by Gangxueyin
The police station chief saw this and could understand the anxiety a parent would feel from losing a child, so he sent out everyone who was on duty to search for any sign of the child within the Red Flag residential area. They searched until midnight but found nothing. The police had done all they could and advised the couple to go home and wait.
How could Wang Cheng and Song Juan feel relief by going home and waiting? They had heard of the many children that had disappeared within a relatively short time around West Red Flag Street, and they worried their child might be among them. They were also afraid the police wouldn’t take any further steps to find her. For the rest of the night, with the help of their neighbors, they sought out the other families of abducted children and proposed lodging a complaint at city hall together.
Early the next morning, a line of people arrived at the main gate of the government office building and demanded to see the mayor. The guard told them to take their issue to the appeals office. Instead, the families tried to burst in and clashed with the guards just as the mayor’s motorcade passed. He stopped the procession to find out what was happening and immediately told his secretary to connect him to the municipal PSB, whom he ordered to take on this important case right away.
After issuing his orders, Chief Wu hastily left the meeting, with Ye Xi, Han Yin, and Hu Zhiguo following close behind. It took them only a few minutes to get to the municipal PSB office. A dozen parents of missing children were waiting in the bureau meeting room.
The bureau chief had been a seasoned criminal detective who knew that cases of missing children with ages spanning nine to sixteen were very complex. It was very possible that a serial child abuser and killer lurked within the Red Flag District. And since roughly a year had passed since the first case, all those children may have already met their tragic end. Right now, the most important thing was to solve this case as quickly as possible. If they hurried, maybe the missing child still had a chance.
When they went into the meeting room, the bureau chief asked each family to quickly give a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding their child’s disappearance.
All the missing children belonged to migrant workers.
The earliest to disappear was a girl named Liu Xiaohua, nine years old, and a second-year student in J City’s Third Primary School. On March 16, 2011, she disappeared after leaving the school at around three o’clock. The child’s parents worked in a furniture factory, and this family of three rented a living space in the shantytown area to the north of the East Red Flag Street bus station.
The second missing child was male, twelve years old, and attended this city’s East Red Flag Primary School. He disappeared after leaving home around noon on October 22, 2011. He was wearing a pair of slippers when he went missing. The parents work in a sawmill. This family of three rented space in the shantytown area in the southern section of East Red Flag Street.
The third missing child was also male, ten years old, a third-year-student at the city’s Second Primary School. He did not return home after dropping off his younger brother at kindergarten at about nine o’clock on December 11, 2011. His parents were industrial painters. They rented a living space in the shantytown area at the southern end of East Red Flag Street.
The fourth missing child was male, sixteen years old, a third-year student at East Red Flag High School. After telling his parents, “I’m going to go hang out for a while,” at about one o’clock on December 31, 2011, he never returned home. He had followed his mother in seeking refuge with relatives in the city. He lived near the Friends Internet Café, south of the East Red Flag Street bus station.
The fifth missing child was male, ten years old, a third-year student at the city’s Second Primary School. On January 7, 2012, at about seven in the morning, he left home to go to a neighborhood Internet café and never returned. He lived with his parents in the shantytown on the southern end of East Red Flag Street.
The most recent disappearance was the girl, Wang Hong, sixteen years old, a second-year student at West Red Flag High School. She disappeared after leaving school at about four o’clock. According to her parents, they had done business in the Red Flag residential area for many years and lived in the shantytown near the West Red Flag market. They’d originally sent the child to be raised by her maternal grandmother in their hometown and brought her back to live with them when the grandmother died. The child had lived for many years in an isolated peasant village lacking good nutrition, so she was extremely thin and looked two or three years younger than she actually was. As the child was rather simple-minded, her parents worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up in school and held her back a year.
The parents also angrily reported that after the first disappearance, the Red Flag District Police took the information, made a hasty search that turned up no results, left the case hanging, and didn’t contact the worried family members. In the second, third, fourth, and fifth disappearances, after finding out that several of the missing children liked to play computer games at the local Internet cafés, the police theorized that some of the boys might have left home because of an Internet addiction or to meet their Internet friends elsewhere. As a result, the police filed a stripped-down version of the case and told the parents to go home and wait. But because the most recent disappearance had happened within twenty-four hours, they couldn’t yet file the case away.
This was clearly incompetent behavior. After the parents had relayed their stories, the bureau chief offered them his sincere apology on behalf of the Public Security Bureau and said he would come down hard on the people and departments responsible and would launch an immediate investigation. Then he arranged for a special car to send the worried parents back to their respective homes. Han Yin thought of suggesting that Wang Hong’s parents be held back for questioning, but he also worried that the other parents might get the wrong idea.
