S.C.I Mystery Series (SCI 谜案集) - Er Ya (耳雅)

1.3

Chapter 3: The Mysterious Number

In the conference room, after everyone settled down in their own seats, Bai Yutang left it to Gongsun to briefly introduce the case.

"Does everyone still remember the case that was covered a few months ago, about a stolen taxi that hit and caused several consecutive deaths?" Gongsun went straight to the main issue.

"You're talking about the case with five dead and three injured?" Zhang Long recalled. "Wasn't the perpetrator already caught?

"It was a man in his fifties, and his mental state wasn't very normal, right?" Wang Zhao added.

"Yes," Gongsun nodded. "This murder case was directly assigned to the Traffics unit, so it probably didn't reach the hands of you guys, right?"

"That's right." Bai Yutang nodded his head. "What's the matter, is there an issue with this case?"

"Everyone take a look at these pictures..." Gongsun said and reached to take out a stack of photos, spreading them in front of everyone. "These are the photos of the corpses of the victims that were killed."

Everyone in the room picked up a photo to look, only to see that every picture taken focused on the back of the year of the corpses. All contained a small yet clear blue number that read 7, 12, 19, 30, 42 consecutively. Every corpse had its unique number.

Bai Yutang's eyebrows wrinkled: "They were numbered?"

Gonsun replied that there is something even more strange. Then, he took out more than ten more photos. "I have a friend that works as a makeup artist for the funeral home, and he recently discovered a strange phenomenon. There are numerous people that have died in traffic accidents, and all of the back of their ears were marked by unique numbers. He is a very meticulous person, so once he noticed an oddity he immediately made written copies and took pictures. He gave these to me a few days ago, and the most recent entry was three days ago."

"Three days ago?" Everyone said in astonishment.

"Wasn't that perverted driver already arrested a month ago?" Zhao Hu was surprised.

"The person that was arrested is most likely not the real culprit!" Zhan Zhao pensively suggested.

"I agree!" Gongsun nodded. "All victims were all sent directly from the hospital to the coroner's office, and in fact, two of them weren't even brought into the hospital at all. Plus I've checked; these numbers resemble tattoos, but they weren't recently tattooed on the victims."

Bai Yutang lined up the photos and said, "If these numbers were connected, not counting the victims that weren't found, the death count would have came up to be 20 people."

Gongsun drew out another photo. "Look at this person!"

Everyone looked over. It was one of the victims that were numbered and brought to the funeral home--the number read 23.

Gongsun opened the folder of documents and said, "His name is Chen Siliang! He died just last week, and this was the second time that he was involved in a car accident."

Jiang Ping looked over the document and incredulously said, "He's one of the injured in the case with the perverted driver?"

"That other driver did not kill him. Then this was a death caused by an unintentional car accident? Then why was he numbered..." Ma Han swept through his hair, his expression in disbelief.

"What do you think?" Bai Yutang remained silent for a moment, then he asked Zhan Zhao, who was also silent next to him.

Zhan Zhao's slender fingers lightly tapped against his knee, a habit that comes out whenever he's thinking. "Predict who's going to be murdered next, or record the information of the people that were killed."

Bai Yutang nodded his head, and thought for a while before ordering, " Gongsun, tell Lu Fang to go contact the victims' family, and reexamine the bodies one more time! Wang Zhao, Ma Han, go investigate why these people were involved in car accidents, what their last treatments in the hospital were, their doctors, their causes of death, the more detailed the better! Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, go organize information related to the victims' relationships, enemies, occupations, and see if there are any similarities. Jiang Ping, look up all the locations where the accidents were caused, the situation regarding the car that caused the accident, I want detailed documentation about every single victim! Xu Qing, go visit different tattoo parlors to investigate about these numbers, and find Han Zhang later to inform him everything about today's meeting. Now I have to go find an enthusiast at the funeral home, then I will go have a little chat with that perverted driver. Everyone, split up and head to work!"

"Understood!" Everyone disappeared within half a minute, busy with their own tasks. Bai Yutang gathered all the photos together and stood up.

Cough. Cough. Zhan Zhao still sat next to the table and coughed twice, glancing at the latter.

After he was done with reorganizing the pile of documents, Bai Yutang grabbed his coat, and gestured with a very respectful "please, go first" posture. "Let us be on our way...Expert!"

Zhan Zhao stood up, pleased. He snatched the car keys from Bai Yutang's hand. "I'll drive." He then exited.

"Hey!" Bai Yutang chased after him as he put on his coat. "Cat! Don't you dare touch my car! You are a killer on the road!"

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W: I'll probably just try to finish the entire first case tmr (Not sure though but it's quite a lot)...It's better to read all in one go in my opinion. ╮(￣▽￣"")╭