Good and Evil, Chapter 86: Suicide? Doubts, and the Question of the Dead

So long as there is still any doubt about a case, it must not be closed lightly. That is the most basic professional code of conduct for a police officer, especially a criminal investigator.

By all rights, the investigation had already reached this point: the source of the body had been identified, the dead man’s identity had been established, and the cause of death had been determined as well. According to the account given by the deceased, Bo-Ming Zhou’s ex-girlfriend, Ke-Er Du, and his close friend, Hong-Zhe Cai, along with the inquiries made of Zhou’s other friends, it was basically certain that Zhou Bo-ming had taken his own life. But Zhang Lei, who had first suggested tracing the source of the body through the clue of the Sydney watch, kept feeling that this case still held unanswered questions, and that it was not yet ready to be closed.

First, what exactly was that Y-shaped wound on the back of Zhou Bo-ming’s head? Though the injury was not large, only three centimeters, and was not the direct cause of death, how had it appeared? At the place where the body was found, the police had discovered no reefs or similar objects at the scene; that stretch of sea was remarkably clean. So how had the wound on the back of the head formed? If the injury had been caused while the corpse was soaking in seawater, struck by reefs or some other object carried along by the current, then why was this the only external injury on the body? And why was it on the back of the head, of all places? Could it be that when the reefs struck the body, they happened to hit only that one part of the corpse’s head? That was plainly impossible.

Second, Zhou Bo-ming had broken up with his ex-girlfriend, Ke-Er Du, only after going to America, and his company had also gone bankrupt half a year earlier. If Zhou Bo-ming had chosen suicide because he could not bear that blow, then why did he not end his life during the half-year when he was at his lowest, but instead wait until six months later? By ordinary logic, most people choose suicide because life has dealt them a devastating blow, their emotions sink to the bottom, and they cannot endure it in that moment. Once they pass through that dark period, people generally do not choose suicide.

Third, when the body was discovered, the deceased was wearing only his clothes and a watch. His other personal belongings, such as his phone and wallet, were missing. Why? If Zhou Bo-ming really had died by suicide, was there any need for him to deal with all those things before taking his own life? And if that were true, then why, when he killed himself, was he still wearing a watch on his wrist, and not just any watch, but a luxury item worth hundreds of thousands? Was he trying to have the watch buried with him? The thought itself seemed absurd.

With these doubts in hand, Zhang Lei told Ning Yanran and the others what was troubling him. After hearing him out, Ning Yanran also felt that the case still contained unresolved questions, so she did not rush to close it, and instead chose to continue following the investigation.

Ten days after Zhou Bo-ming’s body was found, Xu Lang and Shu Yue returned from the countryside village of Zhang Family Hamlet. Xu Lang’s injuries had not fully healed, but he was already able to move about without difficulty. Moreover, his childhood playmate, Zhang Cheng-wang, had been poisoned to death by Jie Xin-tong on their wedding night, and Xu Lang no longer wanted to remain in Zhang Family Hamlet. There was another reason as well: after leaving a letter for her family, Ye Du had departed Zhang Family Hamlet alone, without saying goodbye to Xu Lang and without telling anyone where she was going. She simply vanished from everyone’s sight. This left Xu Lang deeply unsettled. He was extremely worried about this girl, who had never ventured farther than the downtown area of S City, and wondered where she would go after leaving her hometown, whether she would run into danger or harmful people. Xu Lang was filled with concern, and after paying respects at the graves of the departed relatives, he left Zhang Family Hamlet and returned to the city.

Ever since that day, after sweeping the graves and learning that Ye Du had left Zhang Family Hamlet, Xu Lang had become quiet and withdrawn. Though he wore a smile every day and greeted everyone he met in the village, those who knew him well could tell that he had changed. He had grown taciturn, and seemed weighed down by his thoughts. The first person to notice this, naturally, was Shu Yue. After discovering it, she had asked Xu Lang about it and even given him psychological counseling. In the past, her treatment had worked very well, but this time it was not nearly so successful. Shu Yue sensitively realized that Xu Lang had developed resistance and rejection toward psychological treatment, and that was a dangerous sign.

