Free Web NovelChapter 214: Chapter 213 Motorcyclist_1
Ten minutes later.
About twenty girls, scantily clad, filed in one by one, their waists twisting as if they were vying for the spotlight in a photo shoot in showbiz. When their names were called, they stepped forward and posed provocatively.
After introducing everyone, Mrs. Weiwei closed the door, and the tattooed young man blocked the entrance.
She swayed over to Xu Dayuan’s side, grabbed the photographs, and handed them to one of the girls in front of her.
"Okay, let’s get down to business," she said. "When I ask a question, you answer with whatever you know. If anyone hides anything, I guarantee you won’t be able to get by in Qindao. Now take a look at these photos. Does anyone recognize the girls in them?"
As she spoke, Mrs. Weiwei pulled out Sun Xiaoli’s photograph and handed it to the girls.
The girls didn’t know what was going on, but they all wore a nervous expression, a clear sign that this woman was usually someone to be reckoned with.
He Chunyang stood up, walked into their midst, and divided the photos into two sets. Among them were the reconstructed images of the victims whose identities hadn’t been found yet. After all, confirming identities takes time, and these people might know more.
There was a sudden quickening in the passing around of the photos. Upon seeing the photos, some whispered to each other. The woman with hands on her hips coughed as a warning. Then, she dropped her smile and scrutinized the girls.
"Don’t think I don’t understand when you talk about me in your hometown dialect. Speak up if you have something to say; if not, keep your mouth shut."
With that said, the room quieted down. A slightly older girl hesitated for a moment and then raised her hand.
"Mrs. Weiwei, I recognize these two people. I haven’t seen them since Christmas, though. They didn’t live in town. I went to their rental place, their belongings were there, but they were gone. We got along quite well, so I packed up their things. They never showed up again."
Mrs. Weiwei waved her hand, indicating for the woman to approach. The selected photos in her hand were of victims seven and nine whose identity information had not yet been confirmed. Xu Dayuan stubbed out his cigarette and looked at the woman. Her makeup was thick, but it couldn’t hide her age – she seemed close to thirty.
"Do you have their personal belongings? Is there an ID card?"
The woman thought for a moment and then nodded.
"Yes, I kept them because I was afraid something had happened to them. After all, we agreed to go back to our hometown after the second day of February, but suddenly we couldn’t contact them, and their phones were unreachable. I always had a bad feeling."
"Where are their identification documents and personal items?"
The woman opened her small handbag, which seemed to contain a compartment, and pulled out two tattered ID cards. The photos were so rubbed they were almost indecipherable, and the edges were coming apart. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
He Chunyang took the ID cards and immediately searched for them on the police database. Two identity profiles were found and sent to Xu Dayuan, who glanced at them and saw that both individuals were from Huining Province, and they were among the several possible answers provided by Xia Momo.
Xu Dayuan stood up and gestured for those who didn’t know what was going on to leave.
Mrs. Weiwei unleashed a furious barrage, insisting that no one reveal the content of the discussions and that anyone who remembered any relevant details was welcome to come forward and talk.
Xu Dayuan moved next to the woman and showed her his phone, which displayed the pre-autopsy photos of victims seven and nine. Their faces had been smashed, delivering a rather gruesome sensory impact.
The woman looked and almost collapsed, her legs giving way beneath her, but Xu Dayuan grabbed her arm, steadying her.
"They’re dead?"
Xu Dayuan nodded to signal the woman to sit, as she could no longer stand, just as Mrs. Weiwei returned, catching her breath and walking over.
"The people you see in these photographs, there aren’t just one or two who have died. These girls were our colleagues, so whatever I ask you, answer me carefully. We may be seen as filthy and cheap in the eyes of regular folks, but even a cheap life is a life. At the very least, we need to catch the killer so they don’t die anonymous, right?"
The woman cried, not because she felt a deep affection for those two, but out of retrospective fear. Since they were all in the same trade, she too had narrowly escaped death, and such fear of a close call was uncontrollable.
After a moment, the woman got up from the floor, bowed to Mrs. Weiwei, and said,
"Don’t worry, Mrs. Weiwei. I’ll tell you everything I know in detail. Just ask!"
Xu Dayuan stared at the woman and asked,
"Tell me, when and where did you last see them?"
The woman pulled out her phone, found the call log, and handed it to Xu Dayuan.
"We had lunch together on Christmas. I called Liang Hongyu that night but she didn’t answer. Guan Meng said she might have gone out with a client, but the next day she didn’t return. I was really busy those two days and didn’t go to their rental place.
However, when I went there on the morning of December 28, I found that Guan Meng was also unreachable. Both their makeup bags were scattered on the bed, all their clothes and suitcases with belongings were there. I even found their hidden ID cards in the closet.
I mentioned it to Mr. Ji when I got back, but we couldn’t get in touch. Mr. Ji said it was probably nothing serious, they might have just left in a hurry. I thought about it and kept their ID cards. I was planning to visit their homes, to see what was really going on."
Xu Dayuan nodded. It was clear she had a better relationship with victim number nine, Liang Hongyu. If Zhou Ning’s analysis was correct, that one victim died each day, then the timeline given by this woman matched—Liang Hongyu was the victim on December 25, and Guan Meng was killed on December 27.
"Where did Liang Hongyu and Guan Meng live?"
"Not far from here, in a residential building in town."
"Confiscated the items, right?"
"Yes, I confiscated their personal belongings."
"Take my people to take a look."
