Free Web NovelChapter 170: Chapter 169: Extras_1
A few people left the garage, and the security door was not closed. Mr. Zhao, following Zhou Ning’s gesture, dialed Sun Gaotie’s number. The connection started, and shortly after, Zhou Ning called Mr. Qu.
"Can you see us?"
"Wait a moment, okay, I’ve found the surveillance camera position. I’ve taken a screenshot and sent it to you. I can see Mr. Zhao and Zhu Xingxing but not you."
Zhou Ning glanced at the positions of the four people. At that moment, Mr. Zhao and Zhu Xingxing, one stood in front of the rolling shutter door, and the other at the driveway location, while Yang Xuetong stood right in front of the security door, which was ajar. Zhou Ning stood to the west of the security door, hiding behind a car that likely obstructed the view.
"So, the security door to the west of the rolling shutter and Yang Xuetong can’t be seen, right?"
"Can’t be seen, I tried adjusting the angle, but it doesn’t work, a car is in the way."
Zhou Ning followed behind the car, walking directly westward, turning through several areas, arriving at a spot that was very spacious, and looked up to see a sign with the words "West Area."
"Mr. Qu, could you check if the West Area is the upper part of the Shanhai Building?"
From the other end of the microphone came the pitter-patter of typing, and then Zhou Ning’s phone vibrated. He opened QQ and received a floor plan. He glanced at the screenshot sent earlier—it indeed matched his analysis.
"Doctor Zhou, I checked, and the ground level villa area is separate from the high-rise’s West Area. However, underground, there are two passages connecting them. This is a requirement of the civil defense design. The Shanhai Building’s blueprints had been altered. Before, they were completely separate. Because of this, the residents of the villa area were quite dissatisfied," explained Mr. Qu.
Zhou Ning halted, surrounded by many cars. It wasn’t night yet, so he guessed many people had not returned. Had it been evening, there would likely be even more vehicles.
If someone walked over from the villa area and hid among these cars, it would naturally be impossible to spot them.
"Mr. Qu, do you have the surveillance footage from June 29th to the next morning?"
"Yes, do you need me to filter the vehicles that entered and left?"
"Yes, check both in and out."
After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ning returned to the position of Dong Chengwen’s home garage.
Mr. Zhao was squatting on the ground, examining a spot on the security door. Zhou Ning, puzzled, moved closer.
"What did you find?"
"Zhou Xiaozhou, look here. The edge of the security door has a metal decoration strip that came unglued. If you lift it, I found what seems to be bloodstains on it."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ning quickly squatted down. At about 75 centimeters above the ground, the raised metal strip indeed carried bloodstains and seemed to have a strand of fiber as well. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Mr. Zhao went to retrieve the fiber, but Zhou Ning stopped him.
"Use pliers to cut off this metal strip and take it back for inspection as a whole. Judging by the height, someone probably scraped their leg while passing by. If they walked from inside to outside, it would be the left leg that got scraped."
Mr. Zhao began to move, and Yang Xuetong also helped out. After pinching off the metal strip with pliers and shaking it a couple of times, it fell off. They collected the evidence, and then everyone went upstairs as the sky had become darker.
"Let’s go, we’ll head back. Send what needs to be sent for inspection, and match fingerprints where needed."
Zhu Xingxing blinked, seemingly unable to grasp the situation.
"We’re leaving just like that? We only proved someone could leave through the garage, but we still have no clues about who it might be."
Mr. Zhao made a gesture for silence and tilted his head towards Zhou Ning.
"Just follow orders, we naturally have a suspect in mind."
Yang Xuetong also showed interest and leaned forward to ask:
"Who?"
No one answered.
At that moment, a car drove towards their location, its headlights flashing. Recognizing the police lights on top, they knew Xu Dayuan and the others had returned. Zhou Ning slightly relaxed and walked toward the car.
Xu Dayuan and his team jumped out of the car. Mr. Zeng held up an evidence bag, smiling, which clearly contained a phone, and the case was very sparkly and eye-catching.
"We found the phone, did you discover anything here?"
Zhou Ning gestured to Mr. Zhao, who walked over and took the evidence bag containing the phone. Pressing the power button did nothing, and upon inspection, he saw the case wasn’t snapped shut properly, and one corner had traces of a cracked screen.
"Don’t tell me it was used by someone?"
Xu Dayuan’s face was very dark, clearly the process of retrieving the phone was not so smooth.
"As long as it’s found, that’s good enough. We need Mr. Qu to check if anyone has used it and also to investigate the numbers and usage records inside."
Zhou Ning nodded in agreement.
"We conducted an experiment, avoiding surveillance by standing at the edge of the shrub wall to smash the glass, and then throwing in a Molotov cocktail. You could return to the villa through the kitchen door, consequently escape via the basement level by car. As long as you stick close to the edge, you can completely avoid the cameras. Of course, we also found blood and fibers on the anti-theft door frame beneath the garage."
Additionally, I’ve found that the basement of the villa area is fully connected to the high-rise area on the west side. I’ve mentioned this to Mr. Qu. We need to screen all vehicles entering and exiting the two areas after 11:00 p.m. on June 29. Another critical point: should Luo Qian be added to the suspect list?"
