Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1)

by Lei Mi

  Fang Mu walked carefully forward. The hallway was about 16 feet long. When he reached the end everything was just as dark as before, but he could tell that the space in front of him had opened up. Probably the living room.

  Fang Mu stopped at the entrance to the living room and forced his eyes to adjust to the darkness. At the same time, he listened closely for any sounds of movement.

  Gradually, he began to hear strange rustling noises coming from within the living room. It sounded like someone turning the pages of a book, or tiny claws moving across cotton.

  Fang Mu was focusing as hard as he could on the sound when he suddenly felt something scurry across his foot. Startled, he jumped back and slammed into the wall, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

  It was then that he remembered the lighter in his pocket. He pulled it out and flicked it on. A small flame emerged and the scene before him was finally revealed.

  It was in fact the living room. At its front sat a cabinet with a TV inside. Facing the TV was a couch, the back of it before Fang Mu.

  From the thin light of the flame, he could vaguely make out several strands of gray hair hanging over the back of the couch.

  "Auntie?" he asked haltingly.

  The hair didn't move at all.

  The lighter had already begun to burn Fang Mu's hand, but he ignored this and walked slowly toward the sofa, gripping the knife as tightly as he could.

  As he got closer to the sofa, his heartbeat sped up, his teeth chattering nervously, and his hand began to shake so badly that he thought for sure he would drop the lighter.

  Just when he was about to reach the sofa, the lighter suddenly went out and Fang Mu's eyes were plunged once more into darkness. Flicking at the burning-hot lighter, he shuffled forward. Right as his knee brushed against the sofa, the lighter clicked on and a huge flame shot out.

  A bloodless face, its eyes and mouth wide open, suddenly appeared before him.

  Meng Fanzhe's mother was half-sitting, half-lying on the sofa, her face upright and her hair falling over the back. One of her hands gripped her chest, the other held onto the sofa cover. Her eyes were bulging and her mouth was gaping wide, a terrified look on her face.

  And she was dead.

  A big black rat sat on one of her legs. Provoked by the flame from Fang Mu's lighter, it didn't try to hide at all, just stared at Fang Mu with its small red eyes.

  When the lighter began to burn Fang Mu's hand, he was finally shaken out of his state of terror and forced back to reality. Panicking, he swung his dagger all around in blind defense, frantically searching his pocket for his cell phone.

  At last he found it. Flipping the phone open, he was about to dial Emergency when he heard hurried footsteps outside the apartment.

  Suddenly several flashlight beams shot into the apartment through the window beside the door. Blinded by the light, Fang Mu covered his eyes with his hand.

  In that instant, he noticed that two strange symbols had been written in the condensation on the window glass. It had been too dark to notice them before.

  "Who's there? Put the knife down now!" a man shouted. "Now! Or we will open fire!"

  Fang Mu heard the sound of guns being cocked. He hurriedly tossed his dagger on the floor and put his hands up.

  Several cops pounced on him and forced him to the ground. Struggling to lift his head, Fang Mu tried to see what exactly had been written on the window.

  "Goddammit, you still don't want to cooperate, huh?" Someone struck Fang Mu across the face.

  He tasted blood. With his head still spinning, he twisted weakly around. "The window..." He mumbled repeatedly over and over: "The window… What's on the window…?"

  CHAPTER

  23

  Christmas Eve

  Shortly after falling asleep at around three in the morning, Tai Wei was woken by the ringing of his cell phone.

  Stumbling out of bed, he grabbed for his phone and flipped it open, his eyes still closed. "Hello?"

  "Is this Officer Tai?"

  "Yeah. Who's this?"

  "I apologize for waking you," said the voice over the phone. "I'm Li Weidong from the Baita PSB substation in Suijing City. Do you remember me?"

  Li Weidong? Tai Wei did remember him. Once when Tai Wei had gone to Suijing City to arrest an armed fugitive he had made contact with the Baita substation. As he recalled, Li Weidong was quite a drinker.

  "Oh, it's you, Weidong. Nice to hear from you."

