Death Notice

by Zhou HaoHui

  16:02:33—First suspect exits taxi. Two seconds later, Lima Seven tackles suspect to the ground.

  16:02:35–16:02:38—Numerous suspects mob Citizen Square, overwhelming the plainclothes officers at the scene.

  16:02:39—Man in black felt cap enters the scene from the lot south of the square. As the other officers devote their full attention to the suspects sprinting toward Ye Shaohong, his appearance goes unnoticed.

  16:02:46—Having subdued two suspects, Xiong is locked in a standoff with three other suspects.

  16:02:49—Man in black felt cap walks behind Xiong and motions to Ye. Noticeably panicking, Ye immediately runs toward him.

  16:02:56—Man in black felt cap escorts Ye to BMW.

  16:03:08—Man in black cap helps Ye into the passenger’s seat of BMW. Only the driver’s side of the vehicle is visible at this point.

  16:03:10—Plainclothes officers assist Xiong in subduing the final three suspects in the square. Xiong begins running toward BMW.

  16:03:11—Unidentified male subject with his left hand bandaged and carrying a plastic bag emerges from another taxi on the east edge of the square. The man in the black cap immediately charges him as if in pursuit.

  16:03:19—Man in black cap jumps parking lot railing. Camera feed loses subject.

  According to everyone who had laid eyes upon Ye’s killer, the man had kept his black felt cap pulled very tightly over his eyes and his jacket collar popped high. Not a single witness could provide an accurate description of his face.

  The captain was not in a good mood. The other members, Xiong in particular, all felt the weight of today’s tragedy upon their hearts. Both the criminal police squad and the SPU team had invested dozens of officers in the afternoon’s operation. Not only that—both groups’ leaders had even been on the scene to coordinate the proceedings. Their impenetrable net had done nothing to stop the killer from fulfilling his original threat. Rather than capture Eumenides, they had arrested eighteen “suspects” who seemed utterly unaware of a single detail surrounding the case.

  The first man the police interrogated was named Ai Yuncan, a twenty-five-year-old migrant laborer who had been working a low-paying job in a local restaurant ever since his arrival in Chengdu. Approximately two weeks earlier, he had spotted a flyer posted on the street. A massive entertainment center was seeking what they referred to as “PR gentlemen.” The advertisement promised good pay and benefits, including a monthly salary exceeding 10,000 yuan. On top of that, the physical requirements for job applicants described him perfectly: Applicants must be approximately five-foot-five and slight of frame.

  He called the number on the advertisement, and the man who answered told him that the “PR gentlemen” were expected to provide sexual services for wealthy female clients. The physical requirements specified on the flyer had been made by a new client who was looking for several men to engage in BDSM activities. Ai hesitated, but the employer sent him a picture of the female customer. To his shock, she was drop-dead gorgeous. His most primitive desires set aflame, he followed the employer’s instructions and replied to the email with a photograph of himself. The employer was satisfied upon receiving the photograph, and immediately transferred a thousand yuan to Ai’s bank account, calling it a “preparation fee.”

  After receiving this transfer, Ai had no more misgivings. He followed the strange instructions to the letter. Later that day he purchased several items: bandages, a leather whip, and a rubber knife. Purchases in hand, he waited anxiously for his beautiful client to summon him. The call finally came yesterday afternoon. He was told that because of the illegal nature of this kind of transaction and the distinguished status of the client, both parties needed to agree on a covert rendezvous method. The man sent Ai a picture of the client’s BMW and told him that the client would emerge from the Deye Building around four o’clock. At that time, Ai was to be waiting near Citizen Square and stay within sight of the building. Once the woman left the Deye Building, he would need to promptly follow the client and get into the car with her. Ai would not be the only applicant with these instructions, however. The successful applicant would ultimately be determined by the client’s decision.

