Empreinte de main en sang

Chapitre 25

“Some people deserve to die. Their lives will only hurt more people,” the detective replied curtly. “When you log on again tomorrow night at 8 p.m., I will tell you where to find the third victim.”

"Do I really have to come to this internet cafe again?" Ma Nan asked.

The detective actually sent a smiley face: "I just don't want your family to see what just happened. Of course, you can go online anywhere you want, wherever is convenient for you."

Then, before Ma Nan could reply, his icon turned gray.

The detective has logged off.

Ma Nan sat there blankly for a long time. When he walked out of the internet cafe, he felt weak all over. Moreover, when the wind blew by, his underwear felt cool and stuck to his body—it turned out that his underwear had been soaked with sweat when he watched the masked man strangle the victim.

The next day. January 31st, the third day of the Lunar New Year.

There's an evening newspaper in this city that suspends publication for four days every year during the Lunar New Year. The editors and reporters have been busy all year and rarely get a few days off. The newspaper has arranged for staff to be on duty, and since no paper is published, the main job of those on duty is to keep an eye on a hotline.

The reporter on duty that day was a recent college graduate, everyone called him Xiao Wang. Xiao Wang loved surfing the internet; besides reading the news, he mostly chatted with people. The newspaper's network blocked QQ, but that didn't stop Xiao Wang; he could use proxies. He often joked with his friends that he was practically an international person just for chatting, able to travel to more than ten countries in a single morning without even needing a passport. The best proxies were from the US and India, and Italian ones were also decent. QQ now has three versions: Coral, Muzi, and Chuanmei, all of which can display IP addresses, so Xiao Wang was often mistaken for an overseas Chinese.

That morning, besides chatting, Xiao Wang received three hotline calls. One was about a national flag with two holes in it hanging on a certain road, another was a complaint about taxi drivers raising prices arbitrarily during the Spring Festival, and the last one was from an old man who picked out seven misspelled words for the last issue of the newspaper before the New Year and demanded that the newspaper honor its promise of paying 5 yuan for each misspelled word.

Xiao Wang was chatting enthusiastically with a local girl, figuring out how to get her phone number to invite her to lunch. He had no interest in answering the hotline calls and was just giving perfunctory replies. At noon, the girl finally agreed to meet him. Excited, Xiao Wang went to the restroom first. When he came back, he took a floral tie from his drawer and put it around his neck. Just then, the hotline rang again.

Xiao Wang glanced at the phone but ignored it. He quickly tied his tie, slung his bag over his shoulder, and strode out the door.

There was a long corridor outside the office. Xiao Wang had walked almost halfway when he heard the phone ringing in the duty room. He slowed down, stopped, stood still, rolled his eyes, sighed, turned around, and jogged back to the duty room.

"I sent you a package, it must have arrived by now." It was a man's voice on the phone.

“We’re on holiday these few days, so you’ll have to wait until we’re back at work to talk to us about anything,” Xiao Wang said.

"I don't have anything to do, I'm just giving you a news tip. You're on duty today, consider yourself lucky. My tip will definitely lead you to an explosive news story, just wait for the bonus."

Xiao Wang scoffed inwardly, not taking it seriously at all. The newspaper often received people like this, who always thought their stories were earth-shattering, but in other people's eyes, they were commonplace, and there was not even a newsworthy aspect to them.

"Okay, I'll go to the mailroom right away. No one's in the office; all the mail is there."

After hanging up the phone, Xiao Wang immediately regretted coming back to answer it, thinking it was a reporter from the newspaper checking up on him. Eager to meet the girl he met online, Xiao Wang hurried downstairs, pushed his motorcycle in the yard, and his eyes unconsciously glanced towards the gatehouse. Reaching the gate, he hesitated for a moment, then got off the motorcycle. Sure enough, among a pile of mail, a blue envelope stood out. He picked it up, opened it, and found another envelope inside. He opened that too, and found a letter and a CD.

Xiao Wang was preoccupied with meeting his online friend, so he definitely wouldn't go back to look at the contents of the CD; he only unfolded the letter. It turned out to be a printed copy, without a title, but it looked like a manuscript.

Xiao Wang casually put it in his bag along with the CD, then got on his motorcycle and went to meet his online friend.

Meanwhile, at the city's criminal investigation team, the officer on duty also received a similar blue envelope that noon and immediately put the CD into his computer's CD drive. The contents startled him; without hesitation, he immediately dialed Qin Ge's number.

Qin Ge's phone was busy—he was talking to Ma Nan.

After hearing Ma Nan's account of last night's events, Qin Ge was understandably shocked. He had never imagined that the torture video circulating online would be related to the Ba people. He told Ma Nan to come to the criminal investigation team immediately and promised to send people to Ma Nan's house that afternoon to protect Hongmian and Xiaotong.

The phone had just ended when another call came in. Qin Ge's expression immediately changed after listening to it.

