Free Web NovelChapter 296: Chapter 290 ECG Tattoo_1
Zhou Ning made a call to Cui Lili, telling her about the situation here. Everyone in the conference room was looking at the time on their phones. Zhang Chunbo’s phone had not stopped ringing. After hanging up the last call, he grinned at Xu Dayuan.
"Director Xu, Wang Hongzhan and his team have boarded the plane, and in coordination with the airport, they were able to change seats. They will arrive in three hours and ten minutes, which is at 18:42 at Qindao Airport. It takes an hour and a half to get here from the airport, so they will arrive here at 20:12."
Just as Xu Dayuan was about to speak, Zhang Chunbo quickly raised his phone and said:
"I’ve already asked Wang Yuan and the others to wait for them at the airport."
Xu Dayuan nodded. Zhu Xingxing had connected to the printer and printed out the recent report for everyone to pass around and read. Zhou Ning was staring at the laptop screen when his inbox flashed. He hurriedly opened the email and started the download.
After glancing at the results, Zhou Ning was stunned. Seeing his reaction, Xu Dayuan leaned in. freewёbnoνel.com
"What’s wrong?"
Zhou Ning clicked print and handed the report to Xu Dayuan.
"The examination of the lock and key hasn’t yielded results yet. I just compared Wang Hongzhan’s DNA with the DNA left by the killer, and they are not from the same person. Additionally, I asked Mrs. Cui to compare Wang Hongzhan’s DNA with the second victim Wang Jiahan, and they are not related by blood."
Mr. Zhao’s eyes bulged, his mouth gaping open in shock.
"Didn’t they say Wang Hongzhan and Ho Dongmei had a very good relationship? How could the child not be Wang Hongzhan’s?"
Zhang Chunbo was also bewildered, quickly moving forward to snatch the report from Xu Dayuan’s hands and read it carefully. It wasn’t just a lack of blood relation—Wang Hongzhan and Wang Jiahan’s DNA showed no connection whatsoever.
From the initial case analysis meeting to having Wang Hongzhan assist with the investigation, neither Zhou Ning nor Xu Dayuan had any particular impression of Wang Hongzhan. However, from the very beginning, Zhang Chunbo was deeply moved by the relationship between the two and found the results hard to accept.
"How... how is this possible?"
Xu Dayuan said nothing else but turned to Mr. Qu.
"Have you finished processing those surveillance videos from Jiaotuan Village?"
Xia Momo passed her computer to Mr. Qu, who turned on the projector, displaying an image.
"Please take a look, this is a diagram of where the surveillance cameras are located. We obtained six surveillance videos in total, but after screening them, we found that the cameras closest to the Wang Family’s home are number three and number four, respectively located at the southeast and northwest intersections.
If someone was driving there, they would have to go through both ends of this road. However, the road is winding, and it isn’t possible to see the front of Wang Hongzhan’s home. Additionally, if someone passed through the alleys on either side of Wang Hongzhan’s house, they would pass by the roads monitored by camera five and two along the Baisha River.
This way, whether on foot or by car, anyone able to get near the Wang Family’s home would appear on the surveillance, so we figured it would be sufficient to review these four cameras."
As he spoke, he opened two videos labeled three and four. On the left and right monitors, the surveillance videos from the night of August 13, 2011, after 20:00 were being fast-forwarded.
Zhu Xingxing also grabbed a computer, playing cameras five and two. With the four videos visible on the projector screen, Xu Dayuan quickly instructed everyone to start watching the surveillance footage in groups.
After Mr. Qu and Xia Momo’s processing, the video quality was already very clear. Cameras five and two were a bit dark, with a few streetlights in the distance. Mr. Qu used a laser pointer to gesture between two streetlights.
"Between these two streetlights. Right here, this is where someone could come out from either alley on either side of the Wang Family’s home. Just focus on this spot."
As time rapidly advanced, the videos were repeatedly paused. Whenever someone passed by, Xia Momo would conduct facial recognition, but after the search, it was found that these people were residents of Jiaotuan Village.
At 1:07 on all four surveillance cameras, a car emerged on camera five. Mr. Qu quickly made the video full screen. In the flickering light of the streetlamp, it was visible that this was a sedan, but the license plate had been removed. The driver wore a baseball cap and sunglasses, with fabric covering his face.
Such attire immediately caught everyone’s attention. Xia Momo took a screenshot and then attempted facial recognition, but the person was not wearing a mask—instead, they used something similar to a vest to cover their face, not even the ears were exposed.
On the large projection, a cropped image of the person’s upper body was nearly full screen.
One could discern that the orange baseball cap had white lettering on it, seemingly a ’WO’, although the following ’O’ seemed smaller, and the words below could not be made out.
The fabric tied around the person’s face appeared to be a white T-shirt with some dark brown spots that looked like spattered bloodstains, a find that made Zhou Ning lean in closer.
In the picture, the person was wearing a black T-shirt, and the sunglasses were very dark, making it impossible to discern the shape of the eyes. However, on the hand holding the steering wheel, visible was a black mark on the right ring finger, not a ring. It was unclear if it was a scar or a tattoo.
Zhou Ning’s gaze returned to the computer screen. Seeing Xia Momo’s repeated search failures, he stopped her attempts.
