Chapter 34.1: Clue
Jiang Xia thought it over carefully again and decided that the possibility of someone framing Zhou Jingyun was not very high.
After all, three conditions would have to be met. First, the person trying to frame him would have to have a deep grudge against Zhou Jingyun. Second, he would have to know about the private relationship between Guo Xiaohui and Zhou Jingyun. And third, he would have to know exactly when Guo Zhitang had gone out over the past few days and where he had gone.
It wouldn’t be easy to satisfy all three conditions.
The last one in particular was far too random. Guo Zhitang had only taken the past two days off because he had noticed how weak his daughter was and how little effect the brown sugar water had had on her. He had only decided on a whim to go to the countryside to buy a chicken for her, and he hadn’t even mentioned it to his supervisor and deputy director until the afternoon before yesterday. How could someone trying to frame him possibly have known about that?
It was much more likely to have been a coincidence.
After reaching that conclusion, Jiang Xia felt both relieved and miserable.
The good news was that her judgment had been correct. The bad news was that they still had to find the real killer. Damn it, who knew where he was or how long it would take them to investigate everyone?
Just thinking about the workload gave Jiang Xia a pang of anxiety.
She stood there for a few seconds until she had recovered, then volunteered, “I’ll go tell them.”
Trace Examiner Li hurriedly waved his hands. “We reached the conclusion together. How could I let you go alone?”
They had finally caught someone who seemed like a likely suspect, and everyone in the First Squad had thought the case was almost solved. Now, if they suddenly told them that he wasn’t the culprit after all, they weren’t going to take it well. They might even get worked up. Better for him to go along and share some of the heat.
The two of them went downstairs together.
＊
Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, Zeng Jun had already thoroughly questioned Guo Zhitang about his conflict with Zhou Jingyun, his family circumstances, and the details of his movements over the past few days.
He paused to collect himself, filled his cup with water, then lit a cigarette. Full of confidence, he prepared to begin the real main event.
Tan Bingyi listened closely to the sounds coming from the interrogation room. He casually pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one for himself, then handed another to Chen Dong. As he lit it with a match, he said, “Old Chen, listen. I think Zeng Jun’s about to start questioning him.”
Chen Dong leaned over to borrow a light, then took a drag with a smile. “Going through a case in random order—that’s Deputy Captain Zeng’s specialty.”
What Zeng Jun was best at was finding inconsistencies, and his usual method was to question a suspect about the entire sequence of events from beginning to end, then go back and ask the same questions repeatedly, but in a scrambled order.
This method was somewhat time-consuming, but it was extremely effective against suspects who were willing to answer questions.
After all, human memory was limited. If a suspect had fabricated parts of their story, not only would the details tend to become blurry, but they would also have to remember those fabricated details in a particular sequence. By asking questions in a different order, the interrogator could throw the suspect’s fabricated story into disarray. When they tried to repeat the same events and details, they would easily make mistakes and reveal inconsistencies.
At this crucial moment, when they were waiting for a result, Tan Bingyi didn’t even bother sitting down. He stood up to keep himself alert, straining his ears as he listened carefully to the interrogation inside.
Zeng Jun’s questions came one after another. One moment, he was asking what the suspect had eaten for lunch that day; the next, he was asking what had happened on the way back four days ago after Guo Zhitang had arrived at the black market and left again. Then, without warning, he switched to asking what the first farmer Guo Zhitang had seen on the outskirts of the city yesterday morning had been wearing.
The questions were incredibly tricky, yet Guo Zhitang answered every single one. He neither hesitated nor made any mistakes. The longer Tan Bingyi listened from outside, the more deeply his brows furrowed.
“Did we run into a tough one?”
Tan Bingyi held the cigarette between his fingers without taking a drag for a long while. He turned to Chen Dong and asked, “Zeng Jun’s usually pretty good at interrogations. How come he’s doing so poorly this time?”
