Chapter 5: 5

Inspector Ji told me the last time that because the police could not obtain any surveillance footage of the accident, they had to rely on my statement to proceed and eventually close the case. But because I had lost my memory, I wasn’t able to provide any information, so it was vital to track down that truck driver.

I didn’t tell Inspector Ji about the truck driver because I suddenly realized that there was another problem. The truck driver didn’t have to bear any responsibility for this accident, yet he chose to escape. Why? Was it because he was driving an unregistered vehicle?

And because he was driving an unregistered vehicle, he had to secretly send the truck to a private workshop like Dafei Car Workshop for repairs. But I was driving a legally registered car. Why did I have to go to Dafei’s as well?

Besides that, I also had other selfish reasons for not telling Inspector Ji about this. This traffic accident was a result of how I had purposely taken up an entire lane and driven at a snail pace. Once one got to the bottom of this case, things would become very unfavorable to me. That was why I continued to remain vague in my statements even though memories were slowly returning to me. I barely mentioned the truck driver at all.

I wasn’t sure if I was getting paranoid because I was hiding this secret, but over the next two days, I kept feeling like there was a pair of eyes watching me, especially when I was on my way home from work.

Initially, I thought I was just imagining things. But today, I actually noticed that someone was seriously following me.

Actually, when I started walking up the stairs, I could already hear footsteps following behind me, but the footsteps remained about one story behind me. When I stopped to pull my housekeys out, the footsteps stopped as well.

I was immediately on high alert and pretended to open my door, then hid in a corner of the corridor and held my breath as I watched what happened next.

The person following me clearly thought that I had entered the house after he heard my door close again, so he came running up the stairs. I peeked out to come face to face with the stalker. It was the young man who had driven the truck away that day!

Why was he following me? He must have recognized me when we saw each other at the car workshop the other day. But he drove off so quickly when I called out to him, and now, he had secretly followed me all the way home. Why? Was he afraid that I would tell the police about him and that the police would eventually find out that he was driving an unregistered vehicle?

That had to be it.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was no better. I was also afraid that this young man might tell the police that I was the real reason why that accident happened.

Communication was always a breeze between two people with the same aim in mind. I welcomed the young man into my home warmly and got him some snacks and tea. The young man seemed rather awkward and kept waving his hands about to tell me that he could do without this overly enthusiastic display of hospitality. I brought an apple over and got him to sit down. As I pared the apple, I tried to start the conversation proper, “I wanted to talk to you that day at the car workshop but you left so quickly. I didn’t expect you to turn up today.”

My mention of the car workshop made him a little nervous. “So…you recognized me that day?”

I laughed and teased him, “I recognized the truck you were driving first!”

He froze and said, “But that sort of box truck is very common, no?”

I said, “But I still recognized it immediately.”

He said, “Actually, I recognized you that day too.”

I nodded and he went on, “You…often repair your car at that workshop too, right?”

I thought he would talk about the accident. I didn’t expect him to change the topic like this. This annoyed me a little, so I snapped impatiently, “You followed me all the way here just to ask about this?”

“N-no, of course not.” He swallowed his saliva and continued, “Actually, when I heard you yelling after my truck that day, I knew what you wanted to talk to me about. But I couldn’t possibly talk about something like this in front of other people.”

“So you pretended that you hadn’t heard me and just drove off?”

He nodded.

Glee filled my heart as I thought he was finally going to talk about the accident, so I tried to push him along. “It’s just the both of us now, so you can speak openly now.”

He paused to think for a while before saying, “That day, I overheard you arguing with the boss about how he repaired your car but forgot to change your airbag. Actually, my issue was quite similar to yours. I feel that before I sent my truck for repair…”

I cut him off impatiently, “Wait a minute. I wanted you to talk about the accident! What are you talking about now? Fine. If you don’t know where to start, I’ll help you.”

But just when I was about to get to the point, my phone suddenly started ringing. I put down my paring knife and the half pared apple to pull my phone out. It was Inspector Ji.

I purposely showed the young man my phone and said, “Look! The traffic police officer is calling me again. Because of this accident, he’s been calling me almost every single day. If I hadn’t been covering up for you, they would have come knocking on your door by now.”

