Chapter 4

Yes. Perhaps our reasoning had gone wrong very early.

The body’s clothes matched what Chung Lien had worn that morning. That led us to believe she was probably the victim.

We hadn’t formally jumped to a conclusion, but police resources were limited. Our entire subsequent investigation had revolved around that probability.

Unfortunately, this might be the exception.

Clothing was usually a reliable clue to identity. If someone deliberately exchanged it to mislead us, however, that judgment would fail.

Now that we knew Ma Huc was lying, we had to consider the possibility before us, however absurd.

The dead woman wasn’t Chung Lien.

It was Lau Dinh.

Some dispute had led Chung Lien to kill her.

Once they realized the damage couldn’t be undone, husband and wife had conspired to switch identities with the body.

First, they destroyed Lau Dinh’s face so we couldn’t recognize her.

The missing hands might have been intended to prevent fingerprint identification.

Most citizens supplied fingerprints when applying for second-generation identity cards. If the victim’s thumbs remained intact, technical comparison could indeed establish her identity.

Changing the body’s clothes was simply meant to make us think Chung Lien was dead.

The hair was their oversight. Perhaps they had worked too hurriedly to notice the difference between the women’s hairstyles.

Naturally, none of this could fool us forever. Without a face or fingerprints, DNA could still establish the victim’s true identity.

But DNA testing took time.

That was exactly what Ma Huc and Chung Lien wanted.

I almost admired how far ahead they had thought.

Most killers focused only on disposing of the body.

These two understood that wouldn’t be enough.

Sooner or later, someone would notice Lau Dinh missing and report it. Camera footage would show her entering their building and never leaving. Their apartment would inevitably come under scrutiny.

So while dealing with the remains, they prepared two plans at once.

One was to conceal the crime by dismembering and disposing of the body.

The other anticipated discovery. After agreeing on their story, Chung Lien would disguise herself as Lau Dinh and flee.

Meanwhile, Ma Huc would destroy or alter the body’s identifying features.

Even if it was found, our mistaken identification would at least buy Chung Lien time.

Both strategies had begun at the same time, covering different eventualities.

As a plan to fool the police completely, it was full of holes.

As a means of delaying us, it had worked.

A few things still troubled me.

First, disposal had been remarkably hasty and careless.

Not taking their own car was understandable. We would naturally prioritize private vehicles leaving the complex. A bus passenger might attract less suspicion initially.

But a bus was still a dangerous place to carry remains. Why hadn’t Ma Huc taken a little extra time to wrap the head more securely?

Second, if Chung Lien was the killer but he handled most of the disposal, his willingness to do so much suggested he loved her deeply.

Could she really abandon him and run alone?

Third, when we called Lau Dinh’s mahjong acquaintance, why hadn’t he mentioned that the caller wasn’t Lau Dinh?

The first two questions couldn’t be answered quickly.

The third could.

I called the mahjong player myself.

After confirming who I was, I asked directly whether he was certain Lau Dinh had called.

His voice grew hesitant.

“Well… it was probably her? Officer, we aren’t that close, but it sounded like her. I really couldn’t swear to it one hundred percent.”

“Did she mention anything that showed she knew who you were?”

He thought for a moment.

“Two things. She called me Fourth, which is what the mahjong crowd calls me. And she knew I owned a light-bulb factory. Nothing else.”

“Understood. Thank you for your cooperation.”

After hanging up, I formed a few more ideas.

Her phone might have contained notes about this acquaintance and his work. Chung Lien could have read them and impersonated her.

Perhaps their voices were similar too. Using Lau Dinh’s own phone would make the impersonation even more convincing.

To check, I had someone ask Chung Lien’s parents how alike the women sounded.

The answer came quickly.

Very alike. Even relatives sometimes confused them.

That explained why neither the upstairs neighbor nor the mahjong player had distinguished their voices.

I now had to admit something embarrassing.

Every measure we had taken to catch the fugitive had targeted the wrong person.

We shouldn’t have been hunting Lau Dinh.

We should have been looking for Chung Lien.

The search shifted accordingly.

Our response had certainly been slow. Fortunately, we had identified her as connected with the case at the outset and entered her details into the system.

If she bought a ticket, rented accommodation, or did anything requiring identification, we would know immediately.

Originally, that was meant to stop the killer escaping under her identity.

Now it might help stop Chung Lien herself.

