Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1)

by Lei Mi

  Fang Mu and Tai Wei soon arrived at the address where the witness had seen Xu Jie and the young man. As Fang Mu surveyed the area, Tai Wei asked him, "You think this is our guy?"

  Fang Mu didn't respond. Instead he asked: "You have a map of this area?"

  "One step ahead of you," said Tai Wei, as he reached into his car and grabbed one.

  Realizing they had been thinking the same thing, Fang Mu smiled.

  After all this time the kid finally smiles, thought Tai Wei as he opened the map.

  "Seems you've also noticed how geographically concentrated the murders have been," said Tai Wei. He pointed at a section of the map. "Here, here, and here—they all took place in this same area. And the little girl disappeared somewhere around here as well." He looked up at Fang Mu. "Normally, when a suspect commits multiple crimes in roughly the same place, we assume he's unfamiliar with the area, and most likely is not from around here. So then why do you think he lives nearby?"

  "This guy's an exception," said Fang Mu, shaking his head. "His crimes are highly random—and he puts essentially no thought into choosing his victims. However, this time is a little different." He raised his head to look at Tai Wei. "He's begun picking children."

  Tai Wei thought for a moment. "In that case, you think this little girl is still alive?"

  "It's possible." Fang Mu checked the calendar on his watch, and then thought in silence for a moment. "The killer normally commits a murder every twenty days, more or less; however, this time it's been only a week since his last crime. He's probably hoping to store-up some blood reserves, so that when he needs them, they'll be easy to get."

  It was a bright and sunny morning, but hearing this, Tai Wei couldn't help but shiver. "Storing" a living human being until the time you should need her. Then slaughtering her like a pig and drinking her blood. What kind of person would do that?

  "Let's head to the psychiatric hospitals," said Fang Mu, hopping into the car. "If I'm right then we still have some time. We'll catch him for sure before he feels the need for blood."

  Most hospitals in Jiangbin City contained a psychiatric ward, but when it came to stand-alone psychiatric hospitals, there were only two in the whole city. Tai Wei told his subordinates to visit the regular hospitals (emphasizing that they were not to let the PSB director know), while he and Fang Mu would investigate the psychiatric ones.

  They were looking for someone who had either sought consultation or been admitted to the hospital for paranoia in the last five years—particularly blood-related paranoia. The staff at the first hospital was actually quite cooperative; unfortunately, they had no record of such an individual. At the second hospital, however, the moment Tai Wei explained their reason for coming, the hospital director immediately thought of someone.

  The person in question was a man named Feng Kai. Two years ago, when Feng Kai was 26, his father and older brother died within months of one another, and he became severely depressed. After being admitted to the hospital, Feng Kai responded well to treatment, and his depression appeared to be going away. But then one time, while a nurse was walking the grounds outside the hospital, she saw Feng Kai catch a small bird and drink its blood while it was still alive. After that, he began demanding that the hospital give him a blood transfusion, believing that he was afflicted with a serious case of anemia. But when the hospital gave him a detailed physical examination, they found his hemoglobin count to be perfectly normal. Feng Kai refused to accept this result, however, and continued to believe he was dangerously anemic. It was because of this that the hospital discovered he was also suffering from paranoia. After receiving treatment for paranoia for a period of time, Feng Kai suddenly left without a word.

  According to the doctors and nurses, Feng Kai was about 5'8", very thin, and a slob. His room was always a total mess. Feng Kai did not enjoy socializing with others, and no one ever came to visit him. The hospital did try to locate him after his disappearance, but they learned that the address he had registered with was a fake.

  This discovery made Fang Mu and Tai Wei unbelievably excited. Thinking that Feng Kai was probably a fake name as well, Fang Mu advised Tai Wei to investigate city records for a father and son who, in the last two years, died one after the other from a blood disease. He also told him to search the whole city—and Hongyuan District especially—for a man fitting the description of this "Feng Kai."

