The Brain Science Case 46

Chapter 46: The Body That Vanished in a Bloody Foam – 12

“I really don’t know.”

Chen Huomu shouted, “Then you’d better start thinking. Have you been with so many women that you can’t even count them?”

“Sigh, after my wife died, I lost the house. I’ve been clean for years. How could there be so many?”

“Then who did your son go to find?” He slammed the table, glaring down at him. “He dressed as a woman, closed the shop early, and didn’t go home or visit any friends. The targets he’s been choosing are all related to you. Two people have already died because of you.” He glanced at his phone. 1:27 in the morning. “Think, think!”

Fang Zijun, who was observing the interrogation from the next room, sighed. “Ah… this isn’t going to work.” He turned to Jinglin. “It’s getting late. Why don’t you go home?”

She suppressed her emotions and lightly tapped the reinforced glass in front of her. “We’ve come this far, and now we’re stuck because we can’t find the killer… I won’t be able to sleep even if I go home.”

“You’ll sleep if you’re tired enough.” Fang Zijun gave a small smile. The radio suddenly crackled, and he listened, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. “Is that so? Have the men stand down for now. It’s raining so hard… you’ve worked hard.”

She asked, “Is that news from the precinct?”

“Yes, they found the motorcycle, but not him… it’s probably going to be hard to track him down tonight.” He pointed to the door. “How about this? Go ask the teacher if she wants to go with you. You can take her home.”

Right, Tang Yingli is still here… She hesitated for a moment, and Fang Zijun continued, “She’s really been a great help to us. She just got out of the hospital and she’s already been through so much with you. Even though she’s just assisting, she’s done no less than we have. Ah, it would be great if some young man could manage to tie her down.”

Jinglin couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are you hoping someone will trick the teacher into coming here to be cheap labor, Chief?”

“Hey, that’s not right. I’m just thinking about a closer collaboration.” He corrected her with a stern face, then smiled. “Alright, you take the teacher home. We’ll continue tomorrow… this Qian Daxin is spending the night here.”

Leaving the interrogation room, Jinglin had thought Tang Yingli was still buried in the evidence, but to her surprise, she was typing on the keyboard.

She tiptoed closer and grabbed the back of Tang Yingli’s chair. “Hey, what are you writing?”

“Ah, you scared me.” She frowned and lightly patted Jinglin’s hand. The fierce expression on her baby face was completely unthreatening. “A criminal profile. Is the interrogation over?”

Jinglin shook her head. “We couldn’t get anything out of him. It’s late. I’ll take you home.”

Looking up, she saw that almost everyone was still busy. “It’s past one? I didn’t even notice.” She saved her work and shut down the computer.

Tang Yingli was actually a bit of a workaholic, but unlike the others, she always finished when she said she would, without any procrastination.

The two of them left together, and Jinglin could clearly feel the envious gazes of her colleagues. What can I do? Tang Yingli is my responsibility now.

Outside, they were surprised by the pouring rain. “It’s raining so hard.” A cold wind blew, and Jinglin took out a folding umbrella. “You wait here. I’ll bring the car over.”

After finally getting into the car, Jinglin used a tissue to wipe away the raindrops, but Tang Yingli was unusually silent. “Did you look at the evidence, Teacher?”

“Yes, I did.” As soon as she got in the car, she kicked off her high heels and leaned back in her seat. She closed her eyes and let out a pleasant sigh. “We found the toothbrush he brought back from the motel, but nothing else. What did his father say?”

“He only provided two names.” The rain was too heavy, so Jinglin slowed down and sped up the wipers. “But they’ve both already been killed.”

Tang Yingli was clearly taken aback for a moment. “Then who did he go to find… from all the signs, it seems like it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but it was surprisingly decisive.”

“Qian Daxin said he hadn’t been to a club in a long time before he paid off his debts. These two were the most recent.”

She tapped her lips in thought. “So it was someone from before?”

“Before what?” At a red light, Jinglin looked at her.

“The hostesses Qian Daxin had contact with before. He must have hated this person very much and blamed her for his mother’s death and the loss of their house. Only a particularly strong emotion could have pushed him to carry out the crime.”

The rain pattered, and it was Jinglin’s turn to be silent. Tang Yingli pouted and asked, “What do you think?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but it sounds logical.”

“You seem to be copying me a lot lately.”

Jinglin laughed. “How so? You’re the one who remembers our first argument so clearly and brings it up from time to time.”

Tang Yingli smiled in surrender. “Alright, alright. I won’t say any more.” She secretly yawned as she turned to the window.

She noticed. “If you’re tired, you can sleep. I’ll wake you up when we get there.”

“Okay.” She closed her eyes, her answer clearly tinged with fatigue.

“Or… do you want to stay at my place? It would save me the trouble of picking you up for work tomorrow.” She suggested half-jokingly. “My mom is back in Taoyuan, and I’m picking her up tomorrow. There’s a spare room.”

“Mm…”

“You’ll just have to put up with it, staying at your ‘work partner’s’ house.” After a few seconds, Tang Yingli was still silent. “No answer means you agree, right, Teacher?”

Still no response.

“Tang Yingli?” Jinglin glanced at her and happened to see her left hand fall limply.

The answer was revealed—she was asleep. Her small face was covered by her large glasses, and the sharp, intelligent expression she had when she was reasoning was gone. Her rose-colored lips were slightly parted, making her look both harmless and innocent.

