Chapter 365: The Divorced Person

2022-05-20

Someone later came to the bathroom and discovered Li Jialu. That student quickly called for a teacher, and after some emergency care, Li Jialu finally came to. The day after she returned home, Li Jialu stopped coming to school. By the next time anyone heard about her, Li Jialu had transferred to another school and left for good.

Li Jialu’s parents never went to the police about what happened. They kept quiet, told no one, and simply let their child leave a school haunted by a devil. Without Li Jialu’s testimony, the school knew something had happened, but had no idea who did it.

Intimidated by Guo Li, not a single classmate confessed to their part in anything. It was as if none of it had ever happened at all. People are capable of hypnotizing themselves, and maybe they really did forget. Life went on, the world didn’t stop. Li Jialu vanished from everyone’s memories—like the top student who sometimes tattled had never existed.

Mary set the three diaries down in front of the couple. “Now,” she said, “we might finally be able to answer the killer’s question.”

Mary tapped the covers of the diaries. “After looking into this case, I learned the two children who were killed both bullied other kids in their class or bullied kids in other classes. Maybe that’s exactly what the killer was asking us to see.”

I glanced at Mary but stayed quiet. Deep down, I felt that wasn’t what the killer wanted to ask. If it was, then it would contradict the first note—after all, the first message left by the killer told us to find a reason.

At the time, the reason we found was that Li Jun had kicked a pregnant woman off the bus, which caused her to lose her baby. When we spoke to the killer on the phone, they even agreed with our thinking. So this next note shouldn’t be repeating the same point.

I decided to drop the question for now and said, “Right now, I still don’t know where the killer took your daughter, but I have a good idea about the method. It’s strange not to open windows in the summer, and I didn’t see any air conditioner or even a fan in her room.”

“Maybe she just didn’t want to open the windows?” Gu Chen suggested.

I shook my head. “That’s just one odd thing. Guo Li’s parents are usually busy and there’s almost never anyone cleaning the house. Yet I saw a lot of dust on her desk lamp, but none on the windowsill. If she can’t even be bothered to wipe down her lamp, it’s pretty unlikely she’d bother cleaning off the windowsill.”

Leading everyone into her bedroom, I explained, “Take a look at the windowsill—no dust at all. That suggests the killer came in through here and wiped away any trace afterward. My guess is, that’s how the killer broke into Guo Li’s house.”

I sat on Guo Li’s bed, mind turning over the details. Speaking slowly, I said, “Whoever did this knew your home pretty well. They must have staked out the place for a long time. There’s a broad alley outside the window, big enough for a car to fit through.”

Everyone looked out the window. Guo Li’s house is a single-story home, her bedroom faces south, and behind it there’s an alley—not too wide, but not too cramped either.

I kept going. “If we go by our earlier theory, the killer needed some form of transportation to move a child. If they sat in a car, they could see right into the house from this window. And these old wooden windows are easy to break into.”

Still sitting on the bed, I said, “Check out these windows. If I’m right, they’re held in place with nails.”

Gu Chen walked over and checked. “You’re right.”

I nodded and didn’t even need to look. “That’s what I thought. The killer came prepared. After removing the glass, they knocked Guo Li out, moved her through the window, went out themselves, tied her up, then replaced the glass back in.”

“Have either of you noticed any unfamiliar cars in the area lately?” I asked the parents.

“No,” both of them answered at once.

I hadn’t held out much hope for that answer anyway, so I just nodded. “If the killer pulled this off, then they must have watched the place for a while. It’s possible they called us while moving Guo Li, but maybe they waited until after getting her to their new location.”

Thinking about that, I opened my eyes and asked, “What time did you leave the house at noon today?”

Guo Li’s mother replied, “Today it was just me who came home at lunch and I left a little after twelve twenty.”

The killer called us around one-thirty. Guo Li’s mom had left at twelve twenty. That means there was an hour and ten-minute gap. Now it was about two in the afternoon, still not yet time for classes to resume—which technically means Guo Li could have left on her own, but that possibility was slim.

I told Gu Chen, “Ask Uncle Chen about their position. If the killer called us after reaching the place where Guo Li bullied someone, then we can estimate the driving time. For a town like this, let’s say forty kilometers an hour is a safe bet, so the place should be about forty kilometers from here.”

Everyone around me nodded, seeing the logic in my words.

Mary chimed in, “Hang on, I’ll mark that on the map right now.”

As she spoke, I saw Mary pull a laptop from her bag. It had been on standby the whole time. She turned it on and pulled up a map of the town.

Looking at the map, I explained, “With Guo Li’s house as the center, draw a forty-kilometer-radius circle. Anywhere inside could be where the killer’s hiding. And an hour’s drive isn’t much for us to track down.”

Just then Gu Chen said, “I’ve reached Uncle Chen. He’s leading a team searching the area, but so far they haven’t spotted any suspicious vehicles.”

I nodded, took Gu Chen’s phone, and spoke. “Uncle Chen? No need to keep looking for now—the killer’s probably already back at their own home.”

I continued, “Now focus your search using a forty-kilometer radius anchored at Guo Li’s house. Remember what I told you about the killer’s appearance: about thirty, slim, lives alone for whatever reason—whether separated or not, it’s just himself. He might be polite and seem harmless to outsiders, but you can’t go by appearances. Got it?”

Uncle Chen replied, “Understood. We’re on it. You had us look into the fathers of the kids who transferred out. We’ve found a few, still have a couple left. The ones we’ve checked all live as a family of three—two sent their kids to Dongxing City for elementary school, one sent their kid to another grade school in town. None of them look like they’d do something like this.”

I nodded. “Good, keep looking into it. I think this is a major breakthrough.”

“Will do,” said Uncle Chen.

I stood up and addressed Guo Li’s parents. “That’s all we can do right now. The way Guo Li turned out has a lot to do with you not raising her right. Still, I won’t get into that now. If we can just bring her back safe, it’ll be enough.”

Both of them looked at me but didn’t say a word.

I was about to leave when my leg accidentally knocked against the bottom door of the bookshelf. The small cabinet door popped open and a toy tumbled out—it was an Optimus Prime Transformer, clearly a legit one.

I picked up the Optimus Prime and turned it over in my hands. Looking at Guo Li’s parents, I asked, “Did you buy this for her? It’s pretty rare for a little girl to like Optimus Prime.”

Her parents shook their heads. Guo Li’s mom said, “No, that’s not from us. Guo Li brought it home herself. When I noticed, I asked her where it came from.”

“What did she say?” I asked.

Guo Li’s mom answered, “She said it was a friend’s gift. I asked if it was a little boy who gave it to her, but she said it was from a girl. She didn’t want to talk more about it, and I had work to do, so I let it drop.”

Gu Chen looked over the Transformer. “It’s the real deal and wouldn’t be cheap. To just give something like this away, for a kid, that would take guts. I’ll bet it was taken from another child—someone too scared to speak up.”

Inside the cabinet were plenty of other typical girls’ toys. The Transformer looked out of place among them.

I put the Transformer back and said, “If I find any leads, I’ll let you know right away. If you hear anything, just call the police immediately.”

No sooner had I spoken than Uncle Chen called again.

“What’s up?” I answered.

“We’ve found someone—someone who’s divorced…”