Memory Lost (美人为馅): Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Mentally Ill

2pm in the afternoon.

Not a single car can be seen on this quiet road.  Only a couple of police cars is parked on the grass area beside the road.

Jin Xi follows Han Chen and the others out of the car.  She raises her head and sees the sunlight shining through the thick canopy of trees.  The ground is also covered with many weeds and bushes.

The group walks past the yellow tape, and an office comes and hands them gloves and shoe covers.  Jin Xi puts them on, turns around and sees Han Chen fetching his black gloves and putting them on.

His hands are lean and bony.  Once he puts the black gloves on, his character feels even more prominent.  Jin Xi has admired these gloves for a long time, and now she can actually express her feelings outright!  When nobody notices, she comes close to his side and says in a low voice, “Hey, I want a pair of these gloves too.”

Han Chen is just in the middle of pulling his left hand’s glove tight with his right hand.  After hearing her words, he continues fixing his gloves without even lifting an eyebrow.

“I’ll give you anything you want.  These were custom made by a friend.  I’ll call him after we get home tonight.”

Jin Xi feels the sweetness in her heart.  The corners of her mouth can’t help but curve up as she stares at his face.  She turns around and looks to the side.

Chatterbox catches her smile with his sharp eyes, so he asks curiously, “Xiao Bai!  Why are you suddenly smiling so flirtatiously!?”

Jin Xi blushes and kicks him, “F–k off!”

The five of them continue walking until they come to an area with a big tree that is surrounded by criminal investigators and forensic investigators.

And among them, the most eye-catching person……

Is Xu Si Bai.

Jin Xi is a bit surprised, but not extremely surprised.  It’s just that she wasn’t expecting him to come back to City Lan so soon and appear at the crime scene today.

He’s wearing light blue working clothes along with a head cover and gloves.  He’s just in the middle of fetching a mask from his pocket.  His tall and slender body with his fair white and handsome face is standing in the crowd of criminal investigators, making him appear very quiet.

Qin Wen Long has already arrived at the scene earlier.  He’s standing beside Xu Si Bai as he watches the members of the Black Shield Team come.  He pats Xu Si Bai’s shoulder.

Xu Si Bai turns his head and looks this way.

His clear eyes travel across them and land on Jin Xi.

Jin Xi smiles sweetly at him.

He has his mask on, so she can’t make out his expression.  But his rich dark brown eyes curve slightly as if he’s smiling too.

“This is Xu Si Bai.  You all know each other,” Qin Wen Long introduces, “He has officially joined the security bureau today, so I dragged him over here with me.  It’s going to be like this from now on.  He will stay in the forensic department with his own office.  There are many cases that we’ll need his help on, but as long as the Black Shield Team is working on a case, he will help you guys first.”

Chatterbox, Cold Face, and Xiao Zhuan greet Xu Si Bai.  Xu Si Bai nods at each one of them.

Qin Wen Long pats Han Chen’s shoulder, “I treat you quite well, don’t I?  I’m saving this superb forensic investigator just for you guys.”

Han Chen glances at Xu Si Bai and then holds his hand out, “Thanks in advance.”

Xu Si Bai reaches out his and shakes hands with Han Chen, “I’m just doing my job.”

They let go and don’t say anything more.  Jin Xi is still staring at Xu Si Bai.  She’s thinking in her head: this is not bad.  He has always been very independent, so having his own office will make him more comfortable……Just as she’s in her own thoughts, she senses Han Chen beside her looking at her.

She turns to look back at him.

His eyes are glimmering in dark brown, making them hard to read.

Jin Xi makes eye contact with him: What’s the matter?

But he turns around calmly and looks away.

Jin Xi is a bit stunned.  She looks subconsciously towards Xu Si Bai who’s not far away.  She seems to know why Han Chen is not happy.

It kind of makes her want to laugh, but she doesn’t spend more time thinking about it.  She lifts her head and starts observing the dead body on the ground under the tree.

With just one look at it, her eyes darken.

The woman who’s lying beside the tree trunk is wearing a nurse’s uniform with a nurse’s hat.  Her feet are wearing a pair of black and elegant low heel leather shoes.  The makeup on her face is smudged; two blobs of black eyeshadow are spread out from tears.  She looks just like a ghost.  The nurse’s uniform is clearly a bit too big and worn-out that doesn’t fit her well.  Her neck has obvious bruises from strangulation.  Her exposed arms and legs are also covered with wounds.  There are many splats of blood on her clothes; her stomach and chest areas have stabbing wounds.

There is a black plastic bag lying beside the body.

She’s just like a beautiful blooming flower who has been strangled and wounded and shattered in the end.

The dead body is still in Xu Si Bai’s possession right now.  He is squatting beside it and examining each wound carefully.

“The bruising around her wrists and ankles are caused by being tied up for a long period of time.”

“The bruising on her neck is caused by repeated strangling for 3 to 4 times, but it is not the cause of death.”

