Lei Mi - Profiler

…Perhaps more…

Even though the sun was shining just as brightly as before, Fang Mu and Tai Wei felt a cold breeze blow through them.

It was already late fall.

It was fated to be an unusual day.

Before noon, Professor Qiao summoned Fang Mu to the Psychological Consultation Room. First he asked him whether he had been involved in any of the investigations taking place on campus. Muttering to himself about how Professor Qiao himself had already asked him to analyze one of the cases, Fang Mu initially just hemmed and hawed.

But when Professor Qiao narrowed his eyes at him, Fang Mu admitted everything he knew about the situation thus far. When he was done, Professor Qiao frowned and successively smoked two cigarettes. Then, strangely enough, he just spoke a few stock sentences reminding Fang Mu to be careful, and waved him out the door.

Fang Mu sensed that Professor Qiao was dissatisfied with him, but when he considered that this meant the professor might now join the case, and how much easier this would make it to catch the killer, he felt a little better.

Later that afternoon, something happened in the private study room that mortified Fang Mu.

Tai Wei had photocopied several documents and given them to Fang Mu, who hoped to find some more clues hidden within. So he had retreated to a remote corner of the private study room and started to read. He preferred it, as Du Yu and Zhang Yao had occupied the dorm room and were doing their thing.

By the time Deng Linyue saw Fang Mu and walked over, he was already looking at several pages that had been photocopied from the pornographic manga. He didn't even notice her.

"Hey," she said, smiling at him. "You read comics, too, huh? Which one is this?"

When Deng Linyue bent over to get a better look, Fang Mu tried to cover the pictures of stark-naked flesh bound in rope, but it was already too late.

Deng Linyue stared blankly at the pictures for several seconds. Then she blushed to the tips of her ears.

"Um, you have very…unique taste," she said. Then not even daring to glance at him, she spun around and ran off.

Fang Mu hurried to explain, but by then she had already left the room.

"Oh, hell!" Fang Mu yelled, tossing the papers onto the desk. This is just not my day , he thought.

As if the day hadn't been chaotic enough already, Tai Wei called him around nightfall.

"I'm at CaijiaVillage," he said, his voice agitated. "Find a cab and get here as fast as you can!"

"What's going on?"

"No time for questions; this one's big. Get here now. When you're nearby, call me and I'll come meet you." Saying this, Tai Wei promptly hung up.

CaijiaVillage was located on the outskirts of JiangbinCity, and all its residents were registered as city dwellers. Although there was no land there to farm, the people kept to their rural traditions. After dark, they merely ate dinner, turned out the lights, and went to sleep. So even though it wasn't yet 7 p.m., the village was almost totally dark. Almost, that is, because one section was still lit up and there Fang Mu could see the bright flash of police lights.

When he saw Tai Wei standing by the side of the road smoking a cigarette, Fang Mu felt his spirits plummet. Even from a distance, he could see Tai Wei was stooped over, his collar unfolded and his hair blown in all directions by the fall wind. Thanks to the jeep headlights beside him, Fang Mu could make out Tai Wei's downcast expression. Even after knowing him all this time, Fang Mu had never seen Tai Wei look like this.

Fang Mu jumped out of the cab and walked toward him. Seeing him coming, Tai Wei tossed away his cigarette, turned to him, and actually grinned.

I know how you're feeling, thought Fang Mu, but don't smile. It's terrifying.

Once they were inside the jeep, Tai Wei absentmindedly asked him, "How much was the cab ride? I'll pay you back."

"Don't worry about it."

Tai Wei didn't seem to want to make a big deal over such a small thing, so he said nothing and just kept driving.

A few minutes later, Tai Wei and Fang Mu drove into a small courtyard. An enormous, hundred-watt spotlight shone onto the courtyard, making it bright as day. The faces of all the people milling about looked pale as ghosts in the light. They got out of the jeep.

"You're finally here," one of the men said suddenly. He was crouching by the corner of the courtyard wall.

Fang Mu looked toward the sound of the voice. The man was a medical examiner. Fang Mu had seen him before during the Ma Kai case.

Another man was crouched beside him, a cigarette in his mouth. After glancing up at Fang Mu, he looked away and said nothing.

Fang Mu recognized this man as well. He was named Zhao Yonggui. He had been one of the two policemen present when Professor Qiao invited him to the Psychological Consultation Room.

Right now everyone in the courtyard was staring at Fang Mu. For a moment, he didn't know what to do.

Then Tai Wei called out to him from a corner of the courtyard. "Over here!"

Walking over, Fang Mu could smell a strong odor coming from that direction. When he reached Tai Wei, he saw that he was standing within a pigpen made of crushed brick, wooden planks, and tree bark.

Fang Mu carefully stepped inside. Thanks to the powerful police spotlight, every inch of the pigpen was immediately visible.

The mud was six inches thick. Pig feed was everywhere. The feeding trough had fallen down and was now half-submerged in the mud. It was indeed a sorry way to raise pigs.

At that moment, however, none happened to be in sight. And even though the mud-covered figure lying absolutely still in the muck before him did closely resemble one, Fang Mu was certain that it was a person.

"Who…is that?" he asked, his voice shaky.

Tai Wei didn't respond, just handed him an evidence bag. Inside was a mud-caked passport. It was open.

Fang Mu could make out a picture in the upper-right corner. In it, a blond-haired, blue-eyed white man grinned vapidly. According to the card, his name was Thomas Gill, he was from the United States, and he had worked for the foreign teachers administrative department at JiangbinCityUniversity.

The victim was a foreigner. It was just as Tai Wei had said-this one was big.

Suddenly Fang Mu looked up and glanced all around, as if he were searching for something.

Tai Wei knew what he was looking for, so he handed over another evidence bag. Inside was a watch, just as mud-caked as the ID booklet. But Fang Mu could still see that the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand were all stopped at five.

Fang Mu stared at the watch. This was the fifth murder.

"How about it, Tai Wei?" yelled the medical examiner, a touch of impatience in his voice. "Can we get started?"

Tai Wei turned and motioned for them to begin processing the scene, and then looked back at Fang Mu. "I made them wait for you to observe the scene before they could begin examining it," he said, "although some police from the local substation did manage to disturb a few things before we arrived. Anyway, I know that seeing the scene in its original state is extremely important to criminal profiling." He gave Fang Mu a very self-satisfied wink.

Fang Mu forced himself to squeeze out a thin smile.

Two policemen wearing rain boots then hopped into the pigpen. After struggling to pull the corpse out of the mud, they laid it on a plastic tarp that had been placed in the middle of the courtyard.

The victim was small in stature, looking to be about 5'6", which meant that in the U.S. he was probably considered quite short. Although his body was caked with mud, several of his wounds were still visible. Some were so deep that the bones stuck out.