บท 24: I Caught the Killer!
บรรณาธิการ: Millman97
Chen Ge looked through the sent dates of all the messages, and they were all one day apart and sent at midnight. This matched perfectly with what Wang Qi said, but it was also the detail that made Chen Ge shiver in terror.
How could a body frozen inside a wall send a message punctually every night?
Supernatural activity? If this was truly the work of a powerful specter, how was that group of tenants, who had disturbed the body, still alive?
Something is wrong. Chen Ge lined up all the clues, and a thought dawned upon him. The person who has been sending Wang Qi messages every night is the killer of his fiancé, as well as the real killer responsible for the arson years ago.
And I think I know that person is, Chen Ge thought, standing inside the wooden house. Wang Qi is thought a mad person by every tenant in the apartment, and the landlord chases him out every time he sees him. But more than that, he is the only person I saw tonight who isn't a tenant at the apartment. In spite of that, he appears often enough within the vicinity of the apartment; this means that his actual place of accommodation must be very close to the apartment.
But the question is, when I was arguing with the landlord about the rental, he told me confidently that there is no other place to live within several thousand meters. In other words, Wang Qi couldn't be living at another nearby apartment or hotel. In that case, this wooden house is probably where he lives when he's not out spreading those notices.
If he's the resident of this wooden house, then many things can be explained. The pitiable man who wanders about every day, asking about his missing fiancé, is probably his own fiancé's killer!
Chen Ge had a hard time believing that he had chatted so amiably with a cold-blooded murderer and even attempted to share his sad history with the man. His swallowed deeply, and it was then that he felt fear. This madman must have been through some trauma to have the need to collect the dead woman's clothes and even use the woman's phone to message himself every night. Perhaps there's another personality that lives inside his body that comes out to take over his body after he falls asleep.
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Chen Ge became. He looked through the phone to try to come up with more clues. This phone should be covered with his fingerprints, so it is an important piece of evidence; I have to take good care of it.
As Chen Ge looked at the screen, perhaps it was the nervousness or perhaps it was something else, he saw a girl's figure appear on screen. She looked to be eighteen or nineteen and was wearing a blood-dyed school uniform.
He rubbed his eyes to attempt to take a closer look when he felt a chill run up the back of his neck like something was brushing its hand along it; this made Chen Ge jump and turn back to look!
The air in the wooden house froze, and Chen Ge's heart almost jumped out of its cage when he saw what was behind him. The door of the wooden house had been opened silently, and standing about two meters behind him was Wang Qi with his eyes bloodshot, raising an axe slowly up in the air.
Time seemed to have stopped as the two men looked at each other, neither daring to move.
"So close…" Wang Qi's voice was completely different from before; it seemed like the madness that was suppressed earlier had been unleashed. Chen Ge did not say anything in return, but his grip on the mallet tightened. He was feeling rather grateful toward the specter. If she had not shown up to warn him, his head would have been rolling on the floor.
"Such a waste." Wang Qi took a step forward, and Chen Ge immediately held his mallet up in a guarded manner. "Relax, you've seen the stuff inside the phone?"
Chen Ge did not know what the madman was up to, so he did not dare let his guard down.
"Actually, if you think about it, I haven't really lied to you." The lethargy that Chen Ge saw earlier had completely disappeared. If anything, Wang Qi seemed to be in a very excited state. It felt like Chen Ge was dealing with a different person compared to the one he talked to that afternoon. "When you first talked to me when you entered the apartment, I already told you my fiancé was hidden inside the apartment, did I not? See, I haven't lied to you, have I?"
He used the blunt end of the axe to pick up the clothes his fiancé once wore. "After all, it was me who personally sealed her up inside the wall."
Then Wang Qi's tone turned; his emotions raged like he was reminded of a traumatic event. He used the axe to split the clothes in two. "I did nothing wrong; she's the one who made the mistake. She wanted to leave, so what could I do but try my best to make her stay?"
Wang Qi blocked the door with the axe swaying in his hand. As he stared at the chopped fabric, he said, "I didn't want to do it; you understand, right? I didn't mean it…"
Regardless of what Wang Qi said, it was an undeniable fact that he had murdered more than one victim, so Chen Ge paid no heed to his explanation. With the mallet in his hand, Chen Ge slipped the dead woman's phone into his pocket. He zeroed in on the door, trying to find an opening to escape.
"I'm a hated individual; everyone around me says so. No, even if they don't vocalize it, I know that's what they think; I can feel it." Wang Qi seemed to have totally lost his mind. His mental state was fractured, and he seemed to have a habit of talking to himself. It was as if he had walked into a mental maze and could not find a way out.
As Wang Qi was talking, Chen Ge slowly adjusted the angle that he was standing. He simulated different escape scenarios in his mind, like using something else to distract the madman's attention, but those ideas were removed from his mind because the wooden house was ultimately too small for something like that.
Wang Qi's voice became shriller as he continued, a veritable sign that he was breaking down.
The longer he stayed there, the greater the danger it was for Chen Ge. He decided to make a move soon and stopped focusing on running simulations. Every muscle in his body tensed. Wang Qi sounded like he was on the verge of lose control as the axe flailed dangerously in the air. Chen Ge caught an opening. He sprinted and knocked into Wang Qi with great momentum!
One should not underestimate a cornered rabbit. This was probably the bravest decision Chen Ge had ever made in the past twenty years. When facing off against a serial killer, he acted even more rashly than the killer!
In the dark, Wang Qi's reaction was one beat slower than Chen Ge's. He was unable to avoid Chen Ge's mallet, which was flying at his head.
Bang!
The mallet connected with skin and skull. Chen Ge felt something sticky on his hand, but he did not relax and launched another kick at Wang Qi's stomach. When the man doubled over, Chen Ge blasted out the door!
Chen Ge immediately raced into the forest. This time, he did manage to catch the direction he was running in. The trees became sparser and the ground smoother. However, he still had not escaped from danger. He knew someone was chasing after him; the wavering light and the sound of the branches being snapped was the best proof.
Chen Ge did not dare to even stop to take a breather. It was not until he saw the cement road that the sound behind him slowly disappeared.
"Those people should have left already." Chen Ge ran several hundred meters down the cement road before he heard the sound of police siren. He looked down the horizon and saw car lights coming down the road.
"I'm saved!" He jumped up and down in the middle of the road. "It was me who called the police! I caught the killer from four years ago!"
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