Free Web NovelChapter 169: Chapter 168: You Give it a Try_1
An hour later, Shanhai Building.
Mr. Zeng had been lingering around here for most of the day and was quite familiar with the scene. He approached Xu Dayuan closely.
He reported the investigation results regarding Mr. Chen and, as expected, he too had been blackmailed. The condition for leaving was even more bizarre—he had to find her a new employer so she could continue working as a high-end nanny.
Xu Dayuan instructed Mr. Zeng to contact this nanny, Liu Yino, whether she was a hooker or a nanny. At the very least, they needed to verify her whereabouts at the time of the incident. Then Xu Dayuan left, taking quite a few people with him.
Mr. Zhao watched the direction of the departing cars, shaking his head continuously.
"The boss has taken it personally."
"He’s probably going to check up on Luo Qian. We’ve been a bit biased, always thinking that she took the initiative to help Dong Chengwen with the lawsuit, so our suspicion of her was somewhat diminished. But investigating a case isn’t like solving a riddle; we need to clarify each suspect.
Enough talk, let’s get to work. Although we surveyed the backyard last time, we didn’t find anything. If someone stood in the backyard to throw a Molotov cocktail, they would have left some traces. This time, we’ll search the surveillance blind spots."
Several people nodded in agreement, and Yang Xuetong, accompanied by Zhu Xingxing and Sun Gao Tie, headed towards the other side of the hedge. They couldn’t leave any corner unchecked if they were to perform a thorough search. fгeewebnovёl.com
Mr. Zhao didn’t join in. He picked up a pebble from the ground, stood at the northernmost edge of the shrubs, and glanced at the position of the surveillance camera. It was completely out of sight from here.
Raising his hand, he threw the pebble towards the second-floor cloakroom window, whoosh—the pebble flew through the window, entering right at the upper edge of the window.
Zhou Ning glanced over. Mr. Zhao might look well-built, but he wasn’t particularly strong. Sun Gao Tie had easily beaten him at arm-wrestling before. If he could make the throw, a woman probably could as well.
Zhou Ning picked up a pebble and called Zhu Xingxing over. Zhu Xingxing was baffled, thinking she had done something wrong, and cautiously looked at Zhou Ning.
"What’s up, team leader?"
"Here, try to throw the stone into the cloakroom window, just like Mr. Zhao did. See if you can do it?"
Zhu Xingxing emitted an "Oh," stood where Mr. Zhao had been, lightly tossed and the stone flew into the room.
"If you were to throw a two-pound object from the furthest northeast corner, do you think you could make it through?"
Mr. Zhao perked up, realizing Zhou Ning wanted to test whether a woman could accomplish this throw.
"Wait here, I’ll find something for you."
Saying that, he ran off quickly and soon came back holding a large mineral water bottle, stuffing it into Zhu Xingxing’s arms.
"It’s not exactly the right weight; this one’s 1.3 liters. Should I drink some first?"
Zhou Ning gave him a look without saying a word, but Zhu Xingxing had already positioned herself in the northeast corner and threw the bottle into the room without so much as touching the frame.
Mr. Zhao turned back and stared at Zhu Xingxing, his gaze sweeping up and down in disbelief.
"How can someone as skinny as you be so strong?"
Zhu Xingxing continued to look puzzled, turning her gaze towards Zhou Ning.
"Team leader, should I have thrown it in or not?"
Mr. Zhao burst out laughing, tugging at Zhu Xingxing to clear the way after he had his fill of laughter.
"Zhou Xiaozhou means we should see if a girl can perform the throw, given the height. Your throw was too easy."
Zhu Xingxing rubbed her nose and stiffened her neck towards Mr. Zhao, no longer confused like before.
"Men naturally have the advantage in explosive power, but this kind of throw doesn’t require much strength. Not just forensic doctors, even nurses who deal with ampules and trash bins every day—their accuracy is unmatched by ordinary people. And about teachers? The force of a chalk piece—you haven’t tasted it, have you?"
Mr. Zhao rubbed his nose and hung his head, while Zhou Ning nodded affirmatively.
"Zhu is right. Professional and behavioral habits do need to be considered. But we’ve been experimenting for half a day now, and this angle is indeed out of sight of the surveillance. But how could anyone leave this courtyard? Over these hedges?"
At this comment, everyone’s eyes turned to the hedge. The compound had been completed for three to four years; the hedge was tall, dense, and enclosed. There was a layer of iron fencing in the middle surrounded by the hedgerow. Not only in summer, but even in winter, it was impossible to see through from the outside. With such a double-layer structure, how could one easily find a gap to get out?
"Let’s drop the idea of the hedge, Zhou Xiaozhou. There are no gaps, and climbing over it is even less likely; with my height, I still can’t reach the top, let alone climb over. Besides, if you climb over, it would be seen by the surveillance—this direction doesn’t work!"
Zhou Ning focused on the villa’s north gate. This gate was made of stainless steel, anti-theft, with double-layered glass—quite elegant and attractive. Although this position was directly under the cloakroom, the fire hadn’t engulfed this area, so the glass on this door wasn’t broken.
