Red Mandarin Dress

underneath the two taken at the People’s Square.
    “According to Shen, a good mandarin dress has to be customer-tailored, tight-fitting, so it brings out all the curves. Look at the two-crime-scene pictures. In both, the dress really clings to the body. We should check the dress sizes. See if the two are slightly different.”
    “I’ll check.” Yu added, “But if it is so—”
    “It means that he has a supply of expensive, vintage mandarin dresses—identical in color, material, and design, but in different sizes for him to choose from.”
    “He could have made them for someone he loved or hated,” Yu said, “but why in different sizes?”
    “That puzzles me,” Chen said. It was yet another contradiction, like in those love stories he had been analyzing.
    “What else has Shen told you?”
    Chen recounted his discussion with the elderly scholar.
    “In the light of Shen’s analysis,” Chen said, “the murderer could have had these made in the eighties, after a particular fashion from even earlier, and kept them in a closet all these years until the first strike two weeks ago.”
    “Why the long wait?”
    “I don’t know, but that may explain your failure to find any clues about the mandarin dress. It’s such a long time ago. In the early eighties, the mandarin dress was not yet back in fashion, so no mass production. They were possibly made by an individual tailor, who could have since passed away, retired, or moved back to the countryside.”
    “Yes, that’s what Peiqin thinks,” Yu said. “But if they are from the sixties or seventies—during the Cultural Revolution—I doubt anyone would have chosen to wear them in those years. Peiqin recalls only one example from then—the photograph of Wang Guangmei being mass-criticized in a torn mandarin dress.”
    “It was like the scarlet letter. Peiqin is right,” Chen said. “Are there any new theories in the bureau?”
    “Liao still holds on to his material profile. And I’ve told you about Little Zhou’s, haven’t I? The elaborate theory about an anti-Manchurian message. He is still hawking it around.”
    “That theory isn’t credible. Still, it pushes for an organic interpretation of the contradictions. In the city of Shanghai, for one thing, it is out of the question for a woman in an elegant mandarin dress to walk around barefoot. Such a contradiction can be part of the ritual meaningful to the sex criminal.”
    “But whatever contradiction we are talking about,” Yu said, “I don’t think the first victim is the type of three-accompanying girl Liao has in mind.”
    “What’s Liao’s theory on the relationship between the red mandarin dress and the sex business?”
    “As it seems to Liao, a three-accompanying girl in a mandarin dress might have dumped and deceived the killer. So he justifies his action by putting each of his victims in such a dress.”
    “But that does not account for the exquisite craftsmanship and conservative style of the dress. I don’t think a three-accompanying girl could have afforded to wear a dress like that. And since the killer went to such trouble for the dress, I don’t think he thought of his victims as trash.”
    “So what’s your take on the dress, Chief?”
    “The dress might have been part of the psychological ritual or sexual fantasy with a special meaning for the murderer.”
    “Then how can we know what it’s supposed to mean, if he is such a nut?”
    “Liao’s material profile may help, but for a serial killer, we also need to have a psychological profile.”
    “I mentioned your translation of psychological thrillers to Li, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
    “In Li’s logic, serial killing can occur only in Western capitalist societies, not in socialist China.”
    “I have read some mysteries, but I haven’t made any systemic study of them. I wonder how a psychological approach could help the present case.”
    “Here in China? I don’t know. In the West, psychoanalysis being a common practice, things can be different. Those with psychological problems might have medical records somewhere. Doctors may perform a psychological evaluation of the suspect. Or cops may have had special training. In my college years, I never took a psychology course. Just read a couple of articles on psychoanalysis for the sake of my literature papers. As for the theories and practices in mystery novels, you can’t take them seriously.”
    “Still, tell me about the psychological approaches