S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 93

Shadow Murderer 02 – Strange Murder Case

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Early the next morning, the SCI team returned to the police station after their three-day holiday. As soon as they entered the office, they saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang sitting in the conference room, with a large number of documents spread out on the table.

With his hands in the pockets of his white coat, Gongsun wandered in and casually picked up one of the papers and read it, "A shooting case?" Puzzled, he picked up another, "Are these cases connected in any way?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged, "I can't be sure, some are gunshots, some are stabs… but the dead are all little gangsters, and the time of death is at midnight.

"That means randomly choosing victims within a specific group of people..." Gongsun shook his head, "This kind of case, which will be mixed with many accidental victims, will be difficult to pinpoint clearly."

"Then that Night Punisher… from before," Zhan Zhao turned his face to ask Bai Yutang, "Why was it characterized as a serial murder case?"

"There's a certain pattern to that one." Bai Yutang flipped through old information and said, "Every alternate day, same neighbourhood, same time… couldn't even think of not linking them."

"It's a pity it's dragged on for so long." Zhan Zhao said, "These cases nowadays, the time and place are variable… It could be that the murderer changed the method of committing the crime, or there might be no connection between them at all." There was some dejection as he put the documents back on the table, "This makes it impossible to conclude the case or to investigate."

"Gongsun," Bai Yutang suddenly looked up at him, "why do you always wear a white coat when you hang around the police station?"

Zhan Zhao also looked up at this and said, "Yes, I've wanted to ask this question for a long time too."

Gongsun lifted his glasses to look at the two men, smiled a little strangely, and whispered, "During an autopsy, aren't we all supposed to wear them." As he said that, he took out a bright scalpel from his pocket, "So I usually wear it, it makes me feel very atmospheric." With that, he smiled and turned to walk away.

"Cat," Bai Yutang turned his face to Zhan Zhao after a moment of silence, "explain to me in Chinese what he means by 'atmosphere'?"

Zhan Zhao shrugged helplessly. Something seemed to flash through his head, but he couldn't catch it exactly, and was confused when he saw the door to the office being pushed open and Bao Zheng walking in, holding a few documents in his hands.

Both of them exchanged a tacit glance - it seemed that something was up again.

Bao Zheng walked into the meeting room, glanced at the papers on the table and frowned, "There's a case." After saying that, he handed the document in his hand to Bai Yutang.

By then, the other members of SCI walked in.

"Hei Yu, Lao Hong, Zheng Pei..." Bai Yutang glanced at the file, "The boss of the Western District, the boss of the Eastern District, and the boss of the Southern District… have all been killed!"

Everyone was a bit bewildered, "It really can't be said whether this murderer is counted as a criminal or as a people's murderer."

"The method of death is the same." Zhan Zhao picked up a few photos and said, "Look, the gun is on the wall… but it's not nailed to the wall as the police officer said yesterday, more like glued to it."

"This murderer has taken out three gang leaders without anyone knowing it." Bao Zheng's expression was grim, "It's been very rough everywhere lately, either fighting for positions or having fiery fights."

"But it's strange that the gangsters would report it," Ma Han laughed, "Half of these situations get settled privately, right?"

"Probably because they're scared." Zhan Zhao whispered, "Everyone is afraid of becoming the next victim. Moreover, if the murderer is not caught, even if one snatches the position of the boss, they will not be able to hold on to it peacefully."

At this moment, Lu Fang ran in hurriedly and said, "Another one has died."

"What?" The crowd all looked at him in astonishment.

"Wu Qiang, the boss of the Northern District, is also dead." Lu Fang said, "Just received a report."

Bai Yutang put away the information and said, "The scene wasn't damaged, was it?"

"I guess not."

"Come on, let's go check it out." Bai Yutang instructed the crowd to head out.

Zhan Zhao took the information and read it while following the group outside, asking Bai Yutang who was walking beside him, "The other three districts had the bosses killed, only the East Area had the second in command killed… why?"

"The boss of the Eastern District, Chen Jie, is a woman." Bai Yutang slammed the car door.

"That means that the murderer doesn't kill women." Zhan Zhao nodded, "Quite a gentleman."

After adjusting the angle of the rearview mirror, Bai Yutang suddenly gave a "Huh " and turned around to look back.

"What's wrong?" Putting down the information, Zhan Zhao also looked back in the direction he was looking, "What did you see?"

"A person..." Bai Yutang frowned slightly, "A blink and they passed." After saying that, he opened the car door and got out.

Zhan Zhao was somewhat curious and got out of the car as well, and the two of them walked further into the parking lot. When they reached a pillar at the end of the car park, Bai Yutang reached out and stopped Zhan Zhao. He quickly moved around the pillar and saw that there was no one behind the pillar, except for a photo on the ground.

Bending down to pick up the photo, both of them froze - they saw that the background of the photo was a street at night. There were two people standing on the street, both dressed in white; it was none other than Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang who had gone to see the concert last night. The location, obviously, was the entrance of the alley where the punk was killed last night.

"Xiao Bai?" Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang, "Who did you see just now?"

Bai Yutang was a little confused, "It was just a flash… Cat, remember the strange man we bumped into outside the stadium last night?"

"It was him?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.

"I'm not sure, but the clothes and body shape are somewhat similar..." Bai Yutang looked around. The interior of the parking lot was fenced off and there was no place to hide, "Cat, he just flashed behind this column… but now he's gone."

Zhan Zhao also looked around, "Gone? The point is, this is the parking lot of the police station, there are guards and surveillance at the entrance, how did he get in?"

Shaking his head in disbelief, Bai Yutang picked up the photo again and looked at it, "Is it a prank or something else?"

"Xiao Bai, there seems to be something written on the back!" Zhan Zhao reached out to turn over the photo… and saw a few words written in red marker on the back of the photo - The Night Punisher.

The two men opened their mouths wide, unable to speak.

"Head!" The crowd in the distance had all gotten into the car, and Zhao Hu poked his head out and shouted at the two men, "What's wrong?"

The two men looked at each other and Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "What do you think?"

Zhan Zhao smiled faintly, "Maybe someone played a prank on us, don't pay any attention to it, let’s go check the case out first."

Nodding, Bai Yutang put the photo into his jacket pocket and walked back to the car with Zhan Zhao, starting the car and driving to the crime scene.

When the car had driven away, from between those crisscrossing metal pipes at the top of the parking lot, a head poked out, eyes wide open, looking in the direction of the exit of the parking lot.

......

The police car drove into the northern district and stopped in front of a villa. There was a dignified woman dressed in black walking out, followed by a number of people.

When Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao got out of the car, the woman had already walked up to them and nodded to the two as a greeting, she took the lead and said, "My name is Qin Meng, the murdered Wu Qiang was my husband."

"Take us to see the scene first." Bai Yutang nodded and gestured for Qin Meng to lead the way ahead, and the group went upstairs together.

Wu Qiang had died in the study on the first floor of his villa, in the same way as the other victims. The man was sitting on a chair, shot in the head, with a pistol glued to the wall behind him.

Gongsun walked over to do a brief autopsy of Wu Qiang, "The time of death was around last night to this morning, shot in the head from a very close distance, there were burns around the skin… the gun should have been fired while it was being held it to his head.

Bai Yutang walked to the wall to look at the pistol stuck to the wall, and saw that the pistol was fixed to the wall with a transparent substance similar to crystal glue, with the muzzle facing down, almost at a 60 degree angle to the ground.

Zhan Zhao, on the other hand, stood at the deceased's desk and watched in awe for a long time before he turned back to Qin Meng and asked, "This desk lamp… looks very incompatible with the style of the furniture around it."

Qin Meng looked at the table lamp that Zhan Zhao was pointing at and nodded, "It's not ours."

