Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1) (42 page)

"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. After 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."

"You don't think it's suspicious that the letter has disappeared?"

Tai Wei was silent for a moment. "Fang Mu," he said slowly, "it's not that I don't believe you; it's just that Meng Fanzhe was this woman's only child, and the amount of pain she must have been in would have made it difficult for her to control herself. I'm certain that she was never able to accept that her son could have actually done these terrible things, and was noting every suspicious detail as evidence to help her reverse the verdict. As for that letter, I truly doubt that it ever existed. She probably just wanted you to come see her and used this as an excuse."

"Reverse the verdict? Then why didn't she just call you guys directly?"

"You were his victim. Perhaps what the old lady wanted to know most was why Meng Fanzhe wanted to kill you."

Fang Mu snorted in disillusion this time. He lay down on the back seat again, not saying a word.

Tai Wei looked back at him. "You hungry?" he asked after a few thoughtful moments. "Want me to grab you some food at the gas station up ahead?"

There was a weighty pause, and then he finally heard Fang Mu's muffled voice reply, "I'm fine. Thanks."

Tai Wei just shook his head helplessly, and stepped on the gas.

It was almost noon when they arrived at the
Jiangbin
City
University
gates. Tai Wei invited Fang Mu to get something to eat at one of the little restaurants nearby, but Fang Mu stiffly refused, grabbed his bag, and headed into campus without looking back.

Tai Wei watched him disappear into the crowd of people walking through the gate.

"Stubborn bastard," he muttered to himself, and then shut the door, got back in, and started up the jeep.

As the engine idled, he sat with his hands on the steering wheel, lost in thought. After hesitating for some time, he pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Hello? Brother Tai?" Li Weidong's voice sounded over the receiver.

"Yeah, it's me. You guys really didn't discover that letter at the scene?"

Li Weidong laughed. "What is it? You don't believe me?"

"No, no, no. I was just asking."

"Well, we really didn't find it. You want me to send someone over there to look again?"

"Yeah, that would be great." Tai Wei quickly added, "Also, could I trouble you guys to check one more time for any signs that someone else might have entered the apartment?"

"All right. However, we've recently been focusing on gambling and automobile theft, so our numbers are a little limited. When I get a chance I'll definitely send someone over there to check, and if they find anything I'll let you know."

"Thanks a lot. Now I've got some stuff to take care of, so I'll talk to you later." After hanging up the phone, Tai Wei looked back toward the campus entrance. Crowds of students were walking in and out, talking and laughing, their faces free of worry.

Could there really have been a letter?

Could the killer really be someone else?

Could we really have made a mistake?

These were possibilities that Tai Wei could not accept.

Du Yu wasn't around. That was lucky, because otherwise there would have been no end to the questions.

Fang Mu tossed his backpack onto his chair and then lay heavily on the bed.

His whole body hurt and the bruises on his face were still swollen. When he lay against the pillow, the pain made him groan.

With difficulty, he rolled over. He really wanted to go to sleep, but although he closed his eyes, he stayed wide awake. Two vague shapes refused to leave his mind.

The symbols on the window.

He got gingerly out of bed and sat at his desk. Grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, he tried as hard as he could to remember what he had seen the night before, and as he thought, he drew.

In fact, he wasn't even sure whether what he saw was man-made or just random smudges in-between the droplets on that window. Bit by bit, as his memory grew, the symbols took shape.

There was a total of two shapes. The one on the left looked a little like a "9" with a short horizontal line through the middle, while the one on the right sort of resembled the letter "A".

Fang Mu picked up the piece of paper and looked at it from every possible angle, but he still couldn't figure anything out. He tossed it aside, took out a cigarette, and glumly smoked it.

Someone had reached Meng Fanzhe's house before him, snatched the letter, and killed Meng Fanzhe's mother. From this he could deduce two things: First, this person knew about the letter and knew that Fang Mu was going to the house as well. Second, he knew Meng Fanzhe's mother had heart problems and was scared of mice.

