Lei Mi - Profiler

It was Tai Wei.

"You're just in time. Take me to see Meng Fanzhe." Saying no more, Fang Mu took hold of Tai Wei's elbow and tried leading him toward the door.

But Tai Wei didn't move. "It's too late."

"Huh?" Fang Mu stopped and looked back at him.

"Meng Fanzhe is dead," Tai Wei said somberly.

Fang Mu stared at him for nearly half a minute, until Tai Wei pulled him back inside the room.

"We'd better talk in here," he said.

Fang Mu stood in the center of his room, staring blankly out the window. He didn't look at Tai Wei, didn't say a word.

"This morning before dawn — " Tai Wei began.

Fang Mu suddenly raised his hand to stop him from going on. He crouched down and put his head between his knees as the events caught up with him, his whole body shaking fiercely.

Tai Wei waited for Fang Mu to calm down a little before slowly helping him to sit on the bed. He handed him a cigarette and lit it for him.

With a dull look on his face, Fang Mu put the cigarette in his mouth and inhaled viciously. He smoked the cigarette before turning to Tai Wei. His voice was hoarse as he asked, "How did he die?"

"He smashed his head against the wall," Tai Wei said simply.

"Why did no one stop him?" Fang Mu asked in an almost demanding tone.

"We had already taken all the necessary precautions," Tai Wei insisted. "We shut him inside the detainment room and shackled his hands and feet to the chair. At first, the guard on duty heard him crying, and then he heard something thumping. But when he ran inside it was already too late."

"His hands and feet were both shackled, so then how…?"

Tai Wei smiled wryly. "You're not going to believe this. Meng Fanzhe managed to get both his hands and feet out of the shackles. In all these years, I've never seen anything like it." He shook his head. "The skin on his hands and feet was torn off, and the metacarpal bones in both his hands were broken." He gestured with his hands. "It's hard to imagine just how determined this kid was to die."

The room was silent for some time. At last, Fang Mu asked without expression, "What's the bureau's opinion on this?"

Tai Wei hesitated for a moment. "The preliminary conclusion is that he killed himself to escape punishment."

"On what basis? Don't tell me you decided he was the killer because of what happened last night."

Doing his best to keep a calm tone, Tai Wei said, "Fang Mu, I understand how you're feeling. However, we wouldn't just suspect someone without any evidence. Meng Fanzhe may not have said anything to us during the interrogation, but we discovered these in his dorm room." He took a stack of documents out of his briefcase and handed them to Fang Mu.

As Fang Mu looked through the files, Tai Wei explained further.

"This picture is of a black sheet," he said as Fang Mu examined a photo. "After comparing it to the one that Jin Qiao was lying on in the video, we feel they're very similar. We also found a number of possible bloodstains on it. They're examining it at the crime lab right now and the results should be in by this afternoon…" He nodded to the next photo Fang Mu studied. "This is a hammer. After Liu Jianjun was attacked, we analyzed the wound and made a rough prediction of the weapon that could have caused it. This size hammer is exactly what we were thinking of. And there's this, look here," he said as he pointed at a picture of over a dozen books. "These were also found in Meng Fanzhe's dorm room. They're all about human anatomy, Western criminal history, and serial killers. You remember all those books we looked through in the library? Well, they were all in his room. We've already sent someone to check out Meng Fanzhe's library record… This little plastic bag we found in the pocket of one of Meng Fanzhe's jackets. Inside was a small amount of powder. The lab already determined that it's heroin — "

Fang Mu cut him off. "What about the car? The killer needed a car to commit his crimes, so where's Meng Fanzhe's? And you don't expect me to believe that he killed Jin Qiao and skinned Xin Tingting in his own dorm room, do you?"

"Renting a car would not have been a problem. And he most likely also rented a place somewhere off-campus to commit his crimes."

"Rented a place? Then why'd he bring all this stuff to his dorm room? Wouldn't it be a lot safer to just leave it in his apartment?"

For a moment Tai Wei couldn't respond.

The door suddenly opened and Deng Linyue ran in, breathing heavily. Du Yu followed behind her, a tray of food in his hands.

Deng Linyue froze when she saw Tai Wei, but rather than say hello to him, she immediately turned to Fang Mu. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

Seeing the gauze on his finger, she made an alarmed outcry, rushed closer and took his hand.

"My God! You're injured and it's still bleeding! We need to get you to the hospital." She looked Fang Mu up and down, speaking rapidly before he could reply. "You're not hurt anywhere else, are you? I'm sorry, I'm sorry; I only just heard the news. I came too late."

She seemed about to cry, but Fang Mu pushed away her hand and continued to stare at Tai Wei, waiting for him to answer his last question.

Tai Wei ignored Fang Mu's questioning look and opened the documents to the photo of the hammer.

"You came just in time," he said to Deng Linyue. "Look here. Was this what the killer was holding on the night of the crime?"

Deng Linyue looked at the photo. "It seems…like it was. Yes, it does look like it." But noticing Fang Mu's stern expression, she quickly added, "I'm not really sure. Aren't all hammers the same? Oh, I don't know, I don't know!"

Tai Wei glared angrily at Fang Mu, slammed the folder closed, and then stood up. "I'm going to go. Keep your phone on and don't run off anywhere in the next few days. As soon as there's any news, I'll let you know." He grabbed his briefcase and left.

The dorm was enveloped in silence. Du Yu looked at Deng Linyue, and then at Fang Mu. He pointed to the food on the desk. "You should eat something, Fang Mu. I bought you breakfast."

When Fang Mu didn't say anything, Deng Linyue smiled apologetically and said, "Thank you, Du Yu."

"I guess I'll be going then," Du Yu said, grabbing his backpack. On the way out, he whispered to Deng Linyue, "Make sure you look after him."

After Du Yu left, the dorm room fell into an even more unbearable silence. For a while Deng Linyue sat quietly beside Fang Mu, but when she saw that he wasn't going to say anything, she took the food tray and tried to hand it to him. "You should really eat something."

When Fang Mu wouldn't take it, she scooped a spoonful of rice porridge and lifted it toward his mouth.

He turned his head away. "I don't want to eat. You should go. I want to be alone for a while."

Having no other choice, Deng Linyue placed the tray back on the desk. In a soft voice, she said, "I'll stay with you."

He shook his head. "Don't bother. You should head back."

She bit her lip. Her voice rose despite herself. "Do you really…find me so awful?"

He considered her for a moment, and then said helplessly, "No. There's just nothing you can do to help me."

"There's nothing I can do to help? How can you not need my help at a time like this?" She suddenly stood up. "I know your emotions are painfully raw at this moment, and although I don't understand what happened or why that person wanted to kill you, I still want to be a consoling shoulder for you. Can't you be a little warmer to me?"

"No!" His voice leapt to an angry tone. "Do you really understand me? Do you know what kind of person I am? Do you know the burden you'll have to bear if you're with me? You can't do it!"

"What makes you think I can't? After what I went through, what else could be too much for me?"