Chapter 353: The Imitator (2/2)

I picked up a cigarette butt and carefully examined it. ”The man is left-handed... Wait a minute, I remember seeing this exact brand of cigarettes in Mr. Ding's home. So this man smokes the same cigarettes as Mr. Ding!” I surmised. “Xiaotao, could you go to the Dings’ home? I need to confirm something.”

Xiaotao agreed and left at once. A few minutes later, her call came through. I turned on speaker and placed my phone on the TV.

Picking up the wrappers on the ground, I sniffed them one by one. ”Do the Dings have the same food in their home?”

A moment later, Xiaotao’s excited voice sounded from the other end, ”I found the exact same instant noodles, beer, and even peanuts. But I’m not sure about the other!”

I grabbed a magazine and read the issue number. ”Do you see a World Soccer issue 128, Financial Times issue 6 and copies of last week’s Nanjiang Daily?”

After a brief pause, Xiaotao blurted, ”I see all of them!”

I moved on to the TV and found that it had a recording function. Like before, I read out each channel which Xiaotao confirmed Mr. Ding also watched.

Additionally, I found hemorrhoid ointment and two artificial walnuts which Mr. Ding also possessed.

This man rented an apartment opposite Mr. Ding, smoked the same cigarettes, ate the same food, watched the same channels and read the same books. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the Imitater from Plants vs Zombies. He was imitating Mr. Ding! The suspect was an expert imitator who specialized in frame-ups.

”You can come back now!” I said.

When Xiaotao returned, I opened the Autopsy Umbrella, allowing sunlight from the window to shine through the umbrella and onto the floor covered in footprints the same size as Mr. Ding’s. The footprints showed the suspect’s gait gradually conforming to Mr. Ding’s, which suggested he was constantly adjusting his state to match Mr. Ding.

Xiaotao sighed, ”If this man switched to acting, he would’ve won an Oscar!”

”Unfortunately, he chose to be a hitman.”

”Hitman?” Xiaotao stared wide-eyed at me.

”This is a very special kind of hitman. His method is to observe the target, figure out the target, then imitate him and finally transform himself into the target,” I concluded. “Then, using tools from the target's home, he commits the crimes so that all evidence points to the target.”

”That's horrible!” cried Xiaotao. “Why haven’t we come across similar cases?”

”Perhaps this has been going on for some time,” I mused. “His work is so meticulous that he’s managed to pull a fast one on the police and turned innocent people into convicted criminals! We must find him and prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.”

Xiaotao nodded, ”Should we bag these cigarette butts and wrappers?”

”Yes, there may be DNA left on them!”

Now that we positioned the murderer as a professional hitman, the direction of our investigation turned to possible acquaintances who would hire a hitman to frame Mr. Ding. However, this was where we hit a snag.

During this period of time, besides helping out in the store, I asked Xiaotao to bring me files of the recent criminal cases in Nanjiang City. It took me quite some time and effort to go through these case files, and I paid special attention to simple, open-and-shut cases.