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Case File 013
墨書 Inktalez
That night, a sudden downpour fell.
“Captain Shao, are you sure you want to find that kid?” A sharp voice echoed from the end of the corridor, mixed with the sound of rain pounding against the railing. “Are you certain it’s him? He’s a bit off in the head; otherwise, he wouldn’t have ended up in a mental hospital!”
The sound of polished shoes clicked along the corridor as a woman’s voice chimed in. “Wu Meng, he comes from a rough background and hasn’t attended police academy. He’s not a detective, yet he’s often chosen as an auxiliary officer to help solve cases. He has assisted in cracking quite a few major cases, but…”
“Only during one case,” Captain Shao interjected. “He arrested himself, believing he was the Murderer. In reality, the true Murderer is still at large.”
A nurse added, “He has Delusional Disorder.”
“Team Leader, do you think the real Murderer of that case could be…” the woman began.
“Hard to say,” Captain Shao replied. “Let’s go see this so-called exceptional auxiliary detective.”
Thus, the three of them appeared before me. I peered through the railing at the two men and one woman, scrutinizing them closely. The sharp-voiced one was a male nurse from the mental hospital, someone I had interacted with frequently. The other two were unfamiliar to me: a man in his forties and a woman nearing thirty.
“What case are we talking about?” I asked directly.
Captain Shao raised an eyebrow and glanced at me, seemingly pleased. “Mary, go handle the paperwork.”
“You’re deciding that quickly?” The nurse still couldn’t believe it.
Captain Shao looked at him and nodded. “The person I’m looking for is him.”
Midnight.
The summer rain came swiftly and left just as fast, yet it showed no signs of stopping. Captain Shao drove us—me and Mary—to the scene of the Murder Case. It seemed that the Murderer had deliberately chosen today; the heavy rain had nearly washed away all traces of evidence at the scene—except for one body.
In the Western Suburbs, there was a railway track. To prevent children from playing near it, barbed wire fences were erected on both sides. At the top of the fence, a woman's corpse hung limply. Her wrists were broken and twisted, forcibly embedded in the narrow gaps of the wire, preventing her body from falling.
Her abdomen had been ripped open, a large gaping hole exposing her viscera, which had been almost entirely removed, leaving only a thin layer of human skin. Due to gravity, her legs dangled precariously, nearly tearing the remaining skin apart. The body swayed in the fierce wind and rain, her shoes occasionally striking the wire with a sound reminiscent of footsteps. Under the dim glow of the streetlights on either side, it appeared eerily unnatural.
Looking up further, it was evident that her eyes had been gouged out, leaving only two dark hollow sockets.
The first to discover the body were two workers sent to repair a circuit. A sudden downpour had interrupted nearby wires, and fearing that they might hang over the railway and cause a disaster, they were dispatched to fix it despite the storm. When they arrived, it was pitch black.
In the impenetrable darkness, punctuated by booming thunder, their flashlights barely illuminated their surroundings. The two men could only inch along the barbed wire, checking the overhead lines inch by inch. Fortunately, the power had already been cut off, so they didn’t have to worry about electrocution in the rain.
Eventually, they found a broken wire hanging from the barbed fence, its end dangerously close to the railway but thankfully not entangled with the tracks. They pulled it free from the inside of the fence and prepared to report back to their supervisor.
At that moment, one worker asked, "Brother Liu, did you hear that? It sounds like someone is walking this way."
Brother Liu quickly shone his flashlight around but saw no one. He cursed under his breath, "Stop talking nonsense; who would be out here in this desolate place..."
But before he could finish his sentence, he too heard the distinct sound of footsteps amidst the rain—this was definitely not something made by raindrops. The ground was muddy; who could possibly make such a sound here? Was someone on the railway track?
Just as Brother Liu was about to shine his flashlight toward the railway track, a sudden flash of lightning interrupted him. He saw something at the top of the barbed wire not far away—a body swaying in the wind! Terrified, both men ran for nearly a kilometer before they finally reported it to the police.
Watching the still-panic-stricken duo, I wiped my face clean of rainwater. Even though I wore a raincoat, it did little to shield me from the torrential downpour. I crouched down to examine the area beneath the body—there were no bloodstains and no remnants of viscera.
More importantly, there were no footprints. In this muddy ground where each step left an imprint, there were surprisingly no footprints around the corpse.
The closest footprints belonged to the two workers themselves but were still four or five meters away. How had the murderer managed to hang the body on top of the barbed wire? After committing such a crime, how did they leave without a trace? And was this truly where the murder had taken place?
