Memory Lost (美人为馅): Chapter 56

Chapter 56: The First Sight of Suspicion Part 1

The temperature is cold in the early morning of autumn.

Jin Xi enters the office at dawn.  There aren’t many passersby in the building at this hour.  When she passes a group of officers, she sees a few of them leaning crookedly against their chairs and sleeping.  They’ve clearly been busy following Han Chen all night long.

She pushes open the Black Shield Team’s office door and sees Chatterbox leaning forward and sleeping on his desk.  Although he looks refined on the outside, his snoring is incredibly loud.  Xiao Zhuan is sitting in front of his computer.  The monitor’s light is reflecting on his face as he types on the keyboard.  He notices her arrival and reveals a slight smile, “It’s still early.  Leader said we’ll wait until it’s office hours before bringing the suspects in for questioning so that we don’t inadvertently alert the killer.”

Jin Xi nods.  Seeing that Han Chen’s and Cold Face’s seats are empty, she raises her head to take a look at the half-closed door of the room in the back.

“They just went inside for a nap,” Xiao Zhuan whispers, “Both of them haven’t slept for two nights.  Do you want to go accompany Leader?  I’ll keep a lookout for you!”

Jin Xi glances at Chatterbox who’s not moving, then glares at Xiao Zhuan and gestures for him to keep quiet.  She walks quietly to the side of the door.  Afraid that she would wake them up, she peeks inside through the door crack first.

She spots Han Chen lying on the sofa facing the doorway right away.  One arm is behind his head, his shoes are still on, and he’s lying down just like this with a jacket over his body.  The dim light from the sky outside of the window is shining on his face, showing his handsome features and contours like a still painting.

Jin Xi suddenly recalls the scene from her dream just now, so she continues standing silently beside the door for a long while.

Han Chen scrunches his eyebrows suddenly.  He holds his temples with his fingers.

And then he opens his eyes and stares at the ceiling.

Jin Xi looks at him curiously.  He fetches a medicine bottle from his pants’ pocket, pours two pills out, throws them into his mouth and swallows them.  His eyebrows are still scrunching as he exhales a long breath of air, and then he puts one arm over his eyes.

It’s as if he’s trying to endure something or he’s irritated about something.

Jin Xi pushes open the door and walks inside.

He notices her.  He puts his arm down and looks towards her.

Jin Xi squats beside the sofa and looks into his eyes, “What medicine did you just take?”

Han Chen doesn’t answer.  He grabs her hand and says softly, “Come up.”

Jin Xi doesn’t obey him.  She reaches into his pants’ pocket directly.  He watches and doesn’t stop her.

Jin Xi reads the words on the medicine bottle and feels her heart ache, “Why are you taking painkillers?  Are you having a headache?”  She remembers the time when they were in the office at the Jiangcheng station.  She noticed that something was wrong with him back then and thought he was just sick.

“I’m fine.  It happens occasionally ever since I lost my memory.”

He sits up, pulls her into his embrace while holding her hands, and stares down at her.  Jin Xi rubs her forehead against his chin.  They both keep quiet for a while.

“After that day, my headache has lessened a lot,” he says suddenly in a low voice.

“That day?  Which day?”

He lifts up her hand and kisses it lightly, “That day outside of the hospital.”

Jin Xi’s heart skips a beat.  She doesn’t know if what he’s talking about is for real, but she tilts her head up and gives him a peck on the cheek, “Don’t work overnight anymore.  I heard that it’s bad for headaches.”

“Mm.”

She thinks for a second and then takes out her phone to browse on a shopping website, “I’ll buy some gastrodia elata and pigs’ brains to make you some stew.  I’ll use one pig’s brain a day.  You’re not allowed to refuse.”

Han Chen lets out a helpless laugh.  He snatches the phone from her hand and tosses it to the side, “I don’t eat those kinds of things.”

Jin Xi wants to talk back, but he lowers his head and seals her lips.

The room is still very dark.  There are a few birds chirping outside of the window.  They kiss quietly.  Only the sound of their intimate breathing can be heard, as well as the faint sound of his hand running through her hair.

“Stop kissing me……They’re all just outside……” Jin Xi says almost groaning while their lips and tongues are still moving against each other.

“It’s fine……” he mumbles, “They won’t come in.”

“There’s also Cold Face……”

“He won’t wake up.”

Cold Face, who’s already awake and really wants to go to the washroom, is lying quietly on the sofa with his eyes closed and not budging.  He knows that he cannot wake up right now.  As men, he must give Leader some face, doesn’t he?

Seeing that Jin Xi still hasn’t come out, Xiao Zhuan from the outside tiptoes over and closes the door for them.  He then returns to his seat to continue working while feeling full of happiness.

And Chatterbox is lying with his face down on his desk……

As an expert in identifying marks and traces, his eyesight and hearing are exceptional.  He realizes that he has just heard some noises that he shouldn’t be hearing.  What should he do?  He’s so excited!  Should he tell Zhou Xiao Zhuan?  Or Cold Face?

No, he must keep this secret for his super idol and goddess.

Damn it!  He’s in such a dilemma and it’s so hard to keep it inside!  Why does it have to be him to find this out!?

