Skin - Chapter 4

“There are a few left by the owners.” The front desk showed the registration information to Meng Zhao, “Do you want to rent a house?”

　　”I want to see if there is anything suitable.”

　　”How big do you want to rent? The area here is almost 190 square metres, and the apartment types are similar. Here is the floor plan…”

　　Meng Zhao looked at the floor plan, which was similar to the one in Zhou Yan and Lu Shichen’s apartment. If Lu Shichen really wanted to change his lease, would he be unable to find a suitable house as he said?

　　Meng Zhao returned the floor plan to the front desk, showed her his police ID, and pushed the hard drive over: “Please give me a copy of the surveillance between 18:00 last night and 8:00 this morning.”

Chapter 4

　　Meng Zhao took the stairs to the second floor and walked towards the criminal investigation office.

　　The police officers coming and going were in a hurry, and sitting on a bench in the corridor was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. The man stooped slightly, as if staring blankly at the white wall opposite.

　　”Go back and sort out the case information and clues for everyone to refer to during the meeting later.” Meng Zhao lowered his voice and said to Cheng Yun.

　　Cheng Yun accepted the task and walked back to the office, while Meng Zhao walked towards the man: “Are you… Zhou Yan’s father?”

　　The man came back to his senses, first looked up at Meng Zhao, and then quickly stood up: “Yes, I am… you are?”

　　”I am Meng Zhao, the detective in charge of this case.” Meng Zhao shook hands with him.

　　”Officer Meng,” the other party asked eagerly after learning his identity, “Has the murderer been found?”

　　”It’s still under investigation. If there are any results, someone will notify you as soon as possible.”

　　”Please, please, this child Zhou Yan had a hard life,” the man sighed, “His father left early, and his mother took care of him with me a few years ago, but within a few good years, she also fell ill and died. His mother asked me to take good care of Zhou Yan before she left. This child usually has no bad habits or behaviour, so how could something like this happen…” He said and sighed heavily.

　　”It has already happened. Please accept my condolences.” Seeing the sad expression on the other person’s face, Meng Zhao couldn’t help but feel a little depressed, but he quickly cheered up and got to the point, “Please help me and recall if Zhou Yan had any conflicts with others recently? Or have you seen anything wrong with him?”

　　The man shook his head: “Zhou Yan and I haven’t seen each other for a while. The last time I saw him, he seemed quite happy. He said that he had moved to a bigger house. It was actually my fault. My daughter had a child a few days ago, I have been helping her take care of the children, and I have been too busy to have much contact with him…”

　　”You have a daughter yourself?” Meng Zhao grasped the key point, “The brother and sister grew up together, so they should have a good relationship, right?”

　　”They have a good relationship. When she heard something happened to Zhou Yan, she insisted on coming, but she was persuaded by her husband’s family. After all, people who are in confinement period shouldn’t go running around.”

　　Meng Zhao nodded: “Okay, then you can think about it again and see if there are any clues that you can remember. I will ask you to make a formal transcript later. I still have a meeting here…”

　　Before he could finish speaking, the man hurriedly said: “You are busy with your work, and handling the case is more important…” He reached out and held Meng Zhao’s arm, “Officer Meng, please, you must catch the murderer.”

　　”Definitely.” Meng Zhao said.

–·+·–

　　Ten minutes later, in the city bureau’s conference room, Meng Zhao was listening to other people reporting on the case while sorting out the information in his hands: “How is the situation at Li Jin’s side? Do the victim’s family agree to the autopsy of the body?”

　　Li Jin nodded and said: “They agreed. In fact, I just finished the procedure. Judging from the degree of rigour mortis, it was initially determined that the death time of the deceased was between eight and eleven o’clock last night, but the specific time will not be narrowed down until after the autopsy. Judging from the fibres left behind at the strangulation marks, the murderer’s weapon should be this kind of nylon binding rope.” Li Jin put a photograph of a common binding rope on the screen, and then continued, “The deceased resisted violently at the time. Due to the struggle, the fibres from the killer’s clothing remained in the victim’s fingernails. However, no DNA was detected.”