Of course, those alerts wouldn’t prevent an illegal departure. Once we understood what had happened, we added further measures.

Camera checks, social-network inquiries, patrols and surveillance at possible embarkation points along piers and shallows—each gradually closed another route.

At the same time, Hoang reported progress in the mountains.

The missing hands had been found.

I exhaled with relief.

The case was becoming clearer. The chain of evidence was closing.

A solution seemed within reach.

Then, minutes later, another field report left me completely bewildered.

A team tracing Lau Dinh near Hanh Phuc Thuy Luc Vien had found her on a fruit shop’s camera.

She hadn’t entered, only passed the door.

But in those few seconds, the camera caught her full face.

The timestamp was 11:38 yesterday morning.

My thoughts knotted.

Damn it. Wrong again.

We had originally identified the red-coated woman leaving the stairwell as Lau Dinh for two main reasons.

First, although she hid her face, the scattered footage showed height, build, gait, and parts of her features closely matching Lau Dinh’s.

Second, there was footage of the red coat leaving but none of it entering. She must have arrived in different clothes.

We had ruled out the other residents. Assuming Chung Lien was the victim, elimination left only Lau Dinh.

When we later considered Lau Dinh the victim and Chung Lien the fugitive, we naturally reinterpreted the footage.

Perhaps Chung Lien deliberately copied her cousin’s gait and appearance. The images were brief, fragmented, and blurry. An imitation could easily mislead us.

And if Chung Lien intended deception, different clothes arriving and leaving were readily explained.

But all those deductions depended on one premise.

No camera had captured the red-coated woman’s entire face.

We had been unable to identify her conclusively and could only make educated guesses.

Now that had changed.

This new footage made one thing unmistakable.

The woman who left the building after the crime wasn’t Chung Lien.

It was Lau Dinh.

We were wrong again.

Fortunately, this error hadn’t caused irreparable damage.

Our original measures against Lau Dinh were still in place. Now that we had another sighting, catching her shouldn’t be too difficult.

There was little disagreement about where she had gone after passing the fruit shop.

Home, probably, to pack for her escape.

But Hanh Phuc Thuy Luc Vien had few internal cameras. She had lived there a long time and knew the layout, so the complex’s surveillance couldn’t establish her movements.

Yinhai’s overall camera coverage was very high, though.

Even if the complex missed her, she couldn’t avoid every camera elsewhere in the city.

I was sure a new lead would come soon.

For now, her return home narrowed our search.

We marked a priority area centered on the complex.

Several teams joined local officers to check each privately operated camera.

Ride-hailing vehicles, taxis, and buses entering or leaving the complex or nearby area in the hours after the crime also became priorities.

From the moment she first came under suspicion, AI had been scanning citywide security and traffic footage for her.

No result yet.

Perhaps she had changed clothes, put on a mask, and made a simple disguise after going home.

AI could flag masked people separately, but a recent flu outbreak meant many people wore masks outside. Even filtering them all would leave an enormous manual review.

The key was to establish how she looked after packing and leaving.

Unfortunately, it was now the middle of the night. Waking every shopkeeper in the area to retrieve footage wasn’t practical.

The fruit-shop recording had been copied just before closing and taken to the local station for review.

A few similar recordings remained unchecked, mostly from the complex and its immediate perimeter. We still lacked private footage from farther out.

Soon the remaining videos had been reviewed.

A nearby knitwear shop showed Lau Dinh at 11:41. By the time and direction, she was still going home.

None showed her leaving.

“That’s wrong,” an experienced officer said. “There may be few cameras inside the complex, but they’re dense around it. She couldn’t leave without appearing anywhere.”

“Then there are three possibilities,” another said. “She hasn’t left. We missed a camera. Or she went by vehicle.”

“She probably left, but we can’t rule out the first,” I said. “Keep watching the complex. Even if she’s still there, she’ll eventually try to get away until things quiet down.

“Personally, I’d focus on the other two.

“Check the cameras again, especially the entrances and nearby major junctions. Copy everything, transcode it, and feed it into the system to compare possible faces against hers.

“As for a vehicle, she doesn’t own one. None of the people we know to be close to her who have cars came near the complex yesterday. Ride-hailing cars, taxis, and buses are being checked. We’ll hear immediately if they produce anything.

“But don’t assume that guarantees we’ll catch her. Her social network isn’t fully mapped. If someone in the complex was willing to drive her, what we’ve done so far is nowhere near enough.

“So manually review traffic footage at the main nearby junctions after 11:41 yesterday morning. Check for anything AI missed. If she sat in the back or outside the camera’s view, facial recognition won’t find her.

“Look through vehicles belonging to neighbors and others with whom she has relatively close contact. If any left after she returned, examine their movements for anything suspicious.”

With the next steps settled, everyone went straight to work.

A breakthrough came quickly.

At seven that morning, our officers and local police began knocking on doors with her photograph, asking whether anyone had noticed her yesterday.

Before long, we had a new lead.

An elderly resident had seen her at midday.

She had got into a small truck.

That was crucial.

He didn’t remember the plate, but could describe the color and make. We identified the truck through the complex’s cameras immediately.

We soon found its owner.

When told why we were there, he panicked a little and readily admitted giving Lau Dinh a ride.

He insisted he had no idea she had committed a crime.

He ran a grain shop nearby and had come to the complex to deliver an order.

Afterward, he happened to meet her.

They had met a year earlier at a nearby investment club.

At the time, they were merely acquaintances.

He initially earned a little from the club’s scheme. Then the so-called club disappeared, taking tens of thousands of yuan of his principal.

Unexpectedly, when Lau Dinh heard, she sent him two thousand yuan.

She said she had made money from the scheme, and it wasn’t right that she alone benefited while a fellow participant lost so much. She wanted to cover part of his loss herself.

He was deeply moved.

Although too embarrassed to accept, he became friendlier with her afterward. They often chatted on WeChat.

So when they met and she asked for a lift, he agreed without a second thought.

He initially offered the passenger seat.

She said she got carsick and insisted on riding in the cargo area.

Not knowing she was involved in a crime, he never considered that she might be avoiding cameras.

He agreed.

That explained most of it.

No wonder cameras hadn’t found her, and there was no record of a taxi, bus, or ride-hailing trip.

Casual connections could be hard to trace. We hadn’t found this grain merchant in her social network and had therefore paid no attention to his truck.

He said he dropped her outside a cement factory in Lieu Trung Subdistrict.

He hadn’t intended to go there. She asked him to make the detour.

We went there immediately.

Lieu Trung was already on the outskirts, with fewer security and traffic cameras. Fortunately, she had got off on the main road, where factories and shops had plenty of cameras.

With a clear starting point, our chances improved greatly.

We established her route.

She walked a short distance along the main road, turned onto a riverside path, and entered a nearby village.

Officers went door to door with her photograph.

This time, progress was remarkably smooth.

At the third house, we learned something crucial.

She was still in the village.

Within minutes, helpful residents led us to a rented room.

At last, Lau Dinh was in custody.

In the interview room, I sat opposite Ma Huc again.

He looked very calm.

I could see he was nervous.

After a long silence, I spoke slowly.

“Lau Dinh has been arrested.”

He froze, then feigned indifference.

“Officer, stop trying to trick me. I’ve told you everything. If you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do.”

I offered no explanation, only added calmly, “If you don’t believe it, I can bring her in to face you.”

Surprise flickered across his face.

He quickly hid it and shook his head.

“If you really found her, ask her. What difference does it make whether she tells you or I do?”

I sighed and looked straight at him.

“It does make a difference. Do you think we haven’t questioned her?

“Ma Huc, there isn’t much time.

“I want to give you one more chance.

“I know you have someone to protect. But face reality. Stop lying to yourself.

“You’re intelligent. I know you understand.

“It’s time this ended. Time to get justice for her.”

Then I said nothing more.

At first, he met my gaze indifferently, apparently unwilling to admit anything.

After several minutes, his composure began to crumble.

Helplessness, anger, and self-reproach took its place.

Tears spilled down his cheeks.

His throat worked as though he wanted to speak, but no words came.

I waited patiently.

Nothing else needed saying. I knew he would tell the truth.

Even if he didn’t, it no longer mattered.

Lau Dinh had already told us everything.

I only wanted him to confirm it himself.

I believed he would.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew whether I was bluffing.

Time passed.

More than ten minutes later, he finally spoke hoarsely.

“Officer… I’ll tell you. Everything I know.”

At about 9:50 the previous morning, Ma Huc received a WeChat call.

It was his wife, Chung Lien.

She was highly agitated but coherent enough to explain what had happened.

Her older cousin Lau Dinh had come to the door again.