Criminal Investigation Notes: Chapter 10

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With the recent discovery following the Major Crimes Unit’s report, the municipal police expanded the search area, and investigated the abandoned vehicles in the whole city one by one. What the police did not expect was that they found more than that in the abandoned car, there were also some drugs, illegal wild animals, etc.

There was little monitoring around the abandoned cars, which made them highly secretive. You could open the car as long as you obtained the car key. No real connection was required. It was much safer to conduct transactions than those lockers in public places.

Some urban abandoned cars had long been used as express boxes by some criminals, forming a complete chain of underground black market transactions.

With this evidence, Huadu centralized the disposal of urban abandoned cars and uprooted the entire underground black market.

Lu Junchi had been very busy lately. He needed to work with other departments to continue investigating the black market of abandoned cars, while following up the progress of the dismemberment case.

According to the traces of coffee powder in the broken finger and the age and sex of the victims, the police began to focus on the employees of some coffee shops.

The identities of the victims were confirmed one after the other.

All three victims were once service personnel in coffee shops. Before their disappearance, they lived alone in low-cost rental houses. They all used their mobile phones to send the store managers a message that their family members were seriously ill and applied for resignation.

Among the lower level migrant workers, there was a lot of mobility, and such resignation through messages was not uncommon.

Most store managers were angry at this kind of thing. They needed to find a new person to take charge of the shift immediately. Generally, when they found that the other person had turned off or hung up, they would not continue to ask questions.

Young, low education, low income, living alone, most of them are from other places, and they are highly mobile. Such characteristics of the victims resulted in no or few missing reports.

So after the disappearance of the three girls, only one coffee shop chose to report the disappearance. One of the victims' families reported the disappearance at the local municipal bureau after they could not contact the girl. Another girl disappeared for several months, and nobody even bothered with her. Even her landlord directly packed up her things and rented the apartment to others before the lease term expired.

When the serious case team investigated and asked why they hadn’t called the police, the other party said righteously: "I received a message saying she had to return home urgently. Who would have imagined it was bogus?"

As it had been quite some time since the first two cases, leaving few clues, Lu Junchi began to investigate the third case.

The owner of the hand, Tong Xiao, was a 24-year-old clerk in the west area of a chain coffee shop in Huadu. She hadn't gone to work since a month ago.

On the fifth day after the discovery of the stump, Lu Junchi came to the coffee shop to investigate the situation on site, in addition to obtaining information from the monitoring..

According to the judgment of the members of the Major Crimes Unit, the murderer probably came to the coffee shop to survey the site in advance, and also observed Tong Xiao while there. The coffee shop had installed surveillance, but the monitoring data was huge. They had no idea when the murderer visited.

With the help of the store manager, he exported several G's surveillance videos. Qiao Ze grabbed his notebook and found a table in the corner to quickly skim over the videos. The other criminal police were assigned different tasks, some to collect evidence, and some to conduct inquiries.

The case seemed to have made great progress, but the investigation was still not smooth, especially the issue of multiple suspects, which had led the whole case into a *dense fog.

Show/Hide Note

Lit: Dense fog - Fig: completely misleading.

As Lu Junchi was thinking about what to do next, he looked out through the French windows of the coffee shop and saw a familiar figure.

It was the teacher, Su Hui.

At this time, Su Hui was standing on the opposite side of the road. It seemed that he wanted to cross the road. The traffic was surging. He looked ahead, but seemed a little at a loss…


Su Hui looked back at the street in front of him, and suddenly felt that everything around him had become strange.

Su Hui vaguely knew that he wanted to go across the street, but he couldn't remember what to do.

The sounds around him gradually faded away like a tide. He stepped out on one foot and felt like he was floating. He felt that his entire being was suspended in water.

There was a trumpet sound in his ear, but the sound was not real. It was muffled by a layer of water or ice.

Then Su Hui felt that he had been pulled back to the roadside, and his wrist was grasped painfully. He was suddenly stuck to a person and felt a bit warm.

A car suddenly passed him at a very fast speed. Su Hui realized that if he stood where he had been, he would have been hit by the car.

