Chapter 5. Deep in Hell

If the first case couldn't be solved, the Special Case Team would face dissolution!

Everyone was waiting in the office for the identification results from the technical department. Not a single person uttered a word.

This was the first time Philip Sofia had ever smoked in his life. Joining the Special Case Team was a long - awaited opportunity for him. From childhood through adulthood, he had endured countless hardships, which had instilled in him a strong and resilient nature. Whenever faced with difficulties, even if he had to bow his head, he still held his chest high. He often felt a sense of inferiority. He seldom laughed heartily; even when he smiled, his brows were furrowed. He asked himself inwardly, was he really going back to the rural police station to remain an intern police officer?

In this world, there are no intelligent criminals, only incompetent police. No case can be made entirely flawless. The reason a case remains unsolved is that the investigation work isn't carried out thoroughly enough, and the reason for that is that the investigation isn't close - knit enough.

Any corpse can convey information; one merely needs to find a way to decipher it.

Philip Sofia went to the crime scene alone. He spent a long time in that foul - smelling sewage treatment room, lost in thought in the dark subway tunnel. However, he came up with nothing. After his return, the identification results from the technical department and the physical evidence section were out. Few physical evidences were found and identified at the crime scene. There were no signs of a struggle. No footprints or fingerprints were retrieved. Apart from a pair of shoes, no other suspicious items were discovered. The sewage treatment worker wore size 44 shoes, yet a pair of size - 42 shoes were found at the scene of his death.

Professor Liang examined the crime - scene photos, then picked up the shoes and inspected them closely. He nodded and said, "These shoes were left behind by the murderer!"

They were ordinary canvas shoes that could be purchased in any shoe - and - hat store or street vendor's stall.

Professor Liang asked, "Has the DNA been extracted from these shoes?"

The person in charge of the physical evidence section replied, "China's DNA database hasn't been established yet. Even if we were to extract the DNA, it would be next to impossible to identify an individual just from a pair of shoes. It's absurd to see on TV how the police solve cases by sitting in the lab, chatting, and swirling test - tubes around."

Identifying a person from a pair of shoes is like searching for a needle in a haystack. However, in the case of Bai Baoshan, the prime suspect in the No.1 major criminal investigation case, his identity was determined through a gun - carrying bag he discarded. In the pursuit of the "Two Wangs" in Northeast China, their escape route was traced based on a bicycle.

Philip Sofia put on gloves, picked up the shoes from the evidence bag, and did something that left everyone dumbstruck - he lowered his head and sniffed the shoes!

Amy and Matt stared at Philip Sofia in astonishment.

Philip Sofia closed his eyes, pressed the tip of his nose to the sole of the shoe, and took a deep whiff. He tilted his head back, almost as if he were savoring the smell.

Amy felt a twinge of nausea.

Matt said, "Dude, what does it smell like?"

Philip Sofia's face lit up as he replied, "Pig manure!"

Upon hearing Philip Sofia's words, Professor Liang perked up. "Are you certain?"

Philip Sofia nodded. This smell brought back a flood of memories.

Professor Liang instructed the technical department to conduct another trace - substance test on the shoes to determine if there was pig manure on the soles. In many cases, valuable arrest opportunities were squandered due to the time consumed in verification. Without waiting for the test results, Professor Liang asked Amy to conduct a computer search. If Philip Sofia's judgment was correct, the murderer must be living near a farm or a slaughterhouse - anywhere with pig manure, essentially. The murderer could be hiding among the tax - payment records of the city's slaughterhouses, the health - quarantine records of pig farms, or the building - department filings.

There aren't many places with live pigs in the urban area; most pig farms are located in the suburbs, which narrowed down the scope of the search. Amy used her hacking skills to access the computer networks of departments like the Bureau of Animal Husbandry and the Quarantine Station. For her, this was as effortless as going for a stroll. Nevertheless, she found no valuable information.

Professor Liang reminded her, "I need the patient lists from the city's veterinary hospitals, as well as all the addresses where one might step in pig manure."

Amy said, "That'll take a bit of time. Remotely accessing their computers shouldn't take more than ten minutes."

After extensive screening, Amy found the recent medical - fee payment slips in the veterinary hospital's computer archives, which were of no value. However, she also found the attendance records. The addresses of the veterinarians were noted in these records, and one pig farm seemed particularly suspicious. It was located in a village near the airport.

Professor Liang immediately dialed the village committee's phone number and put it on speaker. The village security director introduced over the phone that the pig - farm owner was named Jeremias. He was usually quiet and reserved, with no prior criminal record. He was 38 years old, approximately 170 cm tall. His wife suffered from mental illness, and no one knew if she was bought or married into the family. He also had a mute son. His pig farm raised dozens of pigs.

