Skin - Chapter 39

Chapter 39 – “I was Waiting for You.”

　　The restaurant was less than a thousand metres away from Wen Yi Sanatorium. It took Meng Zhao only a few minutes to get there. He stood at the door and looked at the sanatorium from the outside.

　　It is high-end and has excellent conditions, but because it is rarely advertised, its reputation is spread by word of mouth among the city’s middle class. To outsiders, Wen Yi Sanatorium has always been low-key and mysterious.

　　‘Could such a sanatorium really be linked to Xu Yingying’s disappearance…?’

　　Meng Zhao took out his ID and showed it to the security guard, then walked in.

　　He walked straight to the main building of the nursing home. The front desk had already gone off duty, and the security guard helped him call over the manager on duty.

　The manager on duty was very cooperative. When he saw Meng Zhao’s police ID, he took him to the monitoring room as he requested.

　　Meng Zhao bent slightly, held the mouse and dragged the surveillance footage from the afternoon of the 16th, finding the footage of Xu Yingying appearing in the sanatorium.

　　”Who is this staff member? Can you recognize him?” Meng Zhao moved the mouse to the staff member wearing a facemask next to Xu Yingying.

　　The manager on duty stared at the man on the surveillance camera for a few seconds and spoke with difficulty: “He’s wearing a mask, I can’t recognize him.”

　　Meng Zhao played another video clip and found a more intuitive angle: “Can you recognize him from this angle? Is he a staff member of your nursing home?”

　　”He is wearing the uniform of our sanatorium. He should be one of our staff members, but the mask is covering most of his face. Officer Meng, I really can’t recognize him.”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the manager, observing the expression on his face to determine whether he was lying.

　　After a few seconds, he turned his head and continued to watch the surveillance screen.

　　Accompanied by the staff member, Xu Yingying entered the sanatorium and disappeared from the screen after walking in the corridor for a while. Meng Zhao adjusted the speed of several surveillance videos to double the speed. The people on all the screens began to move quickly, and his eyes were fixed on the screen without blinking.

　　A few minutes later, about half an hour had passed in the lower right corner of the surveillance camera, and in the camera position in the far lower right corner, Xu Yingying reappeared from the other direction of the corridor.

　　At this time, “Xu Yingying” was wearing a mask, which meant that the murderer had completed the “substitution plan”.

　　Meng Zhao dragged the video to the spot where Xu Yingying disappeared and said to the manager: “Take me there. I want to have a look.”

　　The man confirmed the location of the screen and said, “Okay, follow me.”

　　Meng Zhao followed him to the spot where Xu Yingying disappeared and looked around.

　　It seemed to be just a normal blind spot in surveillance and there was nothing unusual.

　　The murderer took advantage of the blind spot, made Xu Yingying disappear temporarily, and completed the substitution plan.

　　Being able to avoid all camera angles, making the real Xu Yingying disappear without a trace, and then making the fake Xu Yingying appear from another direction without a trace, it seems that the murderer was quite familiar with the internal surveillance system of the sanatorium.

　　‘If it weren’t for someone inside the sanatorium, it would be almost impossible to do this,’ Meng Zhao thought.

　　•=•=•

　　Three vehicles from the Municipal Bureau stopped at the entrance of the sanatorium one after another. Zhou Qiyang and six or seven people got out of the car and walked into the sanatorium while calling Meng Zhao: “Hey, Brother Zhao, we are here. Where are you?”

　　”Come to the main building.” Meng Zhao commanded on the phone.

　　After hanging up the call, Meng Zhao left the blind spot of the surveillance camera and walked to the door of the hall.

　　He looked at the interior of the sanatorium. He had been there before during a volunteer activity in high school twelve years ago. He had an excellent sense of direction and still remembered the basic layout of the building.

　　The sanatorium’s clients all live in the convalescent building, and there is also a physical examination centre and activity centre next to it.

　　Seeing several colleagues coming over, Meng Zhao asked Zhou Qiyang: “Have you seen all the photographs of Xu Yingying?”

　　”I saw it,” Zhou Qiyang said, “I just sent them the clip of Xu Yingying’s live broadcast on the way. Brother Zhao, what’s going on?”

　　Meng Zhao’s expression was grim: “The person who came out of the sanatorium should not be Xu Yingying. The murderer played a trick on us.”

　　”Ah?” Zhou Qiyang was startled and lowered his voice, “Then, Xu Yingying is still in this sanatorium?”

　　”We can only be sure that there is something wrong with the sanatorium. Whether she is here or has been taken away, we will know that after searching for her,” Meng Zhao said, and gave orders to several people, “We will split up and two people will work together to search one floor. Not only the rooms, but also all the corners where she could be kept hidden. Don’t miss anything. Do you understand?”

　　The manager standing nearby said, “Officer Meng, you have official duties to attend to, we understand. We should cooperate with your room search, but… our residents here are all elderly, and many of them are not in good health. Can we…”

　　”No problem,” Meng Zhao glanced at him, then said to several colleagues, “Be gentle when searching, and don’t disturb the residents in the room.”

