CH 4

Chapter 4: Painstaking Investigation

In the conference room, representatives from all teams were present. He Wei was sorting out the clues from the falling case. The detailed autopsy report had come out. The results of the autopsy were consistent with the conclusion of the preliminary autopsy on the spot. The deceased was indeed pushed down while he was alive. This was an out-and-out murder case.

He had a blow wound on his back and an occluded wound on his left forearm. According to the degree of subcutaneous bleeding and fracture damage, it was inferred that the damage was caused by a cylindrical metal stick, similar to a baseball bat or other murder weapon. Although no contusion was caused, the striking surface of the metal rod might have left with the victim’s skin tissue.

The results of the trace inspection showed that the thread on the button found on the roof was cotton fabric, and the half-fingerprint belonged to the deceased Chen Lei. After comparison, it was the fingerprint of the right thumb. The half-shoe print on the steps, the heel print on the corner, and a set of fingerprints on the railing all belonged to the deceased.

“It looks like it’s been premeditated for a long time. Did he wear gloves and shoe covers to commit the crime?” Chongzhen asked, and Zheng Youqing nodded: “It’s possible. Almost all the physical evidence we collected came from the victim, including the vent. Didn’t Xiaoxiao go up to see it? No fingerprints were collected.”

“But there is still a hair.” Yun Xiaoxiao turned sideways and complained to Zheng Youqing, “I picked it up from the bug’s corpse!” 

“Although it’s really disgusting, Xiaoxiao, the reality is cruel.” Zheng Youqing handed the inspection report to He Wei. He Wei opened it and was stunned: “Chemical fiber?” 

“That’s right,” Zheng Youqing shrugged, “That’s not real hair. It doesn’t have any biological information; it’s from a wig. “

“The traces of the ropes found on the outer wall are all old. They should have been left behind by the previous repair of air conditioners. The murderer did not go from the outer wall.” Hu Songkai said.

Xia Liang raised his hand: “I’ve watched all the surveillance of the past three days, and I haven’t found any suspicious behavior from the staff or residents of the hotel. The last call from the deceased’s cell phone was to his wife at 8 o’clock, and everything else was work realted. I didn’t find any conflicts with anyone.”

There was a brief silence in the conference room. He Wei stood up, picked up a marker pen, and began to sort out the information they had so far on the whiteboard. There was no biological evidence of the murderer—not even a shadow. This person was as elusive as a ghost in a rainy night— invisible and intangible.

“Actually, it’s not surprising. It’s unlikely for an elderly to be so strong that they can get into the vent.” He Wei tapped the whiteboard with his index finger, “The murdrer has a certain anti-reconnaissance ability, and he didn’t leave us anything useful. It’s more challenging, isn’t it?”

The people in the conference room looked at each other: No, we just didn’t have a clue, and we didn’t regard solving crimes as a hobby, so we couldn’t resonate with Captain He.

“Xiaoxiao, Chong Zhen.”

The two people who were named responded, and He Wei asked them to take two teams out, one to investigate Chen Lei’s social relations and the other to investigate whether there was anyone who matched the characteristics of the haunted old man.

“There must be something hidden in this carefully planned murder case. Go through all the villages within three kilometers of the hotel, and don’t miss anything.”

Xiao Chen from the technical team knocked on the door, and the test result of the clothes of the deceased sent by Luo Ying was obtained. The tear marks on the neckline were artificially caused, and the scratch marks on the back were consistent with the rust on the railing. Combined with the resisting injury on the left forearm, it was enough to infer the scene of Chen Lei fighting before falling from the building.

“What about the half shoe print?” Hu Songkai asked, “He was fighting to escape, but he stepped on half of the steps and realized that this is the top floor? That’s not escape, it’s courting death.” 

“This can be discussed by the throwing object experiment,” He Wei put on the marker pen cover, “Go to the police academy to borrow a dummy of similar height and weight, and then go to the scene. Lan-Jie, if you have nothing to do in the morning, you can come with us.” 