Su Hui turned around and looked at the man who pulled him back. It was Lu Junchi.

They were really connected by fate...

Su Hui forced a smile and said:"Thank you, I just..." He paused and thought about how to explain to ordinary people that he suddenly got lost in a familiar street. Then he said, "I was a little absent-minded just now."

Lu Junchi was still a little scared, but he could not read fear in Su Hui's face, only remained indifferent *as always. He said, "You're welcome, but you'd better be careful next time."

Lu Junchi thought that he would not always appear by Su Hui's side by such a coincidence. What would he do if he was in danger alone next time?

Show/Hide Note

Lit: Just as in the past (idiom) - Fig: continue as always; as before

Su Hui followed Lu Junchi across the road. Lu Junchi turned to him and asked, "Where is Teacher Su going?"

Su Hui thought for a moment and recalled what he was doing. He pointed to the coffee shop and said, "I live nearby and come here for lunch."

Today was the weekend. There was no class. The grain reserves at home had already been consumed. He was too hungry to *bear it, so he changed his clothes and came out.

Show/Hide Note

*( ren wu ke ren) Lit: more than one can bear (idiom) - at the end of one’s patience; the last straw

Lu Junchi looked at the time. It was past two o'clock in the afternoon. It seemed that this Teacher Su did not like to eat on time. He explained: "I was investigating the case here, and I just saw you."

"What a coincidence." With these words, Su Hui entered the coffee shop. He looked at the blurry figures inside.

It was a bit awkward to come to the coffee shop at this time. It was obviously too late for lunch, but still early for afternoon tea.

There were not many people in the shop, and several of them were casually dressed individuals, but their straight backs clearly showed.they were professionally trained criminal police.

Su Hui held the cane in his hand

Lu Junchi nodded: "A waiter here is one of the victims."

Su replied, "Are the victims all coffee shop assistants?"

Lu Junchi: "This is the known situation."

Su replied, "It's a pity."

Generally, the employees in coffee shops are young girls, and most of them are outsiders. Many of them come from poor rural areas and live alone in the city. They have no friends or relatives here, no one likes them, no one cares about how they are doing, and they are as small as a grain of sand.

Lu Junchi added: "We searched several other abandoned cars according to your suggestion last time, and found many traces on them. But there is a strange thing. The traces we got on the three cars do not belong to the same person."

Su Hui hummed back and listened. His face was still cold and expressionless. It seemed that everything was within his expectations.

Lu Junchi said politely, "Teacher Su's suggestion last time was very helpful to us. To show our gratitude, I will invite you to dinner today."

Su Hui didn't refuse. He went straight to the counter and ordered several dishes without looking up at the menu. Lu Junchi took out his mobile phone and scanned the code to pay.

Soon it was Su Hui's turn, and Lu Junchi offered to help him get the food.

Su Hui thanked him in reply.

Su Hui sat in the corner of the restaurant, put down his cane, and Lu Junchi sat opposite him: "Teacher Su, you often eat here. Have you seen any suspicious people?"

Su Hui shook his head and said in a husky voice: "I only come here occasionally, about two or three times a month. When I eat, I don't observe anyone nearby." He picked up a piece of beef with his fork. "I don't usually look at people's faces. I guess... I can't even recognize the victim."

Since his eyesight was damaged, Su Hui often judged who people were by their voice, smell as well as the silhouette.

Lu Junchi looked at him eating. Tiny bites, refined and absent-minded.He nit-picked the food in front of him, as if those carbohydrates were not necessities.

Just as the two men had talked about this, Qiao Ze came over.

The air conditioner was on in the coffee shop, but he was sweating. Qiao Ze didn't know Teacher Su, instead he thought Lu Junchi was interviewing the customers in the coffee shop. He lowered his voice and reported: "Captain Lu, I have scanned all the videos of the victim one week before she disappeared, and I didn't see any suspicious single man."

Lu Junchi said: "You should copy the data first. Xiao Xia's confession has not been recorded yet. You should confirm again.Did you miss some details?"

