Chapter 42: Humbert Humbert Nine

Chapter 42: Humbert Humbert Nine

TL: Quantum C

6.25.2019

"According to what you just said, " Lang Qiao murmured solemnly, her dark circles almost as big as her eyes: "either Wu Guangchuan crawled out of his grave, or you got the wrong person twenty years ago - and the real murderer is now doing it again."

"Six times he had succeeded, and not even once did we get close to him. He even tricked us into closing the case with the wrong suspect. Even a normal person might get dizzy with the easy success, let alone an actual maniac. Would he really lay low and stay put for so many years?" Luo Wenzhou said, "If we really had the wrong guy before, then these twenty years would have been enough to fill a death pit with bones."

Luo Qiao turned away: "Captain Luo, your words give me goosebumps."

"Yours give me goosebumps as well." Luo Wenzhou swung the pen with his fingers as he continued, "Anyways, I've sent our guys to Qu Tong's apartment. Let's start from the one who dropped the USB drive."

"I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think we are going to get anything." Lang Qiao said, "Accordingly, Qu Tong's family apartment is in a very old residential area. The residents are sloppy in paying the $30 per month property management fee - and rightfully so, since there is hardly any 'management' going on. It's like that lyric "my door is always open" was written for them. They literally just had a break-in last month. I mean, if you can't catch the guy who took something from your home, can't imagine getting the guy that left something there."

Tao Ran asked: "Any other leads?"

"The USB drive was one of the most generic kind - one that you can find on a thousand different webpages. It was wiped clean: not a single trace of fingerprint was found. As for the content of the recording, the technical department is still on it. However, from what we know so far, the suspect clearly has good anti-scavenging skills." Luo Wenzhou paused, then shook his head, "the outcome isn't looking so bright."

The probability that they might find more clues was slim. So was the probability that the girl was still alive.

The golden 72 hours has already passed. The recording delivered to the parents seemed to be some kind of a show-off, a concluding message --- I am still here. I am still the winner. You guys still cannot get me. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

"Actually, there is another approach." Tao Ran pondered for a while, then said, "On the night of the abduction, what kind of people might drive past the scene? We've thoroughly screened the nearby sight-seeing spots, the campus of the winery, and the security footage on the main roads. If whoever picked up the girl was really a passer-by, it's unlikely that he didn't leave any trace. However, up until today, we haven't found anything from the screening. What if...what if he had been following Qu Tong all along -- or, his target had been some other girl on that bus, but then the bus was abducted..."

Lang Qiao realized what he was implying, and continued for him: "You mean, if it was intentional stalking, then it must have been planned, and probably on-going for a while!"

The students' summer camp ended in the Xiling suburb on its last day. However, before that, it had been held in the city, near the school. If the mysterious abductor had been stalking one of the students, then he might have been picked up by some traffic cameras or some nearby residents, since it is much harder to be invisible in the heart of the city than in the remote countryside.

Lang Qiao shot up: "I'll go."

"I've already tried." Luo Wenzhou waved her down, "Sit. On that night, when we finished screening the crime scene and didn't find any suspect, I asked our guys to search along the everyday routes of the girls. There are eleven girls in the 18-students-class. They were all of similar ages as Qu Tong, and six of them had similar physical characteristics as her. Even if we focus on only those six, it is almost impossible to check every person that they crossed everyday. We can't narrow down the suspect, because we only know that his or her shoe size is 42, and nothing else. We don't know whether it's a man or a woman, or if it's old or young. Unless the person somehow appears suspicious...but from what we gathered, apparently not."

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Lu Youliang had been listening from the side. Hearing this, he couldn't help but sighed, and thought that even if he were to lead the investigation himself, he couldn't have been more thorough. Sometimes the luck is just not on their side.

"Back in the days the abductor called the parents directly. Now that we can finally track the phone calls, he changed to the traceless USB drive. Talk about keeping up with the technology..." Lang Qiao sighed too, "what a classic case of 'virtue grows one foot taller, yet the devil 10 feet'."

Luo Wenzhou hesitated, then asked, "I remember that none of the victims' bodies were found. What was the final nail on the coffin for Wu Guangchuan then? Only the blooded children's clothing in his basement?"