"Don’t try anymore, you won’t find anything with that image. Look at this person’s right ring finger. Can you work on that spot to see if it’s a tattoo or a scar?"
Xia Momo zoomed in and then nodded her head.
"I’ll need half an hour. This won’t be easy to process."
Afterward, Xia Momo took her laptop to a corner.
"Mr. Qu, reverse the surveillance footage and slow it down a bit. We didn’t see when this car appeared just now."
Mr. Qu quickly worked his magic, and at 23:20, a car without lights on passed by camera three. Mr. Qu immediately paused and enlarged the still image.
"No wonder we missed this car before; it didn’t have its headlights on and was driving from the southeast towards the north side. From this angle of the camera, we can only see the back of the car, and the license plate has been removed."
Zhou Ning waved to Mr. Zhao. Understanding what Zhou Ning meant, Mr. Zhao leaned over the screen and scrutinized it for a while before asking Mr. Qu to slow down the video even more. Finally, he looked up and said,
"This car is a 2006 Geely King Kong 1.6L manual model. It was priced at over sixty thousand upon release, and it’s a silver-gray color. There is damage on the right side of the trunk door. See, the color here isn’t even. Based on this analysis, it must have been rear-ended. We can check for any insured vehicles of the same model."
Mr. Zhao’s words ignited hope in Xu Dayuan who quickly waved to Tao Zhenshan and the others. Everyone sprang into action, some making calls, others going out.
Xu Dayuan pondered for a moment before moving to Zhou Ning and Mr. Qu’s side.
"Jiao Dazhuang’s wife mentioned that on a day in early August, Jiao Dazhuang went to the victim’s house to help with some work and saw a car going to their house around eight in the evening. Can we find this car?"
"We don’t know the specific date?"
Xu Dayuan dialed a number, which took seven or eight rings before someone answered.
"Is this Jiao Dazhuang?"
"Yes, it’s me. Who is this?"
"I am from the Qindao City Criminal Police Brigade. We are investigating the murder of Ho Dongmei. Your wife Zhu Xiaohui mentioned that when you were working at Ho Dongmei’s house, you saw a man driving to Ho Dongmei’s place. Do you remember the exact date?"
On the other end, Jiao Dazhuang paused, then cursed under his breath.
"My wife is talking nonsense. I didn’t see anyone."
Xu Dayuan knew that Jiao Dazhuang definitely didn’t want to draw trouble to himself. After all, in the same village, if he spoke of seeing a man going to Wang Hongzhan’s house at night, it would be tantamount to gossiping like an old lady.
"Don’t overthink it. We simply want to investigate Ho Dongmei’s death. I can’t divulge specific details to you, but I hope you can tell us the truth. It would be of great help for us in solving this case."
Jiao Dazhuang was silent for a long while before saying,
"Wait a moment while I check the payment records. I recharged my phone the day before. I’ll call you back later."
Mr. Qu, upon hearing the details, began searching for Jiao Dazhuang’s mobile phone payment information and quickly found a record showing that on August 6, 2011, Jiao Dazhuang had topped up fifty yuan on his phone.
Just then, Jiao Dazhuang’s call came back.
"Officer, I just checked, and I recharged on August 6, 2011. The next day was Sunday. A few of us parents, whose children learn with Mr. Ho, went together to the Wang family’s house to help clean up trash after a tile removal."
"Good. Can you recall what time you left the Wang family’s house that day? And did you notice anything distinctive about that car and its driver, like the color of the car? Was the driver male or female? Tall or short? Heavy or slim?"
"I can’t remember the exact time but I know it was a bit past eight when I got home. The car wasn’t white, but the color was light. The driver wasn’t very tall, looked quite bulky, about the same as me, no more than 175 centimeters, and roughly one hundred fifty to sixty kilos. I didn’t get a good look at his face. But when the man got out of the car, he was carrying a supermarket bag. I glanced at it, saw baby formula, and some snacks. He probably brought them for the kids. And it was the first time I saw someone visiting Mr. Ho at that time."
Xu Dayuan thanked him and hung up the phone.
Although Jiao Dazhuang hadn’t said much, one could feel a sense of protectiveness towards Mr. Ho.
By now, Mr. Qu had already brought up the surveillance footage from the night of August 7, 2011. Still using four camera angles, the search continued, with everyone looking up at the fast-forwarding video.
At 8:07 PM, on camera three, a gray sedan appeared in the frame. After repeatedly slowing down the footage, Mr. Qu successfully captured the license plate number: Lu B93104.
Without waiting for Xu Dayuan’s instruction, Mr. Zhao already had his police device out and started searching. The vehicle and owner’s information rapidly appeared on screen.
"Lu B93104, a 2006 1.6L silver-gray Geely King Kong. The owner is Wang Hongwen, born March 3, 1980."
Zhou Ning glanced at it as Mr. Zhao had already looked up Wang Hongwen’s detailed information. His place of employment turned out to be Hai’an Sixth Elementary School, where he was a colleague of Ho Dongmei. But, how come his name was so similar to Wang Hongzhan’s—just one character off? Could they be related?
Just then, Xia Momo spoke aloud,
"The image restoration is complete. This tattoo is of an ECG pattern. Take a look at the picture."
