Case Files 013

Chapter 104: Interrogation

Captain Zhao closed his eyes before he eventually spoke, "20 years ago, I met someone similar, I wasn't expecting to meet another such person now. Every single step has been carefully calculated, perhaps from the start, their goal is Liu Yinyan. Kidnapping Liu Fei'er was just a way to get to Liu Yinyan." Captain Zhao said firmly, "Liu Yinyan must have something that they want."

He might have told them about his murder 35 years ago, so far only I knew about that. Now that I thought about it, I realized Captain Zhao might have a point. Compared to Liu Yinyan, it was much easier to kidnap Liu Fei'er. At least his butler was with Liu Yinyan 24/7.

"We can't give up now!" I told everyone, "The only way we can get to them is through Lin Dafa, that is probably the reason why they have sent him to us. They have Lin Dafa's daughter and his love for his daughter surpass any expectation."

Captain Zhao continued, "They wanted us to crack Lin Dafa, to get him to give up the kidnappers' location, knowing that Lin Dafa would never do. That is the game that the kidnappers want us to play!" I nodded. "Regardless, we need to get back to interrogation with Lin Dafa, we do not have much time left!"

"Let's go." Captain Zhao waved his hand. I moved to stop Captain Zhao and said softly, "Psychologically speaking, a person is more likely to speak when faced with another person rather than a whole group. Humans might be social creatures but they are also creatures that value privacy. We do not want him to clam up due to the impression that we've ganged up on him."

"What do you suggest then?" Captain Zhao looked at me.

I told him, "If it's possible, I wish to interrogate him alone."

Captain Zhao gave me a once-over before saying, "Okay, then I'll leave this to you. But you have to remember that Liu Yinyan or his daughter will lose 1 finger with each passing hour. You have to be fast, or else they might die. If Liu Yinyan dies, you should know very well how big the impact is going to be." I nodded and hurried towards the interrogation room. Looking in from the one-sided window, Lin Dafa had stopped yelling but he was still looking around. He licked his lips constantly and fidgeted. I smiled, I knew it was his smoke addiction acting up. Pushing open the door, when Lin Dafa saw me, he smiled to reveal his yellowed teeth.

"Officer, you're the only one?" Lin Dafa purposely looked behind me. "Where's the others? Have you come up with a new clue?"

I didn't say anything but walked to the camera and switched it off. Lin Dafa observed that but didn't say anything but I knew my action had given him some sort of comfort. I sat back down in the chair and took out a cigarette box from my pocket. I lit a cigarette. The light scent of cigarette permeated the small interrogation room. Lin Dafa leaned forward as if trying to suck in all the cigarette smoke but I knew this kind of cheap cigarette would not be able to satisfy him. I began, "I hear that you're quite an expert at specialty cigarettes. Davidoff mixed tobacco, which is not easily acquired on the market. So how did you gain contact with the tobacco shop anyway?"

Lin Dafa scoffed. "Ever since I tasted that bastard's tobacco 4 years ago, I got addicted to it. I tell you, human beings are one weird creature. When I was in prison, I thought about my daughter 100 times a day but I thought about that tobacco 101 times a day. But such is the world, when there's a will, there's a way."

I nodded and flicked the cigarette. "Brother, I might look young but I've learned how to smoke since I was about 10. I was so afraid of being discovered by my father back then so I could only hide inside the toilet to smoke. It was only after I was 18 that I dared to smoke around my father. But do you know what kind of effect that had on me?" I took another puff of smoke and said, "Now, I can only shit when I am smoking. But thankfully, it's not the other way round where I will shit whenever I smoke."

Lin Dafa guffawed. "Officer, you're funny. You're different from the other law enforcement people I've met. If not for this circumstance, I would like to have a longer chat with you."

I shrugged, "But speaking of, your partners let you wander around going to buy tobacco? Aren't they afraid that you might be captured?"

Lin Dafa's eyes followed my cigarette. What I was doing was no different from eating fried chicken before a man who had been starved for 3 days. Lin Dafa's face was almost green with desire. He swallowed audibly before saying, "They do watch over my movements but it's not that strict that I wasn't allowed the opportunity to satisfy my cravings. They still give me time to go out, but recently, I've been allowed more free time." I nodded, took out a cigarette and walked towards Lin Dafa. "Oh, doesn't that mean you have to hurry back soon? Do you have a car?"

