S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 72

Countdown from the Murderer 02 – Switched Room Numbers

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Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang entered the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel.

The interior decoration of this hotel was not bad. There were three receptionists at the front desk in the lobby, and a few uniformed waiters. The sofas in the lobby were empty, and not a single guest could be seen...

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged a look. For them to investigate the case, the more sluggish the business and the fewer the occupants the better.

Walking to the front desk, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang showed their IDs.

The staff at the front desk immediately found the lobby manager.

The lobby manager, surnamed Wang, did not panic after seeing the two men's IDs, and asked, "Are you two officers here to investigate or to arrest someone? We will fully cooperate."

Bai Yutang waved his hand, signalling that he didn't need to be nervous.

Zhan Zhao gave the front desk the phone number and credit card number that Nurse Jin used to book the hotel and asked if any rooms had been booked there.

Once the front desk checked, the result was beyond the two's expectations.

Nurse Jin's phone number was used to book one room, 2507, while Mark Fan's credit card number was used to book two rooms, 2507 and 2603, and the name registered for the occupant was always Li Feng.

The receptionist told Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang that the occupant had checked into 2507, but had later requested to be switched to 2603.

Zhan Zhao was puzzled, "Why did they change rooms?"

Manager Wang explained, "It's like this. Because our hotel is located in a remote area, most of the people who come to stay here are group guests, and there are very few individual guests who come to stay here. The twenty-fourth floor and below are for groups, while the 25th floor and above are for individual guests. The guest from 2507 originally checked in first, but later a large group of more than two hundred people came. The twenty-fourth floor couldn't be arranged, so they were assigned to the twenty-fifth floor. The guest from 2507 complained that the group was having a noisy party in the evening, so we transferred him to room 2603. Because of system problems, the room couldn't be transferred, so he could only check out and then check in again, which resulted in the situation of booking the room twice. Because the documents were the same, the guest proposed to change the phone number for the registration, and we didn't have any objections."

After hearing this, Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang also felt that this matter seemed normal but also seemed a bit suspicious.

"Then is 2507 occupied right now?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"No, it's vacant."

"Is 2603 still occupied?"

"It is."

Zhan Zhao took out his cell phone, clicked on Mark Fan's photo for the others to see, and asked if they had ever seen such a guest.

The receptionists and lobby managers all took a closer look, and in the end, they all shook their heads, saying that they didn't have much of an impression.

"We can ask the attendant in the elevator room to see if he recognises him."

As the lobby manager said this, he led Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao to the elevator.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were quite puzzled – These days, it's hard to believe that there's still a special button attendant in the elevator just like in the past.

But when they arrived, they found that the elevators of this hotel were somewhat special.

This hotel has a total of thirty floors. There is an independent elevator room on the side of the lobby, with five elevators covering different floors. In the elevator room stood a male attendant. As long as a guest came and told him which floor they were going to, he would press the elevator for them, and if they took the elevator he assigned to them, they would be able to get to the floor they wanted to go to.

The reason why there was a special attendant here was because there were some complications with the elevator system in this hotel.

Firstly, with elevators one to four, each elevator is responsible for six floors, which means floors one to twenty-four are served by these four elevators.

Elevator one covered floors one through six.

Elevator two covered floors seven through twelve.

Elevator three covered floors thirteen to eighteen.

Elevator four covered floors nineteen to twenty-four.

Elevator five only covered floor twenty-five.

The reason for this operation is that for floors twenty-six and above, you need to go to the twenty-fifth floor first, then go through a long corridor before taking the other two elevators, which go from the twenty-sixth floor to the top floor.

Seemingly sensing Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's somewhat breathless expressions, the lobby manager was quite embarrassed, saying there was a problem when the hotel was constructed, and they had no choice but to solve it this way.

Zhan Zhao once again took out his cell phone and asked the elevator attendant if he had seen Mark Fan.

That attendant looked carefully for a while and wasn't sure.

"Because the elevator numbers aren't too hard to remember, it's usually only the first-time guests that will ask me to help them, the ones that have already checked in and the ones that have been here before all know which elevator they should take."

Zhan Zhao thought for a moment and then asked, "This person arrives every Tuesday and Thursday between three and four in the afternoon, and holds a bouquet of roses in his hand..."

"Oh!"

Hearing this, the lobby manager and the elevator attendant shouted together, "Him! I remember!"

But after the two finished, they both went over to look at the photo carefully again and said that the man didn't seem to look like this... the man had a beard.

