Perfect Murder: 7 True Major Crime Stories from a Veteran Detective

This might be one of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever encountered in my police career.

The reason this case left such a deep impression on me—so much so that it still gives me the creeps when I think about it—is that I once saw this ‘already vanished woman’ cooking in the kitchen with my own eyes.

I only found out later that, at that time, she was already dead.

It all started with an accidental discovery during one of my missions.

At the time, having received an urgent assignment, I was temporarily staying in a luxury hotel in the city center. The hotel was situated in a highly conspicuous location, right in the city’s core business district. There were no noisy wet markets or cramped, narrow alleys around; it was surrounded entirely by straight, wide, well-connected roads. Opposite the hotel stood a low-rise residential building. Although the building was already quite dilapidated, standing in an area where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold meant housing prices there must be exorbitant. It was highly unlikely that ordinary wage earners could afford to live there.

My mission this time was precisely to keep a certain room in that opposite building under surveillance. The specific details of the mission cannot be disclosed here, but I can say that it had absolutely nothing to do with the case I am about to discuss.

During my stay at this luxury hotel, the staff would politely ring the doorbell every morning, respectfully deliver breakfast to my room, softly ask if I needed anything else, and then leave with a smile.

To be honest, I was really unaccustomed to this kind of life. Compared to this, I missed the piping hot instant noodles and the cursing, complaining atmosphere of the major crimes unit. But there was no helping it; this was the job.

That is, until the building opposite successfully caught my attention. To be exact, what caught my attention wasn’t the room I was monitoring, but the residents of apartment 2038.

The occupants of 2038 were clearly not your average working-class folks. After all, nowadays, not just anyone can afford to drive a Porsche.

One morning, as I was walking out of the hotel entrance, I happened to encounter that brand-new sports car passing by. At that moment, the massive roar of the engine startled me. I turned my head and happened to see a familiar dark red jacket.

That’s right, it was the male owner of 2038. I had a strong impression of that face, which was full of a sense of superiority. After being a detective for so long, I had developed a professional habit of observing people. Over time, this actually brought me a bizarre sense of pleasure; it was as if every person who passed by me was a riddle worth pondering over carefully.

The strange thing was, I had never seen the female owner of 2038. Though I was quite certain it was a two-person household. Every morning, as I sat drinking tea by the hotel’s massive floor-to-ceiling window, I would see a slender figure bustling about in their kitchen.

For the first few days, I felt inexplicably ashamed, feeling like a despicable Peeping Tom. By chance, I discovered that the hotel’s exterior glass was made of a reflective material, and that sense of shame vanished instantly. Sometimes I feel that hiding in an unnoticed corner to play the voyeur is human nature, hard to resist—even for a police detective.

Things gradually started getting a bit eerie.

Looking over from the hotel, the living room of 2038 could also be seen crystal clear, but I observed that this couple never ate together. My intuition told me this wasn’t normal. Every time the food was brought out, the woman who cooked it would disappear. Only the male owner would lazily emerge from the bedroom, slowly start eating, and occasionally turn his head to say something, seemingly calling the female owner to come eat.

But this woman never appeared.

I had been staying here for ten days and had never seen this couple eat at the same table. To be precise, I had never seen this woman come to the table at all. Every time she finished cooking, she vanished without a trace.

Something was definitely wrong. I had a bad feeling. The mysterious couple in 2038 was like a swelling puzzle, slowly crowding my mind, giving me an urge to plunge into an investigation immediately. However, I still had a mission at the time, and I certainly wouldn’t abandon my post.

Unless the mission was over.

When I received the phone call notifying me that the mission was canceled, I was monitoring the room opposite. On the phone, my colleague, Fatty Xu, growled in frustration: ‘That cunning bastard got away again.’ Criminals these days are as alert as wolves on the prairie; at the slightest sign of trouble, they flee swiftly. I understand this deeply. So I wasn’t surprised at all to receive the evacuation order.

It was just that I couldn’t continue observing 2038 anymore, which made me a bit uneasy. While packing my things, I kept staring at the room opposite.

