Free Web NovelChapter 493: Chapter 464 Bloodstained Brick_1
Mr. Zhao’s words left Liu Yufei looking very surprised, but seeing Zhou Ning’s calm demeanor, she poked Zhou Ning’s arm and asked with some confusion.
"Did you tell Mr. Zhao?"
Zhou Ning innocently spread his hands, feeling like a sitting duck as blame fell from the sky.
"I didn’t know anything, so how could I tell Mr. Zhao? His brain works fine, he just usually doesn’t focus it in the right direction. Once he really puts his mind to something, he’s smarter than most. It seems I shouldn’t have gone easy on him. I should have had him start preparing for the grad school entrance exam at the end of last year."
Mr. Zhao’s face fell instantly.
"Zhou Xiaozhou, you’re going too far. This is for the case, I’m racking my brains here. It’s not like taking an exam, and besides, the grad entrance exam includes politics and English, subjects I can’t memorize to save my life. You might as well kill me." free𝑤ebnovel.com
Laughter erupted in the car, and Fang Mu, looking intrigued, interjected:
"I’ve been wanting to ask, why do you guys call Director Zhou ’Zhou Xiaozhou’? Is there a story behind it?"
Mr. Zhao shook his head.
"The nickname was given by our boss, and we just went along with it. It’s just like how they like to call Zhou Xiaozhou ’Chief’. It’s become a habit, and it shows that Director Zhou is approachable and doesn’t put on airs like some leaders."
Zhou Ning turned to look back at Mr. Zhao, who promptly shut his mouth.
"No dilly-dallying; get ready to prepare for the grad school exam when we get back. With such a good opportunity, why wouldn’t you seize it?"
Mr. Zhao wilted, not expecting to get burned by his own actions. He stole a glance at Mr. Qu, who was no longer busy, and asked curiously:
"Tell me, Mr. Qu, what did you overhear?"
Mr. Qu took off his headphones and hurriedly said, seeing that everyone was looking at him:
"As soon as we left, Zhong Xin’an made a call to a number. He didn’t use the full name, only referred to the person as ’leader’, and relayed the news about Liu Da’s arrival and the contents of our conversation. After relaying the information, the person on the other end told him to cooperate well and provide whatever evidence they needed to provide before hanging up."
Mr. Zhao blinked, having thought that such surveillance would at least yield some valuable leads. But what was the significance of such an unsatisfying response? Was it a key person, or merely a notification and report?
"What does this answer mean? Is it sarcasm?"
After some thought, Liu Yufei asked. freēwēbnovel.com
"Is this number registered under a real identity?"
"It’s a student cell phone number from Hushang City. I checked, and it’s not registered under a real identity. The card has been used for over a year, with not many calls made, but they’re all numbers from the Qindao Area. Should I investigate this further?"
Liu Yufei waved her hand.
"No need, let’s head to the first crime scene first. However, it might be difficult to find valuable information since it’s been a while, and it’s a residential area with heavy foot traffic and many outsiders. Once we get there, Mr. Qu, you’ll have the tough job of examining the surveillance from the community. I want the original, unedited surveillance footage.
As for the scene, Director Zhou will lead the team to inspect it carefully. Fang Mu, take a team directly to the school to find Tang Jianghai, the guy who drove the motorcycle with Jiahong, and have a face-to-face conversation with the coach Liu Kai. As for the approach, you decide.
Once Mr. Qu is finished, he’ll need to check the school’s entrance surveillance. I looked at the map, and the No. 5 Middle School is right across from this Salt Company Community. You can see the entrance and exit to the community right in front of the school. Even if they delete the surveillance, there should be traces. Let’s split up and get to work."
Everyone nodded, Fang Mu feeling somewhat tense. It had been just over a month since he arrived in Qindao, and although he was familiar with the people and the way they worked, having dealt with some minor cases, this was his first time getting his hands on such a big case, and he seemed a little excited.
A few minutes later, the vehicle stopped. No. 5 Middle School of Jinping Town was across the road; it was now 11:12, and there were no parents waiting to pick up children at the gate, which was quite different from the situation in the inner city of Qindao.
Liu Yufei motioned with her hand, and the two teams split up and went their own ways. As soon as Zhou Ning entered the community, an old man emerged from the guardhouse, holding a half-eaten bun in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other, blocking their path.
"Hold on, hold on, what are you doing here, looking for someone?"
Liu Yufei walked up quickly. They were all wearing police uniforms, and his questioning their purpose sounded like someone had tipped him off.
She flashed her police badge in front of the old man’s eyes, the pungent garlic odor assaulting her nostrils.
"We’re from the Qindao City Criminal Police Brigade, here to investigate a case. Are you the security guard here? Are you on 24-hour duty alone, or is there someone working shifts with you?"
The old man chewed his bun and sized up Liu Yufei from head to toe.
"Don’t try to fool me. I know all the cops from the local police station. You’re not residents of this community, you can’t come in. Get going, get going!"
As he was speaking, he reached out, which finally angered Mr. Shan, who grabbed the old man’s hand.
"Hand over your ID so I can see it. Gesticulating at the police—what were you thinking? Who gave you the audacity to obstruct police investigations? Do you work for the Salt Company, or are you a contract worker hired separately by the community?"
The old man deflated, smacking his lips and squeezing out a smile, still trying to make excuses.
