Chapter 188 - 140: Prepare for the Arrest! Use a Thief to Catch a Thief

Who was behind him?

A few people.

Huang Song, Sima Li, Li Xue, and Chen Song.

None of the four were under fifty. They’d been locked up in prison for at least ten years. Now, back in the outside world and seeing all the new things, their eyes were filled with confusion.

"They’ll be useful later."

Xu Huo said, offering a perfunctory reply.

Then, he asked:

"While I was in Penglai City, did a sixth victim turn up in Linlan City?"

Qian Hua was about to say no, but the word died in his throat.

"Captain, he’s lost it! That son of a bitch is starting to target people who’ve never been convicted!"

"The sixth victim..."

"Has appeared!"

The piercing voice from the walkie-talkie made everyone’s pupils contract. Their hearts leaped into their throats.

Xu Huo’s heart sank.

He had just gotten back, and already the sixth victim had appeared.

"Where’s the scene?!"

"The Urban Management Bureau!"

...

...

"The sixth victim is named Zhao Shikang, a local. Six years ago, he was on the same team as the Zhao Family, but he wasn’t directly involved in the conflict back then."

"The cause of death was brutal. His hands were chopped off, and his mouth and nose were stuffed with money."

"During the search, the police discovered multiple assets of unknown origin at the scene."

"The value of these items is estimated to be around five hundred thousand."

December 5th.

3:00 PM.

Xu Huo stood at the perimeter of the sixth crime scene, smoking a cigarette as he stared at the gruesome sight.

The victim had been hanged in his office.

His hands were hacked off while he was still alive. The cut surfaces, with their bone, sinew, and flesh, were clearly visible.

One end of a hemp rope was tied to the ceiling fan above.

The other was fastened around Zhao Shikang’s neck. He hung suspended in the air, blood still dripping from his wrists.

And the location of the crime...

"Inside the Urban Management Bureau."

"He’s insane. He’s not even sparing people who haven’t been convicted. Now he’s breaking into an office building to kill someone!"

Qian Hua’s face was grim as he surveyed the scene.

Xu Huo said nothing. He looked deeper into the crime scene.

Besides being hung in the air, the body’s mouth was also stuffed with paper money.

So were its nostrils, ear canals, and even its eye sockets. It was as if the killer had opened his Skull Cap to stuff money inside and it was now overflowing.

Other than that, there were no signs of a struggle. The killer was in excellent physical condition and must have subdued the victim with a single blow.

Various cards were also scattered on the floor.

Xu Huo picked one up. Two words were written on it.

[Shopping Card]

There were also gas cards and a series of other cards. It was hard to tell how many there were at a glance, scattered on the ground and floating in the pools of blood.

"Damn, a bottle of liquor like that must cost a few hundred..."

"What are these cards? A single one of these is worth several hundred too?!"

"Why are there little gold fish too? Isn’t that something Gold Miners do? Was this dead guy a Gold Miner? Doesn’t look like it..."

The men Xu Huo had brought craned their necks, their faces a mixture of astonishment as they looked at the bundles of cash and gold that had been dug out from hidden spots.

A Gold Miner was a prospector. There were many of them among those who ventured into the northeast back in the day. In underworld slang, "Gold Miner" referred to a ruthless, devil-may-care character.

Huang Song was a death row inmate who had gone to prison thirty years ago.

Back then, in the 70s, a family becoming a "ten-thousand-yuan household" was an event the whole town leadership would celebrate.

Now, upon his release, he stared at the bundles of cash with a look of utter confusion.

He had been sentenced to death for stealing a few hundred thousand.

’How is it that in just thirty years, some urban management officer is even more crooked than me?!’

Huang Song didn’t get it, but he was profoundly shaken.

"Where did all the money come from?"

Xu Huo frowned, turning to look at Qian Hua.

"We don’t know. It currently seems that back when he was just a contract worker, he started using orders from his superiors to enrich himself."

Qian Hua shook his head and said in a low voice.

The vast majority of urban management officers aren’t public officials, but actual contract workers.

These days, you could even think of them as security guards.

It makes sense when you think about it. Nowadays, not even all police officers are civil servants, let alone urban management officers.

There are a lot of them, their quality varies, and their files are incomplete. It’s hard to catch all the ones who are lining their own pockets...

