Next to Joseph Street, in a residential house, Xiao Lin persistently rang the doorbell of Room 402, but no one ever responded. He stepped back and looked up towards the fourth floor. The window was tightly shut, and at this ti of day, the building rarely had anyone coming in or out.
"Mr. Xiao, we co to visit every day, but it’s always the sa result. Even when we enter the building and knock, Edmund never shows up." Rochester explained beside him, struggling to transition from seeing Edmund as a suspect to soone with a special status, and becoming his superior, he felt it would take ti to adjust to this change.
"Every day?" Whether talking to himself or truly asking, Rochester nodded. Xiao Lin rang the doorbell for Room 401, and shortly afterward, an elderly voice was heard. "Hello! We’re agents from the police station, please open the door."
A head poked out from another window on the fourth floor to glance at them, followed by the sound of the door opening. Xiao Lin instructed Rochester to take the elevator while he took the stairs, which, like most staircases, had fifteen steps per floor, slightly longer than those back ho. The handrails weren’t very clean but showed signs of being cleaned. Each stair landing had a trash can directly connecting to the building’s main garbage bin downstairs, thankfully without any odor, suggesting the cleaning personnel cos every three to five days; the accumulated dust wouldn’t even darken a finger.
This was a relatively old building. It seed Edmund wasn’t a wealthy person. Just stepping onto the fourth floor, he heard Rochester’s voice, seemingly in an argunt with soone. Xiao Lin stepped out to see Rochester in a loud discussion with a silver-haired elderly man—perhaps the elder needed to be spoken to loudly due to hearing issues.
"Mr. Xiao, this is the neighbor living next to Chief Edmund." Rochester had entered the fourth floor well ahead of Xiao Lin, so he was the first to encounter the neighbor. However, the elder, bypassing Rochester, looked at Xiao Lin, surprised to see an oriental man. "This is our officer; you can relay the situation to him."
"Hello, I’m Xiao Lin." Xiao Lin introduced himself politely and confidently, using a voice not yelling but enough for the elder to hear. This thoughtful approach imdiately made the elder feel favorable, moving his left side closer to Xiao Lin. "Sir, is your right ear deaf?"
The old man nodded. "My right ear’s hearing is less than 2, but the left side can hear clearly."
"Alright! Sir, may I ask if you’ve seen Mr. Edmund next door recently?"
"Are you referring to my chief officer? Four days ago, I heard a lot of noise next door, loud enough to prevent my wife and from sleeping. When we wanted to go over and find him, the noise stopped, and since then, I haven’t heard a thing."
"Have you seen Mr. Edmund after that day?"
"What?" the elderly man loudly asked!
"Sir, do you usually go out shopping? At what ti do you typically go?"
"Morning exercises at the park upfront, a nap at noon, and a visit to the supermarket around three or four in the afternoon, then staying ho to watch TV!"
Xiao Lin nodded, then posed another question. "Sir, may I take a look inside your room?"
"Is sothing wrong with my chief officer next door?"
"It’s just a routine investigation." The elder hesitated for a mont but eventually let Xiao Lin and Rochester into the bedroom.
The TV was blaring sound; it was a little after ten in the morning. The window was open, making the room fairly bright. The layout was two units per floor. Edmund’s apartnt should be slightly smaller than this. According to the old man, his house was a two-bedroom unit, while next door was a one-bedroom apartnt, much favored by the middle class for being simple, easy to clean, affordable rent, and cos with a separate bathroom and kitchen, a small living room, and a bedroom, plus a tiny balcony, quite a practical place. The downside was its distance from the comrcial area, making the house price very cheap.
Xiao Lin tapped on the wall behind the TV, solid wall structure. Late-night TV at the sa volu would an with seniors mostly dozing off around eight or nine, any noise coming from the next door might not be heard clearly; external factors could lead to absorbing much erroneous information.
"Sir, how can you and your wife be so certain it was four days ago when Mr. Edmund’s room had that loud noise?" Xiao Lin casually asked. "Please pardon my inquiry; I’m not doubting your words, rely confirming the actual environntal factors at the ti. Given your own condition, your hearing has problems, and you have a habit of watching TV at night, how do you differentiate noises outside in such a chaotic setting?"
