The Numbers Killer - Chapter 4 The Funeral Parlour

A silver Spyker C8 sports car was parked just outside a funeral home in S City. Although there were little people in the area, this outstanding sports car still garnered a great deal of attention.

When Bai Yutang got out of the car in a silvery-grey Armani trench coat and a pair of Gucci sunglasses, one might think that he was a celebrity, or a model, etc... Basically, you'd never be able to guess that he was actually a police officer.

Zhan Zhao got out of the car as well, reluctantly and a little miffed, "Has no one lodged a complaint against you yet?"

"Complain about what?" Bai Yutang asked, as he took off his sunglasses and entered the building.

"You're driving in and out of the police station in a 400,000 USD sports car. I highly doubt that no one has complained about you."

"This car was bought with clean money and gifted to me by my brother!!" Bai Yutang said as he shrugged, "Besides, I like this car. It can reach the speed of sound, perfect for catching criminals.

(lilies: (ｰ ｰ;) a car that can travel at the speed of sound??)

"Ah yes, a policeman who drives a 400,000 USD Spyker C8 to catch criminals. This shows that you don't fit in well in society!"

"Yeah yeah, kitty, you've been trying to prove that I'm not normal since we were born," Bai Yutang said while surveying the lobby of the funeral home. He then added nonchalantly, "However, all those great psychological theories of yours don't work on me.

Slotting his hand into his pocket, Zhan Zhao responded, "Ha! It doesn't matter if you don't want to admit. Regardless, I've managed to prove that you have paranoid, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, and many more abnormal personality disorders in these 20 years that I've known you!!"

(lilies: wells someone's been watching ◉‿◉)

"If all these claims that you've made actually stand, then..." Bai Yutang pointed to the morgue, "I would be the one putting those numbers on the dead and not the one investigating over here."

Suddenly, someone came out of the morgue and joined in the conversation, "As an Investigator, you are quite a special one."

Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang turned to the man who just spoke — it was a lean man who looked to be about 30 years old. Under the dim lighting of the funeral home, the man's originally pale face looked even gloomier.

"I'm Chen Jing, and you two are the police?" The man offered his hand to greet them.

"Ah... Hello," Bai Yutang returned the handshake while taking out his ID with his other hand, "I'm Bai Yutang and this is Zhan Zhao."

"I believe Gongsun has given you a heads up on the purpose of our visit."

After shaking hands with Zhan Zhao, Chen Jing turned around and led the two of them to the morgue, saying, "I think you should take a look at this first."

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang exchanged looks and followed Chen Jing into the morgue. There were several bodies were laid out in the morgue with a white cloth over them. Only one was partially uncovered. Clearly, Chen Jing was putting make-up on that corpse.

"This one was sent over this morning. Look here," Chen Jing said as he tilted the head to the side to reveal the number "39", clearly imprinted behind the ear.

"Ah! Another one," Bai Yutang looked up at Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao carefully observed the number and commented, "Doesn't look like it was done by hand."

"Hnn?" After hearing Zhan Zhao's words, Bai Yutang lowered his head to have a look. Only to see that the number was unusually neat in a standard SimSun font.

"It's not a tattoo?" Bai Yutang rubbed his chin in thought and turned his gaze to Zhan Zhao again. "Then what is it?"

"Erhm... I can't tell for sure until we've sent it for tests. It doesn't feel like a tattoo, it's more like a seal of some sort," Zhan Zhao replied with his head still lowered. With a serious expression on his face, "From the looks of the numbers, the person who did this has a severe case of perfectionism."

(lilies: if i'm not wrong, perfectionism falls under OCD)

"Perfectionism??" Bai Yutang took another look at the numbers, "I can't see how it's pretty to mark the ear of a corpse with a number."

"I said perfect!! Not pretty!" Zhan Zhao emphasised before continuing, "When we were looking through the photos, I had already noticed. Almost all the numbers are placed in the same exact spot." As he spoke, he put on some gloves and flipped the ear over for Bai Yutang to see, "The numbers are all placed perfectly at the back of the cavum conchæ. Do you know what this means?"

"That this person is a psycho?" Bai Yutang replied without even thinking. Only to see Zhan Zhao roll his eyes at him and hold his hand out in defeat, "That is without a doubt."

Zhan Zhao continued, "It's this position. It's the "only" position."

Bai Yutang picked at his ear and uttered, "Human language, please!"

(lilies: this is the raws '说中文，拜托' which means 'Chinese, please' but I interpreted as like what he doesn't understand\=alien so I don't have to deal with what language I should put it as)

Zhan Zhao rolled his eyes again.

"...The location of the numbers. You would never notice it unless you flipped the ear over!" he said as he released the ear to let it return to its original state to prove his point to Bai Yutang. Sure enough, the number was completely hidden by the auricle and couldn't be seen from any angle.

"So?? What does this mean, Expert?" Bai Yutang asked, still puzzled,

While removing his gloves, Zhan Zhao replied, "This means that the person who marked the bodies more or less has professional medical knowledge, as well as an extreme tendency for perfection. They definitely have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and has great attention to detail. They are probably engaged in work that requires them to be meticulous and are timid and overly-cautious is day-to-day life..."

"Human language!" Bai Yutang couldn't help but interrupted.

"He is a psycho," Zhan Zhao summarised.

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