“Bloody footprints at the doorway, the murderer fled in panic and fell here.”
“Fingerprints on the door, one, two… several.”
“Clear footprints, Diane will collect them.”
“Other than the murderer’s fingerprints, the house is full of many different fingerprints. They share the same characteristics as those in the bloody fingerprints… Let me compare, hmm, this one on the table, this one on the cup, the one on the kitchen counter, on the bedroom door frame, on the window… Why are the murderer’s fingerprints all over the house?”
Chen Guangyao furrowed his brow, looked around, and said puzzledly:
“The killer not only had no idea how to hide their tracks, but they also left their traces everywhere.
“It’s as if… they went to the victim, She Jingjing’s house, touched everything in the house first, and then committed the murder.
“What kind of perverse behavior is this? I don’t understand…”
I’ve never encountered such a bizarre murder scene!
“Brother Da Guangming, can we prioritize the testing of the liquid residue in the cup with the killer’s fingerprints?” Jiayi stood at the door, pointing to the cup on the coffee table.
“Are you saying this was drugged?” Chen Guangyao looked at Jiayi, then at Fang Zhenyue. Seeing Sir Fang nod, he gestured to the lab technician, who immediately came over with a small case.
Chen Guangyao set up the case in an area without fingerprints or bloodstains, took out several items, and absorbed a drop of liquid from the cup for immediate testing.
Other lab technicians collected bloodstains, fingerprints, shoe prints, and other evidence from the ground and took multiple photos of every corner of the room before heading to the door to hand masks, hats, and shoe covers to the investigators:
“Sir Fang, you can come in now, just be careful not to step on any blood.”
“What’s the situation? Any findings?” Fang Zhenyue leaned closer to Chen Guangyao, who, with all sorts of strange equipment, seemed exceptionally professional as he fiddled around for a while before finally looking up.
“GHB, gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, commonly known as G water, colorless and tasteless. Some pharmacies sell it, and some doctors prescribe it as a sleep aid.” Chen Guangyao stood up, sealed the cup with many residues, and handed it to Diane to keep.
“The killer was drugged,” Fang Zhenyue frowned.
Chen Guangyao nodded and then peeked at Yi Jiayi pacing back and forth in the room, saying to Fang Zhenyue, “She might soon surpass you, are you nervous, Sir Fang?”
“Children grow up and leave; it’s an irreversible process of human evolution, no one can stop it.” Fang Zhenyue shrugged, clearly unconcerned.
After finding Sanfu, Fang Zhenyue pointed at Unit C, “Go borrow a phone and call Heng Xiang Wang Ye. Have Uncle Jiu specifically ask about She Jingjing’s lover, that department manager. Ask about She Jingjing’s lifestyle, hobbies, social circle, and investigate this She Jingjing. Also check out that department manager.”
It was clearly to inquire about She Jingjing concerning Zhou Jianguo’s death, but at this juncture, She Jingjing’s death made it hard not to speculate wildly.
To understand the ins and outs of the matter, we must thoroughly investigate this She Jingjing.
“Yes, sir,” Sanfu took the order and left.
Fang Zhenyue then began to ponder what other clues needed to be unearthed. Yi Jiayi suddenly popped her head out from the bedroom again and called out to Chen Guangyao.
“Brother Da Guangming, if there had been many bloodstains on this bed before, could they still be discovered now?” Jiayi pondered, then added, “Like the bloodstains from Zhou Jianguo’s death on the 6th of last month.”
Chen Guangyao and Fang Zhenyue exchanged glances, then brushed past each other into the bedroom, “I’ll try.”
Using a cotton swab, a liquid was dabbed at various nooks and crannies prone to collecting dirt, such as the bends of the bed frame, underneath the bed legs, and in the gaps of the bed boards. After these areas were moistened, the swab absorbed all the minute contents, which were then individually bagged and handed to Diane:
“Try to see if you can extract human blood from these contents.”
“Yes,” Diane replied while marking the bags and nodding.
“Brother Da Guangming, here by the nightstand, is this blood?” Jiayi carefully inspected the bedroom while recalling the scene she saw in her mind’s eye of She Jingjing killing Zhou Jianguo.
Her mind continuously captured information: where the blood had flowed at the time, and other places where the murderer might have missed when wiping away traces…
“Brother Da Guangming, there are traces of a powerful disinfectant on the bed board,” a lab technician shouted from the living room where a simple test was being conducted.
“Brother Da Guangming, there’s a reaction for human blood; there are human blood residues among the materials collected from the bed,” another technician suddenly looked up and reported.
“Take them back for a thorough lab analysis, and compare them with the blood traces collected in the living room, and the blood traces of She Jingjing and Zhou Jianguo,” Chen Guangyao ordered, following Jiayi’s instructions to collect the dark stains from the nightstand.
