Chapter 357: Enigma (1/2)

”Yes, I closed it. I was driving at the time so I didn't think too much of it,” admitted Mr. Li.

“What about your leg? Were you pinched?” I asked.

”No,” Mr. Li shook his head. “I was pricked!”

I asked Mr. Li to show me his wound but Xiaotao’s presence seemed to make him uncomfortable.

”I'll look from your side of the table,” I laughed. “She won’t be able to see a thing.”

Only then did Mr. Li slowly unzip his trousers and expose his thigh. There was indeed a red spot that looked like it had been pricked by something sharp. ”Officer, I’m worried that I might catch some disease from that prick. Can you order a test for it?” he asked uneasily.

Xiaotao nodded, ”I'll get the coroner to take some blood samples for testing later!”

Of course, this was all to comfort him since many viruses had long incubation periods and couldn’t be tested immediately. The Imitator had only pricked Mr. Lin to wake him up so he should be safe.

Another thing occurred to me then. ”How’s your wife's eyesight?”

”Pretty good!” blurted Mr. Li.

I frowned; he was telling the truth up to this point, but that was a lie.

”Tell the truth!” I demanded, voice with a hard edge.

Mr. Li lowered his face into his arms and sobbed, ”She’s already dead so I guess there’s no need to hide it. Officer, she was in fact nearsighted.”

”Why lie about this?” I asked out of curiosity.

Mr. Li confessed that it was related to his wife's job. She worked at the airport and strived to join the cabin crew; it was her goal to become a flight attendant. But the industry was very strict about eyesight so she kept it from everyone else.

”Who else knows about your wife's condition?”

”No one except me!” he clarified.

We sent Mr. Li back to his cell to go back after obtaining a clearer understanding of the entire incident. This time, the crime was nothing short of brilliant.

The Imitator snuck into the rear compartment of the car in the parking lot and covered a rag soaked with water on Mr. Li’s face. At the same time, he squeezed his jugular vein with his fingers, causing a lack of oxygen to Mr. Li’s brain and rendering him unconscious.

However, the Imitator delayed hypnotizing Mr. Li at this point because of a time constraint. Instead, he sat in the driver's seat and made a phone call to stop Mrs. Li in her tracks. The nearsighted woman couldn’t distinguish between her husband and the man sitting in the car. I suspect the Imitator might have been wearing the same clothes as Mr. Li.

Right then, the Imitator accelerated, killed Mrs. Li and fled...

The Imitator must have hypnotized Mr. Li on the road. In an unconscious or sleeping state, people were susceptible to hypnosis just as I had verified with Dali.

A few hours later, the Imitator carried Mr. Li onto the driver's seat, placed his hands on the steering wheel and stepped on the accelerator. When everything was perfect, he woke Mr. Li up with a bradawl and jumped out of the car. And all this was done on a speeding vehicle.

With Mr. Li’s profession and habits, the Imitator knew he would continue driving even after he had regained consciousness, thus creating the illusion of murdering his wife and absconding. What a bold and ingenious plan!

This time, the murder weapon was the car. The technical team only found Mr. and Mrs. Li’s fingerprints on it. Mr. Li’s fingerprints and hair were concentrated around the steering wheel and the driver's seat, with no evidence of a third person. Combined with the surveillance video in the parking lot, the evidence would have been irrefutable.

If it weren’t for the previous case, this would have been deemed as another common case of uxoricide.