S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 4 Chapter 51

Ghost Ship Murderer 17 – Searching for the Shipwreck

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Since it was a ship hijacked by pirates and known to have disappeared in 2003, it was a relatively easy task.

Jiang Ping was very competent and had already searched for information on the ship that went missing in 2003. After sifting through the information, he found the white ship and gave Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang a new clue.

"This ship is a ferry, it has no special name, but it has the number PT1001. This ferry was originally sailing from Saipan to Hawaii, but midway it deviated from its course for some reason, and after losing contact, there was no trace of it." Jiang Ping sent the picture of the ship to Bai Yutang to look at. Compared to the current Emilia, the ship was newer and more vibrant, not as lifeless as the current one.

Zhan Zhao stared at the picture and frowned slightly, "A ferry?"

"It's not exactly a ferry." Jiang Ping said, "I have checked, this ship was divided into two floors, somewhat similar to how aeroplanes have economy class and business class. The bottom level of the PT1001 is an ordinary ferry, used to transport passengers, and most of the people who took this ship were ordinary people, some travellers and some labourers, and some goods. The first level, on the other hand, was a luxury cabin and hosted several very wealthy and distinguished guests."

When the crowd heard this, they didn't see any problem, this kind of arrangement was common, after all, it was quite a distance from Saipan to Hawaii.

"What happened after its disappearance?" Zhan Zhao asked, "Was it found later?"

"No." Jiang Ping spread his hands, "The whole boat was gone, only a communication record was left behind. At that time, a large number of searchers and marine police were deployed but no clues were found, and then a typhoon passed, fishing was suspended and boats took shelter, it was already a week later when they could search for them again, but nothing was left behind."

Everyone frowned when they heard this.

Bai Yutang asked Jiang Ping, "Play that recording."

"Okay." Jiang Ping agreed, not forgetting to warn, "There's a strong static sound, and... just listen before you say anything."

Jiang Ping's hesitation aroused the crowd's strong curiosity even more.

The recording was not too short, and the cacophony of interference was very loud. The first thing that came out was the captain's cry for help, saying in English, "We are under attack..."

But then there was a burst of gunshots, and intense gunfire coming through, and you could hear that some of it should have been inside the bridge and some outside...

Everyone frowned, it should have been the same moment Mario had seen the execution.

The sound was then reduced to a cacophony of interference sounds.

Everyone was just about to speak, but they heard Jiang Ping say, "There's more!"

Everyone was slightly stunned, "There's more?"

After waiting for about five more minutes, there was nothing but interference noise, nothing special, which made the wait particularly long and difficult.

Just as everyone's curiosity was heightened, there was a sudden scream and a series of odd shouts that did not sound like English.

Zhan Zhao listened carefully, and turned the volume up a little.

On the recording, there was nothing but static and weird screams, not a word of which could be understood.

The screams continued, and finally... a gasping voice seemed to come up near the intercom and said something that was still incomprehensible, followed by a life-ending scream.

Just as everyone was looking confused and full of suspicion, suddenly... the static disappeared.

Everyone's emotions rose and fell while listening to this recording, and now with the static gone, they finally fell to level ground. Just as they were thinking of turning off the audio and discussing it again, they heard the clear sound of waves on the recording, and what appeared to be sea birds chirping.

In the midst of the calm, a slightly raspy, but clear woman's voice came out – "Emilia".

With these few syllables, which everyone was already familiar with, a chill ran up from the bottom of their feet.

Zhao Hu was surprised, "Why is Emilia here too?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Cat, what were those people screaming about just now?"

Zhan Zhao crossed his arm and rubbed his chin with one hand, "They were speaking Vietnamese."

"Vietnamese?" The crowd wondered, "Why would there be Vietnamese out here?"

"It should be those pirates." Bai Yutang thought for a moment, "There were a lot of weapons left over from the Vietnam War back then, and a lot of Vietnamese fishermen would take weapons and rob at sea, I just don't quite understand..."

"That's right, they robbed some small boats at most, they dared to rob such a big ferry?" Ma Han found it unbelievable.

"Also!" Zhao Hu also didn't understand, "Why did they kill all the people on the ship?"

