Did his wife grow tired of him, then? To seek excitement elsewhere to fill the void in his heart?
Ye He covered his face, grappling with these painful questions. Though he remained silent, I could already guess his thoughts. For any other man, such a situation would elicit an even more agitated response, without exception.
At the time, if a miniature camera hadn't been discovered in the room, exposing the affair, this matter might never have come to light. This time, we had Xiao Yuan De to thank.
After calming down, Ye He finally spoke again, "Have you still not found any other body parts of my wife?"
"No, the killer's method this time is different. He's not telling us the location of the body parts through video or photos anymore."
As I spoke, I briefly described the situations of the previous two victims. Ye He was, understandably, terrified, his body trembling as he asked, "Will I become the killer's next target?"
This was a possibility, not entirely out of the question. I asked Ye He, "You're not a member of the S&M club, are you?"
"Officer He, what do you mean? Of course not. If you don't believe me, you can verify. My name is not on the list!"
"Oh? How do you know about that list?"
"I mean, there's definitely no information about me there. Don't misunderstand!" The more Ye He tried to explain, the more I felt he was hiding something. But why would he do that?
I immediately had someone investigate his business trip. A client did confirm that Ye He was with him at the time. Additionally, after some inquiries, Xia Hou confirmed that Ye He was not a member of the S&M club.
However, something still felt off. I wanted to meet the client. Liu Yu Ning sent someone to find this man, Tang Da Rong, the boss of Gao Gang City Television Media Company. He said Ye He had come to discuss a project with him.
"Was he with you the entire time? Did you notice him leaving at any point?"
"On the day of the incident, we discussed the project from around 9 AM to 7 PM. There were breaks for meals and rest. During those times, I didn't see him."
"And during those times you didn't see him, how long was it, approximately?"
"About an hour!"
I recalled that it took two hours to travel between Guang Ming City and Gao Gang City. During the review, Xie Chu Chu told me the victim died around dusk, at 6 PM. If Ye He were the killer, he wouldn't have had enough time.
I went to the surveillance room and checked the company's security footage. It showed that Ye He had never left; he was lying on a sofa in a lounge room the entire time.
I had initially suspected he might have had a motive for murder, driven by rage upon discovering his wife's secret. But now, it seemed unlikely he was involved.
After I left Gao Gang City and returned to the provincial department, Teng Yan Rou's body parts had still not been found. I went to the forensic department, intending to re-examine the degree of decomposition of the victim. This was crucial in determining if the killer had tampered with the time of death.
However, after processing tissue samples from the head and conducting blood tests, I found no signs that the head had been treated with preservatives.
In other words, the time of death was accurate. Unless Ye He possessed the ability to split himself, he couldn't have committed the murder.
Thus, we had to explore other avenues. I instructed Xia Hou, Liu Yu Ning, and others to investigate Teng Yan Rou's other relationships. Recently, we discovered that the S&M club had ceased operations, and its members had been dispersed. But I knew that such secret establishments would surely continue to exist elsewhere, we just hadn't found them.
We had investigated the hotel maintenance worker lead. The hotel staff claimed there was no such employee. This person was indeed a suspect, but we lost track of him later.
For now, we had to investigate other possibilities. We eventually arrived at the design company where Teng Yan Rou worked. She was a senior designer at a clothing design firm and held a relatively high social status. This was a commonality with the previous victim, Fu Yong Yuan, but not so much with Quan Ying Zhen from the orchard.
The only connection they shared was having entered the S&M club.
The company appeared to be of a decent scale. After some inquiries, we found Teng Yan Rou's supervisor, Manager Huang. She told us that before Teng Yan Rou's disappearance, she had requested leave. Did this mean she herself anticipated something bad was about to happen?
This made us even more suspicious. Upon verifying the dates of her leave request, which coincided with the victim's incident, I believed Teng Yan Rou must have received some warning or threat. I went to her workspace, and together with Xia Hou, we began a thorough search. Indeed, in her desk drawer, we found a letter. Nowadays, whenever I find such letters, a sense of unease washes over me, having received too many threats over the years.
Seeing an envelope now could instantly trigger my anxiety. However, no matter how great the pressure, I had to open it. With Xia Hou's help, we both opened it, revealing a blood-stained letter.
The letter contained words written in what appeared to be blood: "Teng Yan Rou, it's time. Time for you to repay your debt. What originally belonged to me will always be mine. You took it, and the only outcome is death. Just wait and see. I've already got my eye on you!"
These few lines exuded an aura of intense killing intent and coldness. I didn't know if these were indeed bloodstains. If so, whose blood was it?
If I were to receive such a threatening letter, with a guilty conscience, I would surely be heavily influenced psychologically. The words also revealed that they had taken something that belonged to the killer. Was this the reason for the killer's revenge? What was that something?
It must have been extremely important to the killer, otherwise, he wouldn't have resorted to murder. However, it could also be a person, or perhaps they had harmed someone important to the killer.
This visit had yielded some clues. I felt that by investigating Teng Yan Rou's activities after she requested leave, prior to her murder, we might find a breakthrough.
Before we left, Xia Hou and I interviewed more of Teng Yan Rou's colleagues. However, their relationship with her was strictly professional, just ordinary colleagues. According to them, Teng Yan Rou was usually a polite and generous woman with a strong career ambition. Little did they know that she indulged in S&M in private.