Memory Lost (美人为馅): Chapter 69

Chapter 69: A Profile within the Profile Part 2

Professor Xu Nan Bai has to leave because something has come up at the school.  Therefore, this welcome meal is called off.

Noontime.  The Black Shield Team returns to the station.

Determined to give everything she has to catch the killer, Jin Xi goes to the big conference room by herself.  Just as she walks inside, she sees Han Chen in the hallway ahead with his head down and talking to Cold Face about something.  Cold Face nods after Han Chen finishes and walks away quickly.  Han Chen goes back into the office.

Jin Xi doesn’t think too much about it.  She pushes open the conference room’s door, goes in, walks to the whiteboard and picks up a marker.

_____

The sun is setting.

Han Chen hears that Bai Jin Xi has been in the conference room by herself all afternoon, so he decides to go look for her.

The moment he pushes open the door, he sees many words filling up all four whiteboards; a rather spectacular view.  And there are many photos and papers spread across the first row of tables.

Jin Xi is sitting in the middle of the room by herself.  Her elbow is on the armrest while holding her chin in her palm.  She looks serious but perplexed at the same time.  There are also two black marks on the tip of her nose and the side of her cheek.

Seeing Han Chen come in, she lifts her gaze for second and then returns to the whiteboard again.

Han Chen sits down beside her.  He leans back with both of his arms on the armrests.

“You’ve thought it through yet, Ikkyu (smarty-pants)?”

Jin Xi smiles staring at the whiteboard.

“I’ve written out all the details of the case that are related to criminal psychology.  Something just doesn’t seem right, but it’s still a blur to me.”

Han Chen follows her gaze.

On the top left part of the first whiteboard, it has “Situ Yi’s detailed profile” written on it.  Below it is a list of his features:

Highly intelligent;

Very attractive;

High standards of living and almost strict on routine;

Lacking central organization;

After being released from the station last night, he must have felt furious, so he possesses the motive to commit the crime;

……

The second whiteboard has “criminal psychology profile” written on it.  It’s the content that Jin Xi reported on last time; it’s clear that she wants to compare it with Situ Yi.

The third whiteboard has “characteristics of the dead bodies” written on it.

Many kinds of wounds;

Wearing same style nurse’s uniform;

Wearing their own high heels;

Exquisite food residue found in stomach;

Missing purse;

And on the fourth whiteboard, there is a list of things from the four cases based on the time of events: the location of where the dead bodies were found, the conditions of the victims, the outcome of interrogating the suspects and etcetera.

Seeing how Han Chen is immersed in reading, Jin Xi says, “You should leave.  You will distract me here.  This is all for sorting out my thoughts with criminal psychology.  I need to be left alone in quiet.”

Han Chen glances at her and taps his fingers on the armrest.

“Aren’t you having trouble thinking it through?  I have a way.”

“The thing that you don’t feel right about has to be some points that exist in paradox.  Once you’ve found all these paradoxical points, you’ll be able to find the truth.”

Jin Xi stares into his dark brown eyes and doesn’t say a word.

She has seen him perform this exercise numerous times.  During the Chen Li Jiang case, he found three problems at the crime scene right away: why did he destroy things, why did he use his mouth to get intimate with the victims and why did he open the window.  And the third point later became the key source to solving the case.  The same thing happened in T’s case.  He grasped the most subtle evidence at the scene: he pointed out that T wiped away his sweat containing his DNA but left behind the bullet shell, which clearly indicated that he had a plan and was determined to kill.  And his inference was proven in the end.

But right now, he’s asking her to use traditional methods to sort out the problems in criminal psychology?

Furthermore, why does his suggestion seem to give her a hint of excitement?

“Okay, let me give it a try,” she smiles.

A smile also brushes across Han Chen’s eyes.

“Hey, don’t laugh.  I’m not bowing down to traditional investigation methods, alright?” she emphasizes.

He places his arm on the back of her chair and leans over slightly.

“Mm.  You’re bowing down to me then?”

Jin Xi feels a tickle in her heart and can’t help but laugh, “You think that’s possible?”

They look at each other in the eye.  Even though their hearts are pounding, they remain silent.

Han Chen grabs one of her hands and puts it on his thigh.  And then they both stare at the whiteboard.

Jin Xi thinks hard for a long while before she hears him say indifferently, “Found one.”

Jin Xi shifts her eyes to look at him from the side.  This is all related to criminal psychology and everything on the board is about the criminal and the victims’ characteristics and behaviors.  What can he find in them?

“What did you find?”

He tilts his chin up once gesturing for her to look at the first whiteboard and reads, “Situ Yi’s features: High standards of living and almost strict on routine.”

Jin Xi nods and explains, “This is an observation of Situ Yi as a person.  It’s also based on his friends’ comments.  Have you noticed?  Even every one of his fingernails is clipped neatly.  He also seems to take care of his skin regularly.  It’s tight and radiant.  During the interrogation, we poured him a cup of Lipton red tea, but he never took a sip once.  He’s so picky.  And his friends also said that when a woman approaches him, if her clothes mismatch one bit, he won’t even bother looking at her.  If he dirties his shirt even a tiny bit, he has to go home and get changed……”

As she speaks, Han Chen’s rich and dark brown eyes stare at her without blinking.

“What?”

“I didn’t know that……my wife would be this smart,” a deep voice says flippantly.

Jin Xi’s heart feels as if it’s been dipped in honey.  The sweetness seems to overflow in her heart.

But she comes back to her senses quickly and pushes his shoulder with her hand, “What do you mean you ‘didn’t know’?  Do I not look smart?”

