I broke into cold sweat when I saw the dagger in Xu Gang’s hand. It was a critical moment, and it was absolutely crucial that I keep my head cool. I told him, “You gain nothing from killing me, Xu Gang! You’ll just be committing one more crime!”
Xu Gang smirked. I was sure that he was going to stab me. Thankfully, Xiaotao and Yuanchao kicked the door down and entered right at that moment. They aimed their guns at Xu Gang and shouted, “Drop your weapon now!”
“You misunderstand me,” Xu Gang stated calmly. “I have no intention of hurting anyone.”
At that point, Xu Gang stood between me and Xiaotao and Yuanchao. It would be extremely easy for Yuanchao to shoot him at that distance.
“Drop your weapon and raise your hands!” shouted Xiaotao again.
Xu Gang ignored her and told me, “I’ve heard of your reputation, Detective Song. You’re supposed to be a master detective who can solve any murder case no matter how difficult. So, do you think I’d be stupid enough to let myself be arrested and tell you where that vile woman is? You’re gravely mistaken…”
I suddenly realized that his plan was to commit suicide all along. I lunged forward and desperately tried to snatch the dagger away from him. But as soon as I made a move, Xu Gang impaled the dagger into his throat with swift accuracy and collapsed lifelessly to the floor.
Xiaotao was stunned. I quickly turned Xu Gang’s body over, only to see the arrogant smirk frozen on his dead face. His body was still convulsing, but the knife had plunged too far into his throat that it cut off the major veins in his trachea.
“I’ll call 120 now!” shouted Xiaotao in panic.
“No,” I shook my head. “It’s too late…”
At that moment, Dali entered the room panting. He was shocked by the scene and yelled, “Holy shit!”
I closed Xu Gang’s eyes. Although he was a criminal, I still recited the Reincarnation Mantra for him. Xiaotao made a call and ordered a group of officers to come and clean up the scene. In order to prevent the neighbors from seeing the dead body, we closed the door. Dali had never seen anyone commit suicide before, so he was trembling with fear. He dared not take a look at the dead body, so he just stood there facing the wall the whole time like an idiot.
We searched the room, but found nothing consequential. I recalled what Xu Gang said before he died—he said that the person injected with the hibernation drug would survive two years in an environment with limited oxygen. This might be a hint that the rich lady was trapped in a closed space.
Apart from that, he also mentioned his desire to see the woman losing everything she had. This gave me an idea.
“Let’s go search the rich lady’s house!” I told Xiaotao.
We did not wait for the police to arrive before leaving. The rich lady’s house was a small mansion situated in a prominent high-end residential area. I picked the lock open with my iron wires and we barged into the house with haste. As soon as we entered, my nose was hit with a heavy stench of blood.
When we got to the second floor, we were greeted with a macabre scene. There was a man lying face down in a pool of blood. He was still wearing silk pajamas. The furniture around him was in disarray. Judging from the degree of solidification of the blood, the murder must’ve occurred about forty-eight hours ago.
I looked around and remarked, “There are signs of struggle here. Look, there are fragments of a vase on the floor.”
Xiaotao picked one of those fragments up and examined it closely.
“There’s blood on it!” she exclaimed.
There were no obvious signs of injury on the deceased despite the pool of blood he was lying in. I turned the body over and was stunned. There was a huge gash on his chest. The murder weapon was nearby too—an ice pick. It also took no effort to identify the victim at all, because right above him on the wall hung a portrait. It was the rich lady and a man who looked very much like the deceased. He was obviously her husband.
There was a mobile phone in the victim’s pocket. I checked it, and found that he’d sent a text message to his maid two days ago. It read, “We’re going on vacation. You don’t need to come here for the time being.”
“Do you think Xu Gang killed him, Song Yang?” asked Xiaotao.
“No,” I responded. “It’s the rich lady!”
The victim’s position in the room proved that the murderer was sitting on the sofa when he was killed. The fact that he was only wearing pajamas hinted that the murderer couldn’t have been a stranger. There was also a woman’s cigarette holder near the ashtray on the coffee table. It was likely that the murderer was smoking a cigarette while sitting on the sofa, then they grabbed the ice pick and stabbed the victim’s chest with it.