Chen Dong’s expression also turned serious. After pondering for a moment, he said, “He’s a workshop supervisor, after all. He’s not some idiot thief who can’t even keep track of his own money. Maybe he rehearsed all these details in his head beforehand.”
“He knows how to counter interrogation techniques… Now that’s a real headache.”
The cigarette had burned all the way to the end. Irritated, Tan Bingyi tossed it onto the floor and ground it under his shoe. Then he forced himself to stay focused and said,
“It’s fine. We can go through it a few more times. He’ll definitely slip up somewhere. Worst case, the few of us can take turns staying up with him!”
If Guo Zhitang really was the killer, and he had such strong psychological composure that he could withstand interrogation without revealing a single flaw, then why would he have dumped the body in an alley?
After all, the victim had taken extended leave to return home to visit his family. With travel being difficult these days, it wasn’t unusual for someone to mysteriously die while out and about, with their body never even being recovered.
As long as Guo Zhitang had disposed of the body properly, everyone would simply assume that something had happened to the victim while he was out. No one would suspect him at all. Even if the victim’s disappearance were reported to the police, there would be almost no leads to investigate. Once the matter blew over, both he and his daughter would be safe.
Leaving the body in an alley… was practically inviting the police to catch him.
That simply didn’t fit the behavior of someone like him. But if Guo Zhitang hadn’t killed the victim, and someone else was the real killer, then everything made sense.
Only…
Then again, the victim was an adult man. With a body that large, it really wouldn’t be easy to move. It was hard to say whether something unexpected might have happened along the way, forcing Guo Zhitang to abandon the body there.
Tan Bingyi hesitated, completely unable to reach a conclusion.
After thinking it over for a while, he decided they should continue the interrogation and see what happened.
It had only just begun. There was no way to reach a conclusion so quickly. They would have to question him several times. Only if he remained flawless from beginning to end could they say anything for certain.
With that thought, Tan Bingyi felt even more troubled.
If they interrogated him all night only to discover that he wasn’t the killer, the blow to everyone’s morale would be anything but minor.
Knock, knock-knock.
The sound of somewhat heavy footsteps came from the stairwell. Jiang Xia and Li from Forensics walked over one after the other.
“Jiang Xia? Trace Examiner Li?”
Hearing the noise, Tan Bingyi turned toward them. He looked at the two of them in surprise and asked, “You two haven’t left yet?”
Li shook his head. “Captain Tan, have you been so busy you’ve forgotten? We said earlier that we were going to take another look at the physical evidence.”
Come to think of it, they had said that.
“Right, you did. I was so focused on the interrogation that I forgot.”
Realizing that he had completely forgotten about it, Tan Bingyi slapped a hand against his head. He looked at the two of them, then suddenly thought of something and hurriedly asked, “Did you find something new?”
“Based on the location of the bloodstains, I concluded that they probably aren’t human blood. They’re chicken blood that splattered when someone slaughtered a chicken.”
Jiang Xia got straight to the point. “Also, Teacher Li and I compared the bicycle tire we brought back with the tire tracks at the crime scene. We found that the tire tread doesn’t match the tracks at the scene at all, and there are no signs that the tires on this bicycle have ever been replaced.”
“Not even close? Doesn’t that mean the bicycle never went to the crime scene?”
Tan Bingyi’s voice immediately rose. His expression turned serious as he asked again, “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Trace Examiner Li nodded. “Jiang Xia and I examined it together and came to the same conclusion. If you don’t believe us, you can have someone else take a look. Tire tracks are much like shoeprints—you should be able to tell for yourselves.”
Tan Bingyi was silent for a moment. He closed his eyes and waved a hand.
“No need.”
He didn’t know how capable Jiang Xia was when it came to forensic examination, but he knew Li well enough. If he wasn’t sufficiently confident, he would never have said something like that.
If the bicycle had never been there, then it was even less likely that Guo Zhitang himself had been there. This almost conclusively proved that Guo Zhitang wasn’t the killer.
