Chapter 10

Chapter 10

This is a vacant piece of land in the countryside. It is off the beaten track.  A pile of old junk sits amongst the trees and overgrown grass.

    Bo Jinyan parks his car on the side of a dirt road and walks over. 

    The police are everywhere.  The place has been thoroughly searched.  There are pits on the ground.  One of them has two policemen standing next to it.  Bo Jinyan walks up and sees a huge black plastic bag next to the pit.  Further back, there are a few more similar looking bags, where the police are examining the content inside. They look very intense and at the same time, sad.  

    Jian Yao's heart sinks.

    Li walks up to Bo Jinyan: “The dismembered body parts belong to a total of eight boys.   Estimated time of death for the most recent body is around one week.  We need further testing to determine how long the other bodies have been there, but we think the earliest murder would have occurred more than 12 months ago.” 

    Bo Jinyan nods and starts walking towards the bags. 

    Jian Yao asks: “Can I stay here?”

  Both men look at her at the same time.

    Li sees her slightly pale face: “Why don’t you wait in the car?”

    Bo Jinyan keeps his hands in his coat pocket to keep warm.  He bents down slightly and looks at her at ‘eye level’: “Are you afraid?”

    Jian Yao softly replies: “I don’t want to see."

    Bo Jinyan says mockingly:”Ah! Woman!”

    Li is surprised at his comment.  Experience tells Jian Yao that there’s more to come.  Sure enough, she hears his voice that carries no feelings: "What a tragedy."

    Jian Yao looks at him: “Whatever. I do not want to see." And she turns away.

    Li is a little stunned by the way they relate to each other.  He takes a look at Jian Yao and walks on with Bo Jinyan. 

    -

    Bo Jinyan squats on the ground, He is looking through the items in the bag wearing a pair of gloves. Li squats next to him.

    The body parts are cut very neatly.  The surface of the cuts are tidy.  Skins are still intact. Each body is cut into seven pieces, including the limbs and torso.

    Li says "According to preliminary forensic test results: The cause of death is asphyxia.  There are bruises on their necks, caused by commonly available nylon strings.  The body is then cut into pieces.  We are unable to determine what tools were used for the dismembering.  Other than that, the victims suffer no other injuries."

   Another police officer asks:  “Professor, you said yesterday that the murderer’s desires will be reflected on the bodies.  So what does the murderer want?”

    Bo Jinyan points to the body parts: “Nothing else was done to them while they were alive or after they died.  No sexual assault. No torture or abuse. No blood. No poisoning. He did not take any organ …… The murderer had only one purpose - to kill and dismember."

    Li looked at the corpses.  He always thought the teenagers might have suffered from sexual assault before they died. But that weren’t the case.

    Another policeman asks: "Do you mean… that he abducted those teenager just to kill them? He is not trying to take revenge on society?"

    Bo Jinyan smiles: "True psychopaths do not care about the community.  They do it because they feel they need to, not to take revenge.”

    That police is surprised at the answer. Li also raises his eyebrows to look at him.

    Bo Jinyan stands up, looks towards the direction of the farmers market: "Since he does not play other tricks, the case is reasonably straight forward.  We need to identify what tools he used to dismember the victims, and the method and sequence of how he did it.  Once we have that information, we can find the guy. "

    -

    Jian Yao has waited in the car for quite a while.  Bo Jinyan has not returned.  A young policeman walks up to her and says” Miss Jian, Professor Bo has left.  He asked me to pass on this message to you - Drive back to the villa and wait there.” 

  Jian Yao:  "Where did he go?"

    The young police replies: “He said he needed to buy something, but he didn’t tell us where he was going."

    ——

    Midnight.  Jian Yao is awakened by some abnormal noise outside.

    She put on her coat and slippers.  

    The sound is not coming from Bo Jinyan bedroom, but a room she’s never been in.  It’s at the end of the hallway.

    She knocks on the door.   "Come in."

   She can smell blood when she walks in. 

 The room is fitted with extremely bright lights.  The room is very big.  There’s no ornament on any of the walls.     

   Bo Jinyan is wearing a medical jumpsuit, complete with surgical masks and cap.  

This whole scene reminds her of the movie "Resident Evil".

   On top of a rectangular stainless steel table  lies a naked man’s body.  Motionless. Behind him, there are five or six more of these table, each with a body on it. 

    Bo Jinyan looks at her:”Now that you are awake. Give me a hand.”

  

    "What are you doing?" Jian Yao asks.

    Bo Jinyan is moving something that resembles a cabinet that is approximately 80cm high, with movable wheels on the bottom.  He places it next to the corpse on the table.  There are a few blades attached to the side of the cabinet.  Jian Yao looks closer at the design.  They look like guillotines. He leisurely replies: “Real dead body, human models, computer simulations.... I need to experiment with all of them to determine the tools, processes and methodologies of how the killer mutilated his victims.”

    Jian Yao asks: "Is there not a forensic room in the headquarters?   Why do we need to conduct our own experiments?”

    Bo Jinyan adjusts the angles of the blades: “By the time we get approval for a forensic corpse, our murderer will have had his hands on a few more little guys."

    Jian Yao points at the body on the table: "...... Where did this come from?"

    “Fu Ziyu." He goes around to the other side of the body, turns around and looks at her, “Come. Hold the blade for me."

    Jian Yao looks at him for a few seconds:"Sorry, I can’t do this. I can help you to call a policeman."

