Case Files 013

Chapter 130: Copycat Killer

When we arrived back at the village, it was already dark. Unable to sustain the weight anymore, the clouds unloaded heavy snow onto the earth. This snow was going to last. The village head arranged for us to stay at a Siheyuan. There were 2 rooms separated by a middle courtyard. Guan Zhenglin, as the only female among our group, slept alone; while the 3 of us dudes shared the other room. Thankfully the room was large enough to fit 3 of us. However, neither Gu Chen nor myself had used a coal stove before. Thankfully Chief Zhou came from a farming background, he was experienced with this kind of coal stove. Soon the coals in the two rooms were heated. Chief Zhou looked at me. "City dwellers like yourself probably haven't seen this kind of coal stoves before. I wonder how much longer they'll be around. With time, they too will disappear from this world."

The few of us then crawled into bed. However, it was only 7 pm, for youngsters like ourselves, sleeping at this hour was no different from torture. We rolled in bed but were unable to sleep, so we decided to discuss the case instead. Chief Zhou took an interest in the case and kept asking for my opinion. Chief Zhou asked, "I believe this case is not as simple as you may think. If the killer is really a butcher, it will be too obvious in a small village like this. Is it possible that the killer was purposely disguising themselves behind this perception?"

I laid in bed and looked at the ceiling as I listened to Chief Zhou's analysis. He had a point. Was it possible that the murderer was purposely mimicking someone else so that we were given the wrong direction from the start? "That's possible." I said seriously, "The killer might not be a butcher but has seen similar cases before so they have adopted the killing method. Then, it would make our culprit a copycat killer."

"A copycat killer?" Gu Chen asked.

I pulled on my hair and explained, "A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modelled or inspired by a previous crime. The perpetrator is paying homage to their inspiration. For example, the culture of idol worship, no matter what the crime their idols committed, these fans would support their idols; and the moment you said something bad about their idols, they would antagonize you." The two nodded. I continued, "Just like these idols and their rabid fans, some serial killers have crazy fans too. The fans would model their crimes after their idols. Even today, there are people copying the crimes of Jack the Ripper, even though that was more than 120 years ago."

Chief Zhou shook his head, "I doubt there is such a person at this village. Elm Town has no murder for so many years already, mostly, the deaths are from accidents or suicides. If there is a copycat killer at First Drain Village, they would have killed a long time ago, why wait until today?"

I closed my eyes and voiced my concern, "If the killer is just a normal person, then why dismember the victim with such cruelty? And so far, we have only seen the victim's single arm and leg, we have no idea where the rest of the body is."

Gu Chen enquired, "Do you think there will be another form of dismemberment? The leg was chopped off by a dull blade while the arm was bitten off by a dog. What about the remaining arm and leg, would they have been dismembered using different methods?"

With Gu Chen's inquiry, an image appeared in my mind. The victim was tied to a bed, she was unable to struggle and resist. A butcher stood to her left, the butcher carried a bloody and dull machete. The butcher sawed her leg off slowly. At the same time, a hunter with a dog approached her from the right. The hunter ordered the hound to bite into the victim's shoulder before tearing her whole right arm off. I was frightened by the image. If that was true, then this case was much more serious than I thought, because then we would be dealing with 2 murderers, a duo, 1 butcher and 1 hunter. It would explain the expediency by which the body parts were dumped, the jobs were assigned efficiently.

However, statistically speaking, the greater the cruelty of the crime, the larger the chance of a singular perpetrator. This was because working together came with too much risk. The fear of betrayal was real.

As I mentioned earlier, when a person fitted the criminal profile too perfectly, it was unusual, but what if there were 2 people? However, the chance of 2 murderers cooperating was very low. My head was muddled. Was there 1 ideal criminal, or 2 separate killers splitting up the job scope?

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. It didn't help that much. I sighed, "When all the villagers are gathered tomorrow, we'll be able to tell if there's any suspect among them. But we're still missing vital information even though this is already the third day of the case. We still don't even know who the victim is."

Chief Zhou cushioned his arm behind his head. "That's right. Most of the villagers at First Drain Village are handicapped people and normally outsiders wouldn't come here. Unfortunately Elm Town is a small city and we don't even have the villagers' basic information stored on a cloud database." The wind howled outside the window. I pulled back the curtain and looked out. The snowflakes fell on the window ledge. Looks like the snow was going to fall through the night. I was worried because the snow would most likely eclipse any kind of evidence out there. I laid back down and wrapped myself with the comforter. "Elm Town doesn't have a citizenry database?"

Chief Zhou nodded. "Yes. When I came here 20 plus years ago, we still had an actual paper file room. Only when we entered the 21st century did the city provide us with internet service and we started to input that information onto the web." 20 plus years ago, I wasn't even born yet. Chief Zhou continued, "But most of the information on the paper files were outdated, we didn't have the manpower to check them one by one and just keyed everything just like that. There was not a strict gatekeeping system. However, the internet did bring with it plenty of positives. With the information on our fingertips, we managed to capture a few fugitives who were on the run. Thankfully, this old man still knows how to use the computer."

Gu Chen suddenly chuckled, "Chief Zhou, now that you mention it, you look around 40 plus already. We have been at Elm Town for about 3 months and we never heard about your plan to settle down. If I am not mistaken, haven't you been going out with a local girl. Xiao Mei was her name, wasn't it? Why haven't we seen her lately? If you ask me, 40 plus is about time for a man to get married."

I perked my ears up to listen, I guessed I am quite a gossip too. Then we heard Chief Zhou sigh. "Honestly, I don't even know what has happened. Perhaps I've angered her somehow. My phone hasn't rung for a week already." Then he showed us his phone record. I slept beside Chief Zhou and I only needed to turn my head around to see his phone. On the list, there were only work calls, one of them was even from me but none from his girlfriend.

Gu Chen also turned over. "Chief Zhou, it's not that I'm trying to jinx this but I don't think this is going to work out. After all, we've seen your girlfriend before. She's pretty and how old is she?"

Chief Zhou answered, "She's 30 years ago."

Gu Chen clapped his hand together, "See, there's a 10 year difference. And you keep ignoring her. She probably blocked you."

"No way." Chief Zhou shook his head, "I didn't ignore her, I am working this case."

I smiled. "That's not a good excuse. Plus you have time now, don't you? Why don't you call her?"

With urging from Gu Chen and me, this 40 plus man finally surrendered to our demands and called his girlfriend. We had him put it on speaker. Chief Zhou's face was red. However, there was no answer until the robotic voice said, "I'm sorry but the number you're calling is currently busy, please try again later."

Chief Zhou's eyes darkened, I saw helplessness and sadness in them. Gu Chen and I were giggling earlier but now we didn't know what to say. Perhaps Gu Chen was right, Chief Zhou had been blocked and blacklisted.

Gu Chen tried to backpedal. "But I remember Xiao Mei likes to hang around you. I'm sure she is just busy. I was only kidding earlier."

Chief Zhou looked at me and then at Gu Chen. His lips moved like he wanted to say something. Eventually he uttered, "Wu Meng, Gu Chen, I have something to tell you"

I waved my hands. "We understand. But why abandon the whole forest for a single tree. Am I right?"

"No, it's not that." Chief Zhou shook his head.

Gu Chen said, "I'm sure it's fine. We better sleep now."

And no one spoke anymore.