Free Web NovelChapter 253: 250 Chapter Password Also Don’t Know to Change One_1
As Mr. Qu’s shout rang out, everyone hastily gathered around his computer. The white CC with the altered number plate turned into a fork in the road and then charged toward the curb.
For an instant, the car disappeared from the frame, and the several people watching the video were baffled. However, since Mr. Qu had called them over, he must have found something. No one was in a rush and they continued to watch attentively.
At this moment, Mr. Qu pressed fast-forward. Soon after, a person climbed up from the road on the other side of the fork, wearing the type of orange headscarf that village ladies favored, along with a facemask and sunglasses, and carrying a bundle on their arm, limping towards a corner of the frame as if they had difficulty walking.
Just as the woman turned her head, Mr. Qu clicked pause, then used software to analyze the skeletal features of the woman’s face and compare them with Wen Xiue’s in the household registration information. The facial skeletal contour analysis showed a 98.5% similarity.
Mr. Qu hurriedly explained:
"She’s wearing sunglasses, so the comparative data for the brow ridge and the temples has some uncertainties, which is why the similarity hasn’t reached 100%. But I’m certain that this person is Wen Xiue in disguise."
Xu Dayuan nodded patiently and pointed at the screen, saying:
"I trust your analysis and the software’s capability, but you haven’t yet said, what place is this? Why does it look like it’s halfway up a hillside?"
Mr. Qu, slightly embarrassed, scratched his head and pointed at the iron fence gate that Wen Xiue had turned into on the screen, then quickly said:
"This is another property registered under Fang Wenjie, also on Beizhai Street. It’s the Shengshui Yuan, northeast side of Shangliu Jiayuan. Haven’t you been here before?"
Xu Dayuan slapped his forehead, how could he have forgotten about this place? When they inspected it, it was Wen Xiue who had provided the door lock code. The place was completely idle with all the furniture covered in white cloth.
"Missed it because it’s too close to look for," Xu Dayuan said regretfully. "It’s careful enough of Wen Xiue to think of that place. We have guards in both Fang Wenjie’s and Qin Xuejin’s homes, but we didn’t check this idle property. Mr. Qu, can you check if Wen Xiue has been hiding there these past few days without leaving?"
Mr. Qu felt a bit awkward.
"Leader, this community is somewhat special; its property surveillance isn’t networked, and our system can’t access it to inspect. However, I’ve checked the road surveillance of the three surrounding gates and haven’t found footage of Wen Xiue leaving."
Xu Dayuan let out a sigh of relief and patted Zhou Ning on the shoulder.
"I’ll go and make the arrest!"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"Bring back all her belongings, and I’ll also have Yang Xuetong and Sun Gaotie join you on site. Have them look around. If Wen Xiue could be involved in silencing Qin Xuejin, perhaps she was involved in the death of Fang Wenjie as well.
Bring back all of her clothes and personal items for testing and comparison. Of course, it would be better if we could find the white CC. I think there might be some discoveries in the car. As for Wen Xiue’s car, we’ll inspect it when we get back."
Xu Dayuan appreciated Zhou Ning’s remarks and gestured to Yang Xuetong and Sun Gaotie.
"Follow me, Zhou Xiaozhou, do you want to go to the first crime scene where Fang Wenjie was killed?"
Zhou Ning replied affirmatively.
"Let’s split up and act concurrently; it’ll be faster that way!"
...
Twenty minutes later.
Zhou Ning and his team arrived at the village being demolished.
This time they stopped directly on the road to the east, noticing on their way there that the scrap collecting vehicle had already been towed, but the discarded doors and windows were still laid out.
Mr. Zhao carried some items, catching up to Zhou Ning and Zhu Xingxing and greeting the person who had stayed behind on their own initiative.
"Buddy, it’s quite cold, isn’t it? You’ve been working hard!"
The policeman looked quite young and kept nodding at them.
"It’s our duty, actually it’s okay since we’re just sitting in the car."
Mr. Zhao patted the man’s shoulder, handed him a pack of cigarettes, and a bag of food, which had all been packed at the canteen right before they left. At the time, Zhou Ning didn’t understand the intention, but it turned out Mr. Zhao was quite thoughtful.
"These were all brought from the canteen, still warm. Put them in your coat and eat as soon as possible, I guess you didn’t have breakfast, right?"
The man was touched beyond words, thanking them while taking the items and stuffing them into the car.
Mr. Zhao went straight over, handing him a cigarette and then immediately asked:
"There was a scrap-collecting vehicle at the intersection on the northwest side before; why was it driven away? We tried contacting him several times but couldn’t get through. Did you guys see anything?"
The officer thought for a moment and responded:
"I actually did see that; those two young guys were the ones who reported the incident."
Mr. Zhao was taken aback and looked at Zhou Ning, obviously none of them had expected this.
"Reporters? He didn’t mention that before, Xu Da went to inquire about it and even called the number on the card." ƒrēewebnovel.com
The man shook his head, clearly unaware of the details.
"I don’t know, probably scared, finding a dead body here—who would dare to stay longer? They must have been startled awake from their nightmares. But do we need to report this to Xu Da?"
"I think it’d be good to say something, plus we were going to get surveillance footage to locate the car’s owner."
The person nodded hastily and hurried off to make a phone call.
Mr. Zhao turned back and saw Zhou Ning, along with Zhu Xingxing, had already entered the ground floor and were squatting in a corner. Rushing over, Mr. Zhao discovered several black spots on the ground, hidden amongst the dust. Without even needing to spray Luminol reagent, it was clear from such direct observation that these were definitely blood traces.
