Chapter 114: The twenty third hour.

It was 3:00 PM, when they arrived in the tunnels. Officers who had been closer had arrived before them, but all they had done was secure the scene. Inside the alcove, just as He Xiao Yi had predicted, they found charred mannequins dressed in ragged clothes.

Linlin tapped one. “They are fake bodies indeed.”

“Fire is his real objective.” Liwu said slowly. She looked around, eyes searching the bamboo sticks that were resting against the walls. They had been positioned strategically.

With gloved hands, she examined the bamboo, and accidentally triggered another misfortune when she tripped over the foot of a mannequin.

[+100 points: sudden trip and fall. Would you like to use the points to detect a clue?]

“Yes.”

A train passed above, causing vibrations. The vibrations caused some of the bamboo laying on the old tracks to separate. It revealed a ticking timer, and a set of blue prints that were covered in dirt. Including the warehouse where bamboo had been delivered, there were six more warehouses, in six districts.

Liwu drew a picture in her mind, putting together a vision of what all this signified. She gasped. “The timer is set for tonight, he is planning a chain reaction. For the first time, he will ignite multiple locations, these warehouses.”

Back at the precinct, everything she was saying was relayed. Scans of the warehouses were already on the monitors, agents and officers were being dispatched to the warehouses.

Linlin whispered to her, “You figured all this out from tripping!”

Liwu looked at the time, it made her wish she would trip more. Like for example, into the location of the arsonist they were looking for.

Her partner muttered, “Lately, I am beginning to wish I had your bad luck. At this rate, you will be the next chief in Abby’s place.”

“Are you sure you want my bad luck?” Liwu leaned towards her, extending her hands. They were trembling in a odd way. “I can pass it on as the receiver accepts it on their own.” She made her voice low and throaty, as if she was a witch offering a magic portion in exchange for a soul.

Linlin jumped away. “Don’t spook me Liwu. Stab another toe and lead us to the arsonist or else we are doomed. Time is not on our side.”

Liwu twisted her lips. “I am not eager to endure pain again. Let’s return to the precinct and wait. If by the twenty third hour, the culprit has not been found, I will use my bad luck again.” In the meantime, she was going to trip, fall and endure all the bad luck she could in order to accumulate points.

*****

As it turned out, she was right to wait. Sure enough, their colleagues found clues that led to a warehouse at the docks. All the other warehouses had been located, the bamboo had been removed and mannequins had been moved. Timers had been deactivated.

Only the fifth warehouse at the docks had been empty. It had cables and electric gadgets, but no bamboo or mannequins. He Xiao Yi insisted they sit on it because it also had ten boxes of fire works.

“What better spectacle than a fire which goes off with a boom and explodes like a celebration?” he had asked.

So, by 6:00 PM, the team had already parked outside. Everyone was tense, because it was the third and last day for the arsonist to set the fire. After that, he would vanish and reappear elsewhere.

Liwu was in her tenth outfit of the day, having suffered misfortune after misfortune during the day–spilled tea, tripping over rugs, even her phone had dropped in the toilet.

A small misfortune had pointed here, just like the evidence suggested.

“We are running out of time.” Linlin noted.

“We have four hours.” Liwu replied.

At 11:00 PM, the twenty third hour of Liwu’s impossible promise, as expected a truck showed up, delivering bamboo. The physique of the delivery man matched the suspect they had been tracking. They watched him take the bamboo inside and waited for him to come out, but he didn’t.

At 11:10 PM, flames flickered inside. Immediately, the team rushed inside, following the lead of SWAT officers. The culprit was stood between the bamboo stick pile, which was arranged like a funeral pyre. He had a lighter in hand, eyes wide.

“Drop it.” A swat officer warned.

The arsonist shouted, “I am afraid I can’t do that. You work for the SOB, right?”

Liwu walked forward, baton in hand. “Yes we do, I am detective Tai Liwu. Why don’t we talk?”

A drone above her head scanned the culprit’s face. Now that they could see him up close, without any masks or hoods, it was time to identify him.

“I don’t know who you are, but I am curious to know why you are doing this?” She looked around, searching for the elderly or homeless victim that was supposed to be burned in the fire.

The culprit’s voice echoed through the room, “If you shoot, we all die. My system made me do it! Every day, I must set a small fire to get a reward. But three times in a year, I must set a fire that challenges me and fire fighters. If I resist, it burns me from the inside. So you see, I had to do it.”

Liwu stepped further forward, “Three big fires a year over a period of ten years. They were all in empty buildings, so I guess that murder was not your goal. The bureau dug up the bodies found at each scene and discovered they were already dead before you set them on fire. The ID’s you left at the scene were fake and social security numbers belong to people that died years ago. You may have set fires, but you are not a bad person. Why don’t you surrender? We will help you?”

A voice came into Liwu’s ears. “His name is Gong Donghai, 33 years old. He is a widower, his wife and two children died in a gas explosion at home.”

Xuanji’s voice also came to her. “He has a record that was expunged. When he was twelve, his mother died in a gas explosion. She was abusive and neighbors suspected that he deliberately left the gas on because he knew the first thing his mother did when she returned from a night out was smoke. Nothing was proven back then but at the age of thirteen, he set a few cats on fire. He was arrested but nothing came of it because he was a minor.”

Then He Xiao Yi screamed. “Stop wasting time, he loves fire too much to give up the chance of setting one. Shoot him, shoot him now.”

Liwu’s eyes widened. “Gong Donghai, put out the lighter and go with me. I promise that we will take away that system and you will never have to suffer anymore.”

Gong Donghai laughed. “I have a better idea.”

All the hair on Liwu’s body rose.

“Why don’t we all burn together?” Donghai asked?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep