The Untouched Crime

by Zijin Chen

  “Before he could leave, his mother threw herself at his feet. If he went to prison, she would lose the will to live. She just wanted him to have a future. The son had earned top grades throughout high school and was on track to get into a top university, like Peking University or Tsinghua. He didn’t want to rob his mother of her last hope. So they came up with a plan together,” Zhao said.

  Yang didn’t speak.

  “They picked somewhere close by to dump the body,” Zhao continued. “The abandoned residential buildings seemed like the perfect choice. The mother wanted to leave the body on the top floor, but the son thought it would be safer if they got the body on the roof. He looked at the lock and saw that it was covered in dust. It had not been opened in a long time. But if they broke the lock, a guard walking by would notice and would certainly take a closer look. Pretty smart, huh?”

  Yang nodded but didn’t speak.

  “With the help of a power drill, he removed all the screws on the gate and hid the body behind a ventilation pipe so that it wasn’t visible to anyone standing at the roof access. A few months passed. They thought they were in the clear. But soon after the body was discovered, Yan was hot on their trail. The mother wanted to protect her son by taking the blame for the murder. She threatened to kill herself if he and her son did not cooperate. Yan allowed the mother to take the blame. But two weeks later, the son couldn’t cope with the guilt. He went to the police station and told them what actually happened.”

  Yang shook his head. He had come across too many tragic cases where a scoundrel of a husband destroyed his entire family. But no matter how much the police empathized with their situation, they couldn’t let them go.

  He looked up. “But how did Yan get in trouble? Did the son give him up?”

  “He helped them falsify evidence.”

  “What!?” Yang was shocked.

  “When the son turned himself in, one of the officers checked the original case and discovered that Yan went to the son’s school to check his attendance record. The murder happened on a Sunday, when he should have been at an evening study session. The actual school records showed that the son asked to be excused from that session. He was late for classes on Monday too. But in the case files, the school record showed that he attended the session. The police officer reported his findings, and they came to the conclusion that Yan forged the attendance records and tampered with the statement issued by the school. He even changed the woman’s testimony at the PSB to make everything consistent with the other documents in the case file. Everything fit like a glove.”

  Yang raised his eyebrows.

  “A police officer falsifying evidence is a serious transgression,” Zhao continued. “The Zhejiang PSB was deeply shocked. They could have taken strict disciplinary action, maybe even fired him on the spot. But the heads of the Zhejiang PSB mulled it over and amended their decision, since the end result of the case was the same and Yan made his decision out of empathy and not to further his own interests. Most importantly, he had an excellent record and had made important contributions to the force, including training the next generation of police. Still, Yan eventually decided to resign, saying he no longer felt suited for police work. That’s why he went to teach at Zhejiang University.”

  Yang didn’t know what to say.

  “When Yan spoke to me about it privately, he said that he knew that it violated his professional code of ethics to help them. It was all for nothing in the end, but he told me he didn’t regret his decision.”

  “No wonder you said he’s not fit to be a police officer,” Yang said.

  Zhao nodded. “He is extremely effective at using criminology, but his ideals get in the way of him doing his duty. I’m glad that he is helping us with the case, but I think it’s very strange how he suddenly asked to be involved. That’s why you need to find someone to follow him. I don’t want to be responsible for another fiasco like that in the Zhejiang PSB. Know what I mean?”

  Yang nodded slowly, biting his lip. “Of course. I’ll keep a close watch on him.”

  PART 6

  COVERING ONE’S TRACKS

  Chapter 46

  There were only a handful of customers eating at Chongqing Noodles, typical for lunchtime. The restaurant was slow in the early afternoon.

  Yan parked his car across the street from the restaurant. He sat and observed the surroundings before leaving his car and heading in.

  “What would you like, sir?” Huiru recognized Yan’s face but she couldn’t remember why.

  Yan studied the menu, taking the opportunity to watch Huiru. Finally he asked for a bowl of braised noodles and a bottle of soda.

