Chapter 33 Section 12

For homeless people, it is very difficult to have a real "early" meal.In the morning, people hurriedly shuttled through the streets and alleys, with the purpose of going to work or school, and they had no time to pay attention to an old beggar on the street, let alone give alms.To pick up the leftovers of their breakfast from the trash, usually after half past nine. Originally, the old tramp knew his breakfast time.But the problem was, he hadn't been able to eat anything all day yesterday, so even though it was only past five in the morning, he was already starving. He had to try his luck, and even if he had little hope, he still looked forward to digging up some leftover food from yesterday in one of the dumpsters.

The old homeless man rummaged through two trash cans one after another along the street, but found nothing - the trash can had obviously been taken care of by a scavenger last night in advance - not only was there nothing to eat, there was even something to sell There are no plastic bottles or bags for money.He was extremely depressed, but the loss in his heart acted like a catalyst to inflate his hunger.He must go on. After walking two streets, the old homeless man came to a small vegetable market, and after more than an hour, the place would become lively.There's always going to be some food left over in a place like this, he figured—but, damn it, the cleaners hired by the market keeper clean it up like an ice rink.There's no room for people like us, he thought.

Luckily, there's a small dump over there.Hope he wasn't ransacked by his peers, at least some spoiled soy products or expired snacks—he prayed, and walked over to rummaging through a lot of garbage. He saw a small blue plastic bag tied up, and there were some oval-shaped things in it, but he didn't know what it was.He grabbed it and opened the pocket. What?His eyes widened. Fritters!And it looks... still fresh! (Fresh, to him, was not moldy or stinky.) The old bum was so excited by the windfall that finding such a thing when he was about to starve was like finding a piece of driftwood when he was about to drown.He grabbed one and took a big bite.It's really fragrant, and the mouth is full of oil.

After wolfing down the first fritter, he felt better.The second one, he just started to savor the taste carefully.Hmm... If you eat it carefully, the taste of this meat is a bit weird, you can't tell what kind of meat it is made of, maybe it's because of some spoilage, but it's still very fragrant and filling - that's enough.He doesn't care, the stomach has already been trained to be impenetrable and invulnerable to all poisons. After eating three fritters in a row, the old homeless man's stomach was full - after looking at it, there were four left in the plastic bag - it was so good, lunch and even afternoon tea were available.Satisfied, he fastened the pockets and prepared to pack them away.At this time, he noticed that there was another big black plastic bag bulging inside the small garbage dump.

Good luck for me today - he thought - to see what this pack is, maybe another surprise. He got into the garbage bin and took out the bag. When he opened the bag, he felt as happy as scratching a lottery ticket. But the joy vanishes as soon as the pockets are opened, and is replaced by doubt and confusion—what are these blood-red things?Looks like some entrails... pig offal?Just as he was guessing, his eyes suddenly touched something in his pocket, and his body trembled violently as if he had been electrocuted. God, it's... a human hand!He saw it clearly, screamed in fright, and flung the bag away, part of the internal organs and a hand scattered out of it.

The old homeless man was so frightened that his legs became weak, he sat down on the ground, scrambled and moved his body backwards, just in time to bump into the manager of the vegetable market passing by.The administrator was about to go to the market when he was bumped by the old beggar. Just about to curse, he followed the old beggar's gaze and saw the human hand and the scattered internal organs on the ground. He said "ah!" He called out, stunned with fright.After being stunned for a few seconds, he quickly took out his mobile phone and called the police. Ye Lei squatted on the ground, opened the black plastic bag with his gloved hands, observed carefully for a while, stood up and said to Huo Wen: "Boss, according to preliminary judgment, it is the two hands and arms of the second victim. And the spleen, the kidneys."

Huo Wen looked stern and dignified.He nodded slightly: "Give the evidence to the laboratory." Ye Lei tied the black plastic bag tightly and handed it to a policeman next to him.The policeman took the bag of stumps away. Huo Wen turned to look at the vegetable market manager who reported the crime: "Did you find out first?" "It's not me." The middle-aged man waved his hands again and again, pointing at the old homeless man curled up beside him, "It's him." Huo Wen's hawk-like eyes shot at the old beggar who was squatting on the ground.The old vagabond raised his head, his eyes happened to meet the captain of the criminal police, and he shivered in shock from the terrifying aura.He hastily defended in a panic: "Officer, it's none of my business! I was just looking for something to eat in this garbage dump. I didn't expect... to find such a package of things!"