Shu Yue assumed that Xu Lang had become this way because of Zhang Cheng-wang’s death and Ye Du’s sudden departure. She thought that once he left Zhang Family Hamlet and time passed, he would gradually return to normal. So after discussing it with Xu Lang, she chose to leave Zhang Family Hamlet and go back to the city.

After returning, Xu Lang heard about the case involving Zhou Bo-ming. Had he still been in the mood he had been in when he first resigned, he would certainly have had no interest in hearing about such a minor case, nor would he have bothered with it. After all, he had quit the police force; solving crimes was no longer his responsibility. But this time, when Xu Lang came back and heard of the case, he went straight to the Public Security Bureau and took part in the ensuing investigation.

Xu Lang’s unusual behavior surprised not only Ning Yanran, but also the other members of Criminal Investigation Team Two, and even Lu Ye. Over the years they had worked with Xu Lang, they had gained a fairly clear sense of his character. He was usually extremely lazy. When he chose to do something, it was always something that interested him; otherwise, he would certainly slack off. This could be seen in his everyday dress, his eating habits, and his whole way of life.

Still, though everyone was surprised by Xu Lang’s unexpected behavior, they were genuinely glad that he had joined the investigation. For if Xu Lang got involved, it meant the case would certainly be solved quickly.

After Xu Lang joined the inquiry into Zhou Bo-ming’s death, he first reviewed the earlier investigation conducted by Ning Yanran and the others, the autopsy report, and the questions Zhang Lei had raised. After learning the details, Xu Lang also felt that many doubts in the case remained unresolved and that it was not yet time to close it. He therefore instructed Zhang Lei and the others to continue investigating, and suggested that they bring in the two people closest to Zhou Bo-ming for another round of questioning at the Public Security Bureau, so as to gain a clearer understanding of the situation.

Ke-Er Du now lived in America and had obtained American citizenship. After the police contacted her and explained the situation, she refused to return to China. Ning Yanran and the others also had no evidence proving that Zhou Bo-ming had been murdered by them, nor could they prove that Zhou Bo-ming’s death had anything to do with Ke-Er Du. So they had no choice but to leave that lead unresolved.

The investigators had hit a wall with Ke-Er Du, but they did not lose heart. After all, she and Zhou Bo-ming had already broken up, and there was no longer any relationship between them. Her refusal to come back was understandable. But when Ning Yanran and the others tried again to contact Zhou Bo-ming’s other close friend in China, Hong-Zhe Cai, who was also in downtown S City, they discovered that his contact information had been lost. That left them somewhat embarrassed. With no other choice, Zhang Lei, who had been in charge of that part of the work, used the address Cai Hong-zhe had left when he was summoned to the Public Security Bureau to give a statement, and went to find him, hoping to ask again about Zhou Bo-ming’s life before death.

When Zhang Lei arrived at the villa district called Modern City and pressed the doorbell outside the villa said to be Cai Hong-zhe’s home, no one answered at first. After he had rung for quite a while, an elderly woman in her sixties finally came to the door.

Seeing Zhang Lei and Zhao Hua in uniform, the old woman paused, then asked, “Comrades, may I ask who you’re looking for?”

When Zhang Lei and Zhao Hua saw the old woman, they too were briefly taken aback. They had come to find Cai Hong-zhe, and had found the place only by the address he had left. Yet the person who answered was not Cai Hong-zhe, but an elderly woman. That struck them as odd as well.

Zhang Lei quickly came to himself and said with a smile, “Hello, ma’am. We’re detectives from Criminal Investigation Team Two of the S City Public Security Bureau. Is this Cai Hong-zhe’s home?”

“Cai Hong-zhe?”

The old woman repeated the name, then thought about it carefully. After mulling it over for quite a while and still coming up blank, she shook her head and said, “This isn’t Cai Hong-zhe’s home. You may have the wrong place. There’s no one here by that name.”

Both Zhang Lei and Zhao Hua were startled when they heard this. The address Cai Hong-zhe had left in his statement was clearly this place. Yet the old woman said there was no such person here. Modern City Villa District was not large, and there were not many villas, but it was not exactly small either. The people living here were all wealthy or prominent. They should at least have seen one another before, and know each other to some extent. How could there be no such person?

So Zhang Lei asked the old woman again, urging her to think carefully and see whether she might really have such a person in mind. But to his disappointment, the old woman firmly told them that there was indeed no one named Cai Hong-zhe living there.

As they were about to leave after asking further questions, the old woman gave Zhang Lei a piece of information.

“I’ve never seen the Cai Hong-zhe you’re talking about, and there isn’t anyone like that here. But in the villa ahead, there is a man named Zhou Bo-ming who looks a little like the Cai Hong-zhe you described.”

The moment the old woman said this, Zhang Lei and Zhao Hua, who had been preparing to leave, stopped at once. They exchanged a glance, and both could see the shock in the other’s eyes, because the real Zhou Bo-ming was already dead; his body was in the freezer of the Public Security Bureau’s mortuary. How could he possibly still be alive? Could it be merely a matter of the same name?

So Zhang Lei continued asking the old woman about this Zhou Bo-ming.

According to her account, in the villa not far from her home lived a married couple with a large age gap between them. The man was named Zhou Bo-ming, the woman Ke-Er Du, and they also had a one-year-old child named Zhou Zhou. The man was at least twenty years older than the woman. Speaking of this, the old woman could not help sighing about society today, about how young people, especially girls, do not understand self-reliance or honest work and always want to take shortcuts. Truly, the world was growing worse.

The investigators paid no mind to the old woman’s lament. They asked in detail about this Zhou Bo-ming and Ke-Er Du, and unexpectedly learned another fact: this Zhou Bo-ming owned a small yacht, and it was moored by the seaside. Its berth happened to be not far from where the real Zhou Bo-ming’s body had been discovered.

After receiving this information, Zhang Lei and Zhao Hua took their leave of the old woman and returned to the Public Security Bureau. They did not rashly go to the villa said to belong to Zhou Bo-ming to investigate or question anyone.

When these two astonishing revelations reached Criminal Investigation Team Two, everyone was stunned.

According to the prior investigation, the dead man lying in the mortuary freezer was indeed Zhou Bo-ming; that had already been confirmed without error. But how was it that, while searching for Cai Hong-zhe, they did not find Cai Hong-zhe, but instead found another Zhou Bo-ming? Could it simply be a case of identical names? At first, when Xu Lang and the others heard the news, they thought the same thing as Zhang Lei and the others. But on closer thought, something felt wrong.

Across the entire country, S City was a densely populated metropolis with a huge degree of movement and turnover. In such a vast city, it was normal for several people to share the same name. If someone had the same name as the dead Zhou Bo-ming, that could still be explained. But this living Zhou Bo-ming’s wife was also called Ke-Er Du, which matched the name of the dead Zhou Bo-ming’s ex-girlfriend. That could not be explained away so easily.

So Criminal Investigation Team Two immediately launched an investigation into this living Zhou Bo-ming, the one residing in the Modern City villas. The more they investigated, the better—only the more doubts and questions emerged.

First, the villa this Zhou Bo-ming lived in was actually one of three properties owned by the deceased Zhou Bo-ming in S City.

Second, when they investigated the property and communication records under the dead Zhou Bo-ming’s name, they discovered continued large withdrawals from his bank card. Of the two mobile phone numbers registered under his real name, one had not been used since after his death, but the other was still being used frequently. That made things even more suspicious.

Then, when they examined the parcels and utility bills for the Zhou Bo-ming in Modern City Villas, they found that the signatures on those package receipts and utility statements were all Zhou Bo-ming’s signature. When Xu Lang and the others compared the signature of the living Zhou Bo-ming with that of the dead one, they found the two were highly similar, but not identical. So they found a handwriting expert to conduct a forensic comparison of the two signatures. The result was that although both signatures bore the same name and looked very similar, the living Zhou Bo-ming’s signature was clearly an imitation of the dead man’s.

