‘Xiang was a pretty girl. It’s possible that she had someone so enamored of her that when she threw herself into Geng’s arms, he got hold of the video tape and released it online.’

‘No, that does not add up. If that secret lover had been really such a romantic soul, how could he have chosen to post online that pornographic video about her writhing in another man’s arms?’

‘You have your point, Detective Qin. But let’s not talk about Internal Security and the video for the moment. What are you going to do?’

‘Well, let me ask you a question first, Detective Yu. Has Chief Inspector Chen discussed with you about the case?’

‘Yes, he called me yesterday. He has been simply overwhelmed in Zhao’s assignment. Don’t ask me what it is. He did not tell me a single word about it. But he did promise he would help in whatever ways possible. With his permission, I took out that casebook of his on the red mandarin dress serial murder and studied it.’

‘Yes, I remember that particular case.’

‘According to his notes, for a serial murder case, it could be committed for some reason understandable to the criminal alone. Regarding the fourth victim, Xiang, we do not know enough at this stage, but for the first three, I’ve done some thinking by myself.’

‘Please go on, Detective Yu.’

‘In accordance with the file from you, there were no enemies known for Peng, the first victim – such a poor and pitiable woman – quite understandably with no one around harboring enough hatred to kill her. As for the ever-increasing medical disputes in today’s society, people may be angry with doctors or nurses, but it does not make sense to target a night caregiver.

‘And then for the second victim, Linghu, there’s a similar problem. He had no known enemy or adversary. People may have a grudge against some anchormen, for fake news, shameless propaganda, or whatever, but not against a weather anchorman. Supposing he made incorrect forecasts which caused some inconvenience for the viewers, it would have been far from enough for them to kill. Besides, there’re other people working overnight in the city government building, not just those from the weather bureau. Could that have been a matter of mistaken identity?

‘The same could be said about Yan, the third victim. People are complaining about the soaring real estate prices. But she’s just a salesperson at an agency, having no control about the price. Besides, Lujiazui is where she lived, quite far from the agency office in Zabei District. She could have been running there just before going to the office.’

‘So what’s your point, Detective Yu?’

‘For the possible reasons against the victims, there’s no common denominator, but there’s got to be something there, some reasoning understandable only to his twisted mind.’

‘From your inspector’s notes again, but we have no idea whatsoever about the identity of the murderer.’

‘According to Chen, the criminal may have left some “signature”, which speaks about what’s making sense only to him, and from which we may begin to have a profile of the murderer.’