Chapter 56.1: Arrested and Brought to Justice
“Mangliu” referred to people who moved around aimlessly, most commonly people who migrated from the countryside to the cities. Because they did not have urban household registration, they were unable to obtain stable housing or formal employment. Struggling to survive in the cracks of society, they were more likely to turn to crime and were therefore heavily discriminated against. There were even special agencies tasked with taking them into custody and sending them back to their places of origin.
In recent years, the number of migrant vagrants had been steadily increasing. Apart from some rural residents who had come to the cities to make a living, a large proportion were former educated youths who had once been sent down to the countryside. After failing to get their affairs properly sorted out, they had simply run back to the cities. Their household registrations were still in the villages where they had been assigned during the rural placement movement. Although they could stay with their families, they were likewise unable to find formal employment.
In any case, compared with workers holding regular jobs, these socially idle individuals really were considerably more likely to commit crimes—especially when even the clothing matched the description.
After hearing this, a hint of delight appeared on Xu Changsong’s face. He hurriedly waved his hand and said, “Then what are you waiting for? Get over there, quick!”
“Got it!”
The police officer had been waiting for those words. The moment Xu Changsong gave the order, he grabbed the handrail and jumped down six steps. The next second, he landed on the intermediate platform. He turned around, and just like that, he disappeared from sight.
After watching him leave, Xu Changsong turned around and restrained the excitement in his heart.
“This is good news. At least we’ve finally gotten on the trail of the suspect!”
“Yeah.”
The case had finally made a major breakthrough, and a hint of delight appeared on Chen Yongyi’s face as well. However, since mangliu were often homeless and it was perfectly normal for them not to return home at night, he didn’t want their hopes to rise too high only to come crashing down. He therefore refrained from saying that this person was definitely the suspect.
Instead, he simply said, “I’ll go get the fingerprints. As soon as the person arrives, we’ll compare them. As long as there’s a match, we’ve got him.”
“Good, good, good.”
Xu Changsong nodded repeatedly. Another thought occurred to him as he considered the current situation, and he immediately said, “Then I won’t stay here any longer either. If those guys really are the killers, they’ve probably heard the news by now and are trying to flee. I need to emphasize this to all the checkpoints again and have them keep an eye out for anyone suspicious.”
With that, Xu Changsong turned and left, his steps quick.
Chen Yongyi likewise turned around to retrieve the fingerprint photographs, his pace rather hurried.
“This case is finally starting to see a glimmer of light.”
After the two of them had left, Forensic Doctor Hu stood up, put the tibia away, wrapped it in plastic again, and returned it to the cabinet. As she took off her gloves, she said:
“Comrade Jiang, you didn’t see the body, so you don’t know. These killers are among the most vicious I’ve ever encountered. The male victim’s entire right hand was smashed to pieces. All five fingernails were broken into several fragments and driven into the flesh. You couldn’t even pull them out with tweezers. And there were other injuries too… Honestly, they were… they were—”
At this point, Forensic Doctor Hu paused. She tried to find a more precise adjective from her vocabulary, but ultimately failed.
“Even ‘animals’ doesn’t do them justice.”
Hearing this, Jiang Xia’s own right hand began to ache sympathetically.
The pain in your fingers reaches straight to your heart, after all. What they had done was hardly any less cruel than the t*rtures of ancient times!
Jiang Xia suddenly realized that sometimes, a forensic doctor’s desire to share really shouldn’t be too strong.
She could casually drop a bombshell like that!
But then he thought about the suffering the victim had endured before his death, and Jiang Xia couldn’t help sighing.
“Now all we can do is hope the person they catch really is the killer. Otherwise, this case is going to be even harder to solve.”
Unfortunately, situations like this really did happen sometimes. The stranger seen by an eyewitness wasn’t necessarily the actual killer.
Keeping that in mind, Jiang Xia’s thoughts began branching out as he considered the case from another angle.
“Judging from the killer’s methods, they seemed to know the victims very well, and there also seemed to be an element of hatred involved. It looks like the two sides had some kind of connection. Hmm… Didn’t the team investigate the victims’ associates?”
This wasn’t a kidnapping or a home invasion robbery. There were people living all throughout the apartment building. If things got too loud, someone might realize what was happening. Inflicting this kind of t*rture could certainly force the victims to quickly reveal where their money and valuables were hidden, but the victims would probably also realize that the killers were there to take their entire family’s lives. If they decided to throw caution to the wind and even let out the slightest scream, the whole group would be exposed.
Such irrational behavior was highly likely to have been driven by some kind of hatred or jealousy.
Forensic Doctor Hu looked up at Jiang Xia with curiosity.
What she had just said was exactly the same as what Captain Rong and Expert Chen had said.
But those two were seasoned veteran detectives, while Jiang Xia was so young. She hadn’t even read the entire case file. She had merely heard Hu mention the nature of the injuries, yet she had immediately thought of this possibility.
She really was something.
She was a little like Expert Chen.
The thought startled Forensic Doctor Hu herself.
Jiang Xia was still so young. How could she possibly be like Expert Chen?
Still… if she kept going like this, perhaps she really could become an expert someday.
With that thought in mind, Forensic Doctor Hu said, “We’ve looked into that. It’s just that the victim had a rather unusual occupation. He was the head of the sales department, so his circle of acquaintances was extremely broad. He knew all kinds of people from all walks of life, and we still haven’t finished checking everyone.”
Jiang Xia mentally calculated the time and realized that less than half a month had passed since the crime. Given how complicated the victim’s social connections were, it was indeed impossible to finish a traditional investigation that quickly.
“Not easy to investigate.”
She sighed and said, “The main problem is that these relationships probably weren’t very deep either. That’ll make them even harder to track down.”
“Forget it. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”
Investigating all those connections was undoubtedly hell. Jiang Xia didn’t want to think about it any further. After silently praying that the two members of the public had definitely seen the killers, she turned her attention to the survivor.
“I heard that there was also a little girl from the victim’s family who survived. How is she doing now?”
Forensic Doctor Hu said, “She’s still in the hospital. Nurses take turns staying with her. Apparently, she’s doing much better now. She can communicate with people outside, and she even took the initiative to tell the nurses what happened at the time. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see anything from where she was hiding. She only heard some of the interrogation and the noises.”
“Why are the nurses taking turns staying with her?” Jiang Xia asked. “Didn’t you notify any of the victim’s other relatives to come and look after her?”
“We did. It’s just that the situation is a little complicated.”
Forensic Doctor Hu shook her head slightly. “The husband, Duan Xiaodong, was an orphan who came here as a refugee fleeing famine. He has no relatives here. His wife, Song Yan, still has both parents, but when they heard the news, they fainted. The hospital examined them and found that they’d suffered a heart attack. Her three older siblings can only take turns looking after the two elderly parents and the little girl. Besides, the girl is also more comfortable around the nurses, so that’s how things ended up.”
“But fortunately, her maternal grandparents are still around,” Forensic Doctor Hu added. “They can take care of the child as she grows up. At least she won’t have to be sent to an orphanage.”
Orphanages these days didn’t have particularly good conditions. If a child had reliable family members, it was still better to be raised by relatives at home. Especially since the victim’s family had quite a bit of money saved up. As long as most of it could be recovered, the financial burden wouldn’t be too great.
Still, no matter what, it could never be the same as before.
Jiang Xia felt a little heavyhearted, but letting those emotions linger wouldn’t do her any good. She adjusted her mindset, wiped her hands with a handkerchief, and ate another sesame ball.
The oil and sugar stimulated the release of dopamine, and Jiang Xia’s mood improved somewhat.
It wouldn’t be so quick for the suspects to be brought back, so Jiang Xia simply started going through the case files available in the office, entering the information into the Book of Life and Death—her external hard drive.
After going through them three times, a commotion suddenly came from outside in the corridor. The chaotic footsteps of several people mixed with shouted commands, along with a few excited cries.
They had definitely caught someone!
Jiang Xia immediately closed the case file in her hands.
The moment she stepped outside, she saw Expert Chen coming out as well, carrying some white paper and a box of ink pad.
The two exchanged nods. Without any further pleasantries, they both headed downstairs.
