Chapter 138 Numbers: Three People, Three Directions!
Upon hearing someone below say that the next case would be in the south of the city, Li Qiuyun pondered for a moment and then said, "Based on the current analysis, the killer who has committed three crimes without being caught and continues to imitate murders in American TV shows is becoming increasingly confident and will definitely commit another crime. The specific time and place might be some clues left in the third case."
Li Qiuyun pointed to the close-up of the symbols in the third park body disposal case: "These symbols are covered by several bloody capital X's, making it impossible to see what they originally meant. I've watched many crime dramas, and some killers leave specific symbols at the scene to satisfy their twisted sense of ritual and complete their imagined works."
She turned to face everyone in the conference room who were listening intently: "If we can figure out what's written under this 'X,' we might be able to deduce the time and place of the next case."
After saying that, Li Qiuyun said somewhat embarrassedly, "Well, that's how it's written in crime dramas, I don't know if it's correct."
Lei Xiao gestured for her to sit back down: "Xiao Li's analysis is excellent, it provides us with new insights. The technical team is processing the symbols at the scene, and they should have results today. We'll analyze them then. Now..."
He looked around and raised his voice: "Times are changing, and so are the methods and motives of criminals. Comrade Li's analysis breaks free from the conventional framework of revenge killings, crimes of passion, and crimes of money, and introduces a completely new perspective with the flavor of 1990s popular culture, which can reasonably explain the root cause of the contradictions and chaos at the scene. Therefore, I agree with the above inference: these three murders are a clumsy performance by an imitator."
Zheng Yu leaned closer to her apprentice and whispered a compliment: "Well done!"
Li Qiuyun looked at Zheng Yu, a slight smile playing on her lips, her eyes sparkling. It felt wonderful to be affirmed by her superior and praised by her mentor.
Lei Xiao continued to summarize: "The murderer was trying to imitate the killer in crime dramas, but it was very clumsy and unrecognizable. The tools were also unsuitable and not sharp. From this point of view, the murderer should be young, lack social experience, have poor psychological resilience, and be extremely emotionally unstable."
"But at the same time, the killer was obsessed with those bloody and violent foreign films and television shows, and tried to imitate the plots in them to gain some kind of psychological satisfaction, such as recognition and attention, in order to vent the negative emotions that he could not resolve in real life. He was not an experienced killer, but more like a... fanatical, crazy, and pathetic movie fan."
"Therefore, I believe that these three cases can be investigated together, and the direction of the investigation should be immediately adjusted to focus on: young men aged 16 to 25 who have recently watched a large number of similar foreign violent crime films and television works, are introverted and have social difficulties or have experienced setbacks in real life, such as unemployment or heartbreak."
A brief silence fell over the meeting room.
Zheng Yu spoke first, her tone decisive: "Team Leader Lei, Team Leader Zhao, I completely agree with Qiu Yun's judgment! We may have indeed fallen into a fixed mindset before. This psychological profile clue based on criminal imitation is extremely valuable! I suggest that we immediately use this as the core to re-examine and integrate all the on-site evidence, especially those seemingly superfluous and redundant traces of imitation."
Fan Wei stood up and looked at everyone.
"Okay, let's re-analyze using the three-pronged approach to investigation. First, determine the nature of the case. This is a series of imitation-based serial murders. The perpetrator is a young imitator with low organizational skills and a high need for catharsis. His motive stems from distorted psychological needs and stimulation from movies and TV shows, not from traditional grudges or personal vendettas."
"Next, define the scope of the investigation. Take immediate action! Focus on investigating video rental stores throughout the city, especially those known for renting out foreign violent, thriller, and crime films, as well as audio-visual stores and underground channels that may distribute such content. At the same time, conduct door-to-door investigations in each district to identify men who fit the psychological profile: young, withdrawn men with a penchant for violent audiovisual content, and young men who may have recently experienced setbacks."
Fan Wei looked at Li Qiuyun: "Xiao Li, you watch a lot of American TV series, so make a list right away and write down the names and addresses of the video stores you are familiar with and frequent."
Li Qiuyun immediately stood up and said loudly, "Yes!"