"Have you examined the scene?" Captain Shao asked. "I want someone to take down the body."
I nodded in response.
"Let Forensic take the body back for an autopsy..." Captain Shao looked at the corpse and added, "Although it seems the murderer has already performed an autopsy on it."
I frowned and voiced my confusion, "I remember, Captain Shao, you have a fiancée who is a remarkable forensic expert. The Ministry of Public Security even customized a toolkit for her to perform autopsies on-site. Why isn't she here?"
Captain Shao sighed, as if recalling something, and finally said, "This world still belongs to you young people. By then, that toolkit might be assigned to your team. But enough about that; how did you know who I am?"
"Captain Shao, along with a Mary," I glanced at the woman beside me carrying a backpack and said, "How could I not recognize such a well-known duo? But why do you need my help? I have Delusional Disorder."
Mary chimed in, "Self-Blame Delusion, also known as guilt delusion. Patients irrationally believe they have committed grave sins or mistakes and deserve punishment. However, you are different; as a former detective, your delusions are not baseless. You can imagine and find the murderer, deducing their methods as if these cases were indeed your doing."
I rubbed my head in confusion, "So those people weren't killed by me?"
Captain Shao interrupted Mary, "Don't tease him; we don't want him to have another episode. In any case, share your thoughts."
Having been in the psychiatric hospital for several months now, the monotony of daily life made me feel as though I had already died. I closed my eyes and pondered who the murderer could be amidst the thunder and lightning.
I hated women the most because I had been abandoned by one. This woman was pregnant with my child but chose not to give birth; she had an abortion and left me, calling me worthless. Since then, I had harbored hatred for all women. Indeed, I was worthless; I survived by scavenging garbage every day. Yet once given the chance, I would kill—kill women.
I needed to cut open her belly so she wouldn't bear me a son; I had to gouge out her eyes so she couldn't run off with someone else.
"The murderer is a homeless man around forty years old with long, dirty hair. He hardly has time or money for a haircut. He favors black clothing and has long fingernails." Opening my eyes, I spoke to everyone.
"How do you know all this?" Mary looked at me in disbelief.
"Imagination," I chuckled lightly before continuing, "I observed the corpse's abdomen; the wounds were jagged and clearly not made by a sharp instrument. If I were to deduce it, the murderer didn't use any tools—he used his own nails to tear open this woman's belly and then extracted all her viscera with his bare hands. After that, he gouged out her eyeballs."
Pausing for a moment, I continued, "And perhaps this was his best dinner. As a homeless man, he hardly has access to meat. The only meat he can eat is human flesh."
At this point, nearly all the police officers displayed expressions of shock and disgust. Indeed, anyone who imagined that scene would likely feel nauseous. On that dark rainy night, a figure squatted on the ground, relentlessly using his nails to tear apart a woman's corpse. With each flash of lightning illuminating his face, he was seen feasting on the viscera within her belly.
Captain Shao patted my shoulder and then addressed the others, "Find this homeless man throughout the city. If he's one of Homicide's, he won't be able to escape this city!"
"A cannibalistic homeless man," Captain Shao shook his head. "The rain has washed away too many traces. No, I should say there are almost no traces at the scene; otherwise, we wouldn't have brought you in. I see you've been in the psychiatric hospital for a while. If you help us crack this case, I'll get you out. What do you say?"
"I guarantee to complete the mission!" I quickly saluted.
The psychiatric hospital was certainly not where I belonged. Although my Self-Blame Delusion wasn't aggressive and I could go outside for fresh air every day, the people around me were either mentally ill or irritable nurses. Some stared at a rock all day, while others ate dirt... Of course, there were also twisted perverse murderers locked inside, but I had hardly interacted with them.
"That said," I sighed and told Captain Shao, "we still can't determine where the first crime scene is, nor do we know how the Murderer left."
"As long as we catch the homeless man, everything will be easier," Captain Shao replied.
As we spoke, a train's light approached from afar, rumbling as it sped past between two barbed wire fences. Captain Shao watched the passing train thoughtfully. The train, the barbed wire, the broken Wire, the vanished Footprints, and the cannibalistic Viscera of the homeless man—this case was intriguing.
"The Autopsy Report is out!" someone shouted at that moment.
"Bring it here!" Captain Shao called out.
A phone appeared in Captain Shao's hand. He furrowed his brow as he examined it closely. After a long moment, he spoke up, "This is the first crime scene. The woman died no more than two hours ago. It took us an hour to get here; the workers found the body and called the police at least thirty minutes later. So that means..."
"When they discovered the body!" I interjected, "the Murderer was still at the scene!"
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