Lei Mi - Profiler

Over a month had passed since the murders, and in that time police had already traveled several times to both Linjiang City in Jilin province, the registered permanent residence of victim Qu Weiqiang, and Hegang City in Heilongjiang province, the registered permanent residence of victim Wang Qian. There they had investigated nearly a thousand people, and still the crime was no closer to being solved than on the day it was committed. Above all, the police were puzzled by a single question: what was the motive?

It was clear from the crime scene that nothing had been stolen. The several hundred renminbi lying in one of the drawers hadn't been touched, nor had the victims' cell phones, jewelry or other valuable objects. As a result, the possibility that this was a case of burglary ending in murder could essentially be eliminated.

Based on the brutality of the killings, revenge initially seemed a probable motive, but after repeated investigations, police could find no evidence that the victims had any enemies to speak of. Qu Weiqiang's parents were both laborers, while Wang Qian's father was a doctor and her mother a teacher. The possibility that some enmity from the parents' generation had led to the deaths of their children appeared unlikely.

If this was simply a forced entry, rape and murder case, then there were even more questions to answer. First, why dismember Wang Qian? If the reason was to conceal the body, why piece her back together and leave her lying on the floor? And what about the syringe in her left breast? Where did it come from and what did it mean?

Second, why bring Qu Weiqiang's body to the soccer field, cut off his hands, and then leave him there? The field was over a mile away from the scene of the crime and transporting him could not have been easy, so why go to all that trouble? If this was meant as a kind of challenge to the police, why not take the far lighter Wang Qian instead?

Although many questions remained unanswered, the police did feel certain about one thing: this was an exceedingly calm and intelligent killer. After breaking through the screen window, he had first killed the dead-drunk Qu Weiqiang (toxicology reports later showed the victim's blood-alcohol level to be extremely high) by striking him with a blunt object. Then he raped Wang Qian, strangled her to death, hacked her apart and pieced her back together, cleaned the apartment, carried Qu Weiqiang's corpse to the soccer field, and cut off his hands. From the state of the crime scene it was clear that the killer had been methodical in everything-even the bathroom where he dismembered Wang Qian had been scrubbed so clean that the police could not find the smallest clue.

Analyzing the crime through the lens of criminal psychology, the killer's murder methods had been extremely rigorous-and this rigor seemed to please him greatly. This meant he was highly likely to kill again.

To the police, this was a terrifying prediction.

Catching a cold during the hottest days of summer is notoriously unpleasant.

So early one morning, Tang Yu’e walked into the JiangbinCityUniversityHospital, wiping her nose every few steps. She felt good enough about the place; it was near her home, well-maintained, and, most importantly, cheap.

The problem was that the doctors' attitudes were not quite as caring as the plaque on the wall of the outpatient services entry hall promised. After speaking with a Dr. Cao, who asked her a few hurried questions and then wrote out several prescriptions, Tang Yu’e was sent to the nurses' station and told to ask for an IV.

The young nurse who intubated her was brusquely mechanical in her methods. It hurt a lot. Minutes later, Tang Yu’e was holding up her own IV bag and wandering the halls with a look of irritation, searching for the observation room. She hadn't gone ten steps before her arm was sore. Just as she was struggling to continue, a white-coated male doctor wearing a surgical mask appeared. With one hand he retrieved the IV bag from her outstretched arm, while with the other he helped her along, saying, "This way, ma'am." His voice was warm and friendly and lovely to hear.

The doctor led Tang Yu’e to Observation Room 2. No one else was inside. After helping hang her IV bag on the hook beside the chair, he placed a soft cushion beneath her.

"Thank you, young man," she said.

The doctor waved his hand to say she needn't be so polite. His eyes twinkled behind his glasses-he was obviously smiling. After helping Tang Yu’e get comfortable, he opened the door and left.

When the doctor returned he was carrying a cup of water. He placed it in Tang Yu’e's hand. It was ice-cold.

"You should drink this water, ma'am. It's so hot out today and there's no air conditioning in here. This will help you cool off."

"Thank you so much, young man. What's your name? I'd like to tell the hospital director how good you've been to me." Having never received this kind of treatment there before, Tang Yu’e felt a little overwhelmed.

But the doctor just waved his hand again, his eyes as lively as before, and then he turned and left.

Tang Yu’e was already planning on telling her husband how nice this man had been when she got home. She sipped the water. Ah, she could feel its chill run all the way down to her stomach. Truly pleasant-though it did have a faintly medicinal taste. But perhaps all hospital water tasted like that. Regardless, she didn't think about the matter any further. To be well over 40 and have a young man treat her like that-how delightful.

Fifteen minutes later, when the doctor quietly pushed open the observation room door, Tang Yu’e was already leaning back in the chair, fast asleep. The doctor took the empty paper cup from her hand and placed it in the pocket of his white coat. Then, from another pocket, he produced a syringe and injected its contents into the IV tube. Finally, he placed a thin book in Tang Yu’e's bag, and then departed just as he had come, swiftly and soundlessly.

After nine, the number of sick people coming to the JiangbinCityUniversityHospital gradually increased. One after another, various IV bag-toting patients sat in Observation Room 2, but no one took any notice of the middle-aged woman napping in the chair. At last, a young woman who was there accompanying her boyfriend while he got an IV pointed at Tang Yu’e.

"Hey, look at that woman over there. She hasn't moved an inch this whole time."

"She's probably just sleeping," her boyfriend said, holding his stomach.

Pushing the glasses up off the bridge of her nose, the girl stared at the motionless woman.

"No way…" she said, her face growing pale. "I don't think she's even breathing!"

Plucking up her courage, the girl took a few steps forward, cautiously leaned into the woman's ear and shouted, "Miss!"

No response.

After hesitating for a moment, the girl reached out and pushed her.

It was like pushing a block of wood.

Before the girl could react, Tang Yu’e fell rigidly off the side of the chair and onto the floor.

When Tai Wei walked out of Observation Room 2, a frown on his face, the director of the outpatient clinic was screaming his head off at the nurse who had given Tang Yu’e the IV.

The young nurse was backed against a table, sobbing and sniffling and saying that 30 minutes after she'd injected the IV, she'd gone to Observation Room 1 to check on Tang Yu’e. When she didn't see her, she assumed that once the IV was empty, the lady had removed it herself and left. After that, she hadn't thought about the matter again.

Seeing Tai Wei appear, the director quickly motioned for the nurse to shut her mouth. Then, before Tai Wei could speak, he abruptly stated their position: "We don't know a thing, so all this will have to wait until the higher-ups tell us what to do."