The Devil’s Cage

“Quiet! Everyone, quiet! The police have been notified! They will arrive soon enough! Before that, everyone please stay calm and remain in your seats. To compensate for this horrible experience, the TV station will provide a certain reimbursement for the tickets purchased for this viewing.”

Amidst the messy, loud screams, the second director, Wang, stood on the stage and tried to calm the crowd down through the microphone.

His voice spread through the speakers, echoing around the studio and suppressing the sharp screams. The mention of police and reimbursement only slightly calmed the audience down.

When more station staff came into the studio, the situation was under better control.

Then, the kind-looking director went over to Kieran.

“I am sorry this happened.”

“If you don’t mind, you can go back to the dressing room and wait for the police to arrive.” he said.

“Since everyone is in the studio, I don’t think I need to leave as well,” Kieran shook his head. His eyes, however, were glued to the body inside the box.

The body was twisted to fit in the box, the joints of the body already hardened.

The host was obviously stuffed into the box moments after he was murdered, which twisted his body and further hardened it in an uncomfortable way. Based on how the muscles declined, the host must have been killed one to three hours earlier. The lethal blow must have been the stab on the back, as the knife used to kill the host was still hanging on the body.

The knife had plunged deep into his heart, but it was stuck in the bones.

It wasn’t a skilled killer, could barely wield a knife.

With that initial observation, an impulsive killer appeared in Kieran’s mind.

As for other wounds on the body, Kieran couldn’t tell since he didn’t move the body, but he was almost certain of who the killer was.

The lingering murderous intentions were too obvious–even in Kieran’s weakened state, looking at the killer was like looking at a bright light in the dark.

Although he didn’t know the motives, Kieran didn’t want to waste his time in the killer’s one-man play.

“You had a grudge with him?” Kieran asked.

“What do you mean?” the kind-looking director jolted.

“I’m asking, did you hold a grudge against him?” Kieran repeated.

“What? No! Mikes and I were the best of partners. We may have argued sometimes, but it’s because of the show’s direction. We were quite the buddies, personally. A lot of people in the station can prove that.” the director frowned and argued.

“Then why did you kill him?” Kieran asked.

“Kill him? Are you kidding me right now? Why would I kill him?!”

The director looked panicked for a moment, but immediately replaced it with calmness. Standing on his toes, he gripped the microphone tight, bent down a little, and looking at Kieran pressuringly, questioned him. “You accuse me of killing? Where is your proof?”

“If you don’t have proof to support your words, I will sue you for defamation, and…”

“I’ve heard rumours saying that you and Mikes had some falling out. Is that right? He said you looked at him like a beast trying to devour him!”

“You say that I killed him, but now I suspect that you are the one who killed him!”

The director’s voice went through the microphone and spread from the speaker, and everything that happened on the stage swiftly attracted the attention of the audience. The audience regained their calmness and watched the stage unblinkingly.

“There is a lot of proof. The knife is still on the body, so you should have wiped the fingerprints, but what about the blood stain? I know you wear a lot of cologne to cover up, but there is still some other type of smell, similar to the soap in the washroom. You should have washed yourself up with soap many times.

“And the shirt you are wearing now, it’s a little different from the one that I saw you wearing earlier. The old ones are tainted with blood right?”

Kieran’s nose did pick up a lot of things, but a great hunter would know how to lure its prey step by step into the trap.

“Blood stain? You keep saying blood stain, where is it then? Did you find it? Or do you want to do some Luminol test for the blood?” the director mocked.

Kieran smiled when he saw the mockery on the director’s face.

“If you put it that way, I bet you have cleaned everything thoroughly. Not just the soap at the washroom, but some bleach as well, I assume? But… Don’t you think a person having bleach all over his shirt without a reason is weird?”

When a flaw is covered, more flaws will show itself.

Similar to the director.

Kieran shook his head when he saw the panicked expression on the director’s face again.

He was certain the director killed Mikes the host under an impulsive thought.

Otherwise, the director would have covered up with more meticulous effort. Still, it wouldn’t have stopped Kieran from solving the crime.

“I want the staff to check the washroom in each floor, find out whether the soap in that washroom is overused. Please take note of the smell of bleach in the washroom as well.”

“If you can, after locating these two specific points, search that entire floor, and pay attention to the ceiling!”

When Kieran’s words subsided, the director that killed his rival out of impulse finally fell on the stage, limping and weak.

“H-How did you know?” the director asked in a shivered tone.

Of course Kieran wouldn’t say that a normal thinking man would have thrown away the trash can first, because that will be the place the police start their search. Then, following along the the mind of a police officer searching for clues, all kinds of hidden spots in the TV station would be exposed, even the ceilings.

In fact, according to normal procedures, even if Kieran hadn’t interfered, it was only a matter of time before the director was exposed.

Though, Kieran didn’t tell the director the detective work he had done.

He pointed at the body in the box, said “He told me. I am a shaman.”

Kieran walked towards the corridor beside the stage.

The staff who blocked the exit opened up a way for Kieran to pass, and the audience watched Kieran as he left the studio.

The audience only regained their senses after the exit door shut.

Praise and cheers sounded in succession. Cries of surprise also.

But none had anything to do with Kieran anymore, not even the killer.

The killer thought he was so smart, he started to explain why he had wrongfully killed the host, but none of that concerned Kieran anymore.

Not just because Kieran was not interested in the solved crime, but also because a notification popped up on his vision and astonished him.

TL Note:

Luminol- A chemical containing carbon-nitrogen-oxygen-and hydrogen. It is used by crime scene investigators to detect blood at crime scenes where no blood is visible.