Chapter 39: The Hammer Demon Case (Part Eight)

His voice dropped suddenly, his gaze fixed on Li Rui’s cafeteria tray. "Why are you eating like a Buddhist nun?"

"His stomach ailment is acting up," Wen Rou interjected, her eyes sweeping over the dark, bruised circles under Li Rui’s eyes. "After performing seven consecutive autopsies, he..."

"Cough!" Li Rui hacked abruptly, the tip of his chopstick stabbing into a piece of tofu, white curds seeping into the rice. "Do you have any suspects?"

Lei Chen, taking the hint, flipped to a new page. "I was just about to get to that. There’s a guy named Wang Defa. He was locked up ten years ago for intentional injury and was just released last year. The coincidence is..."

He leaned in, and the three heads huddled together instinctively. "The weapon he used back then was an octagonal hammer."

The bustling noise of the cafeteria suddenly faded into the distance. Li Rui’s chopsticks hung in mid-air; a drop of sauce fell onto the case analysis report, blooming into a brown stain over the words "Modus Operandi."

"The kicker is," Lei Chen added, his voice tight with suppressed excitement, "this bastard has held three jobs since his release, and tools have gone missing from every single quarry he worked at!"

Wen Rou suddenly gripped Lei Chen’s wrist. "Are the blood test results back?"

"The forensics team is working on them, but..." Lei Chen pulled out his phone and swiped a few times. "Take a look at this."

On the screen was a photo of a yellowed newspaper—a report on a construction site brawl from fifteen years ago. The accompanying photo showed a teenage boy covered in blood, holding a sledgehammer, his eyes wild and deranged like a trapped beast.

Li Rui’s pupils constricted. In the corner of the photo was a blurry figure. Despite the low resolution, the person’s small stature was still discernible, matching Li Rui’s earlier profile perfectly.

"Wang Defa has a younger sister," Lei Chen’s voice sounded like a dull blade slicing through the stagnant air. "Fifteen years ago, she was raped by a foreman and committed suicide. That animal only got three years in prison."

The cafeteria exhaust fan hummed, and Li Rui suddenly felt as though the green vegetables on his tray were twisting and warping. "Could it really be him?"

"No time to waste, apply for a search warrant immediately," Wen Rou had already stood up, her long hair tracing a sharp arc behind her. "Prioritize searching Wang Defa’s residence and..."

"Wait." Li Rui pressed down on her forearm, his fingertips feeling the pulse of her vein. "What if it isn't him?"

Lei Chen’s notebook shuffling came to an abrupt halt. "And what if it is?"

"Better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one slip through the net!" Wen Rou stated firmly. "Right now..."

Three pairs of eyes fixed simultaneously on the electronic clock hanging on the wall.

"Twelve-thirty-seven. The meeting is in two and a half hours. Let’s do our best to determine if this Wang Defa is the killer before that meeting."

Sunlight filtered through the grease-stained cafeteria windows, casting bar-like shadows across the floor.

Li Rui’s chopsticks snapped with a "crack" inside the tray. The tofu shattered into pale, pulpy bits, looking eerily like skull fragments under the glare of an autopsy lamp.

He stood up abruptly, the gust from his white lab coat knocking over a water bottle.

"Let's go!" He grabbed his car keys, his knuckles turning pale. "Now!"

Wen Rou chased after him and grabbed his sleeve. "You haven't slept in three days!"

"I'll sleep after we catch him!" Li Rui shook off her hand, though he stumbled slightly as he pushed through the door.

Sunlight splashed across his pale face, casting web-like shadows from his eyelashes. Lei Chen shoved the remaining steamed bun into his mouth, wiped his greasy hands on his pants, and followed close behind.

The moment the police car engine roared to life, Li Rui caught a glimpse in the rearview mirror of the cafeteria worker clearing away their leftovers.

The broth of the braised pork mixed with broccoli formed a bizarre pattern on the tray, looking exactly like the blood spatter trajectory observed at a crime scene.

...

In the surveillance room, Wen Rou grabbed the remote, and the one-way glass instantly turned transparent.

Wang Defa was pressing his face against the cold interrogation table, his eyelashes casting web-like shadows on his gray, bruised eyelids.

"I didn't kill anyone!" he squeezed the words through his teeth.

"Where were you on the night of October 18th?" Lei Chen slammed the file onto the table. "On the night of October 18th, you went to Xidi Village. Seeing only an elderly couple over seventy at home, you realized they posed no threat, so you hammered them to death and took their valuables. The next day, you went to Guanwang Temple and showed no mercy, hammering a family of three to death. On October 23rd, you struck again, killing the three members of a family in Xiaoli Village and even assaulting a thirteen-year-old girl who was already dead. Tell me, was it you?"

Wang Defa gave a cold laugh. "If you have evidence, convict me. If you don't, I won't say a single word!"

Behind the one-way glass, Wen Rou frowned, the cold light from the monitor casting grid-like shadows on her face.

"Wang Defa is not the killer," Li Rui said quietly.

"How do you know?" Wen Rou asked.

"The eyes are the window to the soul. This Wang Defa showed no panic when hearing Captain Lei’s account. It means none of these cases were committed by him."

Just then, Qi Wei hurried in.

"Director Wen, Forensic Doctor Li, the test results are in," Qi Wei said solemnly.

"What's the verdict?" Wen Rou asked urgently.

Qi Wei shook her head and said, "It’s not a match!"

Wen Rou felt her strength drain away and sank into a chair. "I was too hasty."

Li Rui comforted her: "Even though these cases weren't done by Wang Defa, this man likely has his own issues."

Wen Rou asked, puzzled, "How so?"

"Intuition." Li Rui shook his head, not wanting to elaborate. "Have the criminal investigation team take him away. Investigate him thoroughly; you might get some unexpected results."

Wen Rou nodded. "Hmm."

She turned to Qi Wei and said, "Xiao Qi, tell Captain Lei to come down. No need to waste any more energy."

"Li Rui, you’re exhausted too. Go back and get some sleep."

Li Rui clicked his tongue. "The killer of the '10/18 Case' is likely not a local."

Just then, Lei Chen walked in. Hearing Li Rui’s remark, he questioned, "The killer is a transient, picking remote villages to strike, and there were no witnesses. The local villagers didn't even know the killer had been there before the incidents. Given that, it seems much more likely that the suspect is someone from the vicinity."

"That is exactly where our investigation has gone wrong," Li Rui said. "The reason we haven't found the real killer after all these days isn't because he’s scared or hiding—it's because he has already left, moved on to the next place, and continues to strike."

Lei Chen furrowed his brow, his fingers tapping the desk unconsciously. "You mean the killer strikes wherever he goes?"

"Exactly," Li Rui stood up and walked to the map on the wall. "Look, Xidi Village, Guanwang Temple Township, and Xiaoli Village—these three crime scenes are all in the border areas between counties, about 30 kilometers apart."

His finger traced a winding line on the map. "These places have main roads, but they also have back trails. The killer wouldn't dare take the main roads after committing a crime, so he likely travels on foot, taking mountain paths to avoid detection, and follows this route to find his next target."

Wen Rou interjected, "And he leaves immediately after each crime, then chooses the next target to continue."

"So we must widen our search radius," Li Rui turned to face the group. "Focus on checking hotels and restaurants along the provincial highways. The killer has to eat and sleep; he will leave traces."