The Dress Serial Murders, Part 8

After hanging up, Xiao Wang sent over all the files at once. On the personal file, Zhou Xun lingered longer than once: Li Tan had served three years in prison, and not for anything dignified—petty theft and grift, a long record of them.

Which made him, in a sense, a complete professional. The main thing was that his failures were as plentiful as his skills.

Guan Zhiyan couldn't tell what he found so funny. She tried to see the screen, but she only came up to his shoulder; all she caught was the edge of the phone.

She reached out, resigned, to snatch it—but her hand had barely extended before Zhou Xun "obediently" surrendered the phone. It carried a distinct flavor of being needled on purpose.

She didn't really take it to heart; she simply took the phone and studied the file line by line.

Hu Yan sat beside them, watching their little exchange, and couldn't help thinking: what she had had with Li Tan—wasn't that closer to some arrangement of favors for money? She kept feeling it was her own fault, that she shouldn't have tried to make her way in the city like this. Maybe none of this would have happened otherwise.

She couldn't sit still at all.

"So this Li Tan is a repeat offender. No wonder the scene didn't have so much as a footprint." Guan Zhiyan frowned. "Should we ask the detachment captain at Chaoyang Precinct? Aren't the two of you close? Before that, we can try to learn what kind of man he is..."

Before she could finish, Zhou Xun leaned against the doorframe. "You still have my phone. Or were you planning to reach him by telepathy?"

Guan Zhiyan: "..." She didn't argue. He wasn't wrong.

She handed the phone back, and Zhou Xun wasted no time calling his captain friend.

This captain had been his roommate at the academy—a man who had clawed his way to the top of every ranking on his own merit. The two were friends, and more than friends: rivals, forever trading first and second place on the boards. Truthfully, when she first learned of their friendship, Guan Zhiyan hadn't known; then she watched him compete once and something in her completely lost control.

Two words for what she became: fangirl.

"Hello? What do you want this time?" the voice on the line said. Guan Zhiyan was just then going to sit with Hu Yan, so she paid no attention to the call.

Zhou Xun stepped outside. "Zhao Yu, I need a favor."

"You coming to me is never good news. Besides, I'm busy lately. If it's nothing important—well, you needn't tell me anything about little Guan." Zhao Yu sighed mightily. "I don't dare ask these days."

Ever since Zhou Xun had chewed him out last time, the two had barely met or spoken. Zhao Yu knew exactly what was in Zhou Xun's heart and had no intention of poking through it—getting called out would cost him face.

"Get lost! It's nothing of the sort!" Zhou Xun snapped back instantly. "I have a case. You know Li Tan, don't you?"

Zhao Yu's interest visibly deflated. "Li Tan... don't get me started on that one. You bring him up and my blood pressure climbs. It took us forever to arrest him back then. He's out now—no idea where. Don't tell me he's reoffended?"

Zhou Xun told him everything he could share.

When he finished, Zhao Yu frowned. "Since when does this man follow a pattern? As I remember it, he killed whenever the mood took him—no attention to detail, purely impulse."

That struck Zhou Xun as odd. How had he turned so methodical? Could he have learned it in prison? The man really was something—skills picked up in a cell, and still sharper than the average free man's.

"Oh, and I'm not done." Zhao Yu was brisk. "Li Tan isn't actually a veteran. He went in the same time as his mother—and it was his mother directing him. The case file noted a mother fixation: he goes for tall, upright women, the kind his mother was."

A deviant killer, through and through.

"By that logic, then, Li Tan..." As he spoke, Zhou Xun turned and glanced at Hu Yan—just a sweep of the eyes, and it was true: she matched Zhao Yu's description exactly. So did the photo Xiao Wang had sent over.

"So how do we deploy to take him?"

"He's easy to catch. He's too deep in it to stop. What we never guessed back then was that Li Tan was the killer." Zhao Yu was being honest. When they'd gone to the plant to arrest him, Li Tan had cooperated with remarkable speed—ask him now where he'd gone to the toilet half a year ago and he'd answer without a pause.

If not for one slip of the eyes that day, they might never have caught him in six months. Zhao Yu was still fuming about it. Over the line came a click, then a long exhale—smoking again, no doubt, without a care in the world.

Then another woman's voice drifted over; Zhou Xun half-caught her telling Zhao Yu to put the cigarette out.

"Damn it." Zhao Yu cursed under his breath, then managed, with dignity, "The window's open, it won't..." He must have just barely talked his way past her, for he sighed and returned to business. "This case is a simple one. Li Tan is easy to take."

Zhou Xun paused. "If he really did learn something in prison, this case won't be as simple as you say."

"No matter. Call me anytime you want to ask. At this point, honestly, Li Tan counts as an old acquaintance."

Zhou Xun pressed his lips together. "Wait. Didn't you say you were busy?"

Zhao Yu laughed. "Where cases are concerned, I never slack."