Philip Sofia suddenly recalled what the newspaper - selling man on the subway had said. He leaned closer to the phone and asked, "Does this person have an ear disability?"

The security director replied, "Yes. When he was young, he got drunk, passed out in the pigsty, and half of his face was bitten off by pigs. He often wears a hat, and sometimes a helmet too."

The members of the Special Case Team immediately grew excited, their hearts pounding with anticipation. The suspect, Jeremias, had emerged.

In fairy tales, the prince found his beloved Cinderella with a glass slipper. In this case, by extracting the dandruff tissue from inside the shoe for DNA identification and comparing it with Jeremias, it could be determined whether he had been at the murder scene in the tunnel.

Matt and Philip Sofia informed the deputy director, and the three of them, leading a team of fully - armed armed police, set off.

Over an hour later, Matt made an urgent report to Professor Liang on the phone.

Matt said irritably, "There's some bad news!"

Professor Liang said, "What is it?"

Matt said, "But there's also some good news!"

Professor Liang said, "Tell the good news first."

Matt said, "We found Miss An Qi in the cellar of the pig farm. She's alive and has been rescued."

Professor Liang said, "And the bad news?"

Matt said, "Jeremias has fled. We surrounded the pig farm tightly, but he managed to slip through our fingers."

Amy didn't participate in the arrest. Driven by a woman's curiosity, she was eager to see what Miss An Qi looked like in captivity. A beautiful, pampered wealthy young lady and an ugly, slovenly pig - farm keeper - what a jarring combination it must be. Soon, Amy saw the crime - scene photos.

She looked through them one by one, her hands beginning to tremble.

The photos depicted a village filled with poplar trees. Along the cement road were rows of low - lying red - brick houses. Jeremias's home was one of them. The large iron gate of the courtyard was chipped and faded. Through the crack in the door, a dog could be seen. Presumably, this dog had provided Jeremias with an opportunity to escape. There were two rows of pigsties in the yard, with sewage flowing freely. Then, the picture shifted, and an entrance to a cellar appeared. The photo also showed Matt, gun in hand, being cautious. Inside the cellar were soybean cakes and sausages, and a wooden door was hidden among them...

Amy couldn't wait to flip to the subsequent photos. Finally, she saw Miss An Qi. The pictures sent a chill down her spine, making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. This was more terrifying to the public than anything else. A woman had simply taken the subway and then vanished, only to end up as a captive in the photos.

Amy covered her face, unable to bear looking any further.

What had happened to Miss An Qi during the days she was imprisoned by Jeremias?

In the last photo, there was a manure bucket in the cellar, overflowing with excrement and toilet paper...

The case was drawing to a close. Let's light our torches and peer into the mind of a perverted rapist, a place as dark as the depths of hell.

The sense of superiority among the Chinese often stems from discrimination against others.

City - dwellers look down on rural folks, and the able - bodied discriminate against the disabled.

The reason Jeremias couldn't find a wife was simple. He was a disabled and disfigured man.

A few years ago, Jeremias "brought" a wife back from a remote mountain area. Many villagers suspected she was bought, but no one reported it. Jeremias claimed his wife had mental illness and, to prevent her from running away, chained her up in the cellar.

In 2008, the national courts concluded a total of 1,353 cases of abducting and trafficking women and children, an increase of 9.91% compared to 2007. These figures are merely the tip of the iceberg. Beyond the glittering cities, in the suburbs and rural areas, the crime of abducting and trafficking women and children is more prevalent than we can imagine.

His wife gave birth to a child. The mother and son lived in the cellar, relying on each other for survival. The child wasn't actually mute, but he never spoke, which spoke volumes about the harshness of their lives. The child became the only glimmer of hope in the mother's hellish existence. Without sunlight in the cellar, the wife's skin grew very pale, and she soon became overweight. Her body was so plump that she resembled a large white pig. We don't know if there were any tender moments in this family, but from the tiger - head shoes the mother made for the child and the sweaters she knitted, it's clear that even those living in the depths of despair still yearn for a better life.

When Jeremias was certain his wife wouldn't try to escape, he would occasionally let her and the child out of the cellar to sit in the sun - filled courtyard for a while. One can picture a warm spring afternoon, where she sat on a small bench, shifting her son from her left knee to her right, holding him tightly. Neither of them spoke; they simply clung to each other. Her husband regarded them with disgust. Her increasingly obese figure would have drawn stares from the village children if she had ventured out.

The entire pig farm was their entire world.