"What did those Vietnamese say?" Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao said, "Basically, they were all pleading for help. The voices that could be heard were, in order, 'help!', 'ghost', 'who are you', 'help', 'run! 'don't kill me'... The last one was the clearest, 'ghost ship, help, we've encountered a ghost ship!'"

"Ghost ship?" Everyone looked at each other.

"Mario's notes don't say anything about another ship, do they?" Gongsun wondered.

When Zhan Zhao saw Bai Yutang frowning as if there was something he couldn't quite figure out, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Bai Yutang looked at him and said, "I just think it's strange, if that group of people are all pirates, it doesn't seem like the steps are right."

"Steps?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "What steps?"

"Think about it, the pirates have guns, first they will control everyone, then they will loot everything. Even if they have to execute everyone, they have to finish looting and do so on their way out, right?"

Everyone thought about it and nodded.

"If everyone is executed as soon as they get on the ship, there will be a massive resistance." Ma Han seemed to understand Bai Yutang's doubts.

"They killed everyone and threw the bodies into the sea." Zhan Zhao rubbed his chin, "It means they wanted that ship..."

"Don't forget there's a group of rich people on board." Gongsun reminded.

"Did they want to take the rich people on the ship along with the ship and then blackmail them? Or did they only want that ship?" Zhan Zhao thought about it, "This method is so complicated... it's not like pirates."

"There are two kinds of people other than pirates who have a ship at sea and powerful firepower." Bai Yutang frowned, "One is drug dealers, and the other is certain small-scale armed groups. Are there any clues about those rich people? Any cases of extortion received afterwards?"

"No, the whole ship, the people and the vessel disappeared into the Pacific Ocean." Jiang Ping did a quick search, "Head, you two might actually have some clues."

"Hmm?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other then at Jiang Ping.

"I just searched the marine police enforcement records of this area from 2003 until now to see if there were any Vietnamese drug dealers or smugglers caught in the net, and there really was one!"

"One?" Zhan Zhao was happy, "Details."

"This man's name is Nguyen Van Gao, he was caught for drug trafficking back then, and he's in S City right now!" Jiang Ping was a little surprised.

It was new to Bai Yutang's ears, "He's an ex-convict drug dealer from Vietnam, why would he be in S City? In prison?"

"In a mental hospital." Jiang Ping looked up his history and cases and sent them to Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao roughly glanced at them and raised his eyebrows, "Still a legend! "

Everyone looked at it in detail. This Nguyen Van Gao was born in a fishing village in Vietnam, he was very good in the water, and liked diving and fishing since he was young. At the age of sixteen, he started working in the underworld, and after a few years, he became a big drug lord in Vietnam. Later, his gang was broken up during a major drug bust and he was left with a small group of men who fled to the sea... and have since disappeared.

In 2003, marine search and rescue crews off Hawaii rescued a man floating while clutching a raft. He had been floating at sea for an unknown period of time, and was bone thin and dark-skinned, yet held on to the raft for dear life. After he was taken to the hospital, the police took his fingerprints and identified him from Interpol's most wanted list as Nguyen Van Gao, a well-known drug lord.

Nguyen Van Gao spent ten days in hospital before he fully recovered, but although he woke up, he had gone insane.

After he was extradited to his home country, he was kept in prison, but the man has severe violent tendencies, mania, paranoia... and more. Nguyen Van Gao was charged with a number of offences and most damningly he was also implicated in the whereabouts of a large shipment of gold.

"Gold?" Bai Yutang was curious, "How much gold?"

"It is said that Nguyen Van Gao and a few other drug lords had a large amount of gold hidden in their drug dens near Phnom Penh, and when Nguyen Van Gao escaped back then, he took not only a large amount of weapons, but also all the gold with him. So not only the police but also the other drug dealers were looking for him. But Nguyen Van Gao is really insane, no matter how you talk to him he is always in a state of delirium." Jiang Ping gave the crowd a picture of Nguyen Van Gao, "He's recently being treated at the S City Psychiatric Hospital."

It didn't sound logical to Bai Yutang, "He's a serious criminal, right? Why did he come out for treatment? Isn't there a psychiatric hospital in Vietnam?"