  He sat in the same seat that Luo had taken yesterday, conveniently located next to the cash register. When Huiru returned from the kitchen, he took a sip of soda and asked with a friendly smile, “Do you know Luo Wen very well?”

  “Who is Luo Wen?” Huiru asked, a blank look on her face.

  Yan studied her expression to see if she was faking. But she didn’t flinch. Was it possible that Luo Wen never told her his name? How did they know each other?

  “The man who was sitting here yesterday,” he added. “I sat across from him.”

  Huiru’s face flickered, and she looked away for a minute, straightening things on the counter. “Yesterday? We have a lot of customers every day. I’m not sure I know who you’re talking about.”

  “But didn’t you let him take that puppy home?” Yan asked, paying close attention to her face.

  Huiru’s heart skipped a beat. She didn’t want to look at Yan for too long. “Oh . . . yes, that man. I guess he was sitting here yesterday. Is there something wrong?”

  “Do you know him well?” Yan asked, his kind smile unwavering.

  “No.” She shook her head. “When I saved that puppy, he just happened to be there and offered to take him home. Are you sure there isn’t something wrong?”

  “No, no, I’m just a friend. I heard that he has noodles here fairly often; is that true?”

  “Um . . . yeah.”

  “What does he like to order?”

  Huiru remembered that they were laughing together the day before. They must be friends. But she kept Luo’s advice in mind and answered as naturally as possible. “Oh, noodles with egg, noodles with beef, noodles with pork and bean sauce. He likes all kinds of dishes. I don’t know what his favorite is.”

  “Oh? I thought you knew him better,” Yan said.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “He doesn’t help you out with things? Besides the dog?” Yan said, his stare now bordering on rude.

  At first Huiru didn’t respond. She was on high alert, and she focused her gaze on a speck of dirt on the counter, trying to be calm. “What things?”

  “He said that he did you a big favor. Did you already forget?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.” She spoke loudly to try to cover up the tremor in her voice.

  “He said it was something big.”

  “Oh . . . it must be the puppy, then,” Huiru said quickly. “I didn’t know what to do with the dog after I brought him into the restaurant. My brother said I had to get rid of him, and I didn’t want to abandon the poor thing. Just when I needed him, a nice man said he would take the dog home. He solved that problem for us.”

  “I also heard that afterwards some thug came over, claiming the dog was his. He wanted to take the dog back, and my friend had to pay three hundred yuan to keep him. Is that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “And then the very next day, that thug was killed, right?”

  Huiru tried her hardest to think of a way to end the conversation, but nothing came to her. “Yeah, something happened to him over by the river.”

  “I heard that you were the last person to see him before he died. Is that true?”

  “Yes. The police investigated his death a while ago.”

  “The stab wounds in the thug’s chest match a knife that you guys have here in your restaurant
. Is that right?” Yan asked.

  Huiru’s heartbeat kicked up another notch. “Are you a cop?”

  At that moment, Fulai came out of the kitchen with Yan’s noodles. He had a slight frown on his face as he set it down and turned to walk away.

  Yan looked at Fulai and then spoke to Huiru. “No, I’m not.”

  Fulai stopped in his tracks.

  “The police told me not to discuss details of the case with anyone besides police officers. Sorry.”

  “I’m terribly sorry,” Yan said with a laugh. “I’m just a very curious person, that’s all.”

  Fulai went towards the kitchen again.

  Yan took a bite of the noodles and then said, “Sometimes when you try to help someone, it just leads to more trouble.”

  Huiru had already pulled out her phone and started playing a game.

  “Isn’t that right?” Yan said.

  Huiru met his gaze with a vacant look. “If your friend thinks the dog is too much trouble, then I’ll just take him back. I can find him another home.”

  “Luo is the kind of person who keeps his word. He would never back out on a promise,” Yan said.

  Huiru went back to playing with her phone.

