S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 1 Chapter 123

Shadow Murderer 30 – Trick

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Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao meticulously laid out the mission for this operation, and everyone went off and split up.

"Xiao Bai, have you seen Luo Tian?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked Bai Yutang before he walked out the door.

"...... Luo Tian?" Bai Yutang looked around, he had just been in the lounge.

"Uncle Bao called him away." Xiao Luo Yang on the sofa, with his hands supporting his chin, replied with a smile.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, "You're smiling so mysteriously... is it related to you?"

Luo Yang heatedly laughed twice and winked, "I went to beg Uncle Bao yesterday day and asked him if he could forgive Uncle Big Beard."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned and asked, "Begged Bao Sir to forgive him? What did you say to him?"

Luo Yang cocked his head, "That's right, isn't Uncle Bao older than all of you? Wouldn't it be better if he forgave Uncle Big Beard? I told him that Uncle Big Beard seemed to have done bad things in the past, but he was really a good person, he had suffered a lot, so could he forgive him in the future and let him live a good life?"

Surprised, Zhan Zhao asked Luo Yang, "What about Bao Sir? What did he answer?"

"He said it was not a problem." Luo Yang said with a smile.

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao both froze. Luo Yang's move was formidable, starting with Bao Zheng, but then again, Luo Tian had indeed killed someone before, but killing Allan Po was definitely in self-defence and he did not have to take any responsibility. The blame for all the things done during the brutal training back then should not be put on Luo Tian either, after all, he was the real victim, and the almost twenty years of living without seeing the sun had tired him out enough. If God really had eyes, he should let this poor man have the rest of his life, so he could live it properly.

"It's all ready." As the two were lost in thought, Gongsun walked in, "The tracker has been implanted into Jie Jie's body by a specialist, it shouldn't be easily detected."

"Let's move then." Bai Yutang grabbed his jacket and walked out with Zhan Zhao. Before they could get into the elevator, someone caught up with them.

"I'm going too." Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang turned around and found that it was Luo Tian.

Bai Yutang didn't say anything more and held the elevator door to wait for him to come in.

Luo Tian's face lit up with joy as he entered the elevator, and as the elevator door closed, he suddenly said, "I... have decided to live with Yang Yang.”

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other and smiled, nodding their heads.

In the car park, Wang Chao and others were ready, and Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang, Jiang Ping and Bai Chi entered the command car.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu escorted Jie Jie, who was dressed as an extremely serious criminal, out of the police station and into the escort vehicle.

This time, nominally, Jie Jie was to be sent to the Psychiatric Research Centre to undergo a thorough examination.

After the escort car slowly left, Jiang Ping started tracking it through the tracking system installed in the car.

Not long after the car drove off, Ma Han and Zhao Hu spotted a small black car following them unhurriedly.

"Head… they're here, but the car is small." Zhao Hu said into the walkie-talkie.

"They won't do it themselves." Zhan Zhao said, "They're just responsible for giving Jie Jie the signal, so be careful."

Bai Yutang instructed the cars of Wang Chao and the others that they could drive forward and lie in ambush nearby.

After the escort car drove on for a while longer, they saw the black sedan suddenly speed up and line up alongside the escort car. Then, the window was gently rolled down slightly, and a strange whistling sound was heard from inside, one long and one short, sounding at regular intervals. After a few times, the car left quickly.

Ma Han and Zhao Hu looked at each other in confusion, but then they heard a loud 'boom' from the compartment at the back of the escort car, as if someone was slamming the door.

When Ma Han looked back, he saw that Jie Jie had broken free from the heavy chain and was desperately banging on the door of the compartment.

Zhao Hu hurriedly braked and the car spun around, stopping at the side of the road. The two men drew their guns and rushed out of the car. At the same time, the door of the escort car was also slammed open with a loud bang, and Jie Jie rushed down like a mad beast, grabbing the gun from the unprepared Zhao Hu's hand and shooting him in the head.

"Zhao Hu!" Ma Han shouted, firing and hitting Jie Jie in the shoulder, but Jie Jie didn't even seem to feel it as he raised his hand and fired another shot, hitting Ma Han in the forehead.

Ma Han also collapsed in response.

Jie Jie took one look at the two bodies lying on the ground when another of those whistles sounded in the distance. Jie Jie dropped his gun and walked towards the small black car parked in the distance.

The door opened and Jie Jie stepped in, closing the door behind him as the car drove away.

The gunshot startled the shops on both sides of the road, some people screamed and others called for an ambulance.

But Zhao Hu, who was lying on the ground and should have died, suddenly opened his eyes, "Xiao Ma Ge, the way you fell down just now was too unnatural."

Ma Han was silent for a while and opened his eyes too, "You're already dead, dead people can't talk."

"How much longer do we both have to lie like this?" Zhao Hu was depressed.

"Boss said that the show must be beautiful, you have to put up with it a little longer." Fortunately, the ambulance arrived soon, and the medical officer who got out of the ambulance took Ma Han and the others into the car and left in a hurry, after which a police car arrived to protect the scene.

