Drapeau fantôme - Chapitre 17
Luo Fei didn't bother to explain; he just kept looking at the young man: "Where is that person? How are you going to give him the waste paper after you receive it?"
"He said he would be waiting for me at the entrance of the residential area. I could find him as soon as I went out."
"Captain Luo, what should we do?" Liu Song immediately tensed up, veins bulging on his forehead. "Rush out and arrest him—or, release this guy quickly and take this pile of papers with us, that might keep Eumenides calm."
Luo Fei could only manage a wry smile.
"It's too late. There's no time to catch him; he was already gone the moment we stepped outside. Keep up the act... heh..." He shook his head. "Can the act even continue? The garage door has been closed for several minutes now; Eumenides already knows what's going on."
"What should we do then?" Liu Song looked at Luo Fei, hoping that the other party could come up with a way to turn the tide.
Luo Fei rested his right hand under his nose, his clenched fist damp with sweat. He truly didn't know whether he should open the door or continue waiting: opening the door might completely expose him; but if he didn't open it, the longer he waited, the more disadvantageous it would become.
Just as they were caught in a dilemma, they suddenly heard a "thump-thump" sound. It turned out that someone was knocking on the garage door.
Who is it? Why has this rarely visited garage become so lively today?
Regardless of whether the visitors were friend or foe, Luo Fei and the others could no longer hide. Luo Fei signaled to Liu Song to be on guard with his eyes, and then he quietly but extremely quickly opened the garage door.
The person standing at the door was someone everyone recognized; he was the gatekeeper of the Rhine Garden residential complex.
"Someone asked me to deliver this letter to you." The doorman waved an envelope in his hand, peeking curiously into the garage as he spoke.
It does seem strange that so many people are hiding in the garage with the door closed.
"Where is that person?" Luo Fei asked, taking the envelope.
"He was in a hurry, he just threw down the letter and left. He only told me to go to the garage and find someone to pass the letter on."
"Was he tall, wearing a hat and scarf that covered most of his face?"
"That's right!" The doorman chuckled, feeling quite pleased with himself for finding the right person.
Luo Fei's brows furrowed; he knew the ambush had completely failed. With a sense of frustration and helplessness, he opened the envelope. Inside was a note and a jade Guanyin pendant.
The note, written in standard Song typeface, read: "4 PM, Bo World Online City."
What is this? Luo Fei pondered nervously. A date? And what about this Guanyin pendant? What does it represent?
He examined the pendant closely, but couldn't immediately discern anything special about it. Meanwhile, the woman in the garage leaned closer, letting out a startled and urgent cry: "Ah!"
Luo Fei immediately turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"
“This looks like the Guanyin pendant my son wore.” The woman snatched the jade piece and stroked it for a moment, then added firmly, “Yes, it’s my son’s! How did it get here?”
Luo Fei was unable to answer the woman's question, and his heart sank deeply.
12:23 PM.
The meeting room of the provincial capital's criminal investigation team.
All the newly appointed members of the task force were present, along with a portly middle-aged man. He looked worried, but his eyes revealed a resolute and unwavering determination.
Luo Fei introduced the new face to everyone: Huang Jieyuan, former deputy captain of the provincial capital's criminal investigation team. He left the police force ten years ago for some reason, went into business, and is now the owner of "Black Magic Bar".
Ten years ago, Huang Jieyuan was only thirty-three or thirty-four years old when he became the deputy captain of the provincial capital's criminal investigation team, demonstrating his exceptional professionalism. The crowd felt a certain respect for the portly man, but what intrigued them more was his identity eighteen years ago.
Eighteen years ago, in the 130 hostage crisis that led to the death of Eumenides' biological father, Huang Jieyuan was the deputy of Ding Ke, the person in charge of the case. It was for this reason that this veteran, who had long since left the police force, was now involved in the "418 Special Task Force".
He was under even more pressure than the other group members because his only son, Huang Deyang, might have fallen into Eumenides' hands.