“Her left ribs, right abdomen, and knee joints have been hit with a hard object, causing bone fractures.  Based on the preliminary examination, they are likely to be done by a bat-shaped object.”

“The cause of death is the sharp cut wounds on her chest and abdomen, dying from excessive loss of blood.”

“Livor mortis has started.  The body is stiff.  Her cornea is slightly milky.  Combined with her body temperature……her time of death is between 14 to 17 hours ago, which is around 9pm yesterday to 12am.”

He works fast; he says out his conclusions while examining the wounds at the same time.  Jin Xi and Xiao Zhuan are used to this, Han Chen and Cold Face remain quiet, but Chatterbox clicks his tongue.

“A famous forensic investigator is indeed not the same!  I’ve been enlightened today!”

At the end of the examination, he takes off his mask suddenly.  He lowers his head and his fair white face moves closer to the dead body.  His lips almost touch the body, causing Jin Xi and Xiao Zhuan to open their eyes wide in shock.

He then reaches out his hand suddenly and opens the body’s mouth.  He takes a look and sniffs.

He straightens up his body, turns around to look at everyone with his clear eyes and says, “Red wine.  The victim had wine before death.”

Everyone is a bit stunned.

Chatterbox asks, “Why was she drinking wine?”

“She was forced to,” Han Chen says indifferently.

The group is silent.

“Besides the wounds causing death, were the other wounds created before or after her death?” Jin Xi asks.

“They were all from before death,” Xu Si Bai answers looking at her.

Jin Xi lets out an “oh”  in response while her eyes are still staring at the dead body.

Xu Si Bai takes off his gloves and head cover and hands them to his assistant Xiao Yao before saying, “My work is done here.  I’ll send you guys a detailed report before this evening.”

Han Chen nods.  Chatterbox and Xiao Zhuan also nod politely to express their thanks.

Jin Xi still has her eyes fixed on the body and doesn’t notice what he has just said.  Xu Si Bai glances in her direction before turning around and leaving with Xiao Yao behind him.

“Such a psycho!” Chatterbox exclaims, “So cruel and merciless!”

Jin Xi squats beside the body staring at its lifeless face.  She nods.

Yes.  It’s a real psycho.

Extreme cruelty and torture.  The killer stayed with the victim for a long period time before finally ending her life.

Examining carefully, the victim is around twenty-eight to nine years old.  She is quite pretty, but due to the swelling and cuts on her face, the shape of her face is deformed.  She is lying on the side of her body under the tree.  Her body has stiffened with her knees slightly bent.  There was rain earlier today, so her nurse’s uniform is stained with a bit of muddy water.

“Wallet, keys, cellphone, identification card!” Chatterbox beside her has opened the black plaster bag.  It turns out that it actually contains the victim’s belongings and a set of clothes.

“Zhou Si Jin, 29 years old,” Xiao Zhuan picks up her identification card, “There’s a working identification card!  XXX business company’s accounting manager.  She’s a white collar.”

Chatterbox continues noting the things in the bag: “Tissue, wet wipes, lipstick, powder……and a pepper spray!”

Jin Xi picks up the set of clothes instead.  There’s an intricately made brand named trench coat and a black colored slimming long dress.  Jin Xi holds them up to her nose and takes a sniff.  There’s a slight smell of sweat.  They match well with the pair of shoes on the victim.

They examine the scene for a while longer.  Jin Xi raises her head, but don’t see Han Chen anywhere.

_____

The location of the victim’s body is not far away from the road.  Just past the woods and over a small slope is a meandering major road.

Bai Jin Xi walks to it and sees Han Chen standing beside the road by himself with his hands in his pockets looking far away.

“What are you looking for?” she goes over to him and tries to follow his gaze.  All they see is denser wooded areas not far away from the victim’s body.  Besides the woods, the hills block their line of sight.  Going farther down is likely a forest.

Han Chen doesn’t answer.  He retrieves his gaze and looks at her.

“What are your conclusions based on criminal psychology?”

Jin Xi claps her hands to get rid of the soil, takes off her gloves and stuffs them into her pocket.  She answers solemnly, “According to the information that Xiao Zhuan has just received, the two other victims from last month and two months ago were also white-collar who worked in the CBD financial district.  They were tortured to death in similar ways.  Therefore, this is a very stereotypical, organized, and psychopathic serial killer.”

Han Chen raises his eyebrows and doesn’t respond.

Jin Xi continues, “An organized killer such as this one has very obvious traits: intelligent, cool, ruthless, and apathetic.

His choice of target is white-collars.  Compared to ordinary girls, they are more independent and have a higher awareness of safety.  But since the killer is able to abduct or kidnap them, it shows that he is very strong in planning his crime and is very confident, so his intelligent level won’t be low.  Therefore, he may have a decent job and income;

His unique traits are: keeping the victims locked up for a long period of time, and torturing and abusing them.  He makes them almost suffocate to death for 3 to 4 times and hit them everywhere because he gets a great feeling in the process of torturing the victims slowly.  He even changed the victims into nurse’s uniforms and forced them to drink wine.  This is part of his sexual fantasies.  I’m certain that he must have ‘foul play’ and ‘negotiated’ with them.  Therefore, it’s possible that he might not have a psychological disorder, but his mental state is twisted and ill.

