Chapter 17 - Looking In The Wrong Place

A stack of pancakes arrived in front of Halia and she immediately started digging into it.

"Victim number four's body was found near PUH and she worked near PUH. Then, Sara died after working in the emergency ward of PUH and I saw the hospital's logo in her memory. Because of these clues, we've been focusing on the emergency doctors in PUH. But, you know what, after working in the emergency ward for just two days, I've already noticed that none of the doctors leave the hospital for lunch. I spoke to the doctors and they said it's impossible to leave because they are always on-call."

"Look at the opening hours for this place. They are only open between 10am and 2pm. If none of the doctors leave for lunch, how could they come to this cafe and meet the victim?"

"The killer definitely knew the victim. He knew what time she was heading to work, he knew the route she walked. If he drugged her with GHB like you said, he would have slipped it into something she drank on the way. He was meticulous and he planned everything out perfectly. He even knew that the cafe closed at 2pm, so he dumped the body in the alleyway around the corner after 2pm, knowing no one would walk past until the next day. It wasn't a random killing," Halia explained.

"Does that mean we've been looking in the wrong place?" Eric asked.

"I'm not sure. All I know is, when we call the five doctors in for questioning in 2 days, the rest of the hospital will quickly find out. If the killer isn't amongst these five, I don't know how the real killer will react."

Halia finished her pancake at that moment and got up to pay. As she stood at the counter, she started to chat to the waiter, "You guys get very busy here, don't you?"

"Oh yes, we get a lot of customers from the hospital," the waiter replied.

"Do a lot of doctors come here?" she asked casually.

"We get a few regulars, but you know, doctors are busy. We actually get more nurses," he winked. "A bit of eye candy for me," he laughed.

Halia laughed along, "So what's your verdict, which hospital ward has it the easiest?"

The waiter chuckled, "The gastrointestinal ward has it quite easy, I see the doctors and nurses from there almost everyday. Even if it's just for a coffee. On the other hand, I've never met any of the doctors from the emergency ward, those guys are so hardworking."

Halia glanced at Eric. She had a bad feeling about this.

"What should we do?" Eric asked.

"I'm going to call the police chief and ask him to question victim number one's mother again. We didn't have any clues when we questioned her, but we know a lot more now. Perhaps, she'd be able to tell us something."

...

Later that afternoon, a senior detective arrived outside an apartment.

He had been following the recent killings from the beginning and he had spent many sleepless nights flipping through the files.

The latest victim was a nurse that had been killed 3 days ago and tomorrow was the last day of March. He knew his time was running out, but he couldn't piece the clues together.

That morning, when he arrived at the police station, the police chief called him to his office and gave him a list of 5 suspects, "Do a background check on these 5 doctors. See if they are tied to the victims in any way."

The detective looked at the list curiously. Where did the chief get these names from?

But, even though he was curious, he did not question the chief and immediately started looking into the doctors. They were all from the emergency ward of PUH, the same place where the recent victim worked. "I guess it makes sense," he thought.

However, just as things were beginning to make sense. The chief suddenly came out after lunch and told him to go question the mother of the first victim again.

"Go check if the victim was linked to any of the doctors at the emergency ward of PUH. We need to double check that we are heading down the right track."

So, that's how he ended up standing outside the apartment of the first victim.

He walked up to the door and started knocking.

It took a while, but an old lady finally answered the door.

As soon as she saw the detective, her eyes got teary. She recognized him. He had questioned her on the day of her daughter's death. "What are you doing here? Haven't you asked enough?" she m.o.a.ned.

"I'm sorry, but can I have a bit of time to speak to you?"

"I've already told you everything, but you still haven't found my daughter's killer. I don't want to speak to you, I just want this to be over!"

The old lady tried to close the door, but the detective quickly stopped her. "I just want to ask if your daughter knew a doctor from the emergency ward of Peking University Hospital."

"That hospital's far from here, neither my daughter nor I have ever gone near there. Now go!" the old lady cried.

Just before the door closed, the detective slipped in a business card, "Think it over carefully. Call me if you remember anything else."