Huang Deyang is fourteen years old and in the second year of junior high school at the No. 3 Middle School in the provincial capital. Today happens to be the school's sports meet. His classmates confirmed that Huang Deyang left the stadium around 9:00 AM to buy drinks, and has not been seen since. A little over an hour later, Luo Fei and his group's ambush at Rhine Garden failed. Eumenides sent someone to deliver Huang Deyang's jade Guanyin pendant, along with a note indicating the time and place.
"4 PM, Boworld Online City."
After listening to Luo Fei's report on the latest case details, Zeng Rihua looked at Huang Jieyuan, then at Luo Fei, and shook his head self-deprecatingly: "So you guys had already made contact a long time ago, and I was still in the dark."
"This is for confidentiality reasons," Luo Fei explained apologetically. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that Eumenides are too cunning, and any form of precaution is necessary."
“There are other ways to keep secrets. The main reason Captain Luo did this is probably because of your subconscious, overly strong desire for control.” It was Mu Jianyun who spoke, and she was also looking at Luo Fei, her emotions quite complex.
Luo Fei rubbed his nose with his fist, remaining silent. Zeng Rihua, however, perked up, leaning closer to Mu Jianyun and pressing, "Controlling desire? Control what? Control us?"
“You want to control everything and not want anything to be out of your control. But you are now the head of the task force, and you must learn to trust others; it is your responsibility.” Mu Jianyun emphasized, his tone both comforting and slightly wary.
"Perhaps you're right..." Luo Fei sighed softly, "At least I should have arranged proper protection measures for Lao Huang's entire family, so we wouldn't be in this passive situation now."
“No…” Huang Jieyuan shook his head. “That’s not how it is. Keeping it a secret is the right thing to do, but we didn’t do a good enough job of keeping it a secret, which is why my family was in danger.”
Everyone turned to look at the fat man, who continued to explain: "Now that Eumenides knows my identity, he will definitely press me for details about the 130 case. If he hadn't discovered that the police had also tracked down me, he wouldn't be so nervous, and he would have tried to obtain the most truthful information in a gentle manner. That's why he impersonated the archivist and called me this morning. Conversely, when he discovered that I had contact with the police, he knew that he could no longer trick me into giving him information in a gentle way, so he kidnapped my son and tried to force me to submit in some extreme way."
This analysis makes perfect sense. Yin Jian pondered for a while, then suddenly seemed to have made a discovery and said, "Eumenides called Lao Huang around 8:30; around 9:00, he kidnapped Huang Deyang; but it wasn't until nearly 11:00 that he fought with Captain Luo—doesn't this mean that Eumenides actually saw through the flaw right after the phone call?"
“Yes.” Huang Jieyuan let out a long sigh, his brows furrowing so that his eyes narrowed into slits. “Sigh, I still can’t figure out where the flaw is. My connection with Captain Luo was so secretive—I didn’t even dare to use my own cell phone when I called Captain Luo.”
This is precisely the problem that frustrates Luo Fei: Eumenides started his second-hand operation around 9 a.m., where did he get the information about the police? And wasn't the battle at Rhine Garden just his confirmation and mockery of the police operation?
However, there wasn't much time to consider those things now. With only three hours left until their meeting with Eumenides, they needed to quickly devise a battle plan. As the task force leader, Luo Fei timely brought up the main topic: "Let's put everything else aside for now—what are everyone's thoughts on the next steps?"
A single sentence plunged everyone into deep thought. Faced with a powerful enemy, no one was willing to rashly offer their opinion. After a moment, Mu Jianyun said thoughtfully, "To determine what you should do, you must first know what the other party wants to do."
“That’s right.” Luo Fei nodded in agreement. “Although Eumenides only left a time and a place, let’s put ourselves in his shoes and imagine what he would do in the current situation.”
“That’s not hard to figure out.” Zeng Rihua immediately shook his head and then uttered two words: “Internet.”
Luo Fei fixed his gaze on him, signaling him to continue.
