"Strange. I checked all the bathrooms. No one saw when she left… Hey, chief, what's wrong?"
"Review the security cameras. Go." Luo Wenzhou's thinking had yet to come clear, but he already felt a chill arising from intuition climbing up his spine. "Hurry!"
Lang Qiao stared for an instant, then turned and ran.
The security camera footage was quickly reviewed. What it showed was very clear: after Fei Du stood up and left, Mother He received a phone call. The person on the phone said something that in a few words turned her into a human stone. The duration of the phone call was about two minutes. Afterwards, Mother He stared emptily for a while. Then she stood and wavered for a moment, looking several times in the direction Fei Du had gone, but he didn't return.
She lowered her head in disappointment, then seemed to come to a decision. She noiselessly left the City Bureau.
The security cameras extended to the City Bureau's gates where Mother He, without the least hesitation, quickly crossed the road. She came to an intersection and turned. After that there was no trace of her.
There was no need for Luo Wenzhou to issue an order; Lang Qiao at once took people to follow Mother He's path around the corner, where they split up to search.
"I just went to ask Xiao Haiyang," said Tao Ran, quickly walking over. "After the sub-bureau picked her up from the train station, they immediately brought her here to us on Wang Hongliang's orders. She hasn't left since she came. She can't be very familiar with Yan City, but the camera at the gates shows that when she went out the main doors she didn't look left or right, just went right across the street and turned. I think there was definitely someone waiting for her there."
Luo Wenzhou said, "Review all the security cameras near the intersection, look into each car and pedestrian that went by during that period."
"What a mess. There's been the traffic restriction these last few days." Tao Ran sighed. "The restricted cars can only go out on the road between midnight and three in the morning. Many people have no choice but to drive at night for one reason or another, so the roads aren't as tranquil as normal. It would take a long time to look into all of them. It's all right if nothing happens to her, but if…"
Luo Wenzhou paced a few circles without making a sound. Suddenly, his steps paused, his memory finally catching up to him—Luo Wenzhou finally remembered where the heavy disquiet he'd just felt had come from.
"…make him believe that you're wallowing in the same muck as these people."
"He'll easily become filled with despair and come to believe there's no such thing as so-called 'justice.'"
"That will settle it, establishing two serious constraints on his mentality and physiology."
How had the person who had called Mother He managed to convince a fretful, timid woman to leave the City Bureau in the dead of night?
Did she think that person was more worthy of trust than the City Bureau's criminal policemen?
Or…did she not trust the police at all?
Had she also thought that there was no such thing as so-called "justice," lost hope, and gone to use her own methods to seek the "justice" she wanted?
He swiftly turned to look at Fei Du.
Fei Du had his head lowered, his hair hanging down and blocking his face. Against his black shirt, all his exposed skin looked unusually pale, like a vampire that had never seen the light. There was a moment when Luo Wenzhou thought, Why does he understand these people so well?
When he wasn't mixed up with those rich kids who thought they were a law unto themselves, when he was alone—what did he think about?
Just then, Fei Du suddenly opened his mouth. As if speaking to himself, he said, "And I didn't hear it."
"What?" said Luo Wenzhou.
"I asked her, 'What are your plans once they've caught the killer?' She didn't answer, only told me to go home—"
She'd also said: "If a mother has no skills of her own, then the only thing she has left to look forward to every day is seeing her child."
This woman hardly had any ability to work. She was a useless person, crushed by disease. Wasn't her son the only part of her whole life that she could look forward to?
Now that her son was gone, what did she have left to do?—What else could she do?
Fei Du lightly pinched the skin between his brows together as if in self-mockery. When he turned his head, the corners of his lips quickly twitched upwards in a bitter false smile. Almost inaudibly, he spoke to himself again. "And I…I didn't even hear what she meant."
Tao Ran acutely picked up that there was something off about him and quickly asked, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Fei Du looked at him and, as if nothing was the matter, asked in turn, "Why do you ask?"
Tao Ran said, "While a case is going on, our lines of sight are usually concentrated on the deceased and the suspects. It's really normal to overlook the victim's relatives, especially when it gets busy. It's natural. The crucial thing now is to find where she is."
Fei Du nodded composedly. "Yes, that's right."
"Does she still think that Zhang Donglai is the killer? That we only released him because we're abusing our power to protect the Director-General's nephew?" Tao Ran asked. "Would she have gone to find Zhang Donglai? Do we need to call him?"
"You can call Zhang Donglai to remind him to be careful, but I think she wouldn't have." Luo Wenzhou pressed one hand against his temple and in doing so touched a bruise at the corner of his forehead. He sucked in a sharp breath. "What's the use of her going to find Zhang Donglai? Kill him to make him pay with his life? Given Zhang Donglai's physique, if he stood still and let her stab him, there's no guarantee that she'd have the strength to do it. The greatest likelihood is that they'd call the police, and we'd bring her right back here. It's a useless effort. Think about it from the murderer's point of view. He can't be staying up late just to take He Zhongyi's mother out for a stroll."
Just then, Fei Du, who had been uncommunicative all this time, picked up a gel pen.
"If the person who took her is the murderer," said Fei Du, quickly writing the date "5/20" on a piece of paper, "then first of all, when the murderer killed He Zhongyi, was it on the spur of the moment, or was it premeditated?"
