Rebirth of a Rose

36. Prison

Captain Ma Yo was having a rough time due to this case. The forensic team reported no clues that pointed towards the killer. There was no sign of forced entry. Only one set of fresh fingerprints were found at the crime scene, which they believed belonged to the victim. They searched the nearby dumpsters, to check if the killer threw the remnants of skin, but there was nothing.

Since the CCTV cameras were killed, they checked the nearby store and traffic cameras to get a glimpse of the killer. But that was another dead end.

There was no way for the killer to get away unless he never left. Captain Ma Yo checked the details of all tenants, who rented the apartments and owners who owned them. None of them looked like a killer, nor he had the authority to go and search their houses.

Ma Yo was left with almost nothing. The killer seemed professional. The victim's identity was fake, also he paid for everything in cash.

The next day they found a match to the fingerprints, that they had found at the crime scene. They were a match to a cold case that occurred twelve years ago. The man was a person of interest in rape and murder of a high school girl.

Captain Ma Yo wondered if this case had any connection with Feng Sui. He went through the old case report.

The young high school student went to her friend's place after school. She informed her mother about it and she was okay with her being at her friend's place. Very often, her daughter would spend time with her friend. They would complete homework together. She would return home by seven at most.

Ma Yo's case victim worked as a gardener at her friend's place. Her friend was the daughter of a big shot businessman.

That particular day the girl was late, so her mother gave her a call. When she didn't pick up, she called her friend. Her friend informed her that she left a long time ago. This made the girl's mother panic and she immediately informed the police.

Her friend's family cooperated with the investigation. Every one of them told the same thing. The police checked the CCTV footage of the big villa. It indeed showed the high school student leaving the house at around four in the afternoon. One could make out that she was in a hurry.

On the way, she was greeted by the gardener, but she ignored him and left. They followed the young girl's trail, but she disappeared somewhere in between.

A week later, some locals found her body. The police was informed immediately about it. The young girl was strangled to death. They also found a man's wooden bracelet. After further investigation, they found some blood and skin tissue under her fingernails. She seems to have struggled and scratched her attacker.

The semen found on the body, though didn't match the DNA of the blood found under her fingernails. There were two people involved in the case.

After going through the CCTV footage once again, the police discovered that the bracelet belonged to the gardener. They immediately went to his house to bring him in for questioning, but there was no sign of him.

They collected some of his personal items to test with the DNA found on the girl's body and the results were a match. When the police went to the bigshot's mansion, they were informed that the gardener was sick and had asked for two days leave. He was never found, nor his accomplice.

Nobody knew where he went or how he got out of the city. Ma Yo compared the faces of the gardener with his victim.

The photo used in signing the lease agreement seemed a lot different from how he looked like twelve years ago.

His autopsy results also showed that he had gone under a plastic surgery. That made Ma Yo wondered, 'from where did he receive money to change his looks and have a new identity? He had his doubts and left the city to go to the northern region and meet the detective in charge of the rape and murder case.