Pristine Darkness Chapter 17

The female officer was asking about those missing girls, “Where could they be now?”

Fang Qing and Jian Yao both turned to look at Bo Jinyan. There was a moment of silence before Bo Jinyan gave his answer, “He collects similar types that can easily be replaced by another, as opposed to the exact same type. The interval of every case is equal, all for more than a year. And towards more recent years, that rate has gone up. Under usual circ.u.mstances, a newer replacement is only necessary when a old toy breaks.”

Fang Qing downed his beer in a single gulp, and coldly said, “I must catch this pervert and bring him to justice!”

——

However, while the ident.i.ty of the victim(s) had been determined, how the criminal had evaded policy detection had also been determined, and even the criminal seemed to be right in front of their eyes, it was difficult to find further evidence.

Despite having looked over all of the case casebooks, phoning the officers that had been in charge of the cases at the time, they still could not find any clues in the Ancient City. Fang Qing was sitting in his office, at his wits’ end, when Bo Jinyan walked in. He stood to the side with a mysterious smile.

Fang Qing didn’t bother facing him, “You have something for me?”

Bo Jinyan blandly replied, “Looks like you’ve forgotten everything I’ve said so far. When the traditional ways of criminal investigation fail to bring in results, criminal psychology will step forward bravely.”

Fang Qing suddenly lifted his head to look at him. “You have an idea?”

“Ha” Bo Jinyan scoffed a bit, “When have I ever… been as lost as you?”

Fang Qing was speechless.

Within the s.p.a.cious meeting room, Fang Qing, Jian Yao and a few important officers were the only ones present. Bo Jinyan stood in front of the white board in his crisp suit with one hand in his pocket and the other hand holding a marker. Despite having provided a seemingly endless number of deductions, this was still his first time giving a formal presentation to the officers of the Ancient City.

“Our evidence suggests that Yao Yuange has a connection between two of these missing persons cases. But, there is no direct evidence that points at him being the perpetrator. So, we cannot disregard the other suspects. For the moment we can call our perpetrator,

Suspect A.

Suspect A’s most intense desire is to collect young, beautiful, but weak girls. This reflects his possessive personality. For this reason, we can conclude that Suspect A would always be the dominant one in male-female relations.h.i.+ps. It’s more than likely that he’s had a lack of faith in male-female relations.h.i.+ps in his younger days. This definitely correlates to the environment he grew up in as a child. He’s either come from a troubled household, or has been subjected to….some sort of trauma? On account of the earliest case happening in 2008, we can pinpoint that Suspect A is currently a male of at least 30 years of age.

With how meticulously these abductions were carried out, we can deduce that Suspect A and his Accomplice B must have picked and surveilled the victim for a good amount of time beforehand.

First of all, where do they find their targets?

All of the victims were tourists, so places they’d frequently visit were none other than the tourist attractions – the walls of the Ancient City, bars, restaurants, and inns. Yet this location must allow for A and B to have enough time to observe the victim, and even allow for  interaction. Because A and B would often appear in these places, they would also not attract the attention of others. So, this location would not be a single-visit tourist attraction, it also would not be the streets of the Ancient City where one would meander aimlessly, and the victims also did not live at the same inn, so the most possible place would be a bar, a cafe, or a restaurant. A and B frequent this place, to the point where being an employee would be a possibility.

Second of all, where could the they carry out the crime?

The personalities of these girls tend to be introverted, but did not live anywhere remote or far. There are people everywhere in the Ancient City, so the likelihood of a violent kidnapping is very small, and it would be very difficult not to leave any traces. So the abduction site should be rather remote, on a road that people rarely pay attention to. Furthermore, the person who carries out the abduction should be B and not A. B is female, and owns a car. No matter what, they cannot ascertain that the victim would be willing to get into the car

car of a man that she had only known for a few days, and this is especially true since the victims are introverted girls. But if it was a female, it would be a lot easier to gain their trust.

The relations.h.i.+p between A and B must be extremely intimate – they are husband and wife, lovers, or relatives. A has an independent place of living, to be able to easily take care of the victim.  The victim went missing one or two days before buying a bus or boat ticket. Because the longer the time between the kidnapping and the buying of the ticket, the more likely the police would discover the flaws in their plan. And with the economic status of the victims, the inns they lived in were cheap, management was lax, so even if someone disappeared without notice, no one would pay attention.

As to why the bodies of the victims hadn’t been discovered, they are either being stored in the house of A, or abandoned in a fixed location. This location is uninhabited, or on a piece of private property.”

After Bo Jinyan finished, everyone was silent.

After a while, an officer let out a breath and said, “My gos.h.!.+ Every single detail points to Yao Yuange.” He flipped through the notes in his hand. “He turned 48 this year,  and one of his five wives could definitely have been an accomplice. His main wife, Ming Lan, owns a bar in a flouris.h.i.+ng area. She also drives a black Audi.”

