"Brother Yan?"
...…
"Brother Yan! The technical team is here!"
In the old and moldy room, Yan Xie suddenly came back to his senses. At that moment, he didn't know what he was thinking. He quickly put Jiang Ting's photo into his pocket and stood up. When he turned around, he saw Huang Xing, who was wearing blue shoe covers, entering the house with a few trace evidence analysts.
"Hey, Lao Yan, did you find something?" Huang Xing didn't notice the momentary strangeness on Yan Xie's face, and raised his chin at the red arrow sign on the ground: "What is that?"
"Oh, tape-glued drugs like Ecstasy[1] and such. Ask them to turn the whole bed over to collect evidence carefully, there should be fingerprints." Yan Xie turned to Huang Xing and shook the notebook: "I was just looking at this."
"What is this?" Huang Xing took a look at it and immediately cursed.
"This Wang Xingye should be a broker. It's very likely that he was using the drug trafficking network to collect little girls who met certain conditions for the kidnappers. These little girls have very distinct similarities: Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, good-looking, Li Yuxin and Bu Wei both have red moles on their shoulders. If you combine the clues of surname Teng, the red mole, age of sixteen, and the time of disappearance, there should be hope to find information about the first victim."
Huang Xing repeatedly looked at the photos of the three little girls, and said incredulously: "I understand the basis, but what's the purpose? It's just kidnapping and not for money, so is it purely for perverted pleasure?"
Yan Xie's eyebrows moved slightly, revealing a sneer that was hard to notice without careful observation: "We don't need to understand the mind of a psychopath. If you really want to know, wait until the criminal is caught and then try to ask him."
Huang Xing nodded thoughtfully. Yan Xie took the notebook back and put it in the evidence bag. At this time, Xiao Zhang poked his head in from outside the door: "Brother Yan, Brother Gao asked you when the work will be finished here, and if you'll be returning to the city bureau after the work is over?"
"What happened?"
"The Jiangyang County Police Department used Li Yuxin's mother as bait and caught a few 'retailers' in the overnight operation last night. They have been sent to the City Bureau now. He wants to know if he should wait for you to get back for the interrogation?"
Yan Xie hurriedly grabbed the evidence bag containing the notebook: "Tell Lao Gao to wait for me to get back!"
...…
Jianning Municipal Bureau.
Yan Xie hurriedly pushed open the door of the small room outside the interrogation room, and the technician immediately greeted him: "Vice-Captain Yan, you're back."
"Has the interrogation started?" Yan Xie asked as he was putting on the Bluetooth headset handed over by the technician.
Through the single-sided glass, he could see the scene in the interrogation room. Gao Panqing and another police officer who was responsible for recording were sitting in front of the iron table. On the interrogation chair was a weak young man who looked quite tender, revealing a pair of tattooed arms under the loose hurdle vest. His hair was dyed a light grey color with metallic purple highlights.
"No, Brother Gao only went through the opening process, and was waiting for you to come back." The technician pressed the microphone button: "Hey Brother Gao, Vice-Captain Yan is back, let's start?"
Gao Panqing nodded, turned to the young man with tattooed arms, and said coldly, "Repeat to us what you confessed in the Jiangyang County Police Station."
The young man with tattoos on his arms was leaning back on the back of the chair. After hearing those words, a "why don't you believe me" expression appeared on his face, and he slammed the handcuffs against the tabletop: "Officer, I have already confessed everything that can be confessed. It's not like you don't have a recording. Even if you ask me to repeat it a hundred times, I can't think of anything new, right? That fat man, I only knew his surname was Wang last night, we used to call him Brother Gou[2] because he always wore a golden dog head…"
Gao Panqing said impatiently as he flipped through the notes: "Get to the main point!"
"How could I know what the main point is? I just followed my boss to buy some goods like K powder[3], Soft boy[4], Ecstasy… That fat guy is at the top of the top, even my boss could only buy from his downline, so we don't usually see such an important person. As far as I can remember, he's probably only been to Jiangyang twice in person, at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. My boss took me to accompany him to sing songs on KTV — you say, it's been almost half a year…"
Gao Panqing just opened his mouth to say something, only to hear Yan Xie's cold voice on the headset: "Did he look for young women?"
"Just singing?" Gao Panqing immediately squinted his eyes and looked at the Little tattooed arms suspiciously: "Singing and drinking together, yet there were no women?"
Little tattooed arms immediately complimented: "Hey, speaking of this, you officers really understand everything. You're clearly experts—"
Cough cough!"