　　After receiving a positive answer, Meng Zhao raised his hand and waved forward: “Let’s go, hurry up.”

　　The other people went upstairs, while Meng Zhao and Zhou Qiyang stayed on the first floor to search.

　　Meng Zhao turned into the corridor and stood in front of the first door. He first raised his hand and knocked on the door, and then showed his ID when the person inside opened the door. “Sorry to bother you so late. I’m here to look for someone. I’ll just take a look and leave.”

　　He walked around the room and came out after making sure there was no one hidden inside.

　　He searched all the rooms one by one, pushing open the doors and searching them again. Most people cooperated, but after walking half of the rooms, Meng Zhao couldn’t help but doubt himself – was this search really effective?

　　After searching half a floor, Meng Zhao discovered that most of the people living in this building were elderly people, and some were even paralyzed in bed. If there really was a girl in her twenties hiding here, it would be too blatant…

　　Just after Meng Zhao finished searching the first floor, investigators from other floors ran down to report their search results to him:

　“Captain Meng, we didn’t find anything on the second floor.”

　　“Captain Meng, there is no one on the third floor.”

　　”Captain Meng, we have completed the search of the sixth floor and found nothing relevant.”

　　•=•=•

　　The person in charge of searching the activity centre and the physical examination centre also returned: “Captain Meng, no special circumstances were found.”

　　Meng Zhao stood in front of the sanatorium building, looking at the sanatorium. He had already sent people to search all the places he could see. Now there were two possibilities left. One possibility was that Xu Yingying had indeed encountered an accident in the sanatorium that day, but the murderer did not hide her in the places that could be seen in plain sight. There may be other places they had not searched. Another possibility was that Xu Yingying had been secretly taken away from the sanatorium. In comparison, the latter possibility was more likely.

　　After all, if the murderer could come up with a trick like finding someone to impersonate Xu Yingying walking out of the sanatorium, it meant that he was an extremely cunning person. Leaving Xu Yingying in the sanatorium would face the risk of the police coming to search. Four days were more than enough time for the murderer to kill Xu Yingying and then secretly take the body out of the sanatorium to dispose of the body…

　　If that was the case, then finding Xu Yingying’s body would become extremely difficult. After all, there were too many vehicles entering and leaving the sanatorium every day, making it almost impossible to conduct an effective investigation.

　　After searching all night, nothing was found. Where was Xu Yingying now? Was she dead or alive? Meng Zhao couldn’t help but feel a little irritated.

　　”Brother Zhao, what should we do next?” Zhou Qiyang asked in a low voice.

　　”Let’s check the surveillance,” Meng Zhao suppressed his irritability and sorted out the next line of thought for the investigation. “Pay attention to two points. First, try to track the whereabouts of the staff member who accompanied Xu Yingying to the sanatorium that day. Second, check all the vehicles that left the sanatorium in the past few days after Xu Yingying disappeared to see if there are any clues. You guys go back and check first. Thank you for your hard work.”

　　”Captain Meng, let’s go back first,” the colleague from the Municipal Bureau got into the car and asked Zhou Qiyang, “Xiao Zhou, are you going?”

　　”You should go back with them.” Meng Zhao said to Zhou Qiyang.

　　”What about you, Brother Zhao? We searched the sanatorium inside and out but couldn’t find anyone. Moreover, it has been four days. It is unlikely that the murderer would hide Xu Yingying here. Do you have anything else to do here?”

　　”I’ll leave later.”

　　”Then I’ll go with them first?” Zhou Qiyang took two steps forward and turned back, “How are you going to get back later?”

　　”Take a taxi, isn’t that easy?” Meng Zhao waved at him, signalling him to leave quickly. But just as Zhou Qiyang was about to leave, he called out to Zhou Qiyang again: “Xiao Zhou, do you have any cigarettes?”

　　”I don’t have it. I’ll borrow one for you.”

　　”I have it, Captain Meng.” A colleague leaned out and threw a box of cigarettes and a lighter to Meng Zhao.

　　Meng Zhao reached out and caught it.

　　After the city bureau’s car drove away, Meng Zhao walked back and forth outside the sanatorium.

　　‘Who is that staff member and what is his relationship with Wu Weihan? Where is Xu Yingying now?’

　　‘I really have no idea.’

　　Meng Zhao took out his cell phone and called Cheng Yun: “Have you found out who owns the sanatorium?”

　　”I found out. I was just about to call you,” Cheng Yun said on the phone, “Brother Zhao, this sanatorium is not owned by the Wu family. Its owner is an outsider and doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Wu Weihan.”

　　Meng Zhao was silent for a moment and said, “If there is really something wrong with this place, it is possible that Wu Weihan found someone to be the nominal legal owner and put himself aside. Issue a notice of cooperation and ask the local police station to cooperate in investigating this person.”