Huo Wen looked at the bewildered and frightened old beggar, and he knew very well in his heart that this poor man could not have anything to do with the murder and dismemberment case, he was just a "discoverer".He adjusted his facial expression, narrowed his scrutiny, and said, "Don't be nervous, just answer my question truthfully, and I won't make things difficult for you." The old bum kept nodding. "Is this package in the garbage dump, or outside?" "It's inside, very inside. I got in to get it out." Huo Wen nodded. "Did you find this package alone? Was there anyone else near the garbage dump at that time?"

The old homeless man thought for a while, and said with a bitter face, "There seems to be no one else. It was too early, and there were not many people on the street." "That is to say, when you came here, you didn't see anyone throwing garbage?" "yes." It seems that this bag of stumps should have been discarded by the murderer last night, Huo Wen thought.Then asked: "Why did you come to dig through the garbage here?" "I was hungry and was looking for something to eat in the trash. First I found a bag of fritters and I ate a few to see if there was anything else and came across this It's a big bulging bag. I didn't expect that when I opened it, it turned out to be..." The old homeless man showed a terrified expression again.

Howen scanned the ground around him. "Where are the fritters?" The old tramp hurriedly picked up the half bag of fried pancakes that had been thrown aside in fright, and held it up to the captain of the criminal police in front of him. "This is it." Huo Wen glanced at it, but didn't pay attention to the dirty fried pancake.He just wanted to know if the old beggar was telling the truth.Now, he felt that there was nothing more to ask, so he turned to a young policeman and said, "Take this old beggar back to the police station for a record, and then send him to the nearest shelter."

The old homeless man asked nervously, "Officer, are you going to lock me up?" "I'm not going to lock you up. There is food and shelter in the shelter, which is much better than begging for food on the street." The young policeman said to the old homeless man, "Come with me." The old tramp happily followed the young policeman into the police car. Huo Wen and Ye Lei sat in the police car, Ye Lei took out a small book, and read while recording: "On Sunday, June 5, the second part of the second victim was thrown in the garbage next to the Lixi vegetable market. Ku - two hands and arms, and parts of internal organs." Huo Wen put his hands on the steering wheel and frowned. "Yesterday we were still thinking about when the murderer would throw the body next time, but it just happened today. Hmph—" he sneered self-deprecatingly. "It's like he (she) heard our conversation and didn't want to disappoint us." Ye Lei looked at the small notebook in his hand. "It's been eight days since the last corpse dump." He looked at the captain. "Boss, according to your analysis, the murderer probably encountered something unpleasant yesterday." Huo Wen lowered his eyes and did not speak.After a while, he asked, "Is there any progress in the investigation? Have you found anything suspicious?" "The intelligence department has provided some information about people who live alone and have had or are currently in contact with single women from other places." Ye Lei took out a stack of papers from a black leather bag and handed it to Huo Wen. "But this is only part of it. It is impossible to count all this type of people. The number is too large." Huo Wen flipped through them one by one. These papers were printed with basic information such as photos, names, ages, and occupations of people with criminal potential listed by the intelligence department.Huo Wen read all these dozens of pages side by side, and asked, "Why, are they all men?" Ye Lei said: "Perhaps the intelligence department thinks that men are more likely to commit murder and dump corpses." Huo Wen shook his head in dissatisfaction: "Not necessarily. They are too subjective and inexperienced. The famous serial murder and dismemberment case in Ohio, USA in 1987 was committed by a woman." Ye Lei nodded and said, "I'll ask them to list women who meet this condition." Huo Wen asked: "Among this group of people, is there any key investigation target?" "Yes." Ye Lei leaned over, rummaged through, and selected about ten papers from a pile of papers. "These people have been in contact with single women from other places many times, and some of them have lived with single women from other places." "Okay, focus on these few people. At the same time, ask the intelligence department to continue counting suspicious objects." "yes!" Huo Wen gritted his teeth and said, "I still can't believe that this cruel fox will never show its tail!"