Chapter 45: 45

“From the information that we have, the reason Wei Youfu went to the nature reserve probably had to do with Jiang Jiang. Wei Youfu might have obtained some information about it. The nature reserve could very well be the black forest in Jiang Jiang’s painting.

“The nature reserve was adjacent to Xin Lu’s Yan Mu Mountain. To gain entry into a government reserve is not easy, we’ll need more powerful evidence to persuade the superiors. Thankfully, with my teacher’s help, we found something crucial.” Li Xue’s voice was buzzing with emotion.

“What is it?”

“We need to be thankful that the murderer has underestimated Wei Youfu and Jiang Jiang!” Li Xue said confidently, “The nature reserve is huge. To locate a house in it is like finding a needle in the haystack, we need to know its more specific location to get a warrant. The fact that Jiang Jiang could draw out the dark forest, the black house, and the group of headless people meant that he most likely knew about the place’s location. I believe the murderer might even have led this kind drifter to his lair to pressure him, to make him go even crazier.

“On the other hand, Wei Youfu was just a normal office worker, he had no detective experience but the two of them managed a miracle. Jiang Jiang, who was mentally-challenged and could barely string together a sentence, successfully dropped enough hints to garner Wei Youfu’s attention. Wei Youfu believed the words of this supposedly ‘mad’ man and went to investigate it twice. When kindness met kindness, it transmuted into something more, in this situation, it became the most crucial clue for us to solve this case!

“When Wei Youfu went to the nature preserve for the first time, he probably did not find anything. However, the day after he visited the reserve for the second time, he was murdered. Coincidence? I think not. I believe he got very close to that black house already! It was why the murderer, who had been watching, was pressured to make his move!” Li Xue’s voice slowed down, “Han Fei, is there anyone around you?”

Han Fei looked around and answered, “No, I’m the only one here.”

“Good.” Li Xue took a deep breath. “Before the killer is captured, what I’m going to say next is strictly confidential, understood?”

“Yes.”

“When we looked into the case file, we realized after Wei Youfu was killed, his computer and phone were wiped. Since that was the case with all the other victims, at the time, the police did not think much of it except that it was a sign of the killer’s caution. They had the forensic tech recover the data in the victims’ phones and computers but found nothing. However, when the police searched through Wei Youfu’s house, they found a piece of clothing stained with mud inside his secondhand car. At the time, the police were not mindful of it, they assumed it had nothing to do with the case. However, they did bag it for evidence.

“The piece of cloth probably has disintegrated with time but we did get our hands of its evidence photo. The cloth had blocks of colors and lines on it. It looked like part of a bigger print. Through the latest pictorial recovery program, we managed to reconstruct the full print. Then by using the data screening device, we sifted it through the internet’s pictorial database. Turns out the print was a cartoon character famous about 10 years ago. We thus had reason to believe the piece of cloth came from a child’s shirt that had the print on it. We went through the database again and found this.” Li Xue sent Han Fei a picture. It was a child’s shirt from a bootleg brand. The picture was pulled from a clothing retail site’s archive.

“Is that enough to persuade your superior to send people into the nature preserve?” Han Fei’s tone was concerned. He felt the evidence was not that concrete, after all, any child could have worn this shirt back then. It was not pertinent enough.

“One picture might not be enough but how about two? Now take a look at this. This is the surveillance picture of the missing child from the orphanage. This was taken at the orphanage where he was last seen.” Li Xue sent Han Fei another picture, and seeing it, Han Fei sucked in a cold breath. The child was wearing the shirt with the same print on the day of his disappearance!

“We cannot be sure the cloth in Wei Youfu’s car came from this child but it is too much of a coincidence, don’t you think? Wei Youfu had just returned from the nature reserve, so he had to have picked up the piece of clothing there. And then the very next day, he was brutally murdered. There are too many coincidences to be ignored! We have reason to suspect there is a kind of relationship between the killer and the nature reserve.”

Li Xue and the police had done all the analysis they could, the next logical step would be to canvas that actual crime scene, which was to enter the nature reserve. “I’m not going to reveal the actual mission details to you. What you need to do now is to take care of your own safety. Stay at home and wait for the good news.”

“Li Xue, I have a question for you.” Before Li Xue hung up, Han Fei thought of something, “Assuming the human jigsaw killer was living inside the nature reserve, then the death of the missing child from the orphanage should be related to him as well. After all, there was where Wei Youfu found the piece of child’s clothing. right?”

“You have a point, continue.”

“Then is it possible that the ghost mentioned by the missing child was the actual human jigsaw killer?” Standing in the shadows, Han Fei’s brain spun quickly, “The human jigsaw killer had adopted the 8th victim, Jiang Jiang’s painting also showed that there were many headless small characters around the black forest. Assuming the small characters were all children, who do you think had such free access to so many abandoned babies and orphans without being picked up by the system?”

“It could be someone from the orphanage… Wait… You suspect the director?” Li Xue gasped.

Actually, Han Fei thought of this because he tied it to the ditty sung by the 8th victim– “Big brothers, big sisters sent far away; little brothers, little sisters, their ranks wasting away.” There was more than one child at the place where the 8th victim stayed. To look after so many children, the person needed a certain level of babysitting experience.

“Furthermore, Jiang Jiang came into contact with the director because the former found the latter’s missing wallet. Based on what you said earlier, the killer enjoyed the rush from watching kindness being trampled on. The director knew very well that Jiang Jiang was an incredibly kind person.” Han Fei’s brain linked up the clues. “Do you think it is possible that the director hired Jiang Jiang not out of appreciation but because of the flawed image of kindness he saw in Jiang Jiang? He wanted to claim Jiang Jiang as his own toy?”

“That is highly probable. I’ll need to give my teacher a call, to do some investigation.” Li Xue hurried and hung up. Han Fei stood still in the dark corner of the street, the information about the case flashing through his mind.