingling's daily life trajectories would overlap, so did the murderer choose his target completely randomly?" Pang Guang touched his chin and shook his head. If that was the case, it would be difficult to deal with.
Two years ago, Huang Guojun started killing because he suffered setbacks at work and betrayal in his relationship. Under the double blow, he raised the butcher knife and chose to take revenge on society.
But his so-called "revenge" was carefully planned. For example, the targets he chose were all engaged in high-risk occupations, so that entering and exiting the victims' homes would be convenient and inconspicuous.
For example, the women he chose all had extremely similar physical features because these features reminded him of his ex-girlfriend who betrayed him.
For example, skinning and fleshing the victim after her death represents Huang Guojun's destruction of his ex-girlfriend's outstanding appearance, and the typical feature of cutting off the deceased's ring finger and taking it away indirectly shows that he is fantasizing about completely depriving his ex-girlfriend of her marriage.
It is because serial killers are also human beings, and every mistake they make has some reasons in the final analysis. That is why the police were able to successfully arrest Huang Guojun in a limited time by using the criminal investigation method of reversely inferring the criminal's psychological activities.
But in this copycat murder case, considering all the evidence, there is a high probability that the murderer was just imitating mechanically.
Perhaps the information available from the outside world about the June 13 serial murders is very limited, and most of it is just some methods of committing the crime. This is why these two copycat crimes have no internal causes, only external consequences.
You know, simple killing is what gives the police the most headaches.
Standing at the front of the conference table, Guo Zhen first observed everyone's contemplation with satisfaction for a moment before motioning for everyone to turn to the next page. "Thankfully, the laboratory carefully re-examined the evidence brought back from both crime scenes and surprisingly found the same substance in these two vastly different locations."
"Magnesium carbonate."
As soon as he finished speaking, the members of the special investigation team began to think about what industry this substance would be used in or what scenario it would appear in on a daily basis. However, because there were so many possibilities, they really had no idea in a short period of time.
At this moment, Luo Jingyao, who had been sitting on the sofa resting as if invisible the entire time, suddenly spoke up: "Um... could it be magnesium powder?"
Magnesium powder?
In an instant, everyone in the office focused their attention on her.
"It's the magnesium powder that you often see in some sports competitions, which athletes put on their hands to prevent slipping. Its main ingredient is magnesium carbonate." Luo Jingyao explained carefully.
Unlike the members of the special case investigation team who have rich knowledge reserves and are well-informed, she, as an ordinary person, can only associate magnesium carbonate with magnesium powder.
"Some professional gyms, training grounds for certain sports, sports-related majors in colleges and universities...many places have magnesium powder."
It's really not a rare thing.
The people around the conference table looked at each other, feeling as if they had suddenly been enlightened.
Yes, so what if magnesium sulfate is widely used?
Most of the time it is used as a mixed chemical agent, in which case some other substances can always be detected, unlike magnesium powder which sounds pure.
"Pang Guang, based on this clue, continue to dig deeper into the overlaps in the lives of the two victims, paying special attention to places like the gym." Lin Jiafan turned his head and instructed the young man sitting next to him.
Pang Guang agreed without hesitation. He pushed his legs hard and controlled the chair with wheels under his butt to return to his desk. Then he opened a silver-gray laptop and started to work.
At this point, Guo Zhen’s report for today has come to an end.
But before he and Pan Chang could catch their breath, Lin Jiafan turned around and stretched out his arm to take the evidence bag that he had just thrown aside.
"Wang Guifen is currently in the interrogation room on the sixth floor. This is a stack of envelopes she brought back from her home. The Trace Examination Department has completed preliminary processing, but unfortunately, they were unable to extract any fingerprints or DNA from the surfaces."
Hearing that the matter had been handled, Guo Zhen and Pan Chang felt relieved and each of them took out an envelope.
"Dear Mom..." Guo Zhen shook out the letter in the envelope and wanted to read it aloud with emotion, but he didn't expect to stop abruptly at the first sentence.
"Is this written by Huang Guojun to Wang Guifen?!"
"That's not right. Wasn't he executed a long time ago?"
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