Jiang Xia walked a little faster. Just as she reached the staircase, she saw two police officers escorting a young man into the room. Judging by his appearance, he looked at least ninety percent like the composite sketch she had drawn.
This should be Jin Weitao.
His hands were twisted behind his back, but he neither struggled nor said a word. His face was a waxy, unhealthy yellow, and a fine layer of cold sweat covered his forehead. His eyes darted about, and he completely avoided making eye contact with anyone.
“Inside!”
The officers shoved him into the interrogation room.
At the staircase, Detective Lao Wang spotted Jiang Xia coming down. He was absolutely delighted. He stopped and enthusiastically gave her a thumbs-up.
“Comrade Jiang, that portrait you drew was dead accurate—it’s practically identical to a photograph! We were all stunned when we saw him just now. Oh, and that bastard tried to run the moment he saw us, and he was breaking out in a cold sweat too. There has to be something serious going on with him!”
Jiang Xia also sensed something unusual about Jin Weitao.
It was somewhat similar to the feeling she’d had before, but not quite the same. She couldn’t tell whether it was the radar-like intuition she’d developed from Uncle Ba’s lessons, or simply a case of the kind of false suspicion where someone mistakes a neighbor for a thief.
Either way, it couldn’t be treated as evidence, so Jiang Xia simply ignored it. Recalling Jin Weitao’s expression, she said:
“He’s definitely committed some offense, but this suspect looks like he’s got a very strong resistance to confessing. I’m afraid he’ll refuse to say anything during interrogation.”
“That’s fine.”
Lao Wang waved a hand. “If he won’t confess, there are plenty of other people who will. Captain Rong has already questioned the people around him. His buddies who regularly hung out with him, as well as his neighbors, all know who he is and roughly where he lives. They’ve already taken people with them to make arrests. It won’t be long before they bring them all back.”
Jiang Xia gave a slight nod. So he had a fixed residence after all. That would make him easier to catch, and he didn’t seem quite like a pure mangliu who wandered around without a home.
Then again, that made sense. Genuine mangliu, or those without the ability to get by on their own, would have been taken into custody by the shelters and sent back to their places of origin long ago. They wouldn’t have been able to remain here until now.
Hearing this, Chen Yongyi said directly, “Then I’ll take a right-hand fingerprint first.”
“How could we trouble you with that, Expert Chen? I’ll do it!”
Lao Wang hurried forward and took the paper and ink pad from him. He then quickly walked into the interrogation room, slapped the paper down on the table, grabbed Jin Weitao’s right thumb, and was about to dip it in the ink before pressing it onto the paper.
Jiang Xia and Chen Yongyi likewise walked over to the interrogation room.
Through the doorway, Jiang Xia saw Jin Weitao, already handcuffed to the interrogation chair. His expression froze for a moment, but then he quickly returned to normal. He didn’t show any additional fear or panic, simply allowing Lao Wang to press all ten of his fingers onto the paper one after another.
He wasn’t the one who had left the fingerprints.
Judging from his expression, Jiang Xia immediately became certain of it.
“His expression is way too confident.”
Chen Yongyi also furrowed his brows slightly. “He probably isn’t the one who left the fingerprints on the bathroom wall.”
Even though he said that, when Lao Wang came out with the sheet of fingerprints, Chen Yongyi still took it and glanced over it.
He had examined the fingerprints on the wall countless times and had long since memorized them. One glance was enough for him to determine that they were different.
The one on the wall was a whorl pattern, while this one was an arch pattern. They were simply too different.
Lao Wang looked at Chen Yongyi expectantly. When he saw Chen raise his head, he hurriedly asked, “Expert Chen, is this the one?”
Chen Yongyi calmly shook his head.
“No.”
“Ah.”
Lao Wang couldn’t help looking disappointed, but he quickly forced himself to perk up again. “It’s fine. There are several people. It doesn’t necessarily have to be this kid. We’ll take another look once the others are brought in.”
“Right. Let’s wait a little longer.”
Everyone waited for a while longer. The two detectives who had escorted Jin Weitao inside questioned him, but as expected, he didn’t say a single word.