“Suppose I were Eumenides, I must investigate the truth behind my father’s death. The only clue now lies with you—” Zeng Rihua pointed at Huang Jieyuan, “but you’re already being watched by the police. What should I do? This is more troublesome than murder… After much thought, I must abandon direct contact with you. But indirect communication makes me too easily deceived. Then I thought of the internet: video chat is possible online. This means I don’t need to appear in front of you, but I can see you and discern the truthfulness of your words by observing your expressions. At the same time, I’ve kidnapped your son to force you to act according to my instructions and communicate in the scenarios I set. I’m confident that through such conversations, I can obtain what I want to know.”
Luo Fei tapped the table lightly with his fingers: "You mean: Eumenides left this note to ask Lao Huang to have an online video chat?"
"BoWorld Online Casino." Zeng Rihua emphasized the location information on the note. "If it's not for chatting, is it for picking up girls and playing games together?"
Huang Jieyuan glanced at Zeng Rihua, a hint of displeasure in his eyes. With his son in danger of being captured by the enemy, the joke was indeed rather inappropriate. Mu Jianyun, standing not far away, was already used to this about Zeng Rihua and knew he meant no harm. He changed the subject, asking Huang Jieyuan, "What exactly happened in the 130 case back then?"
Luo Fei waved his hand to interrupt her: "Let's not talk about that now, it's too long to explain. The key question now is, what does Eumenides want to know? And what should we let Eumenides know?"
Everyone nodded in agreement, understanding Luo Fei's meaning. Indeed, the task force's current objective was clear—to capture Eumenides, and the details of the 130 case were unrelated. Since Eumenides wanted to extract information from Huang Jieyuan, the task force's first consideration was: what information should be revealed to him to maximize the chances of capturing Eumenides, regardless of whether the information was true or false.
“Actually, we could use this opportunity to set up another trap,” Yin Jian suggested, following Luo Fei’s suggestion.
This was exactly what everyone was thinking at that moment. They all began to ponder intently. After a long while, the silence was broken by Liu Song.
“Let’s steer Eumenides’ thinking toward the SWAT team. Isn’t he trying to find out the truth about his biological father’s death? The person who killed Wen Hongbing was a SWAT sniper. Our SWAT team was also a major force in the April 18 case. Why don’t we pick an older, more capable member from our active-duty team and report his name to Eumenides?”
Liu Song's meaning was very clear: to use the SWAT team members as bait to lure Eumenides. Luo Fei immediately warned in a calm voice, "This will be extremely dangerous."
Indeed, the gunman who killed her biological father was practically an irreconcilable enemy in Eumenides' eyes. Taking on such a role meant directly facing the mortal threat of a powerful assassin.
"Fighting the enemy is a life-or-death struggle; who isn't in danger? Every soldier in our SWAT team is hoping to avenge Captain Xiong..." The young man's voice choked up when he mentioned Xiong Yuan's sacrifice, "If it weren't for the age difference, I... how could I bear to give such an opportunity to someone else!"
"Alright." Luo Fei stared at Liu Song, his heart pounding with excitement. "Then finalize the selection as soon as possible and have him report to the task force immediately!"
"Understood!" Liu Song replied firmly, then got up and left first.
Luo Fei's gaze swept across the room again: "Do you have any other objections?"
Huang Jieyuan hesitated for a moment: "Giving a name is easy, but the hard part is how to make Eumenides believe it?" Because his son was in the other party's hands, he was very worried that the police's scheme would be exposed by Eumenides again.
"We need to use some tact; we can't be too blunt." Luo Fei glanced at Mu Jianyun. "Teacher Mu, could you help Old Huang?"
“Yes.” Mu Jianyun nodded without hesitation. “We can use psychological techniques to guide the conversation and design some details that corroborate each other, so that the other party will gradually come to his senses and dispel his doubts. As for the specific methods… give me an hour, and I will discuss it with Lao Huang.”
Luo Fei praised, "Very good," and then added, "You should try to prolong the conversation as much as possible, giving Zeng Rihua enough time."
While Mu Jianyun was still pondering Luo Fei's words, Zeng Rihua chuckled and said, "Captain Luo, I thought you had forgotten about me."
“Network tracking is your specialty,” Luo Fei said with a faint smile. “If Eumenides really contacts Lao Huang through the internet, that’s when you’ll have a chance to show your skills.”