"Although I used double speed, I definitely looked very carefully." Qiao Ze felt that he had already scanned the video until he was numb. When he closed his eyes, he could see the structural layout of the coffee shop in his mind. He thought for a while and asked, "Is it possible that the murderer did not observe the victim from the coffee shop? Maybe he was outside the window, or somewhere else?"

Lu Junchi frowned and said, "In that case, the scope is too large."

Hearing this, Su Hui, who was nibbling at his food, suddenly looked up and said, "Why are you looking for a man who’s alone?"

Qiao Ze was speechless for a moment. He looked at Lu Junchi as if he was asking for advice.

Lu Junchi introduced him: "This is Teacher Su from the Chinese Police Crime Academy."

Realizing that he was not an outsider, Qiao Ze dared to discuss the case. He put his hand on the table and said, "We infer that the criminal may have come here to observe the victims before..."

Su Hui wiped the corner of his lips with a paper towel and said, "It is obvious that the murderer is an organized criminal, and every prey is carefully selected. He may have been to this coffee shop more than once, and he may have followed the victim, confirming that she lived alone."

Qiao Ze nodded: "The Captain also inferred that before. But I searched the surveillance for a long time, but I couldn't find the man." He suddenly thought of something, frowned, "Combined with the information about multiple people found in the car, can this be a gang related crime?"

Su Hui shook his head: "Although there were multiple traces found in the car, the murderer should be the same person, but I guess he doesn't look like a man."

"Doesn't look like a man... Is it possible that it was a woman?" Qiao Ze’s frown deepened.

Lu Junchi was also somewhat confused and looked up at Su Hui.

Su Hui continued to point out, "I think the suspect may have changed his appearance and disguised himself as a woman."

Lu Junchi and Qiao Ze were speechless for a moment.

Afraid of causing a misunderstanding, Su Hui explained again: "He does not deny his inherent gender. He just has a strong desire to wear clothes of the opposite sex. His self-awareness is still male and his hobby is dressing like a female. He just wants to look like a woman and enjoys the excitement brought to him by this behavior. He might sit in a corner and never communicate with others after ordering his meal."

A man who had put on feminine makeup and dressed meticulously could easily be regarded as a woman in the fuzzy surveillance video, but after careful observation, he must look different from ordinary women.

Qiao Ze recalled the surveillance video he had just seen, and suddenly said: "I seem to have seen such a person in the surveillance. Wait a minute, Captain Lu. I'll check it." Qiao Ze got a new clue and ran away excitedly.

Lu Junchi turned his head and looked at Su Hui in amazement. If pointing out the other vehicles had been a coincidence, then the inference this time made him curious and mystified.

Su Hui was definitely a person who had a deep understanding of criminal history, criminology, and even criminal psychology.

But the last time they met, why did Su Hui say that?

Lu Junchi asked, "Teacher Su, what made you deduce that the murderer may take pleasure in dressing as a woman?"

Su Hui said: "at the moment I’m not certain, so I can only let you check. According to research, there will be a lot of overlap between *transvestism and *fetishism, which is a typical sexual disorder. In addition, the murderer is careful in the details of the case, which is an inevitable direction of the investigation."

Show/Hide Note

*Transvestism - commonly known as cross-dressing/ dressing in the clothing of the opposite sex. It involves recurrent, intense sexual arousal from cross-dressing.

Show/Hide Note

*Fetishism - sexual deviance involving erotic attachment to an inanimate object or an ordinarily asexual part of the human body.

Overlap between transvestism and fetishism
Lu Junchi continued to ask tentatively, "Teacher Su, what other characteristics do you think this criminal has?"

Su Hui used his knife and fork to nit-pick the food in front of him, and did not continue to give him directions: "I just thought of that when I listened to the young policeman's description."

Lu Junchi seemed to studious and inquisitive student. If he had grasped the question or asked it thoroughly, he would persevere.

He addressed Su Hui’s concern in his reply: "Teacher Su, I remember what you said. I don't think of it as a profile or inference. I won’t blindly believe in it. I just want to know more about this abnormal maniac in the hope of catching him faster."

