Chapter 60: You've Found Another Murder Case?
"You've found another murder case?" The tone of Captain Li on the other end of the phone was a bit strange. He naturally used the word "another."
"Four years ago, a girl named Zhang Ya fell from a building at West City Private Academy. There's more to her death!" Chen Ge said firmly, his tone resolute.
"Hold on, let me check the case files. If the victim's family requested an autopsy, we should have records here." Captain Li didn't hang up. He turned on the light and ran into the archives room. After rummaging for about five minutes, he seemed to find something: "West City Private Academy—no wonder it sounded familiar. Xiao Chen, get out of that school right now!"
"I'm on my way out. What's wrong?"
"That school is very eerie. I can't explain it in a few words, but I'll give you one number first: within just two weeks, six people committed suicide at that school, and their methods of death were all unusually bizarre." The rustling of paper came through the phone as Captain Li skimmed through the file.
"Yes! That number basically matches what I was thinking." Chen Ge had already spotted the school gate and would be out soon.
"Matches what you were thinking? What's the situation over there?"
"Never mind the situation. First, check if the first girl who committed suicide was named Zhang Ya." Chen Ge was eager to confirm his suspicions.
Captain Li looked at the documents on the table, double-checked, and then replied to Chen Ge: "That's right, her name is Zhang Ya. But she did die from a fall—the coroner found no other types of wounds on her body. On the day the body was discovered, the local police also responded to the scene. The girl jumped from the fourth-floor dance studio. The windowsill was intact, and the soundproofing on the surrounding walls showed no signs of damage or cleaning. It was confirmed that Zhang Ya jumped on her own without any external force."
"No external force? Captain Li, have you considered that someone might have been coercing her? If she didn't jump, she would have been harmed!" Chen Ge recounted what he had seen in the mirror.
"We considered that possibility too. The file contains statements from Zhang Ya's roommates. All five girls claimed they knew nothing. Zhang Ya jumped after they left class, and at that time, she was the only one in the dance studio. According to them, Zhang Ya's mental state had always been unstable—she was withdrawn, unsociable, and had personality flaws. To verify their claims, the responding officers randomly questioned other girls in the same class, and they all said the same thing."
"Zhang Ya is nothing like what they described! Those people conspired to give false testimony!" Chen Ge hadn't expected that even the other girls in her class would slander Zhang Ya like this, when she hadn't done anything wrong.
"What kind of girl Zhang Ya really was—neither you nor I get to decide. The witnesses do." Captain Li didn't understand what had gotten into Chen Ge. "Don't stay in that school any longer. Get out immediately. Our people will come to pick you up."
"They're lying! Check the exact time of Zhang Ya's death—it should have been before the five girls left school! They lied about the time of death. Those five girls were all accomplices!" Chen Ge's voice grew louder.
"You're actually wrong about that. Zhang Ya's time of death was between six and eight in the evening, and those girls left school at five thirty, as usual." Captain Li didn't know what Chen Ge had experienced at West City Private Academy; he was just judging from an outsider's perspective.
"Impossible!"
"Nothing's impossible. The coroner conducted a detailed assessment based on livor mortis, rigor mortis, corneal clouding, and other factors. Zhang Ya died between six and eight. The cause of death was a spinal fracture. She had skull damage, and fractures in her heel and hip bones—all injuries consistent with a fall."
Captain Li's words left Chen Ge momentarily speechless. He stopped in his tracks: "Maybe there's a scenario like this: Zhang Ya jumped before the five girls left, but after falling from the fourth floor, she didn't die immediately and still had a glimmer of life. However, with multiple fractures and a broken spine, she couldn't move and could only lie in a pool of blood, waiting to die. She struggled in agony for a long time before actually dying between six and eight."
"Your hypothesis is possible, but you're overlooking one thing. If the girl fell into a pool of blood and struggled, wouldn't the other five girls have reacted? Even if they didn't help for some reason, wouldn't someone else at the school have found her?"
"It was a holiday. Only the six of them were at school training for a provincial dance competition. Their teacher had left early. And even if there were security guards or others, couldn't someone with ulterior motives have deliberately stopped them?" Chen Ge offered a different opinion.
"I'm not going to argue with you about this. Discussing whether Zhang Ya committed suicide is pointless now. You think the five girls drove her to her death and are guilty of perjury and indirect murder, but within the next two weeks, those five girls also died one after another. The perpetrators you're accusing are no longer alive. How can this case be investigated?" Captain Li was more concerned about Chen Ge's safety.
"Captain Li, I never said those five girls were the murderers. They were just accomplices! The real culprit who drove Zhang Ya to her death is a fat man about 1.8 meters tall, slightly hunched!"
"That's quite detailed. But tell me, how did you deduce the real culprit? Four years ago, the surveillance at West City Private Academy wasn't even fully installed. All the eyewitnesses at the scene are dead. Now you're telling me there's another culprit. How am I supposed to believe you?" Captain Li had been working overtime for days on the Ping An Apartment case and was still on standby at the station past two in the morning. His voice carried a deep weariness.
Chen Ge could hear the doubt in Captain Li's words: "We can investigate everyone connected to West City Private Academy from four years ago. We're sure to find this person! He was at the crime scene that day!"
"Chen Ge, solving cases isn't a game. Do you know how hard it is to investigate everyone connected to a school from four years ago? Even if you convince me, the higher-ups won't approve a case based on suspicion and speculation. You need evidence."
"What I'm saying is the truth."
"Only what holds up to scrutiny is the truth." Captain Li had already started organizing the files, ready to put them back in the cabinet. "Can you tell me why you're so fixated on this case that was closed four years ago? From what I know, you're not exactly a hot-blooded youth overflowing with a sense of justice."
Why so fixated?
Chen Ge was taken aback by Captain Li's question. His mind flashed to Zhang Ya's warning in the wooden cabin at Ping An Apartment and the cold, lonely feeling of her leaning against his back in the dance studio just moments ago.
"Actually, there's no particular reason. In this situation, the only one who can speak for her and stand by her is me." Chen Ge said into the phone.
"I still don't get what you mean." Captain Li paused for a long time before responding. "But strict fairness is the basic principle of police work. Since you've raised doubts, once the Ping An Apartment case is closed, I'll personally help you investigate."
"Thank you, Uncle Sanbao!" Chen Ge breathed a sigh of relief. "Catching the real culprit will give Zhang Ya some closure. As for this damn place, I never want to come back."
He hung up the phone and turned around to take one last look at West City Private Academy.
As he turned, he found the red-clad vengeful spirit Zhang Ya standing right behind him!
They were about two or three meters apart. Blood flowed over her school uniform. Zhang Ya tilted her head, studying Chen Ge. This time, she didn't approach, and her expression was strangely different.