Free Web NovelChapter 73: Chapter 73 Where Is the Evidence?_1
The woman’s face showed a hint of embarrassment as she lowered her eyes to arrange the non-woven bag in her hands, even as she explained.
"That was my retirement money. His father passed away early, and when our house was demolished, we gave the two of them three hundred thousand. I saved the rest so that in case I fell ill or encountered any disaster, I wouldn’t be a burden to them. But I never wanted my daughter-in-law to set her mind on it, it would create a barrier between us, wouldn’t it?"
Zhou Ning glanced at the woman, put on gloves, a hat, and shoe covers, and this time he planned to check every corner, trying not to disturb any footprints at the crime scene.
Zhao Xinli chimed in with a smile,
"Keeping some money for a rainy day is understandable. Tell me where it is, I’ll help you check."
The woman leaned in, pointing to the drawer on the north side of the TV cabinet and said,
"It’s that drawer. Pull it all the way out, reach inside to the bottom, there’s a hole there—lift it up and it’ll open. Below that is a bag. Help me see if the things are still there."
Following the direction she pointed, Zhao Xinli walked over to the TV cabinet, opened the drawer, and looked inside. Sure enough, there was a circular hole in the bottom of the drawer. He gently hooked it and lifted it, revealing a secret compartment below with a red cloth bag with a zipper showing.
Seeing the cloth bag, the woman grew somewhat excited. But the tears on her face had not yet dried, and Zhou Ning watched with an indescribable feeling in his heart.
"Yes, that’s the bag. Young man, open it up and let’s see if the passbooks and jewelry are inside. Just unfold them and I’ll have a look."
Zhao Xinli placed the cloth bag on a tray and unzipped it. It was evident that the bag was handmade, with small and neat stitches. He reached inside and pulled out two passbooks.
"Two passbooks, account holder Sun Yufen, one with a balance of 320,000, the other with 480,000. No withdrawal records."
The woman nodded continuously, visibly relieved.
"I... my name is Sun Yufen. The amounts are correct."
Zhao Xinli reached into the bag again, where there was another pouch. Opening it, he found two jade bracelets, a gold bracelet, rings, gold bars—all adding up to no less than two hundred thousand in value.
"Aunt, take a look, are these items correct in number?"
Sun Yufen nodded.
"They’re correct, none missing, that’s good enough for me. I’ll be at ease now. I can get them back after you close the case, right?"
"Don’t worry. After the case is closed, these will be returned to the family. For now, we need to keep the evidence, after all, this case was initially suspected to be a theft or robbery."
Zhao Xinli explained with a smile, took photos of the items, and the woman nodded and took two steps back, as if she were about to leave. That was when Zhou Ning spoke up.
"Aunt, don’t rush off. Didn’t you say downstairs you were coming up to get some clothes for the kids, how come you’re not in a hurry to do that now?"
The woman was startled and her face was a picture of embarrassment. She smacked her thigh and hit her head.
"Ah, my memory is not what it used to be in my old age. How could I have forgotten the most important thing?"
Zhao Xinli glanced at Zhou Ning, noted his stern expression, then took the woman’s bag and went into the second bedroom on treadable survey boards, picked a few clothes, and came out to hand them to the woman.
"Thank you. I should be going now, I can’t be at ease leaving the kid at home alone."
Saying this, the woman left without looking back, and Zhao Xinli shook his head with a sigh.
"Well, you can’t say everyone is selfish, but her son just died; the heartache is understandable."
"Cut the sentimentality, let’s start the detailed investigation."
Having said that, Zhou Ning picked up the investigation box and went into the living room. Mr. Zhao began to collect fingerprints on the inside of the entrance door and searched diligently for traces of blood on it.
Looking at the scattered pieces on the living room floor, Zhou Ning worked to determine the direction from which they had come. It seemed that all these objects had been thrown toward the couch—there were porcelain and glass pieces, among which a pair of anciently dressed porcelain bride and groom figurines had shattered most terribly.
Zhou Ning crouched down, picked up pieces of the figurines and fit them together slightly, and that was when he noticed that there were characters carved into the hem of the figurines’ clothes. Upon closer inspection, the names Wen Haicheng and Zhang Xin were written on them.
The bottom piece bore a date: February 14, 2006. Zhou Ning looked through the photos previously taken on his camera; he remembered that Mr. Zhao had photographed the couple’s marriage certificate. After some searching, he finally found the photo, which had the same registration date as the one on the bottom of the porcelain figurines.