Finally, Cai Hong-zhe and Zhou Bo-ming were roughly the same age: Zhou Bo-ming was thirty-seven this year, and Cai Hong-zhe was forty. Meanwhile, Ke-Er Du in America was twenty-nine, and the Ke-Er Du now in S City was also twenty-nine. After Xu Lang and the others obtained a photo of the S City Ke-Er Du and compared it with the photo of the one in America, they discovered that the two were not the same person at all. More than that, the Ke-Er Du in S City did not look at all like a twenty-nine-year-old woman; she looked more like a girl who had only just come of age. To prevent any mistakes or oversights in Ning Yanran’s earlier investigation, Ning Yanran even went out of her way to find Lu Ye and ask her to contact staff at the American embassy, hoping they could investigate this woman named Ke-Er Du. Not long after, the results came back: the Ke-Er Du in America had indeed gone there a year earlier, but after arriving in America, she had remained there continuously and married there as well. She had never returned to China.

By the time the investigation had reached this point, everyone was thoroughly confused. If the Zhou Bo-ming lying in the mortuary freezer was the real Zhou Bo-ming, then who was the Zhou Bo-ming living in the villa? If the real Ke-Er Du had married in America, then who was the Ke-Er Du in S City? Why were they impersonating Zhou Bo-ming and Ke-Er Du? And where was Zhou Bo-ming’s close friend, Cai Hong-zhe, now? Why had he left the Modern City villa address on his statement at the Public Security Bureau? What was the relationship between Cai Hong-zhe and the man now impersonating Zhou Bo-ming? Were they friends, or were they actually the same person? If it really was Cai Hong-zhe impersonating Zhou Bo-ming, then why would he do such a thing? What was his purpose?

There was another puzzle that no one could make head or tail of: the real Zhou Bo-ming and Ke-Er Du had never married. They had broken up after going to America. Yet the Zhou Bo-ming and Ke-Er Du living in the Modern City villa had married, and not only that, they had even had a child, named Zhou Zhou. If someone had been impersonating Zhou Bo-ming in order to steal his property, that still would not make sense, because Zhou Bo-ming’s company had gone bankrupt half a year earlier. The dead Zhou Bo-ming had not only lost the Ke-Er Du he had loved for eight years, he was also penniless. Xu Lang truly could not understand why anyone would go to such lengths.

But the investigation results clearly showed that someone was indeed impersonating the dead Zhou Bo-ming and the Ke-Er Du who was far away in America. Not only had these two people been impersonated, they had married, and not only had they married, they had had a child, and that child even bore the surname Zhou. The whole thing was even more incomprehensible.

By this stage, Xu Lang and the members of Criminal Investigation Team Two were all somewhat baffled. Which of these two Zhou Bo-mings and two Ke-Er Dus was real, and which was fake? The Zhou Bo-ming in the mortuary freezer was unquestionably the genuine one; that had been confirmed by DNA comparison, and by former employees of Zhou Bo-ming’s company who had come to see the body, all of whom were certain that the dead man was indeed Zhou Bo-ming himself.

If the dead Zhou Bo-ming was real, then what about Ke-Er Du? Between the Ke-Er Du in America and the Ke-Er Du now in S City, which one was the real Ke-Er Du?

The only way to prove it was to bring the Ke-Er Du in America back. But during the previous investigation, the Ke-Er Du in America had already grown very impatient. Now she would not even answer the phone; she could not be reached at all. With no way to contact her, Xu Lang and the others had to find Ke-Er Du’s parents. Fortunately, her parents had not emigrated overseas; they were still in P City, the city next to S City. So Zhao Hua took the photos of the two Ke-Er Dus and went to P City to find her parents, asking them to identify from the photographs which Ke-Er Du was the real one.

After seeing the two photos, Ke-Er Du’s parents immediately recognized the Ke-Er Du living in America. That Ke-Er Du was their biological daughter. As for the Ke-Er Du in S City, they did not know her and had never seen her before.

With that answer in hand, Xu Lang and the others decided to go to Modern City Villas and meet this fake Zhou Bo-ming and Ke-Er Du themselves.