crime profiler in the dark

Two hours later, Bai Haolin arrived in Wei Town. According to the address provided by Sergeant Chen, he came to a gas station in the suburbs of Wei Town. The gas station is open 24 hours and there is a small supermarket inside. Xiao Li is asking about the supermarket. employees, and most of them are concentrated in a public phone booth 50 meters away from the gas station.

After getting off the car, Bai Haolin looked around.There is a monitor at the entrance of the gas station, and all vehicles entering the gas station will be photographed, but Bai Haolin feels that the murderer may not enter from the front because of his caution, so he walks to the phone booth and finds that there is a small road next to it. Bypass the gas station and go straight to the phone booth.At this time, an assistant policeman was taking pictures of the tire marks on the ground, an assistant policeman was taking fingerprints and physical evidence on the doorknob of the phone booth, and Sergeant Chen stood by and looked solemnly at the victim in the phone booth.

"Inspector Chen." Bai Haolin walked over.

"Someone found him at the gas station at six o'clock this morning," Sergeant Chen couldn't look away, staring at the victim, and said in a painful voice, "It's the third person..."

The forensic doctor hadn't arrived yet, and the body was not allowed to move a bit, and could only be observed through the glass of the phone booth.

The victim was a boy about twelve or thirteen years old with a cropped cut, wearing a red dress that was obviously not his. He raised his head and knelt facing the direction of the phone. The phone cord was tightly wrapped around his neck. The black receiver hangs from his right shoulder.

This time there was no rope, no anchor, and if it wasn't for the red dress, the police would not have connected this case with the previous two, but Bai Haolin wanted to know why the murderer changed his tactics—was someone interrupted him?Or his "criminal ritual" has changed for some reason, but usually serial killers change their crime methods and behave more brutally, but this case seems a bit flustered-the place where it is very likely to be discovered, there is no past The layout of the scene in many places, the tire marks left when leaving in a hurry, and so on.

"Officer Chen, we found it. The deceased's name is Liu Tian, ​​a sophomore in Weizhen Junior High School. His parents reported him missing at [-] o'clock last night. The last person who saw him was a classmate who went home with him. According to According to the testimony of his classmate, they broke up at a crossroad as usual, and no suspicious person was found following them on the way home." Fang Xiang learned about the situation of the victim and reported it to Sergeant Chen.

"Xiao Fang, you go to meet the victim's parents and inform them." Inspector Chen has a 15-year-old son. He couldn't imagine what he would do if a stranger came to tell him that the child was killed by a pervert one day. ?

Fang Xiang nodded, and trotted away. Just as he left, the forensic doctor's car came from the other side of the road. Forensic doctor Jiang approached the phone booth. Sergeant Chen and Bai Haolin also walked outside the phone booth, wanting to hear the preliminary autopsy results.

Jiang Fayi is a mother-in-law in her 60s. She is petite and only 1.4 meters tall. She always wears a pair of gold-rimmed glasses habitually. She used to be a clinician at the prestigious TMX Hospital with rich experience. The police department paid a lot of money to hire him, and he was promoted to chief forensic officer in less than a year.

"According to the rigor, the time of death was between one and three o'clock in the morning," Forensic Doctor Jiang said while opening his eyelids, then opening his mouth, and took a photo with a small flashlight, saying: "There is blood in the eyes. , the tongue is not swollen, it died of suffocation."

"Does he have eyebrows...?" Sergeant Chen asked eagerly.

Forensic doctor Jiang lifted the dead man's head, looked at it carefully, and replied, "No."

There is not even a needle between the eyebrows. Is it a copycat crime?Bai Haolin thought to himself, but although the media reports didn't mention the needle between the eyebrows, they also reported the rope and the anchor. If it was an imitation, why didn't these two things exist?Could it be that the murderer killed the deceased by accident, and then made up a temporary idea, but because he didn't have tools in his hands, he arranged it roughly like this?

"Without a needle, could someone else imitate it?" Sergeant Chen looked at Bai Haolin.

"I can't rule out this possibility." At present, Bai Haolin is not sure. He recalled that the first two victims both died at the age of 13 years and [-] days. Without his detailed information, we will not know until Fang Xiang returns from his parents' house.

According to the strangle marks on the neck of the deceased, forensic doctor Jiang judged that he was strangled to death by a telephone wire.The preliminary examination was completed. Two police officers put the dead body into a body bag and carried it into the car. Forensic doctor Jiang also went back with the car for further examination.

The collection of evidence was completed, and the phone that was haunting the deceased was put into the evidence box. The glass of the phone booth was covered with black powder for fingerprints. It seemed that the range of suspects was not small. The employees' testimonies and the surveillance cameras returned, Police Chief Chen wanted to rush back to the police station to report to his superiors, but Bai Haolin had no plans to leave.

After everyone left, Bai Haolin walked into the phone booth. He stood where the deceased was killed, thinking:

The deceased was taken away by the murderer on the way home until he was killed. During this period of four hours, the murderer did not take the deceased to his safe area for such a long time, but to this gas station where people come and go. Why?Although there are few people in the early hours of the morning, there are shop assistants on duty 24 hours a day in the supermarket. Isn't the risk too great?The red dress on the deceased must have been put on before this, indicating that the murderer wanted to use the previous case as a model, so imitation crimes can be ruled out—the imitator has extremely high requirements for details, even if he does not know that there is a needle between his eyebrows As the news said, he should bring chains and anchors, but he only let the victims wear red dresses, why?

Bai Haolin couldn't figure it out, he exited the phone booth, walked outside the gas station, looked at the asphalt road ahead and the occasional passing cars, and continued to think:

Putting a victim in a red dress, whether a copycat or not, shows that a killer's original plans have been disrupted - whether he's a serial killer who murdered three children or a sex offender looking to take his victim for a thrill , he finally chose to hang the victim in a telephone booth, which can only mean that there must be something very important that interrupted his original layout, but what could it be...?

"Xiao Bai, are you still there?" At this moment, Old Sun's voice came from behind Bai Haolin.

"Officer Sun." Bai Haolin turned around and saw him walking towards him alone, feeling strange: "You stayed too? Where's Xiao Li?"

"Just now Fang Xiang said to meet the victim's parents, and Xiao Li followed." Sheriff Chen likes to let his subordinates see things from different perspectives, so he never fixed the team. Sometimes Lao Sun and Xiao Li partnered, and sometimes Fang Xianghe Laosun partner. "I heard that the witness you found in Kang Town passed away suddenly?"

"En." Thinking of Zhou Qiang, Bai Haolin felt unspeakable guilt.

"This case is getting weirder and weirder. I don't know if the deceased also died at the age of 13 years and [-] days." Old Sun murmured.