  Li Weidong gave a slight, embarrassed laugh. "I know it's very late, and I really am sorry, but there's something I need to discuss with you. Do you know a Fang Mu?"

  All of Tai Wei's sleepiness immediately disappeared. "Fang Mu? Yes, I know him. Why?"

  "At this moment he's in our custody."

  "In your custody? What happened?"

  "An old women died in our district last night, and he was found at the scene."

  "Are you saying…?"

  "No, it's not that. The results of our medical examiners just came back, and at this point there's no evidence that he was involved. However, when we asked him what he was doing there, he said he was investigating a crime and asked us to call you."

  "Oh, I understand." Tai Wei knew exactly what had happened. Suijing City was Meng Fanzhe's hometown, and the dead woman was most likely his mother. "Weidong, tell me if this sounds acceptable. For now, don't interrogate him. I'd stake my life on Fang Mu not having had anything to do with the woman's death. I'm going to head over there right now. Once I'm there we can figure all this out."

  "Fine by me," said Li Weidong, without hesitation.

  Tai Wei rushed over to the Suijing City Baita substation. By the time he arrived it was already 6:30 a.m. Li Weidong was waiting for him in the courtyard.

  With no time for proper greetings, Tai Wei got right to the point. "Where's Fang Mu?"

  Li Weidong led him to the entrance of the detainment room. Through the small window in the door, Tai Wei could see Fang Mu curled up asleep on one of the benches, a police-issue sleeping bag wrapped around him. Part of his face was bruised.

  "You guys hit him?" Tai Wei asked, frowning.

  "Yeah," said Li Weidong, laughing with embarrassment. "He was struggling like crazy at the scene last night. He probably got struck a few times."

  When they were back in Li Weidong's office, Li Weidong politely handed Tai Wei a cigarette.

  The cigarette burned away between Tai Wei's fingers, his impatience growing. "So what exactly happened?"

  "It's like this," Li Weidong said. "Last night we received a call from a resident of the Golden Pedestal residential area on North Riverbend Street. He said that while making a call out on the terrace he happened to notice someone standing in front of an apartment on the fourth floor walkway across from him. The man continued to watch this person as he made his call, and saw that after knocking a few times, the person walk inside the apartment. The caller said he was surprised to see that the person did not turn on any lights. Then, when he saw a small flame appear inside, and noticed that the intruder had pulled out a knife, he was so startled that he called us immediately. Because some of the men from our substation happened to be in the area breaking up a gambling ring, they were able to quickly swing by." He paused for a moment. "When we arrived at the scene and saw the dead woman, we realized that the situation was very serious, so we brought the kid back here."

  "Was the dead woman named Dong Guizhi?"

  "Yeah," said Li Weidong, surprised. "How'd you know?"

  "She's the relative of the suspect in a case we were investigating recently," said Tai Wei simply. It was clear to him Fang Mu had gone to Suijing City because of Meng Fanzhe.

  "Did he say anything about what he was doing at the crime scene?"

  "At first he didn't say, just kept telling us that we needed to go back to the scene and look at the marks on one of the windows," Li Weidong said, "saying it was extremely important. So while we questioned him, we notified one of the offic
ers at the scene to check the window for any marks."

  "Marks? What marks?"

  "Who knows? The officer inspected the window that Fang Mu was talking about. The inside of it was covered in water droplets and was marked by nothing, and the outside had already been wiped clean by all the neighbors who pressed against it to see what was going on. The officer didn't find a thing."

  "Then what happened?"

  "Then Fang Mu told us to look for a letter at the crime scene and told us the date it was sent. I relayed this information to the officers at the scene. They searched through a huge stack of letters, but didn't find anything from the day Fang Mu was talking about. After that, he gave us your number and told us to contact you."

  Tai Wei didn't say anything further, silently smoking. When his cigarette was gone, he looked at his watch. It was almost seven. "Can I take him back with me now?"

  "I'm afraid not," said Li Weidong. "As of right now, Fang Mu is still too tied up in the case. However, my fellow officers are working as fast as they can, and if all goes well, we should reach a preliminary conclusion on the case soon."