"We all remember this person. Every time, he would arrive around three o'clock and leave around six o'clock in the afternoon. Because he brought a bouquet of roses every time he came, we all thought he was here to meet his lover." The manager laughed as he spoke, saying that this was quite common, but those who dated in hotels were generally more low-key, while he would always stand out with flowers, which was somewhat unusual.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, on the other hand, were puzzled and asked, "What time did you say he stays until?"

"Usually six or seven o'clock, sometimes later." The manager replied.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other – That's not right, the nurse said that Mark Fan went out at three o'clock and returned to the clinic at four o'clock every day... What's going on? Could it be that there's another one?

"Did he come yesterday?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"He came." The elevator attendant remembered.

"Then when did he leave?"

The attendant thought for a moment and asked the manager, "Did you see him come out?"

"No." The manager shook his head and called over two of the receptionists.

The two receptionists said that "Mr. Rose" went in yesterday and didn't come out, and they joked privately, "After insisting on delivering so many flowers, he can finally stay for the night."

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao were somewhat confused – Mark Fan went in and didn't come out, so where did the Mark Fan who died in the clinic come from?

"Which floor does he usually go to?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"25th floor." The attendant replied.

"Do you know exactly which room he went to?" Zhan Zhao asked.

The elevator attendant shook his head, "I'm not sure about that."

According to the distribution of the hotel's elevators, staying on the twenty-fifth floor meant that he could have gone to any room from the twenty-fifth through the top floors.

Bai Yutang indicated that they should go to 2603 first, and then check the surveillance to determine what exactly Mark Fan was up to.

The lobby manager accompanied them.

The elevator stopped at the twenty-fifth floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, there was a thick carpet on the floor.

Because hotels had a lot of people coming in and out, to not disturb the residents' rest, most hotels had thick carpets in the hallways.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang followed the manager through the hallway and out of the elevator. On the right-hand side were rooms one through ten, and on the left were rooms eleven through twenty.

At the end of the hallway were the other two elevators.

Bai Yutang had also checked the stairwells on both sides just now and found that the hotel had an unusually large number of stairwells. There were two safety exits next to the elevators on both sides, meaning that in total, there were four stairwells in the building, and all four of these stairs could be used to get to the basement or top floor.

On either side of the elevators on floors one through twenty-five, there were two stairwells that could access any floor.

On either side of the elevators on the twenty-sixth to penthouse floors, there were also two staircases that could lead to any floor.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang still chose to take the elevator up to the twenty-sixth floor.

Coming out on the twenty-sixth floor, the room numbers were exactly reversed from the twenty-fifth floor, with the left-hand side being one through ten and the right-hand side being eleven through twenty.

In other words...

Walking up to the door of room 2603, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang realised that this room was actually directly above 2507.

On the one hand, they lamented that the designer of this building was a logic genius, while on the other hand, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked the manager, "This room, was it randomly switched by you guys, or was it requested by the guest?"

The manager said that it was the guest's request to switch to this one because the room's layout was exactly the same, hence the price was also the same and it was more convenient to switch.

As the manager said this, he raised his hand and looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, as if asking – Should I knock?

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded.

The manager knocked on the door.

The three of them waited for a while, but there was no response.

The manager knocked louder.

After waiting for another moment, there was still no response.

There was no "Do Not Disturb" sign on the doorknob, but there was a green light on the door, indicating that someone was in the room and the door was locked from the inside.

"Mr. Li!"

The manager knocked even louder on the door and shouted a couple more times.

There was still no answer.

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other.

Just then, the door to room 2604 next door suddenly opened.

From the room, a middle-aged man wearing glasses with a cigarette in his mouth poked his head out and looked around. This person's messy hair looked a little greasy, and it looked as if he hadn't showered for a week. The two big dark circles under his eyes made it look as if he was seriously sleep-deprived.

That person stared at the door in front of three people for a while, then let out a "hehe". Holding a cigarette between two fingers, he pointed to the door of room 2603 next door and said sorrowfully, "The man inside is probably dead"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both frowned at the man and asked him, "How do you know?"

The manager also panicked and waved his hand, "Mr Zhou, don't talk nonsense... they are..."

"Police?" The messy and somewhat nervous-looking "Mr Zhou" was leaning against the doorway with his cigarette in his mouth, "The shower in the bathroom next door has been running, I've heard it clearly from the morning until now!"

After saying that, the hand holding the cigarette in his mouth was raised and his ring finger tapped his temple, saying, "It's probably a suicide."

Zhan Zhao pressed his ear against the door and listened, then nodded, signalling – There was indeed the sound of running water!

Bai Yutang asked the manager to open the door.