"Fine, then. I'll come to you when I need something—and when you need me, I won't slack either."

Brothers. A good shouting match was about as effective as a distraction got.

It wasn't as if Zhao Yu would actually drop them as friends over Guan Zhiyan.

He rubbed his chin, merely curious—merely—what sparks would fly between the two of them next.

With that, Zhou Xun hung up.

He glanced back into the room, then went in. "Hu Yan, can you still reach him?"

Hu Yan's hand was clenched white around her phone. She looked at Guan Zhiyan beside her and nodded quickly.

She opened her phone and typed to Li Tan.

Nearly two minutes passed before a reply came.

The first line read: [Dear, is something the matter?]

Now that Hu Yan knew what she knew, that "dear" turned her stomach. Fighting the nausea, she typed: [Is our meeting tonight still on?]

Li Tan replied: [Of course. Same place, tonight.]

The typing indicator pulsed...

Another message: [I'll bring the dress to you myself. It won't be the same one Qiu Ning had.]

Once upon a time, messages like these would have made Hu Yan giddy. Now she felt only a deeper revulsion.

She set the phone on the table, turned, and went to the bathroom to be sick.

Guan Zhiyan was worried for her, but first she checked the phone. Li Tan had sent plenty more—most of it leering stickers and emojis. Zhou Xun swore at the screen. "If I get my hands on that animal—"

Guan Zhiyan nodded her full agreement. She had no intention of scrolling up; she set the phone back on the table.

She was quiet a moment. "We should get over there. But we can't just leave Hu Yan alone here."

"It's fine. I'll send Xiao Wang ahead to scout the surroundings." Zhou Xun pulled out his phone to make another call—partly because the kid had followed him long enough and needed the field time.

Phones were having a rough day.

Zhou Xun's swearing ran unusually high today—probably something about a man like Li Tan. Then again, who wouldn't?

He gave Xiao Wang his instructions in full.

Xiao Wang thumped his chest. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Xiao Wang grinned. "Boss, if anything changes, just text me."

"Right." Zhou Xun said. "Be careful. Don't go getting us a rout."

"I won't disappoint all your teaching, Boss."

"Get lost!"

*

Xiao Wang arrived early at the address his boss had given him: a plaza in Chaoyang, not one of the district's busier ones. Not a soul in sight—noon sun, probably, too hot for loitering. He swept his eyes around.

He didn't know this part of Chaoyang well. He half thought the job belonged to Brother Zhao Yu's people, who'd know the ground.

Then an officer behind him spoke up fast: "Brother Wang—look, an off-road vehicle coming in!"

Xiao Wang followed his gaze: an off-road vehicle bearing down on their position, pulling up sharp into the box just ahead of their own parked cars.

The driver climbed out, grinning, and introduced himself the moment he laid eyes on Xiao Wang. "You'd be Xiao Wang? Wang Ying, Chaoyang criminal investigation squad."

"So you're Wang Ying!" Xiao Wang was pleasantly surprised.

He'd just been saying Chaoyang ought to send someone—and speak of the devil. A genuinely pleasant surprise.

This Wang Ying was Zhao Yu's protégé. Xiao Wang's own class had been a strong one; if his boss hadn't been slow claiming him back then, they'd surely have snagged someone even sharper. Well—he'd made his peace long ago. Everything is hard at the start, and the old man had taught him plenty since.

"Xiao Wang, what do you need from us?" Wang Ying was as easygoing as the boy next door, hands on hips. "I know Li Tan rather well."

Xiao Wang got to the point. "What kind of man is he, exactly?"

"Long and short of it: Li Tan scopes out his ground in advance. That's why I wanted to come see the site myself." Wang Ying looked them over quickly. "You've brought plenty of people. Spread them around the coffee shop—all four sides—and watch whether he shows. I'm worried a stint in prison has given him ideas."

Xiao Wang understood at once. "We don't know this area, Brother Wang. We're counting on you."

Solving problems was exactly what Wang Ying had come for. He dispersed the men at once and ran through the terrain: how many front and back doors the coffee shop had, where the alleys ran nearby, which routes suited a runner.

It all hung together, and Xiao Wang committed every word to memory. It would not be forgotten.

"Xiao Wang, the ground here isn't simple, but it's not hard either. Once you know it, you know it."

Xiao Wang rubbed his chin and looked around again. Few people nearby—but he couldn't tell what the area turned into after dark.

"Brother Wang, does it get crowded here at night?"

Wang Ying shook his head. "This isn't much of a hotspot. Few people come for coffee even at night, and with the heat, fewer still. The street behind us is mostly drunk young men—it shouldn't touch your operation."

Xiao Wang took it in: a small plaza, a couple of milk-tea shops and cafés, and almost nobody here except the local residents. He nodded.

The job now was simple: eyes on everything, all sides, all the time.