Chapter 2: 2

Early in the next morning, three boxes of different sizes were placed side by side on the transparent glass observation table in the physical inspection room of the Huadu Police Station.

This was what Huadu Chenyang sub-bureau had found yesterday after an all-night investigation.

Those city scrap cars were placed on the side of the road with countless people passing by every day, yet no one would have thought such a terrible thing was hiding inside.

Today, Lu Junchi brought Qiao Ze to the identification center. As soon as he entered the door, a young female forensic doctor stood up, handing them gloves, masks, and goggles.

The identification center was airtight and somewhat dark with a strong ventilation installation inside. The illumination relied on both large and small sizes of light. Besides, different lights had different effects and various traces could be illuminated.

Lu Junchi put on the equipment and attached himself to see.

The boxes were marked with No.1, No.2, and No.3 according to the time when it was abandoned. The first box they found was box No.2.

The other two boxes looked similar, containing white powder inside and buried with some parts of women’s dismembered limbs.

The biggest was box No.1 which included one foot. Inside box No.2 had hands, and box No.3 had another woman’s hand.

Three hands, all of which belonged to young women, plus one foot, so there was a possibility of having at least two or three victims.

The situation at hand was intractable.

Qiao Ze stood by and watched for a while before he took out his notebook to write down.

Xing Jing, the female forensic doctor of the identification center. Just by listening to her name, she was already expected to be a member of the criminal police.

Xing Jing had a pair of phoenix eyes, combed with a high ponytail. She wore a white coat and explained to them on the side, “We have examined the three boxes, and there is no completed fingerprint of the murderer left behind. We have done the laboratory tests, the DNA results aren’t the same, so there should be three victims. The hand in box No.3 is still fresh, the victim might have just been killed.”

Lu Junchi looked over carefully for a while, then he straightened up and asked, “What are those powders?”

The three boxes apparently had antiseptic drugs, but he didn’t know what they were. Seemingly, the three boxes could be purchased on the market, and those drugs were also one of the directions that needed to be investigated.

Xing Jing gave a simple explanation. “It’s a mixture of camphor, alum, and boric acid.”

Qiao Ze bit the pen cap and said vaguely, “Sister Jing, make it clear, I’ll write it down…”

XIng Jing handed him the report. “The report is written clearly, including the specific content, you don’t need to take note.”

Qiao Ze flipped through the report with an inquisitive expression. “I’m just curious, what are the effects of these drugs? How come those dismembered limbs won’t decompose when they are placed inside?”

Xing Jing explained, “Among them, camphor’s role is to remove the unpleasant odor and maggots, while alum absorbs oil, bacteriostasis, and coagulation protein. Lastly, the purpose of using boric acid is for antiseptic.”

Lu Junchi seized the key points and asked, “Is this the common formula?”

Xing Jing nodded. “This is the antiseptic drug protection for specimens, but it is not as popular as formalin, and it is not as effective as the mixture antiseptic of arsenic trioxide. However, this method is safer and it’s also easier to obtain the raw material. It can be produced by most people at home.”

Lu Junchi pressed his eyebrows with his hand. It was easier to buy and created, that was to say; it was difficult to track down the murderer through the medicine channel.

Xing Jing pointed to the box in front of her. “From the proportion of it in these three boxes, we can see that it is not made for the first time. The murderer is developing, becoming more skilled. He has been adjusting the formula. As you guys can see, the first hands still show some sign of rottenness, but the new one is very well preserved.”

Lu Junchi asked again, “Except for the stored drugs, what other information can we get?”

“Director Sheng went to the field.” Xing Jing brought another examination report. “He had seen it in person, fingerprints, DNA, blood type, and the shape of the wounds had also been studied. The tool is suspected to be a sharp chainsaw. All the victims are around 25 years old. Director Shang also said…”

Xing Jing looked at Lu Junchi with her beautiful eyes, then she pursed her lips and said, “He said the victims’ blood contained a certain amount of animal anesthetic, and there was a life response, which means these limbs might have been cut off when the victims were alive. After the murderer controlled the victims, he cut their hands and feet. The process was carried out until he embalmed them. Also, the dosage of anesthesia is not often, and Director Shang suspected the victims were in semi-conscious states.”

