Skin - Chapter 2

After observing the crime scene, Meng Zhao stood up.

　　His phone made a sound. There was news from the colleague whom he had asked for help earlier. Meng Zhao answered the phone.

　　”Hey Deputy Captain Meng, we found the identity of the blogger. His name is Zhou Yan. He is 28 years old. He is a freelancer and should be a full-time music blogger. His parents passed away many years ago and we could only contact his step-parents. When his stepfather heard the news, he rushed towards the city bureau. By the way, did you find any clues at the scene? ”

　　”There are quite a few clues, but we don’t have anything strong yet.” Meng Zhao raised his eyes and saw Cheng Yun waving for him a few metres away. He walked towards Cheng Yun while continuing to talk on the phone, “Have you found this Zhou Yan’s address?”

　　”I found it. I will send it to you. Do share it with others.”

　　After hanging up the phone, Meng Zhao walked up to Cheng Yun.

　　”This is the anchor who did the live broadcast this morning.” Cheng Yun took the girl’s arm. “This is our Deputy Captain Meng. Just answer all the questions he asks. Don’t be nervous.”

　　The female anchor looked to be in her early twenties, still holding a selfie stick in her hand, shrinking her neck timidly, not daring to look up at Meng Zhao.

　　From Meng Zhao’s angle, he could only see the hair on the girl’s head. He frowned slightly: “You wantonly spread information about the deceased. Why did you do it?”

　　”It’s not illegal.” The anchor defended in a low voice.

　　”Helping the murderer to destroy the crime scene and evidence,” Meng Zhao said coldly, “is finally breaking the law.”

　　”I don’t know the murderer, so how could I help him?!” The anchor raised her head and faced Meng Zhao’s slightly impatient face. The volume raised up due to strong emotions weakened again, and she changed her tone and asked tentatively. “…can I start the live broadcast now?”

　　Cheng Yun: “…” Why are you shooting yourself in the foot, girl?

　　Meng Zhao, who had a violent temper that exploded at the drop of a hat, still had a handful of fans among the few members of the opposite sex in the city bureau. This was entirely because a girl from the administrative department summed it up well: ‘Captain Meng is more fierce when he is fierce than when he is not. He still looks good.’

　　Meng Zhao’s words just now were meant to scare her, but now he was too lazy to waste time with her. He ignored her question and stuck straight to the point and asked, “How many people were here when you came here this morning?”

　　”There weren’t many people, just the two elementary school students. I’m more sensitive to noise. I ran over when I heard them howling. The people around were timid and didn’t dare to go there at first. Besides,” the anchor glanced at Meng Zhao, her voice seemed to be a little aggrieved, “I also specifically asked them to not get too close in order to help you protect the crime scene.”

　　Meng Zhao was indifferent: “How far away do you mean by not getting too close?”

　　”Two or three metres? It should be about two metres.”

　　Meng Zhao’s eyes fell on the area around the deceased. When he just walked over, he did notice that there were no obvious footprints left around the deceased. That corner of the place was rarely visited by people. Logically speaking, it should have accumulated a thick layer of dust like the old furniture piled nearby, but now it looked very clean. The murderer must have specially cleaned the surrounding area before leaving.

　　”Did anyone bring a dog?”

　　”No…absolutely not! I’m afraid of dogs. If there were any, I would have definitely noticed them.”

　　After listening to her, Meng Zhao looked thoughtful.

　　Sun Youqing, who had finally arrived, came over and patted Meng Zhao on the shoulder: “Zhao’er, after you finish watching, I will start my work.”

　　Sun Youqing was a few years older than Meng Zhao, and he was his fellow senior. He had a rough voice, and he always called him ‘Zhao’er’ affectionately. At first, Meng Zhao thought the title was a bit weird. But over time he got used to it.

　　Meng Zhao took out his phone and glanced at the address sent by his colleague.

