All the puzzles were solved, but I never expected the later developments. When we interrogated Guo Dafu again, upon hearing his wife's confession, he became so agitated that he almost ripped off his handcuffs. If we hadn't held him down with all our might, he would have gone completely mad.
He let out a roar to the heavens: "You wretched woman, you utter fool! The plan could have succeeded, what were you afraid of? Don't you know that one cannot achieve great things without ruthlessness? Everything I have is ruined because of your cowardice!"
I sneered and revealed the truth: "Actually, we could have caught you no matter where you ran that day. Your fate would have been the same as it is now. Why do you blame your wife? Is this how you treat each other?"
"We haven't been a couple for a long time. If I had known this would happen, we should have divorced sooner. Alas..."
I ignored his grumbling. There was no point in talking to him any further. Soon, the couple was sentenced, and this bizarre case finally reached its conclusion.
But one night, after they were sentenced, while I was fast asleep in my dormitory, He Xin suddenly knocked on my door. I knew she wouldn't be so rude usually, especially since Liu Yuning and I were sleeping together.
We were both startled awake by her voice outside: "Dad, Captain Liu, I just received a notification. There's been another murder at the Blue Moon Bar. Gao Mingqiang is on the scene and said it's another dismemberment case, and this time, the body parts were found in the toilet bowl!"
"What? It seems there are others besides that couple. I already asked them, but they weren't clear about anything."
"They were probably being deliberately vague. It's no use. Their ringleaders have been caught, yet they still dare to commit crimes. We'll have to clean them up slowly."
As we spoke, we were already changing into our clothes and rushing out of the room, following He Xin from our home. We immediately drove towards the crime scene.
Blue Moon Bar, I had visited it once when I was a student, but not since I started working. Given the nature of my job, I couldn't come to places like this without a mission. Because of the murder, everyone from the bar had come out. Many police officers and detectives had sealed off the scene. Before I went in, an officer told me the body was in the public restroom on the far left.
Before we entered the scene, the forensic team had already arrived. I watched Zhang Keying and Xie Chuchu retrieve body parts from the toilet bowl, piece by piece.
The air was thick with the stench of decomposition and bodily fluids, making it unbearable. Many officers ran to other restrooms to vomit.
However, many body parts seemed to be lodged deep inside, and no matter how they tried, they couldn't retrieve them. I went behind them, took a pair of forceps from a nearby officer, and carefully helped to extract them. When that didn't work, we had no choice but to smash the toilet.
Under the visually stimulating cascade of murky substances, we finally separated all the body parts. Many people at the scene collected the foul matter for laboratory analysis. Following the method from last time, I began to piece the body parts together with the forensic team. This time, what we pieced together was a child, looking no older than about 10 years old.
In fact, when we were collecting the body parts earlier, I had already suspected something. I felt that the deceased's body structure was small, and I had estimated their age, but I hadn't expected them to be so young.
"This time, the killer didn't even spare a child. The cut surfaces of the body parts appear very clean, similar to the previous cases. It must be them!" Zhang Keying analyzed.
"The two we caught were the masterminds, but the actual perpetrators were those working under them, right?" Liu Yuning said.
"Exactly. We don't know how many of these people there are. We can only break them down one by one. I think this case might escalate to the scale of the 'death livestream' from before."
As soon as I said this, everyone gasped, as none of us wanted to encounter another case as troublesome as that.
This time, the body parts were not subjected to further in-depth examination. After searching the restroom and other areas, we found many footprints and fingerprints, but those were likely left by customers. Gao Mingqiang took photos of everything to be compared later. Xia Hou went to retrieve the surveillance footage. Following our usual investigation procedure, after gathering evidence, I walked out of the bar. The cramped space and the foul smell inside had truly made me uncomfortable.
Stepping outside, I immediately felt how fresh and natural the air was. I looked up at the night sky. At that moment, Liu Yuning came out and told me, "There are too many traces to collect at the scene, and it's difficult to sort them out right away."
"Forget about that for now. Have you done any interviews? There should be witnesses in the bar, right? Many people go in and out of there, especially the cleaners, who would have entered the restroom more often."
"I've asked. The person who found the body parts was a maintenance worker. Didn't you notice? There was a sign in front of the restroom door: 'Undergoing repairs, please do not enter.'"
"Oh, I remember now. No wonder it took so long to find. The killer must have known there was something wrong with this restroom. He's very familiar with the bar. Could he be a staff member here? Of course, he could also be a regular customer."
"Xiao Yuande is questioning all the staff."
I turned to see him coming out with some people, including the bar owner.
An old man in casual wear was anxiously telling Xiao Yuande about the bar's situation, saying that everything here had always been normal and he had no idea why that scoundrel would dump body parts here. He was both angry and nervous, worried about how his bar would be affected.
The owner was just complaining incessantly, showing no signs of being able to provide any clues. After a period of investigation by Liu Yuning, no eyewitnesses were found. I decided to return first to examine the body and determine the time of death. Then, by checking the surveillance footage, we might find something useful.
Back at the provincial department, our routine examination revealed that the child's corpse spots had appeared for five days. However, the body was only discovered today. Perhaps it was because of the notice posted in front of the restroom, which discouraged anyone from entering. But the maintenance worker had to go in, didn't he?
I had considered this problem during the autopsy. Without being able to identify the deceased, I had to ask for the maintenance worker to be found again. It turned out that he had been on sick leave for the past few days and only came to do repairs today, unexpectedly finding the body parts in the toilet.
This person had been to our provincial department before. I had observed his micro-expressions carefully and found no signs of him lying. He had no reason to lie. It was clear that we confirmed he had never been to this bar before. If it weren't for the old man, he would never have come here.