  After finishing his bowl of noodles, Yan left, satisfied that the number of unknowns were now more or less determined. The next step was to start checking answers when he plugged the suspects into his quintic equation.

  Chapter 47

  “I want to talk to you about the possibility that Ms. Zhu and Mr. Guo were involved in Xu Tianding’s murder,” Yan said, drinking a cup of water in Lin’s office.

  “Those two?” Lin looked confused. “They were eliminated as subjects very early on, Professor Yan.”

  “Could you list the reasons again?” Yan took out a piece of paper and a pen.

  “Of course.” Lin nodded. He opened the file, organizing his thoughts. Then he took a breath. “There are six reasons. One: their alibis. The time of death is 10:50 p.m., and they had left the park at that time, based on the surveillance cameras. The victim had fried rice in his stomach, which he would have only started to eat after the two of them left. There were shallow horizontal cuts found on the body which would have taken time to make, but Mr. Guo was in a convenience store—the staff working that night confirmed that. So their alibi is even stronger.”

  Yan’s pen flew across the page as he took notes.

  “Two: the killer spent tens of thousands of yuan to destroy the crime scene,” Lin continued. “Mr. Guo and Ms. Zhu don’t have that kind of money. Three: the murder weapon was likely a paring knife, but the knife in the noodle shop is brand new, and the nearby shops all said they didn’t see either Ms. Zhu, Mr. Zhu, or Mr. Guo buying one like it. Four: there aren’t any inconsistencies in their statements.”

  Yan nodded and continued writing.

  Lin took a breath and said, “Five: a friend of the victim, Zhang Bing, received a threatening letter last Friday that was confirmed to be written by the killer. Both Mr. Guo and Ms. Zhu have alibis for the window of time in which the letter was delivered. Six: it has been proven that the person who committed this crime also committed serial murders. The first of these murders was committed before Mr. Zhu or Ms. Zhu were in Hangzhou, and Mr. Guo did not have any connections to the previous victim. On top of that, their fingerprints don’t match the ones that we found at the scene of all six crimes.”

  Yan reviewed all six points in his notebook. “Impressive,” he said to himself.

  “What’s impressive, Professor Yan?”

  “It’s impressive that a person would have so many different pieces of evidence to prove that they didn’t commit the crime. Everything is perfectly airtight,” Yan said, looking up.

  Lin looked unconvinced. “But this is all hard evidence.”

  “Yes, but anyone in west Hangzhou could have committed the crime. And the only people who have the most evidence disproving their involvement are these two,” Yan said with a smile.

  Lin’s mouth dropped open. “But even if they did do it, there is no way they could have fabricated all that evidence,” he countered.

  “You’re right,” Yan said, nodding. “But if you add one more condition to this assumption, then the whole thing unravels.”

  “What’s that?” Lin said, breathless.

  “A third person helped.”

  “A third person?” Lin said incredulously. “Like Zhu Fulai? At first I found him suspicious, but he has a lame leg and can’t walk very well. He spends most of his time at the restaurant and also has an alibi for the threatening letter. He’s successfully avoided investigation, but he’s still not capable of doing all this, is he?”

  “Your average person couldn’t even do a fraction of it. Only a—” Yan stopped himself. “I want to discuss these points with you one at a time. First, the alibi.”

  Yan took a sip of water before beginning. “An alibi consists of evidence that proves that a suspect was not at the scene of the crime when it was committed. At 10:42 p.m. Guo Yu and Zhu Huiru were filmed by surveillance cameras. We can accept this as true because it would be impossible to fake the time, the place, or the people filmed.”

  He looked seriously at Lin, then continued. “The reason this video is thought to back up an alibi is because the time of death was determined to be 10:50 p.m. So the key to explaining why this alibi is fabricated is that the time of death was not in fact 10:50 p.m., but sometime before 10:42 p.m. I think the death occurred sometime between 10:20 p.m. and 10:40 p.m.”

