Lei Mi - Profiler

She feebly waved a hand toward the top of the stands. "In the broadcast booth."

He had to go check it out. He tried to gently but hastily place Deng Linyue back the floor.

With newfound strength, she grabbed tightly onto his shirt. "Don't go, don't go. Don't leave me here, I'm begging you!"

He struggled for a moment, but was unable to free himself. He was about to get angry when someone's urgent footsteps sounded behind him. Gripping the knife, he quickly spun around. Several flashlights shined in his eyes.

"Whoever's there, drop it!" someone called.

Fang Mu heard the sound of guns being cocked. He quickly put his hands up. "It's me, Fang Mu."

Several people ran forward. Fang Mu saw that the man in the lead was the plainclothes cop who had argued with the student on the ladder the day before.

He shined his flashlight at Fang Mu and Deng Linyue. "It's you? What's going on? Where's Tai Wei?"

Fang Mu didn't have time to answer him. Pointing up at the broadcast booth, he said, "Quick, someone's still up there."

The plainclothes cop signaled to the officer beside him. "You, follow me!"

Then the two of them sprinted up the bleachers, guns in hand.

Watching them duck inside the broadcast booth, Fang Mu silently prayed: Don't let him be dead. Please don't let him be dead.

Their flashlight beams swayed inside the booth.

When everything was silent for a while, Fang Mu could wait no longer.

He yelled up to the booth. "How is he?"

The plainclothes cop stuck his head out of the booth. "He's fine. Still alive."

Fang Mu sighed with relief, and then turned to the two cops beside him. "Tai Wei ran that way after the killer. You guys need to go help him!"

"No need."

One hand over his face, Tai Wei emerged from the darkness. He was holding something in his other hand. He looked up to the officers in the booth. "Turn on the lights!"

A few seconds later there was a rumble and the arena was suddenly bright as day.

For the first time Fang Mu got a clear look at Tai Wei. His face was bleeding and in his hand he held something long and slender wrapped in tissue.

Did he get him? Fang Mu wondered. What happened to his face? What's he holding?

With so many questions flooding his mind, he found himself momentarily unable to say anything.

Tai Wei also didn't look like was in the mood to immediately explain anything. Frowning, he watched his two fellow officers struggle to carry Liu Jianjun down to the court.

"How is he?"

"He's fine; just out cold."

Tai Wei looked over the half-comatose Deng Linyue. The worry in his expression eased when he saw her.

He told the four policemen to get the two injured students to the hospital as fast as possible, and then turned and showed Fang Mu what was in his hand.

It was a screwdriver.

They looked at one another in silence.

It was the Yorkshire Ripper, just as they had expected.

"Shit, that guy ran fast as hell and he definitely knew his way around the gymnasium," Tai Wei said. "I was chasing him toward an intersection when I saw him turn and hurl something at me. I ducked my head but still didn't dodge it." He pointed at his gashed face. The wound had opened across his cheekbone and was still oozing blood. "I fired at him in surprise, but I think I missed. Anyway, slowing down those few steps was all it took. In a second he had rounded the corner and was gone." He shook his head, clearly annoyed.

He nodded to the screwdriver. "Afterward, I turned around and picked this thing up."

Fang Mu looked at the tool, seemingly deep in thought. Suddenly he pointed at something next to Tai Wei's feet. "What's that?"

Tai Wei bent over and picked the object up. It was a key fastened to a small iron fob by a rubber band. The word Women was written on the fob. Tai Wei turned the key over.

"Six?" said Tai Wei.

"Nine?" said Fang Mu, standing beside him.

They looked at one another. Was it 6 or was it 9?

"This thing…" Fang Mu looked again at the key. "It seems to be a key for the women's locker room."

"The women's locker room?" said Tai Wei at once. "Then it must be nine, because the number six changing room is definitely locked."

Fang Mu thought for a moment, and then took the key and walked off.

Tai Wei followed Fang Mu into the women's locker room. After looking high and low, Fang Mu found locker six. He tried the key in it, but it didn't open.

"Hey, over here there's another number six," said Tai Wei with surprise. He pointed at one of the lockers.

Fang Mu walked over. Nailed to the outside of the metal locker was the number six. He slipped his key inside, and it opened with only the slightest bit of effort.

He pushed lightly on the number. It absurdly spun round and round: 6, 9, 6, 9…

Tai Wei walked over and took a closer look. He discovered that the top of the two rivets holding the number in place had been unscrewed.

"This locker was originally number nine," he said, looking at Fang Mu. "Then someone got tricky and switched it to six."

Six…6.

The corners of Fang Mu's mouth curled into a faint smile.

That someone didn't get his way this time.

"Uh-huh… Okay, I understand. Then keep it that way for now. Bye." Fang Mu hung up the phone and pointed at the tangerines on the fruit stand. "How much per pound?"

Tai Wei's tone had been gloomy when he had spoken with Fang Mu just then over the phone. As he'd told Fang Mu on the night of the attempted murder, the police had made a huge effort and spent vast manpower combing the campus in search of the killer. However, they hadn't found a single clue. Because of this they still needed to be stationed on campus for the time being.

Fang Mu understood exactly how Tai Wei was feeling. He had finally been within striking distance of the killer, only to watch him escape from out of the palm of his hand. This was something that no cop could endure. He was probably going over and over every aspect of the event in his head: If only he had been a little faster… If only he had pulled out his gun more decisively… If only he had fired more accurately…

For his part, Fang Mu was much more at ease. Perhaps it was because they were approaching the problem from different perspectives. Tai Wei, for his part, was comparatively concerned with how soon he cracked the case. While Fang Mu also wanted to catch the killer as soon as possible, having stopped the man from committing another murder was even more important to him. After being questioned by the police on the night, Fang Mu had returned to his dorm and had a long and restful sleep. The next morning, when his fellow students heard the news, they started coming in droves to ask him what had happened, Fang Mu was still asleep.

After sending the last of them away, he and several of his friends decided to go visit Liu Jianjun in the hospital.

Carrying the fruit that they had bought at exorbitant prices from the stand near the provincial hospital entrance, Fang Mu and the others signed in inside and then headed to the third floor inpatient department. While Du Yu scowled as he searched for Ward 312, Fang Mu proceeded straight to the end of the hall where two police officers were standing guard outside one of the doors. Since one of them recognized him, no further questions were asked and they were allowed inside.

The bed beside the window was already surrounded by people, all of whom looked back at them as they entered. Fang Mu recognized two of them as the cops who had rushed to the gymnasium the night before.

They nodded at Fang Mu in greeting and then one turned back to the doctor and said: "So what you're saying is he's not fit to answer questions in his current condition?"