The manager pulled out his key card and opened the door, and Bai Yutang ran in. The bathroom was on the left-hand side of the entrance. Going in to take a look, Bai Yutang immediately frowned and took a step back to stop Zhan Zhao and the manager at the door.

Bai Yutang gestured for Zhan Zhao to go to the bathroom, telling him to prepare himself mentally while asking the manager to wait at the door. He took out his phone and asked the SCI crowd, who were still at the clinic, to send a few people over, and in the meantime, he called the forensic team and forensic department, who had just returned to the SCI office.

......

And at that moment, in the SCI office.

Brother Bai walked out of the elevator and found that the only person in the office was Zhao Zhen, who was lying on the sofa, leaning against Lisbon and napping. No one else was there.

There was movement in the forensic room next door, it seemed like there was a phone ringing.

Brother Bai was just pulled to the cemetery by Zhao Jue and Bai Ye and was brought to a tombstone by Zhao Jue in a confused state. There was no name or photo on that tombstone, just a year.

After Zhao Jue offered a bouquet, he pulled him away. He had a black face the whole time, as if he was holding someone's life in his hands.

Bai Ye asked Bai Jintang where he was going, and he said he wanted to go to the SCI office. The car drove to the police station, and the two left him in the car and drove away.

Bai Jintang probably vaguely knew something, but Zhao Jue didn't explicitly say anything, so he didn't care too much.

Walking to the door of the forensic room, before Brother Bai had time to say anything, he saw Gongsun rushing out with Ma Xin and Xiatian.

"Ah!" When Gongsun saw Bai Jintang, he reached out and tugged on his tie, pulled him over and kissed him, then rushed into the elevator carrying his work box with his two gossip-eyed students, shouting, "So busy ah so busy!"

The elevator door closed with a ding.

Bai Jintang was frozen in place for a while. When he turned his head, he saw that in the office, Zhao Zhen was woken up by the noise.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and Zhao Zhen pointed to the sofa across the room.

Bai Jintang walked over.

In the empty SCI office, the two family members were drinking tea and discussing where to have dinner to celebrate in a while.

......

At this time, at the hotel.

Zhan Zhao stood at the door of the room's bathroom and looked inside...

Because the trip wasn't far, Zhao Hu and Ma Han rushed over from the clinic first

When they came through the door, Zhao Hu gasped and Ma Han frowned.

The shower in the bathroom had already been turned off, but the scene in the bathtub was still very horrifying.

The scene was that of a dismemberment. There was a mutilated body in the bathtub, tools and bloody clothes were thrown all over the floor, and there were messy footprints. It felt like the murderer had suddenly run away halfway through the dismemberment.

There was also a razor on the sink, with some stubble lying around it, and blood everywhere.

Because there were "too many" clues left behind at the scene, Zhan Zhao and the others couldn't go in, and could only look from outside, waiting for the arrival of the forensic pathologist and forensic department.

Exiting the room, Zhan Zhao stared at someone... that "Mr Zhou" from next door.

When he saw that something had indeed happened, Mr Zhou did not run. He stood on his tiptoes in the doorway and looked in, seemingly curious. He held out his cell phone to take a picture of it, but Bai Yutang prevented him from doing so.

Zhan Zhao asked Mr Zhou, "Do you know us?"

Mr Zhou smiled, "SCI? I know."

"Who are you?" Bai Yutang asked him.

Mr Zhou smiled, "Captain Bai is so forgetful, we've met before."

As he spoke, Mr Zhou fished out his business card and handed it to Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao.

The business card read: Zhou Ping, an investigative journalist for a certain newspaper.

Bai Yutang took a closer look at him and he seemed somewhat familiar.

Zhan Zhao did remember him. This Zhou Ping was a reporter for a certain newspaper, who often followed up on some big cases and was almost always present at the police department's press conferences. Zhan Zhao had also read his columns and articles, and he was a very well-written and rigorous reporter. However, when he went to the police station for an interview, he was neatly dressed and his face was clean. Why was he so dishevelled now?

Zhou Ping chuckled and helplessly said, "I'm catching up on drafts, so I'm more casual, haha."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang glanced at each other. Perhaps because the time was too coincidental, and Zhou Ping's reaction was indeed unusual, both of them were more sensitive.

Bai Yutang then asked, "Do you know anything about the guest next door? Just based on the sound of water alone, you guessed that he committed suicide?"

Zhou Ping looked at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang, and narrowed his eyes slightly, "Oh? Seeing the reaction of the two of you, he didn't commit suicide? Was he murdered?"

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang did not answer.

Zhou Ping chuckled again, and said, "If he was murdered, then maybe... I've seen the murderer."

‿︵‿︵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: March 6, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 13, 2024 by Angel