S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 3 Chapter 11

Smiling Murderer 10 - Sink Into the Sea

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(Angel: The title of this chapter, 'sink into the sea', is a Chinese idiom which means to throw a stone and see it sink without trace in the sea, and is a metaphor for disappearing forever, or eliciting no response.)

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang rushed to the place that Bai Chi and the others reported. Along the way, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao as he drove, “Cat, what’s the matter?”

“The murderer is very clever, he doesn’t do it himself, he uses Liu Song and a few others and creates the illusion that only those few people were involved in the murder… Seeing that his deeds are now revealed, he wants to kill them.” Zhan Zhao answered anxiously.

“Who is the other person Guo Cheng and the other man will pick up?” Bai Yutang asked.

“Maybe the other person involved in the crime.” Zhan Zhao said.

“Why would you guess that there is another person?” Liu Qing asked puzzledly.

“The murderer kills three people every time, then takes an organ from the deceased. This time, three people will inevitably gather. In order to stabilize that person first, I just guessed, but listening to his tone, it seems they really went to pick someone up.”

“If the three people are brought together… he will kill them?” Bai Yutang asked.

“The murderer is a pervert, he doesn’t follow any rules. So far, his method of killing is also very confusing, the only similarity is that he kills in groups of three every time!”

“Indeed!” Bai Yutang nodded.

“Is it really a gang-style crime?” Liu Qing said to himself, “There are so many people gathered.”

“I think it is more likely that someone is instigating the crime.” Zhan Zhao shook his head, “Liu Song is a student, and he is obsessed with horror themes. Guo Cheng is also a student at the medical university, and he has a close relationship with Liu Song… In addition, that person’s voice sounded quite young.”

“He is instigating young people?” Bai Yutang asked.

“En… it’s possible.” Zhan Zhao frowned, “That Guo Cheng hasn’t seen anything, he can only say that he is a little confused, but the person who answered the phone just now, feels weird.”

“What’s weird?” Liu Qing asked.

Zhan Zhao shook his head, “It would be better for me to meet him and talk in person.”

While they were talking, Bai Chi and the others called again, “Brother, the car stopped halfway.”

“What?” Zhan Zhao frowned and asked, “Where did you stop?”

“At the gate of a community.” Bai Chi said, “Brother, there are a lot of people coming and going here, I don’t know who they are waiting for.”

“We are here.” Bai Yutang pointed forward. Zhan Zhao looked up and saw Bai Chi standing at the door of his car and a taxi parked at the gate of the community.

“Something is wrong.” Zhan Zhao frowned. After the car stopped, everyone got out, and other police cars pulled up to block the gate of the community to prevent pedestrians from approaching.

Bai Yutang looked from a distance and said to Zhan Zhao, “Cat, there seems to be something wrong with the people in the car!”

Zhan Zhao also took a look. Although he couldn’t see their expressions clearly, he could see the posture of the people in the car; one was lying on the steering wheel and the other was leaning back against the seat… it feels… like they aren’t moving anymore.

“Let’s go and take a look.” Luo Tian said.

“Wait.” Zhan Zhao waved his hand and spoke to Bai Yutang, “First, call the bomb disposal team to check the car.”

Bai Yutang nodded and called the people from the bomb disposal team… The police officer slowly approached the car in an explosion-proof suit, and checked the surroundings of the car with an instrument. No bomb was found, so he waved to Zhan Zhao and the others.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang walked over and saw that the two people inside the car were dead… One was Guo Cheng, and the other was a young man in his twenties who seemed to also be a student.

“Cat.” Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao frowned slightly, as if there were many things he couldn’t figure out.

“They’re also smiling.” Bai Chi pointed at the deceased’s face – a stiff smile.

“It’s strange.” Shen Zhongyuan frowned, “The death smile poison can’t stay in someone’s body that long, they usually die immediately after eating it or after it enters their blood, why did it happen after driving for so long? Also, he parked the car safely on the side of the road, wouldn’t people in the early stages of poisoning from this poison go crazy?”

Zhan Zhao shook his head, “We can only take the body back to Gongsun for an autopsy.”

While they were talking, a police officer pried open the trunk of the car. Zhan Zhao walked over, but there was nothing in the trunk.

“Cat,” Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao, “only two people died this time.”

Zhan Zhao nodded, also full of doubts, “If they wanted them to die, then they should have been killed earlier, this would hide all of the clues as people would have thought that it was just a traffic accident. But why did they have to wait until the two of them arrived at the gate of the community just to kill them?”

