Mad Detective
[Author: Kuang Hai Wang Hu]
[TL: Spades]
[PR: Blitz]
[QC: Lumi]
Chapter 21 — Why Chop the Hand?
——————
Zhao Yu was dead set on outdoing Qu Ping's team, so he stayed glued to his desk, diligently eavesdropping on Team B's every move, not even taking bathroom breaks.
As expected, Qu Ping's team took Zhang Jingfeng and Liang Huan's new lead seriously, diving into the source of the one-way window film.
The film's supply chain was narrow, and within hours, they'd tracked down all recent buyers. They immediately began investigating these purchasers, with Qu Ping sending nearly her entire team out.
But as results trickled in that evening, the news was disheartening, one blow after another.
The one-way film, without exception, was bought by theater troupes, some for magic tricks, others for stage props.
Though only a few troupes purchased it, each bought in large quantities.
According to their contacts, the film, while pricey, was useless to regular people, so troupes didn't guard it closely, leaving it in backstage warehouses. Employees, visiting performers, or even stray audience members could easily grab some.
With such chaotic handling, investigating would be a nightmare. This lead, too, hit a dead end.
The news crushed Qu Ping, her team, and even Zhao Yu, the eavesdropper.
They'd underestimated the culprit's cunning. This guy was airtight, a criminal genius!
Though the film lead fizzled, Qu Ping didn't give up entirely, assigning two detectives to keep digging while the rest returned to standby.
This time, Qu Ping felt immense pressure. If she couldn't crack the Hand-Chopping Case, she might follow her predecessor's fate and face a transfer.
She'd poured everything into it, meticulously sifting every clue, but so far, let alone catching the culprit, they couldn't even sketch their basic profile. This was unprecedented in her career.
As the clock ticked toward midnight, Qu Ping's team kept analyzing tirelessly, but fewer voices chimed in.
In Team A's office, Zhao Yu was the last man standing, slumped at his desk, hearing little from the bug. Qu Ping's team seemed to be running on fumes.
Damn it!
Zhao Yu turned to his whiteboard, staring intently.
At its center, "4.26" stood out clearly, marking April 26. Last year's first Hand-Chopping Case hit on April 22, followed by the second on April 26, five days later.
Coincidentally, this year's latest case also struck on April 22. Detectives feared that, like last year, another case might hit on the 26th, a potential fourth incident.
If a fourth case happened, the consequences would be dire. The media would erupt, and frontline detectives like them would face intense scrutiny. A heavy gloom hung over the entire bureau.
Past midnight, it was now April 25. If the culprit planned another strike, time was running out.
Who was this culprit?
Zhao Yu scratched his head, endlessly mulling the case.
Beyond mimicking Qu Ping's methods, he had his own theories.
He had a vague hunch that the case remained unsolved not because the culprit was too clever, but because Qu Ping's team had made flawed assumptions.
For instance, though unspoken, they'd pegged the culprit as male.
In the first case, the culprit dragged the victim into a utility room in a crowded passage. Chopping a hand with a sharp tool in one blow would be tough for a woman.
But… what if they were wrong?
What if the culprit wasn't a man?
Take the BMW's one-way film today. The culprit used such advanced tech that not even a silhouette was caught on camera.
Why go to such lengths to hide even their outline?
Could it be… their outline would reveal something?
Like… they're a woman!?
Another point where Zhao Yu disagreed was the culprit's motive.
So far, the culprit had chopped off three women's right hands, but why?
Qu Ping's team believed the victims were random, with no direct grudges against the culprit.
The reasoning was simple and solid, the three victims didn't know each other, not even from the same schools.
To avoid errors, Qu Ping checked for shared acquaintances, but the few connections were too distant to matter.
With no grudges, Qu Ping classified the case as a psychological disorder, assuming the culprit had some trauma, like a spendthrift wife triggering a deranged response.
But Zhao Yu saw it differently.
Though he'd never been a cop, his perspective rivaled theirs.
For example, the three victims, while strangers, varied in build, appearance, clothing, hair length, and jobs.
Their only commonalities were gender, age, and wealth, nothing else.
Zhao Yu thought, if the culprit were truly deranged, they'd at least pick victims with similar looks. If it was about a spendthrift wife, they'd target someone resembling her, right?
Moreover, files showed the victims, though rich, weren't extravagant spenders.
This made Zhao Yu doubt Qu Ping's conclusions.
What if the culprit wasn't psychologically warped?
From his pre-transmigration work, Zhao Yu had seen plenty of gang vendettas and bloody revenge.
Somehow, he felt this Hand-Chopping Case echoed those acts of vengeance. The culprit wasn't chopping hands for pleasure or madness but for real, deliberate revenge!
His belief wasn't baseless guessing, he had a solid, compelling reason!