S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 8

Witness of the Three Murderers 08 – Turning Point

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Zhan Zhao flipped through Jiang Ping's investigation about the backgrounds of the deceased, and a strange feeling arose.

The three dead gave people the impression that they were killed because of a sudden accident, but after Jiang Ping dug deeper into their backgrounds, they didn't appear to be so "innocent".

Let's start with the old man who fell to his death first.

The deceased in the case six years ago was in his sixties, already retired, and was an ordinary old man who seemed harmless.

However, twenty years ago, he had been arrested for theft but was not prosecuted due to lack of evidence.

But the old man's "accomplice" was prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment because of the huge amount of money, and shortly afterwards, he fell from a height and died after escaping from prison.

This so-called "accomplice", whose background was very clean, was a fellow villager of the old man and was staying at the old man's home. According to his statement, the old man tricked him into doing it, and he didn't even know he was stealing! But there was sufficient evidence of his theft, and he couldn't come up with evidence of the old man tricking and utilising him, so the final result was reached.

Zhan Zhao looked at the entire case. If what the man said was true, then he indeed belonged to the category of innocently losing his life, while the old man who later fell to his death was more or less retributed.

The deceased from three years ago was a seventeen-year-old female high school student, with an even more innocent feeling, and the loss of life in her prime was sympathetic.

However, Jiang Ping dug deep. When this girl was eleven years old, she transferred to another school, and the reason for the transfer was surprisingly because she went exploring with her buddies and entered an abandoned factory. As a result, she accidentally touched a leaking facility, and while she was fine, a female classmate in the same class who was the same age as her was electrocuted to death.

After all, she was still young, so even if the idea of going on an adventure together was suggested by the girl who survived, she had no intention of killing her companion. So all in all, it was a tragedy.

However, Jiang Ping was still quite meticulous. After he carefully investigated, he found that the girl was exceptionally good at physics, which was probably related to her family genetics, as both of her parents were employed in the electrical field. One point caught the attention of Zhan Zhao, the police investigated her neighbours back then, and it was said that the little girl had once electrocuted a neighbour's dog when she was nine years old.

Zhan Zhao sighed. An eleven-year-old girl, in a situation where there was no evidence and no witnesses, how could she be suspected of intentionally luring her friend there and then causing her to be electrocuted? This lawsuit seemed to have no chance at all! But then again, if she was really innocent, it would be a different story, but what if she was really a little devil wearing the skin of an angel? As a result, she herself was electrocuted, which brought another sense of retribution.

And then there was the most recent victim, a housewife in her mid-thirties, married not long ago, though she too had an unknown past.

According to her file, she had been an unwed mother in her twenties. When her child was just one and a half years old, she accidentally fell from a high place, slightly injuring herself but killing the child. According to her, she was crossing the road when she was knocked down by a couple of scampering kids. The cops investigated the security camera footage, and there was indeed a clip showing her walking down the road with the baby in her arms, while a group of kids jostled and ran past her. It was chaotic and it was not clear if the kids hit her, but she did fall off the bridge as they ran by.

The police investigated those children, they were from a nearby elementary school and they all insisted that they did not hit her, but in the end, the case was closed. With some unknown skills, Jiang Ping found the video footage of that period back then and found that the woman passed by that road almost every day. That road was a necessary route for those kids to leave school, but it was not a necessary route for that single mom. The reason why she walked here every day was unknown, and the police officers back then also treated the case as an accident. After all, according to common sense, the one who should demand accountability should be the single mother of the dead child, but since she didn't pursue the case, the families of those children were naturally relieved, and no one seemed to doubt at that time whether the single mother fell by herself.

Three unrelated cases, full of doubts. If you speculate with a kind heart, then all three are sobering tragedies. But with a little malice and scepticism in the speculation, these three cases may not be accidents but murder and intentional crimes, and the three victims who later became "innocent victims" may be criminals who have escaped justice.

"Did the police investigating the cases not connect the dots?" Zhan Zhao asked Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping nodded, "These cases were indeed linked and investigated, but other than the same witness and the same suspect, there were absolutely no clues."

"It's very much like a revenge case." Bai Chi said, "What about the families of those victims?"