"What do you think?" Lin Dafa grinned. I placed the cigarette on Lin Dafa's lips and lit it up. Lin Dafa gave a satisfied moan like a worker who crashed onto his bed after a long day of work. As he did, the cigarette dropped to the ground. I bent over to pick it up. When I was down there, I glanced at Lin Dafa's shoes, he was wearing a pair of black cotton shoes. They had white spots on them. If not for the close distance, I wouldn't have spotted them. Replacing the cigarette in his mouth, I walked back to my spot and continued to ask, "Dong Xing City's eastern and southern sides are near the sea, which side are you from?"

Lin Dafa's expression shifted. "I'm guessing the southern side," I said.

Lin Dafa looked at me with a gobsmacked expression. The cigarette in his mouth bounced with each of his words, "South, north, east, west, what do you mean?"

"Thank you." Then I turned to walk out from the interrogation room.

"Hey!" Lin Dafa shouted behind me. "What are you talking about? Come back here!" When I left, I saw Captain Zhao and the rest standing on the other side of the glass. Gu Chen was clearly confused by my action, "What did you find out? I wasn't able to follow your conversation at all, all you did was to ask about the tobacco, what was the clue?"

I explained quickly, "When I walked in, I immediately asked him about the tobacco. His answer told us that he only has limited time to go out daily. He doesn't have a car so he has to take public transport, taxi or bicycle. We can eliminate taxis, because if driving can leave behind a trail of evidence, then taking a taxi will be even more so. If he took the bicycle, Gu Chen would have discovered the bicycle but he did not. So he must have taken public transport. When I visited the tobacco shop with Gu Chen, I noted down the bus routes."

Gu Chen looked at me. "There are buses passing through there?"

I continued, "Yes, the tobacco shop is an illegal business so the location is rather secluded. It is not close to any subway line, only bus routes. Only Line 10, 6, 13, 27 and 32 Bus Routes pass by there. Most of these routes circle around the eastern or southern part of Dong Xing City, only Line 13 is from the western side."

"That's right." Captain Zhao confirmed.

I nodded. "When the cigarette fell, I took close note of his shoes. There are small white spots on them. That proves that he might live near the seaside, because those white spots are salt crystals. The sea breeze carries sea water with them and after they dry, they crystallize on his shoes. Furthermore, during Captain Zhao's first call with the kidnapper, he mentioned they were having seafood." I said as I moved out, "These few factors add to the hypothesis that they might live by the seaside or at least along the coastal line."

Gu Chen nodded. "That's brilliant! But Dong Xing City's coastline is so wide, where are we going to start?"

I explained, "That's why I asked him whether it was south or east and his expression changed. I picked one of the two. When I picked the south side, he acted all flustered, but he's not as good of an actor as he thinks. That means that my guess was wrong. So it should be on the east side." I asked, "The map please!"

Guan Zhenglin grabbed a map and spread it on the table. "Sister Mary, stop looking at the surveillance, we don't have much time. Can you help me mark out the bus routes for Line 10, 6, 27 and 36 instead?" Then I marked out a spot on the map, it was the location of the tobacco shop. Soon Mary did what I asked of her. Only Line 10 and 32 were close to the seaside but neither of them had a stop by the coastline, in other words, Lin Dafa must have changed route in the middle. That left us with a large territory to search. Even if we mobilized the entire police force, it would take a whole afternoon or a whole night to scan the whole area. By then Liu Yinyan and his daughter would be dead already.

"What are we supposed to do then? Are we going to go back to interrogate Lin Dafa?" Gu Chen looked at the big circled out area and sighed, "We do not have that much manpower."

"It's pointless," I sighed, "This trick can only be used once. No matter what we ask now, Lin Dafa will not open his mouth again." Everyone was silent when Captain Zhao sighed, "We'll need to conduct the search regardless. As long as there's hope, we can't give up. How many possible locales can there be? We can eliminate places with crowds and near the city. I'm sure we can find this place!"

Captain Zhao's words gave me inspiration. I immediately enquired. "Sister Mary, you've recorded all the conversations we've had with the kidnappers, right?"

"Yes." Mary answered, "That's part of the protocol, is there any clue among the conversation?"

"Not the conversation!" I snapped my fingers. "Dong Xing City is a metropolis, a city that never sleeps. But on the kidnapper's side, it was always deadly quiet. This means that either the kidnappers are at a place where the sound insulation is very good or there is practically no human activity around them!"

Mary nodded, "You may be right but there's one more thing. You guys probably didn't hear it because you weren't wearing professional earphones. Actually there has been a constant low frequency static in the background."

"Then can you remove the kidnapper's voice and heighten the background noises?" I asked.

"No problem!" Mary pulled over her laptop. "Give me a second."