Skinning

The Dodge started up again, heading straight for the Walls apartment building where Kate lived.

The apartment building was shrouded in a suffocating atmosphere late at night. Police tape was in place, and two officers were on guard. The strong smell of blood was detectable by Alessa downstairs, and it was all too clear to them.

Because Supervisor Sean had notified him in advance by phone, Qin Jin entered the scene with ease, and the situation was basically consistent with the photos:

The room was a mess, with clothes, tissues, and used umbrellas scattered on the floor and table. Whether in the bedroom, living room, or kitchen, there was a lingering scent of decadence, showing that Constanze had a wild time.

The bed in the bedroom was covered in blood, roughly in the shape of a human, but Qin Jin was surprised to find several drops of blood—

This shape of bloodstain can only be created by blood dripping from a height!

This implies one possibility:

Teacher Kate wasn't being skinned while lying on the bed; rather, she was being hung from the bed about one or two meters above it while being skinned, with blood dripping onto the bed. After the entire skin was peeled off, her body fell off, and the blood and bodily fluids contaminated most of the blood droplets, leaving only two or three drops.

But... there were no hooks or places to secure the ropes on the ceiling, so how did she hang in the air?

Qin Jin silently noted down the question and began asking the police officers about the apartment manager's address. He then learned that around 8 p.m., when the apartment manager and the electrician and plumber in charge of the apartment maintenance had finished work, they had gone to the nearby "Cheap Bones" bar to drink and calm their nerves because they were frightened.

Qin Jin glanced at the time; it was almost 11 p.m.

Without hesitation, he took Alessa to the "Bastard" bar and quickly found the three terrified men in a corner of the bar.

The three men—Old Joe the administrator, Mike the electrician, and Tony the plumber—all looked rather grim.

Qin Jin identified himself and inquired about the afternoon's events.

The administrator, Old Joe, gave a description that matched the case file: in the afternoon, Mike and Tony were in the monitoring room repairing the basement pipes, which has been confirmed by the Western Precinct.

Just when Qin Jin thought he wouldn't get any more information, Alessa suddenly pointed at the plumber across the street, calmly identifying him with a stern face:

"Qin, he has a secret he hasn't told us."

Clearly, Alessa noticed some of Tony's subtle facial expressions when Joe was answering the question.

Tony was startled by Alessa's accusation and immediately waved his hands in protest:

"No! I'm not lying, I... I really don't know anything... I didn't kill anyone..."

"No, no, no, it wasn't murder or lying, it's that you've been hiding something!"

Qin Jin sank into the sofa, half-closing his eyes, his fingers tapping absently on the wine bottle in front of him.

"Now, think about it: are you going to tell me here, or come back with me?"

Tony looked like he was about to cry. He looked at Old Joe and Mike beside him in a panic, completely at a loss. Then Mike suddenly remembered something and reminded him:

"By the way, Tony, didn't you say you saw something outside when you went out to buy cigarettes?"

"Ah! This... this must be my imagination..."

Tony, with a pained expression, hesitated before speaking:

"I...you'll all think I'm crazy if I tell you! At 8 o'clock, when I was leaving get off work, I was coming up the stairs and I saw someone lingering in the hallway. That profile...I'm sure it was Ms. Kate...but...but how could that be..."

Old Joe and Mike exclaimed in unison, "What? Could it be the ghost of Teacher Kate?"

Thinking of the vengeful spirit in the movie, all three, including Tony, felt a chill run down their spines, and the hairs on their backs stood on end.

"Ghosts? Isn't that a bit too early?" Qin Jin suddenly laughed, his voice trailing off:

"On which floor did you see it?"

"The 17th floor, just one floor above Ms. Kate's apartment."

A person who was murdered and skinned around 6 PM appeared in the apartment hallway around 8 PM. Either it's a ghost, or something else is impersonating Kate, or...

Kate is perfectly fine; it was someone else who was skinned alive!

What exactly is going on? Just go up to the 17th floor and you'll understand.