“Yes,” Bo Jinyan lightly smiled. “Although we cannot eliminate the possibility of others having committed the crime, for now we can consider Yao Yuange and Ming Lan as our main suspects.”

“Then where should we start?” An officer asked. “As of now, we don’t have enough evidence, we still cannot get a warrant to search the Yao house.”

“Investigate Ming Lan!” Fang Qing said coldly, “Investigate her car!”

“Yes,” Bo Jinyan said, “Normally, tourists stay for not more than 4 or 5 days in the Ancient City. We should start with the cases of the last two victims, Zhu Fanglin and Ning Qianrui, because these two incidents happened more recently, so there will be more surveillance camera recordings, and the records will be more complete. According to the boat ticket and bus ticket dates, look ahead 3 to 6 days, investigate Ming Lan’s car’s trail, especially in remote areas

remote areas that are still within the city streets’ surveillance cameras. There is no such thing as a perfect crime, there must be a trace somewhere. Look for scenes that involve interactions between her and our victims.”

“That’s quite a bit of work,” an officer muttered, “let’s get started right away.” Fang Qing nodded.

But Bo Jinyan said at this time, “Why do you guys need to waste your effort on that? I can just give this type of work to my people to do. Jian Yao, give An Yan a call. Since the team doesn’t have any cases at the moment, he’d be wasting his time anyways. We should just give him some work to do.”

——

The phone call between Jian Yao and An Yan was very simple and short. Because An Yan was at the other end of the phone, his was voice m.u.f.fled, and he didn’t seem fully awake yet.

But Jian Yao was already used to this. For an IT guy who stayed home most of the time, this was normal.

“An Yan, the details of the case has already been sent to you.”

“Ok.”

“Jinyan hopes that you can find…” Jian Yao made the request.

“Mmm, ok.”

“Is it a bit too difficult?” Jian Yao asked very considerately.

“No.” he blandly answered.

“Oh… so when can you give us the results?” she asked again.

“Dunno,” he responded, “I’ll send it to you guys when I’m done.”

“Alright, thanks for your hard work. If there isn’t anything else, shall I hang up?”

“Sister-in-law, bring me back some of Ancient City’s peach blossom biscuits. I like the sweeter kind,” he said.

“Oh, alright.”

After hanging up the phone, Jian Yao looked at Bo Jinyan who was sitting across from her. There was only the two of them in the office, and he was holding the files, flipping and looking through them.

Jian Yao was sprawled on the table, looking at him.

Just like that, he had spun silk from coc.o.o.ns* again; through a few words, he had found the shortcut to the truth from behind thick fog.

*T/N抽丝剥茧 literally spun silk from coc.o.o.ns i.e. he had made painstaking investigations

“When I’m investigating a case, I am used to taking the shortcut, you have to get used to it and keep up with me.”

When they first got to know each other, he carried with him a sense of self-satisfaction when he spoke with her. Even now, she could still remember it as if it was if it was yesterday.

“When the traditional ways of criminal investigation can do nothing, criminal psychology will step forward bravely.”

His simple words could cause her blood to race, her eyes to be br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears – she was extremely moved.

Under the light, his jet black hair was like a floating cloud, his collared s.h.i.+rt spotlessly white. His handsome and fair face was just like before. For the most part, he was quiet and peaceful, it was only when it was just the two of them that he would talk a lot. But when they were investigating a case, or he was looking at data, his words to her would be less.

But she felt that this kind of him was the world’s best Bo Jinyan.

“Why are you staring at me?” he asked quietly, without lifting his head.

“No reason in particular,” she replied.

But he put down the file, gazed at her for a while, then suddenly stretched his head over, and gave her a peck on the lips.

“When I am examining a case, don’t use that emotional gaze to look at me. I can feel it, and my body and mind will not be at peace. Then my judgement will be affected as well.”

It was only after a while that Jian Yao finally realized the implication behind “my body and mind will not be at peace”, and her face heated up. And he ended up just taking a large gulp of the cold tea, lightly smiling, seemingly lost in thought. He walked up to the window with his back to her, and continued to look at the files.

An Yan sent the results over in the evening.

When Fang Qing and the officers finished looking at it, they were filled with a frenzy of joy, rejuvenation, and chilliness in their chest. They not only wanted to laugh loudly with delight but also to swear loudly.

“Apply for a warrant immediately!” Fang Qing roared, “Go to the Yao residence.”

In the screenshots that An Yan sent over, there were clear shots of Ming Lan’s license plate. On roads where there were very little pedestrians, the side of her face could be seen from the car’s window, smiling and chatting with victim number 4 from the roadside, Zhu Fanglin.

In the car she was driving on the road, the camera at an intersection captured victim number 5, Ning Qianrui, sitting in the pa.s.senger seat.