Chapter 63 (2/2)

“Understood, Sergeant Zhang,” acknowledged the officer called Guo Wei as he turned around and left the room.

The entire afternoon, members of Ju’an Police Station’s Household Registration Section busily searched the designated units and interviewed their occupants.  Of the seven windows that Mu Mingyuan had circled, five of them were in units where n.o.body responded, while the remaining two were in units inhabited by two elderly couples.  They very warmly welcomed the police officers sent to interview them.  Meanwhile, the officers eliminated these two households as possible suspects.  First of all, their body shapes didn’t match the shape of the black spots in the photographs.  Second, there was no way an elderly person could overpower two people in their prime.  Furthermore, none of their children lived in the city, and they said in a sworn statement that they have never rented their units out to a third party.

The police were able to corroborate the testimony of the elderly couples with testimony by the building manager.  Chinese cities have a well-organized neighborhood watch system.  Although far from perfect, it is much more efficient than anything foreign cities may have.  Of course, the system does occasionally fail.  After all, even paid services sometimes fail to perform, much less services supplied entirely by volunteers.  However, the alley’s neighborhood watch system was working for now, so the testimony offered by the elderly couples was proven to be accurate.

Of the other five units, two of them were inhabited by local residents, while the other three had been “rented out.”  These units were rented out to the local pimps A-Shun and A-Tie for use by their girls, which could be construed as bringing in economic activity to an otherwise economically depressed neighborhood.  Units in the alley that were actually being rented out for use as dwellings for people like Wu Xiuping were in fact quite rare.

However, this actually made things a bit easier.  For those units that were being used as brothels, the police need only contact A-Shun and A-Tie for them to open the units up for inspection.  The only units that the police hadn’t been able to inspect were the two where the inhabitants were local residents.  Still, the police station had their household registration records, and their conversation with the building manager revealed that both families went to work during the day and came back in the evening.  Therefore, the police could simply return at night to interview the inhabitants and search the premises.

This information very quickly arrived in the hands of Jiang Zhengkai.  He carefully reviewed doc.u.ments relating to the families in the remaining two units.  The male inhabitant in one of the units was an employee of an import-export company, while the male inhabitant in the other unit was a meat merchant.  These days, you could no longer refer to someone who sold meat as a “butcher.”  The euphemism now was “meat merchant.”

As for doc.u.ments on the female inhabitants, Jiang Zhengkai only casually flipped through them.  He didn’t think their professions had any relations.h.i.+p with the murders.  To be a serial killer required above-average physical strength and incredible emotional detachment.  These traits were usually not characteristic of women.  Therefore, the only thing he needed to do was compare the figures of these two women with the shape of the black spots in the photos.

“Neither of them fit the shape!” muttered Jiang Zhengkai, who then handed the doc.u.ments over to Mu Mingyuan.  Mu Mingyuan had already seen the profile pictures of the two female inhabitants, so he only nodded in agreement.  Jiang Zhengkai looked at the profile pictures one more time before turning around to ask Zhang Nan, “Any updates from A-Shun?”

“Not yet,” responded Zhang Nan.  “Our people have already inspected the units.  They are arranged in a manner similar to this one.  According to A-Shun’s recollection, there were a lot of prost.i.tutes working in the alley that night, so he can’t remember clearly who exactly were in these three units.”

“Alright then.  Send our people to inspect these two units first tonight,” ordered Jiang Zhengkai. He then looked at Mu Mingyuan and said, “Let’s return at midnight and take another look at this place, see if there are any windows that we’ve missed.”

“Understood!” acknowledged Zhang Nan as he retrieved the doc.u.ments from Mu Mingyuan.  “It’s getting late.  Why don’t we all grab some dinner?”

“Alright!” replied Jiang Zhengkai, but then immediately shook his head.  “Wait, I can’t.  How about this; Xiaoqiang, why don’t you take Sergeant Zhang and Mingyuan to dinner.  Give me the receipt so I can reimburse you.  Regardless, I’m buying tonight.”

“Come on, let’s all go together,” insisted Zhang Nan, seeing Jiang Zhengkai’s attempt to back out.  “We’ve been at it for the whole day.  I’ll buy, but you have to come!”

“Sergeant Zhang, the inspector has another mission tonight.”  Noticing that Jiang Zhengkai’s expression was becoming increasingly awkward, Lu Xiaoqiang immediately stepped in.  “But the three of us can still go!”

“Oh, alright,” acquiesced Zhang Nan, as Lu Xiaoqiang repeatedly winked at him.  He wasn’t so stupid that he couldn’t take a hint. “Well, so I’ll see you later tonight?”

“Sounds good!  I’ll probably make it over sometime around 10PM.  I’ll leave tonight’s planning up to you, Zhang,” Jiang Zhengkai smilingly said to Zhang Nan once he saw Zhang Nan had relented.

“No problem!” replied Zhang Nan.  “See you tonight!”  They then left the crime scene and went their separate ways.