The 80s Female Detective's Guide to Self-Preservation [Criminal Investigation] - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The auntie, who just moments ago had been wailing and cursing the pig thief’s descendants, was frightened witless by Hou Ming’s words. Her face puckered in terror as she scrambled to deflect responsibility.

“Captain, you have to get justice for me! Murder… there’s no way I could do such a thing! How did some god-forsaken wretch drag a murder case onto my doorstep?”

“I’m truly being wronged here. If I really killed someone, would I call the police to arrest myself? No, there’s just no way I killed anyone.”

Seeing the police officers in the courtyard remain silent, the auntie grew more frantic, her face turning a ghastly pale.

Hou Ming washed the fresh blood from his hands. Seeing her getting worked up and moving closer to him, he quickly gestured for her to stay back. “I know, I know. Don’t get excited, Auntie. We will definitely solve this! I guarantee we’ll give you an explanation, alright?”

Outside the courtyard, Xia Sui was busy keeping the crowd at bay. “Uncles, Aunties! Watch from a distance! Don’t come closer or you’ll destroy the crime scene!”

“Actual human intestines? I’ve never seen those. Hey, what’s the difference between human guts and pig guts?” An older woman in the crowd nudged her husband.

The husband took a drag of his hand-rolled cigarette and said flatly, “How should I know? I’ve never eaten them.”

“Bah! Didn’t I just buy you pig intestines the day before yesterday?”

“I said I’ve never eaten human guts! Who knows what the difference is?”

“Ugh—!”

A wave of nausea rippled through the crowd. Xia Sui maintained order with a budding headache, wondering why Liang Guangqi was taking so long just to make a phone call.

Xia Qiuyuan crunched the last of her milk candy and swallowed. With the sweetness gone, her ability to distinguish scents became even sharper. She stood near the two pigs and crouched down. Amidst the stench of blood and raw pork, she picked up notes of wood and oil.

Focusing her senses, she detected another familiar smell. She knew she had encountered it recently, but she couldn’t quite place it.

Hou Ming, irritated by the auntie’s incessant chatter, saw Xia Qiuyuan’s movements but didn’t stop her. He figured she was a provincial police academy graduate who had completed an internship; she couldn’t be a total fool.

Sure enough, Xia Qiuyuan only crouched and observed without touching anything. Hou Ming patiently continued questioning the auntie, asking if the family had offended anyone lately.

Xia Qiuyuan stood up and took two steps back, looking down at the flattened soil. It was hard-packed but slightly slick. Because it was the Start of Spring, a single step would scrape away the surface dirt to reveal what lay beneath.

Since no one had expected a criminal case, the footprints at the scene were already useless for reference. Furthermore, in an 1980s village, two dead pigs were a monumental event; half the village had likely trekked through this pigsty before the auntie even reported it.

Xia Qiuyuan turned to walk out of the yard. Hou Ming called out, “Xiao Qiu, where are you going?”

“Just looking around!” Xia Qiuyuan called back without stopping. She circled to the back of the pigsty, where the footprints were equally chaotic.

She leaned in to sniff the wooden planks used to build the sty. Beyond the perennial filth of pig farming, that same woody scent she smelled on the carcasses was present here. When she stepped back, the scent dissipated.

Having reached a conclusion, Xia Qiuyuan returned to the courtyard. This time, she walked up to the auntie with a smile and offered a few words of comfort.

Her nose, however, was twitching as she caught the auntie’s scent. The woody aroma wasn’t there.

“Auntie, slaughtering a pig makes a lot of noise. Didn’t you hear anything unusual last night?” Xia Qiuyuan remembered New Year pig slaughters in villages; even three or four grown men could barely hold a pig down, and the squealing was terrifying.

There were no signs of forced entry at the pigsty. It was unlikely someone hopped in, took the pigs elsewhere to kill them, and brought them back. That didn’t match the state of the scene. The blood was in large, circular pools with no dripping trails, indicating this was the primary crime scene.

The auntie shook her head and slapped her thigh. “Lass, if I had known, would these pigs be dead? I would have grabbed a tool, beaten the fellow half to death, and dragged him to your station myself!”

In the 1980s, the social atmosphere was tough. Though the local militias had been downsized, the culture of “martial prowess” remained; a disagreement often ended with a display of clubs or staves.

Xia Qiuyuan nodded. “Alright. Did you notice anything off about the pigs before you went to sleep?”

“What could be off? My pigs were healthy as can be! We were saving them for the New Year. What could be wrong?” The auntie glared at Xia Qiuyuan. “Can you talk straight, little girl? Are you saying my pigs were dead to begin with?”

“That’s not what I mean,” Xia Qiuyuan said calmly. “I can’t rule out the possibility that someone drugged your pigs. Otherwise, there’s no way they could have been killed without you hearing a thing while living right upstairs. Either the pigs were drugged, or you were.”

The auntie thought for a moment and shook her head. “Neither. We cook vegetables from our own garden—clean as a whistle. I checked the pigs before bed last night, and they were perfectly fine.”

Xia Qiuyuan believed about half of that.

“Alright. Auntie, have you offended anyone recently who works with wood? Not living trees, but dead wood. Someone who would have sawdust and the scent of aged timber on them year-round?”

The auntie was about to scoff—Hou Ming had asked the same thing earlier. She had spent ten minutes telling Hou Ming about a dispute over two eggs with Auntie Hua two days ago. (“If someone murdered my pigs over two eggs, they’re too petty for this world!”)

But when Xia Qiuyuan added the specific conditions, the auntie’s eyes suddenly bugged out.

“There’s an old codger! His family makes coffins! A few days ago, his son went to town with my son and got jumped! He came over demanding medical fees. I told him if his son wanted to die, he should find a hole and do it quickly, and not to try and swindle me!”

“That son of a bitch! He couldn’t swindle me, so he killed my pigs?” The auntie’s eyes rounded with rage. “How can a person be so black-hearted!”

Before Xia Qiuyuan could ask for directions to the coffin maker’s house, the auntie and Hou Ming shouted simultaneously:

“Hey! You there, stop!”

“It’s you, isn’t it, you old bastard! You killed my pigs!”

Xia Qiuyuan looked over. A figure in a black traditional jacket, who had been watching the commotion from the crowd, suddenly bolted the moment he heard the shouts.

Without a second thought, Xia Qiuyuan dashed out of the courtyard after the figure. She didn’t hesitate at a three-meter-high earthen slope and jumped straight down, drawing a scream from Liang Guangqi, who had just returned from his phone call.

“Holy crap, Qiuyuan! Are you filming a Hong Kong action movie?”

Hou Ming vaulted out of the courtyard as well, leaping down the slope right in front of Liang Guangqi to join the chase. He didn’t forget to shout back: “Guangqi! You and Sui Sui hold the scene! Wait for Wei Min and the others to arrive!”

“Yes, sir!” Liang Guangqi called out. “Wait—where are you guys going? Did we catch the killer already?”

He scratched his head. He had gone to make one phone call, and the case was already solved?