  At that moment a young policeman walked into the room, carrying several large plastic bags. Some were filled with soybean milk, others with deep-fried twisted dough sticks and stuffed steamed buns.

  "Put them in here," said Li Weidong, indicating several stainless bowls on the desk. He motioned to Tai Wei. "Why don't you have something to eat? You must be hungry, too." He turned back to the young officer. "Take several steamed buns to Fang Mu and give him some hot water, too."

  While they ate, Li Weidong asked Tai Wei about the case he had mentioned. Since it was already closed, Tai Wei decided there was no harm in talking about it, so he briefly described the particulars to Li Weidong.

  "No wonder," Li Weidong said with a smile. "Yesterday when we were about to question the kid, he quickly listed all his rights before we even had time to read them to him. He sounded like he was even more familiar with criminal procedure than we were. It figures that he's a grad student."

  As he finished speaking, an officer with heavy bags under his eyes opened the door and looked to him. "Weidong, can I have a word with you?"

  Wiping his mouth, Li Weidong turned to Tai Wei. "You keep eating. I'll be back in a little bit."

  Li Weidong was gone for more than an hour. When he returned, it was with Fang Mu.

  When they entered the room, Fang Mu continued to ask Li Weidong his most-pressing questions. "Did you find the letter? What was written on the window?"

  Ignoring him, Li Weidong turned to Tai Wei and said, "Everything's been pretty much straightened out. In a moment I'll need you to sign a few forms and then you can take him back."

  Fang Mu's dissatisfaction with the matter was still evident on his face, but Tai Wei gave him a glance that told him not to say anything else. He tossed Fang Mu a cigarette. Fang Mu caught it, looked over at Li Weidong, and then sat reluctantly in one of the chairs and lit the cigarette..

  "So there's no problem?" Tai Wei asked Li Weidong.

  "Nope. Our medical examiners worked through the night to make an autopsy of the corpse, which confirmed that the woman died of a heart-attack," Li Weidong said. "As it turned out, the old lady had a serious case of rheumatic heart disease. We found a number of rats while investigating the apartment and believe that one of them probably scared her to death. Also," he said, pointing at Fang Mu, who was sullenly smoking, "we found a train ticket and taxi cab receipt in one of his pockets. We contacted the cab driver and he remembered Fang Mu well because he had given three renminbi more than the fare. The driver confirmed the time he had dropped him off, which was over an hour after Dong Guizhi had died."

  Not seeming to care that he had just been freed of suspicion, Fang Mu asked again: "What about the letter? And the marks on the window?"

  Li Weidong looked at him. "We couldn't find the letter you were talking about, and as for that window, there were no marks when we checked. Take a look at this picture if you don't believe me." He took a picture out of the folder he was holding and handed it to Fang Mu.

  Fang Mu studied the picture for a long time, turning it in every direction. At last, without saying a word, he placed it on the table and stared unhappily at the floor.

  "Although we still don't understand why you were at the crime scene, we have determined that this was merely a coincidence," Li Weidong said. "Therefore, once we take care of a few formalities, you'll be free to go."

  "It wasn't a coincidence!" Fang Mu suddenly yelled in agitation.

  "Keep quiet!" Tai Wei roared. He turned to Li Weidong. "In that case, let's take care of this stuff so I can take him back."

  Li Weidong nodded and left the office.

  Tai Wei looked back to Fang Mu. "You want them to keep you locked up in here? If not, then the less you say, the better!"

  Fang Mu didn't reply, just took a deep drag on his cigarette.

  After the paperwork was finished, Tai Wei and Fang Mu were allowed to leave. While retrieving his personal belongings, Fang Mu discovered that his dagger was no longer there, and when he asked the policeman in charge, he was told that the knife had been confiscated. Finding this unacceptable, Fang Mu demanded that they return it to him, refusing to leave if they did not.

  Seeing no other choice, Tai Wei went to find Li Weidong again, and at last they got the dagger back.

  After politely refusing Li Weidong's invitation to get something to eat, Tai Wei took Fang Mu to the jeep and they headed back to Jiangbin City. As soon as Fang Mu was inside, he lay down in the back and fell into a gloomy sleep.