_____

9am in the morning.

Three suspects are brought back to the station.  But they aren’t taken to the criminal investigation team.  Instead, they are taken to the interrogation rooms at the public security department.  They provide the suspects with the vague “assist with investigation” phrase as the reason, and they haven’t made it clear that it’s regarding the serial killing case.

They’re doing this because they haven’t confirmed who the biggest suspect is, so it’s not good to reveal too much to them.  Additionally, this is also a way of probing them.

Professor Xu Nan Bai from yesterday also arrives at the same time as them.  The Deputy Chief escorts him to the Black Shield Team’s office.  Han Chen has never taken an interest in these experts and professors, so after he shakes hands with him, he gets back to work.  Cold Face obviously also reacts the same way.  Whereas Xiao Zhuan and Chatterbox are much friendlier.  They pour him tea and ask him how he’s doing, making the atmosphere livelier.  Jin Xi, on the other hand, fetches and organizes all the details of the case and hands it to him.

It’s just that when Xu Nan Bai calls her “My Junior (female) Classmate,” everybody turns to look including Han Chen (an affectionate way of calling someone younger who works in the same field or studied the same discipline).  Jin Xi responds with a “yeah” and Xu Nan Bai smiles looking at everybody’s gazes, “There aren’t a lot of us who study criminal psychology to begin with.  There are even less of us who learns it well.  I’m going to take her as my Junior (female) Classmate for sure.”

_____

The interrogation room.

Through the dark glass window, the Black Shield Team and Professor Xu Nan Bai are watching the suspect being questioned by the public security team.

The first person is Jin Lan Heng.  Thirty-two years old, single, a general manager of a private company, and also the only child of the CEO at the company; the second generation of a wealthy family.  His looks are refined, tall, and has a well-built body.  He’s wearing a tailored suit, watch, leather shoes, and carrying a suitcase, all of brand names.  But his slightly tanned skin tone, raspy voice, and the radiance that occasionally brushes across his eyes seem makes Jin Xi feel that there’s something off about his temperament.

He feels more like someone of a newly rich.

And the information that Xiao Zhuan prints out also confirms this:

“Jin Lan Heng’s dad is in the building materials business and only started getting rich within the last ten or so years.  His living condition was quite bad when he was little.  Three months ago, he was detained by the traffic police for five days due to a serious traffic violation.  Additionally, he had several other traffic violations within the last two months where he was fined, but they weren’t serious.  Moreover, he had interacted with the second victim——the surveillance camera caught him driving to the victim’s workplace to give her a ride off work.  And he drives a black Cayenne, which matches the suspect’s trait of owning an SUV.”

“Furthermore……” Xiao Zhuan closes the file, “he owns many dwellings, including two mansions.  However, all three suspects own a mansion.”

Everybody watches Jin Lan Heng, who looks to be full of alert, in the interrogation room.

The civil officer questions, “Do you know Ye Xiang Qing?”  Ye Xiang Qing is the name of the second victim.

Jin Lan Heng thinks for second before answering, “I don’t remember.”

The civil officer tosses the photo onto the table, “August 3rd, the surveillance camera at her office’s entrance caught you picking her up after work.  How can you say that you don’t know her?”

Jin Lan Heng reveals a surprised expression.  He holds up the photo, thinks for a moment and answers, “I think I remember.  But there are many people who have had a working relationship or a friendship with me.  How can I possibly remember them all?  Mr. Officer, what happened to her?”

On the other side of the room, Xu Nan Bai says softly, “He’s lying.”

Han Chen and the others don’t comment.  Jin Xi nods.

Yes, his expression doesn’t look natural.  Furthermore, it has been no more than a month ago when he picked her up from work, and she was a pretty woman to add to that, so how can he not remember?

The civil officer doesn’t answer Jin Lan Heng’s question and continues asking instead, “Last week Friday, which is September 11, between 7 to 9pm, where were you?  What were you doing?”

This is the time when the third victim, Zhou Si Jin, disappeared.

Jin Lan Heng answers, “Let me think about it……Last Friday……oh, I went home after getting off work.”

“You were at home the whole night?”

“Yeah.”

“It was the start of the weekend, so what were you doing by yourself at home?  It doesn’t seem like something that a boss, who’s single, would do,” the civil officer says not too hard and not too softly.

Jin Lan Heng is a bit stunned.  He then smiles, “Fellow Officer, it’s quite hard work for me to take care of a business.  When the weekend comes, I just want to lie in bed.  I occasionally go out to play ball or have some tea, but I live a very healthy life.”

The civil officer asks a few more questions, but Jin Lan Heng probably senses that the situation is more complicated than he thinks, so he answers very carefully.  As for September 13 to 14 at 6am in the morning, which is when Zhou Si Jin was killed and her body was abandoned, he says that he was naturally still sleeping at home, so he doesn’t have an alibi.

The interrogation ends and the civil officer comes over, “Team Leader Han, what should we do about this person next?”

Han Chen keeps quiet for a second and then responds, “Let him stay in the room by himself for now.  We’ll decide after we finish with the other two.”