  It took two days for the search to finally bear fruit. Jiangbin City had over 1,244 people named Feng Kai, and not one fit the description. There were also no cases within the last two years of a father and son surnamed Feng each dying of a blood disease. However, in 1988 and 1999 respectively, a father and son surnamed Ma had died of aplastic anemia. The father, Ma Xiangwen, was a widower with two sons. Within a year of his father's death, Ma Tao, the elder son, contracted acute aplastic anemia and died soon after. The younger son, Ma Kai, inherited the father's home, where he lived now, at 83-4 North Evergreen Street in Hongyuan. The address was no more than three miles from the locations of the five crimes.

  "That's him!"

  They were in the housing registry room of the Hongyuan Police Substation, and Fang Mu had just been shown a picture of Ma Kai. There wasn't a trace of doubt in his voice.

  In the picture, Ma Kai's hair was neat and clean, his expression composed. But in his slightly dull-looking eyes, Fang Mu could see a reservoir of anxiety and despair.

  At this point, Tai Wei was still very cautious. He had the witnesses from the fourth murder case (victims: Yao Xiaoyang and Tong Hui) and the kidnapping case (victim: Xu Jie) brought to the station. The witness to the kidnapping could not be certain that Ma Kai was the man he had seen that day. The food stand proprietor, however, was absolutely certain that Ma Kai was the man who had bought a bottle of mineral water from him on the day of the double murder.

  "I'd bet anything!" he said. "He was a little thinner than in the picture, but it has to be him!"

  They couldn't hesitate any longer. Tai Wei immediately asked the department to assemble a squad to arrest Ma Kai. When they were ready to leave the substation, Tai Wei asked Fang Mu whether he would rather wait there or return to school.

  Fang Mu quickly replied that he would wait at the substation for news of what happened. After telling his colleagues at the station to look after the kid, Tai Wei turned and was about to go when Fang Mu grabbed his arm.

  "Be careful," he said. "This guy is extremely dangerous."

  8:22 p.m. that night.

  It was an old building, built more than 20 years ago at least. According to their investigation, it served as family housing for workers from the Red Light Tractor Factory. Tai Wei looked up at the window of Ma Kai's third floor apartment. Deep blue curtains covered it completely, but a faint orange light could be seen from within.

  Accompanying Tai Wei were nine policemen. He had divided them into three groups: attack, rescue and support. The attack group was responsible for subduing the suspect after the room was breached, the rescue group was responsible for saving the girl (if she was still alive), and the support group was responsible for sealing off the corridor and window, so the suspect couldn't escape.

  To ensure the operation was successful, that afternoon Tai Wei and another officer had disguised themselves as workers from the gas company and inspected one of the first floor apartments. It was a two-bedroom residence, the layout identical to Ma Kai's. Tai Wei concluded that the girl was most likely being held in the small northern bedroom. He told the rescue team that the moment they entered the apartment, they needed to get inside that northern bedroom as soon as possible and save the little girl. The others would worry about grabbing the suspect.

  At 8:25 p.m., the rescue mission began on schedule.

  Tai Wei led the attack and rescue teams as they crept up to the third floor. At last they stopped right outside Ma Kai's apartment. There was no peephole. Once the attack team was in position on either side of the door, Tai Wei knocked.

  No response. Tai Wei heard so
ft footsteps from within. Then the light leaking from under the door went out.

  Tai Wei knocked three more times. Still no response.

  "No one's home," said Tai Wei in a loud voice. "Let's go to the apartment across the hall."

  After walking to the apartment opposite, Tai Wei knocked on the door. Almost immediately, a woman's voice sounded from inside. "Who's there?"

  Still speaking in a loud voice, Tai Wei said, "We're from Pharmaceutical Plant Three. Recently we've been developing a new product called Happy Blood Enrichment Pills. They're specially made to cure various kinds of blood deficiencies and anemia. To reward our many customers, we're holding a special Million Pill Giveaway. We've come to your house today to present you with some pills, and I assure you that they're completely free."