  Seeing the exhausted expression on Fang Mu's face, Tai Wei sighed and turned up the heat in the jeep.

  After driving for over an hour, Tai Wei saw in the rear-view mirror that Fang Mu had sat up and was drowsily licking his cracked lips.

  "You're awake?" Tai Wei noted. He passed Fang Mu a half-full bottle of water.

  Fang Mu emptied the bottle in one gulp. He leaned silently against the seat back and stared out the window, still dazed.

  "Talk to me," Tai Wei insisted. "Why did you go to Meng Fanzhe's home?"

  Fang Mu didn't immediately respond. After a while he said slowly, "Meng Fanzhe's mother called me and said that before her son's incident, he had sent her a letter. In it he mentioned my name, and said that if anything ever happened to him, she should give the letter to me."

  "Oh? And what did the letter say?"

  "I don't know. You heard him yourself; they didn't find it at the scene."

  "Then what were those marks you were talking about?"

  "When the police arrested me," Fang Mu said wearily, "I saw what appeared to be symbols written onto the window glass. But now they're gone."

  "Symbols? What did they look like?"

  Fang Mu thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. They didn't look Chinese. It was almost like…eh..." He thumped his head. "I just can't remember."

  "Forget it; don't think too much about this," said Tai Wei as they passed a truck. "And make sure you take it easy when you get back. You're lucky the old lady's death was just an accident or I never would have gotten you out of there so fast."

  "It was not an accident!"

  "How is a heart-attack not an accident? Or are you saying someone killed her?"

  "When I entered the apartment, the door was unlocked. Does that sound normal to you?"

  "She was probably just careless, accidentally let in a few rats and then was so startled that she had a heart-attack."

  "Not only was the door unlocked, the lights were all off…"

  "Maybe she was about to go to sleep?" It sounded more like a question than a statement as Tai Wei said it.

  "Are you wearing your daytime clothes when you turn off the lights to go to sleep?"

  For a moment Tai Wei was tongue-tied. Then after thinking for a while, he said, "The old lady probably just got back and forgot to shut the door. Maybe she was feeling really tired, so she lay down on the sofa to take a nap. A
fter sleeping for a little while, she suddenly felt something crawl across her body. So, she reached out to see what it was, discovered it was a rat, and then had a heart-attack and died." He looked back at Fang Mu in the rear-view mirror. "Well, what do you think?"

  Fang Mu snorted in disbelief at the scenario. "If you don't want to believe me, fine, but don't act like I'm an idiot!"

  Insulted, Tai Wei glared angrily at him in the mirror. He continued driving, not saying a word.

  After the jeep traveled in silence for a while, Fang Mu suddenly asked, "While going through Meng Fanzhe's things, did you find any hospital receipts or medical records or things like that?"

  "No, why do you ask?"

  "Meng Fanzhe's mother said that in his letter he mentioned a doctor."

  "A doctor?" Tai Wei's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "How can there be another doctor?"

  "What do you mean another?" asked Fang Mu immediately.

  "Um… Do you still remember the letter that Ma Kai wrote you?" He avoided Fang Mu's eyes. "In it he also mentioned a doctor."

  Fang Mu lunged forward. "You read the letter?"

  "I just glanced over it," Tai Wei quickly explained, shrugging. "When he gave it to me, I honestly couldn't resist taking a look at it, but before I could actually read it I was ordered to go take care of something else."

  "What did it say?"

  "Like I said, I only read a few sentences, but basically he was saying that he was not a bad person, and that he had previously gone to a doctor for treatment, but unfortunately this had not gotten rid of his illness."

  When Fang Mu didn't say anything for a long time, Tai Wei looked at him hovering at the seat back. "What? Are you thinking that these doctors are the same person?"

  Fang Mu shook his head. "I don't know."

  For a moment Tai Wei was lost in thought, attention back on the road. "You shouldn't think about this stuff anymore," he said at last. "Meng Fanzhe's case is already closed. Get some rest when you get back and you'll feel a lot better."