Fan Wei continued to assign tasks: "We must solve the case on time, before National Day. We must race against time, identify the suspect, resolutely prevent him from committing another crime, completely quell public panic, and ensure absolute safety during the National Day holiday!"
Everyone responded without hesitation: "Yes!"
Bang!
The conference room door was flung open, and Zhao Jingxin strode in with two core members of the technical team. Their expressions were grave, clearly indicating they had just completed an urgent analysis; they hadn't even bothered to knock.
"Team Leader Lei, Team Leader Zhao, Team Leader Zheng, it's good that you're all here." Zhao Jingxin skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the main computer, inserting a USB drive with clean, efficient movements. "We've performed secondary technical processing on all the high-resolution photos of the third case scene, especially this symbol—"
The team members projected an ultra-high-resolution image, which had undergone multiple sharpening, contrast enhancement, and edge processing, onto the central screen. The blood-red graffiti, which had appeared blurry and chaotic in the original photo, became much clearer at this moment.
Zhao Jingxin pointed to the picture: "We ruled out most of the meaningless scratches and bloodstains and found that this was not unconscious graffiti, nor was it any kind of complicated pattern, but numbers. The numbers were written by the murderer in a distorted, trembling, and possibly even intensely emotional way, but the basic structure and stroke characteristics can be identified."
The red dot of the laser pointer steadily circled three parts: "Look here, this oval closed structure, although crooked, is a 0; here, this straight downward line and short horizontal bar, although the strokes are broken and messy, the pattern matches 7; lastly, this one," the light dot moved to the bottom, a line that looked like it was randomly circled, "look closely at its starting and ending strokes, and this ring structure, although it is written very poorly, it is undoubtedly a 9."
0,7,9.
Three simple Arabic numerals, appearing in such a bloody manner at a brutal murder scene, seem particularly eerie, cold, and full of a certain chilling sense of deliberate intent.
The atmosphere in the meeting room, which had just become slightly more lively due to Li Qiuyun's analysis, instantly froze again. Everyone stared at the three numbers, trying to decipher their meaning: a date? A house number? Some kind of code? Or just random scribbling by the murderer?
Someone raised their hand and asked, "Is it possible that it's the date? The next crime was on September 7th... But wait, the first crime was on September 12th, the second on September 16th, and the third on September 18th. The next one couldn't possibly be on September 7th."
Another comment: "Is it possible that he originally planned to commit the crime on September 7th, but postponed it for some reason?"
Someone immediately chimed in: "What about 0? You've talked for so long, but you've only mentioned the numbers 9 and 7. You haven't mentioned 0 at all."
When they got stuck on the date, they tried to discuss the house number instead.
"709?"
"907?"
"079, 097?"
Suddenly, someone had an idea: "Could it be the last few digits of the ID number?"
Someone immediately responded: "The last three digits of the three victims' ID numbers do not all contain the numbers 0, 7, and 9 at the same time."
"Then... is it possible that it's the last four digits of the next victim's ID number?"
The thought of this possibility made everyone tense.
Fan Wei immediately said to Lei Xiao, "Team Leader Lei, we need to immediately screen the last three digits of all residents' ID cards in the city. Those with the last three digits being 0, 7, or 9 should be given special attention."
Lei Xiao frowned and said, "This is a lot of work."
Zheng Yu immediately suggested, "Why don't we contact the data center? It's faster to check on a computer."
The pressure is now on data centers.
With the powerful computing capabilities of the data center, the results were displayed on the large screen shortly after the screening command was issued. In the entire city of Yan, there were over a hundred young women under the age of 35 whose ID numbers ended in "0," "7," or "9." However, when the rough physical characteristic of "slender build" summarized from the first three victims was added, along with those who clearly did not meet the initial criteria, the pool was drastically narrowed.
Upon receiving the list, Lei Xiao first praised the data center's efficiency: "The feedback is really fast! Fortunately, resident information was entered this year, and the data center has really been working non-stop. If it were up to the household registration police officers at each police station to search manually, I don't know how long it would have taken."
These three names on the list were prominently marked with a red border. All eyes were on them.
