There were only 29 hours left in the investigation, and the hostage's life had entered the critical stage of the countdown. It had shaken the entire investigation direction of the Municipal Bureau.
Yan Ji didn't say a word. He seemed to be deep in thought as he slowly stood up from the computer.
Following his movement, Jiang Stops also stood up. The two of them stared at each other for half a cigarette's worth of time before Yan Ji said,
"You speak, I'm listening."
Jiang Stops reached out to put on a high-definition headset for Yan Ji and put on another one for himself. He replayed the phone call from the beginning. The first sentence was, "200 million, how's the preparation going?"
Jiang Stops pressed the pause button. "The kidnapper repeated this sentence several times when he was negotiating with Shen Xiaoqi's father. According to my memory, every time he repeated it, his voice was coarse and low, and the ups and downs were very flat. When he said 'got', he didn't raise his voice at the end of the sentence. It was a relatively mechanical and emotionless tone."
Yan Ji nodded.
"But when you started negotiating with the kidnapper, his voice changed." Jiang Stops canceled the pause, and a clear "ha" came from the headset. Then:
"I'm right here. Come and get me. I'll wait for you."
"Did you hear that?" Jiang Stops stared into Yan Ji's eyes. "He had a very disdainful sneer before the provocation, and the ending tone was obviously raised. What do you think this means?"
Yan Ji murmured, "Emotions."
"That's right. The mechanical tone just now suddenly became full of emotion. Let's continue."
"If you can't get the money, don't even think about taking this child's life! … That little bastard was unlucky. So what if he was kidnapped … You want to let him go without paying more? Dream on! … "
Jiang Stops pressed the pause button again.
"If you don't know the background of this kidnapping case, and completely exclude the abnormal elements such as the blood-soaked shirt, the white-tailed sea eagle, the sky-high ransom, and the precise execution time, just listening to the above recording, what kind of initial idea do you have of the kidnapper in your mind?"
Yan Ji muttered, "A greedy, vicious, and merciless traditional kidnapper."
Jiang Stops nodded in agreement. "Yes, traditional and typical." Then he played it for the third time.
Following his movements, the electronic voice played the last sentence left by the kidnapper. It was cold and emotionless, "Twenty-nine hours until the execution."
The recording ended.
"Now." Jiang Stops said, "Get rid of the greedy, vicious, and merciless image in your mind. Remember only this last sentence. Then contact Blood Robes, Sea Eagle, and the sky-high ransom. Have you changed your judgment of the person on the other end of the phone? Is he still a typical kidnapper?"
"…" Yan Ji suddenly met his gaze.
The air in the command vehicle tightened inch by inch.
"No, he has changed." Yan Ji said softly. Every word seemed to be filled with disbelief. "He became … an executioner."
Jiang Stops's expression didn't change. "Or rather, a cold-blooded penal officer."
"This kidnapper has always given the police an unfathomable feeling because he expressed his intentions very contradictory. But if we divide the kidnapper's abnormal behavior into two parts and treat him as two different characters, everything can be explained. "
Jiang Stops leaned back in his seat, took off his headset, and raised his index finger to Yan Ji. "First of all, he kidnapped Shen Xiaoqi and blackmailed the Shen family. He urgently demanded a ransom by threatening them. He was full of malice and mockery toward the police. When he appeared in this role, keywords such as' two hundred million 'and' execution 'would never appear. Instead, they would be replaced by' don't even think about taking this child's life. 'Obviously, they were more likely to be used by kidnappers when they threatened to kill the hostage. "
Yan Ji nodded thoughtfully and didn't say anything.
"But when he was an executioner, his motive seemed to be completely unrelated to money. On the one hand, he couldn't take away the two hundred million in cash, and he didn't ask the police for any means of transportation. He didn't even mention the basic condition that the banknotes weren't numbered. On the other hand, he abandoned the common emotions of traditional kidnappers such as fierceness and greed. He repeated the execution deadline again and again coldly, showing an extremely strong desire to execute. At the same time, he seemed to have a very strong sense of ritual in his accuracy of time. "
Yan Ji suddenly realized something. "… Sense of ritual?"
"Yes." Jiang Stops said, "My personal opinion is that this executioner, whose motive has nothing to do with money, is the real identity of the kidnapper."
Yan Ji took out a cigarette, rubbed it between his fingers subconsciously, and repeated, "Motive."
He seemed to be thinking about the word carefully and pondered for a moment. "If the pursuit of execution is his real motive, then kidnapping is only a link leading to the final result. Only through kidnapping can the ultimate goal of 'execution' be achieved …"
Yan Ji stopped talking and rubbed his furrowed brows with the knuckle of his middle finger. A guess seemed to be on the verge of appearing in his mind, but it was vague and uncertain.
"Kidnapping is a part of the ritual. And 'ritual' is to externalize the inner emotions of an individual towards a certain thing. It has the characteristics of emotional traction, displacement, projection of subconscious images, and so on. " Jiang Stops paused for a moment and said, "Generally speaking, the pursuit of a sense of ritual represents the desire of people to project their inner picture into reality, and to commemorate, mark, and identify with it. Kidnapping is the inner picture of the executioner, and it is also a necessary way to satisfy his desire to execute. This means that it is very likely — "
"This is not the first kidnapping case," Yan Ji suddenly interrupted.
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