Chapter 14: The Severed Head in the Piano (1/2)

“Dali!” I called out. When he walked in, I told him, “I need you to get me some things. I need a towel, some hot water, a pail, some ropes, an iron plate, an electric hob, white vinegar and some ginger.”

“What about cumin and spicy noodle?” Dali asked.

“What the hell for?”

“It sounds like you’re going to have a hotpot meal. Cumin and spicy noodle go really well with a hotpot meal, you know?”

I burst out laughing.

“Just hurry up and go get those things, will you?”

“But the money…” said Dali, staring at me.

“Don’t worry,” said Huang Xiaotao. “I’ll pay you back the money once the case is over. Just remember to keep the receipts.”

“Oh, one more thing!” I said. “Aren’t there a few pots of succulent plants in our dorm? Can you bring one of those with you as well?”

“Geez, dude,” said Dali, “I know the atmosphere here is a bit gloomy, but do you think succulent plants are enough to liven up the mood?”

“Just shut up and go, won’t you?” I said, waving my hand.

“Yes, sir!” he said, and ran out the door.

I searched through the clothes on the dead body and found an ID card, a student card, some change, some keys, a cell phone and half a pack of cigarettes. The name on the documents were all Deng Chao. I tried to access the cell phone but found that it was locked with a password. Huang Xiaotao ordered a few bags to put all the evidence in.

I stood up and looked around. The music room was actually quite spacious. There was a podium in front of the room, and beside it, there was a wooden piano that looked out a window facing the south. All of the windows in this room were opened. Because the building was built quite some time ago, there was no air conditioning. Instead, fans were installed on the ceiling.

“Where did the head of the body go?” I wondered aloud while staring at that headless corpse.

I walked up to the piano and pressed a key. It made no sound at all. It turned out that this was one of those old-fashioned pianos where you had to step on the pedal to make a sound.

“Do you play the piano?” Huang Xiaotao asked, her eyes full of wonder.

“Absolutely not,” I replied.

I swiped my fingers on a string of keys on the piano and discovered that some of them were stuck. I instantly knew that something was wrong.

“Quick!” I said. “Open the lid! Something’s inside the piano!”

The moment the lid was opened, everyone gasped in horror.

Most of the piano wires inside had been cut, and they all tangled up together into a cobweb-like mess, and nestled among that mess was a bloody head and a baseball cap beside it.

I rolled up my sleeves and tried to get the head out, but it was so tangled up with the piano wires that I feared pulling it out would cause damage to the flesh.

Huang Xiaotao ordered someone to get a plier. After a while, one of the police officers managed to get pliers from the security guards on campus. One by one the piano wires were cut and the severed head was finally freed from its tangled prison.

I compared the head to the body, and judging from the wound, they both matched each other. However, strangely enough, the stage of decay was drastically more advanced for the head compared to the body. The skin on the head had even grown slightly moldy, and the flesh had even started to smell putrid.

There was also another bulging wound at the back of the head. When I pressed on it gently, I discovered that the skull beneath the skin was fractured, and the wound was swollen and festering. I pressed on it with slightly more pressure, and white pus flowed out of the wound. Some of it even got onto my hand and it flowed down to my wrist where my skin wasn’t protected by a rubber glove.

“Don’t move!” said Huang Xiaotao as she wiped the pus from my hand with a Kleenex. I thanked her.

“Did you find out anything?” she asked.

“This head and that body belonged to the same person,” I said. “And the head was cut off using a sharp instrument.” I put my nose near the severed head and analyzed the smell. “It seems that some kind of chemical was applied onto this head. The conditions inside the piano is also more conducive to bacterial growth, so the rate of decay had been greatly accelerated. This head is now completely unrecognizable.”