It was completely empty.

For several days after returning to the precinct, I was still immersed in that bizarre feeling, even contemplating risking a disciplinary violation to go back and take another look. My professional detective sensitivity told me something was wrong.

But I knew very well that this was impossible. As police officers, once we evacuate a location, the biggest taboo is to reappear in the stakeout area. Once the target discovers they’ve been monitored, the entire mission goes down the drain.

The unexpected happened right at this moment.

That woman actually disappeared.

The person who came to the police station to report the case was the male owner of 2038, named Li Xiao. He rushed in anxiously to report because he found his wife, Yang Fang, missing. However, when I saw him, I didn’t show any abnormality. Judging from the report, this was just an ordinary missing person case; it didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of the major crimes unit, nor did it require my intervention. As I passed the interrogation room, I heard a statement being recorded inside:

‘Have you argued with your wife recently?’ This was my colleague, Little Xu’s voice.

‘Of course not. We have a great relationship, plus we’re both very busy, who has the free time to argue?’ It sounded like Li Xiao was quite dissatisfied with Little Xu’s questioning.

‘Did you receive any ransom calls?’ Little Xu continued asking.

‘No!’ Li Xiao retorted.

Ultimately, based on the general patterns of such cases, the fact that Yang Fang’s personal belongings were taken, and that both the living room and bedroom doors were completely intact, the highest probability was that Yang Fang had left home on her own.

Unexpectedly, after a few twists and turns, this case was actually transferred to our major crimes unit. Once it reached us, it was no longer an ordinary missing person case; it was highly likely that Yang Fang had met with foul play.

After learning the situation from the officer who transferred the case, I took a sharp breath of cold air.

This case was too bizarre.

The handing-over officer explained that they had pulled all the footage of Yang Fang before she left the house and found nothing unusual. That day, she dressed up glamorously and walked out as usual, wearing a wide-brimmed silk hat and a pair of light, wide-leg pants.

The only suspicious thing was that she was holding a medium-sized suitcase, seemingly preparing for a long trip.

The eerie part was exactly this: this woman, who looked like she was going on a long journey, walked into a restaurant with her head held high, and never came out again.

The police pulled all the cameras in the restaurant and found that all clues ended when Yang Fang entered a corridor near the back kitchen. Whether by coincidence or not, there was no camera in that spot.

The situation was so rare that we were all plunged into immense confusion.

The restaurant had only one main entrance with people constantly coming and going. We had also asked many diners, but unfortunately, no one had noticed this woman.

In other words, since stepping into this restaurant, Yang Fang had never come out.

‘What is this all about? I’m running a legitimate business in broad daylight, I swear, I absolutely haven’t hidden anyone here.’ The restaurant owner, Old Zhou, a chubby middle-aged man, felt wronged and repeatedly emphasized that he definitely hadn’t hidden anyone, and that the restaurant was open to the police at any time for any search they pleased.

We certainly conducted a search, and our search target was far more than just Yang Fang. As professional manhunters who have seen almost all the evil and filth in this world, we were equally prepared to find a corpse among those gleaming kitchen utensils.

The result was nothing. Whether in terms of physical objects or smells, this restaurant was utterly unremarkable, with no traces of a living person or anything else being hidden.

This was just too eerie. Could a living, breathing person really vanish silently and without a trace?

Thankfully, I still managed to reap a reward. Although we didn’t find the missing person, from the shifty, panicked expression in the eyes of a young waiter, I discovered a clue.

This young man in his twenties was named Little Xu. He appeared to have the arrogance and fearlessness unique to his age.

‘Did you notice anything?’ I asked routinely.

‘No.’ He only glanced at me before quickly lowering his head, looking a bit flustered.

‘Think carefully. If you’re found to be hiding something, your whole life will be ruined.’ I stared straight at him, pressing him step by step.

‘I… I didn’t do anything.’ He started to mumble, his lips trembling.

‘I’m not afraid to tell you, the woman who disappeared from your restaurant has likely been murdered! She came into your restaurant carrying a suitcase, and now the suitcase is missing too. Who knows, the person who took the suitcase might just be the killer.’ I continued to press.

