The interrogation room.
Criminals have different mentalities. Some of them would beg for forgiveness when they are arrested, some of them would yell and scream in rage, and some of them are cunning masterminds who would talk nonsense, or keep silent to stall for time.
Tim Yeung, being arrested, calmly sat in a chair in handcuffs and answered all the questions he was asked. If John had not experienced the crazy final counterattack, and if murder and damage of corpses were not clearly mentioned in Tim's testimony, he would almost think that he had arrested the wrong person.
One night half a year ago, a john requested Joan Wong to spend a night in the wild, and that guy mercilessly left her alone when he was done. Her legs were badly scratched by weeds and she could not walk back to the bus station, so she called a taxi - the taxi with car plate no. WE1314, driven by Tim Yeung.
Due to financial difficulties, Tim Yeung dropped out of school and became an apprentice in his early teens. He had been a member of a martial arts school. He was used to small-scale conflicts and always carried some first-aid alcohol and band-aids with him, allowing him to give Joan Wong emergency treatment.
At first, Joan refused to tell him why a girl would appear alone in such a remote place late at night. Only when Tim pressed did she say to him that she was a university student who had come to shoot a cosplay to earn some extra money to pay for her studies, but she had got lost and encountered thieves and had been robbed and raped.
She claimed that her family was from a farming village and was very conservative. If they found out that she went to cosplay, they may think that she was prostituting and that it would be the end of her life, so she begged Tim not to report to the police and keep it a secret. Tim agreed and even sent her back to the Choi Fung Building without charging her a fare.
In fact, when he saw that Joan lived in the Choi Fung Building, he was somewhat doubtful about it.
However, not all tenants of sub-divided units are sex workers. Some poor families also live in sub-divided units because they cannot afford the rent of a normal flat. Looking at the low-quality sailor's outfit of Joan's, obviously purchased from some online shop selling counterfeits, and the fact that she didn't tout herself like any hooker, Tim was convinced that she was really a poor student.
He gave her his service number, and the two of them started dating. He, a night shift taxi driver, and she, a "university student" having daytime studies plus the need to take care of younger siblings until late at night to have a date, hit it off right away.
In the interrogation room, Tim Yeung describes their romantic yet ridiculous relationship in great detail.
"Sir, you know what? I really thought that in this job, with such fucked up working hours, with no qualifications and no money, I probably wouldn't be able to find a girlfriend. But God blessed me with a pretty and educated girlfriend through an encounter in the countryside," he said.
He was almost 30 when he had his first love, and he was so precious that he would rather spend money out of his pocket to subsidise the fuel costs every night, and he would take Joan out for free to the beach to stargaze at night, and up to the mountains to watch the sunrise.
"She would also change her clothes and role-play with me. We would hold hands and kiss cheeks like some sort of pure puppy love, but we would also have hot car sex like grown-ups. I thought she loved me. However, half a month ago, she suddenly didn't want to have sex with me anymore. She looked like she had issues in her mind. She was sometimes keen and sometimes distant, she would kiss me and say she loved me, but she just wouldn't have sex with me."
Tim Yeung thought that something was going on in her family or her studies, so he comforted her said that it was alright, and sent her back to the downstairs of Choi Fung Building as he always did.
A few dozen metres away, at the corner of the street, Tim saw Joan arguing with the landlord at the entrance of the building through the rear-view mirror.
Thinking that her lover had already left, Joan was arguing in a loud voice, talking about the prostituting business, the "bosses" and money. After being threatened by the landlord with a rent increase, she lost in the quarrel. She hugged and kissed the landlord to try to please him, and the two went into the building, tugging and pulling.
"I realised that she lied to me - she wasn't a college girl at all, and she was a whore who had slept with countless men!"
"So you killed her?"
"Yes. Doesn't she deserve it for being such a bitch?"
The next day, 22nd November, was the half-year anniversary of their acquaintance, and Joan bought a pair of labour gloves for Tim.
"Tim, don't wear the old pair of gloves with holes. I saved two meals and bought new ones. Holding the steering wheel all day long is tiring and your hands will get worn out easily. Hope the new gloves can be of some help."
In the interrogation room, Tim Yeung is grief-stricken.
"I'm such an idiot. Then I thought, Why not give her a chance? As long as she admits her lies and never sells her body again, I can forgive her, marry her, and take her to my apartment to live together. Although life may be difficult, we can work things out together. So I asked her again why she wasn't willing to have sex with me. She hesitated and still didn't want to confess everything. She must have been with another richer man but still wants to have me as her plan B!"
So the following night, 23 November, when Joan got into the car again, Tim drove her to a remote place and strangled her in the backseat with his hands in the pair of new labour gloves.
He drove the body back to the Choi Fung Building. A jacket was put over the body's head, pretended that he was helping the drunk girl up the stairs like any kind driver would do. After entering her room and taking away her belongings to disguise the scene as a burglary and murder, he still felt so angry that he drew the screwdriver held in his waistband and mutilated her face and private parts before leaving.
Tim Yeung laughs coldly, "This bitch struggled quite a lot before she died. You know what? She was crying with tears all over her face and saying that I was heartless. Who is the heartless one?"
"I learned from the radio news that she had been pregnant for two months. No wonder her attitude towards me changed drastically but she wouldn't let go of me. She just wanted me to be the cuckold and find an extra father for the little bastard. Did she think that buying me a pair of gloves would tempt me to bear with such disgrace? That motherfucking whore!"
"Sir, honestly, I did the right thing! In the past, such a shameless woman with her little bastard would have been drowned in a cage. I killed her for justice so that other men will not fall for her...Whatever the court judgment is, I have no regrets! The only thing I regret is that I was such a fool who had once fallen in love with a whore!"