There were shoe prints on the carpet. The size seemed larger than the victim’s feet, so it was probably Xu Gang who came in wearing shoes after the murder. He probably forced the rich lady to kill her husband. There was probably an altercation between the two after that, and Xu Gang probably hit the rich lady in her head with the vase.
I walked to the door and found traces of nail scratches on the door frame. There were nail fragments coated with nail polish on the floor too. Xu Gang probably dragged the rich lady out, but she clung desperately to the door, leaving these marks.
I continued to look around the room, and found a family portrait. Apparently the victim and the rich lady had a beautiful young daughter who seemed to be about seven or eight years old.
“I wonder if the girl is safe?” Xiaotao sighed.
“Let’s hope so!” I replied.
We left the mansion soon after that.
“Leave the task of finding the woman to me,” said Xiaotao. “Both of you should go back and study for your finals now.”
I nodded and said, “I’ve got two suggestions for you. Xu Gang stole 20 million yuan from Chen Da. He could buy a lot of things with that money—a house, for example. You should follow the money and see where it leads you. Also, check whether Xu Gang bought any decoration materials recently.”
Xiaotao’s eyes widened. “Are you suspecting that he’s trapped the rich lady in the walls?”
“It’s highly probable,” I explained. “The rich lady will live for two more years, which means that her body won’t rot until then. Hiding her inside the walls would make it nigh impossible to find her. If I was Xu Gang, this is what I would do.”
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna have to smell all the walls in Nanjiang City to find her!” exclaimed Dali.
“That won’t be necessary,” Xiaotao shook her head. “We can just use an infrared detector or a police dog instead. Anyway, forget about this case for now and leave everything to me!”
For half a month after that, Dali and I were busy with our studies and final exams. I received no news from Xiaotao in the meantime. I would text Xiaotao occasionally to ask her about the progress of the case, but she would always reply that they hadn’t found the rich lady yet.
Then, one day, Xiaotao called and asked me if I had some time to spare. I told her I just had one exam that morning and would be free for the next two days.
“Good,” replied Xiaotao. “We found that Xu Gang used some money to buy some spots in multiple cemeteries.”
“Cemeteries?” I was shocked. Could the rich lady be buried alive?
Xiaotao picked me up in the afternoon. We drove to a cemetery on the outskirts of Nanjiang City. Other police officers followed us close behind. We contacted the person in charge of the cemetery and found an empty vault bought by Xu Gang.
The officers pried the vaults open, but to our disappointment, it was empty. My heart sank. Xiaotao stomped her feet in frustration and cried, “It’s empty! Let’s go to the next cemetery!”
Xu Gang had placed vaults in all cemeteries in Nanjiang City. We checked three cemeteries that day, and found nothing in all of them.
The day was getting dark by then. Everyone was getting discouraged. The murderer was already dead, yet the task force was still kept busy running around in circles looking for the victim. In fact, a few officers approached Xiaotao and suggested that she give it up already. It was just a waste of manpower and resources anyway, and besides, the rich lady would survive for two years, so perhaps the best course of action would be to let the community patrol officers to slowly look for her instead.
I had a feeling that Xu Gang knew this would happen. In other words, we were simply playing into his hands by giving up the search!
Still, the police had limited time and resources. To find the rich lady, Xiaotao had to put aside a few other cases. Captain Lin had spoken to her about it several times, urging her to stop the investigation and close the case.
The officers were beginning to complain now, too. Xiaotao sighed and told me, “I might not be able to carry it out much longer, Song Yang!”
I clapped my hands to get the officers’ attention and announced, “I know everyone’s tired right now, so let’s do this for just three more days! If we don’t find the woman by then, we’ll just end the investigation there.”
My words managed to lift the officers’ morale a little, but Xiaotao smiled wanly and whispered, “Three days is a bit too short, Song Yang…”
“Don’t worry,” I responded. “I’m just trying to keep the officers motivated. By the way, where was Xu Gang’s wife buried?”