　　He called over several of his colleagues and distributed the tasks: “Ren Bin, please take someone to visit the surrounding households to see if there were any witnesses last night. Wang Yu will lead someone to search the surrounding area to see if they can find the victim’s mobile phone and belongings. Zhou Qiyang, go and check the surrounding surveillance cameras and try to piece together the victim’s movements from yesterday.”

　　After Meng Zhao assigned the tasks, he put his palms together and clapped them: “Okay, let’s get to work. We will go back to the bureau for a short meeting at 11 o’clock.”

　　Meng Zhao walked towards his car. He was tall and had long legs. Cheng Yun had to jog to keep up: “Brother Zhao, where are we going?”

　　”I’m going to take a look at the victim’s home,” Meng Zhao opened the car door and looked at her, “Are you…”

　　”I’ll go with you,” Cheng Yun raised a hand to her ear, “I promise to work more and not cause any trouble!”

　　”Then you drive.” Meng Zhao walked to the passenger seat and sat down in it.

　　Cheng Yun responded, quickly ran to the driver’s seat, opened the door and got in.

　　Cheng Yun was the only one left among the three interns. Because she cried the most when being scolded by Meng Zhao, everyone in the bureau guessed that she would be unable to bear it and leave soon. Unexpectedly, she persisted until now.

　　As soon as Cheng Yun drove the car onto the main road, she received a question from Meng Zhao: “What are your thoughts on the current clues?”

　　”Uh…” Cheng Yun subconsciously got excited and quickly sorted out the thoughts in her mind, “First, there are large areas of wear and tear from the waist to the back of the deceased’s legs, indicating that the murderer dragged the deceased on the ground after committing the crime. Judging based on this, the murderer shouldn’t be someone too strong.” She paused after saying this, waiting for Meng Zhao’s evaluation.

　　Meng Zhao said “Yeah”: “Continue.”

　　”Secondly, judging from the traces of violent struggle on the body of the deceased, the murderer was not proficient in committing the crime. Thus, he should not be experienced in this regard. Thirdly, after committing the crime, the murderer cleaned up the traces of the crime scene and had certain anti-reconnaissance capabilities. .”

　　”However, since the murderer has anti-reconnaissance capabilities, he did not destroy the deceased’s face,” Cheng Yun continued, seeing that there was no expression on Meng Zhao’s face, “it means that the murderer should be confident that the police cannot find him. This can probably rule out that an acquaintance committed the crime? If it was a novice who committed the crime and used women’s clothing to attract attention, Brother Zhao, the murderer wouldn’t want to take revenge on society through some serial murders…”

　　Before Cheng Yun finished speaking, she heard Meng Zhao laugh, and then said nervously: “What did I say wrong?”

　　”It’s full of loopholes later on.” Meng Zhao commented, “Not every murderer has the psychological quality to destroy the face of the deceased after committing the crime. There is a chance that maybe he just ran away in panic after committing the murder.”

　　”Ah…” Cheng Yun was speechless, “Then what do you think?”

　　”There are only a few clues, so I don’t have any inferences.”

　　”You didn’t even infer it yourself and you came to test me?!” Cheng Yun blurted out.

　　”Where did I test you? I’m not your teacher. I’m testing you. This was just an exchange of case information between colleagues.”

　　”You’re not testing me…” Cheng Yun breathed a sigh of relief, “I was so scared that I broke out in a cold sweat.”

　　Meng Zhao said nothing more, lowered his head and continued to browse the contents of Zhou Yan’s account homepage.

　　After staying in the city bureau for several months, Cheng Yun had probably figured out Meng Zhao’s style of handling cases. Meng Zhao basically didn’t believe in criminal psychology. He only believed in evidence. Before there was enough evidence, he would not make any inferences. He was very cautious.

　　The colleague worked efficiently and quickly applied for a search warrant and rushed over to give it to Meng Zhao.

