Linhai City Public Security Bureau. Third basement level. High-security interrogation room.
There were no windows.
Soundproof foam covered all four walls. A powerful spotlight shone directly onto the interrogation chair.
Shrimp was strapped tight to a chair made of solid steel.
Heavy shackles clamped his wrists and ankles. He squinted against the glaring light, but an outrageously cocky sneer hung on his lips.
Chen Lei sat behind the desk, his face expressionless.
The black diary seized from the meatpacking plant lay on the desktop.
A green light came on above the speaker in the corner. A synthesized voice sounded.
"Name." L's voice was utterly flat.
Shrimp spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the floor. He stared at the one-way glass.
"Kira. I am the god of the new world!" Shrimp shouted in a hoarse voice.
"You mortals.
You have no idea who you've arrested. There are a hundred thousand believers out there watching me!"
Chen Lei opened the diary on the desk. The pages rustled. The densely packed names were chilling.
"Two hundred and sixty-one lives." Chen Lei looked up, his gaze icy.
"Twelve countries, halfway around the world. How did you do it?"
Shrimp threw back his head and laughed wildly. His shackles clattered loudly against the chair.
"Does a god need to explain to mortals how he kills?" The flesh on Shrimp's face quivered.
"You think this lousy chair can hold me? All I have to do is think about it.
Every one of you will suffer cardiac paralysis. You'll all die!"
Chen Lei stared at Shrimp for a second, then closed the diary and stood.
Chen Lei walked to the corner and pressed the red switch on the surveillance equipment. The indicator light went out.
The camera stopped recording.
"What are you doing?" Shrimp's laughter caught in his throat.
Chen Lei took off his police uniform jacket.
He draped it over the back of his chair, then picked up the eight-hundred-page criminal code from the desk. With his other hand, he drew a rubber police baton from behind his waist.
"You wouldn't listen when we asked nicely." Chen Lei walked up to the interrogation chair and placed the thick law book against Shrimp's chest.
"You just had to make us use the Great Memory Recovery Technique."
Shrimp's eyes widened. Before he could speak-
Shrimp's psychological defenses collapsed completely. Tears and snot mingled and ran into his mouth. He shook his head frantically.
"I'll talk! I'll confess to everything!" Shrimp screamed, his voice choked with sobs.
Chen Lei tossed aside the baton and removed the law book.
He walked back behind the desk and pressed the surveillance switch. The red light came on.
"Tell us how you did it." Chen Lei sat down.
Shrimp gasped for breath. His whole body trembled violently.
"That notebook... all you have to do is write a name in it and picture that person's face.
That person will die. The cause of death is cardiac paralysis."
The interrogation room fell deathly silent.
Chen Lei said nothing. Neither did L over the speaker.
"It's true! I swear!" Shrimp grew frantic.
He was afraid Chen Lei would turn off the surveillance again.
"I'm not lying to you! I found it in mailbox number two at the meatpacking plant.
It was inside a brown paper bag, with the rules written in English!"
Static crackled through the speaker.
"Have you checked the surveillance footage around mailbox number two?"
L asked.
"We have.
It's a surveillance blind spot. No physical evidence was left behind," Chen Lei answered.
L fell silent for two seconds. "Officer Chen, open that diary.
Turn to the binding. Examine it with a high-powered magnifying glass."
Chen Lei pulled open a drawer and took out a forensic magnifying glass. He opened the diary under the bright light and leaned closer.
The edges of the pages were uneven, with minute traces of glue where they had been reattached.
The binding holes did not align perfectly with the pages.
"This is an ordinary, commercially available notebook." L's voice was utterly rational.
"The pages were torn out of something else and glued into this notebook. This is merely a vessel."
Shrimp sat stunned in the chair. He had never noticed any of those details.
"Kira is an extremely cautious and highly intelligent criminal," L continued his analysis. "He would never hand the real murder weapon directly to an idiot who could lose control at any moment.
That means this weapon can be divided into portions and used separately."
Chen Lei looked up. "You mean the real Kira is still out there?"
"Shrimp is nothing more than a decoy pushed into the spotlight.
A fall guy." L issued his instructions.
Before you continue