Once that conclusion was reached, Tan Bingyi felt as though something had finally settled into place, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief. Yet inevitably, he also felt the disappointment of seeing his hopes dashed—the excitement of thinking they had found the culprit had all come to nothing.
He pressed a hand to his forehead and turned around to face the wall. Unable to hold it in, he knocked his head against it twice, making two dull thuds. Then he rested his forehead against the cold wall and let out a long sigh.
It took quite a while before Tan Bingyi finally recovered. Forcing himself to pull together, he said, “Stop the interrogation. Chen Dong, go get Old Zeng out. Tell him to take a breather, wash his face, and clear his head. Then we’ll all have a meeting and figure out which direction we should investigate tomorrow.”
“Yeah…”
Chen Dong sighed without saying anything. He pushed open the interrogation-room door and walked inside.
Hearing the commotion, Section Chief Duan had already come to the doorway. He had been waiting there, and his expression was still fairly calm, with little sign of disappointment.
He rallied everyone’s spirits.
“We’ve only just started making inquiries and screening suspects. It’s perfectly normal to make a wrong call. It’s only been two days, so we’ve still got plenty of time. Don’t get discouraged.”
“Fortunately, we caught it early. Give everyone a few minutes to recover, and we’ll be back on track.”
Tan Bingyi had also managed to regain his composure. He said, “If we’d spent the whole night interrogating him before realizing he wasn’t the killer, we might’ve been able to recover mentally, but physically, we wouldn’t have held up.”
Ever since the case occurred yesterday morning, the criminal investigators had essentially been working through the night at an unsustainable pace.
They could manage one day like this, but if they stayed up for two consecutive days, pushing themselves to the limit, their fatigue would be overwhelming. By then, they’d be running entirely on sheer willpower.
If the lead was solid and all that remained was to make the arrest, everyone could still force themselves to catch the suspect and hold out until the interrogation was over. But if they arrested the wrong person and the lead went cold, that last bit of energy would vanish instantly. Getting it back would take far more than a few hours.
“That’s true.”
Section Chief Duan nodded. He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. “It’s not even nine yet. We’ll try to keep the analysis meeting short and get everyone to bed before midnight. Make sure you all get at least six hours of sleep.”
“Okay.”
After Section Chief Duan left, Jiang Xia stepped forward and said, “Team Tan, can I sit in on this meeting too?”
“Huh?”
Tan Bingyi froze for a moment and turned to look at Jiang Xia. “It’s almost nine. Aren’t you going home?”
“It’s a little late. It’s not very safe for me to go home alone at this hour, so I called my family and told them I wouldn’t be coming back tonight.”
Jiang Xia still valued her life. This was 1982, after all, and even incidents like police officers being attacked and having their guns stolen could happen. She wasn’t about to gamble on the odds.
“Besides, it’s hot these days. After the meeting, I can just make do with sleeping in the sketching room for a while.”
That was actually true.
These days, vagrants really did wander around at night, so it genuinely wasn’t safe to go home alone. She was better off making do with a night at the station. The conditions would be rough, though—she’d probably feel as if she hadn’t rested at all after sleeping there.
They weren’t even on the same squad, yet she had cared enough about the case to work alongside them until now. Tan Bingyi was a little touched by that. After thinking it over, he said,
“All right. But don’t join the investigation tomorrow. I’ll get you the afternoon off so you can go home early and get some proper rest.”
As he spoke, Tan Bingyi’s tone became firm. “Don’t argue. You’re technical staff. I can’t let you wear yourself out. Otherwise, your section chief will come after me!”
Jiang Xia was a little disappointed, but then she thought that there might still be physical evidence requiring her examination. Getting enough rest was more important.
“All right, Team Tan. I’ll make sure to go home and rest early.”
Just then, the sounds of a chair being dragged and handcuffs being unlocked came from the interrogation room. A moment later, Zeng Jun and Old Qin walked out.
Both of them looked rather grim, their faces filled with disappointment.