Tracking Down

100 Pui To Road, Tuen Mun Police Station.

"...Then he asked if I'd called home to let them know I was safe, so I hurried to the convenience store to make a call. When I came back, he was gone.

Madam, he really was a good person. That taxi driver was the pervert. If he hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened. I'm so tired. I've told you everything you asked several times already. It's dark now. Can we go?"

In an office at the station, Liang Xiuxin was half sprawled across the desk, her chin resting on her hands. Her pretty face was full of exhaustion as she gave her statement to a middle-aged policewoman seated across from her.

"About what time was that?"

Officer Bo looked at the girl, who was no more than sixteen or seventeen, put down her pen, and asked for the time again without the slightest sympathy.

"I don't know." Liang Xiuxin shook her head. "I waited at the convenience store for a long time. It was probably almost seven when my daddy drove over to pick me up."

"Officer, I remember getting to that convenience store at around seven to pick up my daughter."

From the bench behind Liang Xiuxin, the middle-aged man with deep forehead lines hurried forward from among the decently dressed couple. "At first, I didn't know what had happened, and she wouldn't tell me. You know how it is—when a girl gets this old, there are some things a father shouldn't ask about. We didn't find out what happened until we got home. Then I went back to work, while her mummy, who's a nurse, came home after her night shift and asked our daughter about it. She called me, and since it was such a serious matter, we hurried over to report it..."

"Enough, enough. I wasn't asking you."

Officer Bo impatiently waved him off as he leaned over the desk and rambled on.

At that moment, a young man who had been standing in the corner of the room suddenly got up and handed a sketch to Officer Bo. "Sister Bo, it's finished."

Officer Bo took the sketch, gave it a quick glance, then passed it to the drained-looking Liang Xiuxin slumped over the desk. "Take a look. Does he look like this?"

Looking at the portrait, Liang Xiuxin seemed to perk up a little. She tilted her head slightly and studied it. "...His nose should be a little straighter, and his eyes a little bigger. Just a little..."

"Wait a moment. I'll revise it."

After hearing Liang Xiuxin's comments, the young man took the sketch back and began making alterations with a scratch-scratch of his pencil.

Before long, the slightly revised composite sketch was handed back to Officer Bo.

"How about this one? Look carefully. Are there any other distinguishing features?" Officer Bo placed the sketch before Liang Xiuxin again, a trace of impatience in her voice.

"More or less." Liang Xiuxin looked at the revised composite sketch and pursed her lips. "It just doesn't have that person's aura."

"It's a composite sketch. What did you expect, a posed photo shoot?"

Officer Bo could not help defending the drawing after Liang Xiuxin criticized it. Then she turned to the young composite artist and thanked him. "Thanks for your hard work, junior."

"You're welcome. I'll get back to work, then." The young man smiled, rose, and opened the office door.

Just then, someone outside pushed the door open and entered.

"Inspector Li Ying!"

The young composite artist who was about to leave cried out excitedly the instant he saw the newcomer.

The man who entered was the same detective who had appeared on Green Dragon Street that morning—dressed in a casual suit, with a languid air and the charm of a handsome middle-aged man.

"What? Do we know each other?" Li Ying, standing at the doorway, looked at the young man before him in surprise.

"You don't remember me? I'm Ah Le. You saved me before." The young man was visibly excited. "I'm a police officer now too. I make composite sketches for the station."

"Oh, really? Keep up the good work."

Li Ying patted him on the shoulder and smiled casually. "We'll have tea sometime."

"Sure. I'll get back to work first." It was as though the composite artist named Ah Le had just received recognition from his idol. Filled with fighting spirit, he left the interrogation room.

"Officer Li!" Seeing Li Ying enter, Officer Bo stood and greeted him.

Li Ying casually swept his gaze over the interrogation room, then asked Officer Bo, "Bo, what's going on? It's already evening, and you're still keeping the complainants here?"

"Officer Li—"

Officer Bo pulled Officer Li outside the interrogation room and handed him the statement and a rough portrait. "They came here to report a case, but I think there are still a lot of doubts. In the girl's statement, she says one moment that she was tied up in the trunk and didn't see the fight at the scene. Then she says this man let her go, that he looked seriously injured and was limping, yet he still supported the other person and even had her go to the convenience store to buy things for him. These statements seem reasonable, but Officer Li—"

Officer Bo drew out her words slightly, her brows furrowing. "The forensic team's report says the deceased suffered a violent impact to the chest and abdomen. His bones shattered and pierced inward into his organs, causing massive internal bleeding. That's simply impossible."

"Not necessarily." Li Ying casually flipped through the statement and composite sketch in his hand, then handed them back to Officer Bo with a smile. "There are always things in this world beyond your imagination. All right, I don't see any problem. Let the victim who reported the case go home first."

"But Officer Li—"

Officer Bo still wanted to argue when hurried footsteps sounded outside the interrogation room.

King Kong, another member of their team, rushed in through the door.

"Officer Li, Bull just called the station. They found many women's limbs and organs made into specimens, as well as a lot of photographs, at the home of the victimized taxi driver, Lin Guoyu."

9:30 p.m.

The public swimming pool in Sham Shui Po Park was still brightly lit.

As one of Sham Shui Po's three public swimming pools, it was open every day from six in the morning until ten at night.

It was also an open-air pool, where visitors could see the night view of countless lit-up high-rises around them. It was considered a fairly good public leisure spot on Hong Kong Island.

"Sweetie, don't disturb other people. Sorry, sir."

In a waist-deep paddling pool beside the main pool and diving pool, a fair-skinned middle-aged woman in a backless one-piece swimsuit pulled a boy playing in the water away from Yang Chu. She smiled apologetically at Yang Chu, then nudged the boy toward the edge of the pool. "All right, it's time for us to go."

"I still want to play!" the boy protested unhappily.

"It's getting late. You have school tomorrow, and the pool will be closing soon. We'll come again next time." The woman tugged the boy along as she made the promise to soothe him.

Leaning against one corner of the paddling pool, Yang Chu watched the mother and son leave. Then he glanced at the steadily thinning crowd in the pool and slowly closed his eyes.

He had entered the swimming pool properly, after buying a ticket for seventeen Hong Kong dollars and spending another five on a pair of swim trunks.

At first, Yang Chu had been in the deep-water area of the main pool, but after choking on water twice, he had moved to this shallow paddling pool.

Earlier, because there had been so many people, even though he stayed in a corner of the pool, quite a few people still passed by him.

Now that closing time was approaching and few people remained in the pool, Yang Chu could finally further attempt the "sleep experiment" he had envisioned.