Such a murderer was too cruel.

Lu Junchi asked, “After the limbs were cut off, is there any chance for the victims to survive?”

Xing Jing shook her head. “With such a large wound will cause severe blood loss and infect the wound. Even if they go to a professional hospital, they might not be saved, so we can basically determine that the victims are already dead.”

After listening to what Xing Jing had said, a strange scene appeared in Lu Junchi’s mind. In the dim room, in front of a simple bed, a man in a raincoat cut off the woman’s hand who had laid in front of him with a gloomy face. The room was filled with the buzzing sound of the chainsaw and the weak woman’s crying voice, calling for help but to no avail…

Qiao Ze was taking note on the side, thus, after hearing this; a trace of fear flashed in his eyes, and his teeth trembled involuntarily.

Lu Junchi turned to ask Qiao Ze, “Have the fingerprints and blood type been compared?”

Qiao Ze said, “When it was sent yesterday, I ran the database all night but it hadn’t been found in the file.” That was to say, the fingerprints and blood type had not entered their system yet.

After finishing all the explanations, Xing Jing handed over various examination reports and a pile of photos to Lu Junchi. “Captain Lu, that’s all the information we can provide. What else do you think we need to inspect?”

Lu Junchi hesitated for a moment and said, “I want to apply for the microchemical test to check what is inside the finger, and see if this can help determine the deceased’s profession.”

They could only determine the time when the victim’s hand was cut off and the information they obtained was too little to confirm the deceased’s identity.

Without knowing the deceased, it was impossible to find out how the murderer chose the target and the motive of the crime.

“Microchemical test?!” Xing Jing looked at Lu Junchi with a smile at the corner of her mouth. “The method that Captain Lu has said, there is indeed a lot of information hidden in people’s fingers, which can’t be washed away after repeated washing. I know this technology, and it seems like the specific method can only be carried out after spectral measurement. However, we can’t do it here, we need to send it to the laboratory of the Huadu Police Academy.”

After speaking, Xing Jing took out the note and wrote. “I’ll write it down first, and discuss it with Director Shang when he returns. I will let you know as soon as there is news, trouble Captain Lu to wait.”

Lu Junchi nodded, expressing his understanding.

The identification center of the Huadu General Bureau had a heavy workload. They were not only responsible for various laboratory tests for each criminal police team but also sometimes cooperated with the sub-bureau for inspection and testing. All kinds of laboratory tests took time.

Those trace inspectors, experimenters, and forensic doctors couldn’t wait to live in the identification center every day.

All the data of the Major Crime Unit was regarded as the highest priority. Therefore, the results could be obtained quickly.

The work here was almost over, Lu Junchi and Qiao Ze walked out.

The Huadu General Bureau was very modern, especially the identification center. The first floor was the storage center, the second floor was the forensic department, and the third floor was the physical evidence laboratory. The whole building had a continuous temperature, constant oxygen. The corridor was installed with large French windows, and the scenery could be seen through the glass.

Now in midsummer, looking out as far as the eyes could see, it was lush green.

Lu Junchi took a few steps, holding the information in his hand, he turned to ask Qiao Ze, “What do you think about this case?”

Qiao Ze crossed his arms and answered frankly, “This murderer is a big pervert! But he is too cunning and experienced. We have searched so much, yet we know nothing about this murderer.”

“Not really nothing. The murderer should be a man who acted alone” Lu Junchi inferred in a low voice. “The murderer has a channel that he could purchase chemical products and drugs. He has relevant knowledge with not too low educational background, he should have more time to deposit than work, plus an independent office, and along with a place to dismember the corpse…”

Lu Junchi paused, then he said softly, “But why did the murderer put those dismembered limbs in the car?

He wasn’t able to explain this issue yet. Lu Junchi felt his analysis was a little messy. With this information, he could not visualize the murderer.