Half an hour later, Ma Nan arrived at the criminal investigation team, where Qin Ge was already waiting for him in his small office.

The newly arrived CD was already in the CD drive. Qin Ge had watched it several times before Ma Nan arrived. The CD contained two MPEG format video files. Qin Ge opened them and showed them to Ma Nan. The videos showed a masked man committing murder, including a scene of strangulation with a bowstring.

“That’s right, it’s the one I saw last night,” Ma Nan said, pointing to the monitor.

Qin Ge's face was ashen. He then retrieved the video file he had found online from his hard drive and showed it to Ma Nan.

"The detective actually sent the murder video to the criminal investigation team. How arrogant!" Qin Ge said angrily.

“What exactly is his intention in doing this?” Ma Nan said with a frown. “When I was talking to him online last night, he specifically mentioned that I could seek help from the police. I have a feeling that he is not afraid of you police officers.”

Qin Ge slammed his hand heavily on the table: "In all my years as a police officer, I've never seen such arrogant criminals. If we don't bring them all down, I'd rather take off this uniform and go home to be self-employed."

Ma Nan was clearly much calmer than Qin Ge. He immediately noticed that the last video Qin Ge showed him was distinctly different from the two clips on the disc. The disc clips, besides showing strangulation with a bowstring, also showed a man's head being brutally severed with a guillotine, naturally reminding him of beheading. Both beheading and strangulation were ancient punishments, and two of the most common. The executioner's choice of these methods must have had its purpose. The torture video found online, however, began with a knife slitting the throat, followed by mutilation of the corpse, and finally a knife plunged into the victim's chest—a clearly different style.

Ma Nan thought that this must be the mystery the detective had mentioned.

However, Manan was still wrong, because the real third body did not appear until that night.

For the entire afternoon, Ma Nan stayed in the criminal investigation team, recounting his experiences from the previous night to Qin Ge. Qin Ge already knew from the phone call that these events were related to the Ba people, so although he was furious at their arrogance, he remained extremely cautious—he had heard Ma Nan talk about the Ba people's mysterious nature before.

The team leader and other members arrived one after another upon hearing the news. They all expressed the same indignation at the series of heinous murders that occurred during the Spring Festival, and the killers' brazen provocation of the police. The team leader assigned Qin Ge to lead the investigation of the serial murders, and immediately reported to the bureau leadership.

The investigation was immediately launched. The only clue was the CD left by the detective, so the investigation began with finding the victim. Screenshots of the victim's photo were taken and distributed to various police stations, instructing them to contact the local street offices and search their respective jurisdictions. Meanwhile, because the detective had communicated with Ma Nan on QQ, Qin Ge contacted the city bureau's cyber department to see if they could contact Tencent in Guangzhou to check the registration methods and login IPs of the two QQ accounts.

Of course, Qin Ge didn't forget to send two criminal police officers to Ma Nan's house to protect Hong Mian and Xiao Tong.

The afternoon passed quickly. After dark, Ma Nan called home and told Hong Mian that he wouldn't be home for dinner that night, and that he would go out with Qin Ge to grab something to eat later.

Around 8 o'clock, Ma Nan logged into QQ on Qin Ge's computer as agreed with Ba Ren the night before, but Ba Ren's icon was grayed out. Qin Ge sat next to him, waiting with him for Ba Ren to come online. Time passed slowly, and finally, as it approached 8:30, both of them wore anxious expressions. Just then, Qin Ge's phone suddenly rang.

The call was from He Lan. The young girl sounded excited on the other end, saying, "Captain Qin, important clue!"

Helan's hometown is in a neighboring city. She went back home for the Spring Festival, and the phone call came from there. She reunited with her family back home, but she still couldn't forget the video she found online. So, whenever she had free time at home, she would stare blankly at the computer. She had watched that video countless times, and finally, after dinner tonight, she discovered the secret in it.

"Captain Qin, look at that footage. Notice how the bandage on the victim's face is different after it's been removed."

Qin Ge and Ma Nan stared at the screen together. The image was a bit blurry, but after He Lan reminded them, they did feel that the victim looked different before and after the bandages were removed, but they couldn't quite put their finger on what the difference was.

“They are not the same person at all.” Helan’s tone was very firm. “Look closely, the woman’s robe was torn, revealing her underwear. Of course, I’m not asking you to look at her underwear. Look at the left side of her neck, isn’t there a black mole?”

Qin Ge dragged the player's progress bar and checked it repeatedly. Sure enough, there was a scene where the mole He Lan had mentioned could be clearly seen.

“But look behind you, after the woman’s bandages were removed, the mole disappeared,” Helan continued.

Qin Ge and Ma Nan stared intently at the screen. Just as He Lan had said, the mole was gone. The video quality was poor; it was truly remarkable that He Lan had managed to spot the flaw.

But Qin Ge and Ma Nan still couldn't guess what He Lan's discovery meant.