Han Chen smiles slightly and then looks towards the second whiteboard, “In your criminal psychology profile, you wrote that ‘a woman in a nurse’s uniform’ had a special and deep significance to him.”

“Mm.”

“This is the paradox that I was pointing out,” he says, “If Situ Yi is someone who has an intricate lifestyle and if ‘a woman in a nurse’s uniform’ is significant to him, then why is it that when he dressed up the victims——” he looks over to the third whiteboard, “he still let them wear their own high heels and not nurse’s shoes or a specially made kind of shoes?”

Jin Xi is stunned.

She picks up a few photos of the dead bodies.  The beautiful and voluptuous women in nurse’s uniforms accompanied by exquisite office lady high heels do indeed look out of place.

“I’ve noticed this before,” she says, “Could it be that the woman who caused a traumatic experience in his childhood wore office high heels, so that’s why he kept them on?”  This explanation makes a lot of sense.  It’s because she had inferred previously:  he loathes a “woman who wears a nurse’s uniform” and not a real nurse.

Han Chen ponders for a moment and says, “If I were to analyze this, I think it’s possible that he may have just thought that it was troublesome.  You women’s feet can vary a lot by length and width.  Whereas you can still fit in clothes that are a size different.  On the other hand, if the shoes are too small, there’s no way that they’ll fit.  If they’re too big, they’ll fall off along the way, which will be a troublesome thing.”

Jin Xi is stunned.

She really never thought of it this way before.  But she can’t think of anything to refute his point.  It’s because this possibility does indeed exist.

To save the hassle?  The killer did not change their shoes to save himself the hassle?  But this doesn’t match with Situ Yi’s profile.

She suppresses the doubts in her heart, walks to the whiteboard, wipes away one of the lines and writes two points: “afraid of it being troublesome”, “to avoid the hassle.”

She raises her head, rereads the content on the whiteboard again and says, “Another paradox exists then——I originally thought that the killer got the victims to wear the same unfitting size uniform because the woman in his past wore this size.  According to what you’ve just said, buying the same size nurse’s uniform could also be to save himself the hassle?”

Han Chen thinks for a second and nods, “Since they’re all in the same size, it means that he must have purchased them all at the same time in a batch.  Size medium is the most convenient.  Even if the women may not be this size, they could still fit.”

Jin Xi’s heart shakes.  She immediately writes down, “buying in a batch.”

Even though she’s uncertain about whether or not Han Chen’s inferences are right, she is beginning to feel worked up.  Using traditional investigation logic and thinking methods to find the paradoxes in the criminal’s behaviors and profile actually makes her feel enlightened.

“There’s actually one more paradox, but I’m not too sure about it,” she says while drawing a line under the word “purse.”  “The killer took away the victims’ purses as souvenirs.  We’ve already verified that all four purses were bought with the victims’ own money.  Their style and brands are all different, and the prices also vary a lot.  I can’t help but feel that if it were Situ Yi, he would have much higher standards for the purses and wouldn’t just keep any one of them as souvenirs.  And based on his level of mental illness, I feel that if he were to take something as a souvenir, it would be something more personal; something that would recall his memories of the crime and provoke his sexual desires.  For example, underwear, hair or even an organ……”

She pauses her speech at this point.  She looks up at the whiteboard and writes a few more new items——

“Afraid of it being troublesome”, “to avoid the hassle”, “buying in a batch”, “a more personal souvenir”……

What is she doing?  She clearly wants to find evidence to prove that Situ Yi is the killer.  But after finding a few paradoxes with Han Chen, she’s……

She turns her head and sees Han Chen staring at her with his dark brown eyes.  She can’t tell what he’s thinking.

Someone knocks on the door.

“Come in,” Jin Xi says.

Xiao Yao comes in with a smile but seems to be shocked from seeing the words on the whiteboards.  She then hands over the report to Jin Xi, “Big Sister Jin Xi, Team Leader Han, this is the autopsy report hot out of the oven.”

Jin Xi is just in the middle of attempting to decipher her suspicions, so she flips through the report quickly while asking at the same time, “Did today’s victim suffer more serious abuse and torture than the others from before?”

Xiao Yao is stunned for a second before shaking her head, “No.  It’s about the same as the three from before.  My teacher commented that it feels as if it’s an assembly line.  They’re close to standardization.”

Jin Xi is stunned this time around.

Xiao Yao leaves quickly and closes the door for them.  Han Chen gets up, goes over to her, takes the report and starts reading it.  Jin Xi is staring at a particular line written on the first whiteboard.

“Han Chen, the fourth paradox has just appeared,” Jin Xi takes a deep breath and says, “Furthermore, this is the biggest paradox.”

Han Chen’s cell phone rings at the same time.  He glances at her before picking up, “Mm, go ahead.  Is he on the list?  I understand.”

Jin Xi is standing beside him but she feels as if her heart is rippling with tidal waves.  She waits for Han Chen to finish talking on the phone and then says softly, “Han Chen, you say that we have to find the paradoxes.  But what if the main conclusions of the case contradicts with the details?  What do we do then?”

Han Chen looks at her, “The details are where the truth lies.”

Jin Xi stares at him quietly for a second and then says, “I have a daring thought.  Do you feel that there’s another person’s profile hidden in this case?  It’s like we’re almost done putting the pieces of the profile together but to find a few that don’t fit.”

A pensive smile floats across Han Chen’s eyes slowly, “Mm.”

“I……think I know who the killer may be.”

“I know too.”