Unlike most of his male colleagues, Ji Feng never thought women were delicate and troublesome (although Teacher Jian... cough). On the contrary, he believed that his female comrades had a special ability to spot problems in the details of life.
This was perhaps a gender trait, or a difference created by the social environment. But he was no sociologist, had no intention of getting to the bottom of it, and was content to know the score.
At this point, he very humbly asked for advice: "What's the problem?"
"They have two combs at home, one ordinary flat comb, and one cushioned comb," Jian Jing didn't beat around the bush, and carefully explained the intricacies, "The flat comb is used frequently, but it's not very curl-friendly. I basically don't use it. Nowadays girls all use cushioned combs, which can massage and are also good for curling hair."
Ji Feng glanced at her bluish-gray curly hair and nodded, "Then what?"
"Cushioned combs are hard to clean," Jian Jing said. "Hair gets tangled in the teeth and it's difficult to wash completely clean. There are always a few strands of broken hair left behind."
Ji Feng understood: "But their combs were very clean? Wait, did you say curly hair?"
Jian Jing nodded.
The two exchanged a look and immediately went to the security office.
The community surveillance kept recordings for 15 days. The security guard flipped through them for a while and recognized one of the people: "That's Mrs. Gong. She went back to her mother's home."
The video quality was a bit poor, the faces couldn't be clearly seen, but you could tell it was a wavy-haired woman in her forties, slender build, moving nimbly.
Jian Jing was already suspicious, and couldn't help asking: "How do you know? Did she tell you?"
The security guard answered: "Her husband said so. Went back to her mother's home, said to keep any packages for him to pick up when he gets off work."
"Hmm, do you remember when she 'went back home'? What day was it?" Ji Feng asked.
With so many residents coming and going in a community, security guards working shifts, who would pay special attention to a forty-something woman for no reason? Naturally he couldn't answer.
Jian Jing bought two baked sweet potatoes from a street vendor, handed them to the on-duty person, and casually asked while she was at it: "What kind of person is she?"
It's hard to bite the hand that feeds you, but on such a cold day, the piping hot baked sweet potato, even if not soft and sweet, warmed the hands. The young security guard hemmed and hawed, accepted it, and recalled: "Mrs. Gong is very generous. Sometimes when clients give her fruit or zongzi that she can't finish, she'll also give us some. But she has a temper, easily gets into arguments with people."
Jian Jing said: "Arguments that get fierce?"
The security guard scratched his face, not very comfortable staring at her, and nodded slightly: "Very fierce."
"Did she and her husband argue a lot?"
"What couple doesn't argue?" Another older security guard laughed. "As long as she doesn't get beaten, just let them argue."
After beating around the bush like this for a while, suspicions grew.
Ji Feng said: "It's pretty much a done deal."
Jian Jing was even more direct: "When will we get the results?"
"Tomorrow at the latest," Ji Feng promised.
Sure enough, after the lead was reported up the chain, people were sent to the university where Gong Lu's son was studying to collect DNA samples for testing. The next day, the results came out, matching the second corpse.
The ice corpse case finally got a big breakthrough.
As everyone knows, when a wife dies, the first suspect is always the husband.
But Director Zhu's performance was impeccable. As soon as he heard his wife had died, he looked shocked and denied it: "How could that be? I don't believe it, there must be some mistake!"
The police handed over the DNA report, and only then did he painfully grab his hair: "Impossible, how could this happen? She clearly went back to her mother's home!"
However, the police had to ask: "Did she call or message you these past few days?"
"No calls, just two WeChat messages saying everything was fine," Director Zhu repeatedly confirmed. "What happened? How could a perfectly healthy person just die like that?"
The police pulled up the WeChat conversation records, and there really were a few mundane exchanges, the last one late on the 4th, just asking if he'd eaten, if things were good at home, mentioning a package to pick up, nothing unusual at all.
They also searched the house.
This time, not just the combs were clean, every corner of the house was spotless, especially the bathroom, with only a bit of Director Zhu's broken hairs.
Director Zhu claimed he "loved cleanliness", "messy environments made him uncomfortable", and that he "just liked cleaning". Although the police were able to collect Gong Lu's hair from corners, they didn't find biological traces from the other two victims.
They also checked his car.
Unfortunately, it had just been thoroughly washed a few days prior. Moreover, the victims had all frozen to death, their faces and fingerprints destroyed from burning, leaving no blood stains, so luminol and such reagents were useless.
Things hit an impasse.
Without evidence, it really seemed like it wasn't him. Not to mention there were multiple victims, and Director Zhu had no grudges against the others. He had a happy childhood with both parents alive, a smooth life, and no signs of hating women in daily life.
Asking around at his workplace, no one had heard of him having any opinions on women's wavy hair. He had even complimented a colleague on getting a good perm.
Let alone disgraceful things like bedwetting, arson, or animal abuse.
In other words, not a hint of being a homicidal maniac.
Even Liang Yi started having doubts: "Could it really not be him?"
But Ji Feng was certain: "Things are never that coincidental." He listed off reasons: "What a coincidence that one of the victims just happens to be his wife, and he just happened to appear near the Everlasting dump site? And that his car just happened to get a thorough wash?"
Liang Yi thought about it, and also felt he had a point. But she was very annoyed: "How do we investigate next? Without evidence, do we detain him or let him go?"
Of course Ji Feng didn't want to let him go.
But detaining him was also impossible without cause.