I stood up and pretended to look like I was doing him a big favor as I walked away to answer the call.

The moment I picked up the phone, Inspector Ji’s anxious voice came from the other side, “Thank god! You finally picked up the phone!”

“What’s happened?”

“We’ve made a huge discovery!”

“What huge discovery?”

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Inspector Ji was panting as he said, “I just got the autopsy report on the driver of that Peugeot 408. The report says that the victim died from repeated trauma to the back of the head!”

“What does that mean?” I was still confused.

Inspector Ji swallowed a mouthful of saliva before continuing, “Most victims in a traffic accident die from that one collision, while this man had died from repeated knocks to the head, so I suspect…”

He didn’t complete the sentence, but what he was implying was obvious. I completed the sentence for him, “You suspect that the driver of the Peugeot 408 didn’t die from the accident itself?”

“That’s right. Someone must have been afraid of being held responsible, so after the accident occurred, he decided to just kill the driver. For example, he might have held the victim’s head and struck it against the road repeatedly!”

For some reason, the blurry images in my head became clearer now and I widened my eyes as I began to remember more things. On that dark and quiet night, a man squatted beneath the icy moonlight as he held another man’s head and slammed that man’s head onto the road again and again.

Memory of this scene was so terrifying that I couldn’t help but exclaim in fright.

Inspector Ji immediately asked me excitedly, “Did you remember something? Did you?”

Indeed, I did remember something. Those memories I had lost after the accident were slowly coming back to me.

I started, “The truck driver…”

Inspector Ji cut in, “That’s right! Before this, I thought that the truck driver had decided to drive away from the scene because he was afraid that the police would find out that he was driving an unregistered vehicle. But from the looks of it now, he could have been running away because he had killed someone!”

I ignored what he was saying and continued my own recollection, “That truck driver wanted to silence me too. I remember him holding a knife in his hand.”

Inspector Ji was stunned. “My goodness! Why didn’t I think of that? In that case, aren’t you in a very dangerous position? Since this traffic accident involves a murder, it means that the criminal investigation team needs to take over. According to policy, the traffic police need to formally raise a request for the criminal investigation team to take over, and the criminal investigation team will only start investigating after they agree that their team ought to take over.”

“Those who need the witness protection program like you will have to wait for the criminal investigation team to open a case and ascertain how dangerous your situation is before they can apply for a protection order from higher management. Once the protection order is approved, it will be passed to HR, and HR will roster a police officer to protect you…”

He ran out of breath at this point, so he took a big gulp of air and continued, “Well, I used to be part of the criminal investigation team, so I know all the administration required on their part. This whole process will take at least 10 to 14 days, but since the truck driver hasn’t come looking for you yet, we still have time to get this processed…”

I couldn’t stand hearing Inspector Ji go on and on anymore, so I cut him off, “We don’t have time anymore!”

He asked curiously, “Why?”

I said, “The truck driver has already come looking for me!”

“Where?!”

“My apartment!”

“WHAT?!”

I repeated myself, “He’s at my apartment right now!”

“Your apartment? And where are you now?”

“I’m standing just across the room from him!”

After I said this, I turned around, only to see the young man standing expressionlessly in front of me with a paring knife in his hand. This scene instantly gave me the feeling of déjà vu.

I realized he was going to attack me, so I shoved my phone in his face suddenly.

He was taken aback by my action and I said, “The police officer wants to talk to you!”

A look of shock flashed across his face. “He wants to talk to me?” He then reached hesitantly for my phone.

But just as he was about to put my phone next to his ear to speak into it, I suddenly grabbed the hot water flask on the table and flung it at his head.

The first thing I heard was the sound of the glass inside breaking, followed by the boiling water splashing out. The blood curdling screams from the young man shook the entire block as he fell to the floor and clutched his face with both hands.

The knife he was holding had landed on the floor next to him, so I quickly kicked it aside. My phone was slightly further away and in two pieces.

These were the times when I really took my hat off to these old Nokia phones. They were seriously as hard as a rock. The outer casing of my phone was broken, but as long as the battery didn’t fall out, the phone still worked.

I could hear Inspector Ji yelling at the top of his voice, his shouts crackling through the speaker of my phone. He was yelling my name and saying, “Hang in there! I’ll be there in a minute!”

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