The medical officer who was in the ambulance was Gongsun, who helped Ma Han and Wang Chao take the blood bags off their heads, and Ma Han suddenly asked, "Gongsun, where did you get this blood bag?"

Gongsun laughed heatedly twice, "I prepared it."

The two men immediately turned pale.

..................

“Chief, heading north to the suburbs." Jiang Ping said as he stared at the signal from the tracker on Jie Jie's body as it moved on the display.

"To the north..." Zhan Zhao smiled, "Sure enough..."

"The north side is Wu Qiang's territory." Bai Yutang frowned, "Isn't he the one who was reported dead?"

"If you really want to conduct that kind of so-called experiment, you have to have a certain amount of space." Zhan Zhao said, "A big fish like Taber must have a few subordinates here, otherwise he wouldn't have made such a big move. At first we thought it was Chen Jie, but Chen Jie might just be one of them."

"But Wu Qiang died a long time ago." Bai Chi said.

"Do you still remember Wu Qiang's wife?" Zhan Zhao suddenly asked.

"Uh..." Bai Yutang thought for a moment and nodded, "You mean... the one called Qin Meng?"

"She was the first person to report the crime. Speaking of which, to think of calling the police when a gangster dies, she's kind of a strange one, isn't she?" Zhan Zhao said unhurriedly.

"That's right, and have you noticed." Bai Yutang recalled, "Those men of Wu Qiang's were particularly respectful to Qin Meng, would they normally be subservient to their sister-in-law like this?"

"I heard that Qin Meng helped Wu Qiang as part of his family." Jiang Ping said.

"If it was someone close to him who did it... then everything can be easily explained." Bai Yutang looked like he suddenly thought of something, "Cat, it seems that the only people we really saw at the crime scene... were Wu Qiang and Chen Jie, right?"

"Right." Zhan Zhao smiled, "Didn't Gongsun also say, in order to pretend to be the Shadow Murderer and kill someone like that, you have to spend a long time at the crime scene."

"The first few murders, we only saw photos of those other big brothers who died." Bai Yutang said, "And when we went to investigate the case later, none of them were very cooperative, plus Lan Chenglin made a mess of it... We can't prove that the methods are the same without seeing the scene.... Moreover, with the kind of ability that Du She and the others have to be able to burrow through a pipe, it should be very simple to sneak in and kill someone like this and fake a Shadow Murderer killing."

"In other words, the reason for killing the other bosses was to fight over territory and redistribute the power. Killing Wu Qiang was to fake a serial killing by the Shadow Murderer. Killing Chen Jie, on the other hand, was to silence him." Zhan Zhao stroked his chin and slowly said, "I've combed through the case from beginning to end, but in fact the whole process is very simple and the purpose is very clear!"

"One, starting from that experiment back then, of the two people who escaped, Du She was determined to continue the experiment, while Luo Tian was determined to catch Du She."

"Two, Du She and Taber were connected for some reason and hit it off, forming a relationship of employment and support, ready to create their own sphere of influence. With Taber able to control Chen Jie and Qin Meng, and with Lan Chenglin within the police department, the time was ripe, so he began to move, eliminating dissidents and using that special ability of the people Du She had trained for him to kill."

"Three, coincidentally, Luo Tian and Luo Wen met. Luo Wen found out a lot of information because of his undercover work, and once the two of them exchanged information, they knew too much that they shouldn't know, so Luo Wen was silenced. Gradually, Luo Tian's presence became a threat to Taber, and with Luo Tian's ability making him the best candidate to be the Shadow Murderer, they were preparing to frame him."

"Four, the experiment was not successful enough, and Du She needed a successful specimen, Luo Yang, and more advanced hypnotic powers, so they decided to go after me and Yang Yang."

"Five, Qin Meng probably wanted to finish off Wu Qiang a long time ago, so she pretended to be the Shadow Murderer after she killed him, connected the previous cases together and called the police, recruiting us to make the Shadow Murderer case, and then got Lan Chenglin to take over the case as soon as possible."

"Everything, then, went in the direction they had designed long ago."

Bai Yutang nodded after listening, "If we hadn't had that coincidental contact with Jie Jie, we might have really thought that Luo Tian was the Shadow Murderer."

"That's right!" Bai Chi also said, "If Lan Chenglin hadn't been discovered by Yang Yang at that time, he would most likely have blamed everything on Luo Tian."

"By then, Luo Tian would have become the scapegoat, Taber could have successfully taken over the territory here, and Du She could have continued the experiment." Zhan Zhao laughed, "Killing Chen Jie was abandoning his pawn to protect his commander, and when Jie Jie's matter was revealed, Du She would soon be investigated, so they killed Chen Jie and took away all the information, but they didn't expect Chen Jie to still leave clues behind."

"Then Du She saved Jie Jie this time..." Bai Yutang frowned, "There's a good chance they're going to run."

