In the living room, I crouched beside the bat corpses and picked one up, turning its body over. I discovered blood holes on its neck.
Could it be that after draining the girl's blood, Wang Wenlin wasn't satisfied and even targeted the bats?
The bats might have been drinking yellow eel blood when Wang Wenlin seized the opportunity.
Afterward, a few officers and I stood up, flashlights in hand, exploring everywhere to find the victim's location. Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone jumping from the windowsill. I rushed over and saw a fully covered figure running out of the apartment at astonishing speed!
That must be Wang Wenlin. To my surprise, he jumped down from the fifth floor as if it were nothing. Since there was no water below, I couldn't follow and had to leave the pursuit to the officers outside.
On the windowsill, I found a strange mask, likely dropped in his haste to escape.
At this moment, we found the girl's body in the kitchen of Unit 502.
When I arrived at the location, Gao Qiang came out and said, "The girl's body is hanging from the handle of the boiler."
Before entering, I couldn't imagine the situation. But when I walked into the kitchen and saw the naked girl's body with her hands tied and raised, secured to the boiler, I realized it was just as Gao Qiang had described.
The position allowed the girl to be tied up, sitting quietly in front of the cabinet, her eyes closed, and two large blood holes on her neck. Seeing her die so tragically, I regretted not jumping down earlier to catch him.
Courage is commendable, but being reckless only worsens the situation.
This time, Zhao Simeng and Sima Chao came together. As they examined the body, I left the kitchen, feeling puzzled. If we still couldn't find more clues, there was no way we could deal with Wang Wenlin.
While the two of them were investigating, Sima Chao seemed to have become Zhao Simeng's assistant, carefully helping her. Watching them like this, I thought I would never have to run errands for Zhao Simeng again.
Fortunately, she didn't seem to have sent Sima Chao to buy anything this time. After all, the deaths in these cases were similar.
Outside, all I saw were bat corpses, and others were busy taking photos and examining the scene. With nothing else to report, I returned to the kitchen. Just as I was about to ask if they had found anything new, Zhao Simeng said, "It's the same traces and method. This time, it's obvious on the body—no need for additional testing."
I said, "That's because he just left. But why didn't the previous victim have fingerprints, requiring rice paper and camellia oil to reveal them?"
"I suspect someone cleaned the body afterward."
"Are you saying there were two people involved in each case?"
"Very likely. The first time, in the hotel bathroom, the body was brought in later. It had probably been drained of blood beforehand. Wang Wenlin took her to the bathroom for his depravity. The second time, he didn't press her down after draining her blood."
"So the fingerprints didn't show up on that body initially."
At this moment, we moved to the living room. Together with Sima Chao, we picked up some bat corpses. After examining them, we found many had blood holes on their necks. Zhao Simeng said, "Before coming in, I did a quick check. I didn't expect Wang Wenlin to even drain the bats' blood!"
"I think his porphyria is worsening. He needs to absorb more blood every day."
"Exactly. Who knows how many more girls will have to die? Damn it, hurry up and catch him!"
Everyone knew he had escaped again. We should have been despairing, but just as we felt down, Liu Chao and Zhang Wang brought good news.
They found Sister Guo near the apartment!
She must have been worried about her child coming here to drain blood, so she came to check. Unexpectedly, she was caught by them. Liu Chao, having let her escape earlier, now had a chance to redeem himself.
He brought her to me and said, "Captain He!"
"Well done. Let's head back to the station together."
"What right do you have to take me to the station?" Sister Guo cursed as we were about to leave.
"Wang Wenlin is your son, isn't he? You were worried something might happen to him today, so you stayed nearby to watch. You left the orphanage to come here!" I sneered and revealed everything.
"I didn't!"
Sister Guo stubbornly denied it, but I said, "One look at the surveillance will prove it. Either way, you appeared near the crime scene, acting suspiciously. You're coming with us!"
"I'm not going!" she shouted, trying to break free from the officers' grip, but it was futile.
Our officers were professionally trained. A petite woman like her had no chance of escape.
I stared at her sternly and said, "Stop struggling. You can't escape!"
Ignoring her protests, I added, "If you're innocent, you can explain everything at the station."
We arrived at the interrogation room, and I laid out all the materials linking her to Wang Wenlin in front of her. "You are his mother. He was born with porphyria, and that's why you didn't want him!"
"I don't know who Wang Wenlin is. You're just making things up!" Sister Guo cursed.
Seeing this woman stubbornly denying everything, I took out a photo of Wang Zimo and showed it to her. "Don't tell me you don't recognize him?"
"I don't recognize him."
"You're really insistent, aren't you?"
I then presented the details of how she and Wang Zimo had met, describing the entire process. As I spoke, her face turned red. My sharp eyes noticed that her eyebrows were twitching repeatedly.
Clearly, she was extremely nervous.
"So what if it's true? You won't find him!"
"Seems like you're quite confident. With the police's power, how could we possibly not find him?"
I couldn't understand Sister Guo's arrogance. She was already in our custody, yet she still defended that devil of a child.
"You keep providing him with victims. You know so many people, so there are many possible targets. But why is it always prostitutes?"
"I don't find them. He does. I just don't want anyone to know it's him, so..."
"So every time he commits a crime, you clean up after him? You cover his tracks?"
Sister Guo lowered her head in silence. She had effectively admitted it. No wonder the crime scenes I had seen before had almost no traces, only yellow eel blood. The fingerprints on the victims' bodies must have been wiped clean by her.
This also explained why, during the first case in the hotel bathroom, there was no footage of anyone else entering the crime scene.