My House of Horrors

Lee Zheng drove Chen Ge and Captain Yan to Eastern Jiujiang police station. On the way, Chen Ge did not say a word. Eastern Jiujiang police station had used Huang Ling’s phone to call him, meaning they had already interrogated Huang Ling, and Huang Ling had probably sold him out. He just worried that Huang Ling had also told them about the last bus.

The previous night, Huang Ling had driven the taxi back to Eastern Jiujiang, and the taxi driver had stayed inside the car. What happened to them later, Chen Ge did not know. Now that the driver had called the police, Chen Ge had to be prepared to not let things go down a route that would be unbeneficial to him. The three arrived at their destination in less than twenty minutes.

“Ol’ Tian, you sure are a hard worker. Even now, you’re still at work.” Once Captain Yan stepped into the room, he saw a group of officers chatting among themselves. He turned to address the officer who looked the most muscular.

“I’m sorry to have you make this journey.” Tian Lei told the officers next to him something and then walked to his office. “We’ll talk inside.”

“Okay.” Captain Yan and Lee Zheng followed while Chen Ge stood for a while in the lobby. The atmosphere there was different to Western Jiujiang Police Station where Uncle San Bao was posted. The place was neatly arranged, and there were two rows of chairs placed in the corner. Leaning unsteadily against the corner was a drunkard while there was an old man with a blank expression on the other side.

Of the two officers that had spoken to Tian Lei earlier, one of them was patiently conversing with the old man, asking him for his address, but the man only mumbled incoherent nonsense.

The other officer rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the mop to clean up the drunkard’s vomit. With a frown, he grumbled, “People in Western Jiujiang have heavy crimes every few days, and here, we are cleaning up vomit and taking care of drunkards and old people. We’re the police, not a nursery.”

“Pipe down. If the director hears you, you’re going to get it. You’re complaining that there’s no serious case? You have no idea how much people from Western Jiujiang envy us.” The other officer rubbed the old man’s frozen hands to help soothe him to increase the blood flow. It looked like this was not the first time that he had come across something like this. “Xiao Qing, after you’re done, go help me pour a glass of warm water for the old gentleman and grab me the blanket as well.”

“Don’t call me Xiao Qing!” The young police man placed the mop back and continued to grouse. “This is different from what I imagine a police officer’s life would be like.”

He walked to the water machine and saw Chen Ge. “Why are you still standing there?”

“I’m just looking around.” Chen Ge walked past the young officer and added casually, “Actually I don’t think you need to envy Western Jiujiang’s police station. I have a feeling that things are going to get quite busy around here.”

“I sure hope so, or else my limbs are going to get so rusted.” The young officer looked at Chen Ge, and he felt he looked so familiar. As he opened the office door, several eyes fell on Chen Ge. Instantly, a familiar voice said, “That’s him! That’s the person who called my service last night! He wanted to go to Eastern Jiujiang’s fresh water plant around midnight. I knew something was wrong with him!”

“If you knew something was wrong with me, why didn’t you say it sooner?” Chen Ge was rather speechless. He was one of the victims as well.

“Police officer, you see‽ You see how arrogant and proud this man is!” The driver was not that old. He had been so scared back then, but he had calmed down now.

“Stop arguing.” Tian Lei was tired. He did not expect Captain Yan would show up; this disrupted his plan. “Captain Yan, you’ve seen the written record, and we’ve checked the video surveillance at New Century Park’s entrance. Last night, Chen Ge did hail a cab to get to Eastern Jiujiang.”

“What about the video after that? Now the biggest problem is at the fresh water plant. The driver said that Chen Ge used some special method to knock him out, but what kind of method, he could not remember. If the driver cannot tell us what really happen, the entire accusation barely holds water.” Captain Yan looked at the record and easily picked out the problems.

“The surveillance at the fresh water plant was all destroyed beforehand. I feel like this is a premeditated crime.” Tian Lei took out another document. “This morning, we had the people from the tech department look over the driving record and camera inside the taxi. The damage was expertly done. The machine itself wasn’t damaged, so this could be a high-tech criminal.”

Captain Yan turned to look at Chen Ge and put the document down. “Does he look like someone who knows how to do that to you?”

“One can never tell. We cannot judge a book by its cover.” Tian Lei insisted on his conclusion. Captain Yan knew that he would not be able to convince Tian Lei, so he turned to the driver. “On the record, you said that you fainted at the fresh water plant but woke up at an old residence in Eastern Jiujiang?”

“Yes.” The driver was a good observer. He saw that Captain Yan was the leader, so his tone was reverential. “When I woke up, there was a paper note next to me. It had a phone number and these few words—My name is Huang Ling. I live on the 4th floor.”

“This means you did not lose your money or your phone? The person was even so kind as to leave you a note and did not run from the responsibility?”

“Hey, you can’t just brush it off like that!” The driver sweated. “I’m just a normal taxi driver. I was waiting in the car, and suddenly, I fainted. When I woke up, I was at a strange place. Who would be able to accept that so easily? And the person on the call, just talking about it made me mad. I never thought to call the police. At the time, I was so afraid, so I made the call. Guess what happened?”

Everyone turned to look at the driver. “What did the person on the phone say? Threatened you? Refused to give you compensation?”

“This is already beyond that. My god. I just made the call and barely said anything, and it sounded like there was a murder. A woman was screaming for help at the top of her lungs. Then before I can say a second word, the call was ended. Tell me, wouldn’t you be afraid if this happened to you?” The driver was agitated, and he got up from his seat.

“You said you called the lady? She was asking for help?” Chen Ge’s eyes turned serious and he also stood up. “Did you go upstairs to see if something had happened to the woman?”

“I don’t have the courage to do that. This is the thing that made me angry the most. I thought that there was a real murder, and when the police arrived around dawn, they went to the house to check. The wife suffers from a mental illness, and she was acting up last night.”

“I can prove that. We communicated with the woman’s husband.” Tian Lei told the driver to sit down and took out a bag from his drawer. There was a phone inside. “This is the mad woman’s phone. All the phone records have been deleted, but we discovered something weird.”

He looked at Chen Ge. “Why would the patient have your number as her first speed dial? What is your relationship with her?”