Such a discovery somewhat surprised Mr. Zhao.
"Blood?"
"Following the direction, it’s spattered. However, this location isn’t where Fang Wenjie was tortured upstairs. I believe this is from when the murderer inadvertently splashed it while tidying up things on the ground."
Mr. Zhao moved closer and took a photo, enlarging the image to reveal that indeed the spatters of blood had a clear directionality, with the round head oriented southeast and the tapering tail pointing towards the staircase. Small dots, barely visible, were evident at the front of the round head, a characteristic of spattered blood drops.
Zhou Ning was standing at the spot of the two floors’ staircase, holding a laser pen pointed at the blood drops. He moved his hand up and down a bit, then to the position of another drop before he stopped moving.
Mr. Zhao looked over and saw Zhou Ning’s hand at waist height. He paused; what movement at that height could have caused the blood to spatter?
After all, the blood upstairs had been cleaned. Could it be that the bag was leaking?
Zhou Ning seemed to understand Mr. Zhao’s thought process and shook his head slightly.
"I don’t think it’s from the wrapping leaking, as there aren’t more dripping blood stains around. Considering Wang Guanli’s height, he’s slightly shorter than me, around 182cm. If he was carrying something, it would’ve been below the current height, closer to the splashing. If he was holding it, the spatter would be further away, so the height is incorrect."
Mr. Zhao’s eyes lit up.
"Wen Xiue’s height is around 160cm. If it were her holding these items, the height would be about right, but how was it spattered out?"
Zhou Ning glanced at the steps, then two steps further up was a small turn on the landing, where there were a few red bricks. Of course, there was a red brick shattered in place. Zhou Ning suddenly realized:
"Carrying something high, blocking their view, they kicked a red brick coming down, tumbling down the two steps of the landing, and at the same time, the blood was splattered out."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhao quickly scampered up the steps, squatting beside the broken pieces of the red brick, examining them closely. He bagged the red brick into an evidence bag. Even if nothing was visible to the naked eye, a trace might be found if the edge of a shoe cover with blood on it had kicked it.
Looking up, Mr. Zhao noticed Zhou Ning’s gaze on the concrete edge of the upper floor. He too moved closer and saw a blood fingerprint, but one without any ridge lines.
"Wang Guanli wore gloves?"
Zhou Ning nodded.
"He is a cautious man, always wearing gloves throughout. I guess it’s also his habit. To repeatedly kill without leaving traces, his anti-investigation skills are not something ordinary people can match."
Mr. Zhao was unfazed.
"No problem, I’ll have a look. After killing Qin Xuejin, Wang Guanli smoked at the scene. Seems like he has this habit."
Zhou Ning smiled. Mr. Zhao was very composed now. However, this place was a demolition wasteland; finding a cigarette butt here was akin to finding a needle in a haystack and probably quite difficult, but he did not demoralize Mr. Zhao.
Mr. Zhao ran downstairs, calling Zhu Xingxing and the two remaining police officers, together they began a carpet search below the second floor on the eastern side. In less than half an hour, they located half a bag of cigarette butts. Noting the quantity, Zhou Ning raised an eyebrow.
He wondered if Mrs. Cui had had a good rest the night before; this bag of items must contain at least a hundred, right?
...
At the same time, at the parking lot outside the east gate of Shengshui Yuan.
Xu Dayuan got out of his car and immediately spotted the white CC in the corner of the parking lot. His heart leaped with joy.
"Call for a tow truck, have the car directly towed back to the technical division’s garage. Handle with care, don’t touch the doors, place plastic bags under the tires. Mr. Yang, follow them and provide guidance."
Yang Xuetong hurried to make arrangements; after all, they knew they could find the victim’s car before coming, so the tow truck arrived at the scene ahead of time. After everything was explained, the car was directly hoisted up and loaded onto the tow truck.
After collecting soil samples from the car’s tires, Yang Xuetong bagged them and handed them to Sun Gaotie.
Following He Chunyang, they caught up with Xu Dayuan. At this time, the first floor was already swarming with police officers. Yang Xuetong, along with the others, went upstairs in the elevator. Mr. Bai approached, entered the password, and with a couple of beeps, the door was opened. Xu Dayuan, with his gun drawn, led his team rushing in.
Upon entry, they saw Wen Xiue standing in a corner of the living room with a blanket slipping from her grasp. She tried to dash towards the window, but Mr. Bai was already close at hand, and with a tackle, Wen Xiue was pinned to the ground with a loud thud.
The couch tilted to one side, and Wen Xiue was quickly subdued. Xu Dayuan, holstering his weapon, walked over.
Wen Xiue struggled constantly, and when she looked up at Xu Dayuan, her eyes had none of the weakness they’d previously shown.
"You sure picked a place, thinking we wouldn’t find it, thinking it’s too dark under the lamplight for us, huh? Couldn’t you have at least changed the password?"
Wen Xiue, panting heavily, was picked up by Mr. Bai, hands cuffed behind her back. A spasm of pain flickered across her face as she turned her head away.
Xu Dayuan waved his hand indifferently. Wen Xiue’s silence didn’t anger him. To be able to collaborate with Wang Guanli in killing two people and then hiding beside Fang Wenjie for over two years, this person was definitely not ordinary. If she had simply started confessing, it would have made Xu Dayuan uncomfortable.
"Alright, take her away and cover her head."
