Skinner's Box (Fang Mu (Eastern Crimes)) (10 page)

The judge contemplated in silence for a moment before asking, "Witness, do you think that there is no possibility that the defendant could kill again?"

Fang Mu's reply was loud and clear. "I do."

The judge scrutinized Fang Mu for several seconds and said, "Witness, you may step down."

       Head still spinning, Fang Mu had just left the courtroom when he felt his cell phone buzz. "Hello. Captain Bian?"

"Where are you?"

"The Intermediate Court."

"Head over to Wanyan Mountain Carnival Grounds; we've got another murder case on our hands. The crime scene's pretty interesting. You should take a look."

Pretty interesting? Fang Mu hung up and walked toward the parking lot, wondering what exactly was meant by 'pretty interesting.'

CHAPTER
8
Labyrinth

W
anyan Mountain was in the outskirts of the city. 'Wanyan' meant 'ten thousand cliffs', but in truth it was nothing but a rocky little hill. A few years back a corporation had contracted to develop the large plot of land at the foot of the 'mountain', on which it had constructed a large-scale outdoor amusement park and named it the Wanyan Mountain Carnival Grounds. It included a bungee jumping crane, roller coasters, Ferris wheels, and every other sort of edge-of-your-seat thrill ride they could think of. Ever since it opened, business had boomed; tourists flooded the park's gates day after day, and it seemed that everyone had an insane desire to try things that they normally would not dare, such as jumping off a towering crane or getting into a car crash.

Several police cars were parked in front of the amusement park's front gates, their red and blue lights still flashing but with the sirens turned off. Next to the ticket windows, a large crowd of tourists had gathered around a sweaty-faced park employee and were shouting questions at him. He was painstakingly trying to explain something to them.

Fang Mu pinned his badge to his chest and a cop who had been about to bar the way stood aside.

Fang Mu nodded at him. "How's it going? Where's the crime scene?"

"A little ways inside." The cop pointed into the park. "See that red brick wall? It's over behind there."

Fang Mu nodded and was on his way when the cop called out to him. "Wait. I'll get someone to take you there."

Fang Mu was about to ask him why when the cop waved in the direction of the ticket office. "Hey, you, come here."

With the look of someone who had just been given a governor's pardon, the sweaty-faced employee squeezed his way out of the crowd and ran over. "What's up?"

"Take this officer over to the crime scene." The cop's tone left no room for argument.

The park employee nodded hastily. "Sure, all right." Apparently running errands was a lot more agreeable to him than trying to explain to hundreds of tourists why they were not allowed to enter the park.

Fang Mu felt puzzled. The crime scene was not very far, so why did he need someone to take him there? He politely declined. "It's okay; I'll find it myself."

"No, I'd better lead the way." The employee was already heading toward the park. "Otherwise I doubt you'd find it."

Fang Mu sighed and allowed himself to be led. After walking around to the other side of the red brick wall, they came to a large, square cavern entrance. Even before they entered, Fang Mu felt a cool breeze waft across his face from within the man-made cave. He walked in and followed the park employee down a long cement staircase. The farther underground they went, the darker it got, until they came to a section where a series of tiny red wall lights illuminated the passageway just brightly enough that they could vaguely see where they were going.

They continued downward for another dozen or so yards until they came to a wall. In it a metal door painted black stood ajar, and the employee glanced over his shoulder at Fang Mu and whispered, "Follow me."

He then pulled the metal door the rest of the way open and walked in.

Fang Mu passed through the door and found himself in a small, square room. There was a metal door in the middle of each of the four walls. The place looked very strange.

Fang Mu knew immediately where he was: an underground labyrinth.

After opening the door on the left, the employee turned his head and motioned to Fang Mu. "Stick close; earlier a cop got lost down here, and it took him more than half an hour to find his way out."

The labyrinth's passages were all very narrow, and beneath the dim red light bulbs they appeared quite dangerous, as if at any moment the walls on both sides might cave inward. Fang Mu and the employee forged ahead single-file, occasionally turning at a fork in the road or doubling back as the passage made a 180 degrees turn. At first Fang Mu tried his best to memorize the turns, but he soon gave up and resigned himself to following on the heels of the employee and wondering how in the world he would ever find his way back.

After six or seven minutes, he heard faint noises coming from up ahead. They turned another corner and were faced with another wall; in this wall, too, was a metal door painted black. The employee stopped in front of it.

"Go ahead; it's through there." He stared at the closed door, his features drawn in lingering fear. "I'd rather not see it again."

Fang Mu nodded. "If it's convenient, I'd like to get my hands on a map of this place."

"I'll ask my supervisor." He hesitated. "That would be considered a divulgence of trade secrets, you know." After that, he turned and hurried back up the passageway.

Standing in front of the door, Fang Mu felt a sudden uneasiness. He glanced at the red lights around him, crinkled his brow, and pulled the door open.

On the other side was a room exactly like the one before, except that the air here had an odd smell to it. In the center of the room, the corpse of an adult male was lying face down on the floor. Standing around it were several people wearing rubber boots and gloves and transparent helmets. Their figures seemed blurred and indistinct in the dim red light, and the whites of their eyes had a faint reddish tinge to them. When they heard the door open they all turned to stare at Fang Mu. Being thus scrutinized by such a strange-looking mob made him feel suddenly uncomfortable. Luckily, someone broke the eerie silence with a greeting. "Hey, there you are."

