"Did you notice anything unusual last night?"
"Last night? No... at least not before I fell asleep," the security guard shook his head.
This psychiatric hospital had only one gatekeeper, Old Ding.
Of course, even though he was the only one guarding the gate, the security of the psychiatric hospital wasn't an issue. The internal management was very strict, and most of the time, the patients stayed in their wards. They couldn't run out, and they wouldn't, because under normal circumstances, most psychiatric patients were immersed in their own worlds.
The gatekeeper was more of a formality, mainly responsible for opening the gate for staff coming to work, so there was no need to hire too many people for this role.
"What time did you go to sleep?" Xu Mo asked again.
Old Ding thought for a moment and replied, "Around ten, maybe a bit after. I usually go to bed around that time."
So the crime must have occurred after eleven? Xu Mo glanced around and noticed a surveillance camera mounted high on the wall, directly facing the gate.
Following Xu Mo's gaze, Han Fei also noticed the camera and couldn't help but ask, "Is that camera working?"
The director looked slightly embarrassed. "That... it broke a couple of days ago. No one has come to fix it yet."
So the surveillance footage was out of the question.
Xu Mo shifted his attention back to the head in the plastic bag.
The head was covered in blood, making it difficult to even discern the face.
After a closer inspection, Xu Mo noticed that there were no fingerprints left on the head. The killer had been careful.
He wiped away some of the bloodstains.
Once the blood was cleared, the victim's face became visible. A man in a white coat standing behind the director immediately pointed at the head and exclaimed, "This... this is one of our patients!"
Earlier, the head had been tightly wrapped in the plastic bag, and with all the blood, no one dared to touch it, so they hadn't recognized it.
Now that Xu Mo had opened the bag and cleaned it up a bit, the victim was identified.
Xu Mo wasn't surprised by the man's statement.
He had already guessed that the victim must have been someone from inside the psychiatric hospital—either a patient or a staff member.
The hospital's walls were very high. If the bag had been thrown in from outside, it couldn't have landed so close to the wall. No one could throw something with such precision.
Additionally, the security guard had mentioned that when he first found the plastic bag, it was tightly wrapped, and he had no idea it contained a human head. He had even mistaken it for garbage and was about to throw it in the trash. If the bag had been thrown over such a high wall, it would have been damaged upon landing, and the guard would have immediately seen what was inside. He wouldn't have mistaken it for trash.
Moreover, the note placed beside the bag, which had a provocative tone, also suggested that the bag couldn't have been thrown in from outside. A lightweight note like that couldn't have been tossed over such a high wall.
None of this was hard to deduce.
The victim must have been someone from inside the psychiatric hospital, and the crime scene must have been within the hospital grounds.
"Tell us about this person. Did he have any conflicts with other patients in the hospital?" Han Fei looked at the man, hoping to gather some information about the victim.
The man thought for a long time before shaking his head.
"Probably not. He was quiet and liked to keep to himself. He would either space out or mutter to himself. He wasn't close to anyone, so I doubt he had any enemies."
Han Fei immediately felt the complexity of the case.
No surveillance footage, no suspects, and the body wasn't even intact. It seemed almost impossible to investigate.
But just then, Xu Mo suddenly spoke up.
He pointed at the head.
"The back of the victim's skull shows signs of being struck by a heavy object. It was a fatal blow, killing him instantly... Based on the shape and depth of the wound, the killer was likely an adult male, and the weapon used was probably something like a hammer or mallet."
"Also..." Xu Mo glanced at Han Fei. "Captain Han, I don't think we need to focus too much on whether the victim had conflicts with other patients. The behavior and thought processes of psychiatric patients can't be compared to those of normal people. Any reason that seems incomprehensible to us could be a motive for murder."
Han Fei pondered Xu Mo's words and then slowly nodded.
That was a point he hadn't considered earlier.
The thought processes of psychiatric patients are unpredictable.
If the killer was also a patient in the hospital, then the motives for murder could be endless. It might not necessarily be a personal vendetta. Perhaps the killer simply didn't like the victim's hairstyle, or maybe the victim ate his vegetables before his rice, or even because the killer thought the way the victim drank water was unattractive... Any of these bizarre reasons could have been the motive.
"Is there a possibility that the killer isn't a psychiatric patient?" the director interjected at this point.
As soon as he finished speaking, the officers turned to look at him, their gazes scrutinizing.
"That possibility can't be ruled out!"
No, I was just sharing my thoughts. Don't look at me like that! I didn't kill anyone! The director's mouth twitched, and he took a step back, decisively shutting up.
As for whether the killer was a patient or a staff member, Han Fei already had his own thoughts, but he wanted to hear Xu Mo's opinion. "Captain Xu, what do you think?"
"I don't think this is something a normal person would do," Xu Mo shook his head, pointing at the note beside the plastic bag. "A normal person wouldn't leave a note like this at the crime scene."
He still leaned toward the idea that the killer was a patient in the hospital. Any sane person probably wouldn't leave such a note beside a corpse.
"Come and catch me if you can..." It had a show-off tone, which was too childish and didn't seem like the behavior of a normal person. It fit the profile of a psychiatric patient much better.
Han Fei nodded. Xu Mo's thoughts aligned with his own. "I think the same, but we can't rule out the possibility that someone intentionally left the note to mislead us."
Speaking of the note, Han Fei suddenly had an idea.
He looked at the director.
"Gather everyone in the hospital and have each of them write a sentence on a piece of paper!"
Handwriting could also be a useful clue.
That's a good idea... Xu Mo glanced at the crooked handwriting on the note and added, "Have them write with both their left and right hands. I want to watch them write."