"Find… of course, we found." Little tattooed arms said angrily: "What does it mean for grown men to just sing. At that time, I thought I would be arrested if the anti-drug enforcement came in because your anti-drug and anti-pornography campaign was still ongoing…"
"Lao Gao," Yan Xie whispered into the headset, "Show him the photo of Li Yuxin directly."
"This little girl," Gao Panqing directly pushed the photo onto the interrogation table, "Do you know her?"
Little tattooed arms was stunned when he saw the photo: "I do."
"Did Wang Xingye find her?"
Little tattooed arms raised both his hands to scratch his hair, and the metal chain clanged with his movements. After hesitating, he said, "I… how should I put it? We don't think much of Brother Gou, because it's said that he always likes to ask people about young girls and that he especially likes the kind that goes to school honestly. The mother of this little girl is a regular customer of ours. In your words, she is also a master of 'trading and inhaling'. Somehow Brother Gou heard that she had such a daughter…"
Gao Panqing Staring at him closely: "And then?"
"Then… and then nothing seems to have happened? Hey, I poured beans out of a bamboo tube[5] and told you." Little tattooed arms said helplessly: "At the beginning of this year When Brother Gou came to Jiangyang County, our boss hosted a banquet for him. Halfway through the meal, Brother Gou suddenly told my boss to find this little girl — at first, I thought he wanted to do something, but who knew after her mother brought her there, Brother Gou gave some good stuff to her mother on the spot, and then let someone pull the little girl aside…"
Little tattooed arms paused, and a look of restrained laughter appeared on his face, making his face become a little weird and twisted: "Guess what he wanted to do?"
Gao Panqing just wanted to say whether you came to really confess leniently or for stand-up comedy, but only heard Yan Xie in the headset say lightly: "Take a photo."
"Take a photo?"
In an instant, little tattooed arms almost jumped up: "Oh my brother! You're really a genius!"
Gao Panqing: "..."
Lao Gao was praised twice by the drug dealer for no reason, and he was not particularly happy.
"The fat man asked the waiter for a piece of red cloth on the spot and put it behind the little girl as a background. He took a camera and took a few ID photos. After the photo was taken, the fat man waved his hand and asked the little girl's mother to take her away. Hahaha, we all watched him foolishly at the time. My boss also asked him what he was doing. Was he choosing a talented girl to enter the palace, just like a costume drama on TV?"
Gao Panqing didn't laugh, "What did Wang Xingye say?"
"He said that he also obeyed orders from above, and had not done anything else for more than a year, just went everywhere to look for little girls. The problem is that they are not easy to find. The age, appearance, and gender must be correct. Yes, there must be a mole on the shoulder, and they must also be very beautiful, upright, and tough — it sounds like he was preparing to raise a kid." Little tattooed arms shrugged: "Who knows if he is a bit stupid, or maybe even a pervert who likes little girls."
Gao Panqing couldn't help looking at the one-sided glass.
Outside the window, Yan Xie put his hands in his trouser pockets, and there were dark clouds between his brows.
"—obeyed orders from above," Gao Panqing turned back to Little tattooed arms' pale and thin face, and said slowly, "Did Wang Xingye ever say who was above him?"
"Oh, Officer, how many times do I have to say it?" The expression on Little tattooed arms face looked as if he could not wait to explain everything clearly. He placed both of his hands on his chest: "I'm just a little henchman who follows after their asses to pick up some broth and drinks. Not to mention me, even my boss has to be respectful when he sees the fat man. There must be someone above the surname Wang, but who knows who it is? Small people like us can't get in touch with that kind of big man, don't you understand?"
Gao Panqing still wanted to say something, when suddenly the door of the interrogation room opened.
Little tattooed arms was quite clever. As soon as Yan Xie walked in and he saw the expressions of the other police officers, he immediately understood that the person who came in was the leader, so he quickly sat up straight and put his hands down: "Hello, big brother, hello…"
Yan Xie pressed the shoulder of the police officer who was recording, signaling him not to get up. At the same time, he unlocked the phone, opened a photo, and flashed in front of Little tattooed arms:
"Do you know this person?"
Little tattooed arms took a closer look.
The high-definition security monitoring, even after being re-photographed by a mobile phone, was still very clear. The picture showed a driver sitting in the cab of a white truck, with a flat head and a black vest, and the facial features are clearly photographed.
Gao Panqing squinted at Yan Xie's mobile phone and knew in his heart that he was one of the gangsters who deliberately crashed the police car into the river in Jiangyang County and killed Li Yuxin with homemade guns. Although the group of outlaws was not caught at the scene, the ubiquitous "Skynet[6]" recorded their escape route, and finally took a frontal photo of one of the suspects at the highway entrance.
"This…" Little tattooed arms narrowed his eyes and took a breath.