"They've all been investigated and have all been ruled out as suspects." Jiang Ping said, "The police officers investigating this case were quite responsible and imaginative, even thinking of the possibility of cross-crimes, but the investigation was still fruitless!"

"Cross-crime?" Bai Chi came over to look.

"It's similar to that case we came across before. A's enemy is B, and C's enemy is D. A and C meet by chance and assist each other to take revenge. A kills D, C kills B, and each one has an alibi to cover for the other." Jiang Ping took out a form, "The one investigating this case is an old police officer who just retired not long ago, we all know him."

Zhan Zhao took the information and glanced at it, realising, "Oh... Old Shen ah, no wonder."

Jiang Ping blinked, "When the old man investigated this case back then, the entire police department was annoyed by him. At that time, there was only the case from six years ago and the case from three years ago, not this one now. The clues were broken, and everyone said it was a coincidence, but the old man felt that something was wrong, even the families of the victims didn't want to investigate. He continued to work on it, but until he retired, it was still listed as an unsolved case. Because there was no evidence to prove that it was a serial murder, it was not turned over to SCI. I just called Old Shen and the old man's voice..." Jiang Ping pinched his nose and roughly roared in the old man's tone, "I knew it was a serial murder case! Tell Xiao Bai and Xiao Zhan to find the murderer and let me know! This murderer definitely killed more than two people!"

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao gently stroked his chin and nodded.

Bai Chi asked curiously, "Is Old Shen that brilliant detective Shen Jing? The one Interpol calls Nerve Shen?"

Jiang Ping nodded, "He's more senior than even Bao Sir! He likes to solve cases rather than getting promoted, and has been a police officer for forty years."

Bai Chi opened his mouth wide, "Wow..."

"His intuition should be spot on." Zhan Zhao frowned as he looked at the information, "I also think it's a serial murder case, and... instead of revenge, it's more of a heroic crime in the shape of 'voicing justice'? Again, it doesn't look like it, but it feels a bit evil."

"There's a lot of evil these days." Gongsun yawned as he slipped out of the forensic room.

Zhan Zhao asked him, "How's the nail investigation going?"

"I called the forensic department. Old Wang said that he's going to go find a few chemists and experts familiar with metal smelting to consult with them, and then study how to analyse that nail. The difficulty is uncommonly high, so he told me not to hold out too much hope." Gongsun spread his hands.

"That's true." Zhan Zhao sighed, after all... the ashes were melted into the nail.

Zhan Zhao sighed, took the information and slipped back to the SCI office. The clock in the hallway showed that it was already almost midnight, but Bai Yutang and Bai Ye hadn't come back yet.

Zhan Zhao pulled out his cell phone and wanted to ask Bai Yutang about the situation over there.

However, just as he walked into the SCI office, he saw that by the desk, Zhang Yu was holding a brush and bending down to draw something unknown on a piece of yellow paper.

Zhao Zhen was very interested, crossing his arms and watching from the sidelines.

Zhan Zhao walked over, and the corner of his mouth twitched when he got a good look.

He saw that Zhang Yu had drawn a talisman.

Putting down his pen and dipping his finger in some cinnabar, Zhang Yu drew a circle on the paper talisman, picked it up and mumbled something, then handed it over to Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao looked at the paper talisman with distaste and refused to touch it, asking, "What do you want to do with it?"

"Stick it on the back of the door to ward off evil spirits and promote feng shui." Zhang Yu pushed his glasses with his index finger, "No charge, it's a gift!"

Zhan Zhao looked at the sky, "That, Master... it's not that I don't believe you, but if this is plastered, Yutang will be furious when he comes back and sees it."

Jiang Ping also chimed in, "Captain will absolutely go berserk!"

Bai Chi also nodded along, "It can't be plastered ah! Brother has a cleanliness fetish! Sticking this up will definitely get you scolded."

Zhang Yu shrugged, not forcing it. He was about to put the talisman away, but Zhao Jue reached over and took it away, "I'll go find a place to stick it."

Zhang Yu glanced at Zhao Jue, stroked his chin and read his face. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but did not say anything more and turned his face to ask Zhan Zhao, "Is there anything else for me to do? If not, I'm leaving."

Zhan Zhao was inexplicably a little bothered by Zhang Yu's look at Zhao Jue just now, so he said, "Nothing else..." and sent Zhang Yu out.