　　Meng Zhao took the elevator to the 18th floor and rang the doorbell. After ringing for a long time, there was the sound of shuffling footsteps and a long voice: “Who is it?”

　　The door was opened, and a short young man in his twenties poked his head out and said with sleepy eyes: “Zhou Yan is not here.”

　　”Where has he gone?” Meng Zhao looked at him and asked.

　　”How do I know?” The young man said in a bad tone because his sleep had been disturbed.

　　”When did he go out yesterday?”

　　”I don’t know!” the young man replied impatiently. Just as he was about to close the door, Meng Zhao turned aside, put his shoulder against the door that was about to be closed, and showed the search warrant to the man, “Police, let me in to take a look.”

　　The youth:”……”

　　Entering the house, Meng Zhao took a rough turn around the area where Zhou Yan lived.

　　It was a large flat room of nearly 200 square metres. Zhou Yan shared it with others. He lived in the master bedroom and Qin Xiaobai lived in the side bedroom. Neither of them owned a dog. Although Zhou Yan’s bedroom was large in area, the walls were covered with thick soundproof cotton, and there were various professional musical instruments, audio and recording equipment piled up, so it did not look spacious at first glance. The computer was shut down, and a password needed to be entered in order to gain access to it. He had to wait for his colleagues from the technical investigation team to come over.

　　Meng Zhao stood by the window, which had an excellent view, facing the city bureau not far away.

Inexplicably, he remembered the line of sight that had been following him in the past six months. It seemed to come from this direction. But now was not the time to think about it, and he quickly cleared the thought from his mind.

　　Meng Zhao walked out of the bedroom. Qin Xiaobai was obviously still in shock: “Zhou Yan was killed? Is it true?”

　　”Zhou Yan often doesn’t come back at night?”

　　”No, he usually sings live in the evening. He went to some online awards conference these few days and hadn’t returned for a week.”

　　”What about yesterday? He didn’t return yesterday?”

　　”I don’t know about that. I went out to work at four o’clock in the afternoon. He hadn’t been back before that.”

　　”Has Zhou Yan had any conflicts with anyone recently, or has there been anything unusual about him?”

　　”This…I’m not sure,” Qin Xiaobai raised his hand and scratched the back of his head, “I work the night shift and come back to sleep during the day. I don’t usually run into him. Even if I do, it’s just to say hello. ”

　　”When did you start living here?” Meng Zhao asked again.

　　”I’ve been living here for a year, and he’s been here for about three months.”

　　”Captain Meng, Brother Chao is here,” Cheng Yun trotted in, “I brought the person in charge of the property too,” she walked closer and lowered her voice, “Many people downstairs are discussing this matter, saying Zhou Yan was killed because he disturbed the people.”

　　”Disturbing the people?” Meng Zhao glanced at Qin Xiaobai. In fact,he casually glanced in his direction subconsciously, but his eye sockets were slightly deeper and his eyes were darker than ordinary people. He always looked at people with special meaning. Qin Xiaobai felt chill by his gaze and immediately looked away. Suspect: “Don’t look at me. I work the night shift every day, which happens to be at the same time as his live broadcast. Even if it disturbs the people, it won’t bother me. But one time I heard it when I was off duty, and it was really noisy…”

　　”There were indeed complaints from neighbours before that the sound insulation of this building is not very good,” the property manager was quite honest. “The resident downstairs even called the police. Hey, what kind neighbours call the police… I heard they were from abroad. Those who come from abroad have different ideas than us.”

　　“Have the complaints to the police been made recently?”

　　”Not recently, it must have been two or three months ago. Sound insulation measures may have been installed after that. So, no complaints were received.”

　　It seemed that the complaint was received when Zhou Yan first moved in. Meng Zhao thought of the thick layer of sound insulation cotton in Zhou Yan’s room, and estimated that it might have been installed after receiving the complaints.

　　”By the way, are there any residents in this building with dogs?” Meng Zhao asked.

