Free Web NovelChapter 297: Chapter 291: Delivering Milk Powder [Third Update]_1
Zhou Ning and Xu Dayuan walked up to Xia Momo, and on the computer screen, indeed, there was a tattoo of an electrocardiogram.
"Zhang Chunbo called the sixth elementary school, asking if Wang Hongwen has this tattoo on the ring finger of his right hand. Can teachers have tattoos?"
Zhou Ning dialed Zhou Xiaoyu’s number, and after two rings, Mr. He’s voice came through.
"What do you want?"
Zhou Ning paused, feeling somewhat annoyed.
"I’m not looking for you, get Xiaoyu on the phone. I’ve got something to ask her."
Mr. He hummed twice, then the sound of the range hood was heard, followed by Zhou Xiaoyu picking up the call.
"What’s up, brother?"
"Let me ask you something. Can teachers have tattoos?"
"Ah? It seems the state doesn’t expressly forbid it, but most primary and secondary schools have their own rules against it. Even if they have one, it can’t be in a conspicuous place. Why do you ask?"
"No reason, just a case. There’s a teacher with a tattoo of an electrocardiogram on their ring finger."
Zhou Xiaoyu laughed.
"Isn’t that meant to signify a ring?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ning turned his head to look at Xia Momo, who had minimized the picture and was nodding at Zhou Ning.
"Xiaoyu is right. It really does look like a ring."
Zhou Ning hung up the phone, and Mr. Zhao flipped through Wang Hongwen’s information.
"Looking at the household registration information, Wang Hongwen is unmarried."
At that moment, Zhang Chunbo came over and quickly said:
"I just asked the director of academic affairs at Hai’an’s sixth elementary school; they hadn’t noticed any tattoo on Wang Hongwen. Their school prohibits teachers from having tattoos. Then they gave me two numbers, these two people are like Wang Hongwen, both English teachers at the sixth elementary school.
"They reported that Wang Hongwen has a tattoo on the ring finger of his right hand, got it six years ago, and usually covers it with a band-aid, not commonly known."
Xu Dayuan waved.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up, bring him in for sampling comparison and interrogation."
...
18:22
Wang Hongwen was brought back, and Zhou Ning and his team stood in the observation room, each holding a box of food, starting to eat quickly. Everyone knew that tonight would definitely be non-stop work. Apart from Wang Hongwen, Wang Hongzhan would also be sent over after eight o’clock.
Xu Dayuan didn’t go to the interrogation room but sat next to Zhou Ning, finishing his boxed meal, while Mr. Zeng was responsible for taking out the trash.
Inside the interrogation room, Zhang Chunbo led the team in.
Zhou Ning stood in front of the one-way mirror, his gaze falling on Wang Hongwen.
This person was as Jiao Dazhuang had described, not quite 175cm tall, but clearly someone who worked out regularly, with thick arms and well-developed muscles, wearing only a hooded sweatshirt.
He was probably caught at home, wearing pajama pants and cotton slippers.
Wang Hongwen’s legs kept shaking, making the interrogation chair tremble along with him. His gaze fixed on Zhang Chunbo, sizing him up with a look of defiance.
"What’s wrong with you cops, got a screw loose? Why did you arrest me? Did I steal or rob anyone? You didn’t say a word, just slapped the handcuffs on me?"
Xu Dayuan was taken aback; he hadn’t expected Zhang Chunbo to be so decisive this time, arresting the person without explanation, but there wasn’t much else he could do, as everything lacked evidence here and needed to be compared first.
"Take his blood, send it for testing and compare it with that male DNA!"
Zhou Ning gestured to Zhu Xingxing, who, along with Sun Gaotie, quickly went over. Even as Wang Hongwen struggled, they swiftly drew blood; Wang Hongwen’s shouting grew even louder during this procedure.
Zhang Chunbo pinched the spot where Wang Hongwen’s blood had been drawn and said nothing, just staring at Wang Hongwen, which made his shouting seem somewhat powerless.
Seeing no blood oozing out from below the cotton ball, Zhang Chunbo let go, pulling down Wang Hongwen’s sleeve, then turned to glance at the clock. ƒreewebɳovel.com
"Don’t rush; it’s 18:31 now. It takes a little over an hour to drive here from Qindao City Bureau. The DNA test, if fast, will take about four or five hours, or six hours at most, which means that everything will be clear by one o’clock in the morning at the latest. So, we have plenty of time to chat."
Zhou Ning pursed his lips and smiled. It turned out Zhang Chunbo had his own way of doing things. Indeed, this speech calmed Wang Hongwen down. Without saying much on arrival, directly arresting someone without interrogation, and the first thing to do is draw blood – it was an ultimate psychological suppression on the suspect.
Zhu Xingxing and the others came back and whispered to Zhou Ning:
"Tao Da said he’s arranged for someone to take the blood samples back."
Zhou Ning nodded.
"If you’re tired, a few of you go rest with Mr. Xia, Mr. Qu, stay with me for a while longer; when Wang Hongzhan gets back, there’s still some content that needs to be searched."
Zhu Xingxing wanted to stay, but Mr. Zhao glared at her.
"If you’re told to rest, then go rest. Take a break with Mr. Liu and Mr. Xia—the presence of all of you here is meaningless. Mr. Yang, you should go as well. Tonight, Zhou Xiaozhou, Mr. Qu, and I will stay here. If there’s anything needed tomorrow, you guys can come. Don’t exhaust yourselves all at once."
Yang Xuetong nodded his head, helped Liu Yongxin, and took Xia Momo and the rest with him as he left.