"Giving the comrades in the police force extra trouble," whether he was truly wronged or just had exceptional psychological resilience, Director Zhu not only didn't resent it, but earnestly said, "You must catch my wife's murderer as quickly as possible. I really... sigh! Who could have expected my family to encounter such misfortune."
Liang Yi was so angry she nearly died, and asked Jian Jing out for hot pot to ask for ideas.
"I understand how you feel now," Liang Yi gritted her teeth. "If it were me, facing a bastard this slippery, I'd also hate not being able to take him down myself."
"Don't learn bad habits from Teacher Jian, okay?" Ji Feng heckled. "Think of the mess she caused last time. I nearly got disciplined!"
Liang Yi glared at him furiously: "I didn't ask you to come, what are you doing here?"
"Freeloading," he shamelessly admitted, glancing at Jian Jing biting her chopsticks. "Teacher Jian, go ahead and speak?"
Jian Jing set down her chopsticks: "Look at the times the bodies were discovered?"
Liang Yi jumped to answer: "The first on November 28th, Gong Lu the second on November 29th, the third on December 3rd, and Everlasting on December 7th."
Ji Feng supplemented: "Everlasting died the night of December 3rd. No one had seen Gong Lu after the 25th."
"What about time of death?"
"The temperature was low, there's margin of error in the autopsies, but the first and second were very close, around November 27th. The third was November 30th."
Jian Jing said: "Assuming Mr. Zhu is the killer..."
Ji Feng tutted, then shut up at her piercing look, making a "go on" gesture. She continued: "There are two possibilities. One, he was caught in the act by his wife while killing the first woman, and silenced her. Two, Gong Lu died first, and after her death, the killer conceived the idea of multiple murders to cover it up."
"Personally I feel the former is very unlikely. The first attempt is usually cautious, would he really bring the victim home? Considering how close the two victims' times of death are, the latter is completely possible."
Liang Yi nodded.
Ji Feng only said: "Makes sense."
"I remember it started cooling down on November 27th," Jian Jing pondered. "In my opinion, premeditated murder wouldn't use freezing as the method—Mr. Zhu is so meticulous, killing more people to cover up isn't the best plan, I'll grant it half an accident at most."
"Teacher Jian, your reasoning style could be called fiction-style deduction in the future," Ji Feng interrupted. "Making things up out of thin air."
Jian Jing gave him a baleful glare: "If you don't want to listen, scram. You think writing detective fiction is easy?"
"Listening, listening, please continue."
She continued: "Putting Gong Lu's body with the second victim reduces suspicion on him, but since he specifically chose women with the same wavy hair, he must have some understanding of criminal investigation, and knows autopsies exist. So he had to prepare the first scapegoat quickly, meaning..."
Liang Yi jumped in at this point: "You mean, look into the first victim's identity?"
"What did the autopsy report say?"
"Female, in her twenties, no children, had her appendix removed, fingers coated with pearlescent nail polish, nail dirt detected eyebrow pencil and mascara ingredients, food residues remaining in the digestive tract."
After reading it out, Liang Yi concluded: "Like a woman just out of a nightclub."
In the cold winter night, the most convenient women to find were only the drunk girls in bars. Their vigilance was relatively low, they might leave with a stranger, or they might have already completely lost consciousness and got picked up by the roadside.
The scope was greatly reduced.
Ji Feng called his colleagues to screen for missing women who met the conditions.
With an accurate time and last known location, finding the needle in the haystack would not be too difficult.
According to the clues of bar, nail polish, and young women, the police quickly identified a woman who met the criteria. Surname Tu, female, twenty-three years old, drank at a bar with friends, her friend got picked up by a handsome guy, and she went missing.
At first, when her friend couldn't contact her, she thought that she had gone to fool around with someone again, and just texted "something's up", so she didn't take it to heart.
It wasn't until the beginning of the month when the friend, who was also her roommate, called her to cough up the rent money, and she didn't answer the phone or send the money, that she finally realized something was wrong and chose to call the police.
It was just that the time she recounted was inaccurate, and had not been noticed before.
Now that the target was re-identified, her identity verified, relatives notified, and surveillance investigated.
As expected, the surveillance on the street beside the bar, captured the license plate number of Director Zhu's car.
Although he stated: "I had a fight with my wife, couldn't sleep, and went out to buy a pack of cigarettes."
But once or twice could be said to be a coincidence, but the third time still being so, only a ghost would believe he had nothing to do with it.
The task force locked onto him.
The tricky part was the lack of evidence.
The forensic technicians had practically turned his entire car inside out, but did not find any decisive clues.
"The crime scene was not at home or in the car." Ji Feng held a map in his hands, comparing it with the power outage range, "I don't believe I can't catch him."
Liang Yi glanced at him while hugging her coffee happily with narrowed eyes: "Jingjing, you're so good, this coffee is much better than instant coffee."
"You're welcome." The freelance novelist who brought the coffee helped himself around, "So this is the headquarters, it looks about the same."
It was unwise to compete with superiors, so Liang Yi anxiously called out: "Projector, projector."
Ji Feng projected the screen onto the big screen.
There were only some private houses, most of which were factories, and even quite a few abandoned plants.
Captain Wang said: "Go take a look at the scene."
Jian Jing said: "I brought dogs."
"Commandeered, commandeered." Ji Feng grabbed her arm, "Let's go, get in the car."
Liang Yi was unwilling to miss out, drank her coffee in three gulps: "I'm going too, wait for me."
Brother Zhao lamented: "Youth is great."
"You bet." Captain Wang stroked his beer belly wistfully.