Miao Wei, 22 years old, is a female worker at the Yancheng No. 2 Textile Factory. She currently lives in Room 207, Building 3, of the cotton mill staff dormitory in the Chengdong District. Because it is a shared dormitory, she has to walk alone along a dimly lit path in the factory area after work at night. Miao Wei is about 158cm tall and weighs about 42kg. She is very petite, wears a simple ponytail, and has a delicate face but a somewhat pale complexion, often looking tired. She dresses simply, mostly in faded work clothes or inexpensive polyester shirts.
She came from a poor rural family in a county under the jurisdiction of Yancheng. After graduating from junior high school, she went to work in the city. Honest and introverted, she had almost no friends in the factory; she was the kind of quiet girl who would disappear into a crowd. Her life was extremely simple, basically a three-point line: dormitory-workshop-canteen. Recently, she had been criticized several times by her team leader for her night shift output issues, and she was somewhat depressed. Of the three women, she was the one whose living and working environment most closely resembled the atmosphere of the locations where the first three cases occurred.
The second target is Liao Tingting, 24 years old, a recent graduate of Yancheng Normal University, currently unemployed and occasionally working as a tutor. She lives on the top floor of an old-style apartment building she shares with a classmate; there's no elevator, and the hallway lights are frequently broken. Liao Tingting is 163cm tall, weighs about 45kg, wears black-rimmed glasses, is quiet and slender, and has a scholarly air. She likes to wear long skirts and knitted cardigans.
She is from another province and is an only child; her parents are ordinary wage earners. She has excellent academic performance but is somewhat aloof and not good at socializing. She has repeatedly faced setbacks in her job search after graduation and has recently been feeling anxious and lost. To save money, she shares an apartment with a classmate in an older, cheaper neighborhood a little further from the city center. She often comes home late at night to clear her head or to tutor.
The last target was a woman named Peng Lina, a 19-year-old intern shampoo girl at the "Blue Moon" hair salon. She lived in a dormitory provided by the salon owner, located in an old attic in a back alley of the salon, in a chaotic environment. She was 160cm tall and weighed about 44kg. She dressed more maturely than her actual age, and although she tried perming her hair and wearing makeup, she couldn't hide her childishness. She had a slender figure.
Peng Lina comes from a remote town in the province and dropped out of school early to work in the city. She's more outgoing than the previous two, carrying a touch of wildness from her small town and a longing for city life, but this also makes her less guarded. She works extremely late at the hair salon, usually until the early hours of the morning, and has to walk alone through a maze of back alleys to get back to her dormitory. She loves reading romance novels and fashion magazines, and occasionally goes dancing at a nearby open-air dance hall.
The list was quickly printed out and distributed to every member of the Criminal Investigation Division.
Lei Xiao frowned as he looked at the three names and their brief background information. Except for Miao Wei, who lived in the east of the city, the other two girls lived in the south. They were all young and thin, lived in poor conditions, and often walked at night. If they were targeted by someone with ulterior motives, they would indeed be in danger.
He suddenly waved his hand, his voice resolute.
"Three people, three groups! Move out immediately!"
"Zheng Yu, take a team and go to the textile factory to find Miao Wei. Talk to her factory leaders and ask them to arrange for someone to pick her up and drop her off at night, or even switch her to day shifts! At the same time, investigate all suspects in the factory area and around her dormitory who match the sketch!"
"Fan Wei, you take Group Two to the Normal University and that shared apartment to find Liao Tingting. Remind her to reduce going out at night recently and to always go out in groups. Also, check the video arcades and rental houses around the university town!"
"Group Three, come with me to that Blue Moon Hair Salon. It's the place where people get off work last the latest and it's the most dangerous; we need to keep a close watch on it!"
"Technical team, continue to delve deeper into the social networks of these three individuals, looking for any intersections or potential sources of threat!"
"At the same time, notify the local police station to immediately conduct a preliminary safety reminder at their home!"
Orders were issued one after another, and the entire criminal investigation team sprang into action once again.
Everyone knows they are racing against the killer, and these three names could be his next target. Protecting them, and using them as bait, might just be the key to catching that clumsy imitator, that deranged murderer!
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