  In order to ensure a fair competition, all applicants were required to wait inside taxis at designated locations. They were only allowed to leave the vehicle and meet the client once they had received an order via text message. Furthermore, they were to put the accessories they had previously purchased into a black plastic bag that they would carry with their right hand; they would wrap the bandage around their left hand in order to satisfy one of the client’s special predilections.

  All of the other men gave accounts strikingly similar to Ai’s. A grim sense of shame filled Han and the interrogating officers as they realized the truth behind that day’s events. These men had been intended as an elaborate distraction, nothing more. And the police had been hopeless to resist, like moths to a flame.

  CHAPTER SIX

  TWO MINUTES

  OCTOBER 23, 8:15 P.M.

  CHENGDU CRIMINAL POLICE HEADQUARTERS, CONFERENCE ROOM

  The conference room was bathed in cold, artificial light. The last time the 4/18 Task Force had gathered around the table, the room had buzzed with anxious energy. Now, the room was more fit for a funeral.

  The investigators had analyzed every possible route the killer could have taken from his last known position, and Han had organized a ten-block-wide police sweep of the surrounding area. They found nothing. Had he concealed himself somewhere in the vicinity of the square? Had he slipped away in a vehicle? Had he disguised himself and blended into the crowd? Did he have an accomplice? There were too many unanswered questions.

  The team watched and rewatched the footage recorded at the square. Using a series of geometric algorithms, Zeng mapped the locations from which each of the eighteen decoys had emerged relative to the strategic positioning of the plainclothes officers, the precise times the decoys charged the square, and the paths they took to Ye. The results were alarming. The strategy seemed deliberately orchestrated to create instantaneous chaos. Their arrival had forced the police’s protective perimeter to collapse like a house of cards in a windstorm.

  The final decoy broke through the perimeter northeast of Xiong, at an angle that made it only natural for Ye Shaohong to hide behind the captain. At the same time the killer, wearing the same pattern of outfit as the other plainclothes officers, entered the square from the opposite direction. The decoys herded Ye straight to him. Xiong was subduing the two suspects to his north, and could not stop her. It was exactly the kind of distraction the killer would have needed and planned.

  Zeng had traced the text messages received by each of the decoys to a prepaid number linked to a forged ID card. Another dead end.

  Han paced alongside the table, his hands clasped behind his back. “Yin, can you repeat the description of the killer as written in the report for Sergeant Zheng’s murder?”

  “Five-foot five,” Yin recited, “with an injury on one hand.”

  Han picked up a folder that held the report on Zheng’s murder. “That’s right. That’s exactly right.”

  He turned on the room’s projector. As the machine warmed up, a black-and-white image slowly formed on the screen. The others recognized the angle at once. It was a still from one of the surveillance cameras around Citizen Square. Xiong shivered as he recognized the figure standing next to the BMW.

  “Xiong, how tall would you say the killer was?” Han asked.

  The SPU captain shifted uncomfortably. “I can’t say for certain. I didn’t get a good look at him.”

  “But if you had to guess?” Han pressed.

  Xiong paused, and a bead of sweat trickled down his brow. “Just under six feet.”

  “Exactly!” Han picked up the report folder again. “Does someone want to tell me how our killer had a six-inch gro
wth spurt overnight? More important, does someone want to tell me why we told Ye Shaohong and everyone involved in today’s operation to be on the lookout for someone who was the wrong height?”

  Yin shifted in his seat. “Maybe Eumenides is working with someone else—”

  Han flung the folder against the wall. It hit the wood paneling and exploded into a flurry of paper and photographs.

  “We don’t have a single piece of evidence to support that! The man we saw in the square yesterday has dictated every single one of our actions. We’ve been his puppets from the start!” The hard truth had stripped away the captain’s confidence. He looked around the room. “Do any of you have anything to add?”

  Xiong broke the silence. “I failed. I should have realized what was going on. I knew something was wrong with those knives when the first two decoys dropped them. They didn’t hit the ground like real knives, but I didn’t even stop to ask myself why. Ye is dead because I was too foolish to stay at her side.”