Su Hui was silent for a moment before he said, "Captain Lu, how much do you know about human preferences for body?"

Lu Junchi heard something from the poet before, and he knew that some people were born different.

Su Hui raised his hazy and good-looking eyes and looked at him: "We often say that there are as many criminal ways as there are prisoners. But at the same time, there are as many hobbies as there are people in the world."

"The human body is like the favor of the Creator. Some of us like some parts of the body to the extent of obsession."

"Some people like hands, some people like feet, and some people like faces. Some people like gender characteristics, such as Adam's apple, a woman's soft waist, and some people like strange parts such as shoulders and ears. When ordinary people cannot understand, they will think that those aliens are abnormal."

"In fact, they also don't know why. They can't control themselves. They are very happy when they think of it in their minds. They can't help fantasizing and wanting to possess it."

Su Hui paused, clenched his fist, covered his lips, and coughed a few times. His skin color was cold white, but due to the slight shock from his cough, his cheeks gained a little color. Then he looked up at Lu Junchi and said seriously, "This kind of love is closely related to desire."

Su Hui's expression was indifferent, as if he were discussing with Lu Junchi whether the food in front of him was good or not.

Lu Junchi sat opposite him and looked at him closely. The teacher in front of him was pale, handsome, and thin. He looked ascetic, honest, and his words were obscure enough, but people suddenly had evil thoughts.

Lu Junchi suddenly remembered Lu Haochu's description of Su Hui, and couldn't help squinting his eyes.

Su Hui continued to analyze: "In this kind of crowd, the proportion of men is higher than that of women. Some of them have reached the level of pathological obsession. When they see a pair of hands, they will feel how good it would be if they belonged to me, and some people see feet as well. It is not important whether these objects have lives, but they belong to them. For example, serial killer Jerry Brudos once killed four women and cut off their feet." He paused and then said, "He liked women's clothes very much and would take pictures of the corpses."

(Trigger warning- disturbing explanation of Jerry Brudos)

Show/Hide Note

*Jerry Brudos full name Jerome Henry Brudos, was an American serial killer who killed 4 women and mutilated their corpses in horrific ways. One of which he cut off the woman’s leg and used it as a “model” for his stolen high heels collection. He had an obsession with women’s shoes and derived sexual arousal from them. So he stole women’s shoes and underwear to feed his fetish. Thus dubbed the name ‘The Shoe Fetish Slayer’.

Lu Junchi remembered the name of the murderer. He had seen his cases in some books, and the murderer left a famous saying: "The girl was hanging on the ceiling, like dancing ballet for me."

Lu Junchi had never been afraid of ghosts or murderers with swords and guns. But he was afraid of peeping into the minds of these people. When he heard this, he felt a chill down his back and his heart beat faster.

But he knew that this was real evil in the world, and avoiding taboos would not solve the problem. Studying the psychology of these people was the weapon to fight between good and evil.

When Lu Junchi faced Su Hui, he had a strange feeling. The Teacher, Su, was obviously a thin and weak beauty, but when he said those things, he gave people a sense of wonder.

It seems that he can *effortlessly cross the border between normal and abnormal, without fear, reveal those abnormal behaviors, and speculate on the psychology of those criminals.

Show/Hide Note

*Lit: As easy as blowing off dust (idiom) - effortless; with ease

The author has something to say: Quote: "The girl is hanging from the ceiling, like dancing ballet for me."—— Jerry Brudos


TN:

If you’re interested in things like criminal psychology and the psychotic things that go through people’s minds like me, then you should definitely watch Criminal Minds. It’s a show about an FBI team of criminal profilers who get called in to deal with serial killers and come up with psychological and physical profiles of suspected perpetrators. It’s incredibly good and will make you afraid of ever stepping out of your house and will leave you doubting everyone you meet. Hmm, that doesn’t sound very enticing. I’m not a weirdo, I promise. I just like watching shows about people m**dering others. Damn, that just made it worse. Let me shut up now. WATCH CRIMINAL MINDS. okay byeee. Consider buying me a coffee if you like my translations. 

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