Chapter 33

Chapter 32 3. panic room-06

The threatening email and audio Liu Yang received this time didn’t leak, but the recording clearly showed that the kidnapped child’s life was in serious danger—he had not only lost an ear but had also been abused and beaten by the kidnappers.

From the moment the kidnapping case was handed over to him, Captain Shen and his team of detectives had barely slept a minute. Everyone had eyes sharp as hawks, unshaven, running around in the deep December winter. Their clothes were soaked with sweat, dried, then wet again, and now all smelled sour.

Shen Zun tossed the emptied cigarette box into the trash, found a pack of cigarettes in the pocket of a passing male officer, lit one, took a puff, found the flavor too weak, threw the remaining half pack back, and irritably scratched his greasy hair.

“It’s been almost thirty hours, and the kidnappers still haven’t demanded ransom for the hostage?”

Someone shook their head. “No, Liu Yang’s email hasn’t moved.”

“Damn their entire family!”

Shen Zun slammed the table hard.

Any experienced detective knew that kidnappers motivated only by money usually contact the victim’s family after securing the hostage and demand ransom, typically within three to five hours, rarely more than twenty-four.

Kidnappers who repeatedly send evidence of harm instead of demanding ransom fall into three types:

First, those angered by the family, using intimidation to assert authority;

Second, antisocial personalities who derive satisfaction from harming those unable to resist;

Third, those with personal grudges against the victim or family, who torment the victim after the act rather than immediately seeking money.

“Have Liu Yang and Wang Tinglan found any clues?”

Shen Zun downed a cup of cold black coffee, red-eyed, calling the officer stationed at the Liu residence.

“No.”

The officer’s hoarse, exhausted voice said, “They saw the two sketches, said they didn’t recognize the men, and couldn’t recall knowing anyone with burns on the back of their right hand.”

He stepped a few paces away, lowered his voice: “As for people Liu Yang and his wife offended… that list is long. Just from grudges the couple has, there are seventeen or eighteen people, many prominent. Checking all of them would take at least ten to fifteen days.”

Shen Zun had planned to investigate the third possibility—personal grudges—but now knew that path wouldn’t yield quick results.

“Chief, Officer Zhang from the tech team is here!”

The meeting room door opened. A young officer led a middle-aged man in a dark blue tech uniform briskly inside.

“Hey, Old Zhang!”

Shen Zun immediately stood like a spring, “Been waiting for you, sit!”

Officer Zhang plopped down beside him, slamming a few printed A4 sheets on the table. “I’ll tell you the analysis results of the audio sent by the kidnappers.”

He skipped pleasantries, diving straight in: “To cut to the chase, we separated four voices from the audio.”

Zhang, head of the bureau’s tech team and an old partner of Shen Zun, opened the last page of the report for Shen to see.

“Background noise is still being analyzed, but we can confirm that besides the kidnapped Liu Yunxiao, there are at least three adult male voices.”

Shen Zun asked, “So there are at least three kidnappers?”

“Yes.”

Zhang nodded, flipping forward two pages: “The man beating Liu Yunxiao is voice sample #1. He hits while swearing, high-frequency waveform, high-pitched and emotional, likely aged 20–40.”

He pointed to sample #2: “This voice is quieter, further from the recorder, more static. At 5:07 in the audio, he thrice urged #1, ‘stop hitting.’”

Seeing Shen Zun nod, Zhang pointed to the last, #3: “The final one speaks in the audio’s fourth-to-last second. Mixed with the child’s screams, but roughly says ‘Shut up, it’s annoying.’ Hoarse voice, probably older than #1.”

“Good! Thanks! Appreciate your hard work!”

Shen Zun patted Zhang’s shoulder, stood up, dialing officers while telling the tech team chief: “Keep analyzing the background, find more clues!”

As they spoke, the liaison officer’s phone rang. The young female officer picked up, her expression changed, she removed the handset, shouting: “Captain Shen, the white van the suspect drove has been found!!”

Shen Zun’s face lit with shock and joy as he stood abruptly.

But the next words made him pale.

The officer continued: “The officer who found the vehicle said there’s a corpse inside!”

&&& &&& &&&

“Alright, let’s start immediately.”

Feng Ling hung up and told Qi Shanyu, “Director Liu Yi is on his way back from the airport. He wants the body sent straight to the autopsy room.”