"He was released a long time ago." Jiang Ping shrugged, "Three years ago, a very rich man hired a lawyer and spent a large sum of money on his lawsuit, anyway, this kid was finally released. With a serious mental illness, he went to S City for treatment, and it's been a little over half a year."

The crowd was silent for a moment, and a thought flashed through their heads – Who paid for his lawsuit? Could it be the drug dealers who coveted the gold? Was there any connection to the case of the shipwreck back then?

"Back when he drifted to Hawaii, the local police didn't link it to the TP1001 disappearance case?"

"Nope." Jiang Ping shook his head, "According to time calculations, there was a three month difference between the time he was rescued ashore and the time he left that boat and disappeared."

"Three months?" Everyone frowned – He couldn't have been floating at sea for three months, right?

As the crowd looked at each other in disbelief, it was a bit disappointing. Would they be happy for nothing, since he had little to do with the disappearance of the ship? But then again, there are too many coincidences to speculate on.

"In any case, it's best if he's in S City, let's go and meet him." Bai Yutang said.

Zhan Zhao, on the other hand, was curious and asked Jiang Ping, "Who is his attending doctor at the mental hospital in S City?"

Jiang Ping searched for a while, but what he said was, "Uh..."

Everyone waited for a while and when they saw that he didn't say anything after "uh", Zhan Zhao raised one eyebrow and asked, "Who is it?"

"Maybe it's just the same name..." Jiang Ping said, "This doctor doesn't have a photo, only information, his name is... Zhao Jue. "

Zhan Zhao's face sank, "Zhao Jue...."

Bai Yutang sighed, originally he thought the possibility that Nguyen Van Gao and the shipwreck were connected was fifty-fifty, but now it seemed to be eighty or ninety percent.

Zhan Zhao was no longer interested in what kind of monsters and demons were on board Jin Liang's boat, and was about to go to the hospital to look for the 'Zhao Jue'.

Bai Yutang grabbed him, they should at least have a look at the other room.

The second room was next door, and unlike this one, which was decorated in an ancient Chinese style, the second room was decorated in an ancient European style, which was fancy and complicated.

Bai Yutang told the others to investigate the interior of the boat and look for suspicious clues, and also to go to Jin Liang's house to find out if there were any written records or anything like that.

Zhan Zhao had already gotten into the car and waved to Bai Yutang, "Hurry up!"

......

The car drove to the city's psychiatric hospital. When Bai Yutang saw Zhan Zhao's murderous mood, he did not forget to remind him, "There are people with similar names, and there are even more with the same name, so don't get so worked up, what if this really is not the same person?"

"No way, it must be!" Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes.

"So sure?"

"Intuition!"

…...

Bai Yutang didn't say anything else, he parked the car at the entrance of the hospital and entered with Zhan Zhao.

The psychiatric hospital in S City was a world-class top-tier psychiatric hospital, and was also very large in scale, with different areas inside to treat different patients and a relatively rich resource of medical staff, as well as frequent large-scale medical conferences and the use of some doctors on loan. Zhan Zhao is considered a celebrity and is familiar with many of the doctors here, so he greeted many of them on his way in.

According to the receptionist, Dr Zhao Jue's office was on the eleventh floor of the office building in the seventh integrated treatment area, and an appointment was required.

Bai Yutang took out his ID and showed it to her, and the nurse at the reception desk took the two of them to find him.

The seventh integrated treatment area was similar to a recuperative care facility. Zhan Zhao was puzzled as to why a manic patient like Nguyen Van Gao was staying here instead of being kept in a cell-like treatment area for high-risk patients.

Once inside the seventh area, there was a sense of birds and flowers, and there were very few people. In addition to the inpatient building and the office building, there was a garden, which was filled with patients wearing blue and white striped clothes, some doing exercises, some reading books, and some drawing... The nurses were also very relaxed.

When they reached the eleventh floor of the office, the young nurse's walkie-talkie rang. It seemed that the receptionist was looking for her to go back, so she reached out and pointed to the office at the end of the corridor with the closed door, and told Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, "Dr. Zhao is there, he is very easy to get along with, you can just ask him directly."

Bai Yutang saw the nurse hurrying away, and when he turned back, Zhan Zhao was already stomping towards the office.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

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

Translated: May 6, 2023 by Angel

Edited: May 20, 2023 by Angel