　　Meng Zhao nodded, and then put a short video on the screen, which was Zhou Yan’s live broadcast.

　　Zhou Yan seemed to be in a good mood and was chatting with fans: “It’s close to two million fans… what benefits do you guys want? I can’t do anything besides singing… Wearing women’s clothes to sing? Real or fake? Forget it, it will definitely be very shocking… Do you really want to see it? I have to think about it carefully…”

　　The video paused and Meng Zhao put the laser pen on the table: “Cheng Yun, please sort out the entire case based on what everyone just reported.”

　　Cheng Yun responded and cleared her throat: “The video Captain Meng just played was from Zhou Yan’s live broadcast half a month ago. At that time, Zhou Yan’s Weibo followers were about to reach two million, so he was asking the fans what benefits they wanted.”

　　”According to Zhou Yan’s friends, Zhou Yan originally prepared an original piece of music to surprise his fans, but his fans told him that they wanted to see him wearing women’s clothing. Although Zhou Yan was reluctant, he still considered using it as a small easter egg to surprise the fans during the live broadcast.”

　　”One week prior to the incident, Zhou Yan went to Yancheng to attend an online music awards ceremony. He stayed in Yancheng for a week. Two days before going out, he ordered a red dress, a pair of high heels and a wig, as well as a makeup set. All via online. The package arrived three days later by courier. Zhou Yan was not at home at that time, so the courier boy put the things in the water metre box outside the apartment.”

　　”So the dress Zhou Yan was wearing when he died, including the high heels and the makeup on his face, were all ordered by Zhou Yan at that time. These things have not been found in the nearby trash can yet.”

　　”On the night of the incident, after Zhou Yan got off the high-speed train at 7:10 p.m., he made an appointment with a friend to have dinner at a restaurant near the scene of the incident. At that time, Zhou Yan drank a little wine. Although he was not very drunk, he was walking a little wobbly. According to his friend, the reason why Zhou Yan refused to drink much was that he had something to do after eating, so he did not dare to drink too much, but no one knew what was going on with him and whether he really had anything to do or not. At that time Zhou Yan was a little drunk, so he left early, saying he wanted to go for a walk to sober up.”

　 　–·+·–

　　After the meeting, Meng Zhao went to Zhou Qiyang and questioned the latest about the surveillance cameras near the crime scene. Although the location and shooting quality of these surveillance cameras were poor, it could still serve as a reference.

　　”Brother Zhao, isn’t this case a little difficult to investigate?” Zhou Qiyang leaned back in his chair, “There are so many and mixed clues that I feel dizzy just after listening to them.”

　　”Well,” Meng Zhao dragged the video progress bar, “I feel the same.”

　　”Do you think Zhou Yan was killed because he was broadcasting too late every day and disturbing the public? It’s not like this had never happened before. If he encountered someone with a somewhat antisocial personality, who is capable of doing anything, even considering killing people. For such a person, then wouldn’t it be an easy thing to steal a courier in the same building?”

　　”Then why do you think he needed to put makeup on the corpse?” Meng Zhao stared at the surveillance camera and asked.

　　”It’s just to cause trouble for the fans. He’d sing for his fans every night, so the killer wanted to declare that Zhou Yan was murdered all because of them. Brother Zhao, do you think what I said makes sense?”

　　”I think…” Meng Zhao was mid-sentence, holding the mouse to pause the surveillance screen.

　　He zoomed in on the screen and looked at the person who appeared on the screen. Lu Shichen went to the crime scene that night?

　　”What’s wrong?” Noticing the change in Meng Zhao’s expression, Zhou Qiyang also looked at the surveillance screen, “Is there something wrong with this person?”

　　”21:17…” Meng Zhao looked at the time displayed in the lower right corner of the monitor and continued to press the play button.

　　The surveillance video continued to play. On the screen, Lu Shichen walked into the round arch in front of the old building and disappeared from the surveillance screen. Meng Zhao dragged the video back. Eleven minutes later, Lu Shichen appeared on the screen again, this time stepping out of the round arch.

