Chapter 101: Eager witnesses…with help.

The witnesses were all together in the break room. Rather than separate them, Liwu kept them together, in the same arrangement as they appeared to be in the surveillance pieced together from the scene.

She also laid down some pictures that had been taken of the assault. Crass as it was, she knew it would juggle some of their memories.

Next, Linlin handed out some water and tea. Xuanji gave everyone a pill that was approved from the Bureau. It tasted like a strawberry sweet but it’s purpose was to slowly resurrect memory flashes. Random things that someone may have forgotten.

It only worked when someone was looking at something related to the moment they needed to remember. Because of how few such pills were in circulation and how costly it was to acquire one, they were rarely used.

Liwu started with the old woman that she had interviewed the night before. The same one that had a bag of fruit and health supplements. She had lied about not knowing anything because she had watched the assault from beginning to end.

After showing her the proof, she shifted uncomfortably in the seat.

“Tell me what you saw or I will hypnotize you and get the answers out of you.” Liwu commanded.

The old woman winced. “I didn’t see much. I mean…I saw the whole thing, but I didn’t understand what I was looking at. I live there and last month, a system host ran naked through the square when we were square dancing. Stupid youth and their pranks.” She paused to drink some water. “I don’t know if this is related but I remember something now. When I was coming back from the market, I saw a woman near the fountain. She was slipping something over her face. Now that I think about, it was that creepy mask.”

Liwu leaned forward. “Are you sure?”

The old woman nodded. “I saw it from the side, but I think it was the one. I didn’t see the woman’s face but her hair was black.”

Liwu noted these details.

She moved to the second witness, the teenager that had sneaked out to the event. She had earbuds dangling from her neck. “Now that I think about it, I also think there was a woman. I didn’t see a face because she was in a mask. But she bumped into me and I spilled juice on my shoes. I heard a woman’s voice clearly say the word ’begin.’ Then the dancers started surrounding that woman.”

A young man that had been tapping his foot nervously jumped up. His eyes were bright and he spoke with certainty, “Shoes! I saw someone in the mask wearing red heels. But when they were dancing and when the woman was pulled down, nobody was in red heels.”

The detective became more and more excited with each statement.

The fourth witness was a vendor that had come looking for the old woman because she had forgotten her wallet at the stall. “I don’t know if I saw a man or woman but I saw someone in the mask when I was running after old Mrs. Lu to return her wallet. That person smelled like mangoes. The scent was unmistakable.”

The young man who remembered the shoes recalled another detail. “Shoes!” He shouted.

“You already said shoes,” Someone muttered.

The young man shook his head. “Not the red heels, the dancers. They were all wearing the same shoes but the one who assaulted that woman had different ones.”

“No, they were the same.” Someone said.

The young man shook his head. “I saw the bottom of his shoes. They had a V and an N and this logo…..” he pulled a sketch book from a female witness that was late for her art class.

As he flipped through the pages, looking for a blank one, Liwu noticed that the artist had drawn some scenes from the crime scene. The mask, the karaoke guy, the dancers, fire works and a few other things.

“What were you waiting for to show us these?” Liwu asked her.

“Depends, how much are you willing to offer?” The woman asked.

Linlin gasped.

Liwu touched her pocket and came up with ten large bills, each 100 yuan. She slammed them on the table.

Another person raised their hand, the man who had testified to seeing the suspects disappearing in a flash. “If we are being paid…”

“Nobody is being paid because the defense lawyer can take all of your testimonies and claim you were coerced with money to say what we wanted to hear.” Liwu cut him off. “The sketch book is different because I am buying it, not her words. But, we will compensate you all for your time.”

It was like the dams opened because suddenly, witnesses were shouting out the small details they had forgotten accidentally or on purpose.

“The gloves the dancers wore, they were custom order. I picked one today morning. Maybe you can get fingerprints.” Someone said.

“I saw a long strand of hair peeking from the under the mask of the person that held that woman’s hands down. They had short black hair but I think it was a wig.”

“I also smelled the mangoes.” Someone screamed. “And a silver bracelet. Yes, the one that was holding the woman down was wearing a silver bracelet. It peeked out from the gloves towards the end but only for a moment.”

A pattern emerged that detectives arranged on the murder board. New clues that would point them to the one who assaulted and the mastermind.

When they were being sent off, the old woman remembered one final detail. “Detective,” she called out.

Liwu turned around.

“The person I saw, I think I saw them making a sign at the one that was doing the assaulting. It was military code for one minute left. I think they had a specific time window. I only know this because my son served in the army.” The old woman smiled sadly. “He is dead now.”

Liwu made her expression sympathetic. “I am sorry for your loss, and grateful for your help.”

The detectives gathered at the table again, over breakfast. They started sharing what they had discovered so far and what connections had been made. They all agreed on one thing, the mastermind was a woman.

Even He Xiao Yi was on board. But only because Liwu had found new clues, and one clue led straight to one of the men he was about to interview.

He pointed to the murder board, at the poorly drawn sketch of the logo beneath the shoe. “I have a man in custody right now, with shoes that have that same logo on the bottom. He climbed the wall of the hospital and entered the victim’s room through the window.”

Liwu abandoned breakfast. “The rapist. You have the rapist in custody and you are eating a waffle!! He Xiao Yi, I could slap you right now.”

He Xiao Yi bit the waffle slowly. “What? He is not going anywhere.”

Liwu did not care. She was already out of the door.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep