Hong Kong Detective [90s] Chapter 3

Edited: 04/28/24

Newspapers were scattered where the body lay, likely left behind by a hard-of-hearing elderly man who collected scraps but hadn’t managed to sell these yet.

The batch soaked in blood was already taken away by colleagues from the Forensic Science Division during evidence collection. The ones remaining, unstained by blood, were quickly noticed by Fang Zhenyue as he glanced over, spotting a copy of last month’s gossip magazine.

The issue, celebrating its 75th release, featured photos related to marriages or weddings, noting that out of the 21 couples featured, 21 had divorced, concluding that the divorce rate in Hong Kong was silently soaring.

In most homicide cases, the murderer is a family member, with spouses frequently being the predominant suspects.

Redirecting his gaze, Fang Zhenyue slowly paced the crime scene, scanning every corner, his eyebrows increasingly furrowed.

By the afternoon, they had recorded a statement from the deceased’s husband and confirmed his alibi was solid.

Although detectives had visited to inquire about other potential relationships of the deceased, based on the location, time, and manner of death, Fang Zhenyue had deduced that the perpetrator was likely not an acquaintance.

With the victim not missing any money or items, no eyewitnesses, and no peculiar details from the forensic report, the only conclusions drawn that afternoon were the blood type and ‘iron rust residue at the wound’.

A case from 1989 involved a flight attendant murdered and dissolved in acid by an acquaintance, her body found in the murderer’s house. The truth was so close, yet the arrest and trial took over a year.

Now, with no leads on this current case, finding the murder weapon or suspect seemed unlikely… It might just end up lost among the many unsolved cases in the city, buried under dust.

Fang Zhenyue looked up and scanned the dilapidated buildings along the alley, then turned to Liu Jiaming and said:

“Those windows overlooking this alley, go door to door. It doesn’t matter if they’re occupied, keep asking everyone who might appear at those windows, ask repeatedly, incessantly.”

“Understood, Brother Yue,” Liu Jiaming turned and left.

Fang Zhenyue stopped him again and pulled out two hundred Hong Kong dollars from his pocket: “Buy some cigarettes, candy, and sunflower seeds, and go have a soft-hard talk with all the neighbors.”

“Yes, sir,” Liu Jiaming chuckled as he accepted it, crouching under the police tape and moving on.

…

As Fang Zhenyue patrolled the alley where the crime had occurred, he continuously deduced and searched for overlooked details, supervising the detectives re-examining the evidence and searching his mind for any missed information.

His neck and arms itched terribly, occasionally disrupting his thoughts. After a day of running around, he had forgotten to apply mosquito repellent.

“Uncle Jiu,” Fang Zhenyue, feeling irritated, ran his hands through his short hair, “Check who’s in charge of sanitation for this area, ask if they noticed anything unusual last night or this morning.”

“Brother Yue, I checked this afternoon; this alley isn’t maintained by anyone. The hard-of-hearing old man claims this area to store his stuff, and if someone comes to clean, he thinks they’re stealing his belongings and chases them away with a broom. Now, people around here avoid this place.”

Lin Wangjiu calls Fang Zhenyue ‘Brother,’ and Fang Zhenyue calls him ‘Uncle,’ a mutual non-interference in their way of addressing each other.

“Bring in the scrap-collector old man after the evidence collection is complete, interrogate him again.” Fang Zhenyue sighed, under the circumstances, they could only pressure those they could get their hands on, to squeeze out any bit of information.

…

Yi Jiayi locked her bicycle to the side and, under the pretext of delivering essential items for the investigation, greeted the uniformed police officer guarding the crime scene and smoothly slipped into the restricted area.

The alley was cluttered with debris: a disabled bicycle toppled by the roadside, a small stool with only three legs, and the dried excrement of some animal…

Looking up, she could see the iron railings extending from someone’s window, cluttered with miscellaneous items, blocking the window tightly.

Looking further down the alley, at the very end, was the shack of a junk collector and a metal ladder turning at the corner…

Yi Jiayi tried to suppress her boiling emotions, but even when she exhaled, she could feel the air coming out of her nostrils was too hot.

Everything in the alley was exactly as she had seen in the murder scene, as if she had really been here before.

Swallowing with difficulty, she quickly ran to Fang Zhenyue when he saw her, managing a forced smile, and in her hurry to take out mosquito repellent from her pocket, she accidentally pulled out the lining as well, fumbling to stuff it back and struggling to hand the repellent to Fang Zhenyue, her face embarrassingly red.

Her behavior was somewhat unexpected for Fang Zhenyue, the formidable detective who devoted all his time to work, probably also taken aback by such a soft and sweet gesture.

He took the mosquito repellent, stared at Yi Jiayi for a few seconds, then muttered a low ‘thanks’.

“It’s what we, the administrative support department, should do.” Yi Jiayi had prepared her excuse well in advance, reciting the polite words as rehearsed in her mind, her eyes then continuously glancing unintentionally at a pile of debris in the corner of the alley.

Fang Zhenyue thought she was shy and reluctant to make eye contact, so he took the mosquito repellent and sprayed it on his arms and neck before handing it back to Yi Jiayi.

The young policewoman took back the mosquito repellent but hesitated, not wanting to leave.

“Go home early, don’t hang around here,” Fang Zhenyue said dismissively, suggesting such a grim place was no place for a young girl.

