Chapter 113: Another painful clue.

It took two hours for one delivery man to offload all the bamboo poles and drive away. A team of detectives followed the vehicle. Meanwhile, the rest of the team at the site waited for twenty minutes to see if any one else was coming around.

At 10:30 PM, just as they approached the warehouse, drones alerted them to smoke inside. A fire suddenly broke out, suddenly. They had been prepared for this and the firefighters headed inside.

At 11:00 PM, the detectives were invited inside. Flames already licked the walls. Half of the contents had turned to ash. “This is not the style of our arsonist.” Liwu declared. “Those fires burn for twelve hours, they can’t be put out in twenty minutes, not even with our tools. It should have taken at least one to two hours. This feels too easy.”

Linlin raised one of the poles. “The bamboo, it has to be the bamboo. Feel it Liwu, it is too rough. Natural bamboo is smooth and hard. Besides, it is cool, this one feels hot.”

“Could be the fire.” Liwu suggested. “It was hot in here just a few minutes ago.” She lifted one of the polls and sniffed it before touching it with her bare hand. “It feels smooth to me.”

Linlin shook her head. “I know my bamboo because my grandfather is a bamboo craftsman. There is a problem with this bamboo. We should send it to the lab for testing.”

An officer walked up to them with a shipment order from the office. “This was a rest stop, the bamboo was meant to be sent out at midnight tonight. But, there is no forwarding address.”

Liwu’s phone vibrated. Because it was the chief, she put it on loudspeaker. “We are here. Linlin found suspicious bamboo.”

“Well the bamboo shoots you found earlier are ordinary, the lab reports came back.” He answered.

“Not the shoots, the poles which have been delivered just now.” Linlin yelled. “It’s not bamboo at all. Liwu’s bad luck may not have brought us the arsonist but it brought us the arson’s tools.”

“Just send everything to the lab and find another clue or return to precinct and help us out.” Chief Abby ordered.

They left the warehouse, but were uncertain on what to do next. Returning to the precinct was not useful, but staying outside and driving around without a plan was worse.

“We need your bad luck.” Linlin suggested. “All we have is bamboo which may or may not be a clue. It is not enough. What do we have…18 or 14 hours left?”

Liwu had a feeling that this request was coming. “Stop the car.”

Linlin parked by the side of the road, leaving the police lights on as an excuse.

“System, trigger another misfortune. A moderate one, turn bad luck into good luck.”

The system chimed: [Moderate misfortune triggered. -150 points.]

Liwu leaned back in the chair, waiting for the misfortune to her. And it did! An over speeding car failed to stop from the back, crushing into their vehicle. The car was nudged forward. Liwu bumped her head against the dashboard.

The pain was intense, and it made her cry out.

Cursing loudly, Linlin shouted, “Liwu, are you okay?”

Pulling her head back slowly, Liwu nodded. Tears brimmed in her eyes.

“Your nose is bleeding!” Linlin gasped.

Liwu raised her hand, “I am okay. We need to find the clue. Who hit us?” She struggled with the seat belt, hands trembling as if she was in need of sugar.

“Stay here.” Linlin told her. But she knew that this was a waste of time. Liwu was as stubborn as they came. In the end, they both stepped out of the car. Liwu stuck tissues up her nostrils.

They made their way to the car that had hit them. While the bureau vehicle was unharmed, the front part of the car that hit them was dinged. The driver’s head was resting on the airbag.

“Driver, step out of the vehicle with your hands up.” Linlin ordered.

Liwu swiped a card on the passenger side of door and it clicked. She opened the vehicle. The smell of alcohol hit her instantly. The driver was intoxicated, and he was useless. He was also not the culprit they were hunting. He was unharmed, but he was useless because he was sleeping!

“Over here,” Linlin called from the back.

Liwu went around. On the back of the car was an old sticker for the subway.

“The clues are always on paper,” Linlin said, “Could this be it?”

A bird that was heading home provided the answer by shitting on the sticker. It was such a precise, targeted drop and bits of it sputtered on Liwu’s neck and hands.

[+30 points: bird poop.]

Liwu sighed. “Yup.”

Linlin swallowed her laughter and took a picture of the sticker. She also reported their latest finding. “Chief, we have a new clue. It is a subway….”

“An abandoned subway.” Weijun’s voice came over the phone. “When I redesigned and rebuilt the city, some places had to be buried with history and this was one. Hey..Liwu are you okay? No broken bones? I saw that crash on traffic footage.”

“I will be okay when we find this bastard.” Liwu replied.

Weijun sent them photos of the old tunnel. “Lucky for everyone, I left cameras on every entrance that we blocked off. City hall has private access.”

A group of officers rushed the drunk man to the hospital while the two women rushed back to their car. Linlin touched the dashboard and holographic footage that the bureau could now access from the cameras came through.

“I see footprints.” Someone in the precinct yelled.

“I have rewound the footage.” Su Jin announced, “There is someone in a hoodie that accessed the tunnels two days ago. They are pulling bags. Scanner shows something straight like that bamboo you found.”

Another voice shouted, “It’s a man.”

“That’s him.” Liwu declared. “It is him. But what is he doing in the subway?”

Weijun gasped. “Because tunnels spread smoke faster. From there, smoke can cover half of the city and cause chaos and confusion.”

“It’s a spectacle and scare tactic.” He Xiao Yi said with strength. “He knows the police will go down there as soon as they see the smoke. I bet you will find fake bodies down there.”

Linlin pressed on the gas. They needed to get to the tunnels as quickly as possible.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep