S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 2 Chapter 6

The Innocent Murderer 06 - Phantom

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After eating, everyone went back to the police station. Luo Tian hugged Luo Yang and walked in front with Bai Chi. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked side by side in the back.

"Cat, what did you find?" Bai Yutang was curious.

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao thought for a while, and asked Bai Yutang, "Xiao Bai, do you think we should let Fang Wo perform a polygraph test, or should we not let him perform a polygraph test?"

"Didn't you say that he can't be tested with a polygraph, but he has to be tested with the polygraph..." Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, "It's a dilemma."

Zhan Zhao nodded and laughed, "Then, for example, if Fang Wo passes the polygraph test during the trial and it turns out that he is not guilty... then he is released and another murder happens... what will happen?"

Bai Yutang was taken aback and nodded knowingly, "I understand, when that time comes, Lu Liang will become the target of public criticism, and his theory will be made fun of!"

"Then... for another example, if Fang Wo fails the polygraph test, he will be found guilty during the trial... and after that, there is another Ripper case." Zhan Zhao continued to ask, "What will the result be?

Bai Yutang nodded, "When the time comes, the police will be the target of public criticism. We have been busy for a long time and we have caught the wrong person!"

"Finally." Zhan Zhao smiled, "If we release Fang Wo first and the Ripper case continues… we catch Fang Wu again, and the case still doesn't get closed... what will the result be?"

Bai Yutang smiled and shook his head, "People will definitely think that the police and psychologists are stupid."

Zhan Zhao concluded, "No matter what we do, it will raise people's doubts about criminal psychology's participation in criminal investigation investigations."

Bai Yutang was taken aback for a moment, "Cat, so there hasn't been a Ripper case recently?"

Zhan Zhao smiled slightly, "Fang Wo is just a process. No matter if he is imprisoned or released, even if he is shot in the end... as long as the murder case happens again, the murderer's ultimate goal will be achieved."

"That Lu Liang... was just being used as a gunman." Bai Yutang frowned, "He is being used but yet he is still helping them."

"I think we should check Lu Liang's social relations and the people he often contacts." Zhan Zhao said, "Also... In this world, nothing happens for absolutely no reason, especially extreme things. ."

"You mean, the purpose of this murderer's behaviour is very clear? He hates criminal psychology?" Bai Yutang said, "He laughs at the police and hates psychologists. He is very familiar with medicine, at least enough to understand the structure of the human body..."

"There are many more." Zhan Zhao suddenly said seriously, "Xiao Bai, in fact, I happened to be researching something recently."

"What have you been researching?" Bai Yutang was curious, "There were no cases a while ago, but you looked very busy."

"I have been studying how to humanise certain behaviours!" Zhan Zhao said.

Bai Yutang said with admiration, "Then you should put your research into human words. I might be smart but the scope of my understanding is limited to humans."

"Go away!" Zhan Zhao glared at Bai Yutang, thought about it, and said: "For example, if a murderer kills a person... then he has criminal motives, criminal places, criminal acts, witnesses and so on, and the victims also have social connections, reasons for being the victim, and so on."

"Mhmm." Bai Yutang nodded, "It makes sense."

"The large number of serial killers, extreme felons, and heinous people that we come into contact with do not hate only one or two people." Zhan Zhao said as he walked, "They hate a group of people who have something in common. In other words, what they hate is a kind of behaviour. In our current case, whether the murderer kills or harms people, it is because he hates something..." 

"I understand!" Bai Yutang laughed, "You mean to imagine this behaviour or thing as a person. For example, this time the criminal hates criminal psychology. That is to say, criminal psychology is the victim. Then he has his social circle, characteristics, places he frequents, what kind of people he might offend... Cat! Not bad!"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "Sometimes things that are too scattered can make people confused, but if the scattered things can be combined, then we have clues to check!"

"We used to look for patterns from the victims, then find clues, and finally find the murderer." Bai Yutang understood, "What you are studying is to remove the victim and directly define the scope of the murderer's possible existence! This method is a great way to deal with clueless cases. It's great!"

Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand and patted Bai Yutang's shoulder with satisfaction, "As expected of Captain Bai, amazing understanding and analysis ability!"

"Let's go back and determine the possible range of that person. There won't be too many people like this. We can find them!" Bai Yutang exclaimed excitedly, "Let's go Cat! There is work to be done!"

