Chapter 191: 191: Send Luo Family father and daughter to jail (first update
Nine o’clock in the evening, the wind ceased and the rain stopped.
The duty officer, Zhang Wen, was dozing when the desk extension rang. He shook his head to clear the sleep and answered the phone, “Hello, ** Precinct, Criminal Investigation Team.”
The caller was in a panic, “There’s, there’s been a death here.”
Zhang Wen was fully awake in an instant and imdiately asked, “Where?”
The other party said, “Hongjiang Bridge Cave.”
After giving so instructions, Zhang Wen hung up the phone and knocked on the door of the small office next door, “Vice Captain, there’s been a homicide.”
Vice Captain Xing imdiately got in touch with the forensic and trace evidence departnts.
By nine thirty, Captain Cheng of the Criminal Investigation Team had arrived at the murder scene.
“Captain Cheng.”
“Has the identity of the deceased been confird?”
Vice Captain Xing passed over a pair of gloves, “The victim’s surna is Peng, a foreign national, twenty-three years old. There’s a student ID in the backpack, so they’re probably still a student.”
Captain Cheng put on the gloves and walked into the bridge cave, “Have you contacted the family?”
“Not yet.”
Captain Cheng walked up to the corpse, squatted down to inspect it. The body was lying on its back, there was not much blood on the ground, nor any signs of a struggle, “Ti of death?”
“About an hour and a half ago.” Vice Captain Xing pointed to the head of the corpse, “The cause of death will have to wait for the coroner’s report, but the initial estimate is traumatic intracranial hemorrhage. The murder weapon is still uncertain.”
Captain Cheng inspected the area surrounding the body, “Is there any surveillance nearby?”
Vice Captain Xing shook his head, “This area has been deserted for a long ti, there’s a cara about ten ters away, but it’s a blind spot.”
Before the bridge cave was deserted, it was an intersection between the highway and city roads. Later the highway was reconstructed, and this area was no longer in use. One end of the bridge cave had been bricked up, with a depth of five or six ters. Even if there were caras outside, they wouldn’t capture what happened inside.
The location of the body was in a visual blind spot.
Moreover, the scene was too clean. captain Cheng was feeling a headache when a call from the Criminal Intelligence Departnt ca in.
“Why are you calling in the middle of the night?”
The person on the other end greeted first, his voice tinged with laziness, “Does your Criminal Investigation Team have another case?”
This guy! Captain Cheng, squatting next to the body, chatted with him, “How did you know?”
“The cri scene is at Hongjiang Bridge Cave?”
He even knew this!
Captain Cheng felt that this guy must have ‘insiders’, smiling, he said, “Captain Qiao, you’re very well-inford.”
Qiao Nanchu was noncommittal, casually ntioning, “There should be no surveillance there, as for eye witnesses,” he paused, took a drag of his cigarette, “you should be able to find so, right?”
There was a hidden ssage in his words.
After hanging up, Captain Cheng called over Officer Zhang Wen, “Put up a banner offering a reward for eye witnesses.”
That banner turned out to be quite effective. By ten o’clock the next morning, an eye witness had co forward to the police station.
The eye witness was in his forties, a taxi driver.
The driver was excited about sothing, very excited. He looked left and right, then held up two fingers, “There were two perpetrators.”
Zhang Wen stopped writing and asked the witness, “Did you see it?”
“I didn’t,” the driver imdiately emphasized, “but my car’s dash cam captured it, it was definitely two people.”
He spoke as if he had witnessed it with his own eyes.
“About what ti?”
“Around eight o’clock.” Afraid the policeman wouldn’t believe him, he explained in great detail, “I have a habit of listening to the radio, and I was just listening to the eight o’clock slot at that ti.”
Zhang Wen followed up with a question, “What were you doing at Hongjiang Bridge Cave at that ti?” His pen tapped on the table, “That road is very deserted, and usually no one goes there.”
“Comrade, you’re not suspecting , are you?” The driver felt this comrade was inadequate, to even doubt a proactive and upright citizen like him; he hurried to explain, “I had dropped off a client nearby and just then I picked up two more under the bridge cave.”
Zhang Wen continued to inquire, “You picked up clients but didn’t leave? Were you waiting there to capture the perpetrators?”
The suspicions of the police these days!
“The clients were waiting for soone there, it looked like it was about to rain, so they hailed my cab and waited inside.” The driver glanced at the officer opposite him, worried he would still be suspected, he raised his voice significantly and continued, “They waited for about fifteen minutes, and my dash cam was on the whole ti, capturing two people going in and out of the bridge cave.”
“What about the dash cam?”
“It’s been handed to your colleagues already.”
“Do you rember anything about those two clients?”
The driver thought for a mont, “One had dyed blue hair.” He slapped his thigh, “Looked like a fairy, and the other was a big, hulking guy, skittish.”
Three o’clock in the afternoon.
A call ca from the Criminal Identification Departnt, confirming that the video had not been tampered with.
Zhang Wen hung up, “Captain Cheng, the dash cam is fine.”
Captain Cheng’s computer screen was showing the video captured by the dash cam. He tapped the space bar and the fra froze, with a man and a woman on the screen, two individuals.
“Go invite the two suspects over.”
Three thirty, Luo Family.
Without knocking, Luo Changde pushed open Luo Qinghe’s room door, his eyes swollen and his expression panic-stricken, “The body has been found by the police.”
Luo Qinghe sat in front of the vanity, putting on earrings, and looked up through the mirror, “What’s the panic.”
Luo Changde was panicked, and also furious, “Why didn’t you let dispose of the body?”
She smiled and asked back, “Why would you dispose of it?”
