Chapter 33.2: Tire Marks
“Comrades!”
In a panic, Guo Xiaohui threw off the quilt and tried to get out of bed, but the moment she stood up, her vision suddenly went black, and she nearly collapsed.
“Xiaohui!”
Cai Yulan hurried over to support her. She wanted to go outside and stop the police, but she didn’t dare let go of her daughter either, leaving her rooted to the spot in utter desperation.
“Don’t worry, Comrade. If your father wasn’t responsible, we’ll certainly clear his name.”
Seeing this, Jiang Xia stopped and tried to reassure her. “For now, you should get some rest. We’ll try not to make a bigger scene than necessary, all right?”
Guo Xiaohui still wanted to say something, but the moment she opened her mouth, her mother gave her arm a hard pinch.
The police had already come to their home. If they resisted, the police would take him away anyway, and the commotion would alert all the neighbors. How could they keep anything hidden then?
The two women could only remain in the room and watch as the police walked over to Guo Zhitang.
Staring at his face, Zeng Jun said, “Comrade, please come with us for a while.”
At this, Guo Zhitang became considerably more resistant.
“Comrades, I haven’t done anything wrong. Why are you arresting me?”
For a moment, Zeng Jun really couldn’t tell whether Guo Zhitang was putting on an act or genuinely didn’t know.
He said directly, “Zhou Jingyun is dead. His body was found the day before yesterday, on Changxing Road.”
“What? He’s dead?!”
Guo Zhitang’s eyes immediately widened, and he couldn’t suppress the hint of delight that appeared on his face. But soon, he realized what this meant.
“I didn’t kill anyone! Zhou Jingyun’s death has nothing to do with me!”
But in the face of all the suspicions against him, the explanation sounded far too feeble.
Zeng Jun couldn’t possibly take his word for it. “You’ll come back to the bureau with us and give your statement there.”
“I—”
Guo Zhitang opened his mouth, then suddenly realized that everything he’d just said had become evidence against him.
In an instant, a thousand words rushed to his throat, yet Guo Zhitang couldn’t say a single one of them. He could only repeat, “I really didn’t kill anyone.”
Jiang Xia watched him, her brows knitting slightly.
That reaction of delight didn’t look like an act at all. He genuinely seemed not to know that Zhou Jingyun was dead.
Could someone who didn’t know the victim was dead really be the murderer?
Zeng Jun said nothing.
What murderer would admit to killing someone?
Besides, some people were such good actors that they could even deceive themselves. Until there was evidence proving that Guo Zhitang wasn’t the murderer, he remained the biggest suspect in the case.
Guo Zhitang suddenly felt completely unable to defend himself.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again and said helplessly, “Fine. I’ll go with you.”
Zeng Jun gave Chen Dong a look, signaling for him to put handcuffs on Guo Zhitang.
Seeing this, Jiang Xia stepped forward and advised, “Captain Zeng, I don’t think Comrade Guo is going to run. How about we hold off on the handcuffs for now?”
They hadn’t actually confirmed that he was the murderer yet. If they surrounded him and escorted him out, they could still say they were asking Director Guo to cooperate with the investigation. The workers who saw them would merely be curious and wouldn’t jump to wild conclusions. But if they took him away in handcuffs, everyone would immediately know something was seriously wrong.
Zeng Jun pondered for a moment, then agreed.
“All right.”
Guo Zhitang gave Jiang Xia a deeply grateful look.
“You push the bicycle and stay between us.”
Zeng Jun instructed Guo Zhitang, “Guo Zhitang, we’re all keeping an eye on you. Don’t even think about running.”
“Ah.”
Guo Zhitang let out a long sigh. “I know.”
He hadn’t done anything wrong. If he didn’t run, there was still a chance they could clear everything up. If he ran, not only would he never get away, but he would also end up like someone thrown into the Yellow River, never able to wash himself clean of the suspicion.
As they spoke, Guo Zhitang pushed his freshly washed bicycle out of the house.
It was right around quitting time, and quite a few workers were passing through the small lane. When they saw Guo Zhitang pushing his bicycle out with several police officers around him, they were all rather surprised.