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao hurried back to the police station. That night, all of the SCI officers worked overtime, and everyone browsed a lot of information. Zhan Zhao listed the following conditions for the culprit:

1: Direct or indirect contact with Lu Liang, extremely supportive of his theory, and their remarks about it are quite provocative.

2: They have done some research related to psychology. They have had some articles that have been published in newspapers; the early ones were in support, and the later ones were against.

3: They have joined multiple psychology forums, in which they often appear at the beginning, but rarely appear in the later stages.

4: There is a certain chance for them to come into contact with the corpse

5: They have some medical knowledge or some knowledge of human body structure

6: They are young, strong, and taciturn

7: Their career is not successful but it has a certain degree of freedom, and their economic conditions are average.

If five or more of the above conditions are met, then it is sufficient. After a whole night of investigation, the crowd identified three suspicious people. One was Lu Liang's student, Wang Le. He graduated last year and stayed at the school. He has been working as Lu Liang's teaching assistant and studies medicine. One is a netizen who often appears on Lu Liang's personal forum, Luo Xinyao. She is a trainee doctor and a fan of psychology, but her comments are very radical. The last one was Zou Long, a teacher in the infirmary of Lu Liang's school. He usually chats with Lu Liang very well and often drinks two glasses together.

"These three meet the conditions." Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang sent Ma Han, Wang Chao, Zhang Long, Xu Qing, Zhao Hu and Luo Tian to monitor the three people twenty-four hours a day in shifts.

Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao and Bai Chi continued to look for information at the police station.

After following them for two days, the conclusion was that none of these three people felt normal.

On the third day, Fang Wo's polygraph was conducted on live TV.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang watched Fang Wo's polygraph test in front of the TV. Fang Wo passed the polygraph test successfully.

"This brat." Bai Yutang dropped the remote control and shook his head, "He's not easy!"

Zhan Zhao was silent, before saying after a long time: "Fang Wo is a master, his identity is definitely not simple!"

"Cat, the next thing is the highlight, and then the result will come out in the afternoon!" Bai Yutang deployed a large number of police forces and was fully prepared.

In the afternoon, Fang Wo's trial concluded; the evidence was insufficient and he was acquitted!

The result of Fang Wo's trial caused waves of discussions in the news media. However, there was no one in the SCI office. They were all out in the field, ready to go.

That night, the three suspects all went out at the same time. After meeting each other, they all went to the same place – Lu Liang's house.

When Bai Yutang and the others rushed into Lu Liang's home, Lu Liang was already on the ground, and the scalpel in Luo Xinyao's hand had almost been inserted into Lu Liang's stomach. All three were arrested.

It's just strange that even though Lu Liang's eyes were full of pain, he was unable to make a sound. Nonetheless, he was still able to struggle and move around.

Gongsun suddenly saw a glass bottle next to him that was half filled with milk. He suddenly laughed and said, "So that's what it is!"

"Gongsun, what's the matter?" Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were puzzled.

Gongsun shook his head, "Have you ever heard of microwave burns?"

Everyone looked at each other and nodded. Microwave burns are a common accident. The principle of microwave heating is to intensify the movement of molecules to generate heat. Therefore, when a liquid is heated in a microwave, the liquid is often already very hot, but the container is not hot. Therefore, there are many careless parents that use the microwave to heat milk directly. When they take it out, they can feel that it is warm using their hands, so they directly feed it to the baby, which causes serious burns to the baby.

The human throat is very fragile. Generally, a heat of about fifty degrees can cause burns, especially when force-feeding. The swallowing part happens where the vocal cords are located. If the food or drink being swallowed is too hot, it will cause damage! Lu Liang was probably force-fed the hot milk, so despite the fact that he was in pain, he was unable to say anything, all that he could do was wait and accept his death.

Bai Yutang called an ambulance. Before being sent to the hospital, Lu Liang held Zhan Zhao's hand tightly. There were faint tears in his eyes. Zhan Zhao also shook his head. This middle-aged man was expected to have a psychological shadow for the rest of his life.

The three people were taken into custody and all the suspects were caught. The Ripper case was solved. 

Zhan Zhao was careful as he asked Lu Fang to hold a press conference. He explained the murderer's intentions and said that Lu Liang had deliberately cooperated with the police in using Fang Wo's polygraph case to lead to the real murderer. He also mentioned that there is great unity within the psychology community.

The public's opinion and criticism of criminal psychology disappeared, and at the same time, Lu Liang, who lost his voice in a short period of time because of the burn, was called a hero.

