Chapter 36: The Drill Instructor of People’s Armed Police (1/2)

Dali and I went back to the room where the murder happened. I looked up at the ceiling and saw some faint stains on it—just as I expected!

Because the dead body was still on the bed, I couldn’t just step on the bed to check the stains above. So, I asked Dali to get me a ladder. I then went through the forensics team’s toolbox and got myself a bottle of alcohol and some cotton swabs.

Soon, Dali came back with a ladder. I told him to set it up right next to the bed.

“What are you up to now, dude?” he asked.

“You’ll see.”

I stepped on the ladder and gently rubbed the stain on the ceiling with a cotton swab that I’d dipped in alcohol. The alcohol dissolved the stain, lifting whatever substance it was onto the cotton swab. When the alcohol evaporated, the substance of the stain would remain on the cotton swab, which could then be tested. This was the method that modern forensic investigators used to collect liquid evidence.

I took a sniff at the cotton swab, then told Dali to smell it too.

“I don’t smell anything, dude,” he said, shaking his head.

“No, there’s definitely the smell of eel blood,” I said. “Someone sprayed it onto the ceiling to attract bats.”

I then looked up at the ceiling again and noticed the stain pattern.

“It was probably sprayed on with a water gun…” I said.

“Song Yang, come here now!” That was Huang Xiaotao’s voice coming from the other room.

We ran back to the other room, and Huang Xiaotao showed us the recording of the same room on the day before the murder occurred. There was a man wearing a mask dressed like a cleaner sneaking into the room. He nailed a nail onto the wall, then took out a water gun and shot some kind of liquid onto the ceiling.

I told them about the eel blood I found on the ceiling.

“Bats are naturally attracted to the smell of blood,” I said. “Especially eel blood which has a particulary rich scent. This is the perfect way to attract bats!”

“This is enough proof that the murderer is a human being,” I added. “Not a vampire.”

Xiaozhou’s face turned red.

“Maybe vampires can’t turn into bats,” he said. “But the rest of the legend is still true. There are always going to be some gaps between legends and reality.”

I could see it now. Xiaozhou’s mind was set on believing that the murderer was a vampire. He insisted on that when he made a bet with me, and he wasn’t planning to change his mind anytime soon.

“If he really is a vampire,” I said. “Then we shouldn’t have seen him in the video.”

“What do you mean?” asked Xiaozhou.

“Vampires cannot be reflected in the mirror and can’t be photographed. You should have heard of this in the legend, right?” I asked. “In that case, we shouldn’t be able to see him in the video.”

“But that might just be a part of the legend that’s not true!” Xiaozhou muttered.

“If this part is not true and that part is not true either,” said Dali, “then are you sure if there’s anything in the book you read that is true at all?”

Xiaozhou looked embarrassed and firmly insisted, “The mechanism behind a digital video camera is totally different from a reflection on the mirror or the lens of a camera, though! Maybe a video camera like this one could capture the image of the vampire, who knows?”

“If the man really was a vampire,” I said, “I don’t think that the victim is going to just lie there and let us examine her without getting up and biting everyone. You must’ve heard that those who get bitten by vampires will become vampires themselves, haven’t you? Isn’t that enough proof?”

“All right,” said Xiaozhou, finally relenting slightly. “Maybe the murderer in this case isn’t a vampire, but that doesn’t mean that vampires don’t exist at all in this world!”

There goes the stubborn mule again, I thought. If vampires did exist, and that they never aged and never died, the world would’ve been filled to the brim with vampires and there would’ve been no humans left.

Huang Xiaotao repeated the video and watched it two more times. She furrowed her brows and asked, “Can’t the video be enlarged?”

“No, it’s not a high-definition camera,” said the porter.

“Song Yang, did you find anything here?” she asked.

I stared at the video hard.

“The cleaner is probably the murderer’s accomplice,” I said. “His age is probably between 45 to 50, weighing around 80 kilograms, and is of a medium build. Judging by the way he’s acting in the video, this isn’t his first time here. He knew where to aim on the ceiling when he was spraying the eel blood with the water gun. He probably knew that there was a camera hidden there.”

“If he knows about the hidden camera, then that’s suspicious!” said Huang Xiaotao.

“Maybe he used to work in a hotel before,” the burly officer postulated. “Small and shady hotels like this one usually have hidden cameras near the television and the mirror.”

“Also,” I said, “he’s had a stroke before.”

“How could you possibly know that?” asked Huang Xiaotao. “Can your eyes see that too?”

“Of course not,” I answered, laughing. “The clues are right there on the screen. Watch carefully if you don’t believe me.”

Huang Xiaotao played the video again and watched it twice, but she couldn’t find anything.