Chapter 85: Ma Jinhuo (1/2)

The cement pipe was placed on the ground vertically. Someone had thrown some garbage in there. There were a few pieces of tattered clothes, probably left by the tramps. I slid half of my body into it and rummaged through the garbage with my hands until I finally found the source of the weird smell.

I took out a pair of rubber gloves from my pocket and put them on. Then I picked up the paper towel that was emitting the medical-grade alcohol smell.

It seemed that my guess was correct. Xiaozhang was indeed kidnapped by the murderer!

This paper towel was probably here because the murderer had mistakenly spilled some nitrous oxide on his hand, so he used it to wipe his hands. It was clear that the murderer had long been eyeing Xiaozhang.

Xiaotao came over and sniffed it and asked, “How did you know it was here, Song Yang? It’s like you have a dog’s sense of smell!”

“I’ve been trained.”

“You can train for that? Can you teach me how? It would be convenient for me as a police officer to have a nose as sensitive as yours!”

In fact, I had to go through a lot of painful training to get this good. Every day, Grandpa would pierce silver needles on the acupuncture points on my nose. Not everyone would be able to endure that.

“Let’s talk about that later,” I tried to change the subject. “Did you bring an evidence collecting bag?”

“Yeah!” Xiaotao nodded.

I put the paper towel into the bag and sealed it. Then I waved my hand to Xiaotao, “There is nothing left to investigate here. Let’s go to the next place!”

“Okay!”

The second missing person, Xiaoli, was in many ways similar to Xiaozhang. He went missing half a month ago. He also did not inform anyone of his whereabouts. Xiaoli worked in a car wash and he lived in an apartment with two colleagues.

According to Xiaoli’s roommates, half a month ago, Xiaoli went downstairs to take out the garbage, and then he never returned. He wouldn’t answer their calls either, so they reported him as missing.

“Did his family come looking for him?” I asked.

“They did,” his roommate replied. “His mother was very tearful about it. One of his sisters is a lawyer. I hear they’re going to sue the apartment management about this, but management said their only responsibilities were to keep the apartment clean and orderly. This shouldn’t have anything to do with them.”

“What was Xiaoli’s personality like?”

“He’s a nice guy,” the roommate reminisced. “He’s the most hygienic among the three of us. He’s always the one to clean the house and take the garbage out.”

The other roommate interjected, “Yeah, he’s a special guy. He’s kind of an introvert. He doesn’t talk to us much when he’s at home. But he’s a hard worker, and he likes gardening too. Do you see those pots of flowers on the balcony there? Those are all his doing!”

I smiled. “Did he have a girlfriend?”

“Nah. He’s an inexperienced virgin just like us.”

“Speak for yourself!” the other roommate retorted. “Don’t compare me to the likes of you!”

“You loser, do you really think that Lili likes you? She’s only using you as a spare, idiot! You’ve known her for so long, yet have you ever had dinner with her once? Ever slept with her?”

“Shut up! What we have is called true love!”

“Holy hell! You’re sappy! Don’t you notice how she excuses herself to go take a shower every time you talk to her? She must be a real hygienic person!”

The two men argued till they were both red in the face. I didn’t want to get in between their fight so I uttered a quick ‘thank you’ and left quickly with Xiaotao.

Once we’ve left the apartment, I summed up our discoveries.

“One and a half months ago, twenty-seven days ago, half a month ago… Judging from the pattern, I’m afraid Xiaoli is probably dead.”

“So, the murderer kills a person every fifteen days?” Xiaotao gasped.

“Do you usually cook?” I asked her.

“Not really, why do you ask?”

“Well, the usual shelf-life of meat is about half a month,” I replied. “It seems that the murderer really thinks of humans as two-legged livestock.”

“In that case, does it mean that we have half a month’s worth of time to catch the bastard before he gets the next victim?”

“No, Xiaoli was missing half a month ago. That means the fourth victim will be caught in the next two days. Unless if we get to them before the murderer does, that is.”

“It’s a very tight deadline!” Xiaotao sighed.

At that moment, her phone rang. She picked it up and spoke for a while. Once she hung up, she turned to me and said, “You’re right again, Song Yang. Ma Yaozu really is Ma Jinhuo’s official name.”

I recalled the file I had read before.