He had no clue of what to do next. Furthermore, he still had many questions and puzzles in his heart.

Lu Junchi had received a good education related to a modern criminal investigation. He was accustomed to the process and the procedure of solving cases, step by step, fast and quick with the best method.

But the current case was different from ordinary cases. As a normal person, he was not good at analyzing the psychology of a pervert.

Qiao Ze asked, “Right…Captain Lu, has any adviser been selected for our team?”

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Lu Junchi shook his head. “Several people who had submitted their CV recently aren’t very suitable.”

Qiao Ze bowed his head for a moment, and said out of the blue, “It would be best if the Behaviour Analysis Team is still here.”

Hearing his words, Lu Junchi’s expression changed slightly.

The Behavior Analysis Team started as a special department under the FBI in the United States, referred to as BSU, and it was this group that carried forward the concept of ‘criminal profiling’.

The technology of criminal profiling and criminal psychology portrait was easy to say but it was actually difficult to work and interpret. In this regard, China had always been far behind the Western countries.

Under such a domestic environment, the Huadu General Bureau had always been at the forefront of trying various criminal investigation methods.

More than ten years ago, Huadu introduced criminal profiling to the police force and did the training for the police officers.

Unfortunately, criminal psychology was not a subject that everyone could master. Hence, it didn’t seem very effective at that time. Nevertheless, this behavior was to sow a seed for the future.

After criminal profiling became more and more popular, it finally had some results in Huadu.

Eight years ago, a criminal profiler named Yu Yan solved a several-year unsolved case for Huadu, which established Yu Yan’s identity and status. He was also known as the first profiler in Huadu.

The discovery of the unsolved case made the senior police officers in Huadu truly see the power of the criminal profiler, and they had paid more attention to this.

Five years ago, the Huadu General Bureau planned to form a professional Behavior Analysis Team led by the first profiler, Yu Yan.

Ten of thousands of criminal police officers along with the students from the police academy in Huadu took part in this huge selection and submitted their profiling answers.

In the end, Yu Yan selected four people as the first members of the Behavior Analysis Team.

During that period, Yu Yan died unexpectedly, and everyone thought there was little hope for the establishment of the Behavior Analysis Team.

However, Chief Tan still overrode all the objections and set up the Behavior Analysis Team according to Yu Yan’s last wish.

In order to not let the tragedy repeat itself, the senior police officers decided to protect several profilers by setting them as anonymous, and their identities weren’t known to anyone in the General Bureau.

The code names of the four profilers in the Behavior Analysis Team were: Poet, Moonlight, Robin, and Prophet.

The team provided profiling assistance to the General Bureau and all various sub-bureau. As long as they uploaded numerous materials and detailed information of the case to the intranet platform, they would get the analysis of the suspect from the criminal profilers.

Although every report would write: non-scientific evidence, for reference only. Yet, those profilings were regarded as imperial edicts by grassroots police officers.

Fact had proved that criminal psychology portraits weren’t metaphysics, and the accuracy rates of those top profilers were relatively high.

The use and extension of profiling had a certain positive effect, which greatly shortened the time for the Huadu police to solve the cases and improved the efficiency of solving the cases.

Especially the profiler Poet, someone in the police force had made the report and his profiling accuracy rate was 87%. With the help of his profiling analysis, the Huadu police had solved many major cases continuously, and some unsolved cases in which the murderer hadn’t been caught for a long time were also unraveled.

The extremely mysterious profiler, Poet, was also known as Yu Yan’s successor. Some people even thought his talent and achievements had surpassed Yu Yan since the beginning.

Some people said Poet was the one who had the best understanding of the criminal’s psychology and he was the closest to evil.

All of this, until two years ago…

The fine sand explosion occurred, the Behavior Analysis Team was disbanded without warning, and Poet had never appeared again.

Many people speculated that Poet was dead.

Everything caught the Huadu police, who had been relying on criminal profiling, by surprise.