When they arrived at the door, they waited for the elevator.

Zhan Zhao looked around to make sure no one was around and asked, "What did you just see?"

Zhang Yu froze and looked at Zhan Zhao, "What?"

Zhan Zhao nodded towards Zhao Jue who was rubbing Lisbon's big head in the room.

"Oh..." Zhang Yu smiled helplessly and said with some regret, "A short life."

Zhan Zhao froze and looked at Zhang Yu.

At this moment, the elevator doors opened and Zhang Yu was about to walk inside.

"Wait!" Zhan Zhao yanked Zhang Yu's collar.

"Wa..." Zhang Yu stumbled.

Zhan Zhao yanked him and dragged him towards the forensic room.

"Woah, what are you doing?"

Zhan Zhao threw Zhang Yu into the forensic room, causing Xiao Xiatian, who was writing a report inside, to jump in fright.

Zhan Zhao closed the door and locked it.

Outside the door, Gongsun, who came out of the restroom, blinked – What's the situation?

In the forensic room, Zhang Yu opened his mouth wide and looked at Zhan Zhao for a long time before finally asking, "That... what special request do you have?"

Zhan Zhao slanted a glance at him and asked, "Why is it a short life?"

Zhang Yu was a little embarrassed, "Uh... only Yama knows this."

Zhan Zhao narrowed his eyes, "Think of a way to decipher it."

"Huh?" Zhang Yu opened his mouth wide.

Zhan Zhao smiled, "You have a way, right?"

Zhang Yu stroked his chin, "There is, but the price is very high..."

The corner of Zhan Zhao's mouth raised a few points as he slowly asked, "How much do you want?"

Zhang Yu looked at Zhan Zhao for a while, then helplessly spread his hands, "This kind of thing isn't necessarily accurate, there's no absolute in everything, I'm just a dabbler."

Zhan Zhao looked at Zhang Yu for a while longer.

Zhang Yu thought for a while, "As long as a person makes a slight change, he may change his destiny. My grandfather said that fortune telling is never about knowing one's destiny, but about having a chance to change it."

Zhan Zhao didn't say anything.

"But a godly man is a godly man." Zhang Yu was helpless, "You didn't take the opportunity to hypnotise me, did you?"

Zhan Zhao finally withdrew the line of sight he had placed on him, and after thinking for a moment, he reached out, grabbed a scalpel from a metal tray on the side, opened the door and walked out.

Zhang Yu opened his mouth wide and asked Xiatian, who was holding a report at the side with his eyes wide open and unaware of what was happening, "Did he walk away with a scalpel?"

"Uh..." Xiatian nodded... yeah.

In the SCI office, Zhan Zhao walked over to Lisbon like nothing was wrong and asked Zhao Jue, who was rubbing Lisbon with his head down, "Do you want some chocolate?"

Zhao Jue stretched out his hand, "What flavour?"

Before Zhao Jue finished speaking, he saw Zhan Zhao's hand rise and fall...

"Woah!" Zhao Jue covered his hand and jumped up.

On the side, the milk tea in Bai Chi's hand spilt. Gongsun was also shocked and ran over...

They saw a long cut in the palm of Zhao Jue's hand, and blood was flowing out.

Zhan Zhao returned the bloody scalpel to the dumbfounded Gongsun, ignored the dumbfounded crowd around him, and turned to go out.

Everyone looked at each other. Gongsun took a look at the palm of Zhao Jue's hand and frowned, Zhan Zhao's hand was really cruel, and this will definitely leave a scar.

Bai Chi ran to get gauze and antiseptic solution.

Everyone looked at Zhao Jue in fear, wondering what this master had done to provoke Zhan Zhao to stab him. Of course... Zhao Jue was not to be messed with, he wouldn't change his face, right?

But the strange thing was, Zhao Jue's eyes were wide open and looking at the palm of his hand that kept oozing blood, the look on his face was unusually soft, and the corner of his mouth even had a shallow smile.

The crimson-red wound extended along his lifeline to his wrist, it would have cut into a vein if it went a little further down.

Gongsun was powerless, "Zhan Zhao is too reckless!" Tilting his face up to see Zhao Jue's expression, he saw that he was smiling so much that his eyebrows were arched.

Gongsun was stunned – It turned out that Zhao Jue could also smile like this... Does this count as smiling happily?

