Chapter 79 (1/2)
Killer Nights Chapter 79: The Case Heads in a New Direction
It rained all night, but it finally stopped the next morning.Perhaps the weather G.o.ds were worried that this city’s residents might be late for work?Jiang Zhengkai dropped A-Jiao off at the preschool and then hurried over to his own office.Last night’s discovery proved to be a major milestone on the road to cracking this case.A-Xiu, whom everyone had believed to be dead this entire time, wasn’t actually dead.In fact, she had just become the number one suspect in these serial murders.
Jiang Zhengkai sat on the chair behind his desk.He took out A-Jiao’s portraits and looked them over from top to bottom one more time.Because they had now confirmed that A-Xiu wasn’t dead, there was no reason for Jiang Zhengkai to continue staring at A-Xiu’s portrait.It was entire possible that this not-quite-dead woman was using some kind of advanced technology, like optoelectronics, to duplicate her likeness and then release that duplicate image at the right time to frighten others.
A-Mei, A-Hua, A-Li&h.e.l.lip; all the way to A-Xue, Jiang Zhengkai speedily picked out their portraits from A-Jiao’s collection.He also added A-Xiu’s portrait to the mix, for a total of exactly seven portraits.Other than the fourth female victim, Yin Zhumei, he had in his possession the portraits of all the female victims.Jiang Zhengkai stood up and was about to walk to the whiteboard on the side of his office.He was going to sort out one more time the relations.h.i.+p between these eight victims.
Just then, an astonis.h.i.+ng thought suddenly flashed across his mind.He opened his mouth and muttered to himself, “Seven?How could it be seven?”As he spoke, he lowered his head and recounted the portraits in his hands.He wasn’t mistaken, there were indeed seven of them!Hadn’t A-Di only recently arrived in this city?Why would she be part of A-Jiao’s portraits?Or did she arrive earlier than the police had originally thought?
He lingered on this thought and then looked at his watch.It was just past 9 o’clock, so A-Jiao should have already started teaching her cla.s.s, which meant there was no way for Jiang Zhengkai to call her.He thought about it some more, then peered outside his office.Finally, he decided to summon Lu Xiaoqiang.
“Xiaoqiang, what do you have going on this morning?” Jiang Zhengkai hastily asked as soon as Lu Xiaoqiang stepped foot into his office.
“Nothing urgent,” replied Lu Xiaoqiang.“I’m just working on a couple of recent drunk and disorderly cases.”
“Excellent!” nodded Jiang Zhengkai, “Hand those cases over to Liu Na.I need you to go meet with Zhang Nan and then bring me back as much information as he has on A-Di’s background.I want to know if she has ever worked in the alley before, and whether or not we missed something when looking into her background.”
“Yes, Inspector Jiang!” acknowledged Lu Xiaoqiang as he sharply made an about-face and left the office.
Jiang Zhengkai was alone in his office once more.He looked at the portraits again with a sense of astonishment.He then wrote all eight of the victims’ names on his whiteboard.Finally, as if he were guided by some higher power, he wrote in between these eight names “A-Jiao.”Besides the fourth murder victim, all seven others had some relation to A-Jiao.Was it possible that A-Jiao was also familiar with the fourth murder victim Yin Zhumei, or was at least somehow acquainted with her?
Jiang Zhengkai furrowed his brow at he contemplated these thoughts.Coincidence!It must be a coincidence!He tried hard to tell himself that.He immediately wiped away A-Jiao’s name and replaced it with the words “drug trafficking.”Yes, the death of these individuals may well have something to do with the drug ring!As for A-Jiao, she and the Bald Wolf&h.e.l.lip; Jiang Zhengkai’s train of thought returned to A-Jiao, but the thought of her relations.h.i.+p with the Bald Wolf actually comforted him somewhat.Yes, A-Jiao knew these victims, but that might be because of her relations.h.i.+p with the Bald Wolf.At this point, Jiang Zhengkai forced himself to remove A-Jiao from the list of suspects.He firmly believed that A-Jiao could not have been involved in these murders.
Jiang Zhengkai stood silently in front of the whiteboard for a long time.He made new markings underneath each name.First he crossed out the first victim’s name, A-Mei, because he didn’t think A-Mei would partic.i.p.ate in drug trafficking.However, the ident.i.ty of the male victim who’d died with her was still a mystery to this very day.Therefore, Jiang Zhengkai drew a circle where this unknown male victim’s name should be.In other words, Jiang Zhengkai believed this man was very likely involved in the drug trade.