"A squadron leader, and he dared to skim this much?!"

Ever since Li Jianye had arrived, the corner of his eye had been twitching nonstop.

’Damn, just in his office, there’s five hundred thousand yuan worth of stuff...’

’I’m a Major Crimes Division Captain, a Section Chief, countless ranks higher than him, and I just get that measly fixed salary every month. I can only build up some savings from the occasional case bonus...’

"Six years ago..."

"Just how many things happened?!"

"Two lives?"

Xu Huo’s expression darkened as he stared intently at Qian Hua.

"Six people are dead already!"

"Next it’ll be the seventh, the eighth, maybe even the ninth!"

Qian Hua felt a major headache coming on. He had only just taken office back then.

A little further back, and he was just a beat cop. How could he have had the power to manage these things?

"These kinds of conflicts are hard to investigate. The killer’s gone mad. Even if it was just a minor incident back then, he’s willing to kill over it now."

"He’s bold enough to sneak into a crowd and brutally murder his target in the morning. God knows if it’s over something trivial or a capital offense," Qian Hua said bitterly.

"Six people..." Li Jianye ignored him.

"How many people is he going to kill?"

As he spoke, he looked back over his shoulder.

All the urban management officers were being urgently screened, standing in the courtyard.

"He can’t be planning to kill this whole bunch!"

There were good and bad urban management officers, but the killer’s actions made it hard not to suspect that he was now too insane to tell the difference.

And.

"Isn’t he short on money?"

Li Jianye suddenly spoke up, looking at the police officers processing the scene inside the office.

He glanced again at the body, at the shredded money and the little gold fish that had been laid out, and asked hesitantly:

"Then why..."

"Didn’t he take any of this money?"

That’s right. The killer was desperate for money.

So much so that he was even willing to take time out from his killing spree to commit burglaries in wealthy neighborhoods, later selling the stolen goods.

So.

Why didn’t he take Zhao Shikang’s five hundred thousand?

"Heh, he wants you to investigate,"

Huang Song suddenly chuckled, and he and the other old-timers pointed to the traces of the killer’s search.

"When our kind wants to burglarize a place, we make sure the scene looks exactly the same after we’re done as it did before. We only take the valuables."

"That way, the victim probably won’t even know what’s missing. Even if they do, they’ll just think they misplaced it."

"How could he possibly leave traces everywhere like this?"

The police followed these traces and found the money Zhao Shikang had hidden.

It was obvious the killer had found the money but hadn’t taken a single cent.

It was almost as if he was feeding clues to the police.

"He’s saying that he’ll do the job you guys can’t."

"If he hadn’t shown up, this guy’s corruption would never have been exposed. You’re all just useless mouths to feed."

Huang Song chuckled, mocking them without a hint of fear.

The other old thieves couldn’t help but snicker as well.

Qian Hua’s face burned with humiliation.

"These four... what exactly did you bring them here for?" Qian Hua asked Xu Huo, confused.

"What for?"

"To investigate and solve the case, of course."

"Cops and criminals are like a cat chasing a mouse. Since ancient times, one flees and one pursues. But..."

Xu Huo spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping over the four old men.

The old men felt a strange sense of fear and lowered their heads with awkward smiles.

"A cat, after all, is not a mouse. It can only rely on its sense of smell, on the tracks the mouse leaves behind, to make a catch."

"But another mouse would be different."

"A mouse knows where the other mouse holes are. It knows the safest escape routes, and it understands the habits of other mice."

"It’s the same with thieves."

"No one understands a thief better than another thief!"

Xu Huo said slowly.

"So, you mean..."

Li Jianye paused, a look of astonishment spreading across his face.

"The roles of offense and defense have been reversed. The police have all his information, and as long as we have enough information, arresting someone is just a matter of time!"

"Captain Qian, are you interested in watching a show..."

"Where we set a thief to catch a thief?!"

No one knows how to deal with the police better than a thief.

By the same token...

No one knows how to catch a thief better than another thief!

Now, the killer was about to face the combined pursuit of four Thief Kings from the 1970s!

And, standing by, the entire police force of Linlan City, forming a dragnet so tight not even a fly could get through!

"Get ready..."

As all the previous information swirled in his mind, Xu Huo thought of Chen Chen and uttered two words.

"Arrest him!"