......

Nine Mile Lane, in Chao Jiu's mansion.

Bai Yutang visited Chao Jiu's hidden sword collection in his study, then went to the rooftop and watched Chao Jiu practising his sword under the stars that filled the sky.

Bai Yutang's knowledge of cold weapons was limited, but he was proficient in combat and had his own understanding of weapons.

After watching, Bai Yutang asked Chao Jiu, "What situations would require the use of this blade technique? It's entirely used to kill people."

Chao Jiu looked at Bai Yutang, "Just in case."

"Other than an alien invasion or zombies coming out, I really can't think of any other 'just in case'." Bai Yutang was helpless and repeated what Chao Jiu had just done with no difficulty at all.

Chao Jiu stood there confused, looking at Bai Yutang – The movements were precise and powerful, dashing and beautiful, but there was absolutely no killing aura! This person used a sword with a look of disdain...

After practising for a while, Bai Yutang put away his sword and said, "It's quite interesting."

"Interesting..." The old man opened his mouth, wanting to say – Little friend, this is a sword technique not a juggling act...

Bai Yutang spun the sword and thought – Zhan Zhao will definitely have fun watching it.

Chao Jiu looked helplessly at Bai Ye, who was calmly sipping tea on the side.

Bai Ye said to Bai Yutang, "He still has some basic skills to teach you, take a day out of every week to come over from now on. Coming for three months should be enough."

Bai Yutang nodded, rather straightforward, and didn't ask much. Anyway, what Bai Ye said must make sense, right?

Chao Jiu was a little awkward. The young man in front of him had gone from being unpleasant to look at just now to being very close to his heart, he just couldn't understand his character. He belonged to a new breed of Bai family members.

Seeing that it was getting late, Bai Ye took Bai Yutang to say goodbye.

Eugene yawned as he lay on the balcony, looking at his watch.

Bai Yutang frowned slightly and asked him, "What are you doing in S City?"

Remembering that Eleven had also arrived in S City for the sake of G, Bai Yutang felt that Eugene might have come for that reason as well. But it was too fast... Shouldn't Eugene be in Italy? Could it be the same as Eleven, being somewhere near S City?

Seeing Bai Yutang's wary gaze, Eugene smiled and waved his hand, "I'm just here to pick someone up, I'm not prepared to wade through the muddy waters."

Bai Yutang didn't say anything more and went downstairs with Bai Ye.

Eugene peeked over the balcony to watch the two go out the door and disappear into the alley. He shook his head and continued to look at his watch, muttering to himself, "My goddess has such a bad sense of time!"

Chao Jiu held a teapot by his side and asked, "She hasn't been heard from in how many years, why is she suddenly here?"

Eugene smiled, "Good women are elusive."

Chao Jiu felt a little amused and shook his head as he walked away, sighing as he walked, "I'm probably getting old, I don't understand what young people think nowadays."

......

In the dark alley, Bai Yutang and Bai Ye returned the way they came.

There were no lights in the alley and they could only use the moonlight in front of them, but things were still hard to discern.

Bai Ye noticed that Bai Yutang chose to go straight or turn a corner almost without hesitation, choosing a path that wasn't too far from the one they'd come from, and didn't understand how he'd memorised the path.

As he was walking, Bai Yutang suddenly stopped, looking at the dark corner ahead with some confusion.

Bai Ye also froze, frowning as if he thought of something, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

At that moment, the sound of huffing and puffing could be heard, as if some large animal was coming from beyond the alley.

Not long after, two bright green eyes appeared at the end of the dark alley... According to their height, Bai Yutang mistakenly thought that a bear was walking over.

Not long after those green eyes appeared, two more appeared behind them...

As that thing moved forward a little, Bai Yutang finally recognised the two huge animals from their appearance – they were dogs!

Black dogs, with this huge size and height, there was no need to think about it, they were adult Great Danes.

The two Great Danes were incredibly large and walked forward slowly. They didn't pay attention to Bai Yutang and Bai Ye when they saw them and brushed past the two of them.

Bai Yutang was looking back at the two big dogs walking forward when he heard a regular clack clack clack sound coming from the alley not far away, which seemed to be the heels of a woman's high-heeled shoes.

