Case Files 013

Chapter 134: Newspaper

The village head yelled for his wife to get the scale. It was the old-fashioned kind. The village head placed the meat on the scale and then adjusted the weights on the counterbalance until the scale was even. The village head narrowed his eyes and gasped, "My God, there is around 10 jin (6 kg) here."

That confirmation rippled through our hearts. We looked at the cooked meat and didn't know what to say. Was this the surprise the killer wanted to give us? Chop up the victim and feed it to us as dumplings? I spat twice and could still feel the taste lingering on my lips.

Gu Chen hissed, "The killers are getting more and more violent and insane these days. First they left a bloody message on the wall for us and now this human dumpling. If this continues, perhaps one day, the killer will stand before us and admit directly that they're the killer." Even though Gu Chen was only venting, I shivered thinking about what the killers might do next considering they had already gone so far. What more would be waiting for us?

Chief Zhou said worriedly, "I think we should lay in ambush on the rooftops at night. Think about it, the killer has always come out to dispose of the body parts during snowy weather. The snow has helped cover their traces." Chief Zhou looked at us, "Then we should wait for a snowy night and then lay out a trap for them!"

I frowned, but Chief Zhou was not wrong. Gu Chen praised Chief Zhou's suggestion. "That's right! We should just stay up all night. There are only 10 jin of meat here, there is still quite a lot of body left. The village isn't big. With a few more people, we should be able to cover the entire village. I'm sure we'll apprehend the killer that way."

I nodded. "That could work but we'll have to find trustworthy people to be our lookouts. If the killer found out about this plan, then we would just be wasting our time."

The village head concurred. "Currently, we're in the open and the killers are in the dark. But if we can set up this ambush, the whole situation will change." At this point, he added, "By the way, Wu Meng, you suspect that there might be more than one killer, didn't you? Then we should find more helpers."

Chief Zhou looked at the village head. "But it's not easy for us to find trusted help since we don't know anyone here."

The village head frowned as if going through the candidates in his mind. After some time, he said, "Ol' Xia has always been my assistant and Er Xiao doesn't have much interaction with the villagers. What about them?"

Ol' Xia and Er Xiao were both on my suspect list but now we had to rely on them to help us catch the killer? But then again, based on what we knew, the two of them definitely didn't have the time to prepare the dumplings. Even though Ol' Xiao had severe burns, he had healed for the most part. He was also strong and fit. Er Xiao was a healthy man, so he could help too. We looked at each other and saw the affirmation in each other's eyes.

Noting our agreement, the village head announced, "Okay, I'll give Ol' Xia and Er Xiao a call now."

I advised, "We should find a few houses where the villagers normally wouldn't pay attention to. We need to be as cautious as we can." The village head nodded and then called the two.

I looked up into the sky and it still hadn't lightened up. But it looked like there wasn't going to be snow in the afternoon. According to the weather report on the phone though, the snow would be around for another 2, 3 days. Whenever it snowed, there was a chance for a body dump.

We arrived at Lee Danan's home around 3 pm. Lee Danan was situated at the most eastern side of the village. Normally the villagers wouldn't come here. Most of us had arrived, the only one who was missing was Er Xiao because he needed to walk for more than 1 hour to cover the journey.

I looked around Lee Danan's home. It was clear that Lee Danan lived alone, the room was quite messy. The socks and comforter were dropped on the bed. A few clothes were casually dumped to the side alongside the pile of underwear and socks. They looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time. Lee Danan had lost both arms, so no matter how agile his legs were, he couldn't be the killer. So it made sense for us to gather here to discuss the plan. Lee Danan probably didn't have so many people at his house before. He was quite shy and turned away from us, focused on shoveling the coals into the stove. He opened the television to keep us entertained.

I hadn't had a meal since the horrid lunch and my stomach was rumbling. It was not that I didn't want to eat but I didn't have the appetite. The human dumpling left quite an impact on us. Only Gu Chen was able to eat the food that we were served. Throughout the whole afternoon, I depended on water to stave off the hunger. It was why I needed to excuse myself to use the bathroom.

The houses had about the same layout in this village. After one walked in the yard, one would face the main room situated at the north, on the west was the toilet and the kitchen would be on the east. I pulled open the bathroom door. I was greeted by a wall of newspapers. I was quite surprised but then as I walked in, I realized they were there to block the wind. The newspapers were layered on top of one another. As I took a piss, I studied the articles on the paper.

The papers were all dated and some were already yellowed from exposure to the elements. Out of boredom, I started to read. Most of them were taken from Elm Town's Night Daily. There were only a few pages from other publications. Some of the articles were quite interesting. For example, one headline was, A woman in her 50s was raped when she was strolling by the river', and the next day's headline was, More than 100 single women over 50 were found walking by the river this morning'.

I took a cursory glance and one of the articles caught my attention, it was the law beat of the paper. The article had an eye-catching headlineListing 20 famous psychopath killers around the world. Without knowing it, I was drawn in by the writing. I had to stop and pull up my pants because the lower half of the paper was glued under another. I used my hand to peel off the upper layer and realized the rest of the article had already been pulled off.

The lower half of the article had already been torn away. I ran my finger along the tear, it pricked my finger, that meant that the tearing was recent. It was understandable for people to look around at the paper when using the toilet but why would one tear away one of the articles?

The possibility popped into my head, copycat killers. However, in this case, the culprit didn't take inspiration from a killer they idolized but from an article they randomly encountered inside Lee Danan's toilet. Then the different dismemberment method could be explained. Since the killer only tore off the latter half of the article, they must have copied the methods from the remaining 12 killers reported on the article. With that in mind, I tore down the rest of the article, took a picture and sent it to Sister Mary. She should be able to find the complete article online.

If that was the case, the killer must have played guest at Lee Danan's house before. Lee Danan was too shy to have that many friends. So even though he might not be the killer, he must know the killer. Furthermore, Lee Danan was our first witness of this case, was this a coincidence?

Suddenly, someone jiggled on the lock from outside. I hurriedly shoved the article into my pocket and turned around, pretending to fiddle with my zipper. The door was pulled open and Lee Danan walked in. I pretended like I had just finished using the toilet and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had to use the toilet too."

Lee Danan smiled shyly. He looked at me and then behind me. "It's not that, you've been here for so long so I came to check on you. Our village uses pit latrines and it can get quite slippery during winter."

I smiled, "You're worried that I might fall into the shithole?"

Lee Danan was clearly embarrassed. When we walked out, Er Xiao also just arrived. I walked into the room and said, "Well, since we're all here, we can go now."

I turned and headed straight out, leaving behind a room of confused people. Even though they had no idea what I was doing, no one said anything. They moved to follow me. Gu Chen hurried over and whispered, "What happened? Don't tell me you think Lee Danan is the killer? He doesn't even have arms, how can he be the killer?"

I took out the torn newspaper from my pocket and slipped it to Gu Chen. "I found this inside Lee Danan's toilet. I believe the methods of dismemberment were learned from this article. But the later half of the article has been torn away. I can't tell what the rest of the article says."

I hid my actions from the rest so they couldn't tell what we were doing from behind. I continued to whisper, "Too many people are involved in this case. This case is far more complex than we assume. We should keep this between us 2 for now."

"Not even Guan Zhenglin and Chief Zhou?" Gu Chen asked.

I nodded.

"What's wrong?" Noticing Gu Chen and I hurry towards the village entrance, the village head asked from behind.