After the meeting, Hu Songkai, He Wei, and Du Ruanlan went to the parking lot together, and Hu Songkai asked, “Are you driving or should I drive?”

“Whatever.”

“Why hasn’t Lao Zheng assigned you an assistant yet? You have to do everything yourself.” Hu Songkai thought of something and suddenly realized, “Oh, no, I saw Miss Zheng sticking to you and giving you things again this morning. Lao Zheng must have done it on purpose. Creating opportunities for his daughter, he wants you to be his son-in-law.”

He Wei told him not to talk nonsense. Zheng Youqing was fair and beautiful, and she was also the jewel in the palm of the city bureau chief. Hu Songkai grabbed his arm: “Don’t you believe it! Really, I really feel that Lao Zheng has this purpose. If you become the son-in-law of the chief, your future is limitless!” 

Du Ruanlan listened with interest and patted He Wei’s shoulder: “Youqing is gentle and cute, and she is also beautiful. She is a good match for you.”

“I don’t have such a good fortune.” He Wei has already gotten into the car, started the engine, and reminded them, “Seat belt; hitting your head is not considered a work-related injury.” 

———     

He Wei and Hu Songkai were on the top floor, dressing the dummy in the same style of shirt and trousers as the deceased, while Du Ruanlan was downstairs, waiting to observe the falling posture of the dummy and the distance from the landing point.     

“The deceased was near the falling point and was attacked from the back, then he turned around and raised his arm to block,” Hu Songkai pulled the dummy’s left arm up, “He wanted to escape, but he stepped on the steps and found that there was no way out. Then the murderer pushed him down?”     

“Most people make the most favorable judgment based on their survival instincts at the moment of life and death.” He Wei took the dummy over, “I think the blocking injury occurs first. The deceased struggled with the murderer, tore off a button, and then wanted to call for help from the railing and was attacked from the back.”     

The dummy held the railing with both hands and was placed in a hanging position. Hu Songkai snapped his fingers: “The murderer wanted to push him down. He was struggling, and he stepped on it to find a support point!”     

He Wei nodded and simulated the scene with Hu Songkai. After pushing the dummy down, Du Ruanlan’s cold voice came from the communicator: “No, there is a deviation in the landing point; in front of the flower bed.”

The dummy was brought up again, and Hu Songkai changed the method; instead of pushing his back, he threw it down with its head down, but the landing point was still wrong, and the deviation was even greater. He Wei rubbed his chin: “He raised one foot as a support, right? If the suspect didn’t push him off from behind like we tried and didn’t lift him up and throw him down, then there is only one way left.”

Hu Songkai understood again. This time, he lifted the other leg of the dummy and lifted it off. He and He Wei looked down together. After Du Ruanlan checked, she made an “OK” gesture. That’s how the person fell, and the slight data deviation could be ignored.

Hu Songkai wiped the sweat from his forehead: “It seems that the murderer is a man. It’s not easy for a petite woman to throw a big man off in this posture.” 

The hotel was closed today, and only the security guard was on duty. The owner of the hotel, Pan Pinghai, was a middle-aged man in his fifties with a crew cut, dark, and thin. He was the uncle of the deceased, and on behalf of the relatives in the family, he came to ask how the case was going.

“The case can be solved in just a few hours?” Hu Songkai looked at him, “Why didn’t you come at night?” 

Pan Pinghai hurriedly explained that he had just returned from a trip in the morning, and when he got home, he heard that his nephew had an accident in the hotel, and he was terrified. Hu Songkai asked some basic information, and He Wei called the security guard surnamed Li over: “How is the relationship between your boss and the manager usually?”

“The boss doesn’t come much, and the manager is in-charge of our hotel.” Security guard Li said mysteriously, “However, they were arguing in the office a few days ago. I heard the boss scolding the manager. It seems that something was wrong.”

