Chapter 21: The Lin Family Squad, Move Out!
The half hour spent on the road was enough for the police to retrieve the villa owner’s information.
However, when Lin Jiangye pointed at the man’s photo in the file and asked the black cat to identify him, the cat shook its head, indicating that this man was not among the four.
“I’ve never seen him.”
The group exchanged looks. That made things interesting. As the villa’s owner, serious crimes such as unlawful imprisonment and intentional injury had taken place inside his house—yet he himself had not appeared?
“Check whether he has any records of leaving the country or the province. Also check if he owns any other properties,” the Major Crimes captain said, suddenly feeling a headache coming on.
A troubling thought had just crossed his mind.
Consultant Lin had mentioned earlier that the black cat smelled the scent of death inside the villa.
Animals are far more sensitive than humans when it comes to life and death. To them, the smell of death is sharp and putrid—impossible to mistake. Lin Jiangye believed the black cat’s information was unlikely to be wrong.
Which meant there was a corpse hidden inside the villa.
If that were true, the severity of this case would escalate to another level.
Someone suggested calling the villa owner directly to ask. The captain shook his head.
“That would alert the suspects. If the owner has already been killed by those people, and we call at this time, they’ll immediately know the police have traced the crime scene.”
Lin Jiangye agreed. After a brief discussion, he decided to have the crows carry small cameras to scout the situation.
The black cat wanted to go as well, but given its injury, no one dared let it risk reopening the wound.
Although the crows didn’t know which specific building it was, the German Shepherd volunteered to guide them.
Even the tabby cat insisted on going. Though it looked plump, most of it was fat, and its frame was small. If the crows couldn’t fit through tight spaces, it might be able to.
“Good thing the tabby has dark fur,” someone remarked. In the night, its coat would make it nearly invisible—perfect for sneaking in.
The animals moved swiftly, disappearing into the darkness in an instant.
The officers gathered inside the captain’s vehicle, watching the live feed from Diamond and the tabby’s perspective on a tablet. Before long, they reached the target building.
The German Shepherd could read house numbers. After giving a few low signals to the others, it circled around and approached the villa from a concealed corner.
Once inside, it immediately sensed something wrong.
The smell of blood was heavy.
And it was clearly human blood.
Moving closer, it also caught the scent of death the black cat had mentioned—or rather, the odor of a body that had been dead for days.
The stench of decay seemed masked by something else, but the aura of death cannot be covered by perfume. It is nature’s warning to the living.
The Shepherd lay down, carefully distinguishing the source. The scent seemed to come from behind the villa, where a small garden was faintly visible in the dark.
Diamond and Opal circled the villa. Through their cameras, Lin Jiangye and the others quickly identified the positions of surveillance cameras.
Then they landed on a third-floor window and peered inside.
The room was pitch black. The cameras couldn’t capture much, but from the crows’ angle, they could see a human lying there.
Alive or dead—they couldn’t tell. But it was a person.
Opal moved to the second floor. The rooms there were empty. It wanted to slip inside, but the windows were sealed shut without even a crack.
Fortunately, they had brought the tabby. After circling the building, it found a small opening.
Like water flowing through a gap, the half-grown tabby twisted and squeezed silently inside.
Upon entering, it gagged slightly. The mixture of blood, sour bodily odors, and other unidentifiable smells was an assault on its sensitive nose.
If it could speak aloud, it would have cursed nonstop.
Carefully, it moved behind furniture, wary of bumping into anyone.
Through its camera, Lin Jiangye and the others finally saw the villa’s interior—spacious, abandoned, as though it had been ravaged by war.
They had previously obtained the villa’s final renovation design from the decorating company. It had once been luxurious. Now, much of it was empty. Expensive custom furniture was missing. Some wall fixtures had been forcibly pried off, leaving uneven holes.
Clearly, the current occupants were not the original owners.
“Where are the other surveillance cameras?” the captain muttered, rubbing his temples. His headache was worsening.
He increasingly suspected that the villa owner was the corpse inside.