Mr. Zhao found a corner, wrapped his clothes tight around him, and closed his eyes, pretending to rest. He knew that Zhou Ning would insist on watching; he now needed to conserve energy. Mr. Qu and Liu Yufei followed suit, each finding a chair to close their eyes and rest.
For a moment, the room settled into silence. Zhou Ning and Xu Dayuan looked toward the interrogation room.
Zhang Chunbo was holding a stainless steel thermos cup filled with some red beans. He blew on it and took a sip, but it seemed to be too hot, so he slowly placed it on the table, stood up, pulled out a chair, and sat down across from Wang Hongwen.
"Normally, when people come here, they introduce themselves, but I think it’s unnecessary under the circumstances; let’s just chat, shall we? You’re very familiar with Mr. Ho Dongmei, right?"
Wang Hongwen nodded and cleared his throat.
"Of course, we’re both teachers at Sixth Elementary, and we both teach English, hired the same year."
This introduction was quite perfect; Zhang Chunbo nodded with a smile.
"It seems you had a good relationship. Are you aware that Ho Dongmei was murdered?"
Wang Hongwen sighed, his face showing a look of regret.
"I know. On August 14th the police informed the school. I happened to be there on an errand, and I heard about it. I was utterly shocked. Who could imagine something like this happening to her? I heard she died a ghastly death."
Zhang Chunbo nodded, gestured to the officer behind him who stood up and passed over a stack of photos. Zhang Chunbo said with emotion:
"Let me put it this way, I’ve been with the Hai’an Municipal Criminal Police Brigade for more than ten years, and the crime scene of this case breached my defenses. Not because Ho Dongmei’s death was gruesome, but the sight of that child’s body made my blood boil.
Take a look. This is the scene where Ho Dongmei’s body was found; her shoes were off, stabbed to death in the yard. And this is the scene photo of the child, who was stuffed into a pickle jar and drowned. Such a little child!"
As he said this, Zhang Chunbo shook his head repeatedly, while Zhou Ning stared intently at Wang Hongwen’s expression. When Wang Hongwen saw the image depicting Ho Dongmei’s death, his brows furrowed, and he shifted backward.
When the photo of the child was shown, Wang Hongwen visibly shuddered, his gaze fixating on the photo as if trying to bore a hole through it. His eyes even started to moisten.
Zhou Ning was puzzled by this reaction; he was shocked and deeply aggrieved.
"This poor child."
Zhang Chunbo nodded, affirming Wang Hongwen’s sentiment.
"Yes, a poor child indeed, only two years old! Let me show you more. Mr. Zhang, find that screenshot from the surveillance video for me."
The detective called Mr. Zhang stood up, found the image for Zhang Chunbo, and turned the laptop towards Wang Hongwen. Zhang Chunbo even considerately asked,
"Can you see clearly from this distance? This is from surveillance footage on August 7th, 2011; look at the license plate, LUB93104—that’s your car, right? What were you doing in Jiaotuan Village? And from the call records, we didn’t find any communication between you and Ho Dongmei—did you visit her at 8 PM?"
"What’s so strange about that? I went to deliver something to Mr. Ho. It was two weekends before Mr. Ho’s incident; I ran into Mr. Ho at the supermarket, she was in a hurry leaving with her child. When I greeted her, she said the child’s formula was running low and she wanted to buy a few more tins, but it turned out the supermarket was out of stock.
I asked for the brand and which stage formula she needed, noted it down along with her address. I told her I’d deliver it the following weekend since I run a tutoring class outside and have classes every day; only the weekends are free. Later on, I went to deliver the formula, and even bought some other snacks for the child."
"Do you know anyone else in Jiaotuan Village?"
Wang Hongwen shook his head.
Zhang Chunbo nodded vigorously, seemingly very convinced by Wang Hongwen’s explanation, but Zhou Ning knew that according to Zhang Chunbo’s approach, he was digging a pit.
As expected, Zhang Chunbo waved his hand, and the surveillance photo was changed to one showing the license plate removed, the driver inside wearing a cap and sunglasses, his face covered by a T-shirt in the snapshot.
"Tell me about this snapshot—don’t tell me that’s not your car. Even though the license plate is removed, the marks of an impact on the rear of the vehicle are the same as seen in the previous surveillance."
Wang Hongwen was about to object, but Zhang Chunbo still smilingly raised his hand to stop him, then grabbed Wang Hongwen’s right hand, revealing the tattoo on the ring finger.
"Especially don’t tell me this isn’t you. We’ve processed the surveillance footage. Mr. Zhang, show Mr. Wang Hongwen the photo, yes, that one. See? The tattoo on the right ring finger in this photo is identical to yours, an ECG pattern. Tell me, what were you doing in Jiaotuan Village at that time?"
Wang Hongwen fell silent while Zhang Chunbo didn’t press him for an answer, confidently echoing his earlier words, we have time, everything can wait until your DNA test results are out.
Zhou Ning looked at Xu Dayuan.
"One called Wang Hongwen and the other called Wang Hongzhan—is this just a coincidence? After all, in the Ludong Peninsula, naming according to family genealogies is still the norm for the majority, especially for people of this age."
Xu Dayuan laughed and gave Zhou Ning a thumbs up.
"I’m telling you, Zhou Xiaozhou, if it wasn’t for your unmatched skills in forensic science, I would have moved you to the squad long ago and made you a team leader."
Zhou Ning rolled his eyes.
"Quit the small talk, leader, and don’t try to pin titles on me. I was just busy checking the surveillance footage and investigating the tattoos on that person’s fingers, so I didn’t pay attention to your other discussions. But according to what the village committee director said, the Wang Family has a direct lineage going back three generations, without any direct relatives, right?"