Yan Xie asked, "Is he a local from Jiangyang County?"
Little tattooed arms thought for a while and suddenly laughed "hehehe", with sophisticated wit and slickness on his face.
"—I'll just say, bro, the fact that we traded those packets of Ketamine is not bad enough to make the police in the provincial capital ask questions all night. Could it be that the surnamed Wang did something, and the police need our cooperation to provide clues?"
No one said a word, and several policemen stared at him silently.
Little tattooed arms clearly felt the silent pressure in the air: "Then, you can see that I'll answer all of your questions. I'm very smart and obedient. Can you give me a chance to get leniency on my sentence? —Oh, I am really just a little henchman. All those bad things have been done by the people above. I had lost my way, but now I am willing to come back to cooperate with the police to find out the criminals hidden among the masses, and resolutely protect the safety of people's lives and property. Society must give me a chance to become a new person, Isn't that right?"
Gao Panqing said angrily, "First give me an honest explanation, and then…"
"We will tell the procuratorate that you were under 18 when you entered the industry." Yan Xie said coldly.
Little tattooed arms was stunned for a moment, then became overjoyed: "Yes, yes, I'm still young, I just… I just look like a grown-up!"
The other policemen were dumbfounded and didn't know what to say to this clown.
"I'm not familiar with this person, but I've seen him before. He is called Brother Dai — Dai from Dai Zi[7]." Little tattooed arm was more attentive, pointing to Yan Xie's mobile phone screen and saying, "This person started to hang out with Mr. Liu from Qing Feng Gang across from our base. Later, our boss successfully annexed Qing Feng Gang into our territory after difficult negotiation and ammunition — Bah, look at my dog mouth, Qing Feng Gang is obviously an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China — then Mr. Liu's men were all scattered. He washed his hands in the golden basin, thus bidding farewell to a life full of blades, blood, and danger."
Yan Xie: "..."
All the policemen: "..."
Yan Xie asked: "Then this guy named Brother Dai turned to Wang Xingye?"
"Yes, it is said that he has an old and promising elder brother who works under the fat man surnamed Wang, so he also brought Brother Dai over. When the surname Wang came to Jiangyang for the second time, our boss invited him to dinner, and this Brother Dai was with him, so I recognized him as soon as I saw the picture."
Yan Xie slowly retracted the phone and narrowed his eyes sharply: "The nickname Dai is not common, what is his real name?"
"Hey, how can you ask me about this!" Little tattooed arms said, "We all only pay attention to the pseudonym, otherwise, when we go out to fight, will we call each other by name, like Zhang Aiming, Wang Weidong, and Li Jianguo, that would be ridiculous, right?"
Yan Xie turned around and walked out: "Write that he was exactly eighteen years old when he entered the industry.
The policeman who was recording nodded his head, and the Little tattooed arms immediately cried out in urgency: "No no, big brother, let me think about it, I'll think about it again — yes! I remember it! He was nicknamed Dai because his surname was Fan!" (T/N: I don't know why it's connected.)
Yan Xie paused and turned around: " …Fan what?"
"I really don't know what his real name was?" Little tattooed arms was full of anxiousness. He wanted to raise his hand to swear, "I wouldn't have been able to remember if you didn't scare me. I only heard someone shouting it once. There is also a nickname called Fan Wu[8], maybe he is the fifth child in the family?"
Yan Xie stopped breathing for a moment, and his dark eyes stared at Little tattooed arms, which made his long and narrow eyebrows even colder. After a long while, he slowly raised the corners of his mouth under the fearful gaze of Little tattooed arms, and the smile floated in his eyes, reflecting the only lamp in the interrogation room, looking somewhat terrifying.
"Fan Wu." He repeated with a smile as if he had discovered something very interesting. He suddenly asked:
"Do you know what happened to his good and promising brother Fan Si? "
Little tattooed arms was too frightened to speak.
"He was crushed into minced meat by 20 or 30 trucks and was spread out on the highway. His heart, liver, and lungs were all mixed up. In the end, his whole person only filled up half a bucket." Yan Xie's strange smile deepened: "I'll show you the pictures of the scene for you to enjoy later."
Yan Xie walked out under the terrified gaze of the little henchman.
...…
"After the criminal suspect confessed, we have sufficient reasons to suspect that Wang Xingye is related to Fan Zhengyuan, who attacked the police with a gun, and Fan Wu, who attacked the police and killed Li Yuxin. Ma Xiang, take someone to Qing Feng Gang in Jiangyang County to investigate the Fan brothers and notify me as soon as you find any clues about Fan Zhengyuan. At the same time, another round of assistance will be issued to hunt down Fan Wu and other group members who attacked the police. Lao Gao, you guys," Yan Xie strode through the criminal Investigation Division's large office and stuffed the notebook into Gao Panqing's hands: "This was found in Wang Xingye's hiding place. This little girl surnamed Teng was 16 years old. She was killed in the first kidnapping case two years ago. Contact the police center immediately, and tell them to hurry up in finding the victim's identity."