  “You were protecting Ye! Those men posed a real threat. In the heat of the moment, it was impossible to figure out what was happening based on how a knife hit the ground. And you couldn’t be expected to identify each one of the plainclothes officers on the scene. None of us did. That’s precisely how this bastard slipped through our defenses.” Han gritted his teeth. “I’m at fault for improperly planning this operation.”

  “The guy knows exactly what he’s doing. More important, he knows exactly what we are doing,” Zeng said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What he doesn’t realize is that he’s already given himself away.”

  “Speak clearly, Zeng,” Han spat. Zeng had an infuriating habit of intentionally keeping his listeners in suspense, and Han was sick of it.

  Still composed, Zeng licked his lips and shook his head. “Do you really think someone like Eumenides can come from out of nowhere? He must have had formal training, and there has to be some kind of record on him. We can start by investigating any relevant officers one by one. I can access databases containing records for every single officer who’s received police or military training over the last two decades.”

  Pei, who had been quiet until that point, turned to Zeng. “It looks like you’ve already started,” he said coldly.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” the young officer asked, forcing a laugh.

  “What were you doing in my room?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You weren’t present during the operation today,” he stated. “You were digging through my things.”

  Zeng tried to hide his surprise. He had indeed slipped into Pei’s room while the others were away, and he had done so on Han’s orders. He had certainly not done a sloppy job of it. In fact, Zeng was positive that he hadn’t left any traces behind. He had worn gloves—and even a hair net. How did Pei know?

  “Nothing gets past you, Captain. Why the stern look? Hiding anything you don’t want us to see?”

  “This afternoon, Longzhou’s network monitors detected a breach in the city’s telecommunications database. Someone accessed my phone records from the past month. My trusted colleagues in Longzhou were able to trace the hack to its source. Another one of your jokes, Officer Zeng?”

  Zeng was uncharacteristically embarrassed. He said nothing.

  After a moment of reflection, Han tried to smooth things over. “This could all be a misunderstanding. I suggest a private conversation, Pei. Let’s not bring this up in an official meeting.”

  “No.” Pei turned to Han, and his expression hardened. “This is no misunderstanding. You told Mu to investigate me too, didn’t you? How can I still be a suspect? There’s a murderer out there killing at will, and you’re sending two of our team members off on a wild goose chase. We need to stop Eumenides, not carry out internal investigations. A meeting like this one is exactly the time to bring it up.”

  “Captain Pei, you’re right about one thing. I did order Officer Zeng and Officer Mu to investigate you,” Han said diplomatically. “Sergeant Zheng is murdered, and we find you kneeling right next to the body. Then we learn that you were inextricably linked to the tragedies that occurred eighteen years ago. I’d be a fool if I didn’t investigate you.”

  “I’m supposed to believe that’s the whole story?” Pei was now seething with anger. “Or was it that I questioned your authority and humiliated the man you sent to tail me? Tell me, Captain Han, what exactly has your investigation into me turned up so far?”

  Han paused. The entire team was watching. He couldn’t afford to show as much as a shred of weakness.

  “Let’s begin at the beginning. You were the first to suggest that the suspect was around five-foot-five and that he had an injured hand. It was an audacious deduction, especially since you came to this conclusion before even leaving Zheng’s apartment. It was also wrong, and now we’ve paid dearly for it.”

  Pei was tempted to remind Han that his own analysts had come up with the exact same physical profile, but instinct told him to hold his tongue.

  “Now we come to the fiasco at the Deye Building. With the exception of the officers taking part in the operation, not a single person was aware of our surveillance arrangement. Yet as soon as you walked into that monitoring room, the very first thing you did was pick out every one of our plainclothes officers. Just showing off, Captain Pei?”

  Both officers glowered at one another. The room felt as stable as a propane tank in a burning building.