There aren’t any further information right now, so we can only speculate that his age is between 25 to 40 because the majority of people who are mentally ill are in this age range;

A mentally ill person will likely show an impulse to committing crimes on a consistent cycle.  It looks like this cycle is one month.  After the impulsive feeling ends, he will blend back into a normal life.

Mental illness is almost always developed due to the lack of care from family members during childhood.  His family might not be poor and may be pretty wealthy, but a very big family conflict must exist;

He lacks sympathy and doesn’t have many emotions.  His relationship with his family is shallow and he does not have any real friends.  His mental illness has become very serious, but he has a great appearance to cover it up.  Therefore, he is an extremely dangerous criminal.”

After she finishes, she is struck dumb.

Strange……these words and these reasonings seem to pop up in her mind by themselves where she’s able to master them quickly.  They also feel natural and familiar to her.  She feels a deep connection from these words.  It’s as if she can see a well-groomed man, who is actually bloodthirsty, standing among the crowd, searching for his next prey.

Ever since the last case with T, these serial killing cases seem to spark her mind and help her recall her past knowledge and memories.

Could it be that before she lost her memory, she was specialized in analyzing serial killing cases?

It’s quite possible.

She looks at Han Chen, “I’m done.”

“Mm,” he looks at her and says softly, “It seems to make sense.”

Jin Xi chuckles.  She looks around to ensure that there is no one, and then hits his chest with her fist, “Hey, didn’t you say before that criminal psychology is the most useless thing?  Have you finally let go of your pedantic views?”

Han Chen stares at her quietly.

“It’s not pedantic,” he says irreverently.

“What is it then?”

He stays quiet for a moment.  His eyes look darker and deeper.

“When I woke up four years ago, I disliked and rejected criminal psychology subconsciously,” he pauses, “and also detested female officers a lot.”

Jin Xi is stunned.  The corner of her mouth twitches, “Oh……no wonder you hit me and tied me up the first time we met!”

A hint of a smile brushes across Han Chen’s eyes.  He takes a step forward, lowers his head, and stares at her at a very close distance.

“The reason is clear now.  What I detested was missing your criminal psychology.”

Jin Xi’s heart pounds.

His voice is calm, yet she feels a rush of blood in her chest.

He hates criminal psychology so much and denies criminal psychology so fiercely.

Is it all because the criminal psychology that he has come across with after losing his memory don’t have her in it?

Thinking back now, whether it was the Chen Li Jiang case or the T case, whenever she made her inferences based on criminal psychology, he never once doubted them.  On the other hand, he made used of her analyses many times.  Therefore, since back then, he had already started accepting her and her criminal psychology?

……

Jin Xi’s nose feels sour.  She grabs his arm suddenly, tiptoes and kisses his lips lightly.

The kiss ends the instant she touches his lips.

He looks downward at her with his deep eyes.

“You’re not afraid of others seeing?”

Now that he asks, Jin Xi realizes what she has just done.  She raises her head and looks around quickly.  Thank goodness no one is looking this way.  She lets out a breath of relief but says calmly, “There’s no helping it.  Sometimes my emotions will overcome my reasoning.”

Although she says this, she doesn’t dare to let her guard down again.  She takes a big step over to the side to increase the distance between them.  At the same time, she holds her head up and watches the others explore the area in front of them.

But she senses his gaze still fixed on her face after a while.  Therefore, she turns and looks at him.

“What?”

The sun is shining warmly today.  He’s wearing a gray jacket, making his face seem fairer accompanied by his rich dark brown eyes.  He glances at her and doesn’t answer.  Instead, he twists open the water bottle in his hand and takes a sip from it.

All of a sudden, it clicks.  Jin Xi says, “You’re craving for a smoke, aren’t you?  Endure it!”

Han Chen lowers the water bottle, “I’m not craving for a smoke.”

Jin Xi is stunned.  He glances at her again.  He lifts his arm suddenly and strokes across her lips with his thumb.

“I’m craving for this.”

Jin Xi’s face flushes.  She turns her head to the side, unable to chat with him further.

After a while, Qin Wen Long comes striding over, “Han Chen!  What have you found?”

Han Chen tosses his water bottle to Jin Xi like he’s done it a thousand times.  Jin Xi catches it naturally, twists it open and takes a sip from it.  She thinks in her heart: it’ll be hard to find a breakthrough point using traditional methods when it comes to this kind of impulsive serial killing case.  Nevertheless, she’ll wait and see what he says.

She hears Han Chen answer, “Jin Xi has a few conclusions.  I have two findings.  Additionally, there’s something missing at the scene.”