Tech support had sent over a map of the Red Flag residential district with clearly marked locations related to the cases. In addition, the person in charge of the Southern Tombs Branch criminal division and the Red Flag residential district police station chief had been ordered to appear at the municipal bureau immediately.
Soon after the parents were gone, the two officers arrived in a rush, sensing the gravity of the situation. Heads bowed and breathing heavily, the two men stood meekly at the door of the meeting room.
The bureau chief was in a rage. He pointed to the case records on the table and said, “You should have informed me about these things when they started. And now the families of the missing people came to my door and raised hell with the municipal party committee.”
“Really. We did everything we were supposed to do!” the police station chief said. “Each time we received a report, the station dispatched officers to search. Take yesterday’s incident. Even though there wasn’t enough to register a case, we still sent out a patrol that lasted half the night.”
The branch chief picked up where the station chief left off. “Yes, yes, yes! I know something about what happened in Red Flag. Those families were mostly migrants. Highly mobile. And each of those families lead complicated lives. Children are always running off for a few days—we see it all the time. That’s why we never thought anything would really come of it.”
“Neither of you thought there might have been a serious problem with this? I’m not going to waste another breath on you two. When this is over, wait and see how I deal with you!”
The station chief wiped the sweat from his forehead. “We found out that except for the first girl and the most recent case, the other children often hung out at an Internet café and an arcade near the East Red Flag Street Route 2 bus station. We checked them out, and a few people recalled seeing a few of the missing boys. They said the boys always came alone.” He paused, then said, “Last night, we searched all the secluded places, like the groves of trees at the lake, the park, and so on, but we still haven’t found the missing girl’s body.”
“You�
�re positive she never hung around Internet cafés or arcades?” Han Yin asked.
The station chief, not knowing Han Yin or anything about him, glanced at his boss, then cast a hard look at Han Yin. Ye Xi quickly introduced Han Yin, indicating his status. Only then did the station chief change his attitude. “That’s right. Her parents said she never went online. Yesterday evening we also took her photograph around to several Internet cafés and arcades on East and West Red Flag Streets. The managers and a number of regulars said they’d never seen her before.”
“Have there been any reports of voyeurism or sexual harassment in that district?” Han Yin asked.
“Yes, there’ve been some minor cases. The suspects were detained for several days, then released. But we’ve seen nothing aimed at children.” The station chief then said to the bureau chief, “There’s something else. Three days after the second child disappeared, his mother received a phone call. The caller claimed to have kidnapped the boy and told her to prepare ten thousand yuan and put it in the dumpster at the gate at the child’s school. We had undercover officers at the drop zone, but no one came for the money. We traced the call to a pay phone at the train station.”
Han Yin lowered his head and thought for a moment. He said to the station chief, “Could I trouble you to put together a list of the suspects in the sexual harassment cases for me? Also, a list of ex-convicts would be handy, too.”
“Sure, no problem. I’ll assign someone now. But our list of ex-cons might be incomplete. The flow of untracked outsiders to the Red Flag Street area is tremendous.”
“Well, just do your best putting it together,” said the bureau chief, still angry.
The bureau chief combined the suggestions made by those present into the following plan:
Immediate investigation of the area of the girl’s daily activities. Aim to confirm the place of her disappearance.
Search for possible eyewitnesses.
Surround the area and conduct a broad investigation. Focus mainly on landlords and residents living alone. Check suspects and ex-convicts in the area who have a record of sexual harassment.
7
THE MOLESTED GIRL
In response to the bureau chief’s instructions, police from all over the city quickly launched their operations. Ye Xi brought Han Yin with her to conduct an on-site check of some of the locations mentioned in the case details. After that, they hurried to the home of the last girl who disappeared, at Han Yin’s request. He needed a better sense of Wang Hong because he believed that her disappearance had no connection to the five others.
Ye Xi asked what his basis was for this conclusion. He explained that, in cases two through five, the missing children had probably been abducted around the East Red Flag Street bus station. This indicated the perpetrator’s familiarity with the area—a relatively congenial place to commit the crimes. It also reflected the perpetrator’s target standard, mainly focusing on the kids addicted to the Internet and video games. Maybe he got along well with such children and had no difficulty attracting them. The latest missing girl didn’t go online or play video games, and her daily activities were on West Red Flag Street between her school and home. The map showed this area to be about a half mile from the perpetrator’s criminal comfort zone. Since the police never caught him, he was not likely to commit a crime in a different area outside of this comfort zone.
In cases two through five, the perpetrator concentrated his crimes on Saturdays and Sundays, making it easier to find a target that met his criteria. But yesterday was Thursday, a time inconsistent with the time he was accustomed to abducting the children.
And in cases two through five, the victims had all been male, which is inconsistent with the most recent case.
“But the target in the first case had been a girl. So how do you explain that?” Ye Xi asked.