Sometimes, Jeremias would place a bowl of pork stewed with vermicelli or a bowl of pork - intestine soup in front of his wife and growl, "Eat up, drink up, you old sow." When Jeremias was in a foul mood or drunk, he would beat the "old sow," and the child would stand by, his small, pale face expressionless.

The true nature of their married life was essentially co - habitation without intimacy.

After his wife gave birth, Jeremias was less interested in physical intimacy than in pickling pork.

Jeremias's cellar was used for pickling pork. While expanding the cellar, he accidentally dug through a hidden shaft in the subway tunnel.

Subway tunnels often have hidden branches. The New York subway has underground tracks for transporting military supplies, and the London Underground has a secret passage for the prime minister's emergency evacuation. When constructing subway tunnels, every country takes potential wartime scenarios into account. Some hidden shafts lead to unactivated air - defense facilities, which are connected to the entire subway tunnel network.

As the price of pork increased, Jeremias's pig farm reaped substantial profits. With wealth and comfort came lustful thoughts. The more he looked at his wife, the uglier she seemed, while the women on the street appeared more and more attractive. One day, he passed through the subway tunnel from the cellar of his pig farm and emerged onto the platform. Gazing at the beautiful women - professional women commuting to and from work, charming young girls, alluring young married women, and shapely young ladies - all the glamorous figures of the city. The dazzling dresses, the hurried footsteps, and the high - heeled shoes seemed to stomp on his heart.

Jeremias would follow the women he fancied into the subway carriages. At first, it was cautious sexual harassment, which eventually escalated into brazen acts of perversion. Taking the subway every day, he shuttled beneath the city, standing behind these women, and this gradually became his favorite pastime. Just as some people enjoy watching movies or playing sports, he derived pleasure from sexual harassment.

Due to his ear disability, he often wore a hat. However, in summer, wearing a hat seemed out of place. So, during summer, he would don a safety helmet when taking the subway, pretending to be an electrician or a construction worker. He had found this helmet in the subway.

Jeremias had a vivid imagination. Whenever a plane flew over the village, he would look up and envision the alluring appearance of the flight attendants.

Everyone is, in a way, a prison of their own making!

Within Jeremias's heart, a wild beast lurked. It grew from a small seed to a fearsome creature. He thought to himself, if he could buy a wife, why couldn't he abduct one? He sized up these beautiful women as if he were an emperor choosing his consorts. The countless times he passed by these women filled him with regret. The entire process of planning this crime was fueled by these accumulated feelings of disappointment.

A rape case often has its roots in the whistles that sound when a beautiful woman passes a group of construction workers or delivery men!

During this period, no one noticed that Jeremias's wife was missing. He told the villagers that she had gone back to her hometown to see a doctor.

He had never mustered the courage to commit a crime until he had an idea - he bought an electric stun baton. He first tested it on a pig. Since the baton could stun a pig, he knew it could also subdue a person instantly.

As the seller of the electric stun baton had boasted, "Anyone hit by this flashlight - like device will be unconscious for at least 15 minutes, losing the ability to resist or attack."

His crime - related items included a safety helmet, an electric stun baton, tape, and gloves.

He packed these tools into a bag, filled his heart with evil intentions, and embarked on his criminal spree.

The city became a jungle for him. Jeremias might have longed for ancient times when one could simply knock out the person they desired and drag them back to their lair for a lifetime.

The subway restroom was a blind spot for surveillance. Jeremias stunned Miss An Qi with the electric stun baton, dragged her into the restroom, and bound her hands and feet. He carried her into a cubicle of the women's restroom. It was the last subway train. After all the passengers had left, he carried his captive into the subway tunnel. In the tunnel, Miss An Qi's phone rang, startling Jeremias. He threw the phone away and continued on his way. Then, he was startled again when he encountered someone. Jeremias used the electric stun baton to knock out the sewage treatment worker and then strangled him. Although the whole incident was nerve - wracking, it was relatively easy for him.

Jeremias knew that the subway tracks carried high - voltage electricity. Despite his precautions, his crime - tools didn't include insulating shoes. The sewage treatment worker he killed was wearing such shoes, so he promptly put them on. This would later become a crucial breakthrough for the police in solving the case.

A wealthy young lady plummeted from a life of luxury into a living nightmare.

Jeremias carried Miss An Qi back to his hideout. One can only imagine the horrors she endured during those days. From being forced to endure his voyeuristic behavior to being made to watch him bathe, this was the course of his criminal acts.

He was fond of singing.

"Who can sing better than me?" Jeremias taunted Miss An Qi. "No one!"

