Lei Mi - Profiler

Fang Mu got out and walked inside the Golden Pedestal residential area. The place had obviously been around for a while. The buildings were all made in the old style, with outdoor walkways running alongside the apartments. Squinting, he did his best to make out the cracked and faded building numbers. Luckily the place wasn't that big and he quickly found building six.

After reaching unit three, Fang Mu carefully climbed the stairs. He soon reached the fourth floor. He looked around. Apartment 402 was to the left, 403 to the right. He walked left and found the apartment all the way at the end of the hall.

He was met by an old-fashioned wooden door. New Year's blessings from the beginning of 2002 were still stuck to the outside. He knocked lightly. When there was no response, he glanced at the window beside the door. All the lights inside appeared to be off.

Could she already be asleep?

Fang Mu knocked again. Still no response. He pulled lightly on the door handle and to his surprise, it opened.

"Anyone here?" he yelled, sticking his head inside.

No answer.

A sense of foreboding suddenly came over Fang Mu. He pulled the dagger from his pocket, unsheathed it, and slowly entered the apartment.

The apartment was pitch-black. Not a single light was on. Fang Mu stood in the entryway for several seconds. He could vaguely make out a hallway ahead of him. A door was to his left. Through it he could see the dim shapes of a stove and range hood. He assumed it was the kitchen. To his right was a small window. A few potted plants sat on the sill.

Fang Mu walked carefully forward. The hallway was about 16 feet long. When he reached the end everything was just as dark as before, but he could tell that the space in front of him had opened up. Probably the living room.

Fang Mu stopped at the entrance to the living room and forced his eyes to adjust to the darkness. At the same time, he listened closely for any sounds of movement.

Gradually, he began to hear strange rustling noises coming from within the living room. It sounded like someone turning the pages of a book, or tiny claws moving across cotton.

Fang Mu was focusing as hard as he could on the sound when he suddenly felt something scurry across his foot. Startled, he jumped back and slammed into the wall, feeling as if his heart was about to leap out of his chest.

It was then that he remembered the lighter in his pocket. He pulled it out and flicked it on. A small flame emerged and the scene before him was finally revealed.

It was in fact the living room. At its front sat a cabinet with a TV inside. Facing the TV was a couch, the back of it before Fang Mu.

From the thin light of the flame, he could vaguely make out several strands of gray hair hanging over the back of the couch.

"Auntie?" he asked haltingly.

The hair didn't move at all.

The lighter had already begun to burn Fang Mu's hand, but he ignored this and walked slowly toward the sofa, gripping the knife as tightly as he could.

As he got closer to the sofa, his heartbeat sped up, his teeth chattering nervously, and his hand began to shake so badly that he thought for sure he would drop the lighter.

Just when he was about to reach the sofa, the lighter suddenly went out and Fang Mu's eyes were plunged once more into darkness. Flicking at the burning-hot lighter, he shuffled forward. Right as his knee brushed against the sofa, the lighter clicked on and a huge flame shot out.

A bloodless face, its eyes and mouth wide open, suddenly appeared before him.

Meng Fanzhe's mother was half-sitting, half-lying on the sofa, her face upright and her hair falling over the back. One of her hands gripped her chest, the other held onto the sofa cover. Her eyes were bulging and her mouth was gaping wide, a terrified look on her face.

And she was dead.

A big black rat sat on one of her legs. Provoked by the flame from Fang Mu's lighter, it didn't try to hide at all, just stared at Fang Mu with its small red eyes.

When the lighter began to burn Fang Mu's hand, he was finally shaken out of his state of terror and forced back to reality. Panicking, he swung his dagger all around in blind defense, frantically searching his pocket for his cell phone.

At last he found it. Flipping the phone open, he was about to dial Emergency when he heard hurried footsteps outside the apartment.

Suddenly several flashlight beams shot into the apartment through the window beside the door. Blinded by the light, Fang Mu covered his eyes with his hand.

In that instant, he noticed that two strange symbols had been written in the condensation on the window glass. It had been too dark to notice them before.

"Who's there? Put the knife down now!" a man shouted. "Now! Or we will open fire!"

Fang Mu heard the sound of guns being cocked. He hurriedly tossed his dagger on the floor and put his hands up.

Several cops pounced on him and forced him to the ground. Struggling to lift his head, Fang Mu tried to see what exactly had been written on the window.

"Goddammit, you still don't want to cooperate, huh?" Someone struck Fang Mu across the face.

He tasted blood. With his head still spinning, he twisted weakly around. "The window…" He mumbled repeatedly over and over: "The window… What's on the window…?"

Shortly after falling asleep at around three in the morning, Tai Wei was woken by the ringing of his cell phone.

Stumbling out of bed, he grabbed for his phone and flipped it open, his eyes still closed. "Hello?"

"Is this Officer Tai?"

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"I apologize for waking you," said the voice over the phone. "I'm Li Weidong from the Baita PSB substation in SuijingCity. Do you remember me?"

Li Weidong? Tai Wei did remember him. Once when Tai Wei had gone to SuijingCity to arrest an armed fugitive he had made contact with the Baita substation. As he recalled, Li Weidong was quite a drinker.

"Oh, it's you, Weidong. Nice to hear from you."

Li Weidong gave a slight, embarrassed laugh. "I know it's very late, and I really am sorry, but there's something I need to discuss with you. Do you know a Fang Mu?"

All of Tai Wei's sleepiness immediately disappeared. "Fang Mu? Yes, I know him. Why?"

"At this moment he's in our custody."

"In your custody? What happened?"

"An old women died in our district last night, and he was found at the scene."

"Are you saying…?"

"No, it's not that. The results of our medical examiners just came back, and at this point there's no evidence that he was involved. However, when we asked him what he was doing there, he said he was investigating a crime and asked us to call you."

"Oh, I understand." Tai Wei knew exactly what had happened. SuijingCity was Meng Fanzhe's hometown, and the dead woman was most likely his mother. "Weidong, tell me if this sounds acceptable. For now, don't interrogate him. I'd stake my life on Fang Mu not having had anything to do with the woman's death. I'm going to head over there right now. Once I'm there we can figure all this out."

"Fine by me," said Li Weidong, without hesitation.

Tai Wei rushed over to the Suijing City Baita substation. By the time he arrived it was already 6:30 a.m. Li Weidong was waiting for him in the courtyard.

With no time for proper greetings, Tai Wei got right to the point. "Where's Fang Mu?"

Li Weidong led him to the entrance of the detainment room. Through the small window in the door, Tai Wei could see Fang Mu curled up asleep on one of the benches, a police-issue sleeping bag wrapped around him. Part of his face was bruised.

"You guys hit him?" Tai Wei asked, frowning.

"Yeah," said Li Weidong, laughing with embarrassment. "He was struggling like crazy at the scene last night. He probably got struck a few times."