Lei Mi - Profiler

Beside him, Fang Mu was thinking the same thing. Bathing in the warmth of the sun, he felt his muscles ache and his eyelids grow heavy. Over the past week, Fang Mu had been studying the case day and night, poring over the data, taking notes, and avoiding Du Yu, who was now more curious than ever. Seriously short on sleep, all he wanted to do at that moment was lie down and rest for days. And yet even on this blissfully warm day, with his eyes comfortably shut and his body relaxed, all the words and photos from the case files continued to flash through his mind, as if someone had taken a knife and carved them onto the surface of his brain.

The police analysis had not been wrong-this guy was inordinately smart. If they were hoping he had gotten sloppy and left some major clue behind, they were going to be out of luck. The only way to catch him would be through meticulously analyzing his behavior and then piecing together a picture of the man himself. And yet, what exactly could Fang Mu hope to learn from these increasingly puzzling cases?

This was what had most perplexed Fang Mu over the past several days. Through research and personal experience, he knew that in committing their crimes, serial killers always acted in a way meant to satisfy some psychological or emotional need. This sort of behavior was often known as a serial killer's personal mark. Determining and then analyzing a serial killer's personal mark was critical to cracking the case. First of all, this behavior was the basis for identifying several murders as the work of one individual, and second, it was a window into the killer's overall motive. And because the personal mark often accurately reflected the character, lifestyle, and experiences of the killer, it could lead to important clues found at the intersection of the killer, his victims, and his chosen crime scenes.

Without a doubt, the killer had meticulously arranged for the number of each crime to be hidden somewhere within the crime itself-this was not just some coincidence. At this point, not knowing anything more about their meaning, there was no choice but to understand these numbers as a kind of provocation. As for the rest of the killer's unusual behavior, could any of it be seen as his personal mark?

Superficially, some of it did seem possess the characteristics of a personal mark: dismembering Wang Qian, and then transporting Qu Weiqiang and cutting off his hands in the first crime; placing a piece of broken ceramic pottery in Jin Qiao's hand, filming her genitals and then returning her to her parents in the third crime; skinning Xin Tingting in the fourth crime. All of this behavior clearly required that the killer expend additional time, patience and skill, while also increasing his risk. And all of it was far in excess of what he needed to do avoid detection; rather, it seemed to have been performed for his own satisfaction.

Even so, this was what most puzzled Fang Mu. Because from said behavior, which at first might seem to so obviously display the killer's personal mark, it was not only impossible to determine how the killer's obsessions were either increasing in force or shifting from crime to crime, it couldn't even be claimed that there was any consistent information about the man at all. In other words, these so-called examples of the killer's personal mark were unable to fully reflect the killer's character or his psychological characteristics.

During the first crime, after the killer raped Wang Qian, he dismembered her and then pieced her back together. According to Professor Qiao, this came from a desire to "build her anew." And as for Qu Weiqiang, the severing of his hands after he was killed was supposedly motivated by jealousy. But at this point, the investigation had found no evidence that this had been a crime of passion. And the syringe that was plunged in Wang Qian's breast also remained unexplained.

During the second crime, a middle-aged woman had been killed. She was not raped, and the crime did not appear sexually motivated. As for the pornographic manga found in her bag, Fang Mu believed it had been placed there in an attempt to dishonor her. But again, the information currently available about the crime could not prove this point.

During the third crime, the killer sexually tortured the victim to death, filmed her genitals and placed a piece of broken pottery in her hand. All this demonstrated a psychosexual disorder, as well as a violent need to control the female body.

During the fourth crime, the killer skinned the victim and then clothed the male plastic mannequin beside her in her skin. This demonstrated a tendency toward transvestism. From the standpoint of academic sexual psychology, transvestism may dispose a person toward torture fetishism, but it is extremely rare for a torture fetishist to transform into a transvestite, and almost unimaginable for such a thing to occur in so short a length of time.

If this was a case of multiple personality disorder, then most likely there weren't just two or three personalities at work here, there were a whole bunch.

When this guy got out of bed each morning, he probably had no idea who he was going to be that day.

What kind of person were they dealing with here?

"I just had an idea," said Tai Wei, who up until then had been lounging idly and not saying a word. "I'm sure you've noticed it yourself. Every one of these murders has at least one unexplainable element that does not appear to have anything to do with the crime itself. The syringe in the first murders, the pornographic manga in the second, the CD in the fourth. These all seem to hint at something about the killer's methods and the victims themselves."

"Oh?" Fang Mu said. "Tell me what you're thinking."

Sitting up, Tai Wei turned to him, his eyes bright. "Actually, I've had a feeling about this ever since I heard about the first crime scene, where a syringe was discovered in the victim's breast. Because the thing is, during the second crime, the victim was killed in a hospital. You think that's a coincidence? And don't forget how the manga found in her bag was filled with scenes of torture porn, and then the third victim just happened to be tortured to death."

Chopping the air with his hand, Tai Wei continued. "I think that every one of these murders can be looked at in two ways. In all of them, the elements that don't seem to fit are actually hinting at the characteristics of the next crime."

Fang Mu said nothing. In fact, this sort of thought had occurred to him as well. Although Tai Wei hadn't mentioned the broken pottery from the third crime, Fang Mu had already done a good deal of research on the piece as well as Grayson Perry, its creator. As he discovered, Perry himself was a transvestite, and in the fourth crime, the killer had dressed a male plastic mannequin in the female victim's skin, demonstrating a desire to change genders.

If this hypothesis was correct, then they were faced with two questions. First, what was the killer's motive? And second, what was being hinted by the CD left at the fourth crime scene?

Exhausted, Fang Mu massaged his temples. The degree of difficulty in figuring out what was going on in the mind of someone this psychologically unstable was enormous.

"Regardless," Fang Mu said, "I think the next victim will be someone from this school and…"

"And will somehow be related to the number five," said Tai Wei, gloomily completing his thought.

They both wondered if they should tell everyone on campus to avoid everything related to the number five. At a loss, the two of them gazed at all the people passing by, cheerful smiles on their faces, hearts full of hope for the beautiful future they knew life held in store for them.

Lecture Theater 5.

Men's Dormitory 5.

Dining Hall 5.

The fifth lane on the racetrack.

The fifth basketball court.