‘No… it wasn’t me! I just took a suitcase!’ Little Xu’s face warped with fear. ‘I don’t know where that woman went… and, I didn’t dare keep that suitcase either…’

This piqued my interest. I asked him, ‘Why? Weren’t you just trying to steal her suitcase?’

‘There was something weird about that suitcase.’ It seemed Little Xu was genuinely terrified. ‘I was scared looking at it, so I threw it away. At the time, I thought there was money inside, but there wasn’t.’

‘Weird?’ I asked immediately. ‘Tell me about it.’

‘The suitcase was full of clothes, nothing valuable. I don’t know much about women’s clothing, but they all looked like worn, old clothes. The terrifying part is, there were a lot of masks in the suitcase. White ones, black ones, patterned ones—they looked incredibly creepy.’ Little Xu swallowed hard. ‘I really don’t know what this woman did for a living! Anyway, there was nothing valuable in the suitcase, so I secretly threw it into a nearby trash can.’

A suitcase carried by a woman full of various masks was indeed a bit strange. Even though I had seen all sorts of professions, it was hard to deduce the purpose of these masks.

What on earth were these eerie masks used for?

The suitcase was found, but the few remaining masks were torn and tattered. Little Xu told us that the masks he saw were intact, so it seemed these things had been rummaged through in the trash. Makes sense; such a delicate leather suitcase could hardly fail to attract someone’s attention.

Little Xu was very agitated, repeatedly emphasizing that he didn’t kill anyone. After routinely checking his whereabouts, I had to regretfully conclude that he was telling the truth. The cameras showed that he had indeed sneakily taken the unattended suitcase from beside the table, but this was already the morning of the day after Yang Fang’s disappearance. Upon clarifying the matter, Old Zhou fired Little Xu immediately.

After ruling out the sticky-fingered Little Xu, the number one suspect naturally fell on Yang Fang’s husband, Li Xiao.

Yes, in all cases involving married couples, the spouse is the prime suspect. No matter how grief-stricken they appear, the police will always harbor doubts about the spouse. Global criminal case statistics show that the proportion of cases where a spouse murders their partner is staggeringly high in homicides.

This time was certainly no exception. Beyond reasonable suspicion, the police launched a detailed investigation into Li Xiao, especially regarding his actions during the time Yang Fang was missing.

Unfortunately, Li Xiao’s alibi was almost airtight. Both the hallway and elevator surveillance showed that he had indeed returned home that afternoon and only rushed out of the house in a hurry early the next morning. According to him, he hadn’t left the house at all after returning that day. Yang Fang had told him that an old classmate she hadn’t seen in a long time had come to visit, and they were going to a restaurant to catch up. Because it was a gathering among female college classmates, it wasn’t appropriate to bring husbands. So Li Xiao stayed home alone that night, watching TV and playing on his phone, not even knowing when he fell asleep. When he woke up in the morning, he realized something was wrong—his wife hadn’t come home all night.

Li Xiao immediately called Yang Fang. When he found out her phone was off, his first reaction was that this classmate gathering was unusual. Although he had a harmonious relationship with his wife, he still suspected that Yang Fang not coming home all night had a lot to do with this ‘all-girls’ gathering she had mentioned.

Harboring an indescribable anxiety, Li Xiao quickly rushed to the restaurant Yang Fang had mentioned to understand the situation. The restaurant owner, Old Zhou, felt quite impatient about this absurd matter—who would pay attention to whether there was a table of only women among the diners from the night before last? He tried hard to recall and then remembered that there indeed was a situation with a whole table of women that night, and more than just one table.

Li Xiao was extremely agitated and firmly demanded to check the restaurant’s surveillance video from that night. This seemingly unreasonable demand made Old Zhou very angry, claiming that it was impossible to provide it without police permission. A standoff ensued between the two parties, and in desperation, Li Xiao called the police.

At this point, things seemed to have hit a dead end. A vivid, living person had just vanished into thin air, her fate unknown.

Where on earth did that woman go?