Chapter 185: The Doctor’s Tragedy (1/2)

The candy factory was relatively small in size. It was perhaps more appropriately called a workshop. When we reached the residential area neighboring the factory, we got out of the car. It was an old area that was sparsely populated and it had no neighborhood watch. Xiaotao knocked on a door and asked the resident which building housed employees of the candy factory, and the resident replied that it was Building C.

We headed to said building. Yuanchao was about to turn on a flashlight, but I quickly stopped him. We stopped in front of the buildings and observed it. There were only a few rooms where the lights were on.

“Why don’t we just bring in a police dog?” muttered Dali.

“We don’t have Xu Gang’s scent, so what use is a police dog, you idiot?” snapped Xiaotao.

Her words gave me an idea. “I remember that the rich lady smelled heavily of perfume. Perhaps her scent still lingers on in Xu Gang’s car!”

I went on to sniff at the cars parked near the apartment buildings, and just as I expected, there was indeed an SUV there that had a strong perfume smell on one of its doors. It smelled just like that rich lady. I wasn’t a police dog, though, so that was all I could confirm. I couldn’t follow her track straight to the house where the murderer was, neither could I use the tracking method I used in the previous case because I hadn’t prepared the elixir.

I looked around the car. There was a black thread in the crack of the door.

“Do you recognize this?” I asked Yuanchao.

He held it between his fingers then lit it up with a lighter.

“It looks like a soundproofing material found on the walls of night clubs!” he stated.

“Soundproofing?” My eyes lit up. “I see it now. Xu Gang must’ve trapped the rich lady indoors. He was afraid that the sound of her crying for help would give out her location, so he covered the walls with a layer of soundproofing material.”

Xiaotao followed my line of thought and added, “He’d want to make it oblivious to people’s eyes too, so he won’t nail the material to the wall. Rather, he’d use the wallpaper glue instead.”

“Yes!” I agreed. “Which means that his house must smell of wallpaper glue!”

DaIi glared at us and said, “How did you guys find out all that just from a strand of fiber?”

“It’s just the basic skill of deduction, you idiot!” Xiaotao laughed. “You should learn it too sometime.”

We then split up to find a house that smelled of wallpaper glue, but we agreed not to act or cause alarm if any of us found it. Instead, we should just keep in touch through our mobile phones.

I smelled each house from door to door. When I reached the top floor, I finally detected a house that was emitting a distinct scent of glue. I got excited and was about to call Xiaotao, but before I could do that, the door opened. Out came Xu Gang, who walked out casually towards me. We stood there silently regarding each other for a while, then I politely asked him, “Excuse me, does Wang Dali live here?”

“Drop the act, Detective Song!” sneered Xu Gang. “You really are as good as the rumors suggest. I never expected you to find me so soon.”

I was taken aback. I dialed Xiaotao’s number discretely while my phone was still in my pocket, then deliberately spoke loudly, “You’re pretty good at hiding yourself! It took me a lot of effort to climb up to the top floor just to find you!”

“There’s no need for that little trick, detective,” said Xu Gang, glancing at my hand. He then shouted, “I know the police are downstairs! Xu Gang lives in Unit 603! Why don’t you hurry up here and catch me?”

I was quite embarrassed about the blunder. I observed Xu Gang’s face and found that he was completely calm. He didn’t look like a criminal at all. In fact, he was just a middle-aged man wearing pyjamas—the picture of banality.

Xu Gang turned around and headed back into the house. He stopped at the door and said, “I’ve heard of you, Detective Song. I know you’ve solved many difficult cases. It’s an honor to be one of your subjects. Why don’t you come inside and have a chat with me before the police arrive?”

That didn’t sound like a good idea at all. Xu Gang noticed my hesitation, so he added, “You’ll regret it if you don’t come in.”

“Okay,” I said. “Lead the way.”