　　After hanging up the call, Meng Zhao stopped in front of a tree, leaned his back against the tree, took a cigarette out of the cigarette box and put it in his mouth. With a “click”, he pressed the lighter, lit the cigarette, and began to smoke it one puff at a time.

　　Ever since his master was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago, Meng Zhao has quit smoking.

　　But now the case made him upset, and he had to use nicotine to calm his emotions.

　　From Zhou Yan being strangled to Zhao Yunhua’s suicide, to the school bullying incident ten years ago, to the disappearance of two girls ten years apart, every time he thought he was getting closer to the truth, the clues would suddenly be cut off.

　　‘What should I do next?’ Meng Zhao even felt a little confused. But as the commander of the criminal investigation unit, he was not allowed to be confused. Everyone assumed that he had to have a clear direction and clear steps to lead the entire police force to get closer to the truth in an orderly manner.

　　Meng Zhao exhaled a puff of smoke and felt a little tired for the first time.

　　The feeling was similar to his state of mind during the time when Meng Xiangyu was involved in that unjust case ten years ago. Even at that time, Meng Zhao didn’t know which direction to go.

　 Professor Zhou Mingsheng often said, “Do your best and leave the rest to fate.” But what if fate didn’t allow one to find out the truth? Is one just going to let the evil run rampant and the truth be buried?

　　The young boy Meng Zhao could leave his fate to fate but the policeman Meng Zhao cannot. After all, the case involved several lives and he must uncover the truth, make the murderer get the punishment he deserved and give an explanation to those innocent lives that were lost.

　　Meng Zhao somewhat missed the time when his master was still in the police force. At that time, there were people to cover up when he made mistakes, and to guide him when he was lost. It was not like now, he had to make every decision on his own, and the decisions he made could not be wrong…

　　‘Damn, this is so difficult.’ Meng Zhao flicked the ash off his cigarette and had this thought again.

　　He exhaled white smoke, and the cool night breeze quickly blew the smoke away.

　　Meng Zhao planned to give himself time to smoke a cigarette. After finishing this cigarette, he had to force himself to think of the next effective action.

　　Just as he was clearing his mind, a low voice sounded above his head: “Didn’t you find Xu Yingying?”

　　Meng Zhao knew who the voice belonged to as soon as he heard it, but he was still a little surprised. He looked up at Lu Shichen and said, “You haven’t left yet? Or… are you back again?”

　　”I was waiting for you.” Lu Shichen said.

　　”So late at night…” Meng Zhao laughed. He didn’t expect that Lu Shichen was still waiting so late.

　　He stood up with one hand on his knee, and then answered Lu Shichen’s previous question: “I just searched the whole sanatorium, but I didn’t find Xu Yingying. Come to think of it, in four days, even if Xu Yingying really met with an accident, she might have been moved away by the murderer.”

　　”Where will they take her?” Lu Shichen asked.

　　”After dismembering the body, throw it into the mountains, rivers, or bury it somewhere randomly,” Meng Zhao exhaled a puff of smoke. “Buildings are being built everywhere in Mingtan City. If they throw the body into a construction site where the foundation has been laid and the cement is poured on, who would discover that there is a person hiding underground…”

　　“Are all you police officers like this?”

　　”Hmm?” Meng Zhao looked at him, “What?”

　　”If you can’t find the person, do you assume that he is dead?”

　　”Do you think I want to make such a guess?” Meng Zhao shook his head and smiled bitterly. “Now, we can’t find anything no matter how hard we search. We can only think of the worst. But we have to find Xu Yingying no matter what.”

　　”This sanatorium covers tens of thousands of square metres. How much of it does each of these buildings account for?” Lu Shichen’s voice sounded particularly clear at night. “Besides, is what we see with our naked eyes necessarily all of it?”

　　Hearing the hidden meaning in Lu Shichen’s words, Meng Zhao followed his words and thought about it. ‘Places that cannot be seen by the naked eye… Could it be that in addition to the places that were searched, there are other spaces in the sanatorium where people could be hidden? Then where is this neglected space hidden?’

　　Meng Zhao turned his head to look at him. “You mean, Xu Yingying might not be hidden in the building, but is very likely buried underground? Or…” Meng Zhao had a somewhat outrageous guess in his mind, “Is there space underground to hide people?”

　　Lu Shichen didn’t say anything, his expression noncommittal.

　　‘Special underground space was built to hide corpses or people?’ Meng Zhao judged the rationality of his speculation. It was not completely impossible, but there was no substantial basis for his speculation. He had just called his colleagues from the Municipal Bureau to come over and they worked in vain. Now, if he called people over without any basis and there was still no result, then he, the deputy captain, would arouse public anger.

　　‘Otherwise, why not go in and check it out himself first?’

　　As Meng Zhao thought about it, he forgot to smoke the cigarette between his fingers. It was about to burn out. Lu Shichen raised his hand and took the cigarette from his fingertips. He took the last puff, then exhaled a puff of smoke and said, “If you want to go in and take a look, I’ll go with you.”