Netherworld Investigator

Xiaotao read the case file from beginning to end. When she was done, she shook her head. 

“I really can’t find anything suspicious here, Song Yang.”

“Look here,” I pointed at a paragraph. “The car left the parking lot at 10.03 pm, and the brake failure occurred at 10.05 pm. That means the crash happened only two minutes after the car left the place.”

“And then?”

“What were they doing before?”

“Well, according to the file… The couple was in their car from 9.48 pm to 10.00 pm… Having sex. The security camera in the parking lot captured it.”

“You mean it captured the car rocking!”

Xiaotao hit me with the file.

“You’re so bold now, aren’t you?”

I smiled wryly. “I’m serious! We’re discussing a possible murder case here!”

I would’ve indeed gone red to the roots of my hair if this had been a normal conversation, but since it concerned a case, all my inhibitions were gone.

“They only got married six months before that,” I continued. “They were basically still in their honeymoon phase. And then the security camera captured the car rocking in the parking lot.”

“Everything seems to connect so far.”

“No,” I turned the page to the list of evidence and pointed at one of the items. “Why were there Viagra pills in the car?”

“How is that suspicious?” Xiaotao snorted.

“The husband was only thirty years old,” I replied. “Not to mention, they’d only gotten married half a year before that. Do you really think he needed help in that department already?”

“Perhaps… They wanted it to last longer…” Xiaotao muttered, her face reddening.

“But the whole thing only lasted for twelve minutes—that’s only an average number.”

Xiaotao laughed and playfully punched me and asked, “Who taught you all this?”

I scratched my head and replied, “Don’t misunderstand me. I’m being serious here.”

“Okay, okay, I believe you. But to be honest, I really don’t think what you mentioned amounts to much.”

“Of course, what I just mentioned wouldn’t be nearly enough to change anything,” I said. “But they are good enough reasons to start reinvestigating!” 

The next anomaly was even more suspicious. At the moment of collision, the airbag would pop out to protect the people in the car. The windshield would’ve shattered and hurled glass shards into the car. But I noticed that the airbag was punctured at a spot where it shouldn’t be punctured—right where it was facing the wife’s neck where her fatal wound was.

Unfortunately, though, the case occurred over a year ago and the car had long been disposed of. Even the wife’s body had been cremated. If the airbag was still around, it would’ve been possible to check whether it had been pierced through from the front, i.e. from the windshield, or the back, which would have been from the direction of the wife’s neck.

“Would that make any difference?” asked Xiaotao after listening to my deduction.

“Of course it would,” I replied. “Which direction would the glass shards puncture the airbag from if it came from the windshield?”

“The front!” cried Xiaotao.

“Exactly,” I replied. “That meant that the glass shard didn’t cut the wife’s throat after the crash, but before. It seemed that the police had overlooked a critical clue.”

“In other words,” realization hit Xiaotao, “it was murder!”

I nodded. 

“The car must’ve been full of debris and glass shards after the crash,” I continued. “Therefore, it was difficult to notice that the glass shard that killed the wife was not from the windshield. The murderer must’ve calculated that. Too bad all we have now is this photo, which isn’t even nearly enough to be used as evidence!”

“But that means the murderer is still alive and at large!” sighed Xiaotao indignantly. “I’ll try and apply for the formation of a task force to investigate the case anyway!”

In the end, Xiaotao’s efforts were in vain. Her superiors felt that the doubts I raised were not enough to overturn the conclusion previously reached for the case. Besides, if this turned out to be just an accident, it would be a waste of manpower and resources to reinvestigate the case.

Xiaotao persisted. She even offered to pay for the expenses used in the investigation with money from her own pocket. Still, Captain Lin could not be swayed. Not only was Xiaotao’s proposal not approved, but he even reprimanded her and warned her not to act impulsively by trying to be the heroine.

She came back to me looking deflated.

“Why don’t we investigate it independently?” I suggested.

She smiled. “If I get caught doing that, I might get suspended.”

I was prepared to say then let’s just give it up, but she continued, “But I believe in your instincts, Song Yang! Let’s do this! However, we must make sure to lay low and not let Captain Lin know what we’re doing!”

“Right!” I nodded.

Reopening the investigation of an old case was a very risky thing to do. If it turned out that nothing new was found, Xiaotao might even lose her police badge. Still, we had a strong conviction in our hearts, and that was to never let any murderer go unpunished.

Xiaotao suggested going directly to the victim’s husband who received a huge amount of insurance money after his wife died. I stopped her and commented that it might be too soon to do that. First, we needed to collect some evidence.

