Missing Person: Wong Hiu Man
With the full cooperation of the telecommunications company, we have traced the call signal emitted by Wong Hiu Man. It was transmitted via the repeater station at the peak of Tai Mo Shan. After learning the approximate location, I narrowed down the search area step by step. At the same time, I dispatched a small team of police tactical unit officers to drive to that mountain peak to begin a search.
We arrived at this mountain peak. The environment here was quiet and the air fresh. It would definitely be a good choice for an outing during leisure time. It's just a shame we were here now to perform a duty, so any thoughts of outings or leisurely excursions were best not mentioned.
I first visually scanned the entire area, then gave strict instructions to a team of officers: "Listen up, team. Missing person Wong Hiu Man, female, approximately 22 years old. She was here two days ago for sketching, but then suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. Your job now is to search the surrounding area and see what you can find."
"Yes, sir."
Upon hearing the order, the group of officers immediately got to work.
At that moment, a senior inspector said to me, "Sir, could Wong Hiu Man really have met with misfortune? What reason would she have to come all the way out here to sketch for no reason? Causing us all this trouble."
Seeing his slight complaint, I said, "Sigh~ Actually, it's quite normal for many sudden things to happen in this world. People go hiking, fall to their deaths for no apparent reason, and no one knows. Others die suddenly of heart attacks on mountains, and no one knows either. So, I mean, many things are unpredictable. Since we've received the order, we just have to do our best, that's all."
We had been searching for quite a while when, not long after, I suddenly heard an officer shout, "Inspector Ye, I've got a new discovery over here!"
A new discovery!
While my gaze was still fixed in the direction of the shout, the officer called out again, "There's a drawing board here, and several paintbrushes on the ground."
Then another officer opened his mouth and shouted, "Sir, over here on the ground there's what looks like a piece of drawing paper, but it's completely soaked through and torn to shreds."
Paintbrushes and drawing paper... At that moment, a thought immediately crossed my mind: This can't be happening!
Then I called out, "Continue searching all around. There might be more new discoveries."
I and the senior inspector beside me walked over to the location where the suspected evidence was found. We saw a drawing board lying horizontally on the ground, with three paintbrushes beside it. Judging from the scattered placement, it was likely due to the continuous rainy weather.
Then another officer called out, "Sir, I found a phone over here."
A phone!
Hearing this, I was momentarily stunned and immediately instructed, "Everything here, not a single item is to be moved. Do not touch anything with your hands. Keep everything in its original position. Immediately notify the fingerprint team to come for evidence collection."
"Yes, sir..."
After 30 minutes, several plainclothes detectives from the Fingerprint Identification Unit had arrived on the scene. They got out of their vehicles, carrying a toolbox, and went to every location where the suspected evidence was found.
They first took several numbered markers from the box and placed them next to each piece of suspected evidence for identification, then photographed them for documentation. After that, they began examining these pieces of suspected evidence for fingerprints, dividing the tasks among themselves.
They conducted evidence collection here for quite some time. Afterwards, their leader instructed, "Team, pay attention to whether there are any other suspicious bloodstains on the ground or elsewhere."
Hearing this officer of the same rank as me instruct his subordinates with such meticulousness, I somewhat unnecessarily thought: Bloodstains! There was heavy rain here two days ago. Even if there were any bloodstains, they would have been washed completely clean. It's just that our departments are different. What does it matter to me how he works? So, my having such a thought at that moment was really superfluous.
Later, someone said to the leader, "Sir, we've carefully inspected the other areas once more, but haven't found anything particularly noteworthy. Shall we take this evidence back for testing now?"
"If there are no new discoveries, then let's head off."
Then the leader said to me, "Inspector Ye, I'll be taking this evidence with me now. I'll return it to you after the tests are completed."
"Alright, thank you."
After I finished speaking, they left.
Afterwards, an officer asked, "Sir, could the missing woman have fallen down the mountain, or perhaps already been killed somewhere? Do we need to notify the Fire Services Department to send people to help?"
"Fire Services Department!"
The senior inspector standing beside me paused for a moment: "That's a possibility. Since we've found some clues here, and these clues match the information and statements from the person who reported her missing, we have reason to believe the missing woman also cannot be ruled out as having fallen from a cliff."
Seeing him answer so readily, I said, "I believe things might not be as simple as imagined. Just from my observation of the placement of the missing person's items on the ground, they were very scattered and not in one location. So, it might not necessarily be a case of falling from a cliff. It's possible she may have already been killed."
"Think about it. If a person is moving around, their phone, by normal reasoning, would definitely be carried on their person. There's no reason to leave it on the ground where it's risky. Moreover, the distance between the phone and items like the drawing board is quite far. For someone to have left in such a hurried, rushed manner, based on my deduction, Wong Hiu Man likely met with trouble. Therefore, we need to notify our superiors to dispatch more personnel to conduct a thorough search here together."
Hearing my analysis, the senior inspector was momentarily speechless. After a pause, he immediately said, "Ah! Inspector Ye, you make a good point. A superior officer is truly a superior officer. Your analytical ability is really much stronger than others'!"
"Heh, what a bootlicker. Hurry up and notify them to send people to assist with the search."
Having said that, I glanced at him and walked away.
This significant reasoning immediately caused great concern among the senior ranks at the police station. They promptly dispatched more police forces to assist.
During this time, Sergeant Chan Ming Choi, upon seeing me, immediately said, "Sir, I've already reviewed the CCTV footage for the area around here. However, along the roadsides below Tai Mo Shan, I couldn't find any CCTV installations. There are CCTVs further out on the highway, but these only monitor vehicles on the road and cannot see the areas leading up the mountain."
"Did you find any other vehicles turning onto small roads, for example, any locations that could potentially lead up the mountain?"
He thought for a moment: "No, there weren't any. I and the other team members have been looking for a long time, but unfortunately, we couldn't find any."
We had been here for quite some time. During this period, I kept hearing the voice of that bootlicking senior inspector constantly instructing his subordinates, which I found rather noisy and somewhat annoying.
After another while, I saw that senior inspector walk over to report to me: "Sir, we've been searching here for a long time, but still haven't found anything. Can we wrap up and leave? It's almost time to get off work!"
After he finished speaking, I immediately looked at him: "Really couldn't find anything?"
Hearing this, the senior inspector gave me a forced, helpless smile. Seeing his anxious look about getting off work, I also shook my head and said, "Alright, I believe we won't find anything more either. You can instruct them to wrap up."
"Yes, sir."
Upon hearing the words "wrap up," the senior inspector immediately responded energetically, then smiled, clapped his hands forcefully twice, and instructed, "Hey, everyone, wrap up, wrap up. Everyone, leave now."
After he said that, I glanced at him, shook my head helplessly, and left.