Zhou Ning turned and looked towards the curio shelf by the entrance. It seemed all these items had originally been placed on that shelf. Whether it was for greed or vengeance, why take it out on the couple’s memorabilia?
Just as he stood up, he seemed to bump into the couch, and a piece of porcelain spun to the ground beside Zhou Ning with a brittle sound. Bending down to pick it up, he discovered a bloody fingerprint on it. His heart leapt with excitement. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Hastily bagging the porcelain shard into an evidence bag, Zhou Ning could tell without comparison that this was a part of the porcelain dolls at the base, and the fingerprints were likely left by the murderer.
After placing the evidence bag into his investigative kit, Zhou Ning then headed towards the south-facing balcony in the living room. He had felt the chill in the room upon entering, but it was only after turning on the lights that he noticed a crack had been left open in the window.
Approaching the window, Zhou Ning closely observed the edges. Some rub marks of a blackish-purple hue were evident on the outer edge and the windbreak strip. Zhou Ning opened the window wider, stuck half his body out, and as the flashlight illuminated the scene, three clear blood fingerprints appeared before his eyes.
Zhou Ning’s hands were cold with excitement as he hurriedly took photos, then sampled the bloodstains and lifted the fingerprints.
Mr. Zhao appeared at some point, peering over as he watched Zhou Ning’s actions, his chubby face leaning in closer.
"What did you find?"
"Blood handprints. I’ve already collected blood samples and fingerprints, let’s go back for comparison."
"Ah, on the window?"
Zhou Ning nodded, pointing at the evidence bag inside the investigative kit.
"Not just the window—blood fingerprints were also found on the smashed porcelain doll. Now to see if any of the fingerprints we’ve collected match up."
Mr. Zhao furrowed his brow, staring at Zhou Ning for a long while before exhaling and saying,
"Do you still think that Zhang Xin is the killer?"
"I go by the evidence, let’s wait for the comparison results."
Mr. Zhao pulled out his phone, took pictures of the two fingerprints, composed a message, and sent it out. Zhou Ning, puzzled, watched Mr. Zhao.
"Don’t look at me like that, bro. Whether it’s one or two, both need to be sent. The tech department’s already at the forensic doctor’s office, so might as well have them help with the comparison. I’ve been chatting with Mr. Hu for so long, even added his QQ number."
No sooner had he finished speaking when Mr. Zhao’s phone buzzed twice. A picture was sent over, but it seemed rather large and continued to display ’downloading’ in grey, the wait making both men too tense to speak.
With a beep, Zhou Ning almost thought it was the system sound, but leaning closer, he saw a three-part comparison screenshot—the freshly collected blood fingerprints, next to a set of five fingerprints on a collection card.
Followed by a line of text, it matched up—it was Zhang Xin’s four left hand fingerprints.
"It looks like you guessed right. Shall we go to the hospital to arrest her now?"
Zhou Ning shook his head, tossing the phone back to Mr. Zhao.
"Forward the picture to Xu Da. Have someone from the hospital watch Zhang Xin, but don’t alert her yet. She’s been feigning insanity—we need to find evidence of her feigned insanity, otherwise even with evidence, these won’t suffice to convict her."
Mr. Zhao paused, his finger shaking as he pointed at the blood fingerprints.
"If the blood belongs to Wen Haicheng, wouldn’t that prove that she’s the murderer?"
Zhou Ning shook his head again.
"Not enough."
Those two words left Mr. Zhao at a temporary loss for words. He forwarded the picture with his phone and then called Xu Dayuan.
Zhou Ning paid him no mind and walked towards the master bedroom.
On the murder weapon, they had lifted prints belonging to the victim and Zhang Xin. If Zhang Xin argued against it, it couldn’t serve as evidence, for this was her home, and it was normal for her prints to be found here.
But now, what else could definitively prove that Zhang Xin was indeed the killer?
At the very least, to prevent Zhang Xin from feigning ignorance and avoiding legal punishment, forcing her to confess to the killing.
Zhou Ning’s brow furrowed, he was truly stumped. The suspect was right before his eyes, but without more substantial evidence, he felt a sense of urgency.
Exhaling a few times, Zhou Ning arrived beside the master bed. As his gaze swept the area, he thoroughly searched every corner—on the floor, the table, the bed—everything within his reach had been checked without oversight.
Focusing on the bloodstains at the head of the bed, Zhou Ning looked again and was just about to turn away when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, a light dawning on him.
"Mr. Zhao, come here!"