“Evidence?” remarked Xiaotao doubtfully. “What kind of evidence can we still find? They must all have been destroyed after all this time!”

“Shouldn’t the surveillance video still be in the archive?” 

“But it’s already been a year! It’s probably already been deleted.”

“No. As long as it was saved in a computer, I know someone who can recover it!” That someone was, of course, Lao Yao. 

Xiaotao still had some work to do, so I asked her to smuggle out the computer that the video file was stored in after work and bring it to my college. I would then return it early in the morning the next day.

Stealing police property was a crime that would cause Xiaotao to immediately be fired from the police force, while I might be thrown in jail for at least half a year. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Once Xiaotao got off work, she told me to come and wait for her in the parking lot. After a while, she appeared holding a small bag in her hand. I asked where the computer was, and she replied, “Are you crazy? How do you expect me to haul out the whole computer? I’ve got the hard disk, that’s good enough! Come on, let’s hurry up so we can put this back again as soon as possible!” 

“Right! I’ll be quick about it!” I reached out my hand to take the hard drive.

“No,” Xiaotao held the hard drive firmly in her hands. “I’ll go with you!”

It turned out that there were a lot of confidential documents stored in this hard drive, so she had to come with me herself to make sure that these files weren’t leaked or stolen in any way. Besides, she had heard of this tech wizard many times before, but she had never met him in person yet. She was curious to see what he looked like.

We reached my college at a time when many students were coming back to their dorms from their classes. This wasn’t ideal, since heads would inevitably turn whenever Xiaotao walked past any college student.

“What a bothersome thing it is to be beautiful!” Xiaotao half-jokingly exclaimed. She then tied her hair up and put on a baseball cap. That didn’t change much, though, since it did nothing to hide her bodacious curves.

As we walked into the boys’ dormitory, the staring and whispering got even more intense. This was incredibly awkward for me, and I couldn’t help but bury my head down as I walked beside her.

“What’s wrong?” snapped Xiaotao angrily. “Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”

“It’s just that you’re so eye-catching,” I replied. “I don’t want people to gossip about me.”

Xiaotao smirked. “How about I hold your arm as we walk?”

“No! I’ll definitely be in the gossip column of the campus paper if you do that!”

When we reached Lao Yao’s room, I saw him slouched on a chair in front of a computer screen playing League of Legends. When he saw us coming in, he shouted, “Little Song! You’re finally here to see me! Did you miss me at all?”

I shuddered involuntarily the moment I heard that cloying voice.

“Oh, hello, girl!” Lao Yao greeted Xiaotao. “Where did you get that Versace T-shirt? You’ve got good taste!”

I thought to myself, if I was wrong about Lao Yao being gay then my name was not Song Yang.

Xiaotao looked around at the room which seemed more like a pigsty and frowned. “We’ve never met, but we’ve talked on the phone before,” she introduced herself.

“Ah,” exclaimed Lao Yao with a grin. “You’re the formidable Huang-sir[1], aren’t you?”

“Don’t call me that! It reminds me of the police officer who died in Infernal Affairs!”

I thought Lao Yao would still be bitter about the way Xiaotao tricked him about the bonus money last time, but to my surprise, he welcomed her with a friendly demeanor and pulled up a chair for her to sit on. I noticed how he made a point to praise Xiaotao’s skin and asked her what kind of skin care products she used. I interrupted their small talk and told Lao Yao what we needed him to do.

Lao Yao folded his arms and said, “Okay, but what’s your price?”

Xiaotao pulled out a small bottle on which the label was filled with words in a foreign language.

“This is a facial oil that my friend brought back from Paris,” Xiaotao explained. “A bottle of this costs about 600 euros, and you won’t find it anywhere in China. How would you like to have skin as smooth as a baby’s bottom as a reward?”

“Deal!” cried Lao Yao with joy. “Let’s get to work, then!”

“You didn’t have to give him such an expensive thing!” I whispered to Xiaotao. “He only gets about a thousand yuan in bonus anyway!”

“I just bought it on Taobao[2],” snorted Xiaotao. “It only cost me forty yuan!”

I was stumped. I used to think that rich girls like Xiaotao had no qualms in spending huge amounts of money, but I realized that that wasn’t the case. They were willing to spend a lot of money for themselves, but were especially stingy when it came to spending it on other people!

1. How higher-ranking police officers are greeted Hong Kong police dramas.

2. A Chinese online shopping website.