Xu Dayuan paused for a moment.
Zhou Ning had made a quick turn, and after thinking it over briefly, Xu Dayuan nodded.
"You mean, Luo Qian came back with Dong Chengwen, and although she lives in the high-rise area on the west side, it is connected after all. I think she can be considered a suspect. In that case, I’ll go see Luo Qian directly to draw blood and take fingerprints for samples, and we can bring her in afterward."
Zhou Ning shook his head.
"Don’t forget, she’s pregnant. It’s too late now. I think we can have someone watch her, start by investigating her timeline, as well as review surveillance footage of her entering and exiting the building. We can take her in for questioning early tomorrow morning. The blood tests and other procedures won’t take long. If we send samples for examination tonight, Mrs. Cui is going to murder me."
Xu Dayuan chuckled and patted Zhou Ning on the shoulder.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, you really are thorough. I was being impatient again. Let’s do as you suggested. Mr. Zeng, don’t go back; stay here and keep an eye on Luo Qian. You know which building, right?"
Mr. Zeng was about to shake his head, but Mr. Zhao had already passed him a mobile phone with an address on it, found by Mr. Qu. If he claimed not to know it, he would have only himself to blame.
"West area, Building 5, Unit 1, Apartment 2102. I’ll set up surveillance immediately."
After saying this, he dashed off. Xu Dayuan glanced at him, holding back his anger. Nothing was going smoothly, and the few people at hand seemed to be fumbling in the dark, drifting from one thing to another, and also constrained by Xu Kejiang. Just thinking about it made him fume with anger.
"Forget it, let’s go as well. Zhou Ning and I will take my car. Liu Yufei, join us and tell me about the situation with Mr. Fang. Let’s ride in the Iveco!"
Mr. Zhao spread his hands and grabbed a young police officer. He wasn’t particularly familiar with this man but knew his name was Chen Tao and that he held a B license.
"Buddy, don’t run off. You drive this; I need to organize the physical evidence on the way back to send for examination."
Seeing Xu Dayuan’s gaze, Chen Tao hurriedly took the keys. Everyone got into their respective vehicles and drove out of Shanhai Building.
Zhou Ning and Xu Dayuan sat in the back seat behind the driver’s seat, with Liu Yufei sitting to one side, slightly turned to speak quickly:
"Mr. Fang is being treated at a rehabilitation center in Tongshan. The deaths of Fang Hua and Dong Xiaomi have hit him hard. After all, with Mrs. Fang’s passing years ago, these were his only two blood relatives left, and now they’ve perished in a fire."
"I talked with him for a long time. At first, he was very angry, insisting that it was Dong Chengwen who had killed Fang Hua and Xiaomi, even suggesting that Dong wanted to change wives. After calming him down, I asked for details. Dong Chengwen treated Fang Hua well; at least, he managed to do well on the surface."
"In fact, Mr. Fang also knew that Dong had no shortage of women outside. At his level, maintaining their family this way already counted as decent. He had even advised Fang Hua to turn a blind eye and preserve their family relationship, as even if there were to be a separation in the future, she’d likely not find anyone better than Dong."
"I pressed Mr. Fang to say if he knew who Dong Chengwen was involved with or if Fang Hua had ever said anything. Mr. Fang said he had seen them twice and had asked Dong Chengwen, who didn’t avoid the topic, claiming he would never divorce and would always treat Fang Hua as before. As for those women, they were not important and would lead to nothing."
Xu Dayuan kept nodding, apparently believing Mr. Fang knew men better.
"No progress is also a kind of progress. Don’t be discouraged, it’s clear Mr. Fang has a pretty good understanding of the situation. Considering Dong Chengwen has many women around him, wouldn’t Yi Xiaou know even more?
"After all, things like ordering a cake for an anniversary are all taken care of by her, not to mention managing all afternoon teas and such at the office. Even with Dong Chengwen’s status, she’s still working hard to keep the law firm operating smoothly. I don’t think it’s just because of her 2% shares."
Mr. Zhao leaned his plump face towards their row of seats, grinning as he spoke:
"Yi Xiaou is smart. Before we arrived, she had all the surveillance and various information ready. If I were Dong Chengwen, I wouldn’t choose a woman like that for a wife. If you have even the slightest idea, she’d know about it before you even act on it. Better to find someone like Fang Hua, who just needs to be responsible for being pretty."
Xu Dayuan, unusually, did not disagree and even nodded slightly, seemingly concurring with Mr. Zhao’s point of view:
"You make some sense. By the way, I had someone look for Yi Xiaou, and we’ve also retrieved the evidence Dong Chengwen stored in his safety deposit box."
As he spoke, Xu Dayuan opened a file bag, revealing a portable hard drive and a stack of paper documents, which were photocopies of interrogation records. The young man who had accompanied Fang Hua was named He Ruxing, 24 years old, an assistant lawyer at Xingchen Law Firm.
Although his title was ’assistant,’ it essentially meant he was an intern. The records detailed how He Ruxing pursued Fang Hua and the arrangements they made to meet at the hot spring hotel.
After reading through them, Zhou Ning frowned slightly, and Xu Dayuan asked with a smile:
"You see it?"
"Yeah, why does it seem like they hired extras, and not very professional ones at that?"