“Chen Lei was filling his own pockets?”

Security guard Li shook his head: “I don’t know. I’m just a small security guard; how can I know the affairs of my bosses?”

He Wei smiled, and the security guard also showed a simple and honest smile. After Hu Songkai’s questioning was over, he went back with He Wei. The two exchanged opinions on the road, mentioning the conflicting points about finances. Maybe they could dig up clues along this line.

Back at the bureau, Xia Liang came to report that he had seen the surveillance from a week ago and finally found something wrong.

“Unit Captain He, look,” Xia Liang pointed at the screen that was divided into parts and said, “The one on the left is from before April 7th, and the one on the right is from April 7th to the present. Isn’t there a difference?” 

He Wei narrowed his eyes and soon realized what the difference was. There was a deviation in the position of the camera monitoring. Although it was the corridor at first glance, if one looked closely, one could still find that the camera after 7th had moved to the right.

“I’m used to paying attention to the corners when I look at things. On the 7th, there were suddenly more corners of the stairs below. After comparing, I found that the camera was moved.” 

He Wei stretched out his hand to pat the top of Xia Liang’s head: “Not bad, the young man’s eyes are good. Is it like this on every floor?”

Xia Liang nodded. It was like this on every floor, and all the cameras had been moved to the right by a slight angle. He Wei picked up his jacket, and Hu Songkai had just come back from buying a bottle of drink from the canteen and had just unscrewed it when He Wei took it away: “ErHu, let’s go to the hotel again.” 

After speaking, he unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip, frowning: “Why buy peach flavor? It’s too sweet.”

“…Damn, you learned the habit of robbing from the Heng bandit next door, right?” Hu Songkai said viciously, “I’ve already drank it!” 

He Wei stared at him. His eyes made it clear that he just didn’t want to deal with him, so he stopped talking nonsense and took him and Xia Liang to the Shengshi Hotel again. Seeing the police car turn back, the security guard scratched the back of his head: “Comrade policeman, why are you back again?”

He Wei locked the car: “It’s nothing, just to borrow your security room a bit.”

——— 

He Wei and Xia Liang were watching the monitoring in the security room, and Hu Songkai was in the corridor, clinging to the wall, trying to figure out how big the blind spot of the monitoring was.

“ErHu, move a little further to the left. Yes, retract your head further, how is your position now?”

Hu Songkai pressed against the wall, struggling to hold the walkie-talkie: “I am completely attached to the wall now, like a gecko. It is too strenuous to go down in this posture, but if you are very familiar with the terrain, you should be able to go very quickly.”

“You go through the first floor.”

A minute later, Hu Songkai walked from the first floor to the second floor, but his figure did not appear in the surveillance. Security guard Li, who was watching the excitement from the sidelines, exclaimed: “Oh my god, can you hide like this? It’s the first time I’ve seen it!”

Now that the criminal suspect’s modus operandi could be preliminarily determined, He Wei wrote down several key information: Male, short in stature, has certain martial arts skills, is very familiar with the internal facilities of the hotel, is thoughtful, and has certain anti-reconnaissance capabilities.

Yun Xiaoxiao and Chong Zhen’s investigation work also had some clues. After returning, they both said at the same time: “There is a major discovery.” 

“Xiaoxiao first.”

“Yes,” Yun Xiaoxiao opened her palm-sized notebook, “Chen Lei’s family relationship is not harmonious. His wife Wang Cui has a lover outside, and neighbors say that they often have trysts while Chen Lei is on night shift. Last night, there was a black Buick was parked at the intersection of their house, it was that lover.” 

“Found Whose car is it.” He Wei seemed to think of something, “When we went to the hotel, we saw a black Buick.”

Yun Xiaoxiao nodded: “Captain, you guessed it right. Wang Cui’s lover is the hotel owner and Chen Lei’s uncle, Pan Pinghai.”