After gathering his thoughts, Qin Jin slowly straightened up, hands in his pockets, his steps unsteady.

"Come on, Alessa, let's go to the 17th floor and see this ghost."

"Yes!" Alessa nodded vigorously, then immediately followed after him, clutching her plush toy.

Upon arriving at the Walls Apartments again, Qin Jin took the elevator directly to the 17th floor. He and Alessa began to stop at the door of each room, sensing movement and sniffing out any signs of life...

Finally, when they reached the end of the corridor, near the door of the room close to the fire escape, Alessa stopped in her tracks. Her expression, which rarely showed, became furrowed, and she pointed at the door with some disgust.

Qin Jin approached the door, took a deep breath, and finally caught a whiff of the strange smell coming from under the door.

It was a chemical smell that was mixed with a sour and corrosive odor; it was very unpleasant and also very rare!

There must be something fishy going on when things are not going well. This principle applies everywhere. Qin Jin stood up, took half a step back, and suddenly kicked the door lock.

Bang!

The inferior door lock opened instantly.

A strong, nauseating stench, mixed with a strong acidic smell, wafted over. This smell was different from that of blood, and its source was the toilet in the room.

Qin Jin's gaze swept across the room. The living room was simply furnished, looking like the residence of a single woman. Various cosmetics and perfumes were displayed on the coffee table, some of which were empty, while others had only a few left.

Qin Jin and Alessa walked towards the bathroom. The bathtub, toilet, and sink were all clean, but when he ran his fingers over the bottom of the bathtub, he felt tiny bumps, a result of acid corrosion.

Qin Jin grabbed the edge of the bathtub and pulled hard, tearing the entire bathtub off its base to reveal the dark drain hole underneath.

"A stick, preferably with a hook, or some long, thin thing," Qin Jin instructed.

Alessa immediately rummaged around outside for a while, then brought back a broom handle, flattened the end, and turned it into a makeshift hook.

After stirring the rod inside for a while, when Qin Jin pulled it out, the top of the rod was covered with a large clump of wet, carbonized material that had turned into tiny, hair-like strands. The amount of this material far exceeded the amount that would normally fall out during washing.

Qin Jin placed the clumps of hair aside, and then found some... even smaller, with a strange texture, like skin tissue corroded by strong acid.

A chilling and terrifying truth instantly took shape in his mind!

Qin Jin didn't say much, but immediately called Supervisor Sean and also notified Frank. Their accounts were almost identical:

"I've found the real killer!"

Then, he called one of the two officers on duty to guard the scene, while he and Alessa went to the garbage station downstairs and found two glass bottles wrapped in towels, which still contained residue of mixed strong acid.

Next, he went to the management office. The apartment was registered to a single woman named O'Reilly Hope. The surveillance footage showed that O'Reilly's car drove out of the building around 9:00.

She was wearing sunglasses and a scarf, so her face couldn't be seen, but from the hair that was loose outside her hat, it was clear that her hair was blonde, just like Kate's.

The hair in the sewer is black, just like Aurel's.

In Qin Jin's eyes, the truth was basically clear; at least, he knew who the culprit was!

It's not a human, but a skin-peeling demon. In Eastern stories, this kind of thing is also called a painted-skin demon!

Its original identity was likely Aurel, or perhaps it was because its identity was discovered, or because it needed to change roles, or because this skin was no longer usable...

Anyway, it killed Kate, skinned her, and then in its room, soaked the old skin in the bathtub and dissolved it with a mixture of strong acids.

Because the hair took too long to dissolve, she couldn't wait, so she forced it down the drain, leaving behind a large amount of carbonized residue.

Finally, it changed into Kate's skin, and around 8 o'clock, it drove O'Reilly's car and swaggered away from the apartment.

The skinning demon's target may not have been a specific person from the beginning, but rather the need for a new, suitable skin to disguise and hide!

Kate unfortunately became its prey, while Constantine was merely a scapegoat.

It seems that the first task after the formation of the second group has begun.