Bai Ye continued to walk forward, and Bai Yutang followed him...

When he reached the mouth of the alley, the footsteps became increasingly clear.

Bai Yutang looked up... A woman walked out of the alley and walked past them.

Bai Yutang frowned as he looked at the woman who suddenly appeared... She was wearing a black, half-length dress, similar to a cheongsam with a very flattering cut. The woman had a good figure, tall and thin, and she was probably in her thirties. Black dress, black high heels, black hair that was tied up, a black umbrella in her hand, and nearly no makeup on her face, she looked very pretty, with an indescribable, vicissitude of life feeling. The only decoration on her whole body was a hairpin used for tying her hair back, which was a black moth. This hairpin looked very strange. In the darkness, the outline of the black moth was somewhat demonic. There were two red spots on the moth's wings, similar to the shape of the eyeballs, which were particularly eye-catching.

Bai Yutang inexplicably felt that something about this woman looked familiar and stopped to look at her, but she had already walked past Bai Ye and him and towards the front.

"Gone." Bai Ye's words brought Bai Yutang back to his senses.

Bai Yutang followed Bai Ye and continued walking. The woman had already turned out of the alley with the two dogs and was gone.

"Do you know her?" Bai Yutang asked Bai Ye.

Bai Ye looked at Bai Yutang, "Why do you think I know her?"

"Anyways, appearing here in the middle of the night is a bit suspicious, right? You didn't even look at her, which is even stranger than staring." Bai Yutang said, frowning, "And it seems like I've seen her somewhere before."

Bai Ye continued to walk forward while asking a seemingly unrelated question, "Did you know that Great Danes have a very short lifespan."

Bai Yutang nodded, "Mhmm, because of their huge size and fierce, impatient personalities, they usually don't live more than ten years."

Bai Ye nodded, "Compared to that, isn't a human's lifespan too long?"

"Some people may think it's short." Bai Yutang walked side by side with Bai Ye and asked, "Is she a dangerous person?"

"Speaking of dangerous, what kind of person is the most dangerous?" Bai Ye suddenly asked Bai Yutang.

"Well... those not afraid of death?" Bai Yutang asked in return.

Bai Ye shook his head and smiled, "The kind that won't die."

Bai Yutang froze slightly, "Won't die..."

"Immortal butterfly," Bai Ye faintly said, "a scary woman."

Bai Yutang frowned, "Is she the one Eugene is waiting for?"

"Probably." Bai Ye said indifferently, "She's on good terms with Zhao Jue, you can go to him if you need her help with anything."

"What kind of assistance can she provide?" Bai Yutang was curious.

"She can more or less help with things that have to do with death." Bai Ye said, "Since she appeared in S City, I guess it won't take long before she goes to chat with Zhao Jue."

Bai Yutang nodded and walked out of the alley with Bai Ye, getting into their car to head back to the police station.

......

At this moment, in the SCI office, Gongsun had already treated Zhao Jue's wounds and returned to the forensic room with the bloody gauze. He saw that Zhang Yu was still standing next to the autopsy table in the forensic room, looking through a folder.

Gongsun frowned, "You can't just look through things in the police station."

Zhang Yu raised his head, though it wasn't clear if he heard him or not, and pointed to a drawing clipped in the folder, asking, "This... who drew it?"

Gongsun glanced at it and was a bit surprised, it was the same drawing of the Grim Reaper that he had drawn previously.

"I..." Gongsun pointed at himself, but before he finished his words, Zhang Yu asked rather nervously, "Have you seen it with your own eyes?"

Gongsun nodded.

Zhang Yu frowned and pressed, "How long ago?"

"Ten years ago." Gongsun replied.

"Ten years..." Zhang Yu muttered to himself.

"Have you seen it too?"

At this moment, a voice came from the doorway.

The two of them turned around and saw Zhan Zhao standing at the doorway, holding a tin of chocolates in his hand.

"Uh..." Zhang Yu hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded.

Gongsun was surprised, "You've seen it too? When?"

"I've seen it more than once." Zhang Yu's brows furrowed, "The most recent time was at the beginning of this year!"

Gongsun and Zhan Zhao glanced at each other – The clue was delivered to their door! Live!

‿︵‿︵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: January 7, 2024 by Angel

Edited: March 7, 2024 by Angel