Zhan Zhao raised his eyes and looked at the residential area in front of him. He saw that it was a relatively new small high-rise residential area, and that many of the buildings were vacant.

“This area is relatively remote. Most of the people who buy houses here did so based on real estate speculation and are waiting for it to appreciate, few people actually live here.” Shen Zhongyuan said

Zhan Zhao thought for a while, then asked him to find the property manager and ask him which floors are occupied.

As Shen Zhongyuan went to find the property manager, Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, “Cat, do you feel… that there is a problem with this community?”

Zhan Zhao nodded, “Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to make them die here. It’s impossible that he broke the rule of killings in groups of three for no reason at all… If that’s the case, then this murderer is too casual and undisciplined.”

Bai Yutang nodded, motioning for Zhan Zhao to follow his own ideas.

Afterwards, according to Zhan Zhao’s request, Bai Yutang sent a large number of police officers to search the entire community, but there was still no clue. The property manager was very cooperative, they opened the doors to almost all of the unoccupied houses and the officers searched them, it’s just that no abnormal situation was found at all.

Everyone returned to the gate. Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and asked, “Cat, do you still feel that something’s wrong?”

Zhan Zhao nodded.

Bai Yutang thought for a while, then asked Luo Tian to ask the police K-9 team to bring two cadaver dogs.

“Yes Sir.” Luo Tian ran off to make the call.

Zhan Zhao turned his face and looked at Bai Yutang with his eyes wide open.

Bai Yutang smiled, and while the others were not paying attention, he leaned over and whispered in Zhan Zhao’s ear, “Cat, I believe you. Others don’t know what I know, each of your brain cells is smarter than others.”

Zhan Zhao felt touched in his heart… and the serious expression on his face turned into a shallow smile as he looked at Bai Yutang. To be honest, he almost just felt as though he wanted to give up.

“A cadaver dog?” Liu Qing felt puzzled and asked, “I’ve heard of drug detection dogs and search and rescue dogs, but this is the first time I have heard of a cadaver dog.”

“It is separate from the search and rescue dogs.” Bai Yutang said, “This kind of dog is difficult to train. The K-9 team went abroad for a while and brought puppies back to train themselves. They have been raising them for several years, they must be worth hundreds of thousands.”

“Woah.” Zhao Hu widened his eyes, “Mother, a dog is more expensive than a human!”

Ma Han gave him a blank look, “Does it compare to you?”

Not long after, a police car drove up. Two dog handlers led two large dogs and walked over. Everyone leaned over curiously and saw that one of them was a brown short-haired Shar Pei. Its body was full of wrinkles and it had big ears, it looked lazy and silly.

Zhao Hu looked a little amused, “Is such an expensive dog so ugly?”

Unexpectedly, just as Zhao Hu finished speaking, the large dog fluttered its eyelids, shook a little, and raised its hind leg, peeing in Zhao Hu’s trouser legs...

“Ah!” Zhao Hu hurriedly backed up but the dog peed on his trouser legs and shoes. He tossed his shoes and said, “What kind of dog is this? It’s not trained well!”

The dog handler held back a smile and said, “Shaban hates others calling him ugly.”

Zhao Hu curled his lips and asked, “Can I kick it?!”

“Sure, if you pay for it if it’s injured.” Ma Han chimed in from the side.

Zhao Hu sighed, “Forget it.”

“Captain Bai,” The dog handlers brought the two dogs to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang’s side and asked, “which area do you want us to search?”

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. Zhan Zhao put away the document he was holding, lifted his eyes and looked around, thought about it, then walked to the side of the taxi again. Looking out from the angle of the driver’s seat… he reached out, pointing to a building facing the car window to the west, “Search that building.”

“Are you going to search floor by floor?” Luo Tian asked, “There are twenty floors and only two dogs.”

“It’s okay,” The dog handler said, “Shaban and Sasha can smell dead bodies up to fifty meters away.”

Everyone turned and saw that at some unknown time, Shaban had climbed onto the roof of the taxi, and was now lying on the roof and wagging his tail at the dog handler.

“Oh… I seem to have heard of this.” Bai Chi said, “Different types of working dogs will do different things. For example, if a drug detection dog finds drugs, they will be very excited to get the container, a bomb detection dog will sit quietly after finding the bomb, search and rescue dogs like to dig holes, and because most cadaver dogs look for buried corpses, they will lie on top of the corpse as if they are using their body to protect the corpse.”

“Correct.” The dog handler smiled and nodded, then tilted his head at Shaban, “Shaban, off.”

Regardless of the big dog’s stature, he moved very fast and jumped off of the roof of the car. The two dog handlers took the two big dogs and walked to the building designated by Zhan Zhao.

When they arrived at the building, everyone entered the elevator and searched floor by floor.

Shaban and Sasha searched room by room, but they didn’t find anything.

The building is empty and seems to be completely unoccupied.

Zhao Hu walked behind the crowd and said, “With the housing prices this high, they are all set up for a new generation of landlords.”

As he spoke, everyone’s nervousness eased.

Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and saw that he was still a little nervous, so he said, “Cat, don’t worry, we will look floor by floor.”

Zhan Zhao turned to look at Bai Yutang, feeling a little moved in his heart… Bai Yutang never doubted any of his decisions… To be honest, this time, he himself felt a little unreliable. In addition to inferring from existing clues, Zhan Zhao inexplicably has a feeling that… it seems as though there are clues in this building.

Everyone searched up to the tenth floor without finding anything, and entered the elevator again.

Just as the elevator door closed and moved up a floor, Shaban suddenly barked.

“There is something.” The dog handler said.

“Is it on the eleventh floor?” Bai Chi held the door, letting everyone get out, but Shaban and Sasha sat still in the elevator. Shaban barked again while looking at the number displayed above the elevator buttons.

Everyone looked at each other, and Zhao Hu asked, “What does that mean?”

“It may be one floor up.” The dog handler replied.

Bai Chi released the door, and the door closed slowly.

The elevator went up one floor… but Shaban and Sasha still refused to get out and stubbornly sat in the elevator.

They sat until the elevator reached the nineteenth floor. As soon as the elevator door opened, Shaban dashed out and Sasha followed.

Everyone hurried to keep up with the dogs. They saw them pause by the elevator door to determine the direction, then rush to the east without hesitation. Stopping in front of room 1909, they extended their front paws and started scratching at the bottom of the door.

“This house has been rented out,” The property management said, “we don’t have keys for it.”

Shaban and Sasha sat by the door, looked back at the dog handlers, and barked again.

Zhao Hu rang the doorbell, but there was no response even after a while had passed. He knocked on the door, but there was still no response, so he looked back at Bai Yutang. Bai Yutang winked at Luo Tian, and Luo Tian stepped forward and kicked…

‘Boom’, the door was kicked open.

After the door was opened, the scene inside surprised everyone… The house that was rented by someone turned out to be empty, with nothing inside.

“Didn’t you come in here earlier?” Bai Yutang asked.

“No,” Ma Han replied, “if there were residents, we knocked on the door and asked for permission because we don’t have a search warrant.”

Bai Yutang nodded. At this time, Shaban had already run in and Sasha had followed. The two dogs wandered around the room, and both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao entered the house.

“This concrete floor is quite thick.” Zhao Hu stomped on the floor, feeling it was odd.

This house has three bedrooms and one living room, all of which are empty, there is nothing at all – at a glance.

“Woo woo.” At this time, Shaban laid on the floor in the middle of the living room and whimpered at his handler, the sound was like the one regular dogs make when they act like a puppy or are sad.

The dog trainer was taken aback, and Zhao Hu asked him, “Oh, what did it say?”

Zhan Zhao walked to Shaban’s side, squatted down while looking at something by his feet, and beckoned to Bai Yutang, “Yutang, look here.” Bai Yutang walked over and squatted down. He saw a few exposed clusters of hair in the concrete floor, it seems that there is something buried in the concrete.

Zhao Hu leaned over, looked at it, and cried out, “Mother, this is too disgusting.” Everyone felt that seeing this kind of thing was more uncomfortable than seeing a dead body.

“Buried underneath?” Liu Qing asked puzzledly, “That’s not right, how can a corpse be so flat?”

“Call someone to bring up tools.” Bai Yutang ordered.

Everyone took action, some going downstairs to prepare the tools and some taking photos with the imagery equipment. Sure enough, they found that there were indeed corpses scattered throughout the floor.

The police officers lifted their spirits and acted.

Outside of the room, Zhan Zhao reached out and patted Shaban and Sasha on the head and said, “Good job.”

At that time, he felt someone pat his shoulder. Zhan Zhao turned his head and saw Bai Yutang smiling at him, “Cat, good job.”

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

I love how supportive Bai Yutang is of Zhan Zhao throughout this whole chapter, he never lost faith in Zhan Zhao’s abilities.

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

Translated: July 23/24, 2021