  "Really? Wait one moment." The door opened and a middle-aged woman with a big puff of hair stuck her head out and asked, "They're really free?"

  At almost the same time, the door across the hall suddenly opened.

  The attack team charged through the doorway and leapt on the man standing there. With no time to react, he was knocked to the ground.

  Leaving the woman staring wide-eyed in fear, Tai Wei crossed the hall and rushed into Apartment 302.

  Inside, the man was being pinned tightly to the floor by several policemen. Grabbing his hair, one of them yanked it back and ordered, "Speak. What's your name?"

  At a glance Tai Wei knew it was Ma Kai. Without stopping, he followed the rescue team heading to the northern bedroom.

  The door was locked. Immediately a member of the rescue team kicked it open. Raising his gun, Tai Wei stepped inside.

  The lights were all off. They could see the shape of a large bed, and on it the shape of a person could be dimly made out. While the rest of the men began examining the room, Tai Wei walked to the bed and shined it with his flashlight. Lying on it was a young girl, her arms and legs tied to the four bedposts in a spread-eagle position. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were tightly closed. Tape covered her mouth. Tai Wei could tell she was Xu Jie, the missing girl.

  Was she still alive?

  Tai Wei placed his hand under her nose. She was breathing. The weight that had been pressing on his heart now vanished in relief.

  They soon determined there was no one else in the room. Tai Wei had his men untie the comatose girl, and he notified the support team to radio the ambulance.

  The ambulance that had been waiting nearby since the start of the mission now rushed to the scene. In no time they had taken the girl to the hospital to begin her examination.

  By then the suspect was already handcuffed and lying face down on his living room floor. Two members of the rescue team had their guns aimed at his head.

  Tai Wei grabbed the man's hair and lifted his head. It had a disgustingly greasy feel. He looked at Ma Kai's emaciated face. His skin was pale white, the sides of his mouth were covered in yellow scabs, and gunk surrounded his eyes. His nose appeared to have been broken when he was knocked to the floor and it dripped with blood. Ma Kai twisted like a worm on the ground, mumbling to himself, "The blood...make it stop…"

  "Are you Ma Kai?" Tai Wei asked in a loud voice.

  Ma Kai opened his eyes slightly and looked at Tai Wei. Then he closed them and continued to mumble. "The blood...the blood... You have to stop it."

  Tai Wei suddenly wanted nothing more than to smash the man across the face with the butt of his gun, but he quickly restrained himself. With a disgusted look on his face, he rose to his feet and motioned to the other officers. "Take him away!"

  The on-duty officer at the North Evergreen Street substation kept glancing over at the strange young man.

  He never said a word or smoked a single cigarette the whole night. He just sat there looking straight ahead, like he was in a trance. He didn't even touch his carton of takeout food.

  When the phone rang, the on-duty officer picked it up and said a few words. Then he turned to the visitor: "Are you Fang Mu?"

  The kid spun toward him at once, a strange light burning from his eyes.

  "They asked for you."

  Fang Mu jumped to his feet. His legs were stiff from having sat so long. As he ran over to grab the phone, he smacked into the desk with a loud bang. "Hello?"

  A wall of noise met his ear. He heard yelling and the scream of the police siren, and above it all Tai Wei's voice. He sounded rushed, but also very excited. "We got him, it was our man!"

  "What about the girl?"

  "She's alive and well, at the hospital now. I just called and the doctor told me that, aside from being scared and a little malnourished, the girl is completely fine."

  Fang Mu shut his eyes and hung up the phone. Only then did he feel the piercing pain in his leg from where it smacked into the desk. Returning to his chair, he sat in silence for a moment. Then he opened the carton of takeout. "Excuse me."

  The on-duty officer looked over to see a weak but hugely relieved smile on Fang Mu's face.

  "Can you grab me a cup of water?"

  CHAPTER

  7

  Sympathy for the Devil

  It was after 11 o’clock when Tai Wei remembered to bring Fang Mu home. In the car, he told Fang Mu that the crime scene technicians had already determined that Ma Kai's fingerprints matched those from the other murders, so even though he hadn't yet confessed, charging him would be a cinch.