It took a long time for a person that used to be helped, to walk independently again.

But these days, when they encounter those difficult puzzles, they still think of the mysterious group and those legendary people.

After Lu Junchi took over the Major Crime Unit, he solved numerous major cases constantly. Moreover, he clearly felt there was a lack of a criminal psychology portrait, so Lu Junchi thought of recruiting an adviser.

However, the candidates had not been decided yet.

Under the ray of light, in front of the French window of the Huadu General Bureau, the two were silent for a moment.

Then, Qiao Ze suddenly recalled something. “Captain Lu, I remembered something. Do you remember our cooperation with the Criminology Department of the Huadu Police Academy?”

After this reminder, Lu Junchi remembered. “That’s the one…the teacher of the academy provided us with case consultation. And the Major Crime Unit had to submit the criminal record file for them as cooperation in the academic research?”

The cooperation began a year ago. Both parties signed a confidentiality agreement, deciding to provide details for each other. In fact, during these years, the Major Crime Unit had a one-way conclusion that didn’t get an actual consultation.

Qiao Ze applied for a serious nod from his boss. “Yes, the Criminal Justice Department, that is the hidden dragon, crouching tiger[1]. I have also taken Director Liao’s class, they have a criminal psychology class there, and there is also some profiling analysis. You might as well go there, perhaps there will be some different opinions.” Qiao Ze reminded, “Captain Lu, you might be able to find an adviser there too.”

[1] T/N: Hidden dragon, crouching tiger means concealing one’s talent.

Lu Junchi pondered for a minute. “I’m afraid there will be a gap between the academic and us who are the criminal investigators. Anyway, since there is a way, I’ll go over and ask.”

Qiao Ze said, “Yes, doctor a dead horse as if it were still alive[2]. If there is no help, just don’t listen to them.”

[2] T/N: doctor a dead horse as if it were still alive means making every possible effort; not giving up for the loss.

Lu Junchi told Qiao Ze, “When you go back, let them check the missing people records first and see if they can find anything. In addition, No.1’s and No.3’s places were searched yesterday, in the middle of the night, so there shouldn’t be anyone who had been disturbed. Let the criminal police team over there set up a hidden sentry post to continue monitoring and see if there are suspicious people waiting to approach the cars.”

Qiao Ze responded and walked in the direction of the Major Crime Unit.

After arranging the work, Lu Junchi phoned Director Liao. Because Director Liao was still teaching, the phone was answered by his assistant. He said Director Liao finished teaching at ten o’clock and they could meet in the office.

Lu Junchi glanced at the time, it was 9:30. Hence, he went down and drove directly to the Huadu Police Academy.

The Huadu Police Academy was eight kilometers from here. Lu Junchi had been to Director Liao’s office several times already, it was on the third floor of the teacher’s office building.

Lu Junchi parked his car under the office building and walked all the way upstairs when his phone made a sound all of sudden.

He looked at it and saw that Xing Jing had replied to him, saying Shang Qinghan agreed to his request and the microchemical test evidence analysis would be carried out.

Lu Junchi breathed a sigh of relief.

Having the information in his hand, he lowered his head and sent it out. Lu Junchi walked quickly to the corridor where he was about to reach Director Liao’s office.

Suddenly, a figure walked out of the office from the opposite side. From the corner of Lu Junchi’s eyes, he could see that the other party was a tall and thin man. Lu Junchi immediately slowed down his pace, then he dodged, wanting to make way.

The corridor was very wide, enough for eight people to pass side by side. If it was an ordinary person, it must be safe and sound. Even if the response was sluggish, it’s estimated that the people could still pass by safely.

However, when Lu Junchi dodged to his right, the man also dodged to his left side, almost bumped into Lu Junchi’s direction.

Afterward, the man stumbled directly on top of him, seeing that he was about to fall forward, Lu Junchi reluctantly let go of the information in his hand and stretched out his arms to hold the other party, allowing the man to fall firmly into his embrace.

The author has something to say: 

Does it feel good, Captain Lu?

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