Chapter 35: Starting Over

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

On the way to the conference room, Qin Feng and Qin Xiaohua were discussing, or rather, venting out their dissatisfactions animatedly.

Yang Wei and Shen Qing had followed Qin Feng’s instructions and gathered all the relevant personnel in the conference room. Moreover, they had also revealed Qin Feng’s conclusion to them in advance.

“What? Three murderers? Are you kidding me? That’s impossible!”

“I bet Qin Feng couldn’t figure anything out and did this to derail our entire investigation!”

“I’m very certain that these four cases are the work of a single murderer.”

“It’s so funny. All he did was went to the crime scenes, and now he expects us to believe that there are three murderers? Does he really think he’s Sherlock Holmes?”

“I want to see how he explains why there are two more murderers than we expected!”

“Qin Feng must’ve read way too many novels. I can’t believe he’s purposefully making this serial murder case more complicated than it already is.”

Everyone lobbed insults towards Qin Feng one after another, revealing their dissatisfaction towards him.

If Qin Feng’s deduction was correct, it meant that their entire month’s worth of effort had been in vain. Moreover, it also meant that they were incompetent. They simply could not accept the fact that they had gotten the direction of the case wrong.

While they were talking, Qin Feng pushed open the door of the conference room and walked in with Qin Xiaohua.

Qin Feng’s face was devoid of any emotion. He pretended that he did not hear the complaints about him earlier.

“Chief!”

Seeing that Chief Qin had also come, everyone immediately straightened their bodies, stood up and saluted.

“Yes, please take a seat. I’m only here to listen,” Qin Xiaohua looked at everyone and said.

The people who received Qin Xiaohua’s response were still standing in place as they wanted to wait for Chief Qin and Qin Feng to enter the meeting room first.

Qin Feng, who was being glared down by the police personnel, pretended to be oblivious. He walked to the innermost part of the meeting room with a calm expression and stood at the top of the table.

‘Seems like the kid has high emotional intelligence.’

Qin Xiaohua noticed Qin Feng’s calm look and mentally remarked. However, Qin Xiaohua had maintained a neutral expression as well as he grabbed a seat.

Qin Feng had asked Shen Qing to turn on the big screen within the meeting room in advance. At this moment, the big screen was displaying all the photos of the case. The photos were all very bloody, without exception. Only the third victim was slightly better, but only if it compared to the other photos.

“All you have should be aware of why I asked you to come by now, so I won’t repeat myself. If there’s anything you wish to say before I start, speak up now.”

Qin Feng looked at the crowd and said.

Gu Qing stood up with a very ugly expression. He looked at Qin Xiaohua and said, “Qin Feng, what basis do you have to claim that there are three murderers on the loose? Where’s your evidence?”

“That’s a good question.” Qin Feng looked at Gu Qing and answered with a smile.

He waved his hand and motioned Gu Qing to sit down. Then he answered, “I’m sure everyone is confused, and you would like to know my reasoning. Well, I’m about to do so right now!”

Everyone’s eyes were focused on Qin Feng. All of them wanted to know how Qin Feng had come up with his verdict.

Qin Feng brought out a remote controller and arranged the photos of the four murders in chronological order of the cases.

“These are all photos of the cases. I think everyone has seen them countless times. But now, I’d like everyone to look carefully at them again.” Qin Feng motioned towards the police officers.

‘What are you trying to pull?’

‘Is this the so-called evidence?’

‘It’s really unnecessary. We’ve already gleaned all the information that’s present in the photos!’

‘What do you want us to see? Are you saying we didn’t do our jobs well enough before?’

‘Why are you being so cryptic? Just give it to us straight!’

The police officers mentally groaned, but seeing as Chief Qin Xiaohua was sitting next to them. They dared not speak their thoughts aloud, for fear that they would incite his wrath. Thus, they could only raise their heads and pretend to look closely at the countless photos on the big screen.

As for Qin Xiaohua, he too had no clue what Qin Feng meant. He had looked at the photos many times, but he did not spot anything. He did not know how Qin Feng had deduced from the photos that there were three murderers involved.

Five minutes later.

Qin Feng asked, “Has everyone finished looking at the photos?”

“Yes.”

Everyone nodded.

“Okay, then let me explain.”

Qin Feng nodded, then took out a photo from each of the four murder cases and put them together.

Everyone frowned. They did not know what Qin Feng was trying to do. They could only restrain their impatience and quickly looked at the photos again, before looking up at Qin Feng.

Qin Feng continued, “According to the summary in the report, in the first and second murder cases, the murderer violated the victim only after he had killed her. In the third murder case, the murderer violated the victim first after she had fainted and then killed her. In the fourth murder case, the murderer simply killed the victim but did not violate the victim. Is that right?”

Everyone nodded in agreement to Qin Feng’s words.

After receiving the affirmative response, he asked, “Then let me ask you now. If the four murders were all committed by the same murderer, then why is there such a huge difference in the modus operandi of the murderers? Don’t you all find it strange? If the purpose of the killings was to vent his anger, the murderer wouldn’t have violated the victims! However, if the goal was to violate the victims, then why did the last victim remained untouched?”

After Qin Feng finished speaking, he brought out the photos from each case and displayed them onto the screen. He analyzed each case one by one, such as the tidiness of the wedding dress, the wear of the shoes, and so on.

Qin Feng compared and analyzed the killers’ modus operandi, the degree of the victim’s wounds, as well as the locations they decided to commit the murder. He brought out various details that had gone unnoticed by the Magic Capital Police Department.

Fifteen minutes later, a heavy silence hung over the conference room.

Qin Feng had already finished analyzing the case, and as such, there was nothing more to say. The other police officers were too embarrassed to open their mouths because of shock and shame.

Everyone had complicated expressions on their faces. They felt that they had made a grave mistake. They seemed to have misjudged the case.

The case that they had been working on for a month, the ‘serial murders of the red-dressed brides’, seemed to have more than one murderer..