“Director Guo, where are you going?”
Guo Zhitang raised his head and did his best to keep his voice natural. “Something happened at the factory, didn’t it? They asked me to go over and help with the investigation.”
“Oh, oh, oh.”
The workers all nodded.
They didn’t know why a death in the technical department would require the director of Workshop Three to go along, but whenever something happened, it was normal to look for a leader. Director Guo was a leader too, so it wasn’t strange for them to ask him to go.
Maybe it had something to do with the people in Workshop Three.
Talking like this all the way, they left the residential area, got on their bicycles, and returned to the city bureau.
＊
It was already dark.
As soon as they arrived at the city bureau, Zeng Jun took Guo Zhitang into the interrogation room for questioning.
At that time, Tan Bingyi had just returned from night school and was eating in the cafeteria. When he heard that Zeng Jun had brought back a major suspect, Tan Bingyi dumped his food into his lunchbox, picked it up, and hurried over.
Before he even reached them, he called out loudly, “Quick, quick, quick! What’s the situation? Tell me what happened!”
“The victim wasn’t exactly a good guy.”
Chen Dong got straight to the point. “This Zhou Jingyun was secretly dating Guo Xiaohui, Director Guo’s daughter—the one we’re questioning in there. The two of them crossed the line, but afterward he refused to continue seeing her. The victim forced a breakup and immediately turned around and started pursuing the factory director’s daughter.”
“That would have been the end of it, but recently Guo Xiaohui discovered that she was pregnant.”
“Guo Xiaohui didn’t tell anyone about that at first. Two months ago, all she said was that they had broken up. It was only recently that she finally admitted to her family that she was pregnant.”
“Gasp—”
Tan Bingyi drew a slight breath of cold air.
Once a pregnancy was involved, the matter would be much harder to settle peacefully.
He immediately followed up, “Did Guo Zhitang have an opportunity to commit the crime?”
Chen Dong said, “He did. He was off work four days ago and said he went to the black market to buy brown sugar and dried dates, but no one can verify that. Then yesterday, he happened to go to the countryside early in the morning to buy chickens, but he left too early. Only his family can confirm it; no outsiders saw him. And he also has a Forever-brand bicycle. When we arrived, he was washing it.”
He had the motive, the opportunity, everything. They might as well have written “I’m the murderer” across his face.
Tan Bingyi felt like the case could be solved at any moment—as long as Guo Zhitang confessed.
“Has he confessed?”
Chen Dong shook his head. “Guo Zhitang denies killing anyone.”
Tan Bingyi frowned. “He denies it?”
“What does he deny?”
Section Chief Duan hadn’t gone home either. He came down from the third floor, looking somewhat relaxed. “I heard you caught the murderer?”
“Section Chief Duan.”
Chen Dong greeted him before clarifying, “No, sir. We’ve caught a suspect. He’s highly suspicious, but we haven’t confirmed anything yet.”
Facing the higher-ranking officer, Chen Dong carefully went through the entire situation from beginning to end, then analyzed it further.
“This Guo Zhitang is quite calculating. When he first learned that his daughter had been dumped, he quietly tipped off the other side, ruining Zhou Jingyun’s pursuit of the factory director’s daughter. But overall, his method of retaliation leaned more toward ‘fighting with words’—in other words, retaliating against someone within the rules.”
“It’s generally difficult for that kind of behavior to escalate directly into murder. In my opinion, it’s possible Zhou Jingyun threatened him in some way afterward, forcing Guo Zhitang to take things this far.”
As they spoke, Guo Zhitang’s voice came from the interrogation room.
“That Zhou Jingyun is a damn animal! He actually had the nerve to come crawling back and ask me to marry Xiaohui off to him again. I don’t even know what kind of thing could raise a monster like him!”
“Threats… yes, he did threaten us.”
“But our family had already made up our minds. We absolutely weren’t going to let her marry him. Her reputation… we didn’t care about that anymore either. Worst case, she simply wouldn’t get married. We’d support her for the rest of her life. Marrying someone like that would ruin her life!”