"No. The rules were looser back then, but not that loose." Chief Lu answered, "Besides some clothes that had been cut into pieces, the main evidence against Wu was the testimony from the seventh girl. Physical examination showed that she was sexulaly assulted. After she became conscious, she identified Wu Guangchuan as well. What was her name...Su...Su something."

"Su Xiaolan." said Tao Ran, "My Shifu wrote it on his notebook. She was one of the students of the suspect Wu Guangchuan."

"Yes, exactly." Chief Lu tried hard but finally gave in to his fading memory, "It had been too long. And my brain isn't as sharp as the old days any more. Go ahead and get the archived files."

Luo Wenzhou gave the spaced-out Lang Qiao a nudge. Then the latter hurried off to take care of the paper works.

Lu Youliang had long considered Luo Wenzhou as his successor. Although the kid is a bit too young, luckily he wasn't going to retire right away, so there is still time to nurse and trim Luo into a dependable pillar. So, his ambition-less bullshit rubbed Chief Lu in all the wrong ways. Lu then thought of some shady gossip he heard about Mr Luo, and became all the more irritated. He pointed at Luo Wenzhou: "As if you are going to take a wife...just shut up, alright? Or get the hell out of my sight."

Luo Wenzhou took a cigarette and the archival files, ready to be submissively on his way, when Chief Lu stopped him at the door.

"What are your general thoughts about this case?"

Luo Wenzhou's one hand was already on the door knob. He stopped: "There were two questions unanswered in the old case. First, the missing girls' bodies were never found. Second, we don't know Wu Guangchuan's motive for calling the victim's parents. I discussed this case with a friend before. He thinks that the calls seemed to be about the parents, rather than the children --- which is very odd for a pedafile. Also, I have this feeling that the two cases might be related, but they are not necessarily the doing of the same guy."

"How so?"

Luo Wenzhou: "Making a phone call and personally making a trip to the victim's home are very different. The latter takes much more involvement and courage. The risk is higher as well. Looks like the suspect is much more arrogant this time, besides being good at anti-scavenging as Lang Qiao mentioned."

The whole Yancheng city was like a flowing river: after decades of regulating the sewage, the water now seemed quite clean and safe. However, a river is a river, and there was always going to be turbulence and whirlpool.

The odds for finding the missing girl, Qu Tong, back and alive, was getting slimmer and slimmer. At the same time, for thousands of other girls at her age, today was nothing more than an ordinary summer day, filled with uninteresting classes from the 'interest clubs'. The cicada was chirping weakly on the outside, while on the inside the boys and girls were daydreaming about their teenage years ahead.

Chen Chen carried an isle on her back as she waited for her parents at the bus stop on the back entrance of the YMCA. Bored, she took out an ipad and started playing. Suddenly, she noticed a shadow on her screen. Chen Chen looked up, and saw a hunch-backed blind old man approaching her, his face turned towards her, despite the supposed blindness.

Chen Chen felt uneasy all of a sudden. She thought of the conversation she had with the Gege who bought her cream puffs the other day. She carefully moved closer to the small crowd on her left who were waiting for the bus, while keeping a wary eye on the blind old man.

At that time, a bus arrived. The crowded bus stop emptied up. Before long, the old man and Chen chen were the only two people left.

Suddenly, the old man swept the floor with his walking stick and started walking towards her. Chen Chen felt the hairs on the back of her neck all standing up. She quickly turned and ran towards the YMCA. At the corner, she bumped into someone and knocked over all the books that she was carrying.

It was a girl who looked slightly older. She wore a floral print dress. Her hair was tied up into two ponytails.

Chen Chen hurried to apologize: "I'm sorry!"

The girl looked at her. She didn't get mad at all. Instead, as she kneeled down to pick up her notebooks, she asked gently: "Why are you running?"

Chen Chen helped her and replied: "There is someone strange over there. I'm a little scared."

The girl looked to the direction that Chen Chen pointed to: "I don't see anyone. Where?"

Chen Chen turned around, and saw that the bus stop was empty. No one was there at all.

The girl looked at Chen Chen and asked: "Which grade are you in?"

"Sixth grade in the fall."

"Oh, then I am one year older than you." The girl held the books under one arm, and held Chen Chen's hand with the other, "Are you still scared? I can wait for the bus with you."

Chen Chen couldn't be happier.

"I am taking the photography classes here." The girl looked down as she talked. Her long eyelashes flickered. Then, she turned and smiled at Chen Chen, "My name is Su Luozhan."