  “That doesn’t work,” Lin said, shaking his head. “Zhang Bing got a phone call from Xu Tianding at 10:50 p.m. He heard his friend being attacked. Otherwise who would have made the phone call at 10:50 p.m.?”

  “I think it was the third person, whoever was helping Mr. Guo and Ms. Zhu.”

  “Zhu Fulai?” Lin said, in an unconvinced voice.

  “I said a third person,” Yan said. “I didn’t say that it was Mr. Zhu.”

  “OK,” Lin said, his patience wearing thin. “But his friend Zhang was positive that it was Xu’s voice. The two knew each other for almost their entire lives, and they hung out every single day. There’s no way that Zhang would have mistaken someone else for Xu.”

  “Aren’t there any other possibilities?” Yan asked.

  “The killer might have forced Xu to record a few sentences into his own phone,” Lin said thoughtfully. “But judging by the autopsy, the victim was stabbed three times in quick succession and hit in the back of the head. That means it was a sudden attack, not prolonged.”

  “Well, then it had to be recorded in advance. If Xu was already dead . . . what if the sentence ‘Let’s have lunch together tomorrow’ was already in his phone?”

  “I don’t think we investigated that,” Lin said.

  “Where’s the phone now?” Yan asked.

  “Here in the district bureau,” Lin answered.

  “We need to check if that sentence is recorded on there. Could you get someone to do that?”

  “Yeah, of course, it’s just that—” Lin hesitated before continuing. “I think the conclusions you are making are, uh, problematic . . . in terms of procedure. It’s not how you told us to handle an investigation.”

  “Why, what’s wrong?” Yan asked.

  “The Public Security Bureau wants us to look for evidence first and then identify suspects. But you’re doing it backward,” Lin said frankly. He coughed. “How should I put this? Some district cops in the country are so focused on the number of cases they’ve solved that they’ll find a suspect, drag him into the station to give a confession, then find evidence by any means necessary to make it look like that suspect did it. A number of innocent people have been put behind bars this way. The provincial government has pardoned some of these innocents and disciplined the irresponsible investigators, but it’s still a problem.”

  He paused and looked seriously at Yan. “And besides, when I took your class, your number-one rule was not to let your first impressi
ons affect how you handle a case—you have to be as objective as you can. Otherwise the answer will be biased. Once you have all the evidence, you put it in the formula and you look at your answer.”

  Yan nodded. “That’s true, and I still believe it,” he admitted. “Cases are like equations, and most can be solved by applying knowledge from previous cases that are similar. It’s almost like using a formula: you substitute the elements in the previous case with the elements of your case and then you’ll get an answer. The thing is, even though that method works for most cases, it doesn’t for all of them.”

  Lin looked a little alarmed.

  “An extremely complicated case is more like a higher-order equation. It cannot be solved using theory. The only way to get a solution is to estimate numbers for your unknown variables and then check your answer. I think this case is a classic system of equations without a solution, which means you can’t use the normal procedure to get your answer. You have to substitute a few numbers, or suspects, and then check your answer,” Yan said.

  Lin was silent for a while. Then he smiled. “Good thing I was a star math student! I actually understood what you were saying. I’ll find someone to go through Xu’s phone and give you an answer as soon as possible.”

  Chapter 48

  Luo took his dog for a walk in the evening. He walked slowly on the path along the river.

  Every time the dog arrived at a new tree, he stopped and sniffed for a long time. When he finished sniffing he left his mark and moved on. Luo was patient, lost in memories from eight years ago.

  “Daddy, how long will it take before Doggie is all grown up?” His daughter tried to bring the dog closer to her father, but the dog wanted to sniff around the house and pulled against the leash.

  “Hmm, a year, maybe two,” he said absentmindedly. Luo didn’t know very much about dogs, and he was trying to pack for a business trip.

  “That’s a long time!” she said.

  “Your daddy doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” his wife said with a smile. She placed a few more collared shirts in her husband’s suitcase and gave her daughter a loving squeeze. “In a few months, he’ll be all grown up!”