He not only loved singing but also dancing while singing. His dance resembled a wild yangge dance, with him lost in a frenzy of self - indulgence, his fat buttocks swaying grotesquely. The song he sang most often during those days was, "We ordinary folks are really in high spirits today. Ho, we ordinary folks, hey..."

On the first day of her imprisonment, the once - haughty and aloof Miss An Qi fell to her knees, weeping profusely and pleading with Jeremias to release her. Jeremias remained unmoved. The wealthy young woman even stripped naked on her own, offering a deal, desperately begging Jeremias to let her go after he had his way, and, like a rural woman, she vowed not to report the incident.

An Qi: "How much money do you want? My family has plenty of it."

Jeremias didn't respond, just shook his head.

An Qi: "Then what do you want? I'll give you anything I have, okay?"

Jeremias grinned, revealing his yellowed teeth. He poked Miss An Qi's chest with his finger. This gesture, while seemingly innocent at first, became vile as he then picked up her dress - a white chiffon silk - satin, thin - strapped, back - revealing, flower - bud dress - and pressed it to his face, inhaling deeply in a state of sickening rapture.

Miss An Qi trembled all over. "Fine, tell me, what on earth do you want me to do?"

Jeremias let out a sinister laugh, tore the dress from his face, and roughly pulled the beauty into his arms. Holding her tightly, he murmured in a voice filled with a mix of over - excitement and a pretense of tenderness, "Wife..."

During those days, this pig - farmer did something that might have been the most "romantic" thing in his life.

"Wife," Jeremias said to An Qi, "we're going to get married properly. I'm going to get a marriage certificate."

Miss An Qi was completely devastated, too stunned to speak, and tears streamed down her face once again. Jeremias, like a ravenous wolf, licked the tears off her face with his stinky mouth and then gently and "affectionately" kissed her.

Jeremias stood in front of a wall covered with all kinds of illegal advertisements like fake - certificate - making, marked - playing - card - selling, loan - offering, revenge - seeking, and fake - invoice - providing.

He called the person making fake certificates, saying that he wanted to get a marriage certificate!

We can't know what the law - breaking person making fake certificates thought when receiving this call. They had made all kinds of fake certificates, including graduation certificates, professional - title certificates, ID cards, property - right certificates, and business licenses, but this was the first time they had received an order for a marriage certificate.

Jeremias said, "I want one with an official seal."

The fake - certificate maker said, "That'll cost extra. To be honest, why don't you go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a real one?"

Jeremias said, "Money is no object."

The fake - certificate maker asked, "What are your and your wife's names? How should I fill them in?"

Jeremias said, "Leave them blank for now. I'll fill in the names myself. I don't even know what my wife's name is yet."

The fake - certificate maker said, "You're not kidding, are you?"

Jeremias said, "I'm serious. I want to get a marriage certificate. I really want to marry my wife."

Before the marriage certificate could be made, the police burst into Jeremias' home. When Miss An Qi was rescued, this wealthy young lady who was supposed to attend the international fashion week in Japan was completely naked at that moment. The beauty who was going to Prague to eat ice - cream and to Hawaii to have sago pudding was having a bowl of pig - offal soup. During the days of her imprisonment, she had become a walking corpse, a woman with a blank stare, dirty all over, and a chain around her neck.

Jeremias fled into the subway tunnel through the entrance in the cellar. On that day, the subway service was suspended, and the police dispatched a large number of forces for a full - scale manhunt. The superior ordered that he must be captured before dawn because the subway suspension would cause traffic chaos in the entire city, resulting in huge losses and impacts.

Any entrance of the subway station could potentially be his escape route.

The police set up a tight cordon with police forces at the entrances and exits of the subway stations.

Jeremias was like a frightened bird in the tunnel. He chose another escape route - the suburban sports ground. As we mentioned before, when the swimming pool in the suburban gymnasium was being built, due to a ground - collapse incident, a shaft of the subway tunnel was accidentally dug through.

As dawn was approaching, Jeremias discovered this exit. He was overjoyed, thinking he could escape from here. But as soon as he emerged from the ground, he was caught by two police officers.

These two officers were Philip Sofia and Matt. Before that, they had a conversation like this:

Matt: "How did you know Jeremias would come out from here?"

Philip Sofia: "I thought about it. If I were him, I would also choose this place."

Matt: "Well, we need some good luck. Let's wait patiently. Just now, the deputy director said that a large amount of human blood was found in the pig farm. It seems he also killed his wife and child. But we don't know where he dumped the bodies?"

Philip Sofia: "Maybe the bodies are somewhere in the subway tunnel..."

Matt: "In his home, several old English books and textbooks with female handwriting were also found. The deputy director suspects..."

Philip Sofia: "Could it be that his wife wasn't bought...