Sha Qing

Chapter 8: Interfector Rosa

None of the group members who participated in fight under the black walnut tree were caught; in the end, the matter was left unresolved and forgotten. Then again, the state university was plagued by another campus murder, so it was only natural that the university had no time to focus on some rather trivial school violations.

The focus of the students' attention wasn't Reggie anymore; rather, it was Quentin, the city sheriff's son who went through the troubles of serving as an unofficial spokesperson, using his identity to probe into the details of the case investigation and release it to the public little by little.

"The police had enough evidence to suspect this homicide is connected to the homicide that occurred in Forest Park five months ago. The murderer may be the same person."

"The scattered bouquet of roses found at the scene of murder in Forest Park and the rose petals left at this crime scene are both traces the murderer deliberately left behind—as you all know, many serial killers like leaving symbols unique to them either at the scene of the crime or on the victims, kind of like the 'Night Stalker', Richard Ramirez1, and his inverted pentagram."

"Serial? Yeah, only two victims have been discovered so far, and according to police standards, Interfector Rosa isn't yet qualified to be considered a serial killer. But as long as he isn't captured, he'll definitely strike again; the victim count will eventually reach three or more, and when that time comes, he can then be gloriously promoted [to a serial killer]."

"His main targets? According to the criminal profilers, the murderer has so far been targeting people of color as well as homosexuals. His manner of killing reflects his psychological disposition of hatred and anger; he's most likely extremely racist and homophobic."

"Speaking of which," one of the boys in the audience suddenly interrupted, "Didn't Clyde and Collin go at it yesterday? One of them being the murderer and the other being a victim, respectively, is quite fitting. Maybe they can shoot some sort of sadomasochism film where their hatred eventually grows into love. Now that'd be a hit."

At the gallows humour, the crowd hooted and roared endlessly.

Only Reggie scrunched his brows and scowled, grumbling to Li Biqing, "In Latin traditions, there's a superstition that one shouldn't mess around with death and talk rubbish about ill omens because it brings even more bad luck."

Li Biqing whispered back, "Our country also has a similar saying—what one says will come true2." He uttered the last phrase in Chinese. Reggie glanced at him; he seemed to have vaguely understood the meaning of the saying.

Facts proved that this wasn't merely an ominous premonition. Fourteen days after the homicide, another campus murder shocked the entire city of Portland.

The first person to discover the scene of murder was a girl who loved jogging in the mornings. As she was doing her usual morning run between the campus and the lakeside of Forest Park, she came across a body floating on the waters near the shore. Frightened by the sight, she immediately passed out. The police received the report and soon salvaged the corpse that was drifting in the lake overnight. After identifying the body, they found it was also a student who attended the state university.

In the morgue of the [Portland] City Police Department, Forensics Medical Examiner Doug retrieved a body bag from the freezer and placed it on top of the autopsy table. He pulled down the zipper, revealing the dead body of a young, red-haired male inside. A toe tag was attached to the corpse; the name of the deceased as well as the date of birth was written in black ink: "Collin Miravich, 05/01/19933."

"Poor kid. He just had his 20th birthday." Policewoman Amanda's eyes were red.

In the room stood two federal agents wearing FBI badges on their chests. A glamorous female agent with light golden curls, Thea, spoke to the gloomy-faced head officer, Terry. "This is the third victim—we now have reason to believe that Oregon may have another serial killer after the Nightmare."