  Fang Mu didn't say a word. He just stared at the darkness outside the window.

  "You take it easy when you get back," said Tai Wei, noticing Fang Mu's exhausted expression. "I'll stop by in a few days."

  At the school gate Fang Mu got out of the car and said goodbye to Tai Wei. He had turned to go when Tai Wei called out for him to wait.

  Fang Mu looked back.

  Tai Wei had stuck his head out of the passenger side window, his shoulder resting on the frame. He stared at Fang Mu for several seconds, and then his face broke into a wide smile.

  "Kid," he said, "you're incredible."

  Fang Mu laughed, waved goodbye, and then turned and left.

  By now it was already close to midnight, and most of the dorms were dark. Streetlights lit the campus roads, so that ahead of Fang Mu the darkness was occasionally broken by pale yellow pools of light, in which could be seen the mad fluttering of unknown insects. Fang Mu walked slowly, silent as a ghost traveling through the night.

  Looking up, he saw an endless array of stars glittering in the dark canopy overhead. The air was fresh and he could feel a slight coolness as he breathed it in.

  There's a sentimental notion that, when people die, they become stars in the night sky, shining down on friends and enemies alike.

  Rest in peace, all of you.

  The light in Room 313 was off. Fang Mu took out his key and placed it in the keyhole, only to find that the door had been locked from within.

  A burst of startled noise sounded from inside. Then in a faltering voice, someone asked, "Who is it?"

  "It's me, Fang Mu."

  "Oh," Du Yu audibly sighed with relief. "Wait one second."

  A girl's voice grumbled softly that she couldn't find her underwear.

  Laughing, Fang Mu leaned against the wall opposite and lit a cigarette.

  The hallway was dark as a cave. The only light was from a little 15-watt bulb in the stairwell. The light in the bathroom seemed to have gone out again. Standing in the doorway, everything looked pitch black, like an enormous, wide-open mouth.

  Low noises filled the hallway.

  People talking softly in their sleep.

  People grinding their teeth.

  The drip of the bathroom faucet.

  Someone walking lightly in slippers on the floor above.

  Fang Mu felt his forehead suddenly cover in thin beads of sweat. His lips trembled as he smoked his cigarette.

  All of a sudden he was terrified. He glanced back and forth.

  On either side of the corridor, the doors were shut tight, silent, and seemingly full of mal
ice.

  Unable to help himself, Fang Mu looked down the other end of the corridor.

  The doors on either side gradually receded. Fang Mu stared rigidly at the darkness before him. What was hidden inside?

  He didn't dare look away. These doors, normally so unremarkable, now seemed to come alive in the dark hallway. Laughing secretly, they watched him, this trembling loner, as he proceeded step by step toward his unknown fate. They all seemed about to fly open at any second and lead him down some alluring path, a path that would lead to his own death.

  Suddenly a scorched odor filled his nose.

  Fang Mu almost cried out. On either side of the hallway, the doors were now in flames. And in the smoke nearby, the outline of a person was barely visible, flickering in and out of sight.

  Stepping backwards, Fang Mu reached into his backpack and groped wildly for the dagger.

  By the time he finally gripped its scarred handle, he was nearly overcome with terror.

  The figure slowly approached through the smoke.

  Suddenly Fang Mu realized who it was.

  No. Don't do it.

  It was then that the door behind Fang Mu creaked open.

  Rubbing his eyes, a tall, well-built young man walked out of his room. He looked at Fang Mu. At once his formerly sleepy-looking eyes opened wide.

  "What are you doing out here?"

  Fang Mu recognized him. He was Liu Jianjun, a Criminal Law graduate student.

  Fang Mu was about to yell, "Get out of here now!" But the words caught in his throat.

  The smoke and the flames instantly disappeared. As before, there was only darkness. Nothing could be seen within.

  "N-nothing really," Fang Mu answered. He slowly withdrew his hand from his backpack.