“Yes,” Diane and the others loudly responded.
Jiayi then remembered the belt that was still tied around Zhou Jianguo’s waist in her mind’s eye but was nowhere to be found in the body bag.
She glanced around the bedroom, her gaze suddenly fixating on a locked cabinet beside the wardrobe.
Why would a home bedroom need locked cabinets that just contain clothes?
She immediately stepped out of the bedroom and asked her colleagues from the forensic department, “Have you found She Jingjing’s keys?”
“They’ve been found and placed in the evidence bag. Eleven, what’s the matter?” Lab technician Ah Jie, wiping his sweat, leaned in to ask.
“Please take out the keys for me to use,” Jiayi urgently stretched out her hands to ask.
Ah Jie looked at Fang Zhenyue, who nodded without hesitation. Ah Jie then walked to the bedroom door to seek Chen Guangyao’s opinion, and Brother Da Guangming also nodded.
“Here you go.” Ah Jie gave a meaningful look at Little Eleven, carefully opened the evidence bag, and handed the keys to Jiayi.
The young policewoman now had unobstructed access to the crime scene, and her words were absolute, tsk tsk.
…
…
In the business manager’s office of Hengxiang Flourishing Business, Uncle Jiu and two others sat questioning while taking notes.
“What is your relationship with She Jingjing?” Lin Wangjiu asked straightforwardly.
“What else could it be? Superior and subordinate, ah sir, haha,” Manager Cho laughed it off.
“Obstructing justice can carry a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Mr. Cho, the police have gathered a lot of information, you better think carefully before answering,” Liu Jiaming, imitating the style of Fang Zhenyue from before, sat askew on the large office desk and glared at Cho threateningly.
Cho forced a laugh, then picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip before speaking, “Ah, sir, you can’t disclose the privacy of citizens if I tell you now.”
“Get on with it, no haggling,” Uncle Ji tapped the desk with his pen.
“I had a fling with She Jingjing, she seduced me, and I almost broke up with my fiancée. But then, I realized that She Jingjing was only after my money, so I broke up with her,” Cho smacked his lips, a bitter expression on his face, “Later, I married my fiancée. She Jingjing was really mad at me, wouldn’t talk to me at all. But since we are colleagues, we inevitably see each other, yet she still did her job. Since last month, she seems to have let it go, and even started inviting me out for drinks and coffee…”
At this, he hesitated again.
“Is it an affair? Are the old flames with She Jingjing rekindling?” Gary knocked on the desk to urge him on.
“Yes…” Cho, facing the detectives, looked somewhat ashamed as he fidgeted with the ring on his left ring finger, and continued:
“But I definitely won’t do anything with She Jingjing, I love my wife so much, ah sir, you must keep this confidential, don’t let my wife find out.”
“…” Liu Jiaming swallowed a comment about Cho being a scoundrel and continued to probe about She Jingjing.
Once Cho admitted to the hardest part, the rest came out more smoothly, spilling everything he knew:
“She Jingjing has had many boyfriends. Every time I went to her place for a date, I often saw traces of other men.”
“Ah sir, you’re asking about the 6th last month? Did someone die that day? That morning I went to meet a client, then returned to the office, my client and colleagues can all testify to this. Other than my relationship with her, I really didn’t do anything bad.”
“Was Zhou Jianguo with her on the 6th? I don’t know about that, we were in a cold war at the time, and she hadn’t talked to me in a long time. But… it seems like around the 7th or 8th of last month, she took the initiative to meet with me, saying she wasn’t angry at me anymore. Did something happen to make her come around? What happened, ah sir?”
“She doesn’t seem to have any particular hobbies. If I had to say, there are three unusual things.”
“First, after we got back together, I noticed she added a new cabinet in her bedroom and always kept it locked. When I asked about it, she said it contained her treasures. When pressed, she said they were awards she had won, but she kept them very securely locked away and wouldn’t let me see.”
“Second, she cooks meat every day and goes to the small square north of the community to feed stray dogs and cats. Many people can’t afford meat every day, yet she makes sure these small animals have meat, which is really kind.”
“Third, there used to be a storeroom in her house filled with miscellaneous items. After we got back together, I noticed she had locked that room up. I’m free to go anywhere in her house, except for that room. It’s almost like the story of Bluebeard, where a man kills his previous wives and locks them in a small room. When he marries a new wife, he says she can go anywhere in the castle except that room. Hahaha… Haha… Ha…”
As Cho’s laughter grew stiff and his eyes widened in realization, he stuttered:
“Officer, it couldn’t be… could it?”
“Gary, call Sir Fang!” Lin Wangjiu quickly said.
“Right!” Gary leapt from his chair, hurried out of Cho’s office, and found a secluded phone in the main office to call back to the neighbor of the crime scene in unit C.