Chapter 77 - 76: Important Conjecture! The Madam

The murderer had somehow lured the male victim to Zhang Family Town.

Furthermore, in his final moments, the victim was completely off guard, suggesting he had a degree of trust in the other person...

The two men paused and exchanged a look.

Then, without a moment’s hesitation, they rushed to the funeral home.

"Have the first body recovered from the corpse well ready!"

Xu Huo hastily radioed ahead as they ran.

A moment later, a voice came back over the radio.

"It’s ready."

After some time, the two of them arrived at the funeral home.

As for why the bodies were sent to a funeral home...

The police department didn’t have its own forensic examination room, autopsy room, or lab.

After all, such facilities were rarely used throughout the year. Maintaining them—daily sanitation, equipment, and so on—all cost money. That money would have to be spent whether the rooms were used or not, which was like throwing it down the drain. It wasn’t an expense a single squad, or even a small city district, could afford.

Besides, they didn’t even have a forensic examiner. Even in his past life, recruiting forensic science students required trickery and deception, and even then, there weren’t enough staff to fully cover every city district.

Linlan City wasn’t small, but it was still developing. Such an expense was unnecessary when they could just partner with a funeral home instead. It had been the same way in his past life.

"Where’s the body?!"

A moment later, the two of them burst into the funeral home. Wang Hu, gasping for breath, demanded to know.

Xu Huo, on the other hand, was unfazed. He’d been conditioned by the military police who chased him in his dreams.

"Follow me."

Qian Hua quickly led the way.

Moments later, he pushed open the door to the cold storage room, and a blast of frigid, bone-chilling air swept over them.

In the center of the room was a gurney, its contents covered by a white sheet.

Without hesitating, Xu Huo ripped the sheet away.

The long-decayed, ice-cold corpse of a man lay before them.

Xu Huo’s eyes were fixed on the wounds—the area on the front of the abdomen that had been stabbed multiple times.

"This is bad. The wounds are too decomposed. We can’t determine the state the victim was in when he died..."

Wang Hu’s heart sank at the sight.

Xu Huo leaned over the corpse, carefully examining the area around the wounds.

He studied it for a long while but found no useful information.

What were they looking for?

They needed to know the victim’s appearance and clothing before death!

The force of the stab marks, the shape of the wounds, the sharpness of the cut, whether any fabric from clothing remained inside—all these things could be specifically investigated.

But that required the body to be at least vaguely human-shaped, and the wounds to be undecayed...

This body before them had been decomposing for nearly a year and a half. The wounds were long past the point of investigation.

Even a forensic examiner would just shake their head at this!

As for what use that information was... it was crucial!

But as it stood, making any judgments from the wounds was impossible.

However...

Xu Huo mused for a moment, his brow furrowed, then he looked at Qian Sheng, who was standing to the side.

"Before you started recovery, when you first arrived at the crime scene, did you take any photos looking down into the well?"

"Yes!"

Qian Sheng nodded eagerly, then beckoned over a Police Officer and took the photos from his hands.

Xu Huo observed them carefully for a moment before speaking:

"Are these the only clothes on all the bodies?"

Clothes?

Wang Hu froze, instinctively looking down at the pictures.

He saw that the bodies in the photos were wearing simple clothes—a button-down shirt, or maybe a T-shirt.

It wasn’t just the first victim recovered; the second and third were the same.

"The estimated time of death for the first victim is one year and four months ago."

"The second, one year and four and a half months ago."

"The third, one year and five and a half months ago."

"Not to mention the fourth and fifth."

Xu Huo’s brow was tight as he muttered to himself.

"Let’s reason with the third victim. One year and five and a half months ago would be May. Factoring in the police’s margin of error for the time of death, the body could have died as early as mid-April."

"At that time of year... wearing just a single shirt?"

Everyone paused, then a look of understanding dawned on them as they quickly thought it through.

"That’s not right. Even though April is close to June, the weather is still quite cool. Some people might go out wearing just a single shirt, but it’s impossible that every single one of them did!"

"And even if they really were all killed in April wearing just a shirt, that doesn’t explain the other bodies."

Wang Hu pointed at the photos from the scene, where the recovery was proceeding at a snail’s pace.

"The last few bodies recovered, or the ones still in the well, must have died in the dead of winter!"

"But the victims are still only wearing button-downs, thermal underwear, or T-shirts. That doesn’t make any sense."

"Where did the victims’ clothes go?"

As he said this, the others paused and began to ponder, only to be interrupted by Xu Huo.

"Where they went isn’t important. What’s important is *why* the clothes were taken off."

Judging from these few bodies, which were the best-preserved of the lot, the knife was used after their clothes were removed.

In other words, the murderer took off the victims’ clothes and then killed them.

So...

What did that imply?

The victims were all male, unguarded before death, undressed, and lured...

Vaguely, a single idea surfaced in everyone’s mind at once.

"Soliciting a prostitute?!"

Wang Hu and the others froze, their brows furrowing.

"The murderer is a woman?!"

"No, there were no signs of a struggle at the scene, and it was a single killing blow. A man had to be involved."

"A man and a woman?"

Wang Hu and the others fell into deep thought.

In a one-on-one situation, even if a man was caught off guard, if the first stab wasn’t immediately fatal, there was a high probability he would fight back, disarm his attacker, and kill them instead.

Adrenaline is no joke.

