pjbooks Chapter 9: He wouldn't survive if I didn't take action.
Chapter 9: He wouldn't survive if I didn't take action.
Xiao Jiale was squatting in a low patch of grass, his left hand holding a tree branch, his right hand protectively guarding his chicks, his eyes fixed on a spot.
Fang Duo, Zhou Yang, and the other two rushed over.
A red brick lay there quietly, with faint traces of blood still on it.
"Contact the technical team!" Xiao Jiale exclaimed excitedly. He hadn't let himself leave work last night and had stayed until the wee hours of the morning, all for those few homeless people who were scavenging for trash.
Perhaps because of the recent murder, he was already feeling somewhat dejected, but the discovery of the murder weapon today has actually lifted his spirits.
Soon, the red brick suspected to be the murder weapon was taken away by the technical team, while Zhou Yang and Wang Chao continued westward along the direction in which the red brick was found.
"What are you looking for?" Wang Chao noticed that Zhou Yang had become different after the murder, becoming particularly resourceful and busy. In comparison, he felt that he had become somewhat lax.
"Brother Chao, do you remember what Xiao Jiale said before, about a few homeless people?" Zhou Yang said, looking around as he walked. "On the one hand, the suspect wouldn't specifically go this way to throw the bricks here and then go back. On the other hand..."
"Why is it impossible?" Wang Chao frowned. He felt he couldn't keep up with Zhou Yang's logic. If there was anything he didn't understand, he had to ask questions immediately, otherwise he would understand less and less later on—this was what his math teacher had told him when he was in school.
"Judging from the murder weapon and the location where it was discarded, the suspect was nervous, scared, and unprepared at the time. Such a person would not have such strong counter-investigation capabilities after committing a crime. After doing something stressful, the first thing a person would do is find a safe place, which is usually their own residence."
Returning to our earlier hypothesis, homeless people mostly live in abandoned shacks or under bridges, and considering the time of the incident, it shouldn't be too long ago.
Wang Chao nodded, it made a lot of sense, so he followed Zhou Yang to search.
In the 90s, most of the garbage in the community was thrown into large garbage pits outside, and then waited for garbage trucks to haul it away for centralized processing.
The area the two were looking for was the area between Fengdu Garden and the next garbage dump.
"Brother Chao, look ahead!" Wang Chao, who was looking around, heard Zhou Yang's hushed voice and turned his gaze to the right front.
There was a figure there, dressed in tattered clothes, carrying a colorful bag, and using a stick in his left hand to dig at something.
The two exchanged a glance, then slowly approached each other from different directions, forming an angle between them.
If we can confirm that the person has a problem with their left hand, we should take them into custody immediately.
Zhou Yang slowly walked towards the other party, trying his best to control his steps and not make any noise, but unfortunately, the area was full of low, withered grass, which inevitably made a slight rubbing sound.
Zhou Yang's heart tightened, and he stared intently at the other person's figure. Unfortunately, because he was on the other person's right side, he couldn't see the hand holding the tree branch.
The person must have heard the noise, but didn't react and continued searching for something.
Just as Zhou Yang breathed a sigh of relief, he saw the other person suddenly drop the bag in their hand and run off to the left as fast as they could.
"Brother Chao, hold him down!" Zhou Yang shouted, quickly moving closer.
Then came a sound, followed by Wang Chao's voice: "Run! Still running?"
Before Zhou Yang could even get close, Wang Chao's excited voice rang out again: "Four Fingers! You little rascal, I finally caught you!"
......
Today is a happy day for the First Brigade, not only because they found the blood of the deceased Deng Fangfang on that red brick, but also because they found the fingerprints and slight bloodstains of another person.
Then, just as they were about to expand the meeting, a car from the local police station drove in.
"Liu Da, look what your apprentice and I have brought back for you!" As soon as the car came to a stop, a boisterous voice rang out, and then Wang Chao and Zhou Yang dragged a disheveled, terrified man out of the car.
Liu Chengyu was about to ask a couple of questions when he saw Zhou Yang grab the man's arm and lift up his left hand.
The index finger on the left hand is missing, which matches the inference in the forensic report.
After his fingerprints and blood sample were collected, the man was taken to the interrogation room.
"Name..."
"Feng Erhei, officers, you've got the wrong person. I was just picking up trash, what crime did I commit..."
"age..."
"I'll be 48 this month. I admit I took the blanket from under the bridge, but I thought nobody wanted it!"
"gender..."
Many people wonder why these questions are always asked. Gender is there, what's the point of asking?
This is not just a routine procedure to verify identity and avoid mistakes; it has a specific professional purpose.
Most importantly, it is the first step in establishing an interrogation framework, observing and assessing the suspect, and applying psychological pressure.
The interrogation, from the very first word, reinforced the police's authority, leadership, and the atmosphere of official business.
"Tell me, where did you go the night before last?" Liu Chengyu lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and looked at Feng Erhei in front of him. With his intuition from so many years as a criminal police officer, he could sense the psychological defenses of the person being interrogated after just a couple of questions.
Sure enough, upon hearing Liu Chengyu's question, a hint of unease flashed in Feng Erhei's eyes, but he still stubbornly insisted, "I know, you can't catch the murderer in Fengdu Garden, so you're trying to find me to take the blame. You can't do this, you can't just..."
"What's all the noise about!" Dai Yan, who was in charge of taking notes, slammed his hand on the table. "Answer the questions!"
silence.
"Want one?" Liu Chengyu took a deep breath.
"Is this alright? Thank you, officer!" Feng Erhei forced a smile, and when he reached out, his hands clattered to the table.
Liu Chengyu took a cigarette from the table and put it in the other person's mouth, but didn't light it.
Seeing the other person's pleading expression, his voice became slightly less serious: "Feng Erhei, this is a society governed by law. We value evidence over confessions. That brick has the victim's blood and your fingerprints on it. As long as they match, you can be convicted whether you confess or not."
After saying this, Feng Erhei's mouth trembled, and the cigarette almost fell out of his mouth.
"There's still your blood on it. You used too much force, and your hand is bleeding too, isn't it?" Liu Chengyu asked, lighting a lighter. Feng Erhei's first reaction wasn't to hold the cigarette out of his mouth, but to quickly pull his left hand back.
But the clinking of the handcuffs on the chair only made his efforts futile.
Liu Chengyu extinguished the lighter, his voice unchanged: "Confessing now will still be considered a meritorious act. Once the technical team's comparison results come out, whether you talk or not will be irrelevant."
"Okay...please...let me finish this one, okay?" Feng Erhei looked up, a struggle appearing in his dim yellow eyes.
Liu Chengyu remained silent, but lit a lighter in his right hand and held it to the other person's mouth.
"Ugh... this cigarette is much stronger than the cigarette butts I picked up!" Then, he took another deep drag, and perhaps because he inhaled so hard, he started coughing violently.
"Stop playing tricks..." Dai Yan was about to scold him when he saw Liu Chengyu shake his head at him.
Instead, he brought a glass of water and placed it in front of the other person.
Feng Erhei grinned as he looked at the steaming water glass in front of him. "Actually, even if I hadn't done anything, she probably wouldn't have survived, right?"