　　”Eleven minutes…” Zhou Qiyang murmured from the side, “Strangle the person first, and then drag him to a hidden place. If he was a veteran with rich experience in committing crimes, he could do it, but if we are analysing the murderer based on the strangulation marks, then isn’t he supposed to be a novice? It’s a bit contradictory…”

　　”Cut this video and send it to me.” Meng Zhao said.

　　At that moment, Ren Bin appeared at the door, raised his finger and knocked on the door: “Captain Meng, I found Zhou Yan’s mobile phone in a trash can near Huating Street.”

　　Meng Zhao stood up from his seat, took the mobile phone handed over by Ren Bin, and used his fingers to enter the password of Zhou Yan’s iPad through the evidence bag to unlock it.

　　He opened the call history, which showed that between 9 and 10 pm on the 13th, he received a call from an unknown number, and the call lasted for 9 seconds.

　　”Have this number checked out.” Meng Zhao tapped the number in the air with his fingertips and said to Ren Bin.

　　Ren Bin responded and wrote down the number.

　　At three o’clock in the afternoon, the results of the forensic department came out one after another.

　　Li Jin narrowed the time range of Zhou Yan’s death to within half an hour before and after 21:30 on the evening of the 13th. In other words, the time period from 9 to 10 o’clock that night could be the approximate time of Zhou Yan’s death.

　　The results of the physical examination concluded that the DNA identification of the hair on the deceased and the hair he later handed over was 99.99% similar, which meant that the dog hair on Zhou Yan’s body did indeed belong to Lu Shichen’s dog.

　　Meng Zhao sat in the office of the Biological Identification Department, looked at Sun Youting’s computer screen, and frowned slightly.

　　Even if he knew nothing about the molecular structure of DNA, he could tell that the two pictures in front of him were extremely similar.

　　”Where did the dog hair come from?” Sun Youting walked up behind Meng Zhao and handed him the identification results.

　　”It belongs to the dog of the resident living downstairs from Zhou Yan’s apartment.” Meng Zhao said.

　　”Hey, how could such a coincidence happen? Hurry up and check the alibi record of that person that night. If there is no alibi, you can apply for an arrest warrant and ask Director Xu for a promotion and salary increase.”

　　Meng Zhao’s brows furrowed even more tightly, remaining noncommittal.

　　After returning to the office with the appraisal results, Meng Zhao called over a few people over and asked them to check what Zhou Yan’s roommate Qin Xiaobai and the housekeeping aunt Zhao Yunhua were doing between nine and ten o’clock on the night of the crime.

　　”If you want definite proof, bring back the surveillance video if there is surveillance.” Meng Zhao took his cell phone and looked at the time, “I’ll be back in an hour and a half at most. Go quickly.”

　　After he finished speaking, several people who took over the task responded and quickly left the office.

　　Meng Zhao began to look through Zhou Yan’s mobile phone, first text messages, and then WeChat. Zhou Yan was chatting with most of his friends. The topic was nothing more than sharing his experience of attending the award ceremony. There were no valuable clues.

　　A few minutes later, Ren Bin returned with the found call information.

　　Meng Zhao took the piece of paper he handed over that recorded the caller’s information. When he saw the name “Lu Shichen”, his expression began to become solemn.

　　Lu Shichen, again, if everything was a coincidence, then the coincidence has occurred too many times. Moreover, in the conversation with Lu Shichen in the morning, Lu Shichen did not show any signs of having interaction with Zhou Yan.

　　”The content of the call is very strange. Although the call was connected, Zhou Yan did not speak.” Ren Bin began to play the recording of the call record. The noise was very loud, and it sounded like the sound of cloth rubbing. There was nothing else. “The call was hung up.” Ren Bin added.

　　”Take the call record for sound analysis,” Meng Zhao said, “see if we can detect other sounds. Also, check the situation of Zhou Yan’s stepfather and see if his daughter and son-in-law had any alibi for during the time period of the crime?”