“In some serial killings, the killer’s initial victim is opportunistic because of a lack of preparation. In this case, it’s very possible that the perpetrator still didn’t know what he wanted. After committing violence against the little girl, he found it wasn’t as ideal as he had imagined. So he followed his feelings and started targeting boys. The data shows that he found his catharsis with boys. Thus, he would not revert to searching for female targets.”
It was possible that the perpetrator had acted contrary to his standard habits, but the probability was very low. So Han Yin felt that the most recent disappearance had no connection with the first five cases. This required him to do everything possible to penetrate the lives of Wang Hong and her parents to find the motive for her disappearance and formulate the appropriate investigative strategy.
There wasn’t much time left. Statistically, 44 percent of kidnapped children were killed within the first hour, 74 percent within three hours, and 91 percent or more within twenty-four hours. It was 10:00 a.m. now. That left Han Yin only six or seven hours—an extremely grim scenario.
The southern suburbs of the Red Flag Street district combined city with countryside. Migrant workers swarmed here. The main road divided the residential area into large eastern and western districts. In the middle was a four-way intersection that divided East and West Red Flag Streets. Old, squat buildings and a large number of shack-like dwellings surrounded the division. Of all the city’s shantytowns, this was the most densely populated.
They sped past the intersection and headed along West Red Flag Street. Five minutes later, Ye Xi turned right at a fork in the road and drove into a small alley between clustered single-story homes.
They walked up to Wang Hong’s door and greeted her parents. Song Juan was crying and Wang Cheng held back his tears. Her parents were northerners who looked honest and hardworking.
Han Yin reached out and squeezed Wang Cheng’s shoulder, saying, “I can understand how you’re feeling, but now isn’t the time for sorrow. You’ve got to trust us. We can help you find her. But you must work with us. Please, try to calm down and concentrate on my questions, all right?”
The parents held back their tears with quivering lips and nodded. Han Yin seized the moment. “Is Wang Hong cautious?”
“We told her every day not to talk with strangers and to be careful about human traffickers.”
“Have you angered anyone lately? Is there anyone who might be holding a grudge against you?”
“We’re good people. We’ve never caused any trouble. We get along well in the market and with everybody in the neighborhood.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure!”
“Do you have any local relatives?”
“No.”
“Have any of your neighbors been especially affectionate with your daughter? Maybe always wanting to take her out to play or hang around a lot?”
“They’re all very fond of our little girl. She has a good understanding of things. She cleans the house and cooks meals. Her mother and I are out all day working at the market, and we close late. Wang Hong always has dinner ready for us when we return. Yesterday evening when we came home, we didn’t find her here and got worried. We didn’t believe she’d really gone missing.”
“Do you have any male neighbors who are a little older and live alone?”
“There’s an old man who lives alone in the building on the east end. Sells roasted sweet potatoes at the market. But last night he was working at the market until close.”
“No one else? Think hard! Is there anyone else who lives alone, someone slightly younger?”
“There really isn’t. The people around here are mostly married couples or siblings who sell things. There are very few people who live alone.”
“What about the area around the school? Did she ever say she met someone there?”
“She had just moved back from the countryside. She wasn’t very close to her schoolmates and never mentioned meeting anyone recently.”
Han Yin was struggling to unearth any answers.
“Hong’s sixteen but still small for her age, more like a thirteen- or f
ourteen-year-old. She’s very innocent and childish and has no friends her own age.”
Han Yin felt a chill. He was beginning to worry that this was a case of molestation and abuse.
The parents offered little help, and Han Yin knew he could only rely on himself. He started by sizing up the small dwelling, which spanned a mere forty square feet.
The building was divided into an inner and outer room. The outer room was a passageway, very narrow, where there was a simple stove and kitchen utensils. Inside were two beds, a large bed and a small one sticking out from the wall. At the head of the small bed stood a small, beat-up chest of drawers. Probably what the girl used as a table to do her homework. Its surface was spotless, and several comic books were stacked beside the bed.
Han Yin turned this way and that in the bedroom, mumbling, “You must have met someone . . . he cared about you . . . showed you around . . . gave you special gifts . . . you called him Uncle . . . or maybe Grandpa . . . sometimes he held your hand . . . patted you on the shoulder . . . maybe hugged you . . . you felt very close . . . very warm . . .”
Han Yin sat on the side of the bed, idly flipping through the old comic books. There were black smudges on some of the pages and some messy scribbling. A child who had so neatly stacked these books would not have messed up the pages. These were clearly not hers.
“Where did these come from?” Han Yin raised one of the comic books.
Both parents shook their heads. “Don’t know. Maybe she borrowed them from a schoolmate? She really loved them. She read them over and over again.”
“Borrowed?” Han Yin put the comic book down. He continued to gaze at the stack, pondering.
