Chapter 38

“Video Surveillance, your side,” Li Siting looked towards Lou Xiaoguang.

“Four areas of the mall’s closed-circuit surveillance system were damaged. The footage isn’t night-vision capable. We could only retrieve images of 3,340 moving individuals and 240 vehicles. The mall manager says, to cut costs, they didn’t install cameras in the fire escape passages. So we’re still screening… We need Team Leader Lu’s side to provide valid intel so we can start searching through the Golden Shield Project.”

Lou Xiaoguang finished, looking at Lu Shimiao. She didn’t even raise her head.

Li Siting’s brow furrowed. “Was the damage natural or man-made?”

“The fire surveillance on the second floor has been broken for about a month. The mall didn’t fix it. Also, two cameras in the underground parking lot lost power. We checked, and there’s no sign of human tampering,” Lou Xiaoguang scratched his head.

“Are all the victims confirmed?” Li Siting turned to the investigation/interview team.

The investigation team replied: “Some of the fire victims have been identified. Families have claimed them. But the homicide victim is named Zhang Lin. Preliminary identification was made through interviews, but the body is severely damaged. The parents are from another province and haven’t arrived yet to identify the body. We can only wait for the DNA comparison results for now.”

Li Siting was forty years old. He’d been in charge of countless special and serious cases for the criminal police unit. An excellent intelligence analysis expert within the public security system, his clearance rate for directing such large-scale public hazard cases was extremely high. Last year, he was even dispatched to the western region to handle a tricky bombing case.

Lu Shimiao had collaborated with him many times. In the National Police Skills Competition, it was the two of them who brought the championship back to the City Bureau. Lu Shimiao chewed her rice slowly, looking at the few remaining hairs on the man’s head. She’d heard he got divorced two days ago, but he didn’t seem particularly sad.

Unlike her—body in the office, heart with the Han army, her soul already flown away three separate times.

“Alright, let’s map out our investigative direction,” Li Siting’s expression was serious. He did have the aura of a leader.

“Crime Scene Investigation, secure the evidence quickly, provide a suspect profile, and nail down the motive. Once the autopsy report is out, the Investigation Team immediately starts background checks on the victim. Video Surveillance, expand your search for suspicious persons conducting reconnaissance. The Public Interview Team, continue gathering info from the injured, focusing on mall employees.”

“The Intel Team, strengthen city-wide criminal intelligence adjustments. We can’t rule out whether the perpetrator has an antisocial personality or a fixation with arson. The screening strategy is to use information to guide the search. We can’t afford to waste the golden window for cracking this case.”

“I need to see a preliminary profile of the suspect by 8 AM tomorrow. Once you’re done eating, get to work.”

–

11 PM.

Lu Shimiao sat in her office. The lab next door was packed with people. Fingerprint analysis, DNA swab analysis, footprint identification—everyone was at their stations.

A profile by 8 AM tomorrow.

It was truly a death sentence.

Lu Shimiao and Lin Shu didn’t dare waste a second. They sat side by side and began sorting through the crime scene investigation records.

“Forensics just gave a specific time window for Zhang Lin’s death: 8:00 to 8:30 AM,” Lu Shimiao glanced at a text message, then spoke to Lin Shu. “Cause of death: Mechanical asphyxiation. Signs are more consistent with ligature strangulation. Part of the body was destroyed by the explosive device. We’ll need to wait for the full autopsy to conclude for the rest.”

“Destroyed by explosives…” Lin Shu leaned over, said something, then started texting. “Let me push for the explosive residue analysis on my end.”

Lu Shimiao held her pen, starting the analysis with the time of the crime. “According to our simulation during this afternoon’s walkthrough, it takes at least ten minutes to go from the third-floor fire exit to the second floor.”

“This type of remote-controlled detonation, with devices placed in multiple locations, requires a significant amount of setup time. The several fire origin points in the mall—either the circuits were cut, the cameras were broken, or the cameras had night blindness and didn’t capture anything. So, it’s highly likely he conducted reconnaissance inside the mall beforehand.”

Lu Shimiao’s mind was filled with the image of a shadowy figure, roaming the mall interior at night like a ghost. Agile yet cautious, head down and back bent, placing detonators in corresponding spots on each floor.

Lin Shu offered her analysis. “The suspect might have been inside the mall the entire time.”

Lu Shimiao nodded. “As for the crime space….”

Lin Shu added, “The suspect skillfully avoided surveillance to enter the mall’s interior. An inside job is highly probable. Especially for an arsonist, he’d need to know this place well, understand its layout.”

“Based on the surveillance’s range, the only way for the suspect to enter the mall was from the underground garage, and that garage connects to the adjacent office building. That’s a large area to search.” Lu Shimiao looked at the drawn scene map and wrote a note in her book: Underground garage needs investigation tomorrow.

Beyond time and space, the crime scene itself was paramount. It was intimately linked to the criminal’s behavior, offering immediate insight into their motive and mindset.

Lu Shimiao rested her chin on her hand, clicking through the crime scene photos on her computer again and again.

“The cash registers in the few burned-out shops weren’t disturbed. We can rule out arson for profit.”

“The fire was set in the central display areas. The body beneath the display showed clear signs of being moved, head facing the explosive device. The face was completely obliterated.”

Lu Shimiao stared at the photo of the charred corpse on the screen, observing. “From the obliteration of the face, it feels like the killer was acting out of strong revenge.”

“But looking at the overall setup, it feels contradictory….” Lu Shimiao’s fingers clicked back and forth on the mouse, repeatedly confirming every suspicious detail in the photos.