Lu Liang was surprisingly low-key, not accepting any interviews and unwilling to meet anyone.

A week later, Zhan Zhao received a letter sent to him by Lu Liang, with only four words on it: the benevolent is invincible.

Zhan Zhao received the letter, but he was in a bad mood... Although the Ripper case was solved, the dismemberment case still did not have the slightest clue. In addition, Gongsun gave everyone frustrating news. He had carefully examined the throat of the deceased in the dismemberment case and there was no sign of burns.

The most troublesome thing was that Fang Wo, the only person who had information, had disappeared!

"Cat," Bai Yutang was helpless, "it seems that the dismemberment case and the Ripper case are just a coincidence and are not related."

Zhan Zhao had been looking at the relevant materials from these cases over the past few days. He found that the three murderers were all in the same forum; it was a forum that was small and could not be found using a search engine, the only reason he was able to find the website was that he had access to the three peoples' computers. The forum was called Phantom and they visited it almost daily.

Phantom was an extreme psychology forum. Most of the topics discussed on it were related to abnormal psychology. 

The leader of the forum was an individual named Phantom Lord of the Night. From the remarks made on the forum, Zhan Zhao could see that they are an individual whose professional knowledge is very strong and whose understanding of psychology is very deep. He uses very skillful language to instigate people into chatting in the forum about committing crimes. In the posts, there are a lot of bloody crime scene descriptions; although it was unknown whether they were real cases or not.

However, when Jiang Ping checked the website, he found that the server of this forum was located overseas and could not be tracked for a while. Moreover, the forum had stopped updating since the day the three were arrested.

"Cat." After reading the printed posts, Bai Yutang curled his lips, "How come there are so many perverts in this world? The world is too dangerous!"

Zhan Zhao helplessly said, "Generally, pure theoretical sciences related to human behaviour are very dangerous, like psychology and religious studies. Once someone deviates from the original objectives and goes to extremes, they can become a tool to instigate and control people. In this world, there are practically no individuals who have no weaknesses and no psychological problems. If they have weaknesses, they will definitely be used by others."

"I keep feeling... that this case isn't over yet." Bai Chi said suddenly, "I don't know what the ultimate goal is."

At this time, the door of the office was pushed open, and Bao Zheng and Lu Fang walked in.

"Bao Sir?" Bai Yutang looked up, "What's the matter?"

Bao Zheng nodded and said, "SCI has been established for a year, and many cases have been cracked. This time, the Ripper case was solved beautifully. To commend our police department for its contribution to the public security of S City, its famous politicians and business figures are holding a grand banquet tonight. They wish to thank us."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other. Just as they wanted to say something, Bao Zheng glared at the two of them. "There are a lot of high-level people attending, so don't even think about it! Everyone has to attend!"

The two of them were completely powerless.

"It's at seven o'clock tonight, on the top floor of the International Hotel!" Bao Zheng glanced around the crowd, "All the SCI members must dress nicely. If anyone dares to refuse to go, I will kick you out of the police force!" After speaking, he turned and left.

Lu Fang smiled at everyone and whispered, "I knew it would be useless for me to talk. Bao Sir is still overwhelming!" After speaking, he left with a smile.

There was a moment of silence in the SCI office. Everyone turned to look at Bai Yutang and asked in unison, "Boss, what does it mean to be dressed up nicely?"

Bai Yutang scratched his head, "Probably what you wear when you attend a wedding or formal event."

Everyone was silent. When they looked at their watches, it was almost seven o'clock. Bai Yutang waved, "Go home and change clothes!"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also reluctantly went home to change clothes.

"Xiao Bai, doesn't the International Hotel belong to your brother?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"Yeah... it was the same place where Qi Lei was shot last time." Bai Yutang said with a lingering feeling of fear, "If another incident happens tonight, then Brother does not need to rent out the venue any more, he should open a funeral parlour instead."

"Don't talk nonsense. By the way, isn't your brother out of the country?" Zhan Zhao thought for a while, "When will he be back?"

Bai Yutang shrugged, "How would I know? Ask Gongsun, oh..."

"What's the matter with you?" Zhan Zhao heard Bai Yutang suddenly yell and leaned over to look at him.

"Cat, my eyelids twitched!" Bai Yutang also came over, "Come over and kiss me!"

Get beaten!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Note

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: March 13, 2021

Re-edited: August 31, 2023