“Did you consider any other way of resolving the matter?”
“Yes. I did intend to bring the matter up with the deputy factory director, but we hadn’t reached that point yet…”
Outside the interrogation room, Chen Dong and Tan Bingyi listened with looks of disgust on their faces.
A college student, no less. How could someone have such rotten character?
Jiang Xia’s brows also furrowed slightly.
She had already felt that something was strange when she questioned Guo Zhitang at his home. There was absolutely none of the reaction one would expect from someone who had just committed a murder. If he was putting on an act, then his mental fortitude and acting ability were frighteningly strong.
With such strong nerves, he should have been able to take the body somewhere outside the city and dispose of it, rather than hurriedly dumping it in an alley.
He shouldn’t have been so relaxed about admitting the conflict between himself and Zhou Jingyun during questioning, either. That would only make him look even more suspicious.
Yet he had done all of those things. And now, every piece of evidence pointed straight at him.
“Section Chief Duan.”
As Jiang Xia was thinking, Forensic Technician Liu, came in from outside, rubbing his eyes as he walked. “I checked that bicycle. It was cleaned very thoroughly, but I still found a few spots of blood on the rear fender. We haven’t determined what kind of blood it is yet.”
Blood!
Zhou Jingyun’s blood?!
Everyone present immediately perked up. Section Chief Duan promptly said, “That’s physical evidence! We have plenty of evidence now. Question him thoroughly and make sure you get the suspect to talk!”
“Don’t worry, Section Chief Duan. We’ll definitely get him to confess!”
With the case seemingly on the verge of being solved, Section Chief Duan decided not to leave either. He sat down directly across from the interrogation room to wait for the result. Tan Bingyi went even further, grabbing a stool and sitting outside the interrogation room, listening for the outcome while shoveling down his food.
But the interrogation had little to do with their technical department. Forensic Technician Liu who had already examined the bloodstains on the bicycle, had finished his work and was preparing to go home. Seeing that Jiang Xia wasn’t leaving yet, he walked over, quietly patted her on the arm, and asked in a lowered voice, “Jiang Xia, it’s this late already. Aren’t you going home?”
“There are still a few things I haven’t figured out.”
They were only guesses, so Jiang Xia didn’t voice them. She simply asked, “Liu, you said you couldn’t determine whether the bloodstains on the bicycle were human blood or animal blood?”
“That’s right.”
Liu picked up on the implication in her words and quickly asked, “Are you saying there might be another possibility?”
Jiang Xia said, “They were butchering chickens at Guo Zhitang’s house today. When we got there, there were still chicken feathers scattered on the ground.”
Liu froze and couldn’t help cursing inwardly.
Damn. Who could tell whether those few drops of blood on the bicycle were human blood or chicken blood?
“No, I need to take another look.”
Liu immediately abandoned his plans to leave.
He had given a disclaimer beforehand, but those animals in First Squad weren’t necessarily going to listen. For all he knew, they’d end up dumping the blame on the technical department again!
“I’m coming too.”
Jiang Xia followed him.
There was no point sitting here listening to the interrogation and thinking in circles. She might as well return to her old line of work and look for evidence directly from the physical evidence!
＊
In front of the bicycle, Liu pointed at several dark-red stains no bigger than ants and said, “Jiang Xia, come take a look. These are the ones.”
He wasn’t putting on any airs at all.
Forensic examination covered an extremely broad range. Although Liu’s title was forensic technician, he was only truly skilled in three areas: footprint analysis, fingerprint examination, and handwriting identification. He was merely passable at everything else, and he might not necessarily be better at those areas than Jiang Xia, who had graduated from the police academy.
Jiang Xia took a flashlight and a magnifying glass and carefully examined the few drops of blood.
Before she leveled up, she really couldn’t analyze bloodstains. Fortunately, she had earned quite a lot of experience from color adjustment and had put all of it into forensic examination. Her forensic skills were now at about LV1.5, so determining the position of blood spatter was no problem.
She examined them carefully.
The bloodstains were mainly distributed above the wheel guard, with extremely faint tails trailing from them. Judging by their shape, they were spatter stains, but their position…
Jiang Xia held out her hand to estimate the height and found that they were roughly forty or fifty centimeters above the ground.