"I just saw a big woman claiming to be a cop, I’ve never seen a policewoman who isn’t, you want to go in just go in, I’m just the doorkeeper, nothing to do with any unit, 2500 a month, day and night it’s just me alone, every meal my wife delivers."
Liu Yufei gave the old man a glance and noticed there was a landline at the gatehouse, giving Mr. Shan a look.
"Find out where the surveillance is, give the phone number to Mr. Qu, and have Mr. Qu check to see if someone just called to alert him to stop us."
The old man looked somewhat panicked, his previous bravado gone, holding his chopsticks and bun, standing there stupefied.
Zhou Ning and the others followed Liu Yufei straight in, with He Hongjian wearing a baseball cap, mask, and sunglasses, squeezed in the middle. Under He Hongjian’s guidance, they came to a building directly opposite the main entrance.
The community was very old, the hallway walls were adorned with those decorative cement lattice, but the outer wall seemed to have been repainted. The building He Hongjian pointed to was marked as Building 3, and there were only three buildings in total in the community.
Zhou Ning recalled that the town government was just at the previous intersection. The houses looked like they were built in the ’90s, and given their style and level, he guessed they were probably built by the Salt Company, intended to be company-owned housing at that time.
But with the passage of time, these houses became private property after housing reform, and then even more so due to the convenient conditions of the No. 5 Middle School, they became county’s school district houses. Looking up, he could see something special about this building, a small house not so big on the rooftop of the fifth floor, and upon closer examination, there seemed to be quilts and sheets fluttering on the rooftop, turning it into a drying area.
"Which unit is your home?"
He Hongjian hurriedly said:
"It’s the eastern unit on the second floor of the middle Building 2. Should I open the door for you, or give you the keys?"
Mr. Shan was chatting with the old gatekeeper while Liu Yufei led the team inside the complex. Seeing so many police officers had caused local women to start gathering little by little, in twos and threes, whispering to each other about this side.
Zhou Ning gestured, and He Hongjian placed the keys in Zhou Ning’s hand. Mr. Zhao and others, carrying their equipment, followed Zhou Ning directly into Building 2.
The hallway faced south, a design rarely seen in new buildings, but in conjunction with the hollow stairwells, it did indeed have better lighting. Inside the hallway, there was a lot of clutter covered in thick dust, and the edges of the steps were damaged. It was clear that it was rented out long-term and wasn’t well-maintained.
Arriving on the second floor, sure enough on the east and west sides were those green metal grid security doors. These matched with the ’home’ that Zhou Ning remembered from his childhood. Inside of this security door, there was another wooden door.
Mr. Yang stepped forward, took the keys, and unlocked the doors one by one. There was no particular sound when the outer door opened, but as the inner wooden door creaked open, Mr. Yang jumped, fearing that in the dead of night the noise could be heard from the first to the fifth floor.
"Such a racket!"
Mr. Zhao approached, looked at the doorway, and noticed areas on the edge of the wooden door and on the floor between the two doors where the paint had chipped off, marked with scratches. Mr. Zhao measured them with the key.
"He Hongjian didn’t lie, these marks were indeed made by a key. But the child didn’t come home late at night, even if he didn’t open the wooden door and just opened this security door to drop the keys down, the sound couldn’t have been quiet. Did they not hear it?"
Gao Tie came over and reached through the security door, easily slipping his hand in.
"If it was just a dropped key, there’s no need to open the security grid, a hand could easily reach through. I’ll take samples from the edges of the grid that aren’t blocked by the pattern. If the key wasn’t thrown in by the deceased themselves, there might be some residue left."
Zhou Ning put on shoe covers and entered the apartment. To the south were two bedrooms with shabby yellow wooden doors. To the north was a small dining area, opposite the entrance were the bathroom and kitchen. There were very few items, and the room was messy. Judging by the thickness of the dust, it looked like it hadn’t been lived in for some time.
In the bigger bedroom, there was a desk, a bed, a wardrobe, and several storage boxes on the floor. Books were arranged very neatly on the desk, and there were some test papers with distinctive handwriting that didn’t suggest hasty answers.
Zhou Ning flipped through them, and all the papers had scores, and the scores were quite good, around 650 for several subjects combined. For such a student who was also an athlete, her options for college entrance exams in the future were extraordinarily broad.
Mr. Yang and the others had already finished inspecting the room and shook their heads at Zhou Ning.
"Nothing special found, shall we go check the rooftop?"
Zhou Ning nodded. Mr. Zhao and the team had already gone up first. Indeed, there was another level above the fifth floor, a set of double doors with no lock, only a metal bolt, which could be pushed open to access the rooftop.
There were several poles and ropes stretched out on the rooftop. The tops of Buildings 1 and 2 had many quilts and sheets hung out to dry, but the rooftop of Building 3 had none.
Instead, near the southeast corner, there were about a dozen foam boxes with several vegetable seedlings inside, including many varieties such as peppers and eggplants. Bricks were scattered on the floor with a sense of age, but it was unclear what they were for.
Mr. Zhao took some photos and started surveying from the center to the east and west sides with Mr. Yang, while Gao Tie did his survey from south to north. He even stumbled on a clothes pole on the ground and asked,
"Boss, why does no one hang laundry on this building’s rooftop?"
"They think someone jumped off from here, so it’s unlucky. I guess many of the tenants in this building probably have moved out."
At that moment, Mr. Zhao excitedly waved his hand and held up a piece of brick, calling out,
"Zhou Xiaozhou, I’ve found a brick stained with blood!"