"Did you collect fingerprints from the north gate?"
Yang Xuetong walked over and raised his hand:
"I was the one who collected evidence during the last inspection, and no fingerprints were found on the north gate."
Yang Xuetong nodded very affirmatively.
"No fingerprints were found, the handles inside and outside the door were covered in dust. After I swept them, I collected some samples and only found some circular imprints, not traces of knit gloves or latex gloves.
I made a record, but when summarizing it, there was no option for that on the form, so I didn’t fill it in. However, what can be determined is that the door had been carefully cleaned before the fire, look, team leader."
Yang Xuetong’s voice grew softer, feeling a lack of confidence for not reporting promptly since there were no special findings, while Zhou Ning didn’t say anything reproachful, but instead enlarged the tablet image that had been passed to him.
The mark wasn’t big, no longer than 1.7 centimeters, irregular dots on it, along with wiping traces—Zhou Ning thought for a while, then his eyes lit up.
"It’s a towel imprint. Both latex gloves and knit gloves would seem out of place at this fire scene, but a towel imprint is different. It can easily be dismissed as a cleaning mark. This length and location suggest someone might have pressed down on the handle with a towel."
Mr. Zhao leaned in, extracted the trace, and Zhou Ning closed his eyes, visualizing someone covering their face with one hand, the other pressing a towel against the handle to rush into the villa, and then heading straight downstairs to leave through the garage. Zhou Ning opened his eyes and said firmly:
"After throwing the Molotov cocktail, it would be unrealistic to leave from the main entrance or climb over the wall without being captured by surveillance. That leaves only one route: entering through the kitchen door and then leaving through the basement. As long as surveillance is avoided, no trace would be left."
Zhou Ning paused, and Mr. Zhao’s face showed disbelief as he pointed at the north gate and said:
"This has a lock."
Zhu Xingxing spoke excitedly, rushing to say:
"I think there won’t be a shortage of people with keys. Two housekeepers, Dong Chengwen, Fang Hua, the property manager, and of course, such a big house wouldn’t be without a spare key, right?"
Zhou Ning squinted, a spare key?
Don’t tell me I forgot about that. At that time, in the first-floor storeroom, one wall was covered with numerous items, and the gas station receipts were found there.
Yang Xuetong stretched his neck over, saying uncertainly:
"If someone left through the garage, would the surveillance not capture it? All surveillance footage extracted on June 29th has been sifted through several times, not only by Jingkou Branch Bureau but also by Xu Da and his team, and we haven’t found anyone leaving through the underground garage, right?"
Zhou Ning waved his hand and dialed Mr. Qu’s number.
"We’ve arrived at Shanhai Building. We need to run a test. You said before that someone could remotely control the surveillance on my command, right?"
"Yes, I gave Gao Tie a box similar to a power bank and asked him to take it to the surveillance room. I told him how to plug it in, and that’s all."
"Good. In a moment, find us in the surveillance, compare it with the surveillance from the 29th, and see if we are visible."
After hanging up, Sun Gaotie was already holding up his bag; Zhou Ning had put the call on speaker, so he knew it was his time to act. Excited at the chance to do something independently, he said:
"Team leader, I’m heading to the surveillance room. Mr. Qu has already told me what to do."
Zhou Ning nodded, and Sun Gaotie took off. They all put on shoe covers, geared up, and entered the villa through the north gate. Zhou Ning activated the timer on his phone, bypassed the staircase, and headed straight for the storeroom.
Next to the stand where Dong Chengwen’s coat was found, there was a message wall with a few hooks in the shape of artistic antlers, holding three sets of keys, one set with a self-adhesive sticker on it.
Zhou Ning took them down and checked each one; they were labeled back door, garage, master bedroom, study, children’s room, guest room—clearly, these were the spare keys. Although the other two sets weren’t labeled, the keys were identical.
"Indeed, there are spare keys."
Yang Xuetong opened an evidence bag and placed all three sets of keys inside. However, the likelihood of finding any clues on them was slim, as they all knew the murderer was highly skilled in counter surveillance. Knowing to cover their fingerprints with a towel when opening doors, there was little chance anything would be left behind on these keys.
"Throw the Molotov cocktail, return the spare keys afterward, go straight downstairs, let’s go check below." freewebnσvel.cѳm
The group followed Zhou Ning downstairs, passing through the level’s security door and into the garage. Zhou Ning glanced at the time; they had stayed a bit and had only used one minute.
Zhu Xingxing was about to press the button on the wall to raise the garage door when Yang Xuetong stopped her.
"Don’t rush, Doctor Zhu, let me take samples first."
Mr. Zhao gestured dismissively.
"I’ve already taken samples here. Fingerprints of Fang Hua and Dong Chengwen were found on the button; as for that door handle, there were palm prints of these two individuals, along with circular traces. According to Zhou Ning’s analysis, the murderer probably used a towel to open the door, but how did the surveillance not capture this?"
Zhou Ning opened the security door.
"Don’t worry, we’ll know once we try!"