Fang Mu thought back to when he had received Meng Fanzhe's mother's call in the library. Had there been anyone else around? Who were they? But he couldn't remember a thing. At the time he had been so engrossed in what she was saying that he hadn't paid any attention to the scene around him.

At the time he had considered having Meng Fanzhe's mother read him the letter over the phone, but fearing that this might get her too excited and worsen her heart condition, he'd decided against it. In the long run, however, it seemed that this decision had cost her life.

Exhausted, he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes.

Meng Fanzhe had raised a cat, which meant that he was probably scared of rats. In fact, people's fears were mostly acquired from experiences earlier in life. So Meng Fanzhe's fear of rats probably came from his mother. Perhaps when he was young he saw his mother become terrified of a rat, and as a result, gradually developed this fear himself.

In which case, someone who knew that Meng Fanzhe's mother was scared of rats would also be someone who deeply understood Meng Fanzhe.

And the only person who could have gotten Meng Fanzhe to reveal such personal information was probably that doctor.

If this person really existed, then Fang Mu's initial deduction was correct: At first, this doctor had given Meng Fanzhe a certain amount of psychotherapy, helping him to overcome his fear of roll call, and probably also his fear of rats; it had been he who suggested Meng Fanzhe get a cat. In this way, Meng Fanzhe would have begun to deeply trust and rely on this doctor, even to the point where he would do whatever he was told.

In which case, beginning with the 7/1 double homicide, had Meng Fanzhe carried out all these murders under this doctor's control?

Most likely not. Fang Mu rejected this possibility almost immediately. First, although Meng Fanzhe had a weak personality, he was still a law graduate student and would have never agreed to kill someone. Second, even supposing that the doctor hypnotized Meng Fanzhe, the likelihood was still very low. Although movies often depicted hypnosis as being almost supernaturally powerful, from a criminal justice standpoint, it had never been proven that a person could be hypnotized into committing a murder; not to mention that no one under hypnosis could be capable of planning and carrying out crimes as detailed and meticulous as these.

In which case, could this doctor have been responsible for all the murders?

Fang Mu couldn't help but shiver.

What kind of person is this, and why is he after me?

Someone knocked on the door, jolting his thoughts. When Fang Mu opened it, Deng Linyue stood there.

He subconsciously turned his head as soon as he realized it was her, but she had already seen the bruises on his face.

A small gasp escaped her. "My God, what happened?"

"It's nothing, it's nothing," he mumbled, waving her into the room.

But she wouldn't let up so easily and insisted that he tell her what happened.

Unable to dissuade her, he had no choice but to explain everything.

When he had finished, Deng Linyue didn't say anything in response, just wordlessly sat beside his bed.

After a long silence, she asked, "Is this…really what you want to do?"

"What do you mean?"

She looked up. Placing her hand on his knee, she looked into his eyes and said, "You don't want to just be an ordinary person? Studying hard, graduating, and then going abroad with me? That's not good enough for you?"

Fang Mu looked down and said nothing. He gently moved her hand away and shook his head.

"Why?" she asked, her eyes filling with tears. "Do you think your life is normal? Do you think you're happy like this?

His voice was soft as he spoke. "No."

"Then why are you doing this?" Deng Linyue suddenly jumped to her feet. "Are you a policeman? Is this your duty? Or is someone forcing you?"

When she saw that he wasn't going to respond, she bit her lip in an attempt to calm down. "Fang Mu, I admit that the reason I love you is because you're someone who has experienced a lot. There's an indescribable sort of force around you, and this made me curious. It also captivated me, and made me feel secure. But after I fell in love with you, I found that this force also scared me." The questions seemed to come tumbling out. "Why does so much death always seem to follow you? Why must you always place yourself in such dangerous situations? After what he did, that boy Meng deserved to die, so what does that have to do with you? Why do you have to get yourself tangled up in it? Why do you have to cause so much pointless trouble?" She paused. "When you were doing all this, did you ever think of me?"