Tim Yeung sneered at the recording camera.
"Is there anything else the police would like to ask? Oh right, I can have a psychiatric test, right? I'll testify that I did have a plan to kill her, and that I was sober and calm when I did it, that I knew exactly what I was doing, and that I'm not mentally ill!"
The officers in the interrogation room frowned at his words.
When John relayed the story to Francis, Francis was writing a report in the small lab next to the criminal autopsy room on the B3 floor of the west wing of the police headquarters building.
In the tiny room, there are only a bunch of flasks, test tubes, and microscopes. The equipment is somewhat scarce, and the racks holding the test tubes are even rusty.
John cannot help but feel that this place was even more shabby than a secondary school lab. He secretly decides to apply for new equipment in the future.
Francis was staring at the computer and typing on the keyboard, responding to John with perfunctory words like "hmm", "oh", "that's right" and so on.
"What kind of report is this?" John takes a closer look at the screen. The pictures of rotting meat pieces are accompanied by professional terminology in English, and the only thing he understands is the three letters "DNA".
"DNA?"
"Yes, DNA," Francis nodded, "Didn't that arrested person, Tim Yeung, insist that he was right to kill? But the truth is, he's wrong, so terribly wrong. It would be too harsh on him if my report is read out to him in court, I hope at least he has the right to know while he is still in custody. Maybe he won't be so arrogant and unrepentant in court."
Dragging his mouse, he points to a photo and asks, "Remember this one I picked up on the scene?"
John has a vague guess of the answer: "Are you testing the DNA of the foetus?"
"Yes, with a DNA sequencer. The IB is busy comparing hair samples in the taxi compartment and scuff marks on the simulated leather seat, but I have to test the DNA of the dead foetus, so my first meeting with the 'Hairless Lord of the Light" - the head of the IB, was not a very pleasant one." Francis laughed.
"What are the DNA results?" John asks.
Francis's smile fades a bit and replies, "The foetus is the child of Tim Yeung."
Although Joan Wong was no longer able to testify herself, her pregnancy seemed to explain her attitude towards the culprit, which led to her death.
From the testimonies of bystanders, it seems that Joan Wong and Tim Yeung may have been in true love; but from her behaviour, it seems that their relationship started with a lie and that she did not completely cut off prostitution during the relationship, so perhaps the love was not so pure.
There is no way for an outsider to know the exact truth.
When she found out that she was pregnant, she could not figure out who the father of the baby was and probably did not remember whether she had sex with Tim during the time of her conception. She feared that Tim would remember, and it would be disastrous if the date could not match up, so she stammered when she was asked, and refused to have sex without the courage to explain that she was pregnant.
A few days later, according to the staff at the custodial facility, Tim Yeung learned about the results of the report and stared at the wall with bloodshot eyes, remaining silent for most of the day.
At night, he suddenly bursts into tears and cries out like an ordinary young man wounded by love, but somehow also resembling a wild beast howling at the brink of death.
"Serves him right, that scumbag," Draco commented in the pantry of the SCIU.
"Thinking that killing is righteous? He ended up indirectly killing his own child. Don't know why some media write up nonsense headlines like 'Tragic male driver cheated by a drama queen prostitute", or "Impulse leads to a tragedy involving two lives' - that's just twisted! This is a 100% homicide, not a mistaken manslaughter! Why won't the media write a few more lines to report that my brother's hand was almost ripped off by him? He's still hospitalised!"
Mandy chimed in, "But I think that they are both pathetic. Sometimes, pretense may become the reality, and hate may grow out of love..."
"Stop saying that that goddamn murderer who hurt my brother is pathetic!"
"Why are you yelling at Mandy? Respect her freedom of speech!" Carman's eyes were wide open.
"I just won't allow such remarks! Hey, Carman, gimme back my cup! 106Please respect copyright.PENANAWXXtWZ4wwq
Hey!"
John has become "immune" to this kind of petty quarrel, and just like Francis, he stepped back to a corner and stayed away from the battlefield.
"John, do you still remember the question I asked you at the Choi Fung Building? About the reason I badly want to solve the case." Francis suddenly brings it up.
"Yes, of course. You said it was partly because of your own feelings - you sympathise with the victim's occupation, right? Are there any other reasons -"
John thought that Francis, having a mother who was a tragic and murderous prostitute that caused his childhood trauma, would be in favour of one side or the other when facing this homicide case. Maybe Francis would weep, condemn the one(s) involved, or feel confused and not want to comment at all.
But Francis did not.
As a forensic pathologist who respects life, he gave a wise and gentle answer.
"I had never met the victim before. The first time I met her, she was already a giant cadaver, terribly unpleasant, to be honest. But I wanted to solve the mystery beyond her death, so much that I kept working even when I was sick. No matter who is the one to blame, I just wanted to find out the truth."
"Even if it is not for her, I would still do it for the sake of that innocent little life - I must give him an answer. After all, I love children, including foetus not yet fully developed."
"Although my profession is to study how lives end up till nothing is left, the longer I've been in this field, the more I've come to realise that the beginning of life is amazing," he told John.
In the eighth week of pregnancy, the foetus grows to about three centimetres and weighs about four grams. All complex organs begin to develop, plus teeth and jaw, and ears continue to take shape. Although the skin is paper-thin and fragile, the foetus's heart is already divided into a left atrium and a right ventricle and begins to beat regularly, at about 150 beats per minute, twice as fast as an adult's heartbeat.
Under a microscope, small paddle-like hands and feet can also be seen, and what appears to be a small tail is actually an extension of the tailbone and will soon disappear.
"Although it looks like nothing more than a mass of soft tissue, so wrinkly and ugly...but still, very lovely, isn't it?"
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