“Oh.” Yi Jiayi obediently responded, lowering her eyes to stare at her shoe tips. She rehearsed her prepared excuse one last time in her mind before looking up towards the end of the alley, then performed a very earnest and awkward expression of surprise: “Huh?”

Hearing her own ‘Huh’, Yi Jiayi almost blushed again. She probably wasn’t a very good actress, her tone a bit too high, somewhat contrived, and embarrassing.

But Fang Zhenyue’s attention had already been caught, and she had no choice but to continue playing her part as planned.

“What is that reflective thing?” She pointed at the corner cluttered with cardboard and wooden debris.

Her tone was a bit stiff, and she awkwardly curled her toes on the ground.

Before the Disney Castle could be built, Yi Jiayi hurriedly avoided Fang Zhenyue’s gaze and stepped further into the alley.

If it turned out to be nothing, she would just say she had seen it wrong.

It’s a small matter, don’t be nervous, take a deep breath, take a deep breath—she mentally chanted to calm herself, staring ahead, her eyes filled with curiosity as she moved closer.

Fang Zhenyue frowned as he followed the direction she pointed, seeing only miscellaneous items, nothing else.

Previously, Lin Wangjiu and others had already searched the area, rearranging the cluttered items. There should have been no oversights.

However, seeing Yi Jiayi’s earnest and anxious demeanor, he still stepped briskly past her and took the lead, approaching the spot first.

There was nothing.

As he moved the items one by one, apart from dust, dirt, wood shavings, and an indescribable musty smell, there was only an old, dilapidated drain that the former residents used to dump dirty water into.

He crouched down and looked up at Yi Jiayi, “What did you see?”

Yi Jiayi’s fingers were ice cold.

Something was wrong. She clearly ‘saw’ the small knife fall here.

Because of the certainty of its location, she squat down beside him, persistent in her search, even reaching into the drain to probe around inside and out.

Just as Fang Zhenyue was about to pat her on the shoulder and call her to go home for dinner, Yi Jiayi suddenly found something. Pinching it between two fingers, she held it up high.

The next moment, she looked up, eyes wide as she stared at him, holding the small knife as if it were a bomb, her face filled with terror.

Fang Zhenyue caught his breath, his eyes instantly lighting up as he turned and shouted, “Uncle Jiu!”

Lin Wangjiu, who was squatting among a pile of newspapers collecting evidence, turned his head in confusion upon hearing the shout. Seeing Yi Jiayi holding what looked like a bomb, and the ‘bomb’ in her hands, he suddenly jumped up, pulled out an evidence bag from his pocket, rushed over, and carefully placed the knife inside while holding Yi Jiayi’s hand.

In an instant, all detectives stopped their investigative work and gathered around.

The knife still had fresh blood on it, obviously recently left.

Did they find it? Did they really find it?

Finding the weapon meant finding potential fingerprints. Even without considering fingerprints, just following this lead with the small knife could potentially double their chances of cracking the case.

The setting sun dispelled the gloom on the faces of the detectives, who had been searching as desperately as dying oxen just moments before, and they were suddenly rejuvenated, their spirits lifted.

“Wow! We’ve been searching so hard, nearly digging three feet into the ground, and found nothing. You discovered it as soon as you arrived?” A young detective stared at the knife in the evidence bag for a while, then at Yi Jiayi, who was still squatting dazedly on the ground, and clicked his tongue in amazement.

“A lucky star for detective work, ah, we can file the progress report now,” Lin Wangjiu laughed heartily.

It would be so embarrassing if there were no clues after a homicide. Now there was a breakthrough, the report could be well-presented, and it was easy to explain.

“Take it back to the forensic science department.” After giving instructions to Lin Wangjiu, Fang Zhenyue glanced at the young girl squatting on the ground, unable to remember her name for a moment. He reached out his hand and casually asked, “What’s your name again?”

The young female officer still stared blankly at her own fingers, her arm stiffly raised, looking fearful of the fingers that had touched the weapon coming close to her.

Hearing Fang Zhenyue’s question, she looked up and answered, “Yi Jiayi,” slowly placing her hand into his extended palm.

Using his strength to stand, she realized that her legs were weak.

The man’s large palm was strong and warm, and she, like a white bone spirit, seemed to draw warmth and strength from his body, slowly regaining clarity in her mind.

A few barely perceptible words gradually became clear, occupying her entire brain:

【It’s all true!】

In the forensic autopsy room, after seeing the body, all the murder scenes that flashed in her mind were real!

Fang Zhenyue chewed over the name ‘Yi Jiayi’ repeatedly, gradually remembering it, then turned to another investigator and said, “Take Yi Jiayi to wash her hands and have some hot water to calm her nerves.”

“Yes, sir,” replied the investigator, softly coaxing Yi Jiayi to follow him.

“Wrap up,” commanded Fang Zhenyue after walking back and forth in the alley. At this command, every investigator working overtime on the case breathed a sigh of relief.

Yi Jiayi, having washed her hands, held a disposable paper cup filled with warm water, slowly sipping it as she bowed her head, looking particularly slender and pitiable in the silhouette of the setting sun.

Every Team B investigator and the military police guarding the blockade line smiled upon seeing her.

A new clerk at the police station, Yi Jiayi, had found the murder weapon. Everyone could finally wrap up the case, as if blessed by a stroke of luck.

From this day on, the name ‘Yi Jiayi’ would probably not be easily forgotten.