That height didn’t make sense whether the victim had been sitting or lying down.
But it made perfect sense if someone had been slaughtering a chicken.
After estimating it several times, Jiang Xia straightened up and shook her head at Forensic Technician Liu. “This position doesn’t look like human blood. It should be blood splattered while slaughtering a chicken.”
Sure enough!
Liu wiped a hand over his face and said helplessly, “Good thing you reminded me and came back to take another look, Jiang Xia. Otherwise, I’d have gotten chewed out again!”
“They’re just anxious to solve the case. There’s nothing we can do. They’re under a lot of pressure.”
Jiang Xia comforted him before saying, “By the way, right now, all the evidence that Guo Zhitang killed someone is circumstantial. We don’t have any direct evidence. But remember how I used plaster to make an impression of the bicycle tire tracks at the scene? Let’s compare them. If they match, then Guo Zhitang is definitely the murderer, and he won’t be able to deny it anymore.”
Jiang Xia didn’t say the rest aloud.
If they didn’t match, then the likelihood of Guo Zhitang being the murderer would drop dramatically.
Liu was taken aback. “Don’t all bicycle tires look the same? You can actually compare them?”
“They can be compared.”
Jiang Xia simply hoisted the bicycle onto her shoulder and headed upstairs. “It’s a relatively new area of forensic examination that’s emerged over the past two years. Although tires are identical when they leave the factory, different users have different riding habits and travel on different surfaces, so their tires wear differently. That makes it possible to distinguish them.”
“So that’s what you were doing with that thing back then.”
Forensic Technician Liu, suddenly understood. He shook his head. “Well, here I was thinking I could teach you a thing or two. Looks like I should be taking you as my teacher instead!”
“It’s not that exaggerated.”
Jiang Xia smiled. “This is my first time examining them too. I only know a little of the theory. Let’s just say we’re studying together.”
They turned the bicycle upside down in the more spacious portrait room. Jiang Xia brought over the plaster tire impression and the tire-track photographs Liu had developed, which still carried the smell of photographic chemicals, then switched on the overhead light and shone it over the bicycle.
Standing beside the bicycle, she said, “Tire tracks are actually pretty similar to comparing footprints. We mainly look at the tread blocks, grooves, lines, and whether there are any foreign objects embedded in them, as well as wear and damage. Shall we start with the larger features and work our way down, checking them one by one?”
“That doesn’t sound too difficult.”
Liu picked up the photographs. “There’s no need to compare the tread pattern. They’re all made by Tongtai Rubber Factory. Let’s look at the wear. I’ll take the photographs, you take the plaster impressions, and we’ll see whether anything lines up along this section.”
“No problem.”
The two of them immediately got to work.
Holding the magnifying glass, Jiang Xia began examining the tread marks on the rear tire inch by inch.
The fact that Guo Zhitang had washed the bicycle actually made things easier for Jiang Xia. There was hardly any dirt left on the rear tire, making the wear marks easy to distinguish. She picked out a relatively large feature from the plaster impression—a depression about the size of a fingernail—and began searching for a match.
A depression like this meant there should be a corresponding crack on the tire itself.
But after rotating the tire all the way around from front to back, Jiang Xia couldn’t find anything resembling it.
Was there something wrong with this plaster impression?
Jiang Xia switched to another piece, found a larger mark, and compared it again.
Still nothing.
She tried a third piece.
She couldn’t find a match there either.
The photograph Liu was holding was a close-up roughly the same size as the tire impression. He also compared them repeatedly, going over them twice before finally shaking his head and stopping.
“Forget the tiny marks. Even the big ones don’t match?”
“Same here.”
Jiang Xia gave a slight nod and said firmly, “This is definitely not the bicycle used to dump the body at the scene.”
It could be confirmed now. Her judgment had been correct. Guo Zhitang was indeed not the murderer!
But if that was the case, was he simply an unlucky man who had become entangled in a series of coincidences, or was he a scapegoat carefully chosen by the murderer?
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