　　After Ren Bin left, Meng Zhao took the call record and sat in front of his computer and entered the three words “Lu Shichen” into the internal system.

　　The system quickly retrieved Lu Shichen’s information page. The data showed that Lu Shichen graduated from Harvard University with both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Before returning to China, he worked at the New York headquarters of a multinational financial institution. He returned to China five months ago and was now working for a large domestic financial institution as an external consultant.

　　No wonder he was free enough to show off his prostitution during the day, Meng Zhao thought to himself.

　　No wonder he politely told him that he was prospering abroad, but Lu Shichen didn’t show the slightest humility. He was really prosperous…

　　However, with Lu Shichen’s IQ, if he really wanted to kill someone, he would probably do it more covertly.

　　However, it was hard to say… Meng Zhao realised that he was making some preconceived inferences and quickly stopped the idea.

　　”Cheng Yun.” He raised his voice and called Cheng Yun over.

　　Cheng Yun was looking through Zhou Yan’s social software, trying to find useful clues. When she heard Meng Zhao calling her, she stood up and walked to Meng Zhao’s desk: “Brother Zhao, what do you want from me?”

　　With sharp eyes, she caught sight of the photograph of Lu Shichen displayed on Meng Zhao’s computer screen, and a curse word came out: “Who the hell is he? So handsome!”

　　Meng Zhao glanced at her.

　　Cheng Yun raised her hand to cover her mouth and said with kindness, “His beauty can almost compare with you, Brother Zhao.”

　　Cheng Yun glanced down, and the second curse word came out immediately: “Damn, his resume is so impressive!”

　　Meng Zhao raised his fingers and tapped the table twice: “Okay, summon this person over quickly.”

　　”Ah?”

　　”What? Go quickly.”

　　Cheng Yun took the order, wrote down Lu Shichen’s phone number from the information page, and then went to the side to call up Lu Shichen.

　　Meng Zhao closed Lu Shichen’s information page and stared at the identification results in his hand, lost in thought. Wouldn’t it be too ambiguous to use a piece of dog hair as evidence? Judging from the surveillance in the morning, Lu Shichen did pass by the crime scene while walking his dog, but he did not go to watch like those passers-by.

　　Such an approach was in line with Lu Shichen’s character. Meng Zhao remembered the time when there was a weekly exam in high school. The questions in the test paper were very difficult. A girl in the class suffered from depression. In the middle of the exam, she suddenly wanted to commit suicide by jumping off the building. At that time, the whole class stopped writing and looked in shock. Only Lu Shichen never raised his head from beginning to end and handed in the paper in advance and left the classroom.

　　To describe Lu Shichen’s character as ‘doesn’t like to join in the fun’ was not enough. To be more accurate, he should be extremely indifferent.

　　How did his dog hair get on Zhou Yan’s trouser leg? Assuming that Lu Shichen’s dog was in the hair loss stage, the hair happened to be blown by the wind to Zhou Yan. Was there a chance of such an occurrence? When Meng Zhao thought about it, he felt that it was a bit ridiculous. It was too coincidental…

　　In any case, he needed to call Lu Shichen over first and ask why he appeared in the old neighbourhood where the crime was committed that night.

　　”Brother Zhao, I called him. He said he would come over in half an hour.” Cheng Yun put down the phone and told Meng Zhao.

　　”Yeah.” Meng Zhao responded.

　　”This man’s voice is pretty nice too.” Cheng Yun came over to gossip, “Brother Zhao, I just saw that he seems to be from the same high school as you. Do you know him?”

　　”We know each other, we were in the same class.” Meng Zhao didn’t intend to avoid suspicion, “But I’m not very familiar with him, so it won’t affect the handling of the case.”

　　”Wow, this is fate…” Cheng Yun sighed and asked, “Why did you summon him?”

　　”Because he…” Meng Zhao paused, “He is suspected of committing the crime.”

　　Cheng Yun’s lips were slightly open, a little surprised.

　　”When he arrives later, you and Zhou Qiyang will focus on asking him why he went to that community on the night of the crime. You can sort out other questions by yourself based on the information we have.”