"And then, why did you continue to kill people?"
In the interrogation room of Binhe Police Station, Lin Yingxue, Zhang Qishan, Officer Yang, Bai Qi and I sat opposite Zhang Peng. Listening to Zhang Peng's self-narration, everyone felt uncomfortable. Not to mention me, even Officer Yang and Zhang Qishan, who hated Zhang Peng to the core, no longer had anger on their faces. Instead, they had an inexplicably complicated expression.
No one is born a bad person. If they were not forced to this point, who would do such a cruel thing
Zhang Peng, who was sitting opposite me and was handcuffed, did not show any panic on his face. He suddenly turned to me and said, "Ji Wen, give me a cigarette and I will tell you slowly."
I just took out a cigarette from my pocket, turned to look at Bai Qi, and Bai Qi nodded slightly. Then I lit the cigarette and put it in Zhang Peng's mouth. Zhang Peng took a deep breath and continued his story.
At that time, Zhang Peng originally planned to die in the explosion, but he remembered his mother's words to live well, so he escaped from the mine at the last moment and returned to Zhongwei City.
At this time, Zhang Peng was like a stray dog and had completely lost his fighting spirit. After burying the mine owner's heart that he had secretly brought out in front of his mother's grave, Zhang Peng did not return home. Instead, he came to the urban area of Zhongwei and lived the life of a wandering beggar.
Zhang Peng didn't feel anything when he was killing people, but after he calmed down, he actually developed a desire for blood in his heart. He gradually discovered that he had come to like the pleasure of killing others, as if only in this way could he vent the sad emotions in his heart.
What led to him becoming a real heart-eater was an accidental incident. That day, Zhang Peng was sitting in a daze at the corner of Red Sun Square facing the cold wind. As he had not cleaned himself up for several days and his clothes were tattered, many people mistook him for a beggar. He often received money thrown to him by passers-by, and Zhang Peng barely made ends meet by relying on the charity of passers-by.
Just as Zhang Peng was in a daze, suddenly a stone flew from somewhere and hit Zhang Peng directly in the face. The stone was a pebble. Although the force it was thrown at was not very strong, it still hurt Zhang Peng. Zhang Peng turned his head and saw a child not far away making faces at him. The stone was thrown by this child.
Although Zhang Peng had become cold-blooded at this time, he would not bother with a child. He just coldly said to the child, "Go away." But who knew that this sentence was heard by the child's mother not far away.
"Beggar, why are you so mean to my son? My son is playing with you because he respects you. Do you think anyone would care about someone like you?"
Zhang Peng still remembers very clearly the look of disgust and aversion on the woman's face. That short sentence completely touched Zhang Peng's fragile self-esteem and nerves. Zhang Peng did not say anything, but just stared at the woman with cold eyes. The woman seemed to sense a murderous intent in Zhang Peng's eyes, and did not continue speaking. She left with the child in her arms.
Zhang Peng followed the woman from a distance and finally memorized her home address. He quietly hid around, took out the dagger hidden on his body, and waited for the opportunity.
At night, the woman seemed to be preparing to go out to throw away the garbage. Zhang Peng, who had been waiting for a long time, finally waited for the opportunity. He quietly followed the woman to the trash can, covered the woman's mouth with a fatal knife, dug out the woman's heart and quietly left.
Until now, Zhang Peng still can't forget the surprise and regret in the woman's eyes when she saw him. From then on, Zhang Peng completely fell in love with this kind of killing. In his opinion, there is nothing worth lingering in this world, so he might as well destroy this world that broke his heart with his own hands.
From then on, Zhang Peng became a feared heart-eater. His targets were no longer those who had offended him. Anyone he met alone in a deserted place would become his target. In just a few days, four people had died in his hands.
There were no cameras everywhere like there are now. In addition, when Zhang Peng was in the mine, his co-workers were not good people and often told him about the crimes they had committed. Zhang Peng was influenced by them and his anti-reconnaissance ability became quite high. Although the streets were full of patrolling police, no one could really catch him.
Zhang Peng had already made up his mind. He would kill as many people as he could before he was caught. With so many people buried with him and his mother, his life would be worth it.
Having committed seven murders within a month, Zhang Peng felt that he would soon be found out, but he had no intention of stopping. Just as he was about to continue committing crimes, a man appeared in front of him and completely changed the cold-blooded and desperate him.
That day, Zhang Peng was lying at the gate of a community, looking for his next target. The weather had become very cold, but he was wearing summer clothes. He was shivering with cold, but he didn't care much.
At this time, a young woman passed by the gate of the community, glanced at Zhang Peng, then walked into the community and went upstairs. Zhang Peng also noticed this woman. He had already regarded this woman as his next target in his heart, and quietly waited at the gate of the community for her to appear again.
But not long after, the woman appeared in front of Zhang Peng again, but this time, the woman was holding a sweater and a bowl of steaming noodle soup in her hands. She walked up to Zhang Peng and handed the sweater and noodle soup to him, leaving a sentence "You are so young and you are begging. You are not disabled. Can you be more promising?" and then left quietly.