“Captain! We found something. Over the past few days, more than four million yuan has been transferred out of the owner’s bank account. Each transaction is marked as voluntary donation.”
The officer let out a dry laugh.
If the man was already dead, what voluntary donation? A ghost’s donation?
Lin Jiangye frowned and focused again on the tabby’s camera feed.
The cat had slipped into one of the rooms.
The next second, both humans and cat were startled.
A chair stood in the center of the room. On it sat a person—no, a person tied up.
His head hung low. A steady drip echoed in the room, like a leaking faucet. But the tabby knew exactly what it was.
It was the sound of blood dripping from the man’s head onto the floor.
The tabby had followed the scent of blood here, but it had not expected the human hidden inside to be in such a miserable state.
The only consolation was that he was still alive. The cat did not smell death on him.
Its fur slowly settled. It gave two deliberate taps to the camera lens—the agreed signal. Two taps meant the victim was alive; three taps meant a corpse.
Seeing the two taps, everyone exhaled in relief.
The black cat also stared at the tablet. Due to poor lighting, it couldn’t clearly identify whether the person was the one who used to feed it.
It hoped he was.
The tabby retreated and searched the first and second floors thoroughly. They were empty.
Which meant that in this large villa, there was one barely alive victim on the first floor and another unknown on the third. At least three suspects were unaccounted for.
“Did they run?” the captain worried aloud. If they fled, capturing them wouldn’t be easy.
Lin Jiangye disagreed. “Perhaps they didn’t run. Perhaps they simply haven’t returned.”
Facing their questioning gazes, he explained, “Don’t forget the crows injured someone. Since blood was left behind, the wounds were likely serious. Going to the hospital for treatment would be normal.”
After all, most people would assume wild crows carry bacteria and viruses. If infected, it might mean not just scars, but disfigurement.
Soon, Diamond and Opal returned, both looking dejected—they had not been of much use this time.
Lin Jiangye stroked them gently and shared his thoughts.
“If they went to the hospital, they’ll likely return soon. Should we ambush them inside?”
Catching them red-handed would be best. If they returned, they would likely check on the victim downstairs. If they entered that room, there would be no denying their guilt.
“Who knows whether they wore gloves during the assault? If no fingerprints are left, they could claim they merely trespassed.”
The captain nodded grimly. That scenario was entirely possible.
But they couldn’t all hide inside the villa.
“I’ll go in. Only I can coordinate the animals. I can also check on the victim before they return. If his condition worsens, we’ll reassess.”
Lin Jiangye retrieved emergency medical supplies from his car.
In the end, he and one officer hid inside the villa. The others concealed themselves around the perimeter, ready to rush in upon the crows’ signal. The captain stayed outside to monitor the surroundings.
Once everything was set, Lin Jiangye and the officer slipped through the opening found by the animals.
Like the tabby, they nearly gagged at the foul smell upon entering.
After adjusting, Lin Jiangye tiptoed into the victim’s room.
He didn’t turn on the lights. Using his phone’s dim flashlight, he examined the man.
The victim was practically covered in blood. There was hardly an uninjured patch of skin. Whatever grudge the suspects held, they had tortured him mercilessly.
Fortunately, none of the wounds were fatal. It seemed they wanted him alive to prolong the torment.
But there was bad news. The victim’s eyes were injured. He might not be able to identify the suspects.
“Captain, proceed as planned. We need to catch them in the act,” Lin Jiangye whispered through his earpiece while carefully stemming the bleeding.
At the same time, the other officer crept up to the third floor.
The moment he entered, a wave of stench hit him.
The person on the bed was dead. The face bore signs of struggle. A pillow lay nearby. Finger marks were visible on the arms—likely restrained and smothered in sleep.
Judging from the livor mortis, the death had occurred some time ago.
“Captain, the deceased is not the owner.”
Not the owner. And with doors and windows sealed, the scent of death the black cat detected must come from yet another source.
The captain felt his headache intensify. Two victims now—the case had escalated again.
As he massaged his temples, a message came from the officer stationed at the villa district entrance.
“Captain, three men are heading toward Villa No. 3.”