Bai Yutang turned back, "You mean the table lamp wasn't originally there?"

Qin Meng affirmed, "That’s right! My husband is usually very tasteful, and he would never use a plastic desk lamp like this even if he was dying."

After staring at the desk lamp for a while, Zhan Zhao took out the photos of the scenes of several other cases and compared them.

Bai Chi came up somewhat curiously, "I think the other cases had table lamps too."

"That's right!" Zhan Zhao nodded and pointed the photo out to Bai Chi, "The style is different, but they are all cheap… left behind by the murderer."

"Huh? Strange!" Gongsun, who was concentrating on the autopsy, suddenly frowned.

"What's wrong?" Zhan Zhao asked as he walked over to Gongsun.

"Look!" Gongsun pointed to the deceased's hand hanging at his side and said, "His fingers are weird… the index finger is outstretched in a hook shape, and the other four fingers are curled up in a grip ~~ like..."

"The stance of holding a gun." Bai Yutang walked his way back and finished Gongsun's words.

Everyone was silent, and after a long time, Gongsun said, "The deceased's fingers were stiff and were unable to be broken, so if they were positioned after death, they could have easily gotten back to their original shape, so this was done before death."

"In other words, Wu Qiang fired the gun himself?" Qin Meng shook his head, "It can't be suicide! He is most afraid of death, how could he commit suicide?!"

"Holding a gun by oneself doesn't necessarily mean it's suicide." Zhan Zhao looked around the room and pointed to the curtains on the wall, "When you came in, were the curtains drawn, or were they closed?"

Qin Meng said, "They were drawn."

"Why are the curtains so thick?" Bai Yutang came to the window and looked outside.

"He usually talks to his men here about business, so he needs thick curtains." Qin Meng smiled bitterly, "Wu Qiang is very timid and the rooms are designed with great attention to security to avoid anyone doxxing him. I don't think anyone could sneak in unnoticed."

"Can everyone withdraw for now?" Zhan Zhao suddenly said.

The crowd was a little confused about Zhan Zhao's intentions, and Bai Yutang nodded to the crowd. He had also turned around to head out when he heard Zhan Zhao say, "Xiao Bai, close the curtains!"

Bai Yutang faintly froze, but still turned back and drew the curtains. Afterwards, everyone retreated to the door, and again, they heard Zhan Zhao say, "Turn off all the lights!" Ma Han and Zhao Hu turned off all the lights in the corridor and the study, and with that, the surroundings immediately went dark, and the study was already almost pitch black.

Zhan Zhao reached out, plugged the desk lamp into the socket by the writing desk, then reached out and turned on the lamp...

As a beam of yellow light shot out, the crowd could not help but let out a cry of surprise, and saw that the beam of light from the desk lamp formed a yellow circle of light on the opposite wall. And the most bizarre thing was that Wu Qiang's corpse, because of the angle and the light, formed a humanoid shadow on that wall, and the shadow formed by his hand hanging at his side happened to hold the gun that was glued to the wall... even his fingers, all of which happened to be pressing the trigger.

After a long time of silence, Qin Meng suddenly burst out laughing: "It's ridiculous, it's my husband's shadow that killed him!"

……

Bai Jintang was sitting in his office looking at some business reports when the twins rushed in with a thud.

Rubbing his temples, Bai Jintang was helpless, "How about you two knock before you come in?"

The expression on the twins' faces was not the same as usual, but a rare seriousness: "Big Brother, it's coming."

"What's coming?" Bai Jintang was stunned by what they said.

"I received news today." Xiao Ding said, with some urgency. "Eugene entered the country last night."

Bai Jintang was a little surprised and put down the paper in his hand, "What is Eugene doing here?"

"Boss, do you want..."

"Wait a minute." Bai Jintang waved his hand and smiled faintly, "It may not be related to us, don't pay attention to him!"

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: By Turtle

Edited: September 20, 2022 by Angel