Following Xu Dayuan’s gesture, He Chunyang had already approached the woman, leading her away. At this point, only Liu Yufei, Mrs. Weiwei, and Xu Dayuan remained in the room. Xu Dayuan tapped his fingers on his leg.
"I won’t send the public security squad here for the time being after this investigation, but you should keep a low profile, you know? After all, the murderer hasn’t been caught yet. What’s your full name?"
"My name is An Wei. Don’t worry, leader, I know what to do. I’ll close the business tomorrow."
"As for Sun Xiaoli’s rental, take us there. Is the pimp about to arrive?"
"I sent him to the rental."
...
January 6, 2012
Zhou Ning had just arrived in the forensic doctor’s office when he saw Xu Dayuan sitting on a chair with bloodshot eyes, dripping eye drops into his eyes, obviously having spent another sleepless night.
"Xu Da, so early. Were you waiting for me?"
"Yes, we conducted a surprise inspection last night and found several places where the victims worked and lived, and verified their identities as well. The rental looked normal, just like she went out without anything unusual.
The first victim, Sun Xiaoli, had lunch with a few of her fellow countrywomen at Jiu’an Grand Hotel on January 2nd, a celebration of sorts, since this time of year is morning for them. We’ve copied back the surveillance from the hotel and the back door of the bar, and Mr. Xia will help with the comparison."
Zhou Ning raised an eyebrow. If this had been the city bureau, he was not very familiar with the technical department, but he was aware that Mr. Hu from the Qidong Sub-bureau had good skills. He had performed impressively during the investigation of the 1.26 Shen Guanlin father and son case.
"Mr. Hu is not here?"
Xu Dayuan shook his head.
"Mr. Hu has gone to Hushang City for training. According to He Chunyang, it’s doubtful he will return. The case is urgent, so don’t hold back information from me."
Zhou Ning pulled out his phone and called Xia Momo. Shortly after, Xia Momo hurried in, her face apologetic.
"Sorry for being late. Where can I find the surveillance videos that need comparison?"
As Xia Momo said this, Xu Dayuan felt a bit embarrassed since he already considered her Zhou Ning’s wife in his mind. He quickly stood up and handed a portable hard drive to Xia Momo.
"This contains photos of the first victim, Sun Xiaoli, the seventh victim, Guan Meng, and the ninth victim, Liang Hongyu, as well as extracted surveillance footage from several hotels and bars. Oh, and I’ve also had someone capture surveillance videos from the surrounding roads, not sure if there might be any discoveries."
"Have you all watched them?"
Xu Dayuan nodded.
"Liu Yufei and I watched them, but the image quality was too poor or kept shaking, making it hard to discern facial features. We need to process them first. As for the footage of Sun Xiaoli having a meal, we did find it, but didn’t notice her leaving. After all, everyone was too sleepy to see clearly in the middle of the night."
Zhou Ning didn’t say much. Xu Dayuan and his team were indeed working hard. Xia Momo had already exported all the videos and was now carrying out video restoration. The software restored the videos at a remarkable speed, and the facial key data for the three photos were already selected by Xia Momo.
Soon, the images of the three faces had some green lines on them. With Xia Momo clicking on the main surveillance of Jiu’an Grand Hotel, the video jumped directly to the 11:44 timestamp. The green lines then converged on a girl in a white coat.
The clarity of the image had improved tremendously, and Xu Dayuan leaned close to the screen, his eyes wide open.
"Incredible, this software is amazing. Now we can clearly see the face. It’s Sun Xiaoli. It seems we made a mistake last night by assuming the person in the red coat was Sun Xiaoli."
The scene switched, and the time changed to 13:12. A few girls were walking out of the building, Sun Xiaoli among them, without her coat, wearing a red knitted dress. She bounced and chased after the others, turned left out of the door, heading towards the bar. Xia Momo quickly took a screenshot.
Next, they checked the surveillance at the hotel entrance where Sun Xiaoli had headed. Her direction was indeed towards the bar, but on the street side, several people walked forward, and she entered a supermarket. The name of the supermarket was Suntory Supermarket. However, twenty minutes after she went in, there was no footage of her coming out.
Xu Dayuan blinked and signaled Xia Momo to check other surveillance from the inside.
"Mr. Xia, please search. I’ve had someone copy a set of surveillance from every significant store on three streets. I don’t know if we have one from this Suntory."
Xia Momo wasn’t in a rush. She carefully looked through and indeed found a file abbreviated to ’sandeli’ in the folder. It contained four surveillance camera angles, clearly unwatched - identifying them as the main entrance, side entrance, and four internal surveillance points.
Continuing with the method used before, it didn’t take long to find the footage of Sun Xiaoli entering the supermarket. She headed straight to the east side of the life zone, picked up a few packs of menstrual pads, and went to the eastern checkout to pay. No wonder they didn’t see her leave; she planned to exit through the east door and circle around to the rear of the bar.
Switching to the east door surveillance, not long after Sun Xiaoli stepped out, she stopped, speaking to a man on a motorcycle. However, from this angle, the man’s face was not visible, and the motorcycle’s license plate was muddy. After a brief conversation, Sun Xiaoli put on her coat and then got on the bike, vanishing from the screen instantly. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Xu Dayuan was excited, almost pressing his face against the screen.
"Indeed, it was a man on a motorcycle. Zhou Xiaozhou, look, the motorcycle headed straight for the dirt road to the east. Heading south from here, you can reach Sanquan Bay in Huangshi Village. But how did Sun Xiaoli get on his bike?"