Fang Mu recognized the voice as that of Zheng Lin, Deputy Chief of the Municipal Bureau's Criminal Police Force. Fang Mu nodded at him and said, "Done taking photos?"

"Yep." Zheng Lin handed him a set of protective gear and motioned for him to put it on. "The forensics team has already gotten to work. I thought this scene was rather interesting, so I gave old Bian a call."

Fang Mu glanced over at the policemen who were down on all fours, busy scrutinizing the floor in various spots around the room, and then returned his gaze to the corpse. "What was the cause of death?"

"We don't know for sure yet, but the forensic investigators' preliminary examination suggests electrocution."

"Electrocution?" Fang Mu looked around. "So, this isn't the primary scene of the crime then?"

"Yup. Looks like someone dragged him down here after he was already dead."

"How strange," Fang Mu said thoughtfully.

Zheng Lin chuckled. "Yeah,
very
strange. That's exactly why we called you guys."

Fang Mu nodded, walked over to the body, and squatted down to get a closer look. The victim was approximately 5'6" tall and was laying face-down with his head turned partway to the left. The eyes were halfway open, but between the lids the eyeballs appeared dull and lifeless.

A few of the investigators counted to three and rolled the body over. The dead man's rigor-stiffened face gaped upward at the low ceiling, jaws askew. Fang Mu studied the features. It was a strange expression, like a mix between pain, terror, and sudden realization. What had he suddenly thought of? Or heard? Or seen?

"I'll be damned. This guy must've suffered quite a bit before he died," one of the forensic investigators mumbled to himself as he fiddled with the deceased's leg.

"What?" Fang Mu moved closer.

"Have a look." The investigator pointed at a pair of charred wounds on the ankles just below the calves.

"It looks like it's been...burned, yeah?"

"Electrocution burns," the investigator said dismissively. "There are more like it elsewhere on his body; the thighs, wrists. And they're symmetrical."

"Symmetrical?" Fang Mu scowled. "So, he was bound at some point before he died?"

"And electrocuted many times," the investigator added with a frown. "There was a lot of hatred here."

The door opened and the park employee that had led Fang Mu through the labyrinth stuck his head in, glanced at the body on the floor, and quickly turned away. He held out his arm from behind the door, and in his hand was a piece of paper, which he waved back and forth.

"Map here, Officer."

Fang Mu walked over to accept the map. No sooner had he taken it than the employee's head disappeared behind the door, and in a low, muffled voice, he said, "It's for you all to keep. You can find your own way out when you're ready."

The map was not large, but Fang Mu examined it for a long time. Zheng Lin noticed him lost in thought, so he shuffled over. "Where are we now? All the way over on this side, you think?"

Fang Mu did not answer right away. "No," he said finally.

He put the map down and looked around the little room.

"We're in the deepest part of the labyrinth."

On September 28, a homicide occurred in the Changhong City Wanyan Mountain Carnival Grounds. At the time, a number of tourists were amusing themselves in the park's underground labyrinth. When they reached the middle of the maze, they discovered the body of an adult male. The tourists scattered in fright, and as a result they all became lost in the labyrinth. One of the tourists eventually pressed a help button in the assistance box in one of the walls, and park employees led them all out of the maze. Several of the tourists were on the verge of collapse by the time they made it out.

The deceased was named Jiang Peiyao; he was male, 39-year-old, and had been a teacher at Changhong City Business College. On the evening of September 27, the deceased was late returning home from work, so the wife of the deceased called him on his cell phone. The deceased informed her that he was finishing up a final report for a research project. At around 22:00 that evening, the wife of the deceased again called his cell phone but was unable to connect. Thereupon the wife of the deceased went immediately to the college in search of her husband. A staff member on duty told her that Professor Jiang had left the school at around 2:00 that evening. After searching in vain for the rest of the evening, the relatives of the deceased filed a missing persons report with the police in the early hours of the morning. Jiang Peiyao's body was discovered six hours later.

Based on the body's superficial electrical burn marks, the metallic residue on the skin, the incidence of osseous pearls and other phenomena, the cause of death was inferred to have been electrocution-induced shock, and the time of death to have been some time between 22:00 on the evening of September 27 and 2:00 the next morning. It was apparent that the body had been discovered at a post-mortem location. Park authorities confirmed that neither of the underground labyrinth's two exits had been sealed; during daytime hours it was supervised by employees, but at night after the park closed, the labyrinth was typically unguarded. They suspected that the perpetrator had probably carried the body of the deceased to a spot along the park's surrounding wall, thrown it over, climbed in after it, and then hauled it into the underground labyrinth. Because the post-mortem site was at a location still in operation by the amusement park, the scene had been contaminated by those who discovered the body and no valuable clues were found. However, the preliminary police conclusion was that the perpetrator had probably driven a vehicle, and might not have been acting alone.

The autopsy report indicated that the deceased had been subjected to torture while still alive; because of this, the police hypothesized that it was a revenge killing, and launched a series of investigative interviews based on that preliminary conclusion. However, according to his friends, family, and neighbors, the deceased had been a modest and kind-hearted person and no one had ever heard of him getting into a conflict with anyone. Furthermore, judging by feedback from former colleagues of the deceased, they were in complete agreement that Professor Jiang had been a serious, hardworking scholar who had immersed himself in his research. Not only that, but the deceased had also served as the head of the college's volunteer association and had been very enthusiastic when it came to philanthropic activities. Based on these findings, it seemed practically impossible for it to have been a revenge killing.