After ending the call, I felt like a rather clear train of thought had appeared in my mind. First, I searched online about the abduction cases, but it was of little avail. For one, there were very few news articles about it. Even if there were, their descriptions were brief. Meanwhile, the online blogs were flushed with comments. Even though they contained some information, their validity was uncertain. After some thinking, I decided I would give Shen Shiyan a call.
Unfortunately, I found out that I had deleted his phone number already. Luckily, I was smart and searched, through my old messages to find his number in a message that the matchmaker sent me.
Knowing now that we had not seen each other for a year, I suddenly realized how similar he looked compared to before. He seems to be the type of person to keep his number.
It connected after three rings, but Shen Shiyan only spoke after a few seconds of silence, Tan Jiao, whats up?
I felt somewhat moved, realizing that he still had my number saved.
Detective Shen, I have something to discuss with you.
With a calm voice, he asked, What is it?
Its like this, let me explain. Since the events last night occurred so abruptly, I felt that I havent provided valuable information in the statement I gave, and I may have left out some things from my short-term memory. After all, I was frightened out of my wits and may have overlooked some details. After some thinking, I felt that my contribution could be greater if I had some related information to help with my memory.
He fell silent briefly before saying, Im not following.
I rolled my eyes as I once again felt the disconnection between him and me. Here we go again. If I were dealing with Wu Yu A thought sprouted in my mind, thinking that Wu Yu would know what I wanted to do despite us barely knowing each other.
I let out a chuckle and said, Detective Shen, its like this. Would it be possible for you to share with me information regarding the previous few abduction cases? Perhaps this could trigger certain memories in me. Since Im a victim, and Ive acted bravely in the face of danger, helping you guys, sharing the information with me should be fine.
With an almost uncompromising feel to his tone, No. Tan Jiao, we have rules of confidentiality.
Suddenly, I had the urge to punch him, but I knew it was unwise to go head-on against a stubborn rock. With a little thinking, I said quickly, I understand and respect the rules you guys have. Im not sure if youve noticed this, but according to the descriptions online, the suspect has already committed four abductions without anyone seeing his face or crossing paths with him. Im the only one that has come into contact with him, and I spent the longest time near him. As you know, a persons consciousness is categorized into the subconscious and normal consciousness. If I could trigger some memory from my subconscious to surface sooner, I could provide you guys with some crucial clue to help crack the case sooner.
He fell into silence, which made me somewhat nervous.
Fine, Ill go check with my superior.
I felt thrilled, thinking, I got him. Great, go do it quickly.
Although Shen Shiyan was strict, he was very efficient. I received all the information after about an hour and came up with the following conclusion at the end of several hours of reading:
Number one, the perpetrator had abducted four children to date. The abductions occurred at night without a fixed time. Some of the children were abducted while they were alone in the backyard, but in two cases, the perpetrator snuck into their rooms to abduct them. Even though his methods were simple, he succeeded every time. Evidently, his ability to move and observe must be exceptional.
Number two, the age differences between the children were small. Two of them were five and six, while the other two were seven and eight.
Number three, all the abducted children came from average households; none of them were wealthy. The only common denominator in all the cases was that they all lived in the city.
Number four, photos of two of the crime scenes captured the presence of those strange birds. However, I was willing to bet that the police had not noticed this yet. Although the birds were not pictured in the other two crime scenes, that did not mean they were not there.