Gao Panqing almost jumped up: "Yes!"
Yan Xie walked into his office and slammed the door shut.
"..."
He maintained this position for a long time before relaxing the tense muscles under his shirt that no one noticed.
The sound insulation of the office was very good, isolating the hustle and bustle of the outside world, effectively creating a short-lived, false, but extraordinarily reassuring silence. The curtains that were drawn when he left last night were still closed. The light passed through the entire office from the gap, projecting a straight and zigzag light band, passing right in front of Yan Xie, allowing him to see dust flying up and down the air.
Yan Xie finally let go of his grip on the doorknob, walked to the desk step by step, sat down, and took out the photo from his trouser pocket.
The young First-level Inspector Jiang Ting's photo hovered in the air and then landed in front of him silently.
He also obeyed the orders from above, and he has not done anything else for more than a year, just looking for little girls everywhere…
The age, appearance, and gender must be correct, there must be a mole on the shoulder, and they must be particularly beautiful, upright, and tough…
Upright and tough, is this the King of Spades' evaluation of Jiang Ting as a policeman?
Yan Xie leaned back deeply into the back of the chair, his brows furrowed, and he stared at the light spot floating in space.
If a drug lord's evaluation of the anti-drug police is these words, it can at least show that the policeman did not betray his duties. But if so, why did he use Jiang Ting as the prototype to repeat the script about betrayal and execution over and over again, especially if Jiang Ting was always the betrayed party in his mind?
Yan Xie slowly took out a cigarette, and the lighter snapped out a light blue flame.
He suddenly thought of another possibility.
Until now, the police believed that the two victims witnessed by Li Yuxin were from the first serial kidnapping, but this was actually baseless. If it was just an imitation, is it possible that there was an unknown kidnapping before, and Jiang Ting was one of the first two victims?
In this way, King of Spades' precise dedication to the execution time, as well as the repetition of the ritual had a logical explanation!
—But who was the other victim?
Was it Rivet?
In the dark and empty office, the cigarette butts were red and bright, and the ashes fell on his fingers, but Yan Yun didn't notice it. The memory rolled forward like a page of a book, and his eyes returned to the abandoned highway that night. The sniper laughed recklessly at the muzzle of the gun and said, "Aren't you very good at marksmanship? Come on, shoot me, just like you killed Rivet!"
Rivet was like a forbidden word to Jiang Ting, a thick and heavy stroke of his bloody past, a force that made him unable to pull the trigger again. Yan Xie could almost imagine how the King of Spades threatened Jiang Ting: "If you don't kill Rivet, you will both die here together!" or "There is only one bullet in the pistol, do you want to kill him or kill yourself? ?" In extreme life-and-death situations, it is not surprising what choices people make.
But — a strange voice slowly rose from the bottom of his heart, preventing Yan Xie from thinking.
Jiang Ting did not choose to kill Rivet, the voice said.
There was no evidence or careful reasoning. All judgments were based on his daily observation of Jiang Ting and his intuition. Except for the word "I think", there was no power to reverse the rational judgment of the criminal investigators.
Yan Xie sighed and tried to put Rivet in the position of another victim of the kidnapping case, and used this as a starting point to start thinking again.
But at this moment, he felt a tinge of strangeness, no matter what.
If Rivet was another victim, then the information he gave to the police at the risk of death was correct, so what did he betray Jiang Ting for?
More importantly, the goal of the King of Spades has always been two people, a boy and a girl who loved each other. Rivet as a police undercover agent, how likely is it for him to participate in the kidnapping case with such an ambiguous position?
Yan Xie held a cigarette in one hand, his eyes flickered, and a vague and terrifying guess gradually emerged in his mind—
Perhaps in this bloody drama that is regularly repeated every year, the character of the betrayer who was executed wasn't Rivet from the very beginning.
It's the King of Spades himself.
Translator's Note:
(1) Ecstasy: MDMA, 3,4-metylenedioxymetamphetamine.
(2) Gou (狗): Means dog.
(3) K-powder: Ketamine
(4) Soft boy: Heroin
(5) Poured beans out of a bamboo tube: To come clean or withhold nothing.
(6) Skynet: One of the national surveillance system in China. ^
(7) Dai Zi(袋子): Means bag. ^
(8) Wu(五): Means 5. ^