Still, Fang Mu couldn't picture Fang Mu as the sly and ruthless individual who had committed all the crimes, especially not after seeing him pressed against the window of the police car, crying soundlessly. Fang Mu just kept telling himself again and again, It's not him, it's not him.
In that instant in the police car, Meng Fanzhe was obviously begging for him to help.
Was this really how the killer would behave?
Soon after, the special investigation team began pulling out of JiangbinCityUniversity campus. Prior to their departure, Tai Wei went to tell Fang Mu about the latest developments in the case. After searching through Meng Fanzhe's belongings, police had not found any sort of receipt from a car or apartment rental, nor had they discovered anything else that indicated he had rented either of these things. Still, based on the rest of the evidence, they were positive that the murders were his doing. Since he was now dead, the police decided to close the case.
After listening to this, Fang Mu was silent for a moment. "In other words, your conclusion is that Meng Fanzhe was the killer?"
Tai Wei nodded. "That's right."
"Do you really believe he was the killer? Or would you just prefer to believe it?"
Tai Wei made an effort at self-control at what sounded much like an accusation. "What do you mean?"
"Meng Fanzhe was not the killer!"
"What's your evidence?"
Fang Mu hesitated.
"Intuition? What's more reliable: intuition or facts?" Tai Wei's annoyance turned to a low level of rage. "Do you take us all for idiots?" he asked testily. "There's no denying that you've been a huge help to this case, but we've done our part as well!"
"How about the motive? What was Meng Fanzhe's motive?"
"Shit! Can't you see the guy was a lunatic? Since when do lunatics need a reason to kill people?"
Fang Mu scowled back at him. "Could a lunatic have planned such precise murders? Could he have copied all those other serial killers?"
"He…he probably didn't lose his mind all at once…"
"Really?" Fang Mu flung his cigarette far away.
Tai Wei continued to smoke impatiently. Suddenly his eyes narrowed on Fang Mu. "Maybe you're just being difficult because you're simply ashamed that the profile you predicted fit someone completely different than Meng Fanzhe. Is that really it?" He laughed, and then added in a stinging tone, "And especially since all this happened in front of your girlfriend?"
"Go fuck yourself!" Fang Mu bit back at him, and stormed off.
Rather than return to his dorm, Fang Mu headed to the library. For the past few days he had practically lived there, taking out all the books that had been found in Meng Fanzhe's dorm room and reading through them one by one. He hoped to find some clues about the course of Meng Fanzhe's psychological transformation, and although he knew it was probably hopeless, at the moment it was the only thing he could do.
Actually, he could completely understand where Tai Wei was coming from. They had been working on the case for nearly half a year; add to that the foreign pressure from the Thomas Gill murder, and everyone was just hoping to solve it as soon as possible. However, he refused to accept the verdict. Meng Fanzhe was not the killer — of that he was sure; but he had no way of proving it.
Suddenly his phone rang. All the students reading nearby glared in his direction. Frowning at him, Librarian Sun nodded toward the hall, indicating to answer it outside.
Fang Mu waved at him apologetically, grabbed his phone and ran out into the hall.
Flipping open his phone, Fang Mu saw the number wasn't in his phone book. When he looked at the area code, his heart skipped a beat — it was from SuijingCity.
Meng Fanzhe's hometown.
"Hello?" he said into it.
He heard an old woman's voice on the other end. "Excuse me, is this Fang Mu?"
"That's right. Who am I speaking to?" he asked politely.
"I'm Meng Fanzhe's mother."
His mouth fell open. How did she get his number? "Oh, hello, Auntie. What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, I believe you already know what happened with Meng Fanzhe. Yesterday I finished organizing his final affairs…" Her voice choked with sobs. "And I just got home earlier today. After resting for several hours, I unexpectedly discovered that there was a letter in our mailbox. When I looked at it, I saw that it was from Fanzhe, and that he had sent it several days ago. I checked the date and it was the very day that all this happened."
He felt as if his heart was about to stop. "Meng Fanzhe…sent you a letter?"
"That's right. The letter is really confusing. He mentioned a bunch of strange things and said they had to with some doctor that he had met recently. He also wrote that if anything ever happened to him that I should give the letter to you, and he gave me your phone number and said that you were the only one who could help him…" At this point, she began to moan in pain.
"Auntie, Auntie, are you still there?" he asked anxiously. "What's wrong?"
"I'm here. My heart isn't doing too well. Just now…it felt a little agitated…"
"Is your medication nearby?"
"Yes. Wait a moment, I'm going to go take some."
Through the receiver, Fang Mu could hear the sound of footsteps. Then a drawer was opened, pills rattled in a bottle, and a faucet was turned on.
After a little while, Fang Mu again heard Meng Fanzhe's mother's voice. "Hello?"
"Auntie, I'm here."
"How can I get you the letter?"
"Auntie, please tell me your address. I'll come get it now."
"Okay, write this down: apartment four-zero-one, building three of number six, Golden Pedestal residential area, eighty-three North Riverbend Street, Baita District in Suijing City. Got that?"
After copying down the address, Fang Mu read it back to Meng Fanzhe's mother. Then he warned her: "Auntie, whatever you do, don't leave the house. Wait for me and then we'll figure everything out."
"Okay."
After hanging up, Fang Mu went back into the reading room and returned all the books to their shelves. He quickly collected his things and hurried back to his room.
It was already 3:50 p.m. and it would probably take him around three hours to get to SuijingCity. Fang Mu doubted he would be able to make it back that night. After returning to his dorm, he opened his drawer to find that he had only a little over 100 renminbi. He packed himself a small bag, left Du Yu a note saying that he wouldn't be back until tomorrow, and grabbed his bank card and ran to the local sub-branch at the campus gate.
The bank was filled with elderly men and women collecting their pensions, and there was a long line at the ATM outside. Fang Mu looked at all the old people in their thick glasses who were checking the figures in their bankbooks again and again, and weighed his options. At last, feeling helpless, he lined up at the back of the queue for the ATM.
The line wriggled slowly forward. Fang Mu kept looking nervously from his watch to the distant ATM. When it was finally his turn, he took out 1,000 renminbi and then sprinted over to the cab stand in front of the school gates.
By the time Fang Mu reached the long-distance bus station it was already 4:30. With a sinking feeling, he learned from the attendant at the ticket counter that the last bus for SuijingCity had just left. Hearing this, Fang Mu jumped in a cab and headed to the train station.
Luckily, there was still another train to SuijingCity leaving at 5:10. After buying a ticket, Fang Mu went to the train station supermarket and bought some bread and a bottle of water, and then sat quietly in the waiting room until his train arrived.
When he had seen Meng Fanzhe eating his cat alive in the bathroom that night, he had had a feeling that someone was giving Meng Fanzhe psychotherapy — and that there had been an error in his treatment, bringing his mind to the brink of collapse. Then on the night when Meng Fanzhe had gone raging mad and tried to kill him, Fang Mu began to suspect that someone might be controlling his classmate.