Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“I’m here to investigate, not to take evidence!” Zhao Yu spoke bluntly, “Why would I need gloves? Don’t worry, your daughter’s not Sherlock Holmes. She won’t notice!” As he finished, he ignored the old woman’s protesting and grabbed one of the book off of the shelf. The book was about anesthesia. Zhao Yu flipped through a few pages, and saw that there were many notes in the margin.
Li Dan’s handwriting was elegant and clean, with little flaws. Just from a quick glance, you would be able to tell that she was someone who was very careful and methodical.
Zhao Yu flipped through a few other books, and they were all the similarly marked. He could not help but ask the woman standing in the doorway, “Does your daughter study medicine? How come she has so many books related to medicine?”
“None, none at all!” The elderly responded assuredly, “But many years ago, she worked at a veterinarian office, and it was a pretty famous one too. Dandan was their assistant! So she probably learned some stuff when she worked there.”
“What?! Pet hospital?! Veterinary store?!” Zhao Yu exclaimed inside his head. He was shocked with every new discovery he made. The anesthesia that the culprit of the Lost Hand Case used was a medicine intended for animals, and the source of the medicine was from veterinarian offices.
“This can’t be a coincidence anymore, right? Could it be…this Li Dan…” Zhao Yu thought. He put down the book and scanned across the entire room. For some reason, he kept wondering there was something more important in the room.
“Old lady!” Zhao Yu thought for a while, then asked, “Does your house have internet?”
“Yeah!” She responded, “I don’t use it, but my daughter does!”
“What about computer, do you have one?”
“My daughter has a laptop that she brings with her everywhere. It’s not here.”
“Then…” Zhao Yu pointed at the room, “She doesn’t have a writing desk in the room, how does she usually use her computer? While lying in bed?”
“Yeah, she works while lying in bed!” The old lady withheld nothing, “Not only to use the computer, but if my daughter is reading or writing, she usually does it while lying in bed. Oh right, under her mattress, she had a lot of papers. I often see her writing, and also there were also a bunch of photos!”
“Oh!” Zhao Yu nodded, but suddenly realized what she had said! “What?! What did you say? Under the mattress?” Zhao Yu was shocked and his eyes bulged as he asked, “What…what’s written on it?”
“I…I don’t know! I only saw it a few times by accident. My…my daughter doesn’t even know that I know. She usually kneels on the bed frame, and writes very seriously. I…I only saw through the door crack!” The old lady stumbled over her words in fear, and did not know what she should say.
“Ah?!” Zhao Yu spoke no more, and took large strides over towards the front of the bed, extending his hands to flip up the mattress and the bed covers.
“Officer!” The old lady was stunned, and rushed in to block Zhao Yu, “My daughter is germophobic. Please don’t move the bed! My daughter’s eyes are sharp, so no matter how you do it, she will be able to tell!”
“Old lady!” Zhao Yu yelled in agitation, “Don’t you understand the situation we’re in? You’re still thinking about your daughter’s germophobic tendencies! I’ll let you know, the things your daughter’s been writing might affect her life, and you want to stop me?”
Seeing Zhao Yu so agitated, the elderly woman finally realized something serious was happening, and reluctantly let go of Zhao Yu’s shoulder, retreating back to the entrance of the room.
Zhao Yu grabbed the corner of the bed cover, and in one quick motion, flipped the entire bed cover high into the air. After lifting the cover, what he saw on the bed frame shocked Zhao Yu!
On the flat surface of the bed frame, there were indeed sheets of white papers taped together. The white papers had many words written on them. Among them, there were also many pictures, drawings, and even printed and copied documents!
What was in front of him was exactly like the analysis whiteboard back at the police station, but this was even more detailed and elaborate than his analysis board! The volume of information that Li Dan’s papers contained was much greater than anything the police had!
Holy sh*t! At that moment, Zhao Yu’s heart went crazy. He could feel his body boiling with adrenaline. Just from the photos on the white sheet, without looking closely at the writing, he could completely and surely say that the girl genius, Li Dan, was the culprit of the Lost Hand Case!
On the sheet was Gao Tian, Yuan Lili, and Luo Meina’s pictures. Beside their pictures was all their information noted down with a black marker. Clearly, Li Dan had done very detailed research on them.
Zhao Yu folded up the bed cover and put it aside, then carefully looked for where the white paper started. He saw that below Gao Tian’s photo was a printed version of black-and-white photo showing a ventilation duct.
Below the pictures was also detailed information describing the date, position, and muc more. All of the information perfectly matched the Gao Tian’s case file! One could tell that Gao Tian’s hand had definitely been chopped off by Li Dan!
“My God!” Zhao Yu flipped through the information, and realized he had connected all of the points of the Lost Hand Case! When he finally understood Li Dan’s modus operandi, he was stunned yet again.
Li Dan’s plans were detailed to the point of being insane. It was the a perfect crime! She had been planning her attacks months before they happened! Using Gao Tian as an example, Li Dan knew that Gao Tian would come to Qinshan to listen to the music concert, and even knew her seat number. She even knew that once the concert was over, Gao Tian would definitely use that underground tunnel, and that the tunnel had no surveillance cameras inside. Because Gao Tian’s seat was near the front, she would be at the end of the line as the audience members left.
Zhao Yu estimated that Li Dan had probably also bought a ticket to the show, and followed Gao Tian afterwards. Once the concert was over, and Gao Tian entered the tunnel, Li Dan knocked her out while no one was paying attention, then dragged her into the power distribution room in the tunnel. Li Dan used anesthesia, then she chopped Gao Tian’s hand off!
The most insane thing was that after the crime, Li Dan did not flee in a hurry, but went to the ventilation room on the other side of the tunnel. The ventilation room helped circulate airflow for the gymnasium, and led to many other places. Li Dan waited there until dawn, then crawled into the tunnel. Using a preplanned route, she escaped through the exit near the cleaning department.
She had left exactly as the sanitation workers were going to work. She had prepared a uniform ahead of time, and exited when there were many people leaving the gymnasium. No matter how good the police officers checking the surveillance were, they would never be able to notice her.
The most insane thing was that in order not to raise suspicion on the surveillance camera, she even brought a container of preservative fluid, and hid Gao Tian’s right hand in there. Only after two whole months did she go back and retrieve it.
Originally, Qu Ping guessed that the culprit had used alternate routes to escape, but because the ventilation room was locked, she did not investigate there. How could she have known that Li Dan had obtained the key to the room a few months in advance?
Regarding Gao Tian’s case, Zhao Yu already felt it was unbelievable. But when he saw the second victim, Yuan Lili’s case, he was even more shocked!