  “Captain Han, Captain Pei—get a grip on yourselves!”

  Xiong’s reprimand left the team members’ ears ringing. Pei felt as if he had been slapped in the face. He realized that he had overstepped his bounds. Considering the evidence, Han actually was in the right here. Pei was lucky that Han had even kept him on the team in the first place. As a tense silence filled the room, he tried his best to regain control of his emotions.

  Zeng cleared his throat.

  “I was there when Captain Pei spotted the surveillance team in Citizen Square. For what it’s worth, I could tell he was using observation and good training to put the pieces together. Here’s the question I’m more concerned about: How did Eumenides do the same thing?”

  His question hung over the team like a darkening cloud.

  Pei snapped his fingers. “The hotel!” he blurted.

  All heads in the room promptly turned to him.

  “What do you mean?” the captain demanded.

  “If someone wanted a clear picture of how the police were carrying out their surveillance, they’d need access to a full, panoramic view of the square. He’d need to find high ground, just like we did. So where would you go if you were looking for a tall, concealed observation point near the square?”

  “He was at the hotel too,” Xiong hissed.

  OCTOBER 23, 11:09 P.M.

  SKY PEAK HOTEL

  The task force returned to the towering structure opposite the Deye Building, the Sky Peak Hotel. Flanked by the rest of the team, Han marched to the front desk and demanded the security footage from the past several days.

  At around 10:00 p.m. the previous night, a male had checked into room 714. He remained in the room overnight and left shortly after 3:00 p.m.—an hour before the murder—without returning, and he never checked out. The footage showed a male figure matching the height, build, and gait of the killer from Citizen Square. None of the cameras had captured a clear shot of his face.

  The seventh floor provided an excellent view of the plaza, literally just above their base of operations. Pei was about to point this out to Han, but judging from the look of rage on the captain’s features, they had both reached the same conclusion.

  Han promptly ordered the hotel staff to provide him with information from the ID card the suspect used when checking in. Within two minutes, Zeng verified that the card was a forgery. It wasn’t t
he same fake ID that Zeng had tracked down earlier that day, but it was more than enough to strengthen the team’s suspicions. When Han asked for the man’s distinguishing features, the receptionist who had been working at the time in question told him that the individual had sported sunglasses and a thick beard.

  “A beard?” Yin scribbled in his notepad. The other team members seemed indifferent, however. “Captain, should we notify the lead investigators to focus on men with beards?”

  Han shook his head. “The beard’s fake.”

  Yin stared at the security monitor in confusion.

  “The killer’s no idiot,” Pei explained. “He wouldn’t have anything as conspicuous as a beard. Both the beard and the sunglasses were tools for disguising his features. Nothing more.”

  Yin grimaced. He tore the page from his notepad and crumpled it up.

  Han was already focused on another part of the video. “Look! He had a suitcase when he checked in, but not when he left. We can’t rule out the possibility that he’ll come back.”

  Xiong understood. “I’ll position my people nearby.”

  “Right. We need to assign people to the lobby as well. Yin, you coordinate with Captain Xiong.” Han looked at each of the other team members. All of them appeared eager to move, but Pei seemed particularly anxious. His pupils were wide with excitement. “Okay,” Han said. “Let’s have a look at his room first.”

  One of the staff members grabbed a keycard and led them to the door of room 714. The red backlit words DO NOT DISTURB glowed on the LED display below the doorbell. According to the employee, no one else had entered the room since the man had checked in.

  Pei’s heart pounded like a jackhammer. If the man who stayed in room 714 was the killer they had seen in the plaza yesterday, they were finally closing in.

  Han ordered the hotel employee to open the door.

  The door swung back and a distinctive odor seeped into the dim hall that sent chills down Pei’s spine. Images of decaying flesh and exposed organs flashed through his mind. He saw Mu pinch her nose, and the poor hotel employee looked like he was going to vomit.