　　”There are a few, not many though. I have to ask my colleagues to get the specific details. The city previously regulated dog ownership and we have registered it here.” The property manager spoke, taking out his mobile phone and calling his colleague’s number.

　　After a while, the property manager showed Meng Zhao the picture received on his mobile phone. Meng Zhao took it and enlarged the picture. In the building where Zhou Yan lived, there were three registered households with dogs in the building, and one of them is just downstairs from Zhou Yan.

　　Could it be the same person who called the police? Meng Zhao returned the phone to the property manager and planned to go downstairs to have a look.

　　After sending away the property manager, Zhang Chao put his hand on Meng Zhao’s shoulder: “I just mentioned to you this morning about the matter of appointing the captain, and now this opportunity came. I heard that Lao Xu appointed you to handle this case, so I just wanted to help. I’ll lift it up for you from above, and behave well, brother.”

　　”Come on, it’s ridiculous,” Meng Zhao pointed in the direction of Zhou Yan’s bedroom, “Try to see if you can help me unlock the password on the computer. I’ll go downstairs and take a look.”

　　”Okay.” Zhang Chao responded, winking at Cheng Yun as he walked towards the back room, “Xiao Cheng, will you come with me too?”

　　Cheng Yun’s face was confused by the greasy look in her eyes. She quickly followed Meng Zhao and said, “I’m with Captain Meng!”

　　But Zhang Chao couldn’t help but grab her: “Come here and help me!”

　　After getting out of the elevator, Meng Zhao walked toward the house downstairs. When he was still a few steps away from the door, he heard the faint barking of a dog from inside the house.

　　Meng Zhao stood still at the door, raised his hand and knocked on the door.

　　Boom, boom, boom.

　　Woof.

This time the barking of the dog was closer, and the dog should be standing behind the door.

　　Still no one opened the door, Meng Zhao lowered his head slightly, paying attention to the movement inside, and knocked again.

　　This time the door opened, Meng Zhao raised his eyes and was suddenly startled.

　That quick glance in the morning, it turned out he recognised the right person.

Chapter 3

　　Although he was still a little dazed, Meng Zhao clearly noticed the almost imperceptible twitch in Lu Shichen’s eyebrows. It was somewhat an unexpected expression.

　　Lu Shichen was wearing home clothes. He had probably just taken a shower not long ago. The tips of his hair were still a little wet. Meng Zhao could even smell the fragrance of the water vapour mixed with shower gel.

　　The guy was actually not disabled, Meng Zhao subconsciously came up with the idea. Compared to the time when he was in high school, Lu Shichen seemed to have grown a lot taller, and the edges on his face were sharper. The sense of alienation between his eyebrows and eyes had not changed much, but he seemed to have more of the oppression of an adult man.

　　The dog barked first. The grey-white border collie stood by Lu Shichen’s legs and barked at Meng Zhao several times.

　　”What a coincidence,” Meng Zhao came to his senses, took out his ID and flashed it to Lu Shichen, “I’m here to ask something.”

　　Generally speaking, the act of showing off the ID is just a formality. Unexpectedly, Lu Shichen reached out and took the police ID out of Meng Zhao’s hand. He lowered his head to read the words on it and snorted softly. It sounded like he was… Laughing: “Did the little gangsters of those days actually become the public’s righteous police?”

　　Meng Zhao’s expression changed, and he held back the ‘fuck’ stuck in his throat. That’s right, he was still the same Lu Shichen who looked absolutely disgusting and condescending.

　　But now that there was a case involved, Meng Zhao didn’t want to waste words with him. Moreover, although the guy was not likeable, his father Lu Chengze was indeed the benefactor of Meng Zhao’s family. With such a relationship, Meng Zhao had to maintain a superficial friendship with him.

　　Lu Shichen returned the ID to Meng Zhao, turned around and walked towards the living room, “What do you want to ask? Sit down.”