Having said this, without waiting for the others to answer, he answered himself. "I incline towards thinking it was 'on the spur of the moment'—because on the night he was killed, He Zhongyi asked around about Chengguang Mansion's precise location."
Luo Wenzhou asked, "How do you know?"
"I saw He Zhongyi at the café where he was delivering goods and happened to hear. I'm sorry, I didn't hide it on purpose. I just thought it was a detail that could be overlooked."
Luo Wenzhou didn't follow this up. He nodded. "That makes sense. If the murderer had already wanted to kill He Zhongyi that night, he wouldn't have been vague about the address."
Tao Ran didn't know why the two of them were going back and forth like this. He was a little bewildered and was just about to speak when Luo Wenzhou waved a hand at him. "Let's perform a simple analysis of the suspect.
"The security camera footage shows that He Zhongyi received a phone call, then left Chengguang Mansion, heading for Wenchang Street. It looks like someone arranged to meet him. At that time, the murderer must have already known that he was outside the mansion. What would they have said on the phone?"
Fei Du slightly closed his eyes, lightly tapping the desk with the shaft of the pen. "No one saw me, I wasn't caught on the security cameras, I just want to talk to you—"
"For some reason, the murderer decided to kill He Zhongyi," said Luo Wenzhou. "According to our inferences just now, since it was on the spur of the moment, it isn't very likely that he had the murder weapon ready—most likely, that fool Zhang Donglai took off his tie and tossed it somewhere, and the murderer happened to see it. He had a flash of brilliance and thought of a very clever plan. Now, the second question is, why did he arrange to meet the victim there—at Wenchang Street?"
Tao Ran thought about it. "If the murderer is Zhao Haochang, Wenchang Street is where he works. It's easier to operate in familiar surroundings."
"Wenchang Street isn't the only place he's familiar with. If it was only to get a sense of security, wouldn't somewhere near his home be better?" Luo Wenzhou slowly crossed his arms and met Fei Du's eyes. He found that the expression in them was very cold, so cold it was as if they were made of inorganic matter. He didn't avert his gaze; looking straight at Fei Du, he asked, "What's your view?"
"I've dug a hole and put a scapegoat into it. Now, of course, I need to exclude myself—" Fei Du said, "It's for his alibi."
Tao Ran after all wasn't Captain China, who became more vigorous the more he got sliced up, and he wasn't a nocturnal youth. Now that it was the latter half of the night, he was physically very weary. His head, having had a big pile of information stuffed into it, had been mixed up into a pot of porridge. "Slow down, slow down. How does the alibi work? We clearly saw He Zhongyi go to Wenchang Street…"
Luo Wenzhou lit a cigarette, turned his back and sucked in two mouthfuls, then stretched out his arm to let the smoke float out the door as much as possible. In a slightly muffled voice, he said, "Tao Ran, did you forget that us finding that security camera footage was 'an accident?'"
Tao Ran gave a start.
That was right—that night, He Zhongyi had carefully avoided the security cameras, but he had underestimated how much rich people feared death. Aside from the obvious security cameras, the paths outside of Chengguang Mansion also had some hidden cameras.
The one that had captured him was among these, a camera in a treetop camouflaged to look like a bird's nest.
Neither he nor the murderer had known about the eternally recorded scene, and the police had only made it to the bus stop by following this accidental camera's lead, then traced the direction He Zhongyi had gone in.
The East Flower Market District had too many security cameras of all kinds: public ones, transportation ones, business ones, private ones… There was no exception: if you didn't already know when a person had gone by a certain street, it was unrealistic to review them one by one.
"He could have chosen a companion and found some excuse, for example that he'd 'had a bit to drink,' gotten a ride with that person back to his office. Then he'd have found some work and called one or more underlings to work overtime—that's normal in a law firm, no one would think there was anything wrong. As a second-level partner, he'd have his own office. While the others were busy, he could slip away and use his scapegoat's tie to kill He Zhongyi, hide the body, then come back to the office, acting like he'd just gone to the bathroom." Fei Du drew a complete circle on the piece of paper. "Like this, he'd have complete proof. 'I went back to the office with so-and-so, then I was at the office working the whole time.' If you hadn't happened to trace He Zhongyi, then the murderer's alibi would have been virtually unassailable."
"He Zhongyi's body turned up in the West Flower Market District, and the primary suspect Zhang Donglai was in the East Flower Market District that day." Luo Wenzhou quickly understood his implication. "The murderer has tossed out his trump card of the tie. In order to make sure his alibi is 'unassailable,' his next step ought to be to eliminate He Zhongyi's mother, who could expose his identity. At the same time, he'll continue to reinforce our idea that the murder occurred in the Flower Market District—therefore, it's likely that the murderer would take He Zhongyi's mother to the Flower Market District!"
Tao Ran was already contacting the policemen out searching for Mother He. "All sections take note, the search will focus on the Flower Market District—Fei Du, the West District or the East District?"
Fei Du was silent a moment. "East District."
Luo Wenzhou looked up. "Why?"
"The visual impact will be stronger. It'll be better able to compel you to arrest Zhang Donglai again. Also…" Fei Du said quietly. "I have an intuition."
Luo Wenzhou and Tao Ran stood up at the same time.
Fei Du calmly raised his eyes. "Can I come with you?"
Luo Wenzhou hesitated for a moment. "Come on."