"That day we just ca back from our daughter’s house feeling tired, so we went to bed early! At the ti, it felt like sothing heavy crashed towards us, making a huge noise, waking up!"
"Okay, thank you, sir, sorry for disturbing your rest." Xiao Lin felt he had exhausted his questions. In fact, according to isai’s provided tiline, Edmund’s disappearance occurred even earlier, and nothing happened after the loud noise four days ago, which does not necessarily an sothing had happened to Edmund since then. From this elderly man’s living habits, typical noises are not heard clearly.
Xiao Lin ran his fingers along the edge of the security door, trying to understand what the young man was doing, spending half a day studying one door. However, the higher-ups had assigned him to this person, so Rochester had no room to say much.
"Officer Rochester, are you familiar with Edmund? How are his daily habits, his interpersonal relationships?" Xiao Lin squatted down, fiddling with the lock, and pulled out a silver needle from his pocket, inserting it into the lock.
"Edmund used to be my chief, but officer, I prefer not to comnt on his character."
"Hmm!" Xiao Lin gave a slight smile. Rochester maintained caution throughout, having been a police officer for over a decade, just recently promoted to the position of Chief, which could be credited to Edmund’s triple promotions—not soone who curries favor easily. "Alright!" Listening closely against the door, the sound of gears clicking could be heard. The simple setting of the security door locks was quite similar.
"What?"
"I an, we can go in now."
After the lock finished its last spin, the door opened ajar, just as expected. Though the sll wasn’t strong, the closed environnt had intensified the cleaned blood scent. "Officer Rochester, please inform your people to secure the scene; I think we’ve found Chief Edmund."
Rochester expressed surprise again—they hadn’t entered the room yet. How did the young man seem so certain Edmund was inside, especially in the deceased state?
"Let’s enter first. I know you don’t believe my words, but based on the blood scent in the air, the deceased has been dead for at least four days. As for why there’s no corpse odor, it’s likely the body was refrigerated or covered up with other ans." Rochester quickly confird Xiao Lin’s words as they entered the small living room with large patches of blood splattered on the walls. Yet the floor was unusually clean, indicating traces of cleanup everywhere. His sense of sll wasn’t as keen as Xiao Lin’s; it was only upon entering the living room that he detected the blood scent, prompting him to look at the young man in a new light. isai had elaborated on Xiao Lin’s identity during the briefing—the rank of Major General might surprise so in districts globally, but the discrepancy was not that large; thus, in certain respects, his identity far surpassed their chief.
Rochester’s first reaction was to run into the kitchen—no corpse, no stench of a decomposing body. Xiao Lin’s words buried themselves in his mind; a residence could only refrigerate using the fridge, so he grabbed a tissue as a makeshift glove to open the fridge door. In this mont, Xiao Lin took a liking to this rather ordinary police officer, soone who wouldn’t garner any notice if left on the street, yet possessed keen and ticulous senses.
"Rochester, there won’t be anything you’d wish to see in there." Xiao Lin said as it was challenging to fit a seven-foot-tall man in that fridge with three doors without dismbernt; also, it’d require a large container for storing, but evidently, Edmund’s fridge didn’t et the criteria. More importantly, based on the cri scene, there weren’t other widespread blood spray patterns, thus indicating no dismbernt. However, the deceased being Edmund still needed further confirmation, only saying soone was killed here, not confirming identity.
Unwilling to give up, Rochester opened the fridge, finding none of the bloody imagery he anticipated, producing a sound borne from disappointnt or so other factor after which Xiao Lin entered the kitchen.
The fridge contained food, placed in a thodically organized manner according to their food properties, including vegetables and bread. Xiao Lin picked up an unopened carton of milk on the door with a production date from five days ago.
"Edmund visited the supermarket upon returning from the precinct, purchasing food, but there’s still steak, softening vegetables with yellowing leaves, darkening beef streaks, and unopened beer with packaging dated early this month." Xiao Lin narrated into the voice recorder about the contents within the fridge. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit qidian to vote for recomndations, monthly votes, your support is my greatest motivation.)
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