Chapter 168: The Plastic Surgery Clinic (2/2)

“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked.

Kong Hui’s expressions changed dramatically.

“No, it wasn’t, officer,” he said. “You were far from being clear, so how could I have known what happened to her?”

I kept looking straight into his eyes. It was a trick that I learned from Yuanchao. He taught me that guilty people or those who were trying to hide something would blink a lot. As I expected, Kong Hui didn’t dare to look straight at me.

“Well, she should be able to tell us exactly what happened when she wakes up,” I said.

I noticed beads of cold sweat on the sides of Kong Hui’s nose and on his forehead.

“Would you please let us into the operating room, Dr. Kong?” asked Xiaotao.

“I’m afraid not,” refused Kong Hui. “We just had an operation in there and it hasn’t been properly sterilized yet. I’m afraid it would be unsanitary for you to enter right now.”

“Oh, surely it’ll be fine, Dr. Kong,” answered Xiaotao. “This clinic doesn’t deal with infectious diseases after all.”

We entered the operating room and I asked Dali to get my Autopsy Umbrella from the car. The room’s walls were painted white and the lower half was tiled. There was a surgical table in the middle with a spotlight on top of it. There was a curtain around the surgical table too.

I closed the door, opened the window, and checked the whole room with my Autopsy Umbrella. The operation on the victim must’ve been long-drawn-out and complicated, so it had to have left some trace in the room. Yet, I found the room to be spotless with nothing particularly noteworthy at all.

“I don’t think this is the crime scene,” I said.

“That makes sense,” replied Xiaotao. “His clinic apparently receives quite a lot of patients. Kong Hui would not risk his business and commit the crime here. Besides, there are many staff members here. He could very easily be found out.”

At that point, all of us were pretty sure that Kong Hui was the murderer. It was just as Grandpa once said: the more complicated the murder method, the easier it was to find the murderer. Because of the horrifying way Xu Xiaohui died, it was much easier to narrow down the identity of the prime suspect. Had Kong Hui killed her with a more ‘common’ method, like stabbing or strangulation, we would’ve spent much more time running in circles trying to determine who could’ve done it.

“Are we going to bring him back to the police station?” Dali asked.

“Not yet,” Xiaotao answered. “We can’t just arrest anyone without strong evidence. Besides, it’s a better idea to lull him into a false sense of security for now.”

We decided to leave the clinic, but before that Xiaotao spoke to Kong Hui politely and made sure that he thought we didn’t suspect him at all. This was the usual modus operandi used by the police. The more they suspected someone, the more they tried to make that person feel safe.

Some murderers might be clever, some might be stupid, but there was always one common mentality among them—they always believed that they could escape with impunity.

Once we were outside the clinic, I looked back at the patients entering the building. They were all young and beautiful women.

“Why don’t you stay here, Dali?” I suggested. “You’ll have plenty of beautiful company while you observe Kong Hui’s movements. You can use the opportunity to practice your skills in picking up girls too!”

“Okay, sure!” he nodded eagerly.

The rest of us returned to the police station where one of Xiaotao’s officers had just brought in the farmer who delivered Xu Xiaohui to the slaughterhouse. We questioned him for a few minutes and found out that as he was driving to the slaughterhouse that morning, he found a pig on the side of the road, so he loaded it into the truck. At that time, he thought he was really lucky because it was like he’d just picked up an extra thousand yuan.

The man seemed to be an honest farmer. During the questioning, he often asked if there were any problems with his pigs and anxiously asked, “Did anyone get sick from eating pork, officers? How much do I have to pay in fines?”

“Don’t worry,” Xiaotao comforted him. “You can go now.”

At noon, Xiaotao ordered some takeaways for everyone and we ate lunch together at the police station. Just when we finished our meal, Dali returned. His eyes were all red and watery.

“What happened, Dali?” I asked with a laugh.

“This is all your fault, dude!” he snapped at me. “You and your bright idea about picking up girls! I got pepper spray in my eyes!”

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