    She turns around to walk away.  She hears a deep voice from behind: “To investigate a case but refusing to look at the corpse, is like closing your eyes in front of the truth.” 

    Jian Yao pauses for a moment.  She decides to walk out.

The low deep voice again: ”He may still be alive."

    Jian Yao turns and looks at him: “He?"

  

    Jian Yao knows who he is referring to.  Lao Xiao’s son.  The last body found at the scene died a week ago.  Lao’s son has been missing for only four days. 

    Jian Yao whispers: "? Do you think you could bring him back?”

    Bo Jinyan is still staring at the guillotine.   Without looking up, he replies: “I am saving him now."

    -

    Jian Yao leaves the “morgue”.  She returns to the bedroom and lies down for a while, She looks outside the window into the deep darkness.  After a deep breath, she washes her face and heads towards where Bo Jinyan is. 

    Bo Jinyan lifts his eyes.  He has a smile on his face - as if he is convinced that she will be back.

    Jian Yao put on the  "resident evil costume”.  She walks over to the other side of Bo Jinyan to keep the blades steady, as per his earlier request.  

    Bo Jinyan: "Keep steady.  I am starting the experiment now."

    As the blade is speeding down towards the body, Jian Yao closes her eyes.  She hears a loud crash.  She can imagine how it would look like if her eyes were open.

    Bo Jinyan asks: "What are you afraid of? He won’t move."

    Jian Yao keeps her eyes tightly closed: "Bo Jinyan !  Can you just tell me what I need to do next and say nothing else?”

    -

    At 3am, all the "experiments" are done.

    Bo Jinyan says he needs a few hours for the computer simulation programme to come up with the calculations.   Jian Yao immediately takes off  her terribly soiled clothes, goes back to the room to bathe.

    After her shower, she lies in bed.  She stares at the ceiling.  It’s hard to wipe off the disturbing images that keep emerging in her mind.  Even though she had her eyes closed for most of the time during the experiments, there were instances where she inevitably had to open them to complete some tasks.

It’s hard to go to sleep.  She gets up.  She notices the door of one of the rooms is open.  The one with the study table and the white board.  Light is coming out from that room.  She walks in. 

Bo Jinyan is sitting on the sofa, reading. There is a cup of coffee and a plate of smoked salmon fillet on the side table.  He takes a look at her and continues to read.

    She grabs a book from the shelve, sits down beside him and starts reading.  

  Nobody knows how much time has passed.  

    "Good night." Bo Jinyan says.

   Jian Yao: "Good night.” 

    After he leaves the room, Jian Yao gets out too. Just as she is about to fall asleep in her bed, she hears a loud knock outside the door.  

    She runs to open the door, but is surprised that no one is there.  She hears Bo Jinyan’s room door being closed.  Puzzled, she closes her door and walks back to bed.  But her feet knock onto something.  A black object has made its way into her room.  “Chen Mo” is crawling slowly towards her bed.

    -

    When Jian Yao wakes up again, the sun is hanging high in the sky. The warm rays resting on the wooden floor boards.     Chen Mo is enjoying the sun bath, heads and limbs stretched out from its shell.

    Jian Yao gets out of bed. She kneels down in front of the tortoise. She looks at it for a moment and strokes its shell. The shy tortoise tucks its head and limbs back into its shell.  

The ‘morgue" door is open.  She knows Bo Jinyan is in there. 

    By the time Jian Yao comes out of the bathroom, Chen Mo is no longer in her room.  It is slowly crawling back to Bo Jinyan’s room.

    -

    Inside the ‘morgue’, Bo Jinyan is no longer in a jumpsuit.  He is in his usual black suit, with his back to her, looking outside the window.  The table with the corpse is no longer there. 

    Bo Jinyan turns to look at her.

    Jian Yao: "Thank you for the tortoise."

    Bo Jinyan smiles.  He speaks about something totally unrelated: ”He dreamt of being a killing machine."

    Then he moves aside.  Jian Yao sees what is previously covered by his body that’s between him and the window.  

    It’s a modified “guillotine”, with three blades all lined up together.  Bo Jinyan raises his hand to push down the handle.  All three blade came down at once.

    Bo Jinyan looks proud.

    "According to the experimental data last night ......" He takes off his gloves, throws them aside: "This thickness, this material, would create a wound that closely resembles the ones we found on the bodies. Yes, three knives falling simultaneously onto frozen blood and body.  As you know, no one can use three knifes at the same time."

    Jian Yao: “So… you mean..?”

    "I mean - the killer’s home has a machine similar to this.  He lures his victim home, so that they will become sacrifices under his killer machine.  But of course, his machine will be in all ways inferior to mine.” 

   As if she is infected by the passion in his voice,  Jian Yao’s heart starts to pound and become excited: “Large blades like these are restricted items.  They are only stocked in special stores. You can’t buy it over the internet.   They are not allowed in long distance buses and trains.  If we check with the shops that sell these blades,  we should be able to track him down quite easily.”

    Bo Jinyan sits down next to his killer machine.  Picks up a cup of coffee and takes a graceful sip:” You are not too dumb after all.  With the intelligence level of our murderer, he would have wasted many blades before he could make a machine that is barely comparable to mine. 

 Let’s get to work.  Inform your boyfriend.  I will give them a detailed and accurate description of who they are looking for.  Fingers crossed, we will also win back a child."