"Taber has the help of Du She, and the team Du She has trained through the Dark Night Punisher, although not very successful, is already extremely threatening. Even if they change locations, they can still make a comeback." Zhan Zhao mused, “This time... should be our last chance. If we can't get rid of them all at once, they might run away and hide, and continue to harm people."

“Chief!" Jiang Ping suddenly said, "They went into a villa."

"What kind of place is it?" Bai Yutang frowned.

"It's a private villa." Jiang Ping replied, quickly looking up the villa's information, "It was sold ten years ago... The owner is... Qin Meng."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other – Sure enough.

At this time, Wang Chao's voice came over the intercom, "Chief, we're here, we don't dare to get too close. Luo Tian just went out with the communication camera, he said he was going to sneak in."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao frowned. It was a bit dangerous for Luo Tian to do so, but they were not sure what was in this villa. If Luo Tian could go in and send back some images to them first, it would indeed be beneficial for their next move.

"Brother, this villa area is full of underground tunnels." Bai Chi said to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao nodded, and by this time, their car had also reached the vicinity of the villa area.

The car stopped, and behind them came a special police team that Bai Yutang had applied for with Bao Zheng, as well as Ouyang Chun, who had arrived upon hearing the news.

"Bai Chi, take the SWAT team down and ambush the men in every passageway, don't let a single one go!" Bai Yutang instructed.

"Okay!" Bai Chi took the SWAT team and left.

Ouyang Chun got into the command car, and the other Interpol officers went to meet up with the SCI team to prepare for the raid later.

At that moment, a communication signal came to Jiang Ping's computer, it was a video sent back by Luo Tian.

The video wavered a few times, then stabilised. The camera was looking down over a room with several people in it, who were all sitting at a long table and appeared to be in a meeting. 

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked on with delight to see this table of people, which included Du She, Taber, Qin Meng, several key people and a few bodyguards they didn't know, and finally, Jie Jie, who the crowd seemed to be asking questions to.

At this point, Luo Tian's hand appeared in front of the camera, and he was seen making a two and then a one.

"They're in the first room on the second floor of the villa, move!" Bai Yutang picked up the walkie-talkie and commanded his men.

Zhan Zhao was looking at the mouth shapes of the people on the screen, trying to see what they were talking about, when suddenly he saw Du She seem to flinch and his eyes rolled upwards slightly.

"He's spotted Luo Tian!" Zhan Zhao tensed up.

"I can't contact him!" Jiang Ping was also anxious, "I don't know if he's noticed yet."

Bai Yutang pulled out his gun, "I'll go over there too."

"Xiao Bai, you are injured..." Zhan Zhao was a little anxious, "I'll go too!"

At that moment, they saw Du She in the footage suddenly stand up, fiercely reach to his waist and draw his gun...

At the same time, the footage shifted violently, and then the signal was interrupted.

Wang Chao and the others had already led their men to the various doorways of the villa when they heard a series of gunshots coming from inside the building.

"Action!" Bai Yutang commanded.

As his words fell, they heard the doors and windows of the villa being slammed open and the police officers rushed in.

Bai Yutang, Zhan Zhao and Ouyang Chun got out of the car, leaving Jiang Ping to stay in the command car as the three of them quickly ran towards the villa.

At that moment, sirens blared all around and several cars drove up in the distance, it was Zhao Hu, Ma Han and the others with the follow up units. A car pulled up to the command car and Bao Zheng and Gongsun got out, along with Luo Yang who had made sure to come with them.

"Where is everyone?!" Bao Zheng frowned

"They're… they’re all inside." Jiang Ping replied.

The people inside the villa were not at all prepared for the sudden attack and were subdued almost without resistance.

In the tunnels, the sound of footsteps was chaotic, and a large group of young children fled. The SWAT team members who had long been lying in ambush made their arrests, but these children were so fierce that it often took several officers to subdue one.

After the arrests were made, Bai Chi skillfully gathered all the SWAT members scattered around the tunnel and led the group back to the surface.

Gathering the captured children together, the crowd took a look and sighed. There were more than a dozen teenagers and young children caught, each in strange and brutal conditions.

Bao Zheng frowned and ordered with a sigh, "Send them all back and get a psychiatrist to look at them!"

Soon, the whole villa had been occupied by the police, and all those who should be arrested had been arrested, except for Taber, Jie Jie and Du She, who had run away. In addition, blood was found in the ventilation duct where Luo Tian was hiding, but he was missing.

Zhan Zhao, Bai Yutang and Ouyang Chun, who had chased after him, were also missing.

Ma Han, Zhao Hu and others took the SCI men and chased after them towards the back of the villa, where there was an abandoned private factory.

Bao Zheng ordered all the arrested men to be taken back to the police station, while he himself took Gongsun, Luo Yang and a SWAT team and rushed to the factory building as well.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Translated: March 15, 2023 by Angel

Edited: March 27, 2023 by Angel