“Yes, very contradictory.”

“Looking at the layout of each ignition point, the perpetrator placed the detonator right at the center of the accelerant. The intent to burn was extremely strong. But he didn’t sabotage the firefighting equipment, nor did he block the fire evacuation routes.” Lin Shu offered her assessment from a fire investigation perspective.

“There has to be a sequence to the crime, though,” Lu Shimiao went back to the scene trace log. A knocked-over glass cup caught her attention.

The cup’s surface showed no crack marks from impact, only radial fractures. The two breaks at the rim were clearly defined. The distance from the direct fall center to the counter’s edge was 57 centimeters in a straight line. The impact point was the ground. The glass’s heat pattern was uniform, the soot deposit even.

Lu Shimiao tilted her head back and closed her eyes.

Suddenly.

A rope dropped before Lu Shimiao’s eyes. Like a pet collar, it tightened ruthlessly around her neck. The thin, long rope blocked the oxygen in her windpipe. Her lungs began to steam, hot and suffocating.

Instinct.

By the time she realized it, dizziness and a vacant feeling had already hit her brain. The sensation of suffocation was intense. Instinctively, she began to thrash and struggle.

Lu Shimiao reached up reflexively, clawing at the rope around her neck, trying to wedge her fingers in to create a sliver of space to breathe. But the other party was pulling too tight. She failed. Her mouth gaped open. Her body started convulsing. Her limbs went rigid, bending became impossible. She couldn’t reach the person behind her. Her arm knocked over the glass on the counter.

The cup shattered.

So did she.

Lu Shimiao collapsed to the ground, the rope still unyielding. She was dragged inch by inch under the display rack. The pants for sale stared back at her face. Directly above her eyes hung the suspended bomb.

Boom—

Did he take something from her? Did he take something from the scene? Why did he kill me? Why, after killing me, did he obliterate my face? How did he escape the scene?

“Did you think of something?” Seeing Lu Shimiao’s head tilted back, brows tightly furrowed, Lin Shu asked.

“Not far from the victim’s body, near the counter, there was a cup. This cup didn’t shatter from heat exposure in the fire. It was knocked off the table by someone first, cracking on vertical impact, and then baked by the flames. It broke before the fire.

“Although we can’t determine if it was an acquaintance-perpetrated crime, the trace evidence on the body has been burned away. We didn’t find any suspicious tools at the scene. The weapon could have been incinerated, or possibly taken by the suspect. The medical examiner didn’t send over textile test samples or DNA swabs, meaning suspicious trace material was virtually zero.”

Lu Shimiao flipped through two pages of interview transcripts but felt there were no clues to discover there either.

“Time of death and time of fire are virtually simultaneous. So I can’t judge the sequence of criminal motives. Did he kill the victim to eliminate an obstacle, just to achieve his goal of arson? Or did he set up such a massive scene just to kill the victim?”

–

7:30 AM.

Having only slept three hours, Lu Shimiao woke Lin Shu up from the sofa. The two quickly washed up in the office, then went downstairs to assemble in the conference room.

Late last night, the forensic doctor had delivered the overtime preliminary examination data. The Fire Investigation Lab also sent feedback. They’d only slept after organizing the data for a long while. Before sleeping, she glanced at her phone. Xue Tong hadn’t said a single word to her since.

Waking up, she checked her phone again.

Still, nothing from Xue Tong.

Lu Shimiao felt a bit depressed. Gloomily, she pushed open the conference room door. Li Siting was already in his seat, sporting the same dark circles.

“Was the identity confirmation notice sent to you yesterday?” Li Siting asked.

“Yes. We’ve organized the data. Let’s sync the clues with everyone so we can analyze them.” Lu Shimiao didn’t even bother sitting down. She put the various documents on the table and used the projector to cast the autopsy photos onto the screen.

“The deceased, Zhang Lin, female, 24 years old, from Yunnan Province, held a college diploma, came to Shanghai as a migrant worker. She was currently a counter salesperson at a clothing store in Star Sea Mall.

“According to the forensic report, the estimated time of death is between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM. Because the explosive was positioned above the face, the physical damage to the body’s exterior is severe. A ligature mark was only found on the soft hyoid bone. The anterior neck ligature mark is evenly distributed. Internal examination results: airway compression, pressure on the carotid sinus. Reflex cardiac arrest. No vaginal injury, no sexual assault.

“The victim entered a state of cadaveric spasm during the death throes. Ligature marks on the fingers suggest the perpetrator approached from behind and strangled her to death.

“The scene shows no signs of theft, no disturbance, no signs of forced entry. During her death, the victim knocked over a printed glass cup. The base of the cup bears the words ‘Star Sea Mall.’ Fingerprint analysis of the cup matches the deceased.

“We discovered 12 suspicious footprints on the perimeter of the clothing store. When compared with footprints recovered from the perimeter of the third-floor crime scene, one crucial overlapping suspicious print was extracted.

“The second-floor print is a right foot, labeled No. 1. The third-floor print is also a right foot, labeled No. 2.

“By overlapping and splicing the details of No. 1 and No. 2, we find: the full footprint length is approximately 24.5 cm, the forefoot width is 7 cm, the sole tread pattern is vertical grid with a spacing of 0.1 cm, the perimeter edges are unsealed, and the heel has no pattern.

“The gait is wide and outward-turned. The stepping mark is light, the kicking mark is heavy. The dominant foot is the right foot. Calculated height is between 168 and 172 cm. Estimated weight is between 120 and 130 jin.”