“What’s with the determination to be an auntie? She looks like a recent college graduate.” It was a shame she had to drive now, otherwise Jinglin suddenly had the urge to just quietly stare at this sleeping face until she opened her eyes.

As for why she thought that… Jinglin didn’t know herself.

**

As requested, Lu Tingfeng still bought coffee for his colleagues who were continuing to search for evidence.

The door to the interrogation room opened, and he turned with hope, only to see Chen Huomu leading Qian Daxin to another conference room with a sour face. He knew the case was still at a standstill.

“Ah Gui, your coffee… what are you piecing together?” Jian Minggui’s desk was covered with a pile of small paper scraps, about ten pieces in total. “What’s this?”

“A business card,” he said, completely focused. “This was scattered on top of the trash can in the studio. I’m trying to piece it together and see if I can find anything.”

“I thought you were playing with a puzzle.”

“It is a puzzle. It’s just super small and missing a few pieces.”

Lu Tingfeng guessed, “Maybe Qian Daxin knows where this business card came from.”

“That’s what I think. And for such a small piece of paper to be torn into so many pieces, his son must have really hated this person.”

“That makes sense.” Lu Tingfeng stared at the pieced-together business card. “I won’t bother you. Keep at it.”

**

Under the heavy rain, a taxi slowly pulled up in front of a business hotel.

“That’ll be nine hundred and fifty.”

A painted fingertip held a thousand-dollar bill. “Keep the change.”

“Thank you. It’s raining hard, miss. Be careful.”

She stepped onto the sidewalk and hurried into the hotel lobby with her luggage.

After a simple check-in, the service staff noticed her colorful nails and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Your nails are so beautiful, miss.”

She looked up with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Here is your key. You can check out before noon.”

Before leaving the counter, she deliberately put on a hat to minimize the chances of her face being caught on camera.

Check out at noon? No, he didn’t plan to stay that late. Although he had already taken some measures to prevent the police from tracking him—ditching his motorcycle and resetting his phone to factory settings—he believed that the police had already gathered some clues from his previous actions.

It doesn’t matter.

He had already done it, and he wasn’t naive enough to think he could get away with it. But before he was caught, he wanted to take one more person with him.

Standing in front of the vanity mirror, Qian Hanliang pulled off his wig and reached out to the mirror, as if to touch his own face.

“What that woman owes you, owes our family… I will get it back for you in this form.” Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he smiled, but then he lowered his head, and the laughter gradually turned into sad sobs.

**

After a night of searching, the police found Qian Hanliang’s phone in his motorcycle, but there was no data on it.

Restoring it would take time, and they didn’t have time to wait. “This kid… he really thought of everything.”

“Even though he was in a hurry, he was still able to calmly plan to stop the police from tracking him…” Tang Yingli stared at the photos of the motorcycle and the storage box, and suddenly realized, “This is to buy time… he may have left the Taipei area and gone somewhere we wouldn’t think of.”

“Somewhere we wouldn’t think of?”

“The women’s clothes are like a protective coloring for him. I think he must be very confident in his disguise, so he’s not afraid of anyone. From the parking location, he wouldn’t have taken public transportation…” She crossed her arms. “So it was a taxi? He may have gone to another city.”

That would make him even harder to catch. “In any case, we can only start by identifying the target, right?”

“Yes, the key is still his father,” she muttered. “But which hostess lives in another city but works at a club in Taipei?”

In the interrogation room, Qian Daxin, who had slept for a while, finally wrote down a list. “That’s all of them.”

“You wait here.” Chen Huomu left the interrogation room, intending to ask them one by one.

“I’ll go take a look.” Fang Zijun also left the room, leaving Tang Yingli to face Qian Daxin through the reinforced glass.

The glass was specially treated so that only she could see him. Even though he had been a smartass during the interrogation, when he was alone, Qian Daxin still showed his worry for his son. “Where did he go? Did he really kill someone again…”

“Chief, Ch… Teacher?” Jinglin walked in, her ponytail swinging. “Where’s the chief?”

“Chief Fang just went out. Qian Daxin finally provided a list.”

Jinglin’s face lit up, but she quickly composed herself. “I went for a walk around where Qian Hanliang ditched his motorcycle. A witness saw a woman in a houndstooth coat riding that bike.”

“That must be him. What did the witness say?”

Jinglin shook her head. “He ditched the bike and walked to the alley entrance in the rain. The witness didn’t see how he left, but I think he could have only taken a taxi.”

“Yes, both the bus and the MRT are a bit of a distance away.”

Fang Zijun quickly returned. “Jinglin?”

“Chief, I have new information…” Just as she was about to speak, her phone rang. She looked at it. It was Li Yuejiao. “Ah, I have an appointment with my mom.”

“I was wondering why you were still here. It’s past twelve.”

Jinglin looked embarrassed and quickly answered, “Yes… I’m on my way. You take your time… okay, see you later.” After hanging up, she was suddenly at a loss.

Tang Yingli saw through her and chuckled. “I’ll tell Chief Fang what you found out. You go ahead.”

She paused, then nodded. “Thank you, Teacher.” She said goodbye to Fang Zijun and rushed out the door.

“Slow down. Oh… other people can’t wait to take a day off, and she’s the only one who forgets she has one.”

Tang Yingli smiled. “Being proactive is her strong suit.”