If a stab isn’t fatal, the victim gains an immunity to pain, a boost in strength, and their stamina is pushed to the limit, all while they fly into a rage.

In such a state, it’s like a final, desperate burst of energy. Even an ordinary man might not be able to overpower them, let alone a woman.

Even if they got lucky once, how could they pull it off so perfectly a second time, a third time, with so many victims?

"Men. At least one man and one woman, or possibly multiple men," Xu Huo said after a moment of thought.

"Residents of Zhang Family Town?" Qian Hua guessed, raising an eyebrow.

"Heh, locals from Zhang Family Town, at the very least!"

Wang Hu added, "They’ve been committing these crimes for years. The locals must have known about them."

"But the problem is... where are the locals who knew them?" Xu Huo asked.

Wang Hu fell silent. After the demolitions, some residents had taken the money and moved elsewhere, while others moved into resettlement housing. All in all, the population had been scattered to the winds. Finding them wouldn’t be easy.

But...

"Do you remember the defining trait of the Lower Nine Professions?"

Xu Huo suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence.

The others were taken aback.

What was the trait of the Lower Nine Professions?

"They stick together!" Xu Huo said with certainty.

That’s their so-called characteristic. Porters, the Boat Gang, prostitutes—these weren’t jobs you could just decide to do on your own.

Take the Beggar Gang, for instance. If you suddenly showed up and started begging, you would most likely be driven out by the local beggars.

And not the kind of "please leave" eviction, either. We’re talking about being beaten and kicked out, with a real chance of being beaten to death.

By the same token, you couldn’t survive in these kinds of professions without authorization from the local gang, or without joining them.

That even applied to prostitutes.

Think of those alleys where a bunch of prostitutes suddenly appear out of nowhere. These days, there’s a high chance someone’s managing them.

In later years, that wouldn’t fly. They’d be caught in a heartbeat. Besides, that kind of low-end, unsecured work would be replaced by those who traveled all over the country or worked in clubs.

As for why the clubs didn’t bother with the ones in the alleys... there were probably three reasons: class, the law, and price.

The quality, class, and price of the clubs couldn’t be affected by the alleys. The high-end and low-end markets are two different beasts; they don’t interfere with each other.

Of course, that might not apply in ’03. This was an era of irrational, savage expansion.

But generally speaking... you couldn’t survive without a gang.

Not even as a prostitute!

"Zhang Family Town was a gang. The male murderers are there, the gang *is* Zhang Family Town. But the town’s residents have been scattered for too long to track down."

"But the prostitute gangs wouldn’t be!"

Xu Huo stated confidently, "It’s like two paths leading to the same destination. The Zhang Family Town path is blocked, but the prostitute path is open!"

"As long as we find the prostitute gang, we can get leads on the specific prostitute from them. Then we can use that second path to target and arrest the murderer’s gang!"

As for whether such a gang even existed...

There’s a saying that goes...

When you hear about a place to make money from someone else, it’s almost certain that they’re just trying to make money off of you.

By the same token, in a country this densely populated, you should never assume you’re the first to discover something. It’s highly likely that countless others have tried it before you.

The same goes for spots where prostitutes sell their services.

Out-of-towners meant money. People without money wouldn’t come to a tourist city like Linlan City.

Therefore, they were most likely operating in a place where they could solicit out-of-towners.

"The train station?!"

Qian Hua said after a moment’s thought.

"And the airport," Wang Hu added. "People who travel by plane versus by train tend to have different statuses and financial reserves. If the target is wealthy out-of-towners, the airport is a more likely spot than the train station."

"However, judging by the victims’ clothing that we recovered, the airport is unlikely."

Xu Huo thought for a moment and settled on the train station.

The brand and price of the clothes, as well as the aesthetic standards of the wealthy, all had to be considered. The victims didn’t fit that profile.

Of course, you couldn’t say that everyone who flew in this day and age was rich.

But at the very least, they were better off.

"Head to the areas around the train station and bus station!"

With the tasks assigned, the men immediately split into three groups and headed to their designated locations.

Wang Hu was in charge of the crime scene, while Qian Hua and Xu Huo went toward the train station and other areas.

The train station, the bus station.

The areas around these two places were utterly chaotic, a real free-for-all.

Legitimate businesses, illegitimate ones, scams, and swindles were everywhere.

Then there were the hotels and guesthouses; their people swarmed the station entrances these days.

Unlike in his past life, where people were kept back and only solicited outside, here the exit was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people holding all sorts of signs.

The air was filled with the sounds of megaphones.

"Ten yuan a night! Special hotel discount, ten yuan a night!"

"Roast duck! Anyone want roast duck? Delicious and affordable, you can’t go wrong!"

"Hey, young man, where you headed? I’ll take you. Listen, you won’t find a taxi outside... Your luggage is all set. Let’s go, let’s go."

"..."

As soon as they neared the train station exit, a wave of boisterous chaos washed over them.

Qian Hua frowned, feeling a little helpless as he looked at the swarming crowd.

There were just too many people, so many that it was impossible to screen them all right away.

However, it wouldn’t be that hard to find what they were looking for.

The people most familiar with these prostitutes were, first, the Madams, and third, the police. As for who was second...

CLICK!

Xu Huo got into a taxi waiting at the station entrance. He looked at the driver with a smile on his face.

"Driver, around here..."

"Are there any places to... have a little fun?"