"Don't worry," Zeng Rihua raised an eyebrow, "I've been waiting for this day for a long time!"
"Okay!" Luo Fei glanced at his watch. "It's 1:07 now. Yin Jian, Zeng Rihua, you two come with me immediately and get ready at BoWorld Internet Cafe. Lao Huang, you and Teacher Mu discuss this carefully and meet us at BoWorld at 3:00. Any questions?"
No one spoke; everyone nodded solemnly, an atmosphere of impending battle enveloping the entire conference room.
Five minutes later, Luo Fei, Yin Jian, and Zeng Rihua got into a police car and drove towards Bo World Internet City.
The Fate of the Death Sentence (10)
Ten minutes later, Luo Fei, Yin Jian, and Zeng Rihua got into a police car and drove towards Bo World Internet City.
After a tense meeting, the three of them finally had a brief moment of rest in the car.
Zeng Rihua, however, was a man who couldn't keep his mouth shut. Not long after the car started moving, his voice rang out again in the carriage.
"Captain Luo, there's something that might not be the time to deal with right now, but... it's better if you know about it."
“Then you go ahead and say it,” Luo Fei replied decisively. He knew that since Zeng Rihua had already started the conversation, he would have to finish it regardless of whether it was appropriate or not, so he might as well let him finish it off.
Zeng Rihua leaned closer: "It's about Wu Yinwu's cause of death."
"Oh? You have a lead?" Luo Fei's interest was immediately piqued. He hadn't had the energy to investigate Wu Yinwu's suicide yesterday morning; could it be that Zeng Rihua had made some discovery?
“It can hardly be called a clue.” Zeng Rihua shook his head and sighed helplessly, “It’s practically common knowledge in the whole city.”
Luo Fei was a little confused by what the other party was saying: "What exactly is going on?"
"The person who impersonated a policeman and met with Wu Yinwu the night before last was an online reporter. Wu Yinwu committed suicide by jumping off a building because he accepted an interview with him."
"How do you know? The reporter's interview has already been published online?" Luo Fei asked, guessing.
"It's not just about going online; it's become a hot topic on the internet today! The title is 'Mysterious Killer Eumenide Strikes Again, Art School Teacher Abuse Incident Ends in Bloodshed.' How about that, hot enough?" Zeng Rihua mocked.
"What kind of unscrupulous reporters are these? They're just sensationalists with no sense of social responsibility!" Yin Jian, who was driving, couldn't help but turn his head slightly and angrily condemn them.
Zeng Rihua chuckled coldly, "That's not all! That reporter even posted the audio recording of his interview with Wu Yinwu, where he was posing as a policeman, online, titled 'The Humiliated Teacher's Last Interview.' Because the news of Wu Yinwu's suicide was all over the media yesterday, the related webpages were practically overwhelmed with clicks after the recording went online. Moreover, everyone who heard the recording believes that it was this so-called 'final interview' that led to Wu Yinwu's suicide."
Luo Fei frowned: "Was the content of the interview too offensive?"
“I’ll play you a clip and you’ll understand.” Zeng Rihua took out an MP3 player and put it on play. “This is some of the questions the reporter asked Wu Yinwu after he finished recounting the events of the case. Listen to it.”
The player played voices, and although the recording quality wasn't great, they were still relatively clear.
"According to your account, the killer spared the last girl because you finally cut off your own hand, you regained the courage to be human, and you took on the responsibility of being a teacher, is that right?"
The speaker was a man, and his voice sounded somewhat strange.
Wu Yinwu murmured, unable to answer: "This...this..."
“Okay, let me simplify this question,” the man continued, “Do you consider yourself a courageous person? Are you a responsible teacher?”
"I..." Wu Yinwu hesitated for a moment before finally mustering his courage and saying, "I wasn't like that before, but... but after experiencing this, I think... I can do it in the future."
"Hmph." The man laughed arrogantly. "So, you think you did a good job in this matter? Then what about the deaths of those two boys? Who should be held responsible? They were only seventeen years old, not even adults yet."
Wu Yinwu let out a painful groan, and then he was speechless for a long time.
The man waited a while before asking the next question.