Luo Changde hadn’t slept all night, his eyes were red-rimd, his cheekbones were too high, making his eyeballs seem slightly protruding, “Aren’t you afraid the police will suspect us?”
Luo Qinghe stood up from the chair in front of the dressing mirror and turned around, “I haven’t killed anyone, what should I fear?”
“I haven’t killed anyone either.”
She smiled, “Is that so?”
Luo Changde glared angrily.
She was still smiling, with thin lips and a monolid, a very dispassionate face, unlike Luo Changde, as she resembled her mother from the Xiao Family.
“I was thinking all of yesterday, if it was just to gain leverage over , would you go to such elaborate lengths?” Her eyelids lifted as she looked at Luo Changde, speaking in an unhurried tone and a confident air, “Is there also a possibility that what Peng Xianzhi had in his hands wasn’t only against , but perhaps there was also sothing unfavorable to you?”
On hearing this, Luo Changde’s expression turned frantic, “Do you have the things?”
This reaction…
She guessed correctly.
“Dad,” she said with a smirk, “why play dumb with , don’t you clearly know where the things are?”
Luo Changde snorted coldly, “Don’t turn things around on .”
The conversation paused there, as a servant outside knocked on the door, “Sir, Miss, the police are here.”
Luo Changde’s face changed dramatically.
Before the father and daughter inside could speak, Captain Cheng from the Criminal Investigation Team pushed the door open and smiled upon entering, “Good, both of you are here, saves us the trouble of looking for you one by one.”
Luo Qinghe responded calmly, “Is there a matter?”
Of course, the Criminal Investigation Team weren’t there to waste ti. Captain Cheng showed his badge without delay, “Around eight last night, both of you went to the Hongjiang Bridge Cave, didn’t you?”
Both of their faces now looked unpleasant.
Captain Cheng got straight to the point and took out handcuffs, “You are suspected of being involved in a preditated murder case, we are going to arrest you imdiately. Anything you want to say? Our colleagues will record it for you.”
The father and daughter exchanged glances, neither spoke.
Captain Cheng directly instructed his subordinates to take them away and to conduct a search on site.
After the Criminal Investigation Team left, the servants went to the study, “Chairman.” There was no answer inside. The servant didn’t dare enter and spoke from the doorway, “Sir and the young miss have been taken by the police.”
Inside the room, Luo Huaiyu opened the bottom drawer, took out a file folder, glanced at it, and then threw it forcefully to the floor.
At the police station.
Vice Captain Xing and Zhang Wen both ca out from the interrogation room.
Captain Cheng asked, “Finished with the interrogation?”
Zhang Wen answered, “Yes, it’s done.”
“What did they say?”
Vice Captain Xing went to pour a glass of water, while Zhang Wen chose a spot on the desk to sit down, “They deny everything. The father and daughter seem to have rehearsed it; their testimonies align perfectly. They claim that by the ti they arrived there, the victim was already dead.”
Without the coroner’s report, it wasn’t easy to judge the credibility of their alibis.
Captain Cheng asked again, “Did they say why they went there?”
Zhang Wen shrugged, “They wouldn’t say.” He accepted a glass of water passed to him by the Vice Captain and took a sip to moisten his throat, “These two are seasoned, not the least bit frightened. They were even bold enough to claim—”
Zhang Wen imitated Luo Qinghe’s tone, reciting verbatim, “It is the police’s responsibility to find evidence of my guilt, not mine to prove my innocence.”
Vice Captain Xing added, “This woman, so arrogant and clever, not just anyone can handle her.”
The desk phone rang.
Captain Cheng answered it, giving an affirmative hum, listened to the ssage, and replied with a thanks before hanging up, “The coroner says there was no one’s blood at the scene other than Peng Zhongming’s.”
aning, up until now, there was no direct evidence linking the Luo Family father and daughter to the murder.
Zhang Wen sighed deeply, “This complicates things. If we didn’t collect evidence on scene, it’s going to be difficult to prove their guilt based solely on the dashcam footage.” He pondered hypothetically, “The two of them went in and out at the sa ti, who could be the killer? Luo Qinghe seems calr; could it have been Luo Changde?”
Zhang Wen stroked his chin, “Or, it could be an act, could they have conspired together?”
Captain Cheng playfully aid a kick at him, “Stop guessing wildly, go and find the evidence.”
Zhang Wen set down his glass and gave a salute, “Yes, Sir!”
Across the street from the Criminal Investigation Team, an SUV was parked with the license plate ending in four threes.
Wasn’t it the car of the Qiao Family’s fourth son?
He leaned back in his seat, head cocked, looking at the passenger seat, “Who’s the murderer?” A hand rested on the steering wheel, tapping leisurely, “Luo Changde or Luo Qinghe?”
Jiang Zhi seed to have not slept well the night before, looking only moderately awake, “Does it matter?”
Qiao Nanchu laughed and countered, “Doesn’t it?”
Inside Jiang Zhi’s khaki coat was a pink sweater, obviously styled by soone known for ostentation. Such a flamboyant combination, yet he wore it with a noble elegance. His hair recently dyed, the matte blue still quite pronounced, made him look particularly enticing as he sat there.
His tone was languid, “Who the murderer is doesn’t matter for now, as long as Peng Xianzhi in prison knows there are these two suspects.”
Qiao Nanchu couldn’t help but chuckle, “Jiang Zhi, who are you scheming against?”
His gaze fell on the rearview mirror as he tousled the hair on his forehead, “What if Peng Xianzhi found out that his son was killed by the Luo Family? Would he still remain tight-lipped?”
Qiao Nanchu teased him for being a fox spirit.
He had the guise of a beauty, but was cunning to the core.
That fox spirit was quite pleased with his hair color, a hint of a smile at the corner of his lips, “Arrange it for ; I want to et with him.”
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