She led two young forensic officers, pushing the corpse from the vehicle onto the elevator to the autopsy room.

Qi Shanyu, assigned by Shen Zun to oversee the forensic institute, followed.

The white box van was discovered in Ximen Village, sixty kilometers from the kidnapping on Jinxiu Road.

Looking at the Xinhai City map, one location is southeast, the other north, forming nearly a diagonal.

Ximen Village, once a nearby suburb, had been incorporated into the city but retained its old appearance. A tall archway marked the entrance, locals and nearby workers passed through.

The van was parked behind a farmers’ market in a space used for parking. Handwritten parking tickets showed it arrived at 10:45 PM the previous night.

Nighttime market activity and the van’s ordinary appearance meant the on-duty guard barely noticed it, vaguely remembering a middle-aged man driving but not details.

Thus, the van with the corpse remained unnoticed.

At noon, as the lot filled, the van’s poor parking blocked others. The guard approached, saw a figure in the back through dark windows, panicked, and called police. Officers broke the glass, opened the door, and confirmed the person was a cold, long-dead corpse.

“We’ve had the 4S store staff and owner identify it.”

Qi Shanyu stood at the corner of the autopsy room, observing the middle-aged man’s corpse, noting a burn scar on the right back hand from the middle finger to upper forearm.

Officer An Pingdong on the phone said, “The man in the car is the missing fake Yu Ping, likely one of the kidnappers.”

He added: “Chief wants the institute to determine how he died and find clues to confirm his true identity!”

“Got it.”

Qi Shanyu hung up, watching Feng Ling and the young forensic officers undress the body for examination.

“Face bruised, eyes protruding, conjunctiva congested, scattered pinpoint hemorrhages. Below larynx, an O-shaped ligature mark, one centimeter wide, dark brown, scattered hemorrhages on edges, small local blisters. Right rear neck ligature shows twisting marks.”

After examining key features, Feng Ling concluded: “Clearly, he died from strangulation.”

Chapter 33 3. panic room-07

The cause of death of fake Yu Ping was clear. Feng Ling pointed at the twisted abrasion on the back of the neck: “See this? You can see a cross-shaped knot.”

She made a tying gesture in the air. “Someone looped a rope around his neck from behind, tied a knot, and strangled him.”

Ordinary victims struggle violently when strangled from behind, leaving scratches on the neck, under nails, sometimes fibers. But fake Yu Ping’s fingers, though dirty, showed no struggle marks.

“He has a scalp hematoma at the back of his head.”

Feng Ling probed the greasy, sparse short hair, feeling subcutaneous fluctuations: “Possibly with a skull fracture. We’ll confirm when we cut the hematoma.”

She pinched some dried brown-black blood from the hair near the hematoma. “Likely dried blood.”

Feng Ling speculated: “He was probably struck on the back of the head first, lost consciousness or the ability to resist, then strangled with a rope.”

“So he was killed by his accomplices?”

A young forensic officer frowned at the corpse: “Internal conflict among them?”

Qi Shanyu knew there were at least three kidnappers, and now the autopsy suggested it could be an internal dispute killing.

“Dr. Feng, can we find features to confirm his identity?”

Qi Shanyu asked the most pressing question.

Feng Ling, myopic with -3.00 vision, scanned the naked body sharply.

“He has irregular burn scars on the back of his right hand,” she said, examining the thick hand carefully.

The burn was irregular, roughly shaped like a slanted “concave” character, from the third knuckle of the middle, ring, and little fingers to the upper third of the forearm, covering most of the hand back.

The scar was bright red, edges clear, firm, with nodules. “Looks fairly recent,” Feng Ling thought. “Probably less than six months old. Could be a starting point.”

“Six months…” Qi Shanyu repeated, shaking his head. “Too long. Many hospitals treat burns; we can’t be sure it’s local. Searching could take a long time. The kidnapped child can’t wait that long.”

A young assistant sighed: “It’s not that we don’t want to help… but ordinary corpses don’t leave much trace…”

“Xiao Lin, keep it down!” Feng Ling sharply interrupted.

The assistant shut up, embarrassed.

“Good point, Dr. Feng!”

At that moment, the autopsy room door was pushed open. Liu Yi, just changed, without hat or mask, tying his