Chapter 9
Speculation

On Monday and Tuesday, Xie Qing followed Cao Haisheng to the city hospital twice to participate in a medical malpractice assessment.

On Wednesday, the master and apprentice had some free time and sat steadily in the office.

Xie Qing made a cup of green tea for Cao Haisheng and Chen Qian while she enjoyed a cup of Tieguanyin.

“Knock knock.” The door was knocked twice, and Li Ke peeked in, gesturing for Xie Qing to come over.

Xie Qing glanced at Cao Haisheng, who looked up from his internal newspaper, “I’m fine, you can go.”

Xie Qing left the office with her teacup.

Li Ke pulled her towards the staircase, “Ji Ge and I found a case at the old town sub-bureau and wanted you to take a look.”

Xie Qing asked, “Has Captain Huang seen it?”

Li Ke whispered, “Not yet. We’re afraid of making a fool of ourselves.”

Everyone was new, so it was understandable.

Xie Qing followed Li Ke to the second team’s office.

Li Ji had already prepared a chair. As soon as Xie Qing sat down, he pushed the copied files over.

Xie Qing took a sip of tea and began to read unhurriedly.

The deceased was a 56-year-old man from the old town with a history of domestic violence and alcoholism. He not only abused his wife and children but sometimes even his elderly father. Four years ago, in late autumn, this man was stabbed to death. When his body was recovered from the Qingjiang estuary, it showed signs of advanced decomposition.

The forensic doctor determined that the time of death was at least seven days prior. Seven days was enough time for the killer to destroy any incriminating evidence. After much effort, the sub-bureau detectives found the crime scene but couldn’t find a single valuable footprint.

So, the case became a cold case.

Li Ji saw Xie Qing had reached the last page and asked, “What do you think?”

Xie Qing said, “It looks similar.”

Li Ke asked, “How is it similar? The only common points are that the deceased was a scoundrel and the body was dumped in the Qingjiang River.”

“This is what I think.” Xie Qing turned back to the autopsy photo page. “The killer stabbed thirteen times, and the wounds were randomly distributed, indicating the killer was unprepared and extremely panicked. Here and here are the aorta locations. When the knife pierced and was pulled out, there would be spurting blood, which would leave a lasting impression on the killer.”

Li Ji understood, “So, this would prompt him to improve his killing method. If that’s the case, could the brick-killing cold case be the killer’s second crime?”

Xie Qing shook her head, “It’s hard to say. I think the killer could draw three conclusions from this case. First, dumping the body in the Qingjiang River makes it difficult for the police to determine the crime scene. Second, the body being recovered and getting attention encourages the killer’s sense of justice. Third, drowning is a clean and effective method. Additionally, the brick-killing case we found in the archives happened later. If the killer saw the news and had the idea to combine the methods, it’s not impossible.”

Li Ke was convinced, “Makes sense, very reasonable. Qing Qing, did you minor in criminal investigation?”

Xie Qing said, “To become a qualified forensic doctor, you have to be a jack-of-all-trades.” She took another sip of water. “What I said may not be right, but I think we should explain it to Captain Huang.”

Li Ji said, “Alright, we’ll tell him when he gets back.”

…

At 8 PM, Xie Qing returned from the training room and was about to go to the bathroom when Li Ke came running up, “Qing Qing, I’m going to take a shower too. Wait for me.”

Xie Qing agreed.

Three minutes later, they were in the bathroom together.

“Qing Qing, you have a great figure,” Li Ke said enviously, looking her up and down.

Xie Qing regretfully looked at her own chest and then at Li Ke’s collarbone, “Yours is much better, and you’re two centimeters taller than me.”

Li Ke didn’t catch the hidden meaning and pouted, “What’s so good about it? Look at my thighs, they’re like elephant legs.”

Xie Qing closed the wooden door, blocking the curious eyes of other female officers, “I’ll teach you a leg-slimming exercise tomorrow.”

Li Ke was happy again, “Not tomorrow, teach me now.”

…

After the shower, Li Ke went to Xie Qing’s dormitory. She sat on the bed prepared for guests and said, “Captain Huang thinks this case is similar to the Huang Qi series, but there’s not enough evidence to combine them, so he assigned it to Ji Ge and me. We visited the crime scene and the victim’s home.”

She paused and gave Xie Qing a playful look, “What do you think we found?”

“Stop being mysterious,” Xie Qing said, giving her a dab of face cream. “Since you’re asking, you probably didn’t find anything.”

Li Ke deflated and weakly applied the cream to her face, “You’re no fun. Can’t you play along?”

Xie Qing said, “Your direction was wrong.”

Li Ke perked up, “What do you think we should do?”

Xie Qing said, “The killer’s first crime is usually in a familiar area, so he likely lives in the old town. You should start with the taxi drivers or the Xiali car owners’ information from the traffic police, narrow down the age and location, and then conduct a focused investigation.”

Li Ke said, “There might still be a lot of people.”

“Actually…” Xie Qing poured her a glass of water and sat at the desk. “I still lean towards the killer being a taxi driver.”

Li Ke sat cross-legged, “Why?”

Xie Qing said, “Taxi drivers spread information quickly, and they see and hear a lot while picking up passengers and waiting for fares, making it easier to identify murder targets.”

Li Ke asked, “Didn’t Old Du say…”

Xie Qing raised an eyebrow, “Old Du was talking about principles, not methods. But he wouldn’t refuse to start with taxi drivers.”

Li Ke was silent, gulping down several mouthfuls of water, “I understand.”

Xie Qing opened her work notebook and wrote a few words with a pen, “Don’t take it to heart. Isn’t your mentor good to you?”

Speaking of veteran detective Liu Feng, Li Ke felt a bit aggrieved, “My mentor doesn’t talk much and doesn’t call me when there’s something to do. It seems like he doesn’t like girls.”

Xie Qing casually drew a little girl in pajamas hugging her knees and crying on the paper, “Old Liu is a good person. He might be afraid you’ll get hurt because you’re a girl. Show more initiative, like when you slapped the thief at the barbecue restaurant.”

“That’s true,” Li Ke nodded. “My dad told me a long time ago that it’s tough for girls in the detective team.”

Xie Qing clenched her fist, “I believe in you. Keep it up!”

“Keep it up,” Li Ke put down her cup and kicked her legs in the air. “By the way, I want to slim my legs. Teach me now.”

…

Thursday morning.

While having breakfast, Xie Qing received a page from an unknown number: “Hiking with your brother on Saturday. Want to join? Chai.”

Xie Qing didn’t understand. Chai Yu clearly liked Xie Yun, so why was he suddenly interested in her?

After much thought, she decided not to return the call—if she wanted to stay away from the main plot, she had to cut ties with the main characters.

In the afternoon, Li Ke and Li Ji found Xie Qing again.

Li Ke pointed to the printed papers on the table, “We compiled all the information we got earlier. The old town is densely populated. Using age and Xiali cars as filters, we found over a hundred people.”

Li Ji spread his hands, “Three heads are better than one. There are too many people. Help us out.”

“Alright, let me see.” Xie Qing opened the printed papers. “Did you combine the other colleagues’ investigations along the river?”

Li Ke said, “A single star indicates a taxi driver operating along the river; two stars are our individual suspects, and three stars are our mutual suspects. But considering the killer is cunning, he might not actually be a taxi driver. So, Qing Qing, don’t worry about the hassle. Go through the entire list first.”

“Alright.” Xie Qing lowered her head and started reviewing the list one by one.

The table had four pages, recording the drivers’ names, gender, date of birth, education level, marital status, address, license plate number, car model, contact number, emergency contact, and other details. The last page contained the detectives’ findings, including the taxi drivers’ activity areas and other drivers’ evaluations of them. The information seemed detailed, but guessing the perpetrator based on this was quite challenging.

After thinking for a long time, Xie Qing decided to start with the education level. She believed the killer understood the law and had high moral standards, which is why he targeted the victims. He might also have high expectations of himself. He was restrained in his crime frequency, thoughtful in his victim selection, cautious and patient in the crime process, decisive in his actions, and chose perfect body disposal locations, all indicating he was quite intelligent.

His education level might not be low. So, those with only primary or middle school education could be excluded.

Next was the emergency contact.

The killer had an extreme personality and a strong sense of justice, possibly bullied as a child or had incompetent or absent parents. The killer could also come from a normal family, but since this was a screening process, it was best to select the most likely criminal backgrounds.

Therefore, those who listed their parents as emergency contacts could be excluded.

Combining this with the other detectives’ findings, Xie Qing narrowed it down to seven names. She took a pencil and drew a line under each name.

Li Ke immediately leaned over, “Hey, your choices overlap with mine… and Ji Ge’s too, but you didn’t include our mutual suspects.”

Li Ji also asked, “How did you choose?”

Xie Qing looked around and saw that the three veteran detectives responsible for the Huang Qi case were also present. She shushed them, “I just made random guesses. How did you choose?”

Li Ke and Li Ji exchanged a glance.

Li Ke said, “We combined family situations and other drivers’ descriptions. We also saw the drivers’ ID photos at the traffic police department. Although it’s not ideal, we did judge by appearance.”

Li Ji nodded, “Anyone could be the perpetrator, and anyone might not be. With insufficient clues, this is the best we can do.”

Li Ke asked, “What about you? How did you choose?”

Xie Qing hesitated. She had included some psychological profiling in her selection, which wasn’t very scientific or rigorous and might not be accurate, potentially leading to endless debates. She said, “I just made random guesses. It’s not worth mentioning.”

Li Ji doubted, “You looked for so long. It couldn’t have been random.”

“What’s the point of guessing if we don’t go out and investigate?” Huang Zhenyi entered the office with a serious expression. “Another week has passed, and we don’t even have a prime suspect. How can you still sit here guessing?”

The veteran detectives grabbed their bags and left sheepishly.

Li Ke blushed and explained, “Captain Huang, we just returned from the traffic police department and were discussing how to narrow down the targets.”

“Oh.” Captain Huang’s face softened into a smile. “I see. It’s good that young people know how to think. So, have you figured it out?”

Xie Qing: “…” That was a quick change of attitude.