Zhang Peng held the sweater and the bowl of noodle soup with a dazed look on his face, watching the woman leave his sight. He felt that his originally cold heart suddenly warmed up, and he didn't know whether it was because of the steaming hot noodle soup in his hands or the inexplicable concern of the woman.
From then on, Zhang Peng had a reason to live, and that was that woman. Whenever he thought of that woman, he no longer had any hatred or bloodthirsty desire in his heart. He decided not to continue killing people, not to continue to be decadent, and to work hard to marry that woman home.
Afterwards, Zhang Peng tidied himself up, found a job and a place to live. After he settled down, he pursued that woman madly and eventually married her. The woman who inadvertently changed Zhang Peng is now my boss's wife.
After listening to Zhang Peng's story about what happened back then, I finally understood why Zhang Peng and the boss's wife had such a good relationship. It turned out there was such an unknown story in their past.
After Zhang Peng finished speaking, he spit out the cigarette with only the butt left in his mouth, and then said to Officer Yang and Bai Qi: "This is the whole process of my crime ten years ago. Later, when I heard that you had caught the murderer, I knew that you must be trying to save yourselves. I was cleared of suspicion and have lived until now. But I am very curious, how did you find me? Ji Wen, I see you are here too, is it possible that you are involved in this?"
Facing Zhang Peng's question, I really didn't know what to say. I lowered my head involuntarily and didn't dare to look at the boss. The boss smiled with relief and said, "Don't blame yourself. I am a very evil person. It is God's mercy that I can live to this day. I don't blame you, don't worry."
After hearing what Zhang Peng said, I looked up at him and slowly told him the whole process of how I discovered that he was the murderer.
Before, I only focused on the empty package as a starting point for investigation, but overlooked a more important clue, which is the recipients of these empty packages, the victims of these four cases.
Zhang Qishan once told me that she suspected me because my job was a courier and I was the person most likely to easily enter the victim's room. Now that I think about it, this statement is indeed true, because only a courier can easily find the victim's detailed address and allow the victim to open the door without any preparation.
In the four cases, the only people I had direct contact with were Yang Xiaoxia and Zhang Qishan. I knew that Yang Xiaoxia looked down on couriers and often found fault with them, but I had never met Zhang Qishan's sister Zhang Qiling. It was because of this that this obvious motive for murder was so easily overlooked by me, and it became the clue that I had never thought of.
It was not until I met the fat man who often played mahjong with Zhang Peng that I suddenly remembered this incident when the fat man said that they had been playing mahjong in different places recently and pointed out the place where they were playing mahjong today, because the place the fat man pointed out was the Meili Community.
I immediately took out the file Bai Qi gave me and looked at the home addresses of the victims. My thoughts became clearer in my mind. Except for Zhang Qiling, all the other victims were people I met when I was delivering couriers who looked down on couriers and often insulted them!
Who can know the addresses of these people? Who can know the bad moral character of these people? You have to know that each express company has a different area. Even if they are both Beijie branches, the area sizes of our express company and other express companies are different. Two of the deceased families in these four cases were only delivered by our Beijie branch. So it seems that there is only one answer, either me or my boss, Zhang Peng, who replaced me in delivering the express when I was on break!
I asked Fatty where they had played mahjong in the past few days. Fatty told me one by one, and they were all in the apartment building in the community where the victim lived. This was definitely not a coincidence in my opinion. It was also because of this that Zhang Peng disappeared inexplicably after the murder, because he had never left the apartment building where the victim lived and had been playing mahjong in the building. In addition, with so many people testifying, he was cleared of suspicion.
When I thought about this, all the clues that I couldn't remember were sorted out. Only Zhang Peng, who is proficient in express delivery operations, knew how to make an empty express package appear out of thin air without any information source. Moreover, I once heard the boss's wife mention that Zhang Peng's mother died ten years ago, and his father died even earlier. All this information completely matched Zhang Peng.
These are just my speculations. If I want to verify them, I have to catch him myself. When I learned that he was playing mahjong in Meili Community today, I immediately remembered the person in Meili Community who didn't answer my call and didn't receive the express delivery the day before yesterday and was about to complain about me. I immediately went back to the store and found the express delivery slip. According to the delivery address on it, I ambushed with Officer Yang, Bai Qi and others, and finally caught Zhang Peng who was about to commit a crime.
After listening to my story, Zhang Peng actually laughed and said, "I never thought that you would be the one who found me. That's great. It's a pity that you don't want to be a policeman. Don't be a courier in the future. With your ability, you will have a better future."
I nodded silently, took a deep breath, and then asked, "Boss, can you tell me why you committed a crime again now when you had clearly escaped a crime ten years ago? Don't you consider the pregnant boss lady?"
Hearing this, the smile on Zhang Peng's face gradually disappeared. An indescribable murderous look appeared in his eyes, and his hands began to tremble slightly. The two police officers guarding him were so scared that they quickly took out their pistols and pointed them at Zhang Peng.
"You think I'm thinking, I'm living a good life now, why would I go out and kill people? But not long ago, I suddenly received a call from a stranger. Who would have thought that this call would become the reason for me to kill again."