The Last Killer

When Leo entered, the apartment was silent. "Li Biqing!" He called all the way from the living room to the bedroom and the kitchen, but he didn't find Jasmine's little boyfriend.However, due to professional sensitivity, he found that some minor changes had taken place in the apartment. The dusty floor was cleaned up, the cobwebs in the corner of the ceiling disappeared, the dirty clothes left in the bathroom were washed and dried on the balcony, and the kitchen was cleaned. There was a faint smell of oily smoke... Except for the sojourner Chinese boy, he didn't think anyone else would sneak into his apartment to help with housework.

The question is, where did that guy go?

He returned to the entrance and was about to go out to look for it. The copper handle clicked, and the door was pushed open. Li Biqing, who was wearing casual clothes, appeared at the door with a large bag of supermarket food.

Leo stood face to face with him, only to realize that the other person was taller than he remembered, about 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 meters), with a well-proportioned, slightly thinner body, probably because Asians are naturally taller than Caucasians slim.Li Biqing was stunned for a moment when he saw him, and then showed a gentle and shy smile, "Leo, when did you come back, have you eaten yet?"

Some people jokingly say that the first sentence Chinese people meet must be to ask if they have eaten, and it seems to be true.Leo couldn't help smiling, and took a few steps back to get out of the way, "Come in. Where did you get the key?"

Li Biqing carried the food bag into the kitchen, and said, "I watched American dramas, and your spare keys are usually placed under the mat outside the door, so I looked for them, and they were hidden under a loose floor tile. Yes." For this reason, I have always found it inconceivable that such a common practice is not afraid of being discovered by thieves?"

Leo shrugged, "There is an old saying in China, guarding against a gentleman is not guarding against a villain. A good man will not pick the keys at your door. If a thief intends to steal your house, even a row of locks will not work. Besides, many people Homes have alarm systems, they're just too lazy to hide their keys, or forget them all the time."

Li Biqing sneered, and took the food and seasonings out of the bag, "Americans are as famous for their carelessness as they are for their inability to do arithmetic."

"Save us some face, Chinese boy." Leo folded his arms and leaned against the cooking table, watching him wash carrots and chop tomatoes with great interest.Before that, he had only met the other party once, and he had only spoken a few words, but now the chat was unexpectedly relaxed and natural, "How did you buy these things? Listen to Jasmine, you don't understand English?"

"I can still say some simple words, such as supermarket, where, and buy. People on the street are very enthusiastic. When I enter the supermarket, the shopping guide will help me. The most important thing is that I have US dollar bills, and I can recognize the Arabic words on it. Numbers." He explained seriously.

Leo laughed again.He found that the number of times he laughed in these 10 minutes was more than the sum of the past five days.This seemingly innocent and confused boy is not really so innocent and confused, and even has a little humor.Maybe we'll get along, he thought, this one was decidedly cuter than Molly's previous two boyfriends he'd beaten up.

"Can you cook? Chinese food?"

Li Biqing nodded, and the knife flew like a knife, and the thin green jade-like celery fell piece by piece, "I know a little home cooking. Today I plan to make fish-flavored eggplant stew, sweet and sour pork ribs, fried squid with celery, tomato egg drop soup— - Can you use chopsticks?"

"I can pick up soybeans with chopsticks. My grandmother taught me when I was a child."

"I can see that you have part of Chinese blood. It seems that mixed-race people are indeed handsome men and beautiful women. I believe that the children of Jasmine and me will also be very beautiful in the future."

Leo heard him talking about Jasmine, so he asked one more question: "When do you plan to get married?"

"The specific time has not yet been determined. I want to go to a language school, take a certificate test, and find a formal job. Your sister said that she wants to return to the United States to live in the future."

Leo looked at his calm and focused face when he was cutting meat and talking, and found that it was difficult for him to see his inner emotions. Perhaps it was the reserved and introverted national tradition of the Eastern people, which caused his ability to observe words and expressions to be ineffective on the other party.However, besides "being in love", what other reasons are there for willing to travel thousands of miles away from home and come to the United States to live with Jasmine?

His smart, beautiful, independent sister, who always has problematic eyesight, finally found a man who looked more reliable this time.Leo thought with relief.

For dinner, the three-course, one-soup, home-cooked meal was delicious, at least a lot better than the poor-tasting Chinese food in Chinatown restaurants.The two teamed up to wipe out a small pot of rice, vegetables, and soup. When it was over, Li Biqing consciously gathered the dishes and went to wash them.Leo couldn't help asking him: "When you're with Jasmine, do you do all the housework?"

Li Biqing nodded, "In our hometown, men have always done housework."

"Where are the women?"

"Shopping, shopping, playing mahjong."

Leo sighed sincerely: "You can imagine how happy Jasmine's married life is."

After dinner, it was rare for Leo not to go back to the office to work overtime. Instead, he sat at the desk in the bedroom, carefully browsing through the huge amount of case information in the laptop, trying to piece together pieces of fragmented evidence through screening and correlation, like a jigsaw puzzle, to complete the case. The shaping of "killing".

Three copies of simulated portraits of different faces were pasted on the wall behind the desk. They were the last thing he saw before going to sleep, and the first thing he saw when he woke up.They laughed, talked, and wandered in his dreams every night, replaying the hunting process over and over again.In the dream, he followed that blurred figure like an apprentice, guessing every expression, observing every movement, those bloody and flesh-spattered knives were so realistic that they seemed to be drawn from his own hands, often making him sweat coldly. woke up.

It's like this in every case... How can he let these cold-blooded murderers, these villains who have no regard for life, go unpunished?In the cases he has handled, only during the period of time after the murderer was shot dead or arrested and brought to justice, can he get a truly peaceful sleep. "Don't force yourself to chase the murderer into the darkness, so that you will feel that life is beautiful and sunny." Old Kenneth often said so, patting him on the shoulder.He had tried this well-intentioned suggestion, but nothing could work.

Darkness shrouded the murderers and sheltered them ruthlessly. If they were not in the darkness, how could they dispel the fog and reveal the truth behind the blood?

Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, his eyes were full of indestructible hardness.

After more than three hours, maybe a little longer, he felt that his mind was getting muddled and he needed a refreshing drink.Although there is an old-fashioned coffee machine in the rented apartment, he can't spare the time to brew it, so he can only drink instant coffee in bags. Although it is sweet and greasy, it is better than the free coffee provided by the public.

After closing the laptop, he rubbed his face vigorously with the palm of his hand, got up and walked out of the bedroom.The wall clock on the wall showed that it was one o'clock in the night, and the desk lamp on the round table in the living room was still on, and a curled up figure was sunk in the shadow of the sofa.This made Leo tense professionally, and reflexively touched the pistol stuck in his lower back, and then realized that there was already an extra tenant in the apartment.

"Are you still asleep?" Leo greeted and walked over.

Li Biqing was wearing home clothes with a sky-blue jacket and beige trousers. He was barefoot and curled up on the sofa, with a thick open notebook on his knees. He held a pencil in his right hand and raised his eyes to look at the He was still biting the rubber tip at the end of the pen barrel in his mouth. "I didn't... write anything." He seemed to realize that his actions were a bit childish, and quickly pulled out the pen holder, clipped it into the opened page, and closed the book casually.

Leo went to the kitchen and made himself a cup of instant coffee, then poked his head out and asked him, "Do you want coffee?"

"No, thank you, I made black tea."

"Chinese black tea?"

"Souchong Tongmuguan in Zhengshan, do you want to try it?"

"Yeah. Coffee doesn't seem to be doing much for me lately."

Li Biqing leaned over, climbed the armrest of the sofa to the round table to make tea, as if he didn't even bother to stretch his feet down.The light outlines the undulating backline under the thin fabric, from the slender nape of the neck, the thin waist, to the upturned buttocks, stretching into a natural and beautiful curve.

Leo thought he looked like a cat stretching on the sofa.Perhaps many women can make this pose more charming and attractive, but when placed on him, there is a sense of casual and lazy comfort, reminiscent of a burning fireplace on a winter night, a soft pillow after the sun has sunburned, Mint tea and blueberry cookies in the afternoon... something like that, it is a kind of warmth and warmth full of family taste.

Perhaps, Jasmine fell in love with this feeling, Leo thought.

When he was sitting at the other end of the sofa with a black tea cup, he found a few books on the coffee table.He flipped through the book casually, and found that the book was in Chinese, and most of the characters were unknown, but the cover was very familiar. After careful study, he believed that he had read the English version of them. "... "The Whisper Before the Bed", "Broken Chrysalis", "Dead Butterfly" and "The Last Wing" trilogy? Roy Lee's masterpiece, so you are a fan of suspense detective novels. You know, I like this guy quite a lot , he is not only a best-selling author, but also a self-taught criminal psychologist. These works, "The Complete Works of Hitchcock", "The Silence of the Lambs", and "Human Bone Puzzle" are all recommended above Among the office readings."

"Office reading materials? You really have a heavy taste." Li Biqing looked at him with wide eyes.

Leo smiled, without further explanation, and asked instead: "I haven't figured out one thing, maybe you can give a correct understanding - in "Whispers Before the Bed", who is the real murderer? The elder brother among the twins, or the dual personality of the younger brother?"

Li Biqing replied without hesitation: "Neither. There is no dual personality at all. The so-called brother is also fabricated by him. Pour sugar into the gas tank of the neighbor's car, hang their dog, and kill the male neighbor with a golf ball." , dismembering the female neighbor and burying her head under the window sill to let her watch the scene of her youngest daughter being raped... Everything was done by himself. From the very beginning, he premeditatedly created the illusion of twins, and one person played perfectly They played two characters, making people think they were brothers living together, and even tampered with the hospital birth records. Neighbors saw their brothers eating at the same table from the window, but in fact they could only see the front of one of them, and the other was the body. A custom-made inflatable doll. After the murder case came to light, he faked his brother’s absconding, and finally fooled the jury and successfully escaped the punishment of the law.”

"But in the end, my brother really showed up, so what happened?"

"Have you ever heard an old saying: Suspicion makes dark ghosts. Some unreal things, if you firmly believe in their existence, maybe one day it will come true, because you will try to make it true. The twin brothers created by lies Deceived others, and finally hypnotized himself, giving birth to a ghost in his mind-a ghost of a brother who stood by the bed every night whispering and showing off his crimes."

Leo thought about it, and nodded in agreement, "He escaped legal sanctions by using clever deception, but he couldn't escape the dark ghost in his heart. A person who can't distinguish between reality and illusion is not far from madness."

"Crazy means self-destruction." Li Biqing added.

"After you say that, I finally don't have to worry about that guy not being brought to justice." Leo sighed and said, "You don't know how much I hate the bridge where the murderer escapes and the police can't do anything in movies and novels." Duan, a typical example of misleading the public!"

Li Biqing smiled: "It feels like the three views are broken, doesn't it? But the audience likes to eat this set, because everyone has a beast bound by morality and law hidden in their hearts. How to find a balance between human nature and animal nature , is a topic that runs through everyone's life."

So what about "finishing", what cut off the chains of morality and law in his heart, and released the beast that chose to eat people?

Thanks to the endless stream of American heroes in today's film and television, such as Spiderman, Batman, and Green Arrow, many people think that the motive of "killing" the murder is a distorted sense of justice, which makes him keen to play the role of "social policeman". Serial killers are the fixed targets, so the social harm is much less than that of ordinary murderers.But Leo scoffed at that.

He is more inclined that the criminal motive of "killing blue" comes from the stress reaction after psychological trauma-this guy was a victim of violence and homicide, which may have originated from his childhood, choosing serial murderers as his target, actually It's a revenge mentality.This kind of psychology can still be targeted in the early stage, but as time goes on, the psychological satisfaction brought to him by each killing gradually adds up, and he will soon be unable to restrain the wild and unruly beast, and finally, in the blood and killing Totally crazy!

Crazy means self-destruction, but he must not wait until then to catch him, the people will pay a heavy price for it!

Maybe I should go back along the time axis. The behavioral science analysis team presumed that the age of "killing" was between 28 and 20 years old. I have to start with the serial murders that happened in various states more than [-] years ago... Leo fell into deep thought.

When he came back to his senses, it didn't know how long it had passed, but the porcelain pot filled with hot tea was already completely cold.He got up and shook his stiff shoulders, and found that Li Biqing was still nestling on the sofa with his head down. He couldn't help urging him without a stand: "Shouldn't you go to bed? It's almost three o'clock, and staying up late is not good for your health."

The other party remained motionless and did not respond.

Leo took a closer look, and found that he fell asleep curled up with his arms around his knees, his shiny chestnut hair under the lamp fell down, covering his eyes softly, and his breath was long and quiet.

The fetal sleeping position is one of the signs of inner insecurity.Leo thought of what some psychologist said, and a corner of his heart suddenly felt an inexplicable softness.He bent down and picked up Li Biqing, hugged him horizontally like a sleeping child, let the other person's head rest comfortably in his arms, walked into the guest bedroom, gently put him on the bed, and covered him with the quilt .

The unsuspecting oriental boy was sleeping very deeply. Leo sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him, with a glint of envy in his eyes.Back in his bedroom, he also lay down on the bed tiredly. For the first time in many days, he didn't look at the simulated portraits on the wall before going to bed, and turned off the lights to prepare for sleep.

After tossing and turning for half an hour, Leo threw off the quilt abruptly, strode barefoot to the bathroom, took out a small white medicine bottle without a label from the medicine cabinet, hesitated for a moment, and shook out two oval pill plugs from it. Put it in your